[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by ais

1. The left beam will need to point well towards the right. Do not look for intersection in the center.

2. The beams will need to be pointed more upwards than level when adjusting.

The low and high beams work together when on High beam.

It is the low beam that illuminates the road ahead. It moves up when switched to High beam mode. The high beam illuminates the vehicles and signboards ahead (and does a cracking job at it- better than a Lexus, Audi A3 etc that overtook me).

There is no way a workshop can achieve what I managed manually.

I don't think pictures would help, but will try in next trip.

Hope this helps.

During my 1st service, I asked the technician to adjust the high beam, point it more upwards. He also confirmed that there is nothing fancy about this - just one screw to move the focus up/down. No left/right adjustment possible (my Laura had this). Even after setting the focus higher, I don't think it's up to the mark. There are some dark spots and overall it does not light up the road ahead like the GTI LED high beam does! Yes, the sign boards and things on the side of the road and all things a bit high up in the air light up well, but not much light on the road. This is just sad.

I have a 6mm Allen key and will try fine tuning this on my own but I think the bulbs are just too weak, not sure if we can use higher Wattage bulbs.

Do post photos, they may help.

Thanks!

[ais]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

No left/right adjustment possible (my Laura had this). Even after setting the focus higher, I don't think it's up to the mark. There are some dark spots and overall it does not light up the road ahead like the GTI LED high beam does!

I have a 6mm Allen key and will try fine tuning this on my own but I think the bulbs are just too weak, not sure if we can use higher Wattage bulbs.

Do post photos, they may help.

Thanks!

Left-right adjustment is very much possible. The nut (white plastic like up-down one) is further in. See YouTube videos if not able to find.

Did you check if GT lights will fit 330i?

Yellow light LEDs may help.

I'm communicating with CARiD. They have suggested this for fog lights-

https://www.carid.com/diode-dynamics...n-dd0344p.html

I'm obtaining more details. I spoke to someone (Aman Bajaj- got contact through a friend) in Delhi for solution and he too suggested change of fog lamp.

[Dr.AD]

Third Oil Change and Servicing Done: Last week, I did the third oil change and general servicing since I got the car. The CBS oil change reminder came down to 1000km when I had little more than 37,000km on the odometer.

I did this oil change at about 37,8xx km, when the CBS said oil change was due in next 600km.

My three oil changes (since I got the car with 14.5k on the odo) have been roughly at 17,700km, 27,700km and now at 37,800km.The first couple of times, I had about 1000km more to go according to CBS, and this time, I still had about 600km to go. Thus, roughly I can say I can get about 11k km between oil changes based on CBS. This is quite par for the course.

The service experience at Navnit BMW has always been fantastic, and this oil change (along with general service including oil filter change and general inspection) was also a smooth job. Overall, I am very happy with my service experiences at Navnit, and in fact, I rate BMW service experience even higher than Maruti's service experience (my other car is a SX4).

Although the service experience and quality is great, the Condition Based Servicing (CBS) is really annoying. For me, the various things under CBS never come at the same time, and since my car is under BSI, the service center will not do anything ahead of its due time. This means I have to do multiple trips to the service center for various items under CBS. For example, in last six months or so, I have gone separately for brake pad change, then an oil change, then the brake fluid change as called out by CBS, and then another oil change. And, next brake pad change will come soon in a couple of months time. These are way too many trips for routine service matters.


Updated observations on previous points: In the last couple of months, after the tyre change, I did several long highway trips with family and friends, and overall the car has been a joy to drive. These recent trips included some really bad roads, and also driving the car with full load (4 people + luggage), and that gave me an opportunity to add some more observations about how the car handles such situations. So I am quoting one of the earlier posts from the first page:

Originally Posted by PearlJam

How's the ground clearance? I see a lot of figures in mm thrown around in a Google search, which looks a little low given the long wheelbase and the front overhang. But nothing can beat real world feedback on this.

