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Got the headliner back for the 38. Installed it today, includes A B C pillars and rear parcel tray. great to get it in and sorted, did internal LED upgrade as well, much fresher and improved. ready now for next weekends Napier trip

Update # 15 Had a great day today - we made heaps of progress! :thumbsup2: During the week Dad had refilled the power steering system, and done the tie rod ends, so we were ready to install the front hubs and the rebuilt struts. Hub sitting on the control arm, until we realised that the strut has to sit in the hub first :facepalm: The (repainted) hubs and struts went in no problem at all and were soon looking like this: Then it was in with the front sway bar (also repainted) with new end links and rubber and polished brackets: Brakes were obviously the next logical step, so we installed the new seals into the freshly painted calipers: And then installed the rotors, carriers and calipers: At this point we also did a bunch of minor tasks: Reattach the front xenon level sensor Front wheel speed sensors Brake wear sensor Brake lines Rear hub collar nuts. (Which necessitated a dad-manufactured torque wrench extension to hit 250nm!) The whole process went really smoothly and without any real drama. Last project for the day was to put some fuel into the fuel tank, check that there were no leaks, and then hook up the battery and run the fuel pump, etc. to confirm there weren't any leaks anyway (fortunately there aren't). We then turned the engine over with the starter motor (and no ignition) to get some oil distributed around the place. We initially tried the procedure listed here (http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=300689) but pulling the relay resulted in a car that was in no way keen on engaging the starter motor. We reinstalled the relay, and everything worked as expected. So that marks a couple of significant milestones: - Front end reassembly is largely completed. Only minor stuff to go now (reinforcement plate, faring, air intake to go back in, and mechanical fan, etc.). - Engine turn over and test of fuel system, etc. Key things to do next will be: - Reinstall the front reinforcement plate. - Rear brakes back on. - Bleed brakes. - Engine back stuff back in. - Drive shaft in. - Heat shielding in. - Exhaust back in. - Brace & faring back in. - Anything else we've forgotten. - Car off of stands. The list is short enough now to write down! Till next time. :hattip:

If you have a high mileage vehicle then i recommend looking into replacing your steering coupler, made a huge difference to my E46 and was a pretty easy job. cost about $200 in parts. Some detail in this post...

with my 545i nudging its way towards 160k kms, I'm going to have the trans serviced, or at least, the filter and pan, mechatronics sleeve, and fluid replaced. I have the pan and bolts and sleeve, and new fill plug ready to go. I've been looking into fluids. Seems the ZF 6 Speed is sensitive to fluid... The Spec for 6HP26 is: ZF Spec TE-ML 11B Shell M-1375.4 Armed with this knowledge, and wanting to avoid "DexIII" assumption, I've looked at lots of info, written off Redline D6-ATF as it doesn't actually meet the specs, merely states it's a "popular crossover". BMW dealer kindly offered to retail me their Shell fluid at $80/litre. After that Redline prices in NZ looked almost reasonable at $40/litre! Options: There's a Febi oil 34608 which is relatively inexpensive, meets the M-1375.4 and is listed by Febi as being the right thing for 6HP26. Very little additional info, don't even know if it's mineral blend or full synth. A shade under USD10 per litre. BMW's own 83222220445 meets Shell M-1375.4 (USD37/litre) ZF Lifeguard 6 meets ZF Spec TE-ML 11B and Shell M-1375.4, it's price is getting up there (USD25/litre) Pentosin ATF1 is Full Synthetic, meets ZF Spec TE-ML 11B and Shell M-1375.4, and is reasonably priced in USA at about USD15/litre. I'm reading there's no NZ distributor, is this correct? I've also looked at the Penrite site - they have no equivalent, as do Castrol NZ (warning only to use Shell M-1375.4). Total's NZ distributor site listed FLUIDMATIC MV LV, but precious little else, didn't appear to be a stocked item. Fuchs product finder listed ATF4134, though it only appears to have Mercedes certification. Service Refill capacity stated as 9.7 litres. ruled out. Wildcard: Ford Motorcraft Mercon SP. Yep, it's for the Ford ZF 6HP26 (called Ford 6R80)... In the US it's inexpensive, meets the right specs. Dunno if it's full synthetic. Wonder if I should call a Ford Dealer parts department (though one recalls why one does not own a Ford!). Hyundai also runs this trans. Hmm. Proposed service approach: Drain fluid (just draining sounds like it's 4.5 litres). Refill to spec (I understand it's a three-stage thing, with correct trans temps reached, and adaptations reset). Drive for 500kms. Then drain and replace the pan with the new ZF part, sleeve, bolts, refill to spec with fresh fluid. I think 12 litres should be plenty for this adventure. Which Fluid? I think I'll go with Pentosin ATF1 as it meets both ZF's own TE-ML 11B, and Shell's M-1375.4 specs, is fully synthetic, and is reasonably priced. Question 1: Anyone in NZ sell Pentosin ATF1? I don't object to a reasonable margin for freight, tax, and holding stock... if only someone is selling it here. Question 2: Should I talk with a Ford dealer about Motorcraft Mercon S? Question 3: Anything I've missed? I also plan on replacing the diff fluid, and perhaps soon the Engine & Trans mounts, and the Guibo. It's a 14 year old car, needs a bit of upkeep. Your thoughts appreciated.

