If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
Background: I bought a 2010 328i sedan on a bit of a whim. It was not running and grossly misrepresented in the facebook marketplace listing but I still pulled the trigger and overpaid for my first shitbox.
Towing and prep: The whole process started off on the wrong foot. When I had mentioned to my boss that I would be buying a car that didn’t run he told me I should use the tow company we partner with and charge it to the shop. That way I would get a discount. Once I was actually watching the car go up on the tow the tow operator said he would have to take the car to the shop if I wanted to charge it to the shop’s account. At this point I should’ve just had it sent to my apartment and paid full price, but after taking a look around the car I thought maybe I could get it running over the weekend and drive it home from the shop. Don’t know where that dumb overconfidence came from. I’d never worked on a car, there was no way I would get it running in a day and a half. Nevertheless away we went with my new project on the way to the shop. Not sure how but the tow truck made it there before I could and he ended up leaving the car in the worst possible spot in the parking lot. I decided to call it a day and think of my next steps. First the car needed a battery, second I had to put the fuse box back together and mount it, and finally I needed to figure out the no start issue. The following morning I went to Oreillys and got a battery, and for good measure a new starter and a crankshaft position sensor because I read online that could be the issue. Not sure if I thought I would be able to do all of that in a day or what, but one thing was obvious, I had no clue what the fuck I was doing.
Fuse box: So early Sunday morning I get to it. And instantly, problems. The previous owner was in the process of replacing the fuse box (for some reason?) and I decided to start there since it should be pretty simple. Except I somehow managed to break the head of a tiny captive screw that holds down the main power cable from the fuse box to the battery. Can’t even make this shit up. I was ready to quit day one. But after some lunch, I went out and got a screw extractor kit and JB weld. The plan was simple, I try to extract the thread and if that doesn’t work I glue a little piece of metal to the top and unscrew it that way. Ultimately I wasted all day drilling at nothing and finally gave up and tried my best to use JB weld for the first time. The glue had to dry overnight so not much else I could do that day.
The following morning I got to the shop super early and tried removing the thread but of course nothing worked. I spoke with my boss later that day and it was clear he didn’t want that hunk of junk in his lot so I was going to have to tow it to my place. I called a different tow company during my lunch and got it to my driveway. The experience was at least pleasant because the tow operator was super nice. He was a fan of that generation BMW and even gave me the name of a place that works on them that might be willing to buy it if I couldn’t get it running again.Once I got it to my place I decided to give the fuse box a rest and move on to the other things that needed attention.
Battery cable: According to my boss the car should at least crank without the fuse box so that meant I had other issues to track down. He kindly gifted me a multi-meter and I got to work that same day. I found that the jump post under the hood had no voltage. The power for the starter is supposed to flow from the battery to the jump post then to the starter motor, so that meant there was a break in the connection. I found some diagrams online and tested the cable at multiple points. After panicking for a bit thinking that I was going to have to replace the part of the cable that runs under the car (involves dropping the exhaust, gas tank and other stuff) I found the actual break in connection was at the cable that connects to the battery. Sweet a simple fix. One FCP Euro order later and a twist of a wrench and the cable was fixed. As soon as I connected the battery the dashboard and indoor lights lit up and I was finally getting power under the hood. The car was still not cranking but at least I was one step closer.
Fuse box 2: Along with the main battery cable I also ordered a replacement for the connector to the fuse box. Instead of extracting the screw I would just cut the cable and crimp a new connection on. The cable was quite thick so I had to buy some new pliers and a hydraulic crimping tool that could handle it. I also looked up online what fuses needed to go where, just to make sure the previous owner hadn’t messed around with those. (He had.) The cut and crimp was quick and easy, although I did lose quite a bit of time getting the plastic shrink sleeve to melt properly. Mounting the fuse box behind the glove box was the real obstacle. I spent a couple days jamming and pushing, trying to get the new cable to fold enough to secure the fuse box with screws back in it’s place. My arms were sore for a couple days after. Once the fuse box was installed the glove box itself was a breeze.
