WIBIMMERS

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!

Looks like Dinan is running a pretty crazy sale on some of their wheels. Huge price cuts down to less than $400/set! Unfortunately only 19" and up sizes but still a cool deal.

Flow Formed Wheels - Dinan (dinancars.com)

The rear looks a little crunched down like the X4/X6. Rear quarters slope upward a bit too high for my liking and rear window looks tiny.

Despite those (unavoidable) criticisms I still think it looks great. GT look. Doubt it would sell well here in the US unfortunately and I'm sure that will be one of the biggest reasons it never sees production, would love to see it go on sale regardless though.

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

Looks great man! They are popular wheels for a reason

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!

Minor update today. Put 5000 miles on the car since I bought it so I stayed late at work and got an oil change done. 5W-30 Liqui Moly and a WIX filter at 125k miles.

This was my first time using a WIX filter on one of my BMW's but I was able to get it at cost through my work. Anyone had any problems with aftermarket oil filters like this or have recommendations for ones I should use in the future?

Been radio silent on this car for a few months now, figured I should probably give an update.

Since my E46 has been either under the knife or waiting for parts since it got returned to me after being stolen, I have been dailying the ti rather than getting 14mpg riding around in my truck all the time lol. About a month ago I went ahead and replaced my blown ass rear speakers with some Pioneer 5 1/4" replacements with brackets my brother had 3D printed off for me. Sounds a bit nicer but my rear tweeters are still blown so I have to get around to replacing those. Recently had a taillight burn out so I went ahead and replaced all of the taillight bulbs, and both lowbeam bulbs.

This thing is pretty due for an oil change now, so I have that coming up this weekend. Since doing the headlights/taillights my cruise control has stopped working only when the headlights are on. I suspect a bad brake light switch, going to try to replace that as well and go from there. Other than that it has been treating me pretty well and has been a good and comfortable daily.

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.

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 said:

Not to derail, but skylines are cool. R32? 

My 1993 R33 GTS25t. Love the car to death, does massive burnouts.

Update for everyone: Sorry, with the lack of BMW and how ridiculously busy I've been recently its been hard to keep an eye on this thread. The car is still missing because when Chief Dumbass Cory Billstrom got arrested the car proceeded to change multiple hands and only god knows where it is now. The detective did his due diligence and interviewed anyone that was roughly connected and obviously anyone not obligated to talk, didnt talk. The car was last known to be in the area beginning of January so chances of it getting returned are extremely slim, and if it would be returned I am very sure it would not be in the same condition it was in when it left. The guy that stole it (Executive Chief Dumbass Chris Lamb) fessed up to everything and even admitted to doing over 130mph in it. The only reason I am upset about that is because that is faster than I ever went in it lmao.

I get to go to court multiple times over the next few months over this bullshit, so so excited. Hoping to scrape up some cash for an E36 325/328 to replace it, E36 M3 prices have gotten a bit ridiculous lol.

The following message is going to be copy pasted from my last update on facebook. If anyone can offer any help, please reach out.

MY CAR IS STILL MISSING

$500 REWARD IF FOUND

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION, DIRECTLY CONTACT ME OR THE POLICE. MY PHONE NUMBER IS 715-FIVE SEVEN SEVEN-0942

I received an update today that the person who broke into my unit has been arrested with proof and confessed to stealing my car. He is not the same person who tried to ransom it back to me. The car is still missing, but supposedly has changed hands multiple times and is still getting used. It was last seen in the Eau Claire area in the beginning of January.

I am now offering a $500 reward for information that results in the returning of my car. Its supposedly still being used and driven. Below I will list the technical specs of my car and some of the aftermarket parts in case anyone sees e46 parts come up for sale or anything like that.

