2001 BMW 330i Daily/Project build thread

[basedspider]

Yesterday morning while I was at work I received a phone call from the detective that had been working on the case and he asked me "Hey, would you like to come pick up your car?" I was pretty quick to respond with a hard yes and was on my way. The vehicle had been found by the detective via text messages from the recent "owner" of the vehicles phone, and it was hidden behind a storage unit complex here in Eau Claire. This was what it looked like when I got there:

Pretty well snowed in but from what I could tell it didn't look too rough. Unfortunately keys were nowhere to be found so I ran home and grabbed my spare set as the city called a skidsteer over to dig it out. They left about 2 feet on either side of the car by the time I got back and my cousin came by to help me dig out the rest. After another 2 hours of shoveling we were finally able to dig out a spot!

Car wouldnt start via either a jump pack or jumper cables hooked up to my truck, battery was completely froze up. Ran to the local Oreillys and picked up a new battery to just get me by. Once I threw the battery in (using the handy dandy BMW trunk toolkit lmao) and got it started a local tow company came by and couldnt sneak back there to it so we just hooked their chains right up to the hitch of my pickup and pulled it right out of its spot. Honestly it ran pretty good and seemed mostly complete aside from the fact they ripped half the speakers out and broke the speaker covers on the doors. They also did me a great pleasure of smoking cigarettes inside of it and leaving it almost completely empty on gas! How kind!

I proceeded to drive the car back to my work and got it pulled inside. Aside from the fact the brakes were trashed, the tires and everything else seemed to be mostly the way I left it which is pretty crazy. Of course theres a few new scratches and dents here and there, but nothing too crazy.

Either way, I couldnt be happier to have the car back in my possession and overall could have been so much worse than it really was. Insurance claims will be submitted pretty soon. The odds of it being recovered at all, let alone almost complete is absolutely insane. I guess I've used up my luck for the year haha.

Appreciate all the kind words, hope everyone can look forward to updates on getting this thing sorted out and ready for the upcoming summer!

[m42b32]

That's awesome that you found it! Glad to see its in more-or-less one piece. Its a bummer that they smoked in it, but I've found that a good interior clean and a pass or two with an ozone machine works wonders on getting the smell out and keeping it out. My brother bought an XJ Cherokee that had been lightly smoked in and after running the ozone machine in it the smell has never come back, even on a hot day.

[basedspider]

m42b32 said:

That's awesome that you found it! Glad to see its in more-or-less one piece. Its a bummer that they smoked in it, but I've found that a good interior clean and a pass or two with an ozone machine works wonders on getting the smell out and keeping it out. My brother bought an XJ Cherokee that had been lightly smoked in and after running the ozone machine in it the smell has never come back, even on a hot day. 

Oh yeah, its gonna get fully detailed at my work, document/photograph everything, and submit the cost to insurance.

[YoungCR]

Yay!! Been waiting to hear this good news. So glad the car is mostly how you left it.

[Boris3]

Wow, that’s great they found it!!!!

[Jdesign]

Crazy!

You lucked out on this one, usually when a car is not stolen for parts its typically found trashed, crashed, and never the same.

[basedspider]

Been a while since I have made a post about whats going on with this thing, so I figured I would write an update. Got the vehicle inspected at my work for the insurance claim and to be expected the brakes were trashed. Rotors were rusty and very warped but surprisingly the pads were actually still in decent shape yet. The inspection also found some minor leaks coming from the driveshaft CV and power steering lines, as well as bad front lower control arm bushings. Luckily everything else seemed to be in order aside from my Fortune Autos and magnaflow catback having a nice new coating of rust

Insurance adjuster showed up and checked over the vehicle as well and didn't end up totalling it but made a good offer on the repairs which was very great news. Once I got the payment for that I went ahead and ordered brand new calipers, hoses, hardware, and Bosch Quietcast rotors and pads all the way around. Once everything showed up I got to work on giving this thing all brand new brakes!

Old vs. New calipers. Not too bad but still wanted to go ahead and replace them.

New brakes installed. Very happy with the result and I am glad that I have officially converted it to daily driver duty with a more comfort focused set of brakes.

Hard to hate the look of shiny new parts!!

Moving forward the car is currently at BMW getting a new EWS, keys, ignition and lock cylinders installed. One of the keys was still missing after I got the car back and I did not feel comfortable leaving the car as is while knowing someone else could steal it again at any time. Luckily after speaking with insurance its completely covered but I do have to pay for everything up front and they'll reimburse me, fun way to spend $1800.

Unsurprisingly the drama never quits with this thing. After having dropped the car off there 3 weeks ago I received a call last Friday from the service writer involved with the vehicle and they let me know after installing all of the parts one of the keys is faulty and is refusing to communicate with the EWS whatsoever. They're currently waiting for a response back from BMW HQ on how to solve the problem and at this point, only god knows when I will have the car back. I understand that shit happens, I am just getting tired of shit happening to this car lol. Hopefully I will have it back before the end of summer!

[basedspider]

Another fantastic update. The dealership that has my car just reached out yesterday saying BMW had sent them a replacement EWS module. 1 week later the new module showed up and after they installed it the car is still completely dead stick. Keys and EWS have no communication whatsoever. They now have to reorder the original kit including ews/locks/keys/ignition that took them almost 2 months to receive in the first place. Lets just hope I will get to drive it a couple times before it ends up stored again next winter lmao

[Rekpoint]

basedspider said:

Another fantastic update. The dealership that has my car just reached out yesterday saying BMW had sent them a replacement EWS module. 1 week later the new module showed up and after they installed it the car is still completely dead stick. Keys and EWS have no communication whatsoever. They now have to reorder the original kit including ews/locks/keys/ignition that took them almost 2 months to receive in the first place. Lets just hope I will get to drive it a couple times before it ends up stored again next winter lmao

Hope you negotiated a loaner lol

[basedspider]

Been almost a month since my last post but my car has been successfully rekeyed and is back in my possession!

Last week BMW Motorwerks finally gave me the call that they got a fob and a spare key to work with the car just fine and told me I was welcome to come pick it up. I may have gotten there 2 minutes before close, but luckily enough they still released the car to me. Been enjoying it for just a few days now and I could not be happier to have it back. It drives really well for everything it has gone through and it has been a dream come true that I get to daily drive this thing once again.

Cheers to hopefully enjoying many more miles with this beauty in the future!