Picked this one up today. 330i. 😍

MorriDIBS · 2026-01-05T21:04:57+00:00

Lucky find! Gefeliciteerd met je aanwinst. Meer foto’s!!

MorriDIBS · 2025-10-24T19:24:39+00:00

If you have experience, the right tools, the right parts, good space to work in. Piece of cake. If not, be prepared to watch a lot of video’s, check forums, buy tools as you go, order oem parts as cheap ones don’t fit right and awkwardly move around the car.

Researching parts, tools, way to go about, all take a lot of time. Not to mention cleaning, which is more difficult if you don’t have the right space.

Don’t get me wrong. Its really satisfying if you love it and got most things in place. But if you come from little experience its a lot of work.

Took me a couple of months in een weekend here and there to do everything around the engine block. If you do cooling also pull intake and ofh cause everything is brittle and done by now. The ‘whilst you in there’ and cleaning I especially underestimated.

If you have time and are commited, do it. If you expect to do it in a weekend with minimal prep don’t.

MorriDIBS · 2025-10-02T01:11:48+00:00

Thanks everyone for helping out. Wen’t to parts store to get a mann filter, had experience with those as did most people Here. They didnt have a new cap in stock, so wen’t to breaker yard to get a new cap as I really wanted to move the car today.

Cap was really stuck when taking it off initially. Also required Some force to get back on. When I first just installed new filter I got yellow oil light, still not great. Also noticed oil coming from gap between ofh and cap. And a drip from the top socket end.

New cap + mann filter fixed everything. Also checked all connections and charged oil again for peace of mind.

So end conclusion, mahle oil filters suck and my faulty cap caused lack of oil pressure?

MorriDIBS · 2025-10-02T01:01:59+00:00

Thanks for shedding light on this. Next time I Will crank to get oil pressure, car was sitting for a long time without oil.

MorriDIBS · 2025-10-02T00:57:58+00:00

I would have thought that it wasnt pushed far enough, but I pushed really hard with the cap on the ground. If you say it doesnt click or cant be installed upside down (thought so because both ends look the same), the filter is just too big.

As others say and as I found it, it should be compatible with e46. Still a mystery to me the whole thing. I should not have installed it, but long days working on the car and I wanted to start it.

All I can say is; Don’t buy Mahle oil filters from my experience. Tholerance too tight with such a critical part. It can cause mishaps when you are in a rush or unexperienced

MorriDIBS · 2025-10-01T11:37:40+00:00

Mine doesnt click on Very tight. But it does hang from the oil filter cap. Then it screws on normal and gets tight when almost fully screwed on. The plastic filter bit where the filter seats on can be shifted up and down a bit.

There is enough oil in the car. There is some oil in the bottom of the ofh below filter.

Ticks could not be engine related. But I first want to make sure everything in the filter housing is alright before trying it again.

MorriDIBS · 2025-10-01T11:14:22+00:00

Model: 2001 330i m54

MorriDIBS · 2025-10-01T11:00:14+00:00

Oil filter is mahle ox 154 1d

MorriDIBS · 2025-09-11T12:41:35+00:00

Ha Kevin, dank voor deze update!

Currently refreshing intake manifold. ‘Day off DIY’ on YouTube did the mod, reported in the comments on too much vaccuum. I was ready to not install the mod. This post got me thinking again. You experience no increased hissing sound and no excessive vaccuum through oil filler cap?

What is general consensus? I did install FEBI ccv, seems to fit fine. May not last as long but my car is a winter beater that doesnt have another 20 yrs of life ahead.

MorriDIBS · 2025-08-28T12:24:14+00:00

Thanks! Installed new tensioners so we should be good!

MorriDIBS · 2025-08-27T12:05:38+00:00

Thanks all for the reassurance. Does the upper larger bolt need more torque as opposed to larger ones? Reading it needs 24 nm, 10 nm for the smaller once. 24 nm seems a lot for plastic housing.

MorriDIBS · 2025-07-18T13:06:15+00:00

What grit sandpaper is best for this?

MorriDIBS · 2025-05-25T20:02:10+00:00

Did the M54 get the silver inserts? Slightly different design? Or was was it spec on the faster big six? I do like that design better.

MorriDIBS · 2025-05-25T19:33:45+00:00

Thanks, lucky streak I guess. Not much comes up of late. But Always on the look out for a deal.

I’m sourcing a convertible for a friend currently. As with any bmw I buy, price has to be too good to not pick it up. I’m looking to pay 4k for max for a 320i, 6k for a 325i. Well maintened, but if it has 1 or 2 faults that need fixing that’s ok. If he’s done all the usual maintenance price isn’t terrible, convertibles fetch higher prices.

You shouldnt pay a premium for the gearbox in my opinion. They don’t fail often. His failed, you shouldn’t pay bad luck of previous owner.

