Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

Clicking on eBay [or other affiliations] may result in referral commission being paid if a purchase is made.

BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 12, 2018 15:44:27 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	I've ummed and ahhhed about putting this up for quite some time now on here, mainly due its age. Given that the oldest E46 M3 is now almost 20 years old and the E46 itself was released 20 years ago itself I figured I may as well share my journey with the car. Hopefully I won't be berrated for it! This story will contain things I could have done and should done. Things I would have done differently if I had known about other outcomes in addition to possibly me questioning whether I should even have bought it at times. It's not the first time I've been down this path or others have either. But then you folks need some entertainment at my expense eh? For quite some time there are cars you have really wanted to own, from the days you started driving or from a memorable experience. Owning the Stag, 944 Turbo and the Escort RS Turbo ticked many of those cars off the list. It has to be said that the experience of the first BMW my dad had was memorable. An E36 325TDS. While brilliant when it worked it was a pain when it didn't and that was with a full BMW service history! I even briefly smoked around in this old beast, a mate's old 730i that he wanted shot of. That said it left a good impression with me. The ride was lovely and soft and the engine didn't pull too badly at the time and it even made quite a nice noise! OK, my car at the time was Ford Ka, so anything would feel amazing! Lovely it was but Christ it was thristy, compared even to an XJ40 XJR! Furthermore it had a habit of being a kettle later on in life. Did it put me off? Did it 'eck! I even ended up buying an E36 of my own, courtesy of a friend who needed shot of a car and me needing a cheap smoker. While I fancied owning it, I needed another car at the time, but I'll come on to that later on . This was the E36: OK, it was not an M3, but it was a step in the right direction. What was the car? It was a BMW 323i which is a basically a detuned 2.5. Why BMW love wierd nos. I don't know. From being a well maintained car it fell into the wrong hands for a few years, where it suffered some neglect. The conversations were interesting when my friend bought it. "When was it last serviced?" "Erm, I don't know, when it wouldn't pass an MOT?". "Why are you selling it?" "It's becoming expensive to own, so I've bought a Mini Cooper S" Yeah, as if that will be cheaper to own. It was fair to say that my friend was not buying this car partly due to wanting a cheap track car, he was buying it so as to save it from the lazy owner! This story probably sounds familiar! To be fair the car did get him around quite a bit! That is not to say that he didn't get a little carried away. The car ended up with the following work done to it. The spec included: Powerflex lower arm lollypqop bushes and Black Series RTAB bushes. New Lemforder arms up front from an E30 Koni suspension all round lowered at around 40mm New genuine BMW 850i top mounts (my friend ordered the earlier 6 pot dampers as opposed to the later ones). New OE clutch kit fitted. Special order leather interior binned in favour of half leather Sport seats ; the interior was very dirty prior to him buying it. 17" Style 68 wheels with brand new tyres of the Beijing Capital Tyre and Accelera variety. Fully serviced bar the coolant and fuel filter Rousch (spelling?) Individual option leather binned for half leather Sports seats. Great, so the car was sorted when I bought it? Not quite. It had a few issues. These included: The car not warming up (and it even running in the blue part of the gauge when coasting downhill! ;Fixed The rear heated window not working ; Fixed A horrifically rattly rear shelf ; Fixed Non working central locking ; I could not fix this The car driving with a mind of its own. ; Fixed Not a bad list but still a list to get stuck into! In short I ended up doing a number of things which are detailed in the BMW 323i thread in my signature. These decisions were driven off my experience with parts in the past. Despite doing quite a few things to it the E36 still did not inspire confidence as I expected and it was not like I had a yardstick to compare it to ; my previously dead Mondeo V6 on winters was far nicer in the bends! It was fair to say that I was not gelling with the E46 as much as I hoped I would! To make matters worse I didn't think much to the gearbox. Initially I thought it was shot but it appears it was normal. Basically if you shifted too quickly you could crunch the gears. It is to this day the only car I have managed to crunch the gears in going from Neutral into First from a standstill. Yes, I know you can get quick shift kits and ditch the clutch delay valve, but you do wonder why BMW fitted these. If experience on past cars is anything to go by I've seen similar things done to save the syncros, but of course I was doing the opposite! It's one of the few times I wished I had the auto version instead! So, when will I get to the story of the M3? Soon. But this is the reason why I bought the E36. To save the car below from getting battered during the winter.
	Last Edit: May 6, 2023 8:25:23 GMT by ChasR '79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	hillbilly, kurt18, and 4 more like this Reply Quote

peteh1969 Posted a lot Posts: 2,776 Club RR Member Number: 107	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket peteh1969 @peteh1969 Club Retro Rides Member 107
	Feb 12, 2018 16:45:53 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	No Pictures
	"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." forum.retro-rides.org/thread/200957/1967-corsair-panel-paint-restoration forum.retro-rides.org/thread/210347/1967-corsair-picture-heavy-start 1967 Corsair 2000 Deluxe 2005 Mk2 Focus Zetec 2006 Mk6 Fiesta ST150

