BMW E46 M3 : That's the ticket

That last reply was a little abrupt! Basically, the forum was being annoying and getting glitchy with the video link, and my PC decided it wanted to do updates before that was also working right!

But, with regards to the last photos, I'm surprised at the state of those braces! I know the car's almost 20 years old but I wouldn't have expected those plates to be rotten! At least however, you can still buy them, albeit at a price! It's fair to say this month has been pricier than previously!

There are other plans and things to do with this car, but I've had other cars keeping me busy, mainly the Merc, so that'll now get an update.

However, a fairly glowing article here has driven me to hopefully have the car running again soon. It's surprising how different mine looks with the pre-2000/amber indicators, even if the LEDs on the rear are a modern twist on that:



The funny thing is, I almost supplied my car for that test. Basically, their original E46 M3 broke down 1 day before the test and so another car had to be found at short notice. I offered, and was approached by this, but of course, I decided to go to Germany a little earlier than anticipated, and so that was that. It's just as well I suspect as my car can be a little healthier now with some of the work done hopefully.

I may have been busy getting the Mercedes improved in various ways, but that's not to say I forgot about the M3! Far from it! It's the fact that the weather being a little poor and me spending my time on the Mec, sometimes useful and other times wasted, has not helped matters.

With so little to do, I went on to try and finish off the refurb on the V-Brace. With this, I sanded back the brace, and then panel wipe the brace down. It was surprisingly dirty given that I wire wheeled it and then coated it in Hydrate 80 in affected areas.




At this stage, I then decided to proceed with finishing off the prepwork, and so grabbed my can of etch primer to touch up some of the bare metal areas that I caught during the sanding process. This however would turn out to be a mistake:





Yup, it reacted, badly! What is it with me and etch? It just flared up like mental! Part of me wonders if it is reacting with the panel wipe. Maybe it was simply too cold to paint, but I can't see why that would cause a reaction. In truth, I suspect it was reacting with the Hydate 80, which at the time I didn't realise also was a form of an etch primer. Ah well.

With that in mind, I sanded it back and proceeded to paint up the rest of the bar, where I last left it drying

While doing that, I went to admire a few of the new parts I bought for the car. Some of these are potentially unnecessary, others were down to help from unsuspecting sources, which is always great to see.

One of the freebies I got was a rear exhaust hanger, to replace the 3 year old/22,000 mile broken item. This is handy! However, given how annoyed I was about the exhaust mounts being damaged, I actually ordered a set of Billet exhaust mounts from Hack Engineering, where these items are said to resolve the issue with the genuine hangers ; pattern ones are not useful in this application ; they only last a few months before failing. Which set will I fit? Who knows? I may well fit the Hack Engineering back box mounts, ableit drill out the Poly to allow for a little more movement. I believe bshaw has a similar set of mounts on his Renault Clio:





However, with a recent backbox change, the Hack mounts may well not be required :





Yup, I got hold of a Milltek back box. With these weighing 12kg, they are much lighter than the factory back box at 24kg. Yikes! Why did I buy it? I've always fancied the M3 to be a little louder. I take it back, that's a lie. I always fancy every car I have being a little louder, but not to be too obtrusive. Which is where the Milltek may fall on its face. Various reports suggest that these backboxes can drone, along with the others in this price range (if you call £600-900 cheap!). However, this item was 8 months old and came up at a price I couldn't refuse. The way I see it, if I do get annoyed, I can always go back to stock, or splash even more cash and get an Eisenmann which are known to not drone. But that £1.2k for a backbox new and £800-900 secondhand, they're not what you'd call a bargain. But at least I won't have my work cut out putting the new backbox on right?

We shall see what happens. But there's not alot to do now to get it roadworthy .

Given that the M3 isn't really a daily anymore as much as it was, this thread really should be titled the 'Savior with woes and joy!' After all, if I recall the high and low points:

-I've taken it to the Nurbringring twice without a hitch
-Done a couple of track days
-Gone on some great road trips with it. Sure, they're not quite as spectacular as some people's excursions on here, but they are something
-At one point, it seemed one significant thing thing after another just kept on going wrong with it.
-It became a daily last year where I literally had to semi-caress to get to work in a fashion, due to a faulty ABS sensor and zero time to diagnose it. Despite that, it soldiered on like a good soldier of war. I hated driving it in that state, but the car did oblige and just carry on about its business as usual, Christmas tree dash and all!

It seemed it would become a saviour yet again. It's strange ; the last car to do this for me was also not alot older back then, with it generally becoming recalcitrant with a lack of use. I am talking about my old 205 GTi.

So, where was I? Ah yes, the issues.

Basically, we had a family issue lately, with an elderly member becoming very ill and deteriorating fast. This meant almost all of our evenings were consumed with driving up to near Leeds and back most evenings during a week, straight after work. Naturally, I met up with my dad and went up with him. After spending quite a few hours caring for said member, who was not in a good way at all, we knew we had to go back home. After all, we all had work and my mum was there to take care anyway, with us all a phonecall away. Naturally, my dad offered to take his BMW E61 535d up. However, that would not be easy. In short

Day 1 of 10 : Refused to start; This was down to dirty battery connections, which oddly also affected the Merc, but I'll come back to that another time. So my Mondeo cruised up and back.
Day 2 of 10: After driving 100 miles back, this warning appear



It was something like the above. We could have removed the air suspension, but given that time was very tight for the aforementioned reasons, we got an airbag, but would need to find time later to fit it. Obviously, this left us with problems, especially as another member of family has recently suffered with a nasty thing, which I really wouldn't wish on anyone (cancer). So, we'd need to split. I could have hired a car and gone nuts but again, this implementation would require time.