2001 BMW 330i

VIN: WBAAV53431FT01049

LAST KNOWN MILEAGE: ~137k mi

3.0 I6 w/ 5spd manual

M-tech I appearance package

Silver on grey interior

BBS RC303 wheels with Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2 Tires

Eonon head unit

Magnaflow catback exhaust

Active Autowerke headers

Fortune Auto 500 coilovers

E39 M5 single mass flywheel conversion kit

Dinan carbon fiber intake

ECS lug stud conversion

15% tint

IDENTIFYING PREVIUS DAMAGE: Car had broken front kidney grills and a damaged hood, passenger side door had some dents, red-tint painted taillights and yellow tinted fog lights, dark grey pinstriping below window line, powdercoated wheels had tire mount residue around the bead stained on the black powder, passenger side front fender has a roughly 2 inch long oval sized spot of missing paint, and small amounts of rust on body panel below rear license plate

YoungCR said:

Well shit, so sorry to hear. I'm gonna go pull the keys out of my vehicles in storage now. I have things packed tight into mine so breaking through the wall isnt really possible but all it takes is a cordless cut off to get in the door anyways. My good friend had his pristine 1 owner 46k mi 2003 Chevy 3500 Dually he had just bought a month prior stolen in Sacramento, CA on Christmas morning. Police found it parked on a side street a week or 2 later. They stole the headlights, battery, all the tools in the bed and the cats off the exhaust. Hopefully you find your car with minimal damage and missing parts as well. Really depends on what their motive is but its usually always about the quickest way to get money out of it and move on to the next theft.

I would be happy to make a post on the WI BIMMERS facebook page as well if you'd like, just not sure how much traffic it would get but could see what the paid posts go for these days too.

Given that the cars current "owner" is in custody, I am not too worried about it. I imagine if it gets found itll likely have pretty minimal damage or its already made its way to milwaukee/minneapolis and is getting cut up as we speak. Best we can do now is just keep our eyes out for it.

Well, I wish I wasnt making this update but here we are.

Back in December I got a fun phone call from a local police department asking about my E46 and told me they had a traffic infraction that they wanted to discuss with me. I responded with "Wow, thats really interesting given the fact I put my car in storage back in October." The cop proceeded to tell me that there was no traffic infraction he wanted to discuss, but that he was investigating some storage units that had gotten broken into in Chippewa Falls. I immediately ran to my storage unit here in Eau Claire and lo and behold, she was long gone! And not only that, they ripped the wall off the unit to get into the 2 next to me. Enjoy this photo of property damage and a sadly missing space in front of my skyline.

And then to follow everything up, they drove up to Chippewa Falls to use my car to break into more units up there the day after it was stolen which is where I originally got the call about my car from. Heres a fun security camera shot given to me by the owner of the other units:

To say the least, I wasnt very excited about this news. I got police involved right away and started posting on Facebook trying to locate my car. A couple people had seen it here and there, but no solid leads aside from the fact the car was still local. Eventually I had a woman reach out to me that explained that not only did she know who had my car, but she had actually ridden in it! Saw my facebook posts and reached out. Pretty cool, but I still didnt have my car back yet. Turns out she was the roommate of the new "owner." We talked for a few weeks, and eventually I figured out that the current "owner" of the car was going to try to ransom it back to me for a very good price of $2500. Its at this point that I've realized I have reached and met the bottom of the intelligence barrel in this town, so I downloaded a phone recording app, got the number from her, and gave this asshat a call. I told him I was not going to get cops involved and that I was willing to pay $3000 just to get the car back. He was apprehensive at first but told me he'd give me a call back.

We are just getting to the fun part now. He gives me a call back and lays out everything, where to bring the money, and even admitted to having the car but did not admit to stealing it. Also threatened me which was really nice! So, I did what anyone would do, and recorded the entire phone conversation and gave it to the detective in charge. The next day he was taken into custody with my skyline keys in his pocket, but the car is still nowhere to be found. He was already on parole until 2030 so it is fair to say he's pretty screwed. The cops are now working through the download on his phone to hopefully track the car down but it's still no longer in my possession.