	Reply Quote

RetroWarwicK Posted a lot Searching...... Posts: 3,922	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket RetroWarwicK @maph2
	Feb 12, 2018 18:47:56 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Pics work on my android but not desktop
	Matt 1979 Mini Marcos 1974 BSA Ariel3 1990 Honda Vision NE50 Youtube garbage: www.youtube.com/channel/UCcOzz5STAZUyAdZfuV193wQ

	Reply Quote

vitesseefi South West Posts: 2,300	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket vitesseefi @vitesseefi
	Feb 12, 2018 19:47:31 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Pics work briefly if I press refresh..... then go again....... most odd. (PC + Chrome) Nick
	1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend) 1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing) 1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)

	Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 12, 2018 19:50:30 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	~~I attempted to cheat Photobucket as I wasn't on my main PC. This shall be resolved later on .~~ Fixed! I'll say more later but now I have a rather impatient Beagle wanting to go out for a walk!
	Last Edit: Feb 12, 2018 19:56:41 GMT by ChasR '79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	peteh1969 likes this Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 13, 2018 6:11:20 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	So, I ended up with the Escort being my sole daily driver again. As much as I loved it I knew the car was a liability both in reliability as well as desirability. The latter had me worried about seeing it again, especially since it wasn't stored at home. The fact that the Escort spat its dummy out of the pram on quite a few occasions made me lose my faith in the car a little. As a result I ended up looking for an Audi TT, another car on my list of cars I fancy owning one day. £3k wasn't going to get me a good one. However, I soon found out after seeing some right pups. As a result I unintentionally became the owner of a 68,000 Mile Clio 172 which was a bit of a Cup Evocation. It was a great car and in hindsight it was a very reliable and tidy car. But my Clio and the Escort combined I felt foolishly were costing me more than I could justify ; the Escort going wrong as often as it did never helped matters ; As the thread in my signature shows it had a brake problem, the cooling system I had to sort out and to top it off it had an electric fire, before I even get to the oil surging. So, that ended up going to a good friend of mine who had a vision for the car. No, not a Martin Luthor King vision or the Deacon's one for that matter. With the low mileage Clio piling on the miles I stupidly felt that I should sell it; after all, it can play havoc with values. It's a shame as it was a superb car. I did debate storing it, but I am surprised it got my high asking price of £2.1k including the sale of the original Speedline Turini wheels. Of course I did have another plan. Before I bought the Escort and even during the time I owned the Stag I really like the E46 M3. As a matter of fact I liked them back when I was in 6th form, but in truth I've liked varying M3s for a long time. I knew they were meant to be a good drive and figured the running costs wouldn't be too ruinous! But would I be right? More research ensued. After I checked the prices of various things like brakes, tyres as well as common issues from various buyers' guides I felt my position was a good one to to go and buy the right M3. Then of course it was down to that small thing called the budget. A few people were saying you could get an E46 M3 relatively cheaply. But could you?
	'79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 13, 2018 7:41:08 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	It's funny, this is a scenario I've been in many a time. I was looking to buy an M3 for around £6k intially. At the time and still kind of now it is said you can get a good M3 for £8k. If there was ever a lesson in being schooled this would be it. A Focus RS MkI was also considered but as soon as I sat in the silver M3 moments after being in a Mk1 RS I knew that my mind was made up. From reading forums and seeing what was about I wasn't too fussy. My preference was for a car that was not silver, preferably a manual and with a sunroof. A strange spec I know! An SMG wasn't out of the question but I would need to try a car with it first and go in with an open mind, going from what friends of mine told me. But the overall condition would matter more to me. Upon looking two cars came up. A Laguna Seca 2002 car for £8ishk with 107k on the clock and supposedly tidy 2002 Silver Black Manual for £6.7k down from £6999. Car No.1: Silver/Black Interior 2002 Manual - £6750 from £6999 Seeing as the Silver Black car was down the road I decided to go and look at that first being sold by a dealer. When I spoke over the phone I was assured the car was given a full check over and that it was sound and had a few stone chips, but that it was in good condition for the age. Upon going down to see it I was a little disappointed. In short on the face of it: -It had 128k (not a big deal for me) -Panel Alignment was poor against the wing and bonnet with both being scuffed -The bumper looked like it had a shotblaster across it! -Both front wings had visible rust stains and rust in addition to the rear arch. The remaining arch had clearly seen some paint before even in the rain! -Interior had scratched plastics inside with the interior looking tired and broken everywhere you looked -Discs were clearly worn ; These are around £200 each! -Goodyear Eagle F1s all round with the rear almost worn with CSL Replica wheels -The battery was very flat ; this car had clearly been dragged into the lot! -Quite a few warning lights and a few MOT