Trunk Strut Replacement, E90 2006 330i BMW

Trunk Strut Replacement
E90 330i 2006 BMW 

By far the easier repair i've done to the BMW, anybody can do this!

It is very difficult to get something from the trunk with just one hand, because the other hand is busy holding up the trunk lid.... if your struts are bad, you know exactly what I am referring to.

You see after a while the struts lose their ability to hold the trunk UP.  To make your life easier... it's best to replace them.  Very easy problem to fix!

Today we will discuss how to replace them.  These are the steps...

First:
Before you do anything... order the CORRECT struts, it took me 3 tries to get the correct ones.  Make sure they are the correct length, because if they are 1/2 an inch or an inch too long..., you will "STRUGGLE" a lot... to just give up at the end...because the trunk won't close....  I accidentally picked the wrong model of car on Amazon, looking for a cheaper alternative, I accidently picked one that didn't fit my car.  Ofcourse, I didn't find out until they arrived, and they were an inch too long... later I found out they were for a Lexus trunk.... LOL... not sure how I missed that, when I ordered them.

The new replacement struts should be EXACTLY the same size in length...as the old ones, "Extended" of course.

Old struts  -- New Strut(inside bag).  They are exactly the same length.

Second: Removal of old strut
All you have to do is pry on the metal clip and pull away, then pull the strut out.  I used an angled pick, it worked really good.  It's okay if the clip is taken out completely, as they will be thrown away.  The new strut should come with new clip.

Third : Clean
Make sure you clean the Ball where the strut was seating, as you can see mine was very dirty.  If you leave it dirty like this, it will make the ball smaller from the dirt rubbing inside the strut....and then the strut will fall out of the ball... YOU DON'T want to deal with that problem... way more expensive to fix... just clean your balls please.... LOL

Fourth: Grease
Make sure your new strut comes with Grease, check inside the cavity.  If it doesn't have grease, apply a bit inside, don't go crazy, just a little will do.

Installation:
To install the strut just PUSH the strut cavity into the Ball and it will snap in place.

It's that easy!

Close and Open the trunk a few times to make sure the grease takes... The first and second time closing the trunk it will feel weird, like it's stuck, but that is okay, if you keep moving up and down the struts will fee normal... after a few tries.

Service: 
While you are in here, make sure to apply a bit of grease to all of the joints inside the trunk...  You car will thank you for it.  I used standard gear grease.

Where to buy:
I got my struts from Amazon.  Like I said earlier, do you homework, because it's very easy to get the wrong struts from Amazon.

These are the one I got....I am not affiliated to the seller, after a few tries, these were perfect.  The price was competitive too.  Less than $20 dollars shipped, for TWO.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C8UG5SK/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I hope this was helpful to you.

I post a ton of BMW 330I E90 related content, I have a lot of other posts, check them out, link below to the main page.

Comment below if you have any questions...

Thank again and until next time

See all my Blogs posts, link to main page: See them all!

Follow me on Facebook

fb.me/E90BMW330i

The BMW Smell / Plus the Toxic Smell that nobody talks about

The BMW Smell & the Toxic Smell that nobody talks about (possible solutions) updated 1/23/2020

If you own an E90, by now you probably have noticed that there is a stinky smell, that always lingers, day after day.  I've heard it called the "BMW smell" because all BMW cars have a very particular smell.  But in this blog post we are going to talk about that smell and where I think it comes from.  But more importantly I am going to talk about a very Lethal smell that comes from the Plastic Oil Pan Catch under the motor that nobody talks about, that is TOXIC and gets so bad that it can hurt your throat and will make you sick.

Old Cabin Air Filter Smell  (NON Toxic ) :  -Most of the moldy old smell comes from an old Cabin Air Filter, I've noticed that if I don't replace the cabin filter regularly, about every 6 months, my car smells bad, moldy and dusty, this is very easy to fix and to replace.  I made a blog post before, if you are interested on how to replace it.. I will put the link here:  https://msauceda1.blogspot.com/2019/05/cabin-air-filter-replacement-e90.html

If you are interested in the Toxic smell keep reading...