Cranking: The entire time I worked on the fuse box I was hoping that it would somehow also fix the no cranking issue but deep down I always knew it wouldn’t. I consulted with my boss and some YouTube videos and found what I needed to do. I needed to test that the live wire that runs to the starter was getting power, and that the wire to the starter solenoid was getting power when I pressed the Start button. I precariously clipped a long piece of metal I found laying around and was able to reach the live wire with the multi-meter. It read 12V so all good there. The solenoid wire was harder to reach but after some sparks flying (accidentally touched the live wire and another metal piece) I got the metal rod set. And no power when cranking.
There were two possibilities at that point, I either got power on the wire but no crank which meant the starter needed replacing, or there was no power to the wire and the problem was in the engine computer which could mean many many different things. Based on the multi-meter reading I was fucked. I was a bit broken at this point so I stepped away from the car for a few days. Eventually my bossed asked how it was going and when I told him it was likely an issue with the engine computer he insisted I test the solenoid again. I looked up some more info online and found I could test the solenoid wire from a more accessible spot directly at the engine computer. I probed the back of the wire, set up my phone to record the multi-meter, and stepped in the car to crank and suddenly the engine came to life. It suddenly felt like it was worth it, all the annoyance and frustration was worth it. Was I going to figure out why it suddenly started? Absolutely not, it was running now and that’s all that mattered.
Cleaning and mold: The previous owner had removed the back seats so I was able to vacuum the whole car pretty well. Unfortunately it would take much more than that to get the interior usable again. A couple spots in the car were starting to grow a bit of white fuzzy mold from some water getting in the car while it sat for God knows how long. I bought a mold killer spray and spent a day wiping and patting down any spot I could find with the slightest hint of fuzz, fluff, or stain. After getting it as dry as I could with towels I let a dehumidifier run in the car for a few days. Once there was no more water getting collected I called it good. It’s been a few months at the time of writing this and the mold has not come back so I would say it worked.
Transmission Fluid (1): Once the interior wasn’t as much of a bio-hazard I was able to drive it around and take it to work. Instantly it was obvious there were more things wrong with the car. It hesitated when I tried accelerating and it jerked forward suddenly. It was no surprise when I got to work and scanned the car it was saying the transmission oil was due for a change. I think that warning pops up around 100k miles and I was at 127k so it was quite overdue. I got desperate one weekend and I didn’t want to wait until Monday so I order some ATF through delivery from Oreilly’s along with some jack stands and a jack. I did it in two separate orders so it would hopefully not be too heavy, but of course I fucked up. In one of the orders I ordered the wrong kind of oil and different kind of jack stands. So now I had two sets of jack stands of different heights and two different types of ATF, one not compatible with my transmission. But like does it REEEAAALLLY matter? It is just a little thicker and a has a couple less additives, I’m already adding some LubeGard additive in there, what could go wrong. I said fuck it and got to work. First I had to get the car up on the jack stands but of course my poor foresight would bite me in the ass once again.
The jack I got was one of those small regular ones people have to change a tire or something. What I needed was a floor jack that could reach the center lift points of the car. Instead I was stuck lifting one corner at a time. I would lift one corner until the corner on the same side of the car was high enough to place one of the stands, then I did the same on the other side. This resulted with the back of the car on jack stands and getting the front lifted seemed almost impossible. Lifting the front right didn’t give me enough space on the front left. Eventually the supports at the car’s lift-points (made of plastic) got destroyed by the jack, and I guess that gave enough clearance to shove a stand underneath. The fourth corner of the car was precariously placed on a slightly offset stand. With the three other corners on stands, I had to lift on the same support the last stand had to go under. It was eventually done and that meant I could get to crawling. I shuffled underneath and took off the plastic cover were the transmission should be and I found the drain and fill plugs.
As expected I didn’t plan enough for collecting the old oil. I had a 2L juice container and a large Taco Bell cup. I knew it wouldn’t be enough so I did the cup first, swapped to the juice jug, and instantly dragged myself out from under the car and ran to the apartment’s recycling. I found a couple juice and milk containers and booked it back to the car. I lost about 1.5L to the driveway but the rest was mostly contained. I pumped new oil into the transmission, started up the car and ran through the gears, let it warm up a bit and topped off the rest of the oil. Once I mopped as much oil as I could off the floor I started lowering the car. If getting the car up one corner at a time was a nightmare, getting it back down was even worse.