advisories including an iffy lower arm (around £150) -I am sure the car had a short shifter fitted which did feel quite nice! -Only 1 key (I've since found out this is not as big an issue on an M3 but still...) So to summarise, it was a rough car to me that on the face of it would need a minimum of £3k throwing at it without even driving it. If I am honest I wasn't too keen on the colour combo either the more I looked at it and remembered my E36 and other silver E46s! That would all change when the engine fired up! The sound of the car just took me in! I soon started falling for the car! As always I walked away and went on to look at others. What did someone say about not buying the first car you see? Yup, I almost fell for the M3 Envy but I stuck to my guns ; don't buy the first car you see! The said the car did sell within a few weeks and to be fair it gave me an idea of what to look out for on these cars. Car No. 2 : Laguna Seca Blue Manual - £7950 On the face of it the LSB car looked great. It had the following Spec: -115k -New brakes all round -OEM backbox fitted -Bluetooth HU -Service History. -Apparently a great condition interior From the advert the only thing I didn't like was that there interior shots looked limited and the driver's seat pretty tired from the shot! TBH, I still wonder if I should have gone for this car. I spoke with the owner over the phone and initially he seemed keen! He did however say that the front wings were just starting to rust and that you had to get onto your hands and knees to see it! Upon asking for photos via WhatsApp of the rust in addition to more interior shots the trail went cold. That and despite him claiming to own a 911 as well! While mentions were made of the subframe being done/repaired I did notice that the MOT History revealed that the crack was bad enough to fail an MOT! A picky tester or was the boot more gone more than the buyer was letting on? With the car being on cheapo Zeta tyres I didn't really feel the car as much as I thought! Maybe I was silly to let it go. But I didn't want to travel to Northern Ireland only to be disappointed. And so I left this one alone, even though I did check Ryanair for cheap flights. What didn't help was him saying he wouldn't budge on price. It's funny as I saw the car for sale 2 weeks later down another £500. I'd have talked a deal then but of course he lost that opportunity. Car No. 3 Mystic Blue/Grey SMG 2004 - £8.5kono The third car would also be close to home like the silver car. This time it was a 2004 SMG Mystic Blue and Grey car. This was as follows: -110k miles -3 owners -BBS Replica wheels with Pirelli Tyres -Never accident damaged -Spare set of OEM wheels The first thing? From seeing the Silver curse word I did prefer this combo by quite a way! I know people hate Grey for whatever reason they do but it does to my eyes work well with the lovely Mystic Blue . TBH I was feeling this car to be far better than the Silver one! Or so I thought! The interior was not as bad as the first car but had clearly been used alot with the passenger seat having a seat bolster strangely collapsed at the top of the bolster! That and I recall some brackets being broken around the radiator. That was before I got to the bodywork. While there was no visible there were issues including: -The wings had no visible rust but on closer inspection the arches were beginning to 'pit' which what looked like the start of rust potentially. -Bumper on the front had clearly had a cheap blow over job with some overspray present on the grille with some parts it looked like a 5 year old glued cracks together! I thought this car hadn't been crashed... -Interior had the aforementioned issues -There was zero service history with this car bar the clutch receipt. The owner apparenrtly lost the book -Both headlamps were on iffy ballast packs that were dangling around in the engine bay -There was only 1 key. -The bodywork was littered with minor dents and scratches the more you looked. All of the panels were! -Brakes were rusty and worn/lipped -While it was wet the rear on acceleration seem to 'pendulum' in a wierd sharp way. So this car in hindsight was probably not much worse the more you looked at it to the Silver/Black car, but with a higher price tag! Was there anything good? TBH, yes: -I got to try an SMG; they are not as bad as people made out. Different to any gearbox to use, yes. Awful? not quite . -The car did not knock at all. It was very quite inside -The car pulled well! -This was not just an E36 with a stuffed shirt or an E46 for that matter. It was a proper driver's machine! I needed one! Maybe not this one! At this rate I did wonder if I would ever find the right car. I then debated looking at another which a mate bought first without even driving the car! This was the following: Car No. 4 : 2002 Phoenix Yellow/Black Manual ; £9,000 TBH I wish I bought this car initially! It had a decent spec including -4 new Avons ; not my favourite tyre but it could be worse -BMW mechanic owned -75,000 miles -New Brakes all round That said the interior was not as tidy as I would expect for a car of that age! -The exhaust hangers were shot -Engine had an oil leak -AC didn't work with an alarming hiss in the car with it on -Exhaust mounts shot. But driving the car made me realise a few things. A manual maybe was not for me this time (that car just seemed a bit reluctant with the gear and a bit 'stirry' TBH! (sorry guys, but it's my thoughts!). That and I could not get over the scuttle shake! With the above I wondered if I would ever buy an M3! It looked like £9-11k+ would get the sort of car I wanted. Something however that had been on the cards from the off would come back into the forefront...
	Last Edit: Feb 13, 2018 9:34:12 GMT by ChasR '79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	Peter C likes this Reply Quote