Thanks Matt! Pete, I'd love to come on the epic, but although I've sorted quite a bit of deferred maintenance on the car (tyres, fuel lines, a new rad, viscous coupling, various electrical bits) the list of work-ons I have from Jon and Keren at Auto38 is probably a bit too long to be relaxed about a big drive at this point. I love this car though, and can't wait til it's properly sorted.

Thanks Richard, just using an iPhone 7 plus. from what I've read all E46, but i would expect most BMW would have one. Its common across all marques to have a flexi disk somewhere on the steering linkage

Nice work! ?

So after a few weeks of driving the M3 ive started to notice things that don't feel quite right, for example the on-center steering feels really dead, researching this i found that a worn steering coupler can often be the cause. Today i set about replacing it to find out if it would help solve the dead feeling Its a faily simple process, took me about 1.5-2 hrs. There were two annoying parts to this process... 1) Finding the right part to order as the LHD and RHD parts are different, namely the RHD has a heat shield as it runs on the exhaust side and close to the headers. The part number for the steering coupler is 32306761571, the two bolts are 32306778608. 2) On test driving with he new coupler the DSC was kicking in and activating the ABS. I was able to find and clear the fault with my Carly ODB2 connector and iPhone app, after it was cleared it ran fine with no ABS activation or steering angle faults. The difference with the new coupler installed was immediate, on-center steering was no longer dead, a much more direct feel with better feed back. So a great thing to do if you have a high mileage car, mine is 100k miles. Video here showing difference between old and new... And yes those engine mounts needs to be replaced as well, they are on the list ;-)

had a good run out of our X5 4.4i 2001 model , done about 230ks , trans was rebuilt by previous owners about 10-15k's ago yea just watch out cam chain guide repairs also trans , other than that not too bad late v8's have the N62 engine , they have a lot more issues but use less fuel , 3l petrol too under powered really diesel 3l turbo probably a good option but the petrol v8's are cheaper to buy , just get one from a family or company that's owned it for years as they probably have spend the money on maintaining it rather than the quick flick it before it breaks guy

Wildcard: Ford Motorcraft Mercon SP. Yep, it's for the Ford ZF 6HP26 (called Ford 6R80)... In the US it's inexpensive, meets the right specs. Dunno if it's full synthetic. Wonder if I should call a Ford Dealer parts department (though one recalls why one does not own a Ford!). Hyundai also runs this trans. Hmm. As far as I know Ford used the ZF box in Falcons and rear drive Territory's, 6R80 in others, try a Ford dealer. In my experience you'll have to get them to answer the phone first. Helpful tip, don't try Capital city Ford in Porirua.

When you measure the height, you need to measure from the centre of the wheel so as to remove the variable of the tyre.

The best person to ask imo would be Kayne Barrie.

ps://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2299343-DIY-How-to-fix-threaded-rear-shock-aka-how-to-helicoil

Such an awesome car, love that colour too. I just spent about 30min going through the photos on my phone because I know I took some when I saw this around 2 years ago at KFC kilbirnie Didn't find the pic but what a stunner, good to have ya on-board, welcome!

badly fitting exhaust, strange v12 badge and wrong offset wheels...

The E90 6 speed transmission must have the correct oil and the loom socket replacement is standard replacement when servicing the transmission with adaptation clearance, road test & recheck.... I saw "cheap" in your post. A word I seldom use looking after peoples cars.