I had already answered this, but there is more positive feedback to add now. Before and during Diwali, I made some long highway drives with four people plus luggage in the trunk. And during those drives, I had to tackle some really bad roads. For example, for Diwali I went to Maharashtra, and there, I had to drive on the infamous Naldurg section of the Hyderabad-Solapur highway. This section is notorious for its terrible road conditions, as you can see from the posts in the Hyderabad-Solapur road queries thread. There are some massive potholes, diversions, broken roads, and in some sections, no roads at all - just some up and down heaps of sand and stones! I was so nervous about tackling this road, and so focused on the potholes (avoiding them) that I forgot to take any pictures. However, the below picture by @mobike008 from a related thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ml#post4436714 (Hyderabad - Shirdi : Route Queries)) shows the kind of road conditions I drove through with a loaded car:

Kind of roads I drove through

I had to move at a crawling speed here, but the car managed it without a single underbody hit! And this was not just one experience, but the last few drives had several occasions where I had to tackle such roads. And the car managed it well every single time, although at crawling speeds. So in conclusion, if the driver is careful and knows the car well, this car can manage some pretty bad roads, even fully loaded, without even a single hit! And now my confidence has gone up, and also the practice of managing this car on bad roads, and with this, I no longer feel any issue of bad roads at all. I am ready to take this car anywhere now. Well, of course, within its limits, but you get the idea :-)

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

What I don't like:
Noisy RFTs: The Run Flat Tyres (RFTs) are good for peace of mind on those highway drives, but they are noisy. My car has Bridgestone Potenza S001 RFTs, which are OEM tyres on 320d, and these are definitely noisy. Surprisingly, contrary to what I had read before on many forums, the ride quality is not bad at all even on RFTs. The ride quality is comfortable enough even with RFTs, but it is the road noise of the RFTs that I am not very happy with.

This has been completely solved by changing to new RFTs- the Michelin Primacy 3 ZP, as mentioned in a couple of earlier posts. These new tyres are very silent, offer much better ride, and also better grip that the Bridgestones. And today, I got a chance to drive through heavy rain on the highway, and I found that the wet grip with these tyres is also much better than that with Brigestones. Thus, overall, I am super happy with the tyres and RFT is no longer a topic of debate for me.

Originally Posted by Akshay1234

Instead of pressing in the steering wheel scroller, just roll it up or down once depending on whether you want the next or previous track. And it scrolls up or down in the list. At least I remember it happening like this. So no need for 2 clicks. To be honest its so much nicer to have the full list available than buttons to scroll one at a time.

Now I see your point, after getting used to this car for 1.5 years. Yes, you are right of course! Now that I have got used to the scroll wheel, it works really well. Without having to take my eyes off the road, I can not only go to previous or next tracks, but actually scroll through the playlist and skip a specific number of tracks quite easily, with this small scroll wheel. It is very easy and useful to scroll through the radio stations as well. It is really ergonomic and overall, a nice piece of engineering. I love it now.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

What I don't like:
Lack of Android Auto/Apple CarPlay: This one I do miss a lot and feel bad about. Again, CarPlay was added in 2018 models, but missing on mine. I am addicted to using Google maps while driving, and lack of Android Auto/CarPlay means I have to mount my phone somewhere for maps. This one is a serious omission in my view.

Above is what I felt when I had just gotten this car. But as it turned out, I don't miss this feature at all now, and that is because I found a simple solution that has been working remarkably well for me!

I bought a magnetic phone holder that fits into the air vents! Now this fits perfectly on the vent that is on the right hand side of the driver. And thanks to my friend @Sunnyboi, who routed a charging cable from behind the dashboard, I got a nice charging cable point right next to it. And the phone fits perfectly well there. See below pictures:

The magnetic phone holder, and charging cable routed from behind the dashboard, courtesy @Sunnyboi!



The phone fits perfectly, with very easy reach from driver's position.

In fact, I use the standalone Android Auto app on the phone. The phone position is so perfect and it is perfectly at my right hand, it feels very easy and natural to use this as a touchscreen with Android Auto, rather than the main screen. I have to move my right hand just a little bit from the steering wheel to easily reach the phone screen.

The Android Auto app on the phone. Notice that the phone does not block the front view at all!