Davey Posted a lot Resident Tyre Nerd. Posts: 2,348	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket Davey @davey1991
	Feb 13, 2018 8:59:54 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Bookmarked this, well up for a tale of M3's
	K11 Micra x3 - Mk3 astra - Seat Marbella - Mk6 Escort estate - B5 Passat - Alfa 156 estate - E36 compact Mk2 MR2 T-bar - E46 328i - Skoda Superb - Fiat seicento - 6n2 Polo - 6n polo 1.6 - Mk1 GS300 EU8 civic type S - MG ZT cdti - R56 MINI Cooper S - Audi A3 8p - Jaguar XF (X250) - FN2 Civic Type R - Mk2 2.0i Ford Focus - Mercedes W212 E250

	Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 13, 2018 9:58:13 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Feb 13, 2018 8:59:54 GMT Davey said: Bookmarked this, well up for a tale of M3's Cheers! It's been an interesting one for sure! From the above I realised that I probably set my sights a little high for the budget! So I realised I would have to compromise on some things and go for a good core of a car. So for those of you who haven't been put to sleep I did seem to settle on one car in the end! A car I have tried to speak to the owner with but it seemed no one could call him! I had to use ingenious methods (WhatsApp calling) so as not to go straight to his answerphone. It paid off however. The spec of the car was the following: 2003 Mystic Blue/Grey SMG So, what was the lowdown? -122k miles -Full BMW Service History up until 90k in 2008 including coolant and brake fluid changes (it seems the car was used alot up until this point!) and then speicalist servicing after -Genuine Discs, Pads and shoes fitted all round -SMG bits looked into around the gearbox -Recent service -4 Decent Falkens all round with Smoked Chrome Wheels -Recent geometry done by a racing outfit -A number of receipts from his local specialist including diff oil and so on -All clear from BMW regarding the subframe and the airbag recall done. This will sound familiar. Upon seeing it the car was head and shoulders over the rest of them! The interior while not being perfect was decent in most areas and the bodywork looked stunning in most places! That said, even this had its issues. These included: -A noisy viscous fan -Some bubbly on the front arches but not broken though at all. -Some wear on the driver's seat, but not too horrific -Intermittent headlight on the O/S which the owner told me ; it was working fine then! -Some horrific Wilko mats inside! There were genuine mats beneath them as a bonus! The test drive proved the car was pretty good and TBH I considered it a done deal. It was just lovely driving it about! That said, not all was perfect in paradise as you can see from above . Now that I had the car it was time to get stuck in! OK, when I say that, I meant I'd get stuck in a month later! E46 Initial shots by Charlieboy, on Flickr E46 Initial shots by Charlieboy, on Flickr E46 Initial shots by Charlieboy, on Flickr
	'79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	Peter C likes this Reply Quote

Davey Posted a lot Resident Tyre Nerd. Posts: 2,348	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket Davey @davey1991
	Feb 13, 2018 10:23:37 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Thats a smart looking car to start with! Waiting with bated breath.
	K11 Micra x3 - Mk3 astra - Seat Marbella - Mk6 Escort estate - B5 Passat - Alfa 156 estate - E36 compact Mk2 MR2 T-bar - E46 328i - Skoda Superb - Fiat seicento - 6n2 Polo - 6n polo 1.6 - Mk1 GS300 EU8 civic type S - MG ZT cdti - R56 MINI Cooper S - Audi A3 8p - Jaguar XF (X250) - FN2 Civic Type R - Mk2 2.0i Ford Focus - Mercedes W212 E250

	ChasR likes this Reply Quote

brachunky Scotland Posts: 1,339 Club RR Member Number: 72	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket brachunky @brachunky Club Retro Rides Member 72
	Feb 13, 2018 11:14:23 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Read this like a novel-next chapter please!!
	www.facebook.com/groups/238423238546821/

	ChasR and 🇿🇼Kingludba🇬🇧 like this Reply Quote

thebaron Europe Over the river, heading out of town Posts: 1,659	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket thebaron @thebaron
	Feb 13, 2018 11:20:31 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Interesting stuff. Having owned a similar vintage M5 I feel I know where you are going with this but I'll keep my tuppence to myself for now.
	2022 Toyota GR86 - Hachi Roku - New dog, old tricks 2012 BMW 528iX Estate - Family hauler 1989 Toyota EP71 Starlet - Rally

