BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket

So, back in March, it went to the NEC Resto Show! Why didn't I update it? To put it simply, the Merc pretty much took up all of my time!

It was however, great to get back into the M3. What a great car. Despite it being a newer car on the stand, it didn't stop it garnishing alot of attention or me inadvertedly becoming an advice bearer for one of these!

Yup, the wings are terrible now! I'll to go new on theses ; to think I painted these years ago! Ah well, it's only money eh?





Still, at least it passed the 10 feet test! We have to see the silver linings in these instances!



It's fair to say that the stand hosted by a few of us including RetroWarwicK certainly represented all sorts of classics, right from the established cars to the 'modern classics'





There's yours truly boring some interested parties! But they stayed! Out of politeness or interest? Who knows?



Believe it or not I had planned to do the following:

-Change the brakes to CSL items
-Wire up the handbrake cable on the head unit
-Change the coil.

What did I do in the end? Well, this is RR, so it was the coil that I changed.

The car however does now run spot on, with more ooomph and is smoother . It almost seems to a shame to have it sat for a month at a mate's! Ah well.

It will however come back .

Well, this thread has been quiet for some time.

What's the plan?

Well, here's a hint of some of the updates to arrive soon on this:

http://instagram.com/p/B0VmAUoH5ex

http://instagram.com/p/B0O1sWvnuiv

Just followed you on Instagram, interesting to see how the car feels with the new intake.

A few on this forum will know that I've really, really wanted to buy a CSL intake. I'm sure I probably speak for alot of 6-pot M3 owners here! In equal measure, I probably also speak for the same amount who are not willing to pay for one. Yes, really, to get that awesome sound, it does come at quite a price! But, speaking of that awesome sound, let's have a taster shall we?



OK, there is an exhaust in the mix of that as well, but you get the idea .

They also look pretty tasty too!:



So, how much is this goodness? Depending on how it is done and what compromises you are willing to live with (driveability vs. price basically), you are looking at £2-2.6k even if you fit the parts yourself. Ouch! For me, a 20BHP gain, the look and the sound is certainly superb but not quite that superb. What's worse is, I went in an M3 convertible with 100,000 miles less than mine with a Karbonius system fitted. While other people came out of the car with a massive smile, I didn't really. Sure, it sounded slightly louder than a stock M3 with that throttle body noise, but in reality, it wasn't that much. It didn't feel that quick either! If I wanted to spend that kind of cash, I'd want to be absolutely sure of what I was buying.

I can't really see myself buying a CSL either, as much as I'd love one. They're a little too rare and valuable for me to enjoy, when you bear in my daily driver is worth £1,000 on a good day! And I do like my creature comforts, like a sunroof, air conditioning, a decent sound system and the means of travelling hundreds of miles while feeling awake when I arrive? Do I want the moon on a stick? Pretty much!

So, the CSL airbox was out of the equation. This did however, open up a few options. One of the options is the well-renowned Eventuri cold air intake. It's a setup that has been revered by many for years. It's still not quite great value, but compared to the CSL airbox it is. What's more, there is no need to send your ECU away to accept a map sensor either as you do for a CSL airbox, unless you don't care about driveability. Why is that? The Eventuri merely replaces the airbox in the engine bay, not the entire plenum and airbox as the CSL airbox does. This does also mean almost anyone can fit it too.

So, given that I had made a promise to myself that I'd treat the car to an airbox if I managed to get through a tough patch of work (i.e redundancies, being thrown into the thick end of work with zero guidance or help), I did the stupid thing and bought an intake through CAI Automotive, who took care of me nicely here. They also sold me the Pagid race pads previously earlier on this year.

And so, the box arrived. And didn't it look great?



OK, maybe, not so great! The box within however did look superb! I think I was even sad enough to do an unboxing video at the time, so if the demand is there, I may as well put it up! So, what was in the box?

For the cash, not an awful lot!








But would I fit it then? No. A few things would come into play:

1) My friend was getting the itch to get a BMW and for some reason thought I'd be a suitable 'buyer' to take along with him.
2) Sister's wedding preparations were really beginning to kick in
3) I was pretty tired from a combination of work and the wedding prep in general
4) My back was getting bad again. Damn, I thought getting older was meant to be fun, not painful!

And so, the intake lived in my boot for a few weeks until I finally got around to fitting it, but I had a plan, and that plan would take time .

So, what's next?

Remember my friend with an E46 M3 Individual? What you probably didn't know was that the E36 323i I alluded to earlier. That was also his, and it was a car both I and him in different areas got back up to its former glory. The Audi A6 in the Merc thread is also his, and what a great car that is.

He also had an E46 328i Touring, which the pair of us rather liked! It seems we do like a good old E46! With the M3 gone, It seems he still had that itch, but for something a little cheaper. A 330i this time?