The whole setup, as seen from the driver's seat looks like this:

My perfectly ergonomic cockpit!

In fact, iDrive has so many interesting functions, that I would not like to miss those by displaying maps on the iDrive. I keep the Google Maps on my phone, and keep playing with the iDrive and keep rotating through different functions. And all this can be done with a couple of clicks on the iDrive controller, which fits perfectly into my left hand. This setup is so ergonomic, and I am actually happier with this than having Android Auto on the main screen.

Some of the useful displays on iDrive are shown below:

The BMW maps on the iDrive. I sometimes use it so that I have two maps - one of each side - showing my position!

Various graphs under "Efficient Dynamics" such as this "Fuel Consumption History". I love graphs and plots!

Some cool graphics that shows power delivery and brake energy regeneration in real-time!

Some interesting graphics under "Driving Style Analysis".

And finally, the real-time display of power and torque. I love to watch it when I extract the full 400Nm of torque!

So in summary, I get the best of both worlds! I get to use Android Auto on the "right", and the iDrive screen for its numerous functions on the "left". I love this, and thus, don't miss the Android Auto in the iDrive at all.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

What I really hate:
The space saver in the trunk. There is no place for the space saver (tyre+wheel) under the floor of the trunk, and therefore the space saver sits in the middle of the trunk, and takes away a lot of useful space. Further, once the space saver is there, the remaining trunk volume is very oddly shaped, and it is hard to put even medium sized suitcases there.

Now sadly, this continues to be the case and I have started hating it even more. In the above-mentioned trips with 4 people and luggage, the biggest challenge was to fit the luggage of 4 people in the trunk. Even small 4 bags don't fit in the trunk, due to the space saver. It was quite embarrassing to tell my guests to travel light, so that I could accommodate their luggage in the trunk. This is the single biggest practicality limitation and there is no solution. Earlier this year, during another family trip to Chennai, I had to keep out the space saver, and travel without any spare tyre at all. That was the only way to accommodate the luggage we had with us. Since Chennai highway is a very familiar road for me and there are plenty of services along the way, I could take the risk of traveling without spare tyre. But I won't take that risk when traveling to unknown places and places with no services. So in summary, trunk space remains to be the issue with no solution!

[Dr.AD]

Yesterday we did a leisurely Sunday morning drive with some friends through the jungles near Denkanikottai, TN. There, we found a nice lake which is a watering hole for elephants, and did a quick photoshoot. Sharing some photos below:

Two bimmers and a Tractor! With RSUDARSANAN's 320d.



At the watering hole



Picture taken by @Robimahanta



Picture taken by @Robimahanta




And finally, our complete convoy!

[Dr.AD]

A couple of weeks ago, we did a quick drive to Ooty with some friends and fellow bhpians. It goes without saying that this drive, with 36 hairpin bends in the ghats up to Ooty, was super fun in the 320d.

Posting some pictures from that short trip here:

With a fellow bhpian's Blue Octavis TSi



Our cars parked outside a bungalow we stayed in



This red and blue is my favorite combination :-) Notice the Blue 3GT in the back, and a black X1 too.



The red color shining in the late evening light



Cars bathed in the morning mist



A morning shot with mist on the car



Graaja's famous 3GT, with its characteristic cycle racks, looked stunning in the morning mist! This is one of the best looking 3GTs ever.



A "group photo" of all the cars. Photo Courtesy: Robimahanata



And finally, a beautiful photo of my car taken by Robimahanta.

[Dr.AD]

Recently, I did a weekend drive to Kanyakumari in this car. I have written a separate travelogue on that (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ri-my-bmw.html (An impromptu solo drive to the end of the land - Kanyakumari in my BMW)) but wanted to share some car related updates here.

The car performed remarkably well on this drive. I covered a total distance of about 1320km with average speed of a bit more than 81km/h, door to door, counting all local traffic in Bangalore and Kanyakumari. It was very relaxing and comfortable drive, with no tiredness at all. The car just cruises down comfortably at quite good speeds, and reaches far away destinations in no time, so to speak. It is an ideal highway cruiser.