If anyone sees any parts go up for sale (Active autowerke headers, fortune auto 500 coils, bbs rc303's with hankook ventus v12 evo 2 tires, eonon head unit, etc) please have no problem reaching out to me, I'm scared the car is likely getting parted out already. Hopefully I get it back, but chances seem slimmer by the day. Ill be sure to update if the car gets found but I have a feeling this thread is closing in on the end.

Update on the 318ti. My girlfriends car was down for the count for a couple weeks so I let her borrow it and she put almost 1k miles on it. The oil leak I found is coming from the timing covers and oil is just pouring out, to the point it destroyed her parents driveway every time she parked it lol. Sold my mercedes and ordered all the parts to re-gasket the timing cover, replace the water pump, and replace the sway bar end links and bushings at the same time since the drivers side bushing is completely junk.

Also remembered that I had these wheels from my E46 just chilling on my shelf at home. Threw them on the car and it looks 10x better.

Instead of sitting in an endless state of project car limbo, I actually got some work done and cranked out a new radiator, hoses, and intake boots for the E36. Peep the wonderful mess of oil, atf, and coolant it left all over my floor. Got the system all bled, refilled the trans with ATF, and now it drives better than ever and hasn't leaked a drop of coolant.

Also spent a little bit of time last night throwing in a new Bluetooth radio so I can listen to my own music (I cannot stand the radio) and also got some pics of the interior for everyone here to see. Still needs a detail, but overall in really good shape and is just about as comfortable as it gets.

As far as the future goes, I noticed the car has a pretty big oil leak by the bell housing (praying its not a rear main) and a minor gas leak from one of the hard lines. Hopefully gonna get that diagnosed and dealt with soon, but in the meantime I am just gonna enjoy the car and enjoy the gas mileage!

Like the title says, looking for manual dove sport seats for my 318ti. Good condition preferred. Thanks!

SteelBlue said:

Great color. What do these do for fuel economy? I would imagine pretty good.

According to the EPA 23 city/31 hwy. I plan on driving the car pretty easy and aiming for the 30mpg mark when possible. With gas prices now and dailying a truck that gets roughly 14mpg, itll be nice to save a couple bucks driving something a bit more efficient.

Last week I had a customer come into my work and they asked me if we worked on foreign vehicles. I said "Yeah, I dont think theres really anything were afraid to work on." After talking to him a little while longer I found out that he wanted to schedule getting a radiator replaced in his 96 318ti so he could list the car for sale. I told him that I might be interested and asked how much he'd be looking to get out of it as it sits with a bad radiator, and he told me he was looking to get $2750 for it as is. I then asked him to bring it by so I could take a peak.

The car shows up and it is pretty beautiful, one of the best condition 318ti's that I have seen. At only 120k miles, the boston green glistened, the dove leather interior was damn near spotless, and the A/C was ice cold. It was a southern car almost its an entire life, and was a one owner vehicle until the PO bought it a little over a year ago. It has a small rust spot on the rear quarter and one of the jack pad areas, but the rest of the car was extremely clean. I took it out for a spin and aside from the coolant leak the car drove phenomenal. We shook on $2700 (including a new radiator and hoses), and I drained my bank account and brought her home.

Drove the car around for a couple days and so far I have been pretty happy with it. The car is currently under the knife in my garage at the moment waiting on some new intake hoses that ripped during disassembly, and it turned out the radiator hoses he supplied were some cheap bright red ebay silicone hoses that fit horribly so I am also waiting on a set of all new OEM rubber hoses from FCP.

Current plans arent anything crazy, just want to get the car squared away so I can have a comfortable and quirky summer daily!

Today was my 2 year anniversary with this car and the weather turned out nice tonight so I ripped the drivers seat out and got go work. What a disgusting mess.

The rain left a slew of mold, coins molded into the carpet and some pretty heavy staining. I knew the grey carpet wasnt going to look perfect given the amount of time I had to do this job and the lack of proper tools I had but I tried my best to get it clean and looking slightly better.

Not perfect, but substancially better. I cleaned up the rest of the interior following the carpets and I couldnt be happier with the car now.