	ChasR likes this Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 13, 2018 12:44:37 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Feb 13, 2018 11:20:31 GMT thebaron said: Interesting stuff. Having owned a similar vintage M5 I feel I know where you are going with this but I'll keep my tuppence to myself for now. I have a sneaky feeling that your hunch might be right . Anyway, back to the board. Sometimes you have to wait a while to get what you want. It seemed like I was waiting too long to get an M3 which I felt was in sound condition. It looked like I had a sound M3 with a few minor flaws. Over the course of the year which has just passed I would discover whether this was the case. The initial plan was to daily the Clio since it did sell for the week I put it up for. Of course that sold the day after I bought the M3. As a result I did not hesistate in dailying the M3, with its second journey under me involving a 300 mile round trip up to Huddersfield and back! In short it didn't dissapoint and lapped up the miles with ease. The engine certainly feels a little like a truck engine in terms of sound (it's a little mechanical sounding), but it of course went, and went nicely. I drove it as it was for a month before I would make a start on rectifying the issues. Initially I sorted out a number of the flaws. The first of which was to get away from the car sounding like a jet turbine with its semi stuck viscous fan! With the car in position I made a start on removing the fan. I initially believed the internet and tried knocking a spanner with a hammer. I figured that this probably was not too good for the bearings. It also didn’t help that the water pump pulley was slipping on the belt! With the correct fan tool and 22mm spanner later I had the coupling loose. Sometimes the proper way is the best way as well as the easiest. However, removing it would throw up a surprise ; the fan coupling was not original to the car. It was a BERU item of a slightly different design ; a further look would insinuate that it was for a normal E46 but it was tight! Was I really wasting my money for nothing? Had I really thrown away £90 on a coupling I didn’t need? With that in mind I went to fit the new item. After that I put all of the plastics back together and restarted the car. On the face of it it seemed like it was a waste of money! The coupling was still noisy! That was until a few minutes had passed ; the car was quiet for the first time! With an extended test run later on it seemed that the car had become more responsive as well as having the added bonus of lowering the engine oil temperature! Result! Another issue was the cracked rear ARB drop link which has become two parts! After driving it around like this for a month and then leaving it on the driveway for a good chunk of time I figured it was time to resolve the matter. This scuppered my plans of getting SuperFlex bushes for this application but to be fair the bushes on the original items were fine to be fair and outlive a few cheaper Poly replacements! But then I had the challenge of removing the aforementioned items. Initially I thought “I know, I’ll change them in situ!” Little did I know that this would become a nightmare and eventually more work! It was fair to say that my attempts were futile; Sure I had removed the bottom broken part but then I still could not remove the top half! The anti-roll bar was preventing it from dropping down! Did someone say BMW 1 – Chas Nil? It certainly felt that way! On the bench I went to put the ARB into the vice and pull it ; All I did was to snap off the remaining ARB! Wasn’t I clever eh? It seemed this is meant to be the Bentley manual way of doing it as well. But I was not going to give up that easily! Oh no, it’s the British spirit and ingenuity after all! Enter stage left: With this tool the remains of the ARB was off in seconds ; why didn’t I just use this rarely used tool the first time? Well, it wouldn't be a post by me if I could asnswer that one . With the roll bar given a quick clean it was time to fit on the new BMW drop links. Here’s a top tip (in the Edd China voice…). When you put the drop links back on, put on some rubber grease. It really helps over WD40. With some of the red stuff on the drop links slipped back onto the ARB as I put down onto the drop links in around 30 seconds tops. The clattering and clonking was much reduced! With that in mind it was time to start on a job I had been putting off for some time ; the rear exhaust mounts. Would I be lucky or would the exhaust studs snap?
	'79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	carpartsgopher likes this Reply Quote

brachunky Scotland Posts: 1,339 Club RR Member Number: 72	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket brachunky @brachunky Club Retro Rides Member 72
	Feb 13, 2018 14:08:27 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	"Insert advertisement"
	www.facebook.com/groups/238423238546821/

	🇿🇼Kingludba🇬🇧 and carpartsgopher like this Reply Quote

Alpina99 South East Posts: 1,561	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket Alpina99 @alpina99
	Feb 13, 2018 20:51:40 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Excellent Please keep the updates coming
	BMW E39 525i Sport BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.) BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.) BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)