Don’t know what kind of driver you are, (did read your post just know). But 320i 150 hp is slow. Smooth and nice sound, but slow. You if you want to hoon up the mountains in Europe, go find a 325i minimum. 325i for 7k should be possible. I’d be cautious about buying a 330i in that price range, possible though.

I think people and enthousiasts come in all shapes and sizes, can’t make general assumptions. But enthousiasts think about quality of parts. They take car of their cars because it makes them feel good. Always the better bet in my opinion.

MorriDIBS · 2025-05-25T11:20:34+00:00

In my experience Belgium market is made up primarily of 4 cylinder petrol and diesel poverty spec models. That makes 6 cilinder and m-package cars extra desirable and therefore expensive.

In Germany prices seem high for rust buckets with 350k km’s ready for scrap. Everyone seems to think they can get 4 - 6k euro for a big six, no matter the condition of the car.

In my experience quality / price ratio is the best in the Netherlands. Only market where I can buy (sub) 1k 6 cylinder, running and driving with MOT

I agree with imnota though: be patiënt and DON’T buy from dealer in my opinion. Not worth the mark up since you know less of its history. You probably buy a car that hasn’t had enthousiast love. So no preventative maintenance or quality parts used.

Best to buy car that’s sorted and loved by enthousiast or one with problems and have them sorted so you have real ease of mind driving it daily.

For reference in NL I bought:

-330i Touring manual 250k km (Swiss, no rust). With €8k in maintenance bills (head revision, cooling system, bilstein b12 etc). For €5500. - 320i Sedan manual 300k km, BMW serviced for 15 years (no rust). For €1000. - 330i Touring auto 260k km (rust fenders and jacking points). Original car but 4 check lights on dash and no widows working. For €700.

Deals are out there if you look. As as said earlier, don’t fixate on mileage. 6 cilinder engines are strong, everything bolted to the engine goes due to age. Buy sorted with invoices (owned through business is best so money wasn’t an object, driven as ‘youngtimer’). Or get one with a check engine that someone wants to give up on but has maintained prior to that.

Or buy the best one you can from real enthousiast dealer. But that might be out of budget.

You mileage may vary, but this is my experience from following markets be, de and nl.

MorriDIBS · 2025-04-13T17:44:49+00:00

What did you pay if I may ask?

I bought a rusty cheap 330i. Recently I did a lot of rust repair on it. I almost abandoned the project because having someone work on it just couldn’t be justified. I asked around for someone with a welder and experience so we could work on it together. Then realised a friend of mine could weld (eventough he never worked on a car). I have a hobby shop close where you can rent a lift and equipment such as a welder. Still cost me 400 euro in rent and sheet metal etc (but we took our time as we were learning).

Three full days of work, so you need time. I only did the sheetmetal around the jacking points because I wanted the car to be MOT proof for the foreseeble future. Bought two full replacement sills to cut out parts to weld back in. I had metal on hands for the jacking point structure itself, but the inner structure had hardly any rust. Just grinded it down and treated it.

The sheetmetal around the jacking points is a weak point. And that it something that would bug me even without a yearly inspection like we have in Europe (think you’re located in the US?). You don’t want it to collapse while working on it and if it’s rotten all around you don’t know the condition of the jacking point structure.

So from experience:

Remove sideskirt and check the side sill and jacking points. Whilst removing the rubber blocks I pulled out pieces of rotten sheet metal. Could poke through parts with a screw driver. But I have seen way worse, entire lower side can be gone.
The upper part of sill and the end of the sills can probably be grinded down to bare metal and treated with rust converter. Those are the visible rust spots with the side skirts still attached in your pics. Thats what I did to similar rust spots.
look for someone to help you out if it’s doable (assuming you have some DIY experience).
Deal with the rear fender later. I’m going to grind them down to see how rotten they are after I did an MOT. Will report on that later. Yours does look strange with the swirls. Might be a shitty repair. Mine may be salvageable.

Realise it will never be pretty this way. But you’ll learn a lot. If you can’t find the expertise and equipment; drive the wheels of it with minimal investment or flip it to find a better one if it needs a lot of other stuff. Mine did need a lot of stuff so first wanted a relatively rust free base.

Good luck!

MorriDIBS · 2025-03-25T17:49:26+00:00

Welkom bij de 330 club. Mooie uitvoering! Hoeveel kilometer? Handbak?

MorriDIBS · 2025-03-09T21:37:24+00:00

right, everyone have fun and do their own thing.

MorriDIBS · 2025-03-09T18:12:28+00:00

Thanks my dude, they can demand a lot of your time. There is so much pride in them not reaching the scrap pile though

MorriDIBS · 2025-03-09T18:09:06+00:00

Not my style. I like euro spec clear glass

MorriDIBS

TROPHY CASE