BMW's galore!

Ha! Never mind, we’ve all done these things. You do what you need to do at the time. I like a tr7 anyway so nothing wrong with saving one out of two....

I don’t know, I suspect that the way you lose the pre set on a fresh diff is by not building it properly in the first place.

Well I had the rebuilt diff back and it was in the car briefly but unfortunately it didn't last. It sounded like a stock ''welded'' diff and personally I'm just not a fan and it was spoiling my enjoyment of the car itself. Especially pulling out of junctions where I'd be cringing at the racket it was making and pedestrians were snapping their necks to see what could be making that dreadful sound?

Anyway, a quick email to Dan at J3Driveline confirmed that the noise I described wasn't normal and they asked that I return the diff and output shafts to them. I dropped the 02 back to ARM last week so hopefully I'll get to the root of the issue any day now. I've supplied the kerb weight and a copy of the dyno print out so that the LSD can be set up with the specifics of my car in mind.

I know that the original M10 engine is a peach but the M44 really suits the 02 and once on cam it really comes alive. I'm still messing with gear ratios but a change from 60 to 70 profile tyres should be just about spot on. The added compliance will be an added bonus too. I think they'll also give the wheels a more period look.

I definitely need to sort an air box as it's bloody loud in the cabin. Especially at full chat. Don't get me wrong, as I love the sound it makes, but it's just a bit too much for longer journey's. Hopefully it might increase low end torque at the same time?

Where did 2 years go?

Basically my health and personal life turned to 5hit. The 02 and E34 had to be sold. I then came over all weird and bought something French and front wheel drive. Antibiotics and a good head wobble have seen me get back into a BMW with a six pot.

Hello, Mark, glad you're back hope you are as fully recovered as is possible.

Well it's started...






Thanks for the welcome back guys.

Sorry to hear about your problems Mark,
Great to see you "back" though and with another BM,
Looking forward to seeing future updates on this project,
Nigel

Well it's almost 14 years to the day since I joined RR and goodness knows how many BMW's. I'm really enjoying the Compact though, despite maybe being a little more modern than I'd have liked ideally. The plan now is to build a fast road and occasional track day car whilst keeping to a strict budget. There are so many decent quality products available now and I want to see how some of the cheaper products fair. I'll also be writing about the project for Performance BMW magazine and plan on making another film for Petrolicious as I did with the E30 M3. All being well, I'll be going to the Nurburgring as the location. I'm a way off all that yet though.

The first job has been swapping those OE rims for some 17 x 8 aftermarket and fitting them with Michelin tyres in 225/45r17 all round. I also fitted hubcentric spacers with 20mm rears and 12mm fronts. I was really surprised at just how much of a difference they've made and how much more eager it is to turn in. The wheels fill the arches so much better too and I really like how the car looks from the rear.

Initially I was going to go with some used suspension but having done some digging around on various forum I've opted to go with MTS Technik who use Eibach springs. They do a competition spec kit but as this is a primarily a road car (and Cornish lanes aren't exactly smooth!) I opted for their Comfort spec. They're very reasonably priced and come with 2 years unlimited mileage warranty. You can't say fairer than that really. I'm also committed to working on the car myself and have been collecting various tools over the past few months. It might be a bit more effort and take me a bit longer but I'm up for the challenge.