Title: After the ATF change the car was less jerky, not perfect or even good, but better. This was good enough for me and I started driving it a bit more. Only to work and back, but I trekked a bit further and went to the DMV to finally transfer the title to my name. And right in time to avoid the fees. I drove there without an appointment on my lunch but by that time they weren’t taking walk ins so I decided to just play it safe and schedule an appointment. One week later there I was with all my documents ready to go. Or so I thought. I misunderstood at what point I would need to have the car present for a VIN inspection, so that day I drove in my partner’s car. Although the 328i was running I still wasn’t super comfortable driving so far. I ended up asking for extra lunch time so I could rush home and drive right back to the DMV. I was expecting a million issues at the DMV because the car was sold to me under suspicious circumstances.(Seller title jumped) Thankfully everything went smoothly and no issues were raised. I walked out with my receipt for the new title and was feeling inspired. I had brought this car so far.
Radiator Hose/Coolant: As I walked out of the DMV I noticed a puddle under my car. I popped the hood but at that point I wasn’t 100% sure what I was even looking for. With all the plastic covers under the car and in the engine bay and my limited knowledge I couldn’t really tell where it was coming from. It was only dripping at that point so I decided to send it and go back to work. At work it dripped a bit more but no puddle formed so I thought it was fine. I hauled ass back home later that day and made it to my driveway when suddenly steam started coming from under the hood. I parked and went to check what happened. The whole engine bay was covered in coolant and after some poking around I found a radiator hose that had popped. The connector holding it in place was still secured, the hose had just popped right off the back. I ordered some parts and coolant, did some more YouTube research and went at it.
This time around I borrowed one of my coworker’s floor jacks so lifting the car onto the stands would be easier. But I still managed to fuck up somehow. For some reason these BMW radiators have weird plugs, and I managed to break it. I got some of the coolant out and since the hose that popped was towards the top, enough coolant had drained to change out the hose. I shoved the broken plug back in to the best I could and moved on. The actual hose part was easy except when one of the clips that holds the connector in place fell down the engine bay and I spent a good amount of time crawling underneath trying to find where it landed. It took some time but eventually I found it dangling from one of the plastic pieces under the car. I got everything back together and refilled and bled the cooling system. The car was good to go again, but I felt a little less proud of this one considering the radiator plug was still a bit broken. A few days later I noticed more dripping under the car and ended up ordering the part and replacing it properly. This gave me the chance to also drain all of the old coolant completely.
Returned Starter and Sensor: Now that the car was running and not dripping any fluids I decided to return the starter and crankshaft sensor that I had bought at the beginning of my journey. I made a trip to OReilly’s and returned the two boxes that had been sitting in my car for weeks. Something felt wrong the entire ride home though, and it wasn’t until I got home that I realized I had 3 boxes in the car. Instead of the starter I gave OReilly’s a box with a Surface Pro 3 that I was selling on eBay. I checked my bank account for a few days and the refund was not removed. I lost the sale on eBay but at least I had a free starter motor.
Window trim: After so many headaches with the last bits of work I decided to tackle something simple. The plastic trim above the windshield was cracking bad, basically disintegrating. I ordered the plastic trim replacement and with the help of some adhesive remover I borrowed from work I was able to get it changed out. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world but by comparison to everything else it was a piece of cake.
Brake Light Bulbs: I kept tackling simple issues to try and keep myself motivated. I got some bulbs from work and over a few days I swapped out any burnt ones that were easily accessible like the brake lights, turn signals, and side markers. Another win!
Oil and Filter: The oil change message in the car read that it was overdue by quite a while so I decided that would probably a good item to tackle next. I ordered a filter and oil kit online, borrowed a floor jack, and a special too l to remove the oil filter cap (fucking BMW) and was able to drain and fill pretty easily. This time I was prepared and was able to catch all the oil and not spill a single drop. I sacrificed our laundry room trashcan but it was worth it. Now I have a designated container for car fluids.
Transmission Fluid (2): Along with the engine oil I decided to also order some transmission fluid and a filter to do a proper drain and refill, with the correct fluid this time. When trying to clear the pump I was using I accidentally shot some ATF right in my mouth, but aside from that everything else went smooth. This time around the jerkiness that was felt when the car shifted was basically gone.
Engine Air and Cabin Air Filters: Another FCP Euro order later and I had some new filters for the engine air and cabin air. Probably the easiest thing I did so far. The cabin air filter holder had some tabs broken off but it held it’s place good enough. I had removed the air box probably 100 times at this point so the engine air filter was also a breeze.
