Leaderboard

Finally have some time to make a thread for my M3. I won't backdate the stuff I've already done on here because there is too much and not all of it is very well documented (list is below though), but I might as well make a thread to put all the dumb stuff I waste away my weekends doing. Bought the M3 in July 2019, never intended to get as carried away with it as I did but that's what happens I suppose. I was always a huge fan of the M-Texture interior prior to owning my M3 but I was not very involved in the M3 market, and assumed that there were none or very few in NZ. I purchased my car not knowing it was actually a factory F2AT car that had been retrimmed to black leather, and when I found out I became a little obsessive over returning it to that spec. That has been the most consuming project of this car, with the engine rebuild being a close second. Main list of things that have been done to the car is below: Engine: Fully rebuilt by Kayne Barrie to OE Spec New OE piston rings/hone/main bearings/rod bearings/injectors/rebuilt head/all gaskets replaced/bunch of other ancillary stuff done at the same time Vanos rebuilt with complete Beisan kit - seals/anti-rattle kit/oil pump disc/timing chain tensioner Rogue Engineering updated high pressure vanos line CSL style carbon airbox - running off OE CSL engine management with Kassel MAP Sensor Suspension/Steering/Trans: Ohlins road & track coilovers Ground Control street camber plates Eibach rear control arms Purple tag steering rack CMP solid steering coupler Fresh OE clutch/flywheel/bushings/etc Body/Chassis: Status Gruppe CSL bootlid - Really good fitment, as close to OE as I've seen Status Gruppe CSL diffuser - The opposite of good fitment. Rubbish. Waiting for a karbonius/Mile End diffuser to become available Complete CMP topside subframe kit with front mount extension and underside plates. OEM facelift tail light conversion IR>RF conversion - Much better range remote key Wheels: Style 260M square set (18x9.5 ET23) Michelin PS4S 255/40/18 square TMS 75mm stud kit Interior: Factory spec M-texture interior Recaro Pole Position ABE's debadged and trimmed in M-texture Brey Krause brackets on factory E46 manual sliders Alcantara shifter+boot/e-brake+boot MirrorJohn redesigned mirror glass (Doesn't crack and leak)

Other than the cable ties, butchery to wiring harness, horn?, ignition booster bullshit box?

Not much been happening with the car lately, but finally got the rollbar homologation done so its all officially MSNZ approved now, logbooked, homologated, got my car club membership and M grade license so ready for a hillclimb later in the year. Still need to get around to measuring correct swaybar endlink length and order a set of adjustable ones.

Changed the title of this thread to be more reflective of what goes on in the shed... Been a bit busy with life etc, attended the Holden Nationals with a mates car I've been helping restore, then a brief visit to Australia, followed up by a BMW Car Club South Island road trip in the M5 which was just fantastic, cruising down and up the country with @hunter and 20 or so other owners. The 740 msport has been the focus otherwise. Bought a large chunk of a 735i msport part out with the same interior, and set about swapping out seats, parcel shelf, under dash trim etc etc to significantly lift the interior (sold the now second full msport interior seats / doorcards for a massive $1.50 on the open market...), replacement steering wheel I had in stock, wiring loom tidy. Also decided to replace the 4 shocks with genuine BMW msport like for like. It was the larger jar of vaseline... Also have done some suspension arms, ball joints, engine mounts, sway bar links and bushes, tie rods, brakes tidy up. A wider insert for the boot to accommodate the "BMW711" plates which have just gone on. The radio was playing up so I scored another C23 Oceania module which a member in our e39 M5 group was offloading. All sorted now and a bluetooth module is on the way to replace the CD changer. Ripped out all the old Nav gear as well. A bit of paint work went on before it got too cold, mirrors, top of passengers door. Next summer there will be more to come... But up next is the rear main seal oil leak fix, which means transmission out. There will be a bit of other "while you are in there" preventive stuff like driveshaft bits and cleaning. Not to forget a few engine gaskets and fluid changes. A power steer hose was leaking so a home fix was enacted saving a few hundred dollars for a new pipe/hose. Still lots to do but coming along nicely....

Nah don't you stop! I'm a few hundred thousand km's behind and not on the original engine anymore but hoping to get to half a million as well one day, this serves as an inspiration Keen to see some photos of how those E53 seats sit in there. I've got a set sitting in the garage as well but they'll need a good restoration before I throw them in.

