Karter16

At last I got the final version of the top amp bracket sorted and Dad printed it and dropped it off yesterday. I fitted it today - all looking good! Next up is to clean up the bay properly and then bundle up the un-needed wiring on the loom and secure it. I also took the opportunity to re-familiarise myself with exactly how the structural foam has been done on the rear RACP mounts on my car as I start preparing for the installation of the 6 point brace when it arrives later in the year. I also checked the welds in the trunk to ensure that they're all still good - keep an eye on this just in case.

hahahaha I didn't see that 😆

Hahahaha yes let's blame the car, definitely not the drivers fault.

Hahaha i wrote it, and then was going to reword it, but thought - surely no one else will pick up on that 😂 Surprisingly cheaper than I was expecting. 590 Euro shipped to Auckland! That’s unpainted, painted is an option but requires bulkier shipping (to protect the paint) which is more expensive.

One of the things that's been on my list for quite some time now is sorting out the topside reinforcement of the RACP. My car had the rear mounts reinforced with the BMW epoxy foam process in 2011 before I owned it, and the underside reinforced with epoxied plates in 2017. Since then I've put very few km on the car but deciding on the right approach for topside reinforcement has been on my mind since then. Part of the reason it's taken me so long to sort is because of all my family/kids dramas, but the other reason is that I've really been struggling to decide on the best solution in my circumstances. I'll probably get some flak for this but I'm not really keen on weld-in solutions in general. In most welding situations I don't see how it's possible to control corrosion prevention well enough given the application, and then add in welding to thin sheet metal that has been through 20 years of stress cycles and it just doesn't appeal to me. Another reason is that welding around the rear mounts, in my case, is complicated by the presence of the foam epoxy reinforcement. Lastly is the permanence of the change - I've seen several comments from people who bought the early version of the CMP bar, etc. who say they wished that they could use the newer, less visible, option. Likewise there's no certainty there won't be better options available in another 5 years. In the work that I do on the car I want to keep it as close as possible to original, so that if I realise at some point in the future that I have bad taste in modifications I can restore to stock. That goes, as far as possible, for things like RACP reinforcement as well. To this end I've ordered a variant version of the Yurkan Cages YC46W6. This is a welded single piece brace that ties both the front and rear RACP mounts to the rear shock mounts. This design allows for the rear seats and fold-down functionality to be maintained without interference. I don't need the fold-down feature anyway, but I certainly want to keep the rear seat unaffected (although again it's only to look nice, I only ever have a single passenger in the car, so I essentially use it as a two seater anyway. The variant I've ordered includes an additional bar directly between the two rear shock mounts. Probably overkill, but for the small amount of extra weight I'd prefer to have a direct link between the two to help stiffen things up as much as possible. With this solution all I need to do is cut the top cosmetic layer of sheet metal above each of the 4 RACP mounts and bolt all the way through from the subframe to the brace. While this does require some cutting of the body, it is about as minimal as I'm going to be able to achieve while still providing for topside reinforcement. Yurkan do make a version of this brace with separate brackets for the rear shock mounts that the brace then bolts to, but given I need to cut the interior carpet, etc. either way, I decided to opt for the welded one piece option for additional stiffness. My plan with the carpets, etc. is to pick up a spare set from a wrecker to cut up and I'll put my current set unmolested on the shelf. Once this is installed I'll be able to finally stop thinking about the RACP, and should also have the added bonus of a bit of extra stiffness in the rear. I placed the order today and expected manufacturing time is about 20 days, so with shipping, getting lost at the East Tamaki depot, etc. I expect I'll receive this around the middle of the year. I also ordered a replacement steering giubo recently - looking forward to getting that installed and hopefully getting rid of the slight play in the steering.

thanks both for that 🙂

Have you had any WOF issues doing this? I need to replace my stock one and this would be a more cost-effective way of doing it.

Yeah let’s setup a chat to work through it - as you say no “secret society” or anything, but means we can chat in detail. I’ll PM you.

Mine were the same when I replaced the power steering hose. My theory is that because those hoses always leak that the power steering fluid makes the rubber degrade.

Great point - if something along those lines were possible it would bring a point of difference to the bimmersport community as well.

Sounds good - let me know how you get on

Yeah - that was my impression from a few years ago as well. I wonder, given the latest comment on this thread: https://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/66910-bimmersportconz-certificate-appears-to-be-expiredbad/ whether that equation has changed somewhat.

Given a couple of recent posts I've seen it's probably time to drag this up again. It would be really helpful to understand, as of 2024, exactly what the ask/offer is. Is it to "buy" bimmersport, is it to save it from being turned off and disappearing, is it to run it for the current owners? From an enthusiast community perspective I'm keen to see the forum stick around as it's a wealth of NZ-specific knowledge, but not really looking for an entire side-business, so would be good to understand how things currently lie. Cheers, Matt

yeah I knew it was going to happen at some point - I had to do my 318 back in the day and that was only about 8 years old when it went!

E46 M3 E30 M3 E39 M5 F87 M2CS The F87 M2CS (S55) is the only non-E chassis I'm prepared to put on this list. Not a fan of more modern BMWs and their latest lineup looks like each one was designed by a different AI. Also, I discovered last week that the headlining is going in my E46 and as a result all BMWs are the worst.

This nice Daytona Violet?? 323ci at Westfield Newmarket today

Looking good! Nice thing about that IA unit as well is that you get the icons on the buttons instead of text in a font that doesn’t quite match BMW’s!!! Looking forward to hearing how it goes for you!

Every time I see photos of your car I start second guessing my decision to go with the E46!

