Leaderboard

Equal length headers are soooo 1995, its all about those equal angles now. 90 degree ones.

231,866km Wheel alignment by Dave Tunley. Rear right (the one i did by myself) was out by ALOT after doing the RTABS. Car is driving very nicely now.

I almost exclusively use the Xtrons headunit for CarPlay, however on the occasions that I have a need to do something else I find the default Xtrons launcher to be a pretty jarring experience. I've been having a bit of a look around at options, and have had a play around with iDrive Launcher (https://idrive.ibus-app.de/index_en.html). I know that NBT iDrive didn't come on the E46, however it certainly feels a lot less flashy and feels like it fits much better in the E46 than the standard Xtrons launcher. I think it's an acceptable compromise, given I've already compromised by putting newer technology in the E46 anyway. I have to say I'm super-impressed with the software. It's very nicely built, fast, reliable, configurable. It's a pretty nice experience to get in the car, turn it on and see the BMW boot logo, then the iDrive launcher home menu, then have CarPlay auto-connect. I've got more work to do to sort out the menus (I don't need the Multimedia, Navigation or ConnectedDrive items for example) but will get that sorted once I've got everything figured out and optimised. I'm also working on mapping the second (right hand) control knob on the Xtrons unit to the navigation controls for the launcher, if I can get this figured out it means the interface can be controlled with the control knob/SWCs which would be a nice added touch. Here's a few average iPhone photos - doesn't really do justice to the super-smooth animations/transitions, but you get the idea. Interestingly these photos also show that I haven't quite got the RGB/luminosity of the head unit illuminated buttons right. I 100% can't tell in person, but the photos clearly show it up - will have a play to get it closer.

Umm. Love the "bends".

I had my 540i touring converted by Hell BM a few years back and originally went with a light single mass flywheel, but it was a PITA and I only kept it a year or so before swapping it for a genuine DMF and clutch, both of which I got from BMW as they were only very slightly more expensive than buying and shipping a kit myself and I wanted all the parts to be correct. The light flywheel just didn't suit the car, it was OK if you wanted to drag race someone at the traffic lights but if you just wanted to cruise around it was shuddery and horrible and almost impossible to take off smoothly. I also do quite a bit of towing and it was no good for that either. Mine also had quite bad rev hang but I ended up selling it before I managed to solve that so I can't help there.

231xxx Km return hose turned up crazy fast from Spareto. New return hose and reservoir installed. Replaced some rear end bushings. RTABS - Meyle HD Lower control arm to trailing arm bushing - Corteco Upper control arm to trailing arm ball joint - Meyle massive shoutout to @Spinner99 for helping me out in his drive way for what ended up to be quite a few hours last Saturday. will get an alignment next week. also I pulled fuse 58 for the rear hatch glass cause it started being super annoying.

231495km Few things ticked off the list this week. Power Steering pump replaced with a LUK second hand one. New sender hose, managed to snap the plastic clip on the radiator return hose trying to get the cable tie off the reservoir end, turns out the reservoir end was welded onto the reservoir anyway so will swap reservoir out for new one when this new hose arrives in a week. Interesting BMW wanted $850 for this hose.....$100 delivered via Spareto (1 week). Euro Italia were out of stock. I have made a ghetto fix in the meantime so i can keep using the car...hopefully it holds. Steering is feeling better but could also be placebo....nothing obviously wrong with the old pump which i have a receipt for in 2019 (3rd party no brand). Also replaced the little bushings that had perished that hold the hoses to the rack. 02 Pilot mod Nice and straight forward, didn't break any nipples....have just topped up the oil so will know after the next 2000km if its making any difference. O rings Not sure what this is called but I new i had left over Orings from the pcv overhaul when i first got the car and never new where they went until I saw Jon's post working on @Olafs car realised i had never taken this part off the intake. Most of the old O rings snapped trying to get them off. Expansion tank + Thermostat The one that really didn't want to come out was stamped 2013 so it had obviously been done at some point but still 10 years old so no harm in putting in a newer one. The thermostat below it also snapped in half but thanks to the internet i expected that and had a new one ready to go. I also RTV'd the thermostat housing while it had no coolant in it as it was dripping. It's an FCP one so if it keeps leaking ill do a warranty claim. I also got a cheap DA from super cheap a while back and did a first attempt at cut and polishing...Think I went a bit conservative on the cut, as it still has plenty of scratches but it did go quite shiney. Reverse camera is working out really awesome....esp when people park like this... My rear glass hatch keeps randomly opening. I've replaced the switch before so wondering if it's more likely to be in the loom somewhere. Still have soft brake lines and trailing arm bushings to do but that will have to wait for another time ( @Spinner99 do you still have the bushing tools?)