	ChasR likes this Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 14, 2018 8:56:43 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	There are a few of them coming, fear not . So the exhaust mounts ; I knew they were gone when I bought the car. Despite the exhaust wobbling about more than a pair of wobbly knockers and sagging just as much I knew those mounts were begging to be changed. All of the tales of sheared mounting studs put me off. There was nothing for it. Off I went to order the exhaust mounts. I was tempted by cheaper mounts but seeing as there was big question marks over their longevity lasting months I bit the bullet and went with genuine items, even if they did cost a pretty penny. After all, the car still had the original mounts on going by the date stamps. However, procrastination from the inevitable would only get me so far Coming to August 2016 I soaked them 2 weeks prior to working on them in WD40. It was then time to tackle the inevitable. Removing the exhaust mounts. Amazingly I did not break a single stud. It is just as well as the exhaust mounts were hanging. Quite literally! But it seemed that my perseverance paid off. However, I did not want to struggle with these again. With that in mind I order some new hardware from BMW including the all important copper nuts. It also seemed rude to not paint the mount brackets either. It’s a shame to have something so small ruin the details! For the first time ever I had an exhaust which now sat correctly against the bumper and moving around much less. There was no time to waste however ; I had an Inspection I approaching and truth be told I was not looking forward to tackling the job. Over time I got the ball rolling by acquiring more and more of the parts necessary to complete the job. That is the gaskets, the special tools as well as the usual oil and filter etc. So, how did I start the job? That’s simple. I initially started by going to the superb Southampton Boat show. What a wonderful place that is. You can almost lose yourself in that place! There were so many boats about the place ; it’s easy to see why some people become water gypsies! With that in mind I then had a great offer I couldn’t refuse made to me. I had the opportunity to go to one of Darren Langeveld’s fantastic events as part of his Destination Nurburgring outfit. DN16. Being a double weekend this was a special one. It was even more special with it being Darren’s Birthday as well! This would be mega! With a Rent-a-Race-Car Renault Clio 220EDC prepped specifically for the Nurburgring it seemed things couldn’t get better. We had the car, we had the people, and most importantly, we had the post driver’s briefing with beer . This trip would result in RetroWarwicK adding an interesting car to his fleet as well as a few of us getting thrown around by a very quick around the Nurburgring. Did I mention that Dale's M3 in question had 420BHP along with a mountain of torque? It was fair to say that procrastination was treating me well! But I could put it off no longer. In the depths of October I’d have to do the Inspection I. So, what is the big deal about the Inspection I? Honestly? Most of it is simple. I started the ball rolling by changing the oil, and also checking the brake pads, adjusting the handbrake as well as briefly checking the spark plugs. At the same time I noticed that the auxiliary belts were not in their first flush of youth, so they also got added to the list. Oh, and I booked the car for a small track taster session at Silverstone courtesy of Pistonheads. With a lead time of a few weeks this would normally be fine. Then I would hit the small matter of checking the valve clearances. Checking them is a simple after and a small task. Changing the small 8mm diameter little blighters was a more arduous process. Removing the shims was not much of a problem. But ensuring that they did not fling out when I removed them was trickier than I expected. I certainly held my breath a few times it has to be said! No shims “almost” dropped into the engine. I did however end up with a situation. Since I did not buy the shims I had an issue of where the shims that I required were on backorder from BMW with a 7-10 working day lead time. Not what you need when you need the car running within the week. Thanks to PistonHeads a fellow E46er came to the rescue and got me out of a sticky situation. I managed to obtain my hands on a set of Wiseco shims. With days before I required the car it was ready to go. Those two images have been stolen from Youtube. I really didn't want any distractions from doing the shims, especially when I had a deadline put onto me. So why did I need the shims so badly? That is simple ; I had put myself down for attending the PistonHeads Sunday Service at Silverstone. To be fair all of the effort did seem worthwhile from the moment I hit the track. The car seemed perkier for the Inspection I all round! and with the belts changed it was a little quieter under the bonnet to boot! Of course it's fair to say that I managed to make it. I recall the car being ready days beforehand. After the Inspection 1 was done there was only one thing left to do. Hit the track With that in mind it was time to call it a day. But would the remainder of my first year of ownership be plain sailing?
	Last Edit: Feb 14, 2018 9:29:11 GMT by ChasR '79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	lightyearman and Peter C like this Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 18, 2018 8:14:29 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	It was fair to say from my appalling camera action above that the Sunday Service track action for me was a success, even if the session only lasted 30 minutes. Despite the Inspection being more of a pain and expense I had bargained for with the extra gaskets required etc. I still managed to polish and wax it, thus allowing the car to look great. However, the previously lowly treaded Falkens weren't looking any better. Doesn't it polish up well? I even gave the interior a quick clean before I did the Inspection. I forget how grubby the interior was strangely in comparison to when I bought it. You have to love the Gliptone leather products The S54 is the main reason for why people buy the E46 M3 besides its great chassis dynamics. That engine has of course migrated into a few other cars including the Weissman back then as well as countless