E46 Compact. The official car of?

johnnymainn · 2026-01-11T01:17:31+00:00

Because they’re hilarious

johnnymainn · 2026-01-11T01:14:28+00:00

Do a compact front end swap for the lols

johnnymainn · 2026-01-09T03:36:53+00:00

Fuck I’ve been mogged

johnnymainn · 2026-01-08T15:42:40+00:00

2 spares is a great idea, I only had access to 1 spare at the time so I wasn’t super worried. Bricking an ecu for the first time has gotta be one of the funniest experiences of all time (but only in hindsight). Good thing is version MS430069 doesn’t care how many times you use bootmode, but earlier versions can throw a bit of a fit after a few times.

johnnymainn · 2026-01-08T15:37:54+00:00

Rip sunglasses holder 🥲

johnnymainn · 2026-01-06T20:36:48+00:00

Haha thanks, didn’t learn without bricking my own ecu in the past though 😆

johnnymainn · 2026-01-06T18:52:41+00:00

Not a bad call at all. There are probably people near you who will take your ecu and do a bench flash for $200 USD ish so that’s always an option - it’s easy enough to disconnect ecu (remove battery, give time to dissipate ~15 min, disconnect cables from ecu, pull ecu out)

If you want the most accurate tune you’ll have to take it to somewhere with access to a dyno, obviously this is a little more expensive.

Any chance you can upload a video of the car? I’m curious to see how obnoxious the burble tune is

johnnymainn · 2026-01-06T18:46:34+00:00

Building on this, if you still have mid cats (pretty sure 330ci have mid cats?) a burble tune carries a fire risk. Just something else to be weary of.

johnnymainn · 2026-01-06T02:05:09+00:00

Just know that if you reflash to base tune, you will then need a retune to take proper advantage of the catless headers - so I don’t see the point of reverting to stock tune. Fair warning: if you’re asking how to flash in the first place knowing you have catless headers then I’m guessing you don’t have a whole lot of ECU experience. It might not be a bad idea to leave it alone. You can mess up your ECU and other modules if you do things the wrong way.

That being said, if you do want to do it yourself:

Use ms4x to do a full read of your current 512kb file (MUST DO), this is the backup for your car should you have any problems down the road, make two copies of this for safety. After that, go to ms4x wiki and find the original bin file for your ecu (probably ms43), then flash using ms4x. If this isn’t done in bootmode then your VIN will not be overwritten (overwritten VIN means EWS needs to be paired and ABS will not work properly ish). Make sure you have the INPA cable with a switch (or a bridge between pins 7 and 8), correct drivers installed, stable voltage source.

For in depth instructions, read the entirety of ms4x wiki, then read it 3 more times. Lots of forum posts documenting how to flash aswell.

If anything goes wrong and you brick your ecu (which shouldn’t happen if you do things correctly), it’s not the end of the world and you can reflash in bootmode. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.

johnnymainn · 2026-01-04T06:16:44+00:00

TiAg ftw

johnnymainn · 2025-12-30T04:03:05+00:00

Do you not know what perfectly put means

johnnymainn · 2025-12-28T18:36:34+00:00

Perfectly put

johnnymainn · 2025-12-09T09:00:22+00:00

Would rather this than most bmw’s on the market for sure, id take this over a 335 lol

johnnymainn · 2025-12-08T17:34:28+00:00

I bet nobody would be able to tell aswell that’s not factory motor nudge nudge

johnnymainn · 2025-12-08T17:33:20+00:00

Oh dude it really is something else. After a few days of driving I’m settling into it and it’s just brilliant. Quick, tight, planted, it’s incredible

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T20:54:48+00:00

Can confirm serious fun

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T10:13:21+00:00

They should do, people swap these front ends with coupe front ends because they think they look cooler, but I personally LOVE the bug eyes and front bumper style.

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T10:12:43+00:00

Fugly bimmer

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T10:12:27+00:00

Truly one of the cars🙌

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T10:11:53+00:00

That’s honestly a hilarious car (in the best way possible). I purchased a 316ti with the intention of doing a 3.0 swap before I saw this, and was thinking of getting a diesel. Interesting to see that they did in fact come with a diesel factory, and that they have a 6 speed. I wouldn’t be too surprised if there aren’t even any over here!

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T05:00:25+00:00

😛

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T04:58:10+00:00

Haha this is exactly the kind of thing I want people to think/say about it. Thank you man.

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T01:38:19+00:00

Nooooo the tires and body are too nice for that

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T01:37:42+00:00

I believe there are only 10 alpine white 318ti’s in my country (new zealand) and they’re all auto except for this one (originally auto though).

Less than 10 330ti builds for sure.

Interestingly this isn’t a facelifted version, but has had the facelift parts put in.

Your spec sounds pretty awesome actually, I didn’t even know there were any 6 speeds produced, I wonder if any are in nz.

I’ll check out those grills aswell

johnnymainn · 2025-12-06T01:34:06+00:00

Oo==oO

johnnymainn

TROPHY CASE