Karter16's E46 M3 Journal

[Vass 697]

I'm assuming it's these wee fellas you're talking about? I have a few spare ones, obviously stocked up at some point after that one mishap. Can chuck one in the mail for you tomorrow if you need ✌️

[Karter16 323]

11 hours ago, Vass said:

I'm assuming it's these wee fellas you're talking about? I have a few spare ones, obviously stocked up at some point after that one mishap. Can chuck one in the mail for you tomorrow if you need ✌️

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

 

I’ll PM you 🙂

[Karter16 323]

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!

 

Edited January 14 by Karter16

[Karter16 323]

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!

Edited January 16 by Karter16

[Eagle 1515]

Always wondered about that. Probably much easier to do with all the apps around than back in the day.

[Karter16 323]

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!

[Karter16 323]

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.

[Cement 782]

2 hours ago, Karter16 said:

a bit of extra stiffness in the rear

*snicker snicker* 🤣 Looks pretty awesome, keen to hear how it goes as I would like to add some additional piece of mind to mine at some stage also. Care to advise what the damage of product and freight was ? Does not look super freight friendly 😬

[Karter16 323]

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.

[Karter16 323]

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.

 

Edited April 13 by Karter16

[Eagle 1515]

On 4/7/2024 at 7:03 PM, Karter16 said:

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

Cavity wax works very well and the internal areas are pretty well sealed. 

On 4/7/2024 at 7:03 PM, Karter16 said:

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

Usual case of buying first gen or earlier generation products, later versions are almost always improved upon. Vincebar and CMP were the only hidden options that were available when i was looking.