Have been slowed down a bit the last week or so with medical stuff, but got to try out the latest version of the amplifier brackets that I'm designing. This latest version the pieces have been reinforced and weigh in at 21 grams each. For reference the CD stacker rack weighs in at 1.2kg and the BMW Amp only bracket weighs more than 550 grams according to realoem. The top bracket needs a little bit more adjustment, but I think that the bottom two are finalised - they're extremely sturdy and hold the amp in the exact position the OE bracket does. I'll make the *hopefully* final tweaks to the top bracket and get it printed. The mistake I made was not making quite enough space for the black bolt and washer that attaches the bracket to the body - I'll get that sorted and hopefully this little project will be done!

Awesome - glad they're of use to someone 🙂 PM me for details!

One of the other things I did recently was to take advantage of the EQ built in to the headunit. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but figured I might as well make it as decent as possible. To do this on a budget I took advantage of a very nifty iOS app called HouseCurve, which comes with a profile that flattens out the microphone response and makes it suitable to measure a response curve. I used HouseCurve to take several measurements and average them out: Which gave me the default response of the system. HouseCurve has a built in mechanism to EQ the system and generate PEQ values, however the EQ on the Xtrons is a 16 band fixed frequencies EQ, rather than full parametric, so I wasn't able to take advantage of that directly. I could have adjusted each of the EQ bands manually to try and optimise, but I'd rather get the calculated optimum. So what I did was to export the measurements from HouseCurve and import them into REW which has a generic EQ which allows for specifying the fixed frequencies for each band. You can then optimise on just the Gain and Q values to the target curve you're seeking (I chose to use the AudioFrog curve). This gave the following (blue = target curve, dark green = original curve, light green = optimised curve): The graph of the filters looks like this: I was then able to take the calculated Gain and Q values for each filter and set them in the EQ in the Xtrons: And the difference is night and day. Sounds so, so much better, and such an easy thing to do to improve the end result!

So yesterday I dropped round to @Cement's house to pick up the CD stacker he kindly offered me. @Michael. was there as well, so was great to meet them both and talk BMWs and see their amazing cars 😍 And today is the final day of my summer holiday before I head back to work. This morning before it got too hot I finally got around to doing the work on the rear seat. First up I removed the black leather seats and bolsters, and then I was able to install the rear seat sound mat that arrived a couple of months ago. It fits really well and was no problem to install, at less than half the weight of the rubber/butyl one and not likely to disintegrate like the original I'm very happy with this: You can see there are a couple of cut outs that aren't needed on the M3, presumably they are for the E46 compact or similar, but aside from that it all fits in very nicely. I was then able to install the G7AT interior (which I've been cleaning and drying over the last week) from @M3_Power and now finally have an (almost) matching interior. I took the covers off the headrests and put them through the washing machine (gentle cycle, no spin) and wet vac'd the bolsters, seat bench and backs. The bolsters needed new clips at the tops, as they seem to ALL break. I ordered new ones in one of my orders last year, so had these on the shelf ready to go. Originals were black, these new ones are white, maybe they're also stronger 🤣 Then it was just a case of putting everything in, and soon it was all done! (apologies for the terrible photos and dusty car, am rebuilding a retaining wall at the moment and the clay dust gets into everything). I also got to take the car for a drive today. With the work I've done on the drivers door, and the cloth rear upholstery, a good 90% of the rattles and such that were present in the car seem to be gone! I thought there were going to be a bunch still to hunt down, but appears I have one in the dash by the drivers door, and aside from that any other noises were pretty infrequent! Now I just need to give the car a good wash!

That’s the one - if you wouldn’t mind that would be fantastic thank you! I’ll PM you 🙂

Ahh can you! I didn’t know you could get just the bolt - I’ll take a photo in the morning and send it to you - that would be amazing! Thanks!!

I spent some time this afternoon getting some bits and pieces done. First up I installed the extension wiring loom for the side mirror control relocation from the driver's door to the CSL centre console. For the wiring loom I sourced, nearly, matching wire colours. I wasn't able to get blue with a green stripe, so went for plain light blue instead. I bundled up the 4 wires into a loom, wrapping them with fleece tape as I went. I then attached the connector I found that's a match for the OE one to the end that connects to the mirror control switch. I then started at the console end, working the loom down the centre tunnel to the pedal box (cable tying as I went to stop it rattling). Avedis's DIY guide is excellent and I referred to it frequently as I went. And then across and out through the door pillar conduit. Getting it through the rubber conduit was fairly easy, you just need something like a coat hanger to help guide it through. From there I routed it through the door (again cable tying as I went). I then cut it to length and attached the pins for the female socket. The MQS connectors, like many, are supposed to have the pins crimped with a special tool (like many various connector types). When you've done it before as I have it's fairly straightforward to tack the wires to the pins with a little solder and then crimp the pins with some pliers, like so (note, not all are finished in this photo): And voila! the extension loom is complete: I then hooked it up and wrapped it up with some more fleece tape to make sure it's held fast and won't knock about: Connect up the switch and pop it in and we're all done! While I had the driver's door apart I also took the opportunity to replace the missing bowden cable clip (as per here: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/198724-psa-door-window-rattle-regulator-cable-clip-broken), as well as tighten up the regulator bolts and adjust the latch in an effort to make my door sound more like my passenger side door and less like a glazing truck that has been in an accident. It's a lot better, but still not as nice as the passenger side. I think further improvement will need to wait for total disassembly and replacement of the regulator and latch mechanism. When I put the door panel back on I replaced the clips with the improved version that have foam dampening rings on them: I also popped in the new window switch to replace the one that had surface damage from when the mirror leaked prior to my ownership. If I get some more time over the weekend I'll get to work on the rear seat. Oh, and just cause no project is complete without an issue, when I was tightening up the negative terminal on the battery the tensioner bolt thing snapped off (guess I've been using it too much due to so many projects), so now I need to get a new one of these 😑