I won’t go in depth as my post as to when I was finding an M3, but it seems even on the ‘cheap’ 330Cis it now seems to be a similar thing. Go onto this forum and Facebook, and people will say

“Yeah, I got a 330Ci for £1k off ma cuz, and it’s mint!”
“£1.5k is too much m8, You can get a twice as nice one for £500”.

OK, maybe the grammar’s not bad here, but you get the point.

I genuinely thought £2-3k would get him a really nice 330Ci as did he. His 158k, but very sorted and clean 328i went for £1.2k after all. Well, it seems it would a similar tale? How similar? Through wading through the £2k cars, all had shot and bodged interiors (blue stitching on a bolster in a black leather car anyone?), misaligned panels, probably from ram raids, rust breeding in quite a few areas like the arches, bathroom sealant holding up various seals and interior parts very obviously. That’s before I get to the generally flaky histories and iffy engines. It seemed the dealers were doing a similar thing but charging £4k for such heaps, albeit with obvious and sometimes poor paint repairs! We did come across some absolute jokers of car dealers and sellers mind you! A particular dealer in Slough as a ‘specialist’ was a very interesting character!

Were we really after too much? What on earth happened to getting a good BMW for around £2k? Did I really undersell my 323i all those years ago?

Anyway, when my friend upped the budget quite significantly, Significantly enough to put his budget into the firing line of a rare E46, the 330Ci ClubSport.

After seeing one rough one like the aforementioned cars, it seemed one good car did turn up. It was local-ish, and the owner was the type of owner you’d want to buy a car from. Maybe he knew this. Sure, the car had a few marks here and the wheels needed a refurb. But the car was decent, and so was he, detailing any time he had the car painted and why he had it painted, despite it not being obvious, and to a more hard buying buyer, ammunition to lower the price of the car!

It drove very well, didn’t have a cracked boot floor, or look terminal, and was clean and straight! The Exclusive interior it had inside, albeit rare, was the icing on the cake.

After some haggling, and a great deal for all involved, we came back in the car. And what a gem it is.

http://instagram.com/p/BzvzVnjnWoi

It’s a very different drive to the M3. The M54 unit is certainly more refined and smoother than the S54 lump found in the M3. For daily use, the M54 probably makes more sense, even if the fuel consumption is similar. But the S54 does have that magic about it, and a great blend of old school engineering with modern day touches just to give that great feeling about it.

Was he happy with the deal? You bet!

There is more to come. But, here’s a taster for now:

http://instagram.com/p/B1rtTFunOR-

Really enjoyed reading through this thread! It's also definitely a good reminder to get out and enjoy going to places. Thanks for taking the time to write it all up.

I'm glad to see you still have the M3 too, although I'll refrain from comment on the last change until there's a few more photos...

Cheers,
Steve

If you want a post about expecting the worst but being surprised by the outcome, then read on .

Some of you will recall how I mentioned this car having a Christmas tree for a dashboard, and possibly had an insight into the diagnosis. When I checked on INPA, the sensor seemed to be OK, but then the rear right wheel would begin to pulse in the reading, with it going very very high. So this is why the car was undriveable with the DSC on. What's more, the Cruise control, even with the DSC turned off, became unusable as it kept on dying every 30 seconds, due to the ABS sensor. However, I did go and check the ABS ring prior to buying it, and all was fine there, thus leaving the sensor as the only likely culprit

With the new sensor bought, and installed, all was well again! I did struggle with the wiring of it mind, with it being installed with 7 or so clips securing it to the track control arm, in addition to the cowling in the wheelarch preventing me from accessing the connection plug initially. Who said moderns weren't overengineered? It was very surprising to see this in all honesty!

What's more is I finally got rid of an intermittent warning light I've had for quite some time, the front headlight warning bulb, similar to the below:

[img/https://i.stack.imgur.com/dpT2O.jpg[/img]

This light occasionally has been coming on with the car. Originally, it came on due to my Xenon bulb ignitor being dead.With that replaced it would still occasionally come on, but the Xenon still worked. For years I assumed this was a fault with the secondhand ballast pack I fitted at the same time. However, curiousity and persistance would pay off here.

The issue for for the light kep on coming on? The sidelight bulb had been on the blink for quite some time, with it working only half of the time. Yup, nowhere nead as bad as the outcome I thought I had.

With that changed, I finally have an error free dash again for the first time in years! On on that note, I have to say I've been really enjoying the car again this week. Having the errors gone, especially on a car that has become a daily again partially, really has allowed me to remember why I enjoy this car so much. With the weather being kind, I doubt that has helped either.

Loving this thread! I find stuff about attention to detail fascinating.

And love the gingercators BTW.

Since the roadtrip thread above, the car managed to get a bit of a rest over the winter. After driving the MX-5 which was a sorted example, I made it my task to make this car great in certain areas. Those areas included the mild vibration this car has had since I bought it and the infamous M-Clunk. For years, I thought this was down to a bad centre bearing and Guibo. However, I would have a few curveballs thrown along the way.

