BMW 118d

Part five: Sorting the brakes and that odd humming from the front.

We’ve been pretty lucky with our BMW 118d so far. Despite its huge mileage, the car has been well maintained, but it was just getting to the stage where serious money would be needed to keep it up to scratch.

Despite the ‘light misting’ on a rear damper it went through the MOT with just one proviso: it had a dragging offside rear brake. This turned out to be a seized rear caliper, a common issue with the 1-Series and E90 Threes. However, calipers are expensive at £225.34, although GSF will give you £60 when the old caliper is returned. Calipers are simple to fit: unbolt the two caliper retaining bolts after slackening the brake hose and wind the caliper off the hose, holding the end of the hose steady with an open-ended spanner. Chances are the new caliper won’t sit right and cause the hose to twist as it’s refitted. If so, slacken the hose to steel brake pipe connector until it’s loose enough to refit, tighten it back up and bolt on the caliper before pressure bleeding the brakes.

The 1-Series brakes are very straightforward, and because it has been equipped with a proper conventional handbrake lever, there are no electric handbrake motors to worry about. There are none of those awful wind-back calipers, either – just gently squeeze the pistons back with large grips.

Our car also made an odd humming noise from the front at speed, which we thought was most likely a tired front wheel bearing. On the 1-Series, BMW carried over the idea of a complete bolt-on front hub that was first used on the 1996 E39 5-Series. The wheel bearing and hub are a sealed unit secured to the front upright with four 18mm bolts accessed from the rear. Apart from the incredibly strong thread lock BMW used at manufacture, swapping a worn bearing for a new one is very straightforward. Fuel filter found We also renewed the fuel filter, despite wrongly thinking that our car had a filter in the tank, built into the pump assembly. Turns out that even later M47N cars like ours have a separate filter under the floorpan, concealed beneath a removable plastic panel. Many cars never have this component changed – the oldest we have seen is a 1997 filter on a 318Ti built the same year. They do last a very long time, but that’s ridiculous!