Thats what i use it for. As a note Bimmersport would be pretty much dead for new content if none of us did. Only really the regulars who may do that. Im sure there's many members or vistors who view\read but dont post\contribute etc, so not the best indication.

doesnt look to be a lot of interest in keeping this thread alive, never the less, it serves as a good build diary for me in the future, and prehaps the next own if it is ever sold ! had a quiet afternoon around march or so. had some black leather seats from an E53 parts car. The bolt pattern is identical across E38/E39/E46/E53 so spent the afternoon getting these installed. This 320d had poverty pack seats, was surprised to find it wasnt even prewired for electric or heated seats which they usually are. Not too fused about the heated seats, but had to run some wires to make the move/recline etc work, and also swap the seat buckles and pretensioners over I also got an E39 540i motorsport parts car in recently, which had a set of 18" M Parallels which were quickly pinched. The photos make them look tidier than they are, could do with a professional refurb, but look the business! Fitted brand new tyres to make them work (as the E39 tyres were much too big) as well as hubcentric spacers, due to the E39 center bore being slightly larger than all other Exx BMWs for some strange reason! The front work perfectly as is. The rear i had to roll the inner lips of the gaurds in, trim the wheel well liners a but, and delete the front most of the side brackets for the bumper. the rear shocks had visible corosion around the top near the upper mounts, so also replaced those. Sorry to the purists that only fit Bilstein etc, off the shelf items at BNT will do for this car. lowered back down and gave it a drive, no rubbing anywhere. over the past month has done a lot of miles loaded to the brim with gear for the shows Im doing for ACT, and no rubbing anywhere. Great result! forgot i had some BMW plates and found one day in the shed, so fitted those up as well. While it had a pitstop in Hastings last week, Greg at GH Automotive swapped the engine mounts for me. Left side easy peasy, right hand side a bit of a pain with a turbo tucked in there so you need to drop the frame to do it. Also discovered the vaccum hose to the wastegate was disconnected, and hooked that up. turbo whistle instantly sounded WAY better. as the EGR and DPF has been deleted many moons ago, its only the back box doing the heavy lifting. However, with that hooked up, the car would no longer go over 2500rpm. just to test, re-disconnected (is that a word?) and worked perfectly again. freeboosting isnt as much of a concern in diesels as it is petrols, providing the engine is healthy, so thats a good sign! I have ordered a new boost solenoid for it which should solve!

Time for another update , I have far too many cars to keep build diaries for all of them , but since this one has so much history I will make a point of keeping this one up to date ! a beautiful spring day today in the Hutt valley, so off with the passengers front door card and in with a brand new replica. I will be honest I grit my teeth and brought a Chinese knockoff but since it’s the passenger side I’ll take the risk. The kit came more complete than the “quality” ones I have brought in the past for other vehicles , take from that what you will, however I did need to reuse the original motor. Given its rarely the motor that actually packs up on these, I’ll see how this one goes, might be the way forwards on other projects too! Didn’t take pics , all classic BMW owners know how to change a reg these days, as they are a common failure point from the dawn of electric window BMWs to today. i was up at pick a part a few weeks ago to grab some bits for another car, and spotted this MINT windscreen trim up there. Haven’t seen one this mint fitted to a car ever, must have been replaced recently , as the paint was had it, so not a garage kept car. Rubber nice and supple still so I grabbed that for just $9, beats over $300 new! Fitted it up and looking much better ! also while I was up there I found an E90 Motorsport spec with a pair of brand new Firestone Firehawk Sport 01, which is identical to the Bridgestone RE003 of yesteryear. I’m sure I’m on record here saying they are the best bang for buck tyre and I still stand by that, so snatched those up. Only catch was the wheels were painted black. Fitted them up to the front because turn in in a deisel are important things. and painted another good pair with Pirelli all seasons I had here to match. Some may hate the black but I’m frankly indifferent at the best of times , especially on what will be a hack. while the car was in the air, time for an oil change. 4 years since it’s last one. The black as the ace of spades oil would have me worried if it was a petrol, but that’s just another day in the office for a diesel powered vehicle. Afterward I let the pan sit for an hour, and then very slowly drained off the top, to see if there was any contamination in the oil. Not a single metal flake or anything . Blows my mind this car has the Kms it does !! Then fitted new filter and the cabin filter, and filled her up. Never mind the 5L bottle in the photo, I know they take more, topped it up with another jug I opened last week for another job. often forgotten part is reset the service interval, all done. While up in the air I noticed the sump guard as standard on all e46 was missing, so pulled one off another e46 parts car I have here and fitted that, and then dropped the car. The car has also had a knock (not engine related) just on initial start and shut down. I noticed the exhaust (which is basically straight pipe from the turbo back to the rear muffler) was touching what used to be the catalitic converter or DPF support bracket, so removed the bracket and all is well. In ideal world it probably adds 0.01% chassis regitidty if this car was on Forza. In the real world it will make no difference having this fitted or not. next on the job list will be a transmission and diff service. Both are still cherry but would be great to get this car back to a zero base again. Now at 490800 km. (Writing on my phone so photos may be out of order?)