Headlight Fiasco/Bumper Repair: There were still some issues with the main bulbs in the headlights and the bumper was a bit cracked at the spot it gets held against the fender. I decided it might be worth trying to spruce up the look of the car by getting all new headlight assemblies and trying to repair the cracks in the bumper so it didn’t sag as much at the crack points. Car went back up on jacks and I removed the bumper and headlights fairly quickly, with the main pain point being unplugging the main power cable. There was so much dust built up that the tabs were stuck in place.
I used some of the JB Weld I had bought previously and glued the cracks on the bumper through the back side and clamped it down to dry over a couple days. Actually finding headlights took a while cause the 2010 328i came with either xenon or halogen headlights so I took extra time to make sure I bought the right kind. The headlights I ended up buying were listed as halogen but once I received them they looked off. I looked up the part number listed on the headlight units and they were xenon. Technically they could work with my car with some finagling but I didn’t want to go through that work. Since the listing was incorrect I was able to request a refund but as soon as I did that the seller started messaging me. First he tried saying they should work even though they’re xenon, then he kept insisting that they were actually halogen all along, and finally he threatened to dispute the refund because I was lying. Just a total wast of my time. After a few weeks I finally got my refund and tried my best to just forget about it. I ended up buying new bulbs and trying my best to seal the old headlights. After a couple of failed installs (forgot to plug a cable to a bulb) I finally got the headlights and bumper back on and everything seemed to work well enough. The bumper cracks ended up getting bigger over the next couple weeks but they are holding well enough.
Fender Liner: Part of the passenger front fender liner was missing so I bought a replacement online. After folding it into shape the install was quick and easy. It was refreshing after dealing with the whole headlight incident.
Starter: I went a couple weeks with no incidents. I only drove it a handful of times and it worked as expected every time. One day I decided to drive it to work so I could use one of the scanners to clear the transmission oil code and register the new battery I had bought months ago. Everything went great until I unplugged the scanner and went to move the car outside and it wouldn’t start. It wasn’t cranking again. One of my coworkers tried giving the starter a few bumps as I cranked and it started up. He told me it was likely the starter that was going out and I should change it out. The free starter motor I had gotten from Oreilly’s to the rescue. Getting to the starter on this car was a nightmare. Technically the right thing to do is to remove the intake manifold all the way but the amount of work that takes, and the impossible to reach spots that I would have to deal with was too much. After a few tries and days of YouTube I found a way to partially remove the intake and slide it to the side. It gave a limited amount of space to work on the starter but it beat going through the whole intake removal process.
To cut a long story short I ended up installing, removing and reinstalling the starter about 5 times. The car would still not start so I ended up installing the old starter, and then the new one again, and then I forgot to connect the solenoid cable, then forgot to connect the MAF sensor cable. Eventually I got it all put back together the right way and the car started without any crazy sounds and stayed running. Coincidentally, this happened while I was reading the voltage to the solenoid wire from the ECU connector, just like the first time I got the car to start. As soon as I removed the multi-meter the car stopped cranking again. And there I had it, I found the main root of the no start issue. I stuck a metal pick in the back of the wire and close the ecu box as best I could.
Starter Solenoid Cable: I tried asking around at work how I would go about replacing that connector but no one really knew what I was talking about and they asked me to bring the car in. The next day I drove the car with the pick stuck in the ecu compartment and showed everyone. A couple of the guys tried helping me and we spent a good amount of time trying to unclip the cable from the back of the connector, which should technically be possible based on my coworker’s experience. This particular cable was stubborn and would not come out so we kind of decided to give up. I told them I would just keep the pick in there until I could figure out what was going on. As a last shot one of them suggested cleaning the connector with some contact cleaner. I gave it a try and just like that the car was starting again with no need of the metal pick. Not sure how why or what but it worked and to this day it’s still starting right up.