other M3 cars, mainly E30s now that the S14 engines command quite a premium. At around the same time I decided to change the mirror glass. M powered BMWs seem to have a habit of having the glass going funky as Ed "me ol' " China showed in some popular show. While he bought a secondhand mirror there is another solution and slightly cheaper to boot. That is in the form of new dimming mirror glass from a bloke called MirrorJohn. No, that is what he actually calls himself. With his kit and with plenty of research I set to work. Maybe I was a little OCD on the research. With all of the groundwork done there was nothing left to do except swap the glass out: The offending article The point of no return. Had I buggered it up, tough luck! New vs. old glass The finished article. Only a slight improvement! With this done I then sent away the car for paint. Why? The bonnet on closer inspection had more touch up on it than actual paint! I also had a couple of small scabs on the wings so it made sense to get it done. It's fair to say it did come back looking superb. [img[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwiNqS-WEAE6JM0.jpg/img] However, I noticed that the car had a recall from BMW over the airbags. No, not the things that Pamela Anderson has. Sorry, wrong forum. They weren't things for pumping up the suspension. These were regarding the actual safety items. In short, Takaka made a load of airbags which quite a volatile and explosive chemical agent. This can cause the airbag to spotaneously blow up as this article details. And so it went in to have a new driver's airbag ; the passenger airbag in my car was changed in 2014. M3 Interior Shot March 2017 (2 of 4) by Charlieboy, on Flickr So, what did BMW have to say about my car? Surprisingly, not alot! Besides me having a newer looking steering wheel this is what they had to say: -Offside headlamp was not working ; In truth the headlight was more like a grumpy mistress. It worked when it wanted to. When I put in two new Osrams a few weeks prior to this the problem intially looked fixed. It started getting worse again -Rear tyres were close to the limit ; They were. They were down to 2-3mm ; I reckon they were lower! Bad I know but heyho. You'll see why I put this off! -Front tyres bald on the inside but treaded otherwise; This wasn't mentioned over the phone strangely. And I knew about this fault. So, I'd have to solve these things fast. Well, most of them While the car looked lovely the rears had tyres looking more like Kojak's head. Y'no, that charming detective? But hang on, the Falkens only did 8,000 miles since they were fitted, with 5,000 of those miles under my belt! This really was unbelievable! I debated getting Falkens again but at £150 each fitted with laughable rim protection (read none) they were not an option considering they are a 35 profile tyre. There was nothing for it but for me to look at the big boy brands! My fitter managed to sort me out with a set of new Michelin Pilot Sport 4s for £180 a corner. Yes, that was not a typo! With that in mind there was nothing for it but to get rid of the near slick Falkens and get the car shod on PS4s. Wow, look at that protection! With this done the car did to be fair drive much better! No longer was I swinging about on the roads quite as much! It's fair to say the car came back looking superb! It was even treated to a new set of grilles. However, there came a week where my dad needed to borrow the car for some reason or another; I think he lent his Mundaneo out to my sister. If cars ever had feelings it seemed this car did. He had borrowed the car before when he didn't have use of one but this time the car almost let itself be known that it didn't like winter driving in the hands of other people! On one day during a dark December in 2016 I was coming back from work. All of a sudden I had a misfire. Initially, I thought it might have been the diff! As soon as I pulled back in the company car park I left it there and then drove it back once the traffic had died down; this was done in an attempt to save the catalytic converters. Not that it matter as the S54's management system does shut down the cylinder if the system feels the cylinder isn't sparking at all. Upon getting home I plugged in my el cheapo code reader. One of these to be precise: And what did the U380 claim was wrong with my car? Nothing. All was fine according to it. Clearly something was wrong! I could have played the game disconnecting coils and swtiching coils about but in the end I plugged in a well known BMW diagnostic software, INPA. This did produce different results it was fair to say: 210 Misfire, cyl.6, without cylinder cutout 149 Error if tank is empty 201 Misfire, cyl.6, with cylinder cutout Wondeful. Fingers crossed it would just be a coil! They're cheap right? Not quite. When you need a car ASAP RoadKill style compromises have to be made. I ended up as a result going to GSF, paying over the odds for a BERU coil and had the car running on all 6 cylinders for the princely sum of £30! OK the software looks like a glorified diagnoser, but it is more than that as we shall find out later . Suddenly the car was looking great again! If only it stayed like that! By that I mean I had a new fault emerge literally days later. Did the car really hate being driven by others? When my dad borrowed the car the alternator light started coming on and off! Sure enough, the voltage meter confirmed that the regulator was not controlling the voltage all that well! With me needing to get the alternator done for the end of the week I really did have my work cut out. I initially tried to source a regulator since the brushes of it didn't look great on closer inspection. Seeing that the regulator was £90 from anywhere else (and £129 from the dealer) against the £180 of an alternator I decided to get a new alternator, especially since I suspected that my bearings were not in the best shape. It also made sense to spend yet more cash on a new tensioner and idler pulley so as to compliment the engine setup: Seeing as this happened around Christmas time didn't help my mood in the slightest. But at least it looked good right? With that in mind surely the new year of 2017 would be better for me? We shall have to wait and see.
	Last Edit: Feb 18, 2018 19:12:17 GMT by ChasR '79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	strangersfaces likes this Reply Quote