some mixed success today... needed petrol for the mower already, and no parts cars with gas in at the moment. So filled the 320d as well, got 12L in which is pretty crazy for over 300km already on this tank! So leak is ruled out, must be the sender that is faulty. scanned the gauge cluster and turns out there is a sender code there already so there we go! will need further investigation once i do a LOT of kms to burn thru all this diesel! Hopefully not deisel and/or touring specific! and I brought a trade in ladder today, so sent it on its first "job" (never ming the bird dirt on the bumper, an impressive hit i must say)

Put the car back together a couple weeks ago with all new power steering parts. New high pressure lines, reservoir, fluid etc. Also pulled the second hand pump that I got off trademe for cheap apart and it was perfect inside. Got very lucky with that being for sale at exactly the same time as my car decided to fry one. Checked all the internals Also decided that while I had the pump apart I would modify the pressure regulator by stacking the old shim with the new one and reduce the power steering assistance by an additional 12.5% according to forums. Supposedly this would also help to keep temps slightly lower, whether or not that is true I have no idea. Reassembled pressure regulator with the stacked shims: Fully re-assembled pump, looked like brand new: I didn't take any photos of all the refreshed power steering lines but it is nice to have all those finally replaced. They had been weeping since I had bought the car and probably long before. Decided I would re-dye the parcel shelf as a saw a few others do on this forum since mine was that typical faded purple that all E46's seem to get. I totally forgot to take before photos but the after is infinitely better than before. Very happy. Everything back together: Also decided I would buy the m-texture door cards Tom has had for sale for a while now. I really didn't need them but I couldn't resist. I was prepared to get some really beat up manky door cards but they were in much better condition than I initially thought and couldn't believe how well they cleaned up. Considering they were $100 for the full set front and rear I'm stoked. Once I cleaned the alcantara part of the door card up they were in super good condition. Best $100 dollars I've spent in recent memory, even though these are pretty much just going to go into storage. The vinyl on them is pretty beat up so eventually I'll either have it repaired or swap the inserts into a cleaner set of vinyl cards. Couple close-up shots comparing the reproduction fabric from my bucket seats to OEM: Not sure what it is about the fabric but I just have an obsession for it. Has to be one of BMW's coolest interior options imo.

yep, not a single other car on the street has been damaged. Yeah only park it there due to ongoing house renovations which means no garage and a cross lease driveway with an unfriendly neighbour. Once fixed I will find somewhere else to keep it, had enough. I appreciate it regardless! Pretty gutted but not much I can do, I will get it repaired and learn my lesson not to park it in public places anymore.

Speaking of damage to the car, someone has decided they dont like my car very much and thought it would be a good idea to key it. Not only one side, but both. Absolutely gutted, spend so much time and money on this car just for someone to walk past and decide to f**k it up. Clearly intentional, done both sides, on of which repeatedly with some serious aggression. Occurred on the same culdesac as the previous damage to the front bumper/fender. Honestly don't know why someone would do this, they gain nothing from it. Car is going to the panelbeater on monday, not looking forward to the bill, being a fulltime student money isnt exactly something i have lots of. Spoke to all the neighbors, nobody has a camera or saw anything, and insurance is only 3rd party so will be paying for it myself. Pretty upset and not exactly very encouraging, when people continually find ways to destroy your hard work. Originally the plan was to start racing the car, but that might have to wait a bit now.