PCV Heater and Recalls: A while back I had found that the car had a couple safety recalls still active. One for a electrical connection that could catch fire under the hood and a driver air bag that could kill the driver with shrapnel from the steering wheel. That second one freaked me out quite a bit so I scheduled an appointment at the BMW dealership and got them to take care of it. As expected the experience at the dealership was bit wack, but it wasn’t terrible. I’m assuming since it was a Saturday they had limited staff so it took a while to track down someone from the service department. Finally I got someone to take my info and take my keys. A bit later the service advisor finally sat me down to talk about the work needed. She instantly said I needed a new cabin air filter, which I had replaced recently, but I think they go off the “Service Due” message on the dash that I had forgotten to reset. After denying that and a brake flush (according to the car notification overdue by 7 years) I was finally done with the dealership. The car was expected to be in from Saturday to Tuesday, and when I didn’t hear anything by Wednesday morning I decided to send an email. Eventually I got a response and my car was ready that same day. I pulled up to the dealership and after some more waiting I was on my merry way with a slightly safer car in hand.
Tensioner and Belt: During the dealership visit they also did a quick inspection and found that my belt was in need of replacing since it was starting to show some major cracks. One of my coworkers had previously mentioned my tensioner might also need a swap since the belt looked to be riding off the edge a bit. I tackled these two at once and after buying the right tools it was simple and easy.
Tires: During the inspection they also found that my tires were going out. One of them was really bad in particular and was probably a few months from popping. I browsed around for the cheapest tires I could find on the work computer and my boss saw and suggested I buy from the place they usually buy from. He found me a tire even cheaper than I was able to find, and at 48$ a pop it was an easy decision to make. I ordered them and the following week they were in. I watched videos for half a day on how to use the shop’s tire machine and after a bit decided to just ask one of the guys. It ended up being pretty straightforward. Removing the old tires was easy. When installing the new ones I fucked up a couple times but nothing major, the tire didn’t get damaged and most importantly my fingers didn’t get mangled. A few days later one of the other guys from work showed me how to use the tire balancer. It was even easier than mounting the tires. And just like that I had new tires. I rolled them home where my car sat on jack stands for a week and installed them in a few minutes.
Brake Fluid Flush: One of my coworkers kindly helped me do the brake fluid flush so I didn’t run into any issues for the first time this entire project.
Spark Plugs: I noticed that whenever the car idled for a few minutes it started shaking slightly, and when accelerating sometimes it took a bit for the car to start speeding up. Based on this I decided to swap out the spark plugs, plus they probably hadn’t been changed in years so it was worth a shot. The coils towards the back of the engine were an absolute pain to get out but all in all it was pretty simple. Once they were swapped out the car stopped shaking at idle and felt miles better when driving. It was the first time I would say it felt smooth.
Trailing Arm and Alignment: That smoothness wouldn’t last long. While the car was on the lift for the brake flush my coworker found that one of the rear trailing arms was pretty bent. He said that it could’ve been from the accident the car had previously been in or it could also be from a careless tow truck operator. I got a flashback to the car getting dragged across the previous owners yard. I ordered the replacement part through my job and a few days later I got the car back on the lift and started wrenching away. Thankfully a trailing arm is a pretty simple piece to replace so it started off smooth. When I was placing the new part in place I instantly noticed the holes for the bolts were not lining up. There was going to be no way I was getting this installed. Thankfully one of my coworkers walked by and decided to give me a hand. After attempting to push on the wheel hub we ended up using a ratchet strap to pull the hub until the holes lined up. While he held I jammed the bolts in the holes and got them secured.
I felt pretty good about the job but that vanished almost instantly when I drove home that day. The car suddenly felt like it was struggling. The smoothness from before was completely gone and instead I felt like I had lost all the car’s power. I did some online digging and decided maybe I needed an alignment. I waited until one of my coworkers had to do an alignment so I could shadow and learn how to use the laser alignment machine. It was all pretty simple and the following day I had my car up on the platform and tried my best to tweak the toe and camber of my car. The rear gave me a bit of a fight but with the help of my coworker I was able to get everything to spec and torqued down.
Conclusion: There are other spots the car could use some work in. The oil filter housing gasket, head gasket and oil pan gasket look a little leaky, but the oil level hasn’t dropped in months so it’s extremely minor. I have the gaskets for the filter housing and oil pan already but I really don’t know if I’ll go through with it considering how much work it is. There’s also a cupholder that needs to be replaced. At this point I don’t want to sink any more money in the car so my plan is to drive it as a daily until I find someone to buy it. It’s been fun but I think I need to move onto a more economical project. I don’t even like BMWs like that, my dream car is a Toyota Corolla from 03-08.
WIGGLS 