hillbilly Part of things Posts: 327	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket hillbilly @hillbilly
	Feb 18, 2018 9:05:26 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Enjoying this! I love pre 2005 ish BMW but as I use my car as a weekender, I always feel they are a little too good! Too reliable! This thread makes them more appealing with every post!😉 (though I do hope this cars story becomes a little less financially demanding for you soon!) more please.....


	Reply Quote

bstardchild Club Retro Rides Member Posts: 14,969 Club RR Member Number: 71	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket bstardchild @bstardchild Club Retro Rides Member 71
	Feb 18, 2018 12:25:33 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Enjoying this thread - I have a very strong urge for one of these - followed a few owner threads on PH - sure it's a bit on the edge as far as RR is concerned but on the edge doesn't make it unsuitable content IMO


	ChasR and hillbilly like this Reply Quote

ChasR RR Helper motivation Posts: 10,307 Club RR Member Number: 170	BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket ChasR @chasr Club Retro Rides Member 170
	Feb 18, 2018 21:01:38 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Feb 18, 2018 9:05:26 GMT hillbilly said: Enjoying this! I love pre-2005 ish BMW but as I use my car as a weekender, I always feel they are a little too good! Too reliable! This thread makes them more appealing with every post!😉 (though I do hope this cars story becomes a little less financially demanding for you soon!) more please..... Cheers! TBH any old BMW will give issues but this generation certainly seems tinkerable . Do things get cheaper? Well, that would be telling. I suspect you know where it is going! Feb 18, 2018 12:25:33 GMT bstardchild said: Enjoying this thread - I have a very strong urge for one of these - followed a few owner threads on PH - sure it's a bit on the edge as far as RR is concerned but on the edge doesn't make it unsuitable content IMO Cheers! Quite a compliment from yourself and sharing a similar ethos as to where this thread stands . It seems a few people have an urge for these for the same reasons I did. Hopefully, you'll keep that smile as the thread goes on! Anyway, while I am getting all soft over here the car certainly waded into battle in 2017 looking as if things would be OK. Almost. The M3 was still doing a great impression of playing Blinky. The driver's side HID would keep on being intermittent, but it was getting worse. Far worse. From being winky it ended up becoming Captain Hook pretty much across December and January. Normally I could trick the headlight into working by turning the lights on and off again. However, this seemed to be a futile exercise now! There was nothing for it but to break the headlight down. Months beforehand I changed the headlight bulbs for new OE Osrams. While it fixed it initially the problem came back. While some said the issue was the Ballast the ignitor seemed like a likely culprit; I say that as once the headlight fired up it stayed lit. Surely it's a case of changing those items! Well, not exactly. New the items cost a small fortune. Yes, I could have fitted a cheapo eBay kit but it would not have been right by the car and also they do look naff in an otherwise great looking engine bay! There was nothing for it but to get stuck in! With that decided I ordered myself another headlamp ballast. I figured that having spares for the headlights was not a bad shout in all honesty. I already have a known working bulb, so adding a ballast into the mix will compliment that. But let's be honest I am getting ahead of myself. So there I began removing the affected headlight: I initially tried my secondhand ballast from a Mini R50; they share the same part number but are slightly cheaper. I mean, who doesn't like a cheapish and easy fix? But alas it was not to be. I still had the same fault. After removing it I decided to break the headlight apart into many parts. While it was fiddly I will find it easier in the future, not that I would want to do it again! All of this just to change the ignitor inside the headlamp casing. This for the record is the black box with two wires coming off it with a red connector. But "while you are there" other jobs always creep onto the scene. This one being no exception. Many months ago I bought a set of genuine AL lenses at a bargainous price through the M3Cutters forum. While my lenses were not too bad it seemed a shame to fit them when I had some new items in the shed. With the new lenses dusted off, it was time to clean and reassemble the lights back together. Ah yes, I do remember the reflector: This rather poor iPhone photo demonstrates the difference between the old and new lenses: So I had one amazing looking headlight that would hopefully work after dissecting but naturally, the other side looked worse for wear. So off came the nearside headlight. Well, it wasn't that easy. When my painter painted the car he removed the headlights and washer jet assembly as one by taking off the bumper, so the indicator removal was not necessary. The issue? The screwhead had been rounded off by yours truly. Suffice to say that with some patience, bravery, and care I somehow managed to remove the headlight with the indicator while leaving the car unscathed. But that would not get me out of the woods! I would need to remove the indicator to remove the lens! I could have used a Dremel but I decided to work indoors so I sacked off the Dremel idea. Molegrips looked like a no-goer with the collar/retained being rusted onto the screw! With a hacksaw I cut down the side of the screw retainer on the headlight and indicator assembly. With this done the molegrips took care of the rest: And so it was time to fit the new item. You can just about make out the new screw and retainer. BMW call this a bush. It doesn't look like a bush to me! I don't mean that kind of bush either you filthy lot! With that all taken care of I managed to reassemble the final light with the new lens: But would the lights work after all of that effort? Of course they would! No longer was I gambling with whether I'd only have one side working or not! As a bonus I am sure my beams are far brighter even when both Xenons were working momentarily. Maybe the iffy ignitor was playing havoc with the leveling devices Having these smaller bits work makes such a difference to owning a car! Being very excited at no longer fearing a policeman and being able to see where I was going finally I took a shot of the lights. It would have helped if I cleaned the salt etc. off them mind you! But, what the hell? I no longer had a car which was trying to be Captain Hook! It was a two-eyed car at night once again! Once I had done this it was time to celebrate a little. The first thing to do was to fit the Alpine Bluetooth head unit so that I could get Bluetooth streaming and Sat-Nav directions through the speakers. I've had this HU with a few cars now and it's very versatile. But it seemed with this car it wouldn't be as you'll see in the thread. In short, the HU refused to go back all of the way in! I would end up living with this wonky looking HU for quite some time it would seem! But I would however give the interior a really good clean now that I was driving it a little less! I mean, who likes a car with a dirty interior? I don't, your mates don't and your lady doesn't either. Well, not when it's your own! When I cleaned the interior with the Meguiar's products and the Gliptone stuff what greeted me was not pleasant! But once it was all done the result was very pleasing on the eye! Well, apart from that poorly fitting head unit! But we all have a bit of RoadKillness in us! Mine was living that really! The driver's seat could have been better but all things considered, it was a massive improvement! The keen-eyed would have noticed that the LIDL mats went into the bin! In lieu of those, I got a set of BMW mats for a bargainous price to be overmats for the factory items beneath them! The interior clean really worked wonders on the front seats and the steering wheel. All of this had me being ready to go to the Pistonheads Sunday Service at the superb ProDrive facility! It allowed me to compare my M3 with others, which give me alot of perspective on mine ; it was a tidy and solid car! It also allowed me to meet up with dan! But most of all, it allowed me and a few mates to drool over some truly awesome gear over the decades with a further insight into what ProDrive did! So, who fancies buying a building next to ProDrive? It's only a Formula 1 team! You too can be Lord Hesketh! Who doesn't love a fat Metro? It's a guilty pleasure to many and it doesn't it look great compared to the Porsche? Even some retros made it to the party! This old thing certainly had quite a bit of attention! If I met the man with this I'd have shaken his hand! What a car! What a Wartburg! With the end of the day done there was only one thing left to do. Some beauty shots of the car looking its best during my ownership! It seemed even the cars in town were parking near me that day for a change! It was fair to say that first few months with the car were going very well indeed into 2017! Would this joy last? Honestly? That will have to wait until the next installment.
	'79 Honda NC-50 '02 Mercedes R230 SL500 '03 BMW M3 Coupe '08 BMW E91 325d M-Sport Touring Pre-LCI '16 Yamaha XSR700 My car history and exploits: leylandlegends.com

	dan likes this Reply Quote

Retro Rides Privacy Statement