Leather Smell AKA The BMW smell  (NON Toxic) :  The BMW smell that everybody refers to so commonly, I think comes from the Materials that BMW chooses to build the car from.  Mostly I think comes from the leather in the car, but some comes from the Glues and plastics that are used in the car.  It's hard to tell if the smell of leather and or glue is toxic, hopefully somebody out there does an air test on our cars someday.  When I first got my car it smelled like this, so I am very used to this smell, and honestly I don't think this is bad, but I could be wrong.  The real toxic smell is coming up next...

Dirt and Oil stuck to the plastic pan cover, the source
of the Toxic Smell

Burnt Oil smell (The Toxic Smell) :

The Toxic Smell comes from the Plastic Oil Drip Pan under the engine.  Hear me out...this will get interesting....  As you know most E90s have a problem with the Valve Cover Gasket Screws... They tend to break.... I think you know where this is going.... When you drive your car under normal circumstances, the Motor Heats up and then cools down... during this thermal expansion and contraction of the Aluminum Engine/ Aluminum Screws, the Valve cover gasket loses its seal and Oil starts to leak out of the valve cover.   The Oil starts to accumulate in the plastic drip pan under the engine and eventually gets filled with Oil and Dirt.

New replacement :)

Well... After a while the oil and dirt covering all of the plastic drip pan starts to stink up... then these  Toxic Fumes emitted from the Dirty Oil / and Dirt under the engine heat up from the HOT engine and where does it go???  as you know Hot Air moves UP... well the toxic fume smell moves up to the hood.... AND what up there... well the Cabin Air Filter... This Air intake goes straight into the cabin of the car.

YES! you are inhaling Dirty Burnt Oil... This is Toxic and very bad for you.  Now mix this with the BMW smell and it's hard to tell what you are inhaling...

Side Effects:  I got to a point where every time I drove my BMW I got a sore throat... I am not exaggerating... If you drive a lot, you will find that you get tired and sick all the time and you may not know why that is, sore throat and headache would be common too.  You see these are toxic fumes... You are not meant to inhale Motor Oil Fumes... or Worse Old Burnt Motor Oil...  This will make you very sick and if you drive your car every day you will not notice the stench smell... But when you give somebody a ride in your car they will notice  and they will say... what is that smell???and you will think ohhh... it's just the BMW smell... TRUE some of it is, but not all...So beware of this problem.


 Drip Pan Maintenance ( To Get rid of Toxic Smell) Not the BMW smell LOL,...
The Solution... Either remove the bottom panel and clean all of the oil from the Oil Catch (plastic) under the engine or replace it with a new one.  BUT most importantly, fix the Oil Leaks from the Valve cover gasket.  Fixing the oil leak will prevent the oil from accumulating under the engine and will prevent this problem.  I did it to my car and Boy did it make a HUGE difference... New oil catch pan and fixed oil leak by replacing Valve cover gasket... Check your car... you may have the same problem...

 The Valve Cover gasket is not very expensive.  A solid 3 hours to replace... but worth it.

Battery Fumes
The last thing I am going to talk about is something you wouldn't expect.  The battery fumes. 

You see... the battery is inside the car, and any fumes would go directly into the car.  As you know the battery is in the truck of the car, and any fumes that escape the battery from overcharging would linger inside the car.  Most of us don't leave the windows open during the night, specially if you park your car on the street or outside. 

Let me explain what is going on.  Last time I replaced the battery in my car I didn't plug in the battery vent.  When I replaced the battery in my car last time, about 5 years ago, the new battery didn't come with battery connector, it's an elbow, I will put a picture here.  I assume that because the new battery didn't come with this elbow it wasn't needed to be plugged in.  But all in needed to do was remove the elbow from the old battery to plug into the new battery... and I didn't do that.

All of the fumes escape via a small hose going down to the outside of the trunk.  Make sure you plug this vent hose into the battery, because the Battery DOES Leak fumes out... so make sure you are not breathing these fumes.  The OEM battery is a Lead based battery, and it does have 2 Vent holes.  One is plugged and the other is open to accept the elbow to plug into the vent hose.  Make sure your battery is plugged in, because this will make you sick too.

