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Update #26 Well I got notification today that the new steering wheel has shipped - should be here in a couple of months! The other day I decided to re-investigate why the rear bumper/diffuser sits so terribly on my car. I say re-investigate as I did look at it a few years ago when Dad and I were doing all the under-body work on the car, but I'd forgotten since what the issue was. Got under there with a torch to see that the plastic brackets that are glued to the Kevlar support bar had all detached, and only a couple of them were still screwed to the bracket on the bumper itself. I removed one, and did some investigation on the internet (although I suspected I already knew the answer). Because the brackets are glued/plastic welded to the kevlar support the whole thing is one part number and you can't purchase individual replacements. I could hunt down a wrecked one and try pull the bits, but didn't particularly like my chances, and thought it was a good opportunity to try putting Dad's 3D printer to use. The original part is helpfully labeled as PA6 GF30 which means it is a Polyamide 6 plastic with 30% glass fibre. There is a 3D printer filament available which is a Nylon 6 (Nylon is a type of Polyamide, so Nylon 6 is pretty similar to PA6) with 25% Carbon Fibre. The printed end result is supposedly stronger than the same thing made out of aluminium, so it should do the trick for this application. I quickly brushed up on my very rusty CAD skills and knocked this up this evening. It was pretty enjoyable to make. The original having presumably begun life by being drawn in CAD by a BMW engineer it was nicely spec'd in whole millimetres, so was easy to reproduce. The most difficult aspect was just that the bridge and the legs are not quite in the same X-Y plane. I've shipped this off to Dad for him to run a test print in PLA. From that I'll check and make any necessary adjustments, but I'm pretty confident it's spot on. The only thing I haven't drawn at this point is the holes in the legs. I'm undecided at this point whether I rivet or plastic bond to the kevlar support. If I go the plastic bonding route then the holes may prove to be unnecessary. Till next time.

Hi all - am hoping that someone with an NZ new E46 M3 might be kind enough to help me with this. At some point (prior to my ownership) the car had a partial respray which included the driver's door jamb. Whoever did it didn't do a particularly great job, but more to the point the stickers (VIN/manufacturer sticker, tire pressures, Airbag warning, etc.) on the door jamb weren't replaced. I'm looking into this now as I continue with plans to restore the car to its original state as much as possible. I have scoured the internet but to no avail - What I'm hoping someone who owns an NZ new E46 M3 might be able to do to help me is to take a photo of their driver's door jamb for me showing the location, orientation and detail of the stickers (feel free to obfuscate VIN, etc. if you don't want to share on the internet!). I would be very appreciative and will sing your praises in this thread 🙂 Cheers, Matt

Chicken and egg isn't it. Drivers prob keep getting worse as they rely on the car to do most the work for them.

Probably need them for the ever increasing number of terrible drivers

Wow, more than two years since my last post… *trigger warning - children/babies & medical stuff* A few weeks after my last post my son fell extremely ill. After several long hospital stays he was diagnosed with post transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, in his case caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. At his sickest there were 16 million copies of the virus per millilitre of his blood. He thankfully completed a course of Rituximab (kinda like a chemo drug that wipes out all the T cells in your immune system). By August he was home, and after a couple of blips he has been largely okay since. If things stay good for another few years his doctors will declare victory over the PTLD. In September of 2020 we found out my wife was pregnant with #2! Our second son was born in April 2021 at 32 weeks, following a rough pregnancy. He spent 5 weeks in NICU before joining us at home. 4 days later he was rushed to Starship with respiratory issues. He got a tracheostomy about a week later (which has been amazing) and then spent 47 long days in PICU battling infections and myriad issues that couldn’t all be tied back together. He finally made it up to the ward, and then a few days later started having seizures. Over the course of a few days we watched our little man lose all ability to move, turn his head, hear, and interact with us. Since then it’s been a long slow journey of improvement for him. After a couple of weeks he started looking at things, and us, again, another few weeks later he started responding to sound again, by the time we got him home at the end of September he could turn, but not support, his head. Another 8 weeks later and he could fairly well hold his head up, and today I took a photo of him sitting, propped up, in his hospital cot (he’s been in this week fighting a nasty virus) playing with a toy. The teams at Starship have been incredible. The head consultants from a bunch of different teams have been heavily involved in my son’s care, and their skill and the wonders of modern medicine have been life-saving for both of my children. I’m forever indebted to them, our public healthcare system, and, by extension, taxpayers of New Zealand. Wow. That was cathartic to write out. Not very on-topic, but cathartic. Thus concludes the explanation of why it’s been two years since my last post… I only drove the M3 a couple of times in 2021. For most of the year I wasn’t even sure if I was going to keep it (hard to make plans or think about what’s fun when you’re constantly in crisis mode). But the last few months as things have trended towards our “new normality” I’ve been enjoying driving the car on occasion and making some more plans for it. A couple of days ago I ordered a new OE steering wheel. The current wheel is quite badly cracked along the top, and the paddles and trim are in very poor condition. I looked at options like getting my current wheel rewrapped and buying new trim, etc. but for what that was going to cost it made more sense to order a brand new wheel. I found one for a good price, and, importantly, cheap shipping and pulled the trigger. It’s coming snail mail (hence the cheapness) so, given the current state of global logistics it should arrive sometime between the beginning of April and the end of time. I have a bunch of other items I want to get as well, but they’re all significantly cheaper, so I figured it was best to buy the expensive thing first, so I don’t keep putting it off! I also have a couple of little projects in mind to keep me busy as well so will hopefully be posting those up here soon! Matt

Star Insurance Modern hobby for the E46. Seem to be one of the few that had agreed value while being well priced @ $585 p.a. Classic didn't want to insure my vehicle as it was too modern or generic according to them.

450-500ish driving normally probably, if you nana'd in eco mode it says 590 on full tank. I think its a 65l tank, or around that. Definitely bigger than 50. As a "do everything" car, would be pretty solid thing to get.

f**k the sensors off then, load of crap anyway.

The hex mesh on the iX grille is a large sensor array for a number of the vehicle systems, it probably wouldn’t work if there were any form of slat in front of it. As much as I enjoy the renderings of vehicles, the practicalities of the engineering and manufacture do not feature. As can be seen from how concept cars develop between design and production - there are always compromises to be made.

The grills are just a distraction from the rest for me. I absolutely hate the new designs. And not an E60 oh that's a bit different but it quickly grew on me kind of way. More like a Fiat Multipla kind way.

The whole vehicle is a disgusting mishmash of shapes; the grille is just the bit that draws your eye first.

i like the second photo. the first pic looks like someone photocopied their rear end and had it had it CNC'd into a grill . their trademark is their grille. the top photo looks way out of proportion.

Yeah.. Looks legit like a competitor, the grille really is holding most of the brands identity!

Got my electrical pieces, so I can now start to lay out the power distribution. Buying from Waytek Wire meant there were some minimum quantities so I've got plenty of 'spares' of some items

Dang that sounds like a rough time, those little buggers sure know how to put mum and dad through the wringer alright !! Glad things are looking more settled now mate

That's styling in general these days esp front ends. As above without the grill its basically generic.