Considering I started this job on the 23rd December, I've still bee pushing on with the job! I sure am taking a little too much time! But as with all things, a few things have caused this:

• Other commitments around Xmas: Friends coming back, and a first Xmas with my brother-in-law ; that was very good
• Me being unsure on some parts and getting clarity ; just putting it together would not be good enough
• Parts holdups ; this was inevitable
• A poor excuse ; space ; you really need to plan how to make the best use of the little space you have ; The driveway/mini-store days were easier here!

First thing to do was to raise the car. I semi-wished I put the front of the car up as well not not just chock it. But without a second person to watch me as the car jacked up on the rear stands and being in a confined workshop, I stuck with just one set of axle stands:





With it being Xmas time, I would work on it now and again, and so I came back the next time and removed the first item on the car. The exhaust. Because someone had been at the clamps at the backbox, prior to my ownership, I'd end up taking the entire system off as one, and then splitting it there and then. After all, space is tight and I couldn't just drag the system behind the car; a VW Beetle lives behind it.

Splitting the back box off from the centre took more time than I thought, due to the fixings getting mixed up on the exhaust hangers when I removed those ; as a result, some fixings had more corrosion than I bargained for due to to the misapplication of bolt use ; I put copper bolts on originally to get around a rust issue.



Then there was the matter of the clamps that hold the backbox onto the centre section. Mine had previously been bodged. To describe how they work, this X8R video demonstrates how the two parts come together but using their clamps while another video here explains how the clamps work and some of the issues arise,

Basically, the 1 piece clamps go on at the factory and the exhaust joining flanges (quiet at the back!) are then flared, meaning that the clamp is now part of the exhaust system. A few issues arise from doing this:

• If the clamps go bad like mine had at some point, BMW's answer will be buy a new exhaust system
• A few years ago, not many options were available ; the only one available was the i6 clamps, but with issues.
• Due to the above, garages and people went about repairing them differently. The Peugeot-style clamps, which I believe DannyDC2 has used on his, while being cheap (£6 with no gasket vs. the £50 X8R kit with gaskets etc), can do more harm than damage and actually don't clamp the system up as intended ; Other people weld them up so the mid section and backbox are one, which is the only choice when the flares are rotten

Mine?

Someone had noticed the clamps were corroding. So they ground back the bad metal in the clamps and welded the clamps up. On one side, where the pipe doesn't have a flare on, but a sleeve instead, they didn't put the gasket in ; that's all the other clamp supports, not the pipe. Mine always had a minor blow as a result, but only went cold. However, splitting around the rusty bolts would be time consuming to say the least! But I did get there eventually.

Thankfully, the flares on my system were fine. But the weld on the mid-section from where the clamp was welded to the exhaust so as to bring it together would have to be ground off at a later time:







Once the system was split, I'd have nothing left to do, besides clean up the exhaust pipes so some factory-esque clamps could be used. I plan to use the X8R clamps, which seem to be a proven solution. They're not cheap at £50 delivered, but then again, it's cheaper than another exhaust, still allows for the removal of various parts easily, and being stainless, should hopefully last a while. They did also come with the olive joint and gasket to seal that joint. Who said M-ownership was cheap?

With this in mind, I moved one of the cars out of the unit, and began cutting up the clamps off the exhaust, in addition to carefully removing the welds from the mid-section:



Some of those clamps just felt apart when the grinder touched them! Finally, they were off!




Simultaneously, I noticed that my catalytic converter-to-downpipe joints had re-used gaskets ; this car along with a friend's M3 ; always had when warming up especially, bit of a strange noise from the midd of the exhaust, like some resonance at certain RPMs. If this issue is like Peugeots previously, where it seems the gaskets can semi-vibrate, if they are pattern gaskets or simply worn, I can see this being the case. However, the gaskets were nightmare to get off the downpipe joints, but I eventually got them off. Note how they are deformed; The ripped sections are down to me; I would have to do that to liberate the seized on gaskets from the downpipes.





Finally, I would start on the original job I had in mind, the propshaft. I was in for a bit of a surprise!



The guibo was not as bad as I was expecting. Yes, it had cracking/perishing and minor rust marks around the sleeves, but otherwise, it was reasonable. The centre bearing was also a similar deal ; It was worn and 'spinning too freely' like the worn bearing feeling with a slight rattle sound coming from the bearings. The rubber surround was also perished, but again not so bad.

The CV joint however, caught me out. It had a small amount of play in it, but I knew I had heard that noise for a long time on the car, the 'clunk', or M-Clunk as fans call it. When I came to take it off, I noticed there was CV grease around the joint, which I initially thought was the diff. When the CV joint was on the bench, I could see a few issues. The grease was like water inside it almost, and the gasket these are meant to use to keep the CV grease in was now missing. Yes, this is a little annoying, given the joint was possibly disconnected when the boot floor was done. Who knows?



As a result, I would then have to make a decision. Go with a new CV joint, at quite a cost, or repack the old one and hope for the best? At the time, I had varying opinions of what to do!