Buy a Battery Vent Hose kit, this is what you will get ( pictured on the left).  I got mine from Amazon, and it was a perfect fit.  I only used the Elbow, to plug the vent hose already on the car to the battery.

Toxic Fumes will make you tired, and sleepy, and will accept your nervous system and you brain, as well as fertility, it says right on the battery....  Google this, and you will see how bad this is....  Unfortunately most of us don't know better. 

Make sure you vent the fumes out of the battery properly, or you are going to breath those fumes, every single moment you are in the car!

I hope this was helpful to you.

I post a ton of BMW 330I E90 related content, I have a lot of other posts, check them out, link below to the main page.

Comment below if you have any questions...

Thank again and until next time

See all my Blogs posts, link to main page: See them all!

New Fog Light makes a huge difference

New and Old Fog lights

Wow! new fog lights make a huge difference!
BMW 330i 2006 E90 with 240K miles

In today's vlog post we are going to talk about the big difference it makes getting a new Fog light in my E90.  We will talk about how easy it is to install and about the difference in light intensity on the street and about the light setup adjustment which was critical.

As you can see in the picture, how can the light go through that haysy lens...Impossible.

Installation : It was very easy to install the new fog lights, in my case specially because one of my fog lights was missing LOL... and because the other was broken.  BUT... if you want to replace your fog lights it's actually VERY EASY... and you don't need to remove the wheel or wheel well, it is possible to remove and replace the lights with just a 8mm socket wrench, like this...

The key is to rotate the wheel out so that you have enough space to pull the plastic to the side and for the light to fit "or Slide" I should say... the light in place.


Only 3 Screws and you are done :  Each light is held in place by 3 screws... 2 in one side and 1 on the other.   The first 2 are installed Vertically and the 1 is installed horizontally from the top.  When you pull the plastic fender back you can see the screws... if you peak in you will see what I mean...

to remove the power cable going to the light twist half a turn and pull out.  Very easy to do.

Original BMW Headlight

Only 1 power cable going to the light, to unplug just press on the sides and it unplugs.


Setup :  The setup of the light was critical, after you install the lights.  Next to the light there is a hole, insert a Phillips screwdriver and rotate to adjust.  Rotate counter clockwise to move the projected light up, or clockwise to move the light down.  When I say Projected light, I mean the place where the light is going to land on the street when ON.  Because in my case the fog light was pointing up way too high, and that is not where you want your light to point, you want it to point below the main Headlights so that the light goes under the fog.

If you think the light is going to point straight forward because it looks like it's pointing forward, you are very wrong.  You have to do the adjustment.

Best way to adjust:  The best way to do this adjustment is to point the lights at a wall or in my case, the garage door... and turn the lights on, you will see the lights hit the garage door and adjust then the adjustment screw accordingly.

Insert phillips screwdriver inside the little hole to adjust the light.

The difference :  The difference is HUGE, like Donald Trump would say... lol..  In all seriousness it really is a big difference.  If your lights are Opaque from old age or from rocks hitting it all these years, I really do recommend you replace them.  The lights no longer function as they were intended and it can be dangerous, because you can't see as far as you should.. or as you used to... I mean look at this picture, I can't even see inside, how can the light cross this lense...

Cost: I got mine from Ebay, but you can get them from all over, ECS tuning, Amazon, Dealer.  They were $30 dollars for 2 which is not very expensive... WAY more expensive at the BMW Dealer, FYI...

Here is a link to where I got them on Ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fit-BMW-E90-06-08-Clear-Lens-Pair-Bumper-Fog-Light-Lamp-OE-Replacement-DOT-Bulb/192755628883?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

I am not affiliated with this vendor, I just liked the product and price, so I bought it from them...

In Conclusion :   Not only does my car look better with new lights it also gives me better view of the road.  For the price you can't beat this upgrade to my car.  Plus the benefit of seeing further on the road...  You can't put a price to that... but for $30 dollars worth every penny..

Here are a few more pictures in case you were interested...

I hope this was helpful to you.

I post a ton of BMW 330I E90 related content, I have a lot of other posts, check them out, link below to the main page.

Comment below if you have any questions...

Thank again and until next time

See all my Blogs posts, link to main page: See them all!