Here are some photos of the car from this drive:
















The overall statistics for this trip:



When I said the car is great for highway cruising, it also included great range on the highway. I did not have to refuel anywhere between Bangalore and Kanyakumari. On a full tank, I get a highway range of about 900km (as shown below in this picture after I reached home, 44km after last refill), and this means I can easily do these 650km drives on a single tank:



BSI Update: By the way, while on return journey, I crossed 40,000km. With this, my BSI package (which was for 3 years/40,000km) is over. I have decided NOT to renew my BSI, since I believe the regular service costs (especially given that now BMW has reduced service costs for older cars), are about the same as the BSI package. Thus, I do not see any need to pay in advance for the BSI. However, I do have extended warranty, and that is a must since that covers any unforeseen mechanical issues beyond the routine service. In summary, having extended warranty but no BSI seems to me the optimal combination to me (for my usage of course) for years 3 to 6 on this car.



And finally, the car shining like new after a nice wash at my favorite detailing studio, Feynlab:

[Moontan]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

You can easily activate Cruise control if you have a LIM button on the steering, Bimmer Code app and a cheap Bluetooth OBD dongle to the rescue, just remember to backup your setup before you go tinkering.

Hi Quickdraw. I'm new to the forum but have been following this and other F30 threads. I've asked the creator of Bimmercode about coding the LIM to CC and he said that it's not available for now. Have you done it? I have the app amd would like to do this. Thanks.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by Moontan

Hi Quickdraw. I'm new to the forum but have been following this and other F30 threads. I've asked the creator of Bimmercode about coding the LIM to CC and he said that it's not available for now. Have you done it? I have the app amd would like to do this. Thanks.

Hey dude,

Akshay1234 did it for me back then, and since I don't have the car anymore I won't be able to check.

[Moontan]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

Akshay1234 did it for me back then, and since I don't have the car anymore I won't be able to check.

Thanks for the reply, Quickdraw. Could you please confirm the LIM was converted to CC using Bimmercode? I'll take it from there. I've ordered the OEM CC MF switch and will be retrofitting that on my car. I'll use your information for my friends car.

Thanks again.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by Moontan

Thanks for the reply, Quickdraw. Could you please confirm the LIM was converted to CC using Bimmercode? I'll take it from there. I've ordered the OEM CC MF switch and will be retrofitting that on my car. I'll use your information for my friends car.

Thanks again.

We did the coding via laptop since Bimmercode phone app did not exist back then. If you are getting the switch for it I don't think it should be a big issue. Get in touch with any coder who can do it for you with remote desktop and the OBD cable.

[Moontan]

Originally Posted by ais

Yet to do the testing at night. Will do around 22 August.

Adjust the beams yourself with a 6mm allen key.

Here's my thought, and this is after owning my second BMW. It is impossible to readjust your factory light throw and beam, independently. For self levelling beams, it even more complicated and I have never come across an ASS or a FNG with the equipment to do it right. When you move from halogen/HID/Zenon factory fitted and focused lights to factory fitted LEDs, it really is a dramatic shift as LED lights do not function the way any of the above do. But they do function. Disappointment with not seeing what you are used to seeing, makes most think they are dysfunctional and need addressing by means of readjustment.

Now here's my take on how BMW let's you know what can be done independently and what you do at your own peril. No screw with an allen key head should ever be touched. Ever. What can be done independently are all Torq screw heads. Whenever you change to a staggered setup, your caster angle gets affected, but your levellers do not. They re-calibrate and they function absolutely fine.


If at any point you ever told the ASS that your beams are not doing what you think they should be doing because you have subscribed to the paranoia, that's a check box to them and they will mess with that allen head adjuster and now you really have a huge problem, because no one has the factory equipment to realign your beams. My two cents.

That being said all BMWs are still wonderful cars to DIY and very straightforward in how they would like you to do things to them. There are just a few things that you are not to mess with and, as explained above, are clearly demarcated.

[ais]

Originally Posted by Moontan

Here's my thought, and this is after owning my second BMW. It is impossible to readjust your factory light throw and beam, independently.
There are just a few things that you are not to mess with and, as explained above, are clearly demarcated.

This is conjecture more than fact. The headlight beams are very much adjustable, quite easily, for up-down and left-right.

[Dr.AD]

Updating this thread after a long time. As you would guess, the car spent most of the last 4 months parked at home. This also meant there was not much to report here. It was pretty sad to see the car parked at home. I did follow the routine of starting the car once a week and driving for a short distance within my apartment complex every week. But apart from that, there was no action.

In the meantime, I completed two years with this car. The odo is at about 44,000km. The car has been an absolute joy to own, and in just two years, has already created some great memories. And since this question gets asked so often, let me say that the reliability has been absolutely top-notch! Touch wood, the car has been as reliable as a Maruti (my other car), while delivering a great driving experience every single time! Sheer driving pleasure with rock solid reliability! Could not have asked for more.

As the lockdown ended recently, I finally got the car out of the forced hiatus. The car met the road again, even though only for short drives.

The first short drive after the long hiatus. What joy!

In the meantime, the front brake pad replacement warning came up in the iDrive. Now the replacement is due in 1300km. I had changed the front brake pads previously at about 18,000km mark. Thus, this second set lasted a bit more than 27,000km, which is quite good actually!



After the long downtime, I finally got a chance to get the car washed thoroughly at my favorite place, Feynlab:



The car looking clean again:






It had been a while since I saw my good friend RSUDARSANAN, and since our cars saw each other. Now, after the lockdown ended, we decided to go for a short drive to a Cafe Coffee Day outlet on Mangalore highway. Of course, we followed all social distancing norms and wore masks all the time (and we were alone in our respective cars). There was nobody there apart from us, and it was a clean and safe place to have a coffee, while strictly following social distancing.

The two 3-ers together after a long time:












A parting shot:



And now one curiosity experiment.

The iDrive has this feature that analyzes the driving style under Eco-Pro mode (this feature does not apply to any other driving mode). It gives 'stars' for a smooth and "economical" driving style (and hence works only in Eco-Pro mode). It measures two parameters: Anticipation and Acceleration. The lines you see on the screen are initially all rough with some local ups an downs. As you get more and more stars, the lines get smoother and eventually when you get 5 stars on both the parameters, the lines become totally smooth.

This feature is discussed a lot in many BMW forums, and people have been trying to get 5 stars, just for curiosity. It is quite a difficult (and also boring, to be honest) task. Many joked that this is a myth and it never happens. You have to drive very smoothly, brake with a lot of anticipation (coasting and slowing down before braking), and accelerate very smoothly without any sudden jerk whatsoever (now you know why I said boring; basically the whole fun of accelerating is gone).

I almost always drive in the Sports mode. However, this time, just for curiosity, I decided to try to achieve the illusive task of getting 10 stars. This thing is just like a game - you gain stars with smooth maneuvers and lose stars if you do something abrupt. Again, this is both boring and frustrating, and I would never recommend this to anyone. However, I tried my best just for the sake of curiosity to see if I could do it, and here it is. I finally managed to get 10 stars:

[Moontan]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Updating this thread after a long time.

Good to see you back, sir. Your thread is a pleasure to read.

What happened to your tail badge? The 'd' is missing. How did that happen?

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Moontan

Good to see you back, sir. Your thread is a pleasure to read.

What happened to your tail badge? The 'd' is missing. How did that happen?

Thank you very much for your appreciation!

Good catch about the badge! Yes, the 'd' fell off recently, during a cleaning session. I have that fallen 'd' with me, but need to go to a 3M or the BMW service center where they can fix it properly. Have not got time to do that yet.

The root of the problem is the PPF. During the installation of the PPF (my car has full body PPF) the badges are removed and then re-attached, which loses the OEM fit. I think this was the reason the letter fell in the first place.

Another issue with PPF is that it reflects light in a poor, "plasticky" manner and the car finish looks dull in the photos. I have never got a nice vivid red color in my photos as others get with this Melbourne Red shade, due to my PPF.

On the other hand, thanks to the PPF I don't worry about minor scratches or swirl marks. So there are many advantages, but also some of the disadvantages mentioned above.