So I decided the next morning to see if I could disable the compressor on the E61. Unfortunately, the drain valve on the compressor was working, so from one side lowering, both did:




Upon starting the car up with the fuse back in the compressor, the car raised again until a loud hiss was heard from the nearside as the car got to a certain height. Yup, it had blown an airbag. With this in mind, I tossed my dad my Mondeo keys, saying that it was his. Since I had sold the Merc, this left me without a car, for work and for family issues, should we need to be in two difference places at two different times; work we could get around (either of us drop the other off) despite a 50 mile increase onto either's commute, but the family thing could not.

Enter stage Left:



The M3 was roadworthy bar the rear tyres. Since they were an advisory last year, I put on my track wheels with the Kumho V70as. Was it wise? Probably not in these conditions. But they were legal, and the car would once again be mobile with some care. And so with my long suffering and understanding MOT tester, he took me under his wing and MOT'd the M3 for me first thing the next morning. The result? A pass!

That was good. Besides the topics getting deep amongst us at times given the situation about people, we did notice that the M3 passed the emissions with zero coaxing required unlike previous times. Was the missing exhaust gasket the cause of the poor emissions or was it luck? Whatever it was, it seemed luck was 'sort on' on my side, at least from the Car Gods perspective. And so I was once again mobile, and both of us managed to see both family members on demand, for which I am really glad to have done in these times. Is there a takeaway point? Indeed, if your friends and family mean something to you folks, take the time to see them more often. It may only be or 30 minutes, let alone 3 hours when you do. But trust me, you'll appreciate it and be thankful for the times you have enjoyed in the long run.

But anyway, enough of me getting a little mellow! It was good to be back in the M3 and well, I needed some cheer. The car was driving better than ever and besides the exhaust droning like crazy below 2.5kRPM, it sounds superb. Yup, I really am smitten with this old(ish) girl. It's tested me many a time, but it has always somehow pulled through whenever I've asked it to. A degree of luck is about this car I must admit.

I've debated selling this many a time for a tidier example or a tidier car, but then I always remember that the grass is always green. It may look old and now pretty battered, especially on the scratched wheels, but it also looks purposeful and it has been! Yup, it's probably time I addressed the key issues like the bodywork, while it is slowly earning its keep again:











Another thing? With things calming down a little and the dust settling, I've made a start on the brakes again. With RetroWarwicK's suggestion, I'm soaking the brass sliders in oil prior to fitting them, in Valvoline's finest, naturally ;



One downside is that the one of the brake calipers has a seized nipple within it. I previously tried to get this out with a reverse drill to no avail. It's stuck in there badly. With Big Redd apparently not touching calipers with broken brake nipples, I do need to somehow extract this out. Ideas here are very welcome. For now, I've soaked it in PlusGas. On the positive side, these calipers are the same as the front items on mine, so it's not the end of the world, albeit I would still prefer to use these items. Suggest away here folks .

Got a snapped nipple off the other day by welding a nut to it.
However, it was a little more proud than yours and I consider myself very lucky that it went. Was bricking it. Had to keep wiggling the nut forwards and backwards and each time it freed off a little more.

I had this...


stuck well and truly in my brake modulator during stripdown. It takes a large allen key but wouldn't shift for love nor money. Destroying wasn't an option, it has to screw in exactly the same number of turns as it came out and getting a spare would be very difficult.

This little tinker...


Finally got this...


SOB out.

It took many, many heat/cool cycles before it gave an inch. But the little torch meant you could concentrate the heat where you wanted it, i.e., on the steel plug, not the aluminium housing.

Try the same, and then the eazi-out?

Before you knacker it totally, gives Brakes International in Rochdale a call.

At the moment they can bore it out, fit an insert and new bleed nipple and refurb the rest of it.

It's hard to believe that this post could have been 'the post' for this thread!

Why? Prior to removing the Milltek backbox, I had created a video for the M3, which despite detailing the shortcomings, also detailed some great things like:

-A Drive-by with some acelleration behind it.
-A tunnel run! I mean, it has to be done right?

Unfortunitely, the footage got deleted. Yup, yours truly managed to go from an awesome video to a damp squib at one! So, if you can bear to watch a boring video with some headphones to see why the Milltek isn't for the M3, here's a view. It may be a realistic video of what the car will be like, but, it's not a fun video to watch! Let's see if the Eisenmann can have that level of fun in it, pending storage issues (I need to find my HDD, which is somewhere)



But, there has been progress with the Eisenmann backbox, which doesn't look quite as grotty as it did before .

I agree with this. I LOVE the IDEA of easy outs...but my experience with them has been less than consistently successful. Breaking them inside the drilled hole is less than inspiring.

There is the LUCK factor, however. I have gotten lucky with them, but I would not call it much more than that.

To me, it seems that they work with things that are NOT corroded in place badly.

Heat and cold cycles may be the only DIY solution.

A machine shop is the only stress free solution!

JP

PS, the car is looking great. nice work on the exhaust and related items.

I suspect this thread may get quiet for some time. I had a choice of which car to have outside and in truth, the Mondeo won. Maybe it should have been the M3, but you never know when you'll need a car with a big boot, and something a little less obvious on the deserted streets.

But for now, I'll leave you folks with a video of the car on the new exhaust. This time, I managed to
-Make the video shorter (but I can do a review like the last video)
-Actually get the footage in that I wanted ; outside of the car.

I hope you enjoy folks and stay safe wherever you are: