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Not uncommon with random aftermarket wheels so they are right to a degree, all different designs and measurements so unless you have them its hard without fitting to know whats going to work. You'd want to know wheel width, diameter and offset before try anything. If its hitting on the caliper due to the wheel being too small\odd barrel profile or an offset\backspacing issue bring it too close is going to help you identify the issue. BMW wheels have accurate offset measurements and all similar design profiles, basically standardized for the brand. Very unlikely it would be an issue in a standard vehicle using offsets and width in the allowable range.

I was out exploring the great outdoors (i.e. Pick-A-Part) one weekend, scavenging for some random parts I needed for a new project car when I noticed one of the cars there was equipped with a feature I'd been thirsting after ever since having it on my first ever E46 325ci - automatic lights & wipers. After a quick Google to look up what all is needed for the retrofit, I turned a quick parts trip into a 4-hour mission of untangling the whole wiring loom to look up exactly how everything is routed in order to get the end result as close to factory standard as possible. Turns out all you need is the rain-light sensor, bulkier mirror surround, LCM fascia panel with the auto lights position and 4 wires to run, then just enable the feature with PA Soft or similar and off you go. Of course the windshield itself will need modifying or replacing with one with a black surround where the sensor attaches to. I'm still hoping to catch a stray rock from a haulage truck passing by and get a brand new screen through insurance but might bust out some black paint and install it as is if I get bored in the meantime. Now I just need to find a towing module & wiring so I can rip out the interior and install this, the heated seat wiring and possibly dash cam + radar detector hardwiring all in one go.

One thing I'd been meaning to address ever since getting the car was the fact it only came with one key. Lose that and I'd be screwed. After putting it off for ages I was resigned to finally make my way to the dealership and drop $500 to have a spare made up... until I got to chatting to @Eagle who encouraged me to have a go at coding some keys myself. Having superficially looked into it aaaages ago I had filed the task away as something beyond the realm of my abilities but after all the sh*t I've seen and done over the past couple of years it didn't seem as daunting a mission on second glance. A couple of special tools/adapters were required but I was surprised to find you could get all that you need for under $100 off Aliexpress. Probably even half that but I also got a special adapter for an EWS4 that helps avoid any soldering since RealOEM had told me that's what my car had. Turns out it still had the older EWS3 in it so I could have gotten away with just the AK90 unit but I'm sure it'll come in handy eventually. Getting the EWS data read was a bit finnicky but once that was done the coding of the key itself went smoothly. Did the synchronising procedure in the car and the remote started successfully locking/unlocking the doors straight after. Only thing left to do was to get the key physically cut. Easier said than done. Took it in, got it back 5 minutes & $50 later, got home to the car only to discover the key was cut incorrectly and was essentially ruined. Took it back the next day, they ordered in a new blank key, cut it properly this time, somehow transferred the insides over from the previous one and I finally had a fully functional spare key the day after. Great success. If anyone needs a key coded in the Christchurch area feel free to hit me up, happy to help out. Will also tell you who to avoid going to to get it cut hahah.

The detailing mission still slowly chugging along, I took on tackling the front bumper, which is by far the roughest panel on the car. It's suffered quite a bit of abuse throughout its life and probably deserves a full respray but that's not something I'm willing to entertain at this point so will settle for an improvement instead of perfection for now. The mounting rails that slide onto the hanger brackets were already broken when I got the car with the passenger side one being particularly bad. The bumper was sagging quite badly initially but I managed to align it well enough that it wasn't too obvious. Was about time to properly address the issue though so I used it as an opportunity to further hone my plastic welding skills. Bent the broken bits back in place and melted in some steel mesh for reinforcement. Won't be good as new but will hold much better than before anyway. The paint was badly stone-chipped all over, beginning to crack in a few places and had a few rough scratches here and there as well. I polished it up best I could, touched up the rock chips and the worst of the scratches on the underside. The mesh grille was looking quite faded and rock chipped as well so gave it a few coats of paint to bring it back to black. Only got a before photo of it though. The trim inserts got some Carpro Perl treatment to rejuvenate the front end even further. The result was never going to be perfect but from a few feet away now looks infinitely more presentable, which was the best I could have hoped for without it becoming a full blown repaint. Mint.

On the first drive post subframe work last year I was going 80 on the motorway near Kaiapoi, going round the bend I suddenly spot a pair of steel cap boots smack in the middle of the road. Only caught sight of them at the very last second due to the car in front and had no time or space for any evasive manoeuvres so ended up running straight over them with a nasty sounding clunk. Didn't think much of it but later on discovered the damage - they'd busted through the plastic arch liner behind the driver side front wheel. Beyond the gaping hole, the liners didn't look great and were also cracked where they meet the front bumper on either side. Thought about replacing them but hadn't yet gotten to the point where I could justify dropping $164+GST each through the dealership. Then stumbled upon a set of aftermarket ones on Spareto, costing just 18€ + 11€ shipping each so around $100 shipped for both. Seemed a decent deal so tacked it on to my starter+brake booster order and was soon greeted with this ridiculously bulky package coming home one day. How this cost just $30-odd to ship all the way from Europe I have no idea but I'm not complaining. Proceeded to strip the old liners off only to discover the catch. The material of the replacement liners didn't feel great but seemed sturdy enough. The problem was the fitment though. The aftermarket one has a weird bulge where the original wraps around the chassis and is also missing one opening for where the reinforcement plate bolts in. Could probably be chopped up a bit and made to work but I couldn't bother with it. Was worth the punt at that price but will eventually get brand new front and rear liners when I've got a spare ~$700 burning a hole in my pocket. For now just duct taped up the new hole and smacked the old liners back on. With the liners and wings off the car I took the chance to give the area a good clean. Man did it need one... 20 years worth of mud, dirt and rotten leaves. Got a good scoop full from either side. Enough to start a wee veggie patch. Also took off the side skirts and cleaned up in behind those as well. With the wings and skirts off I gave them a cut and polish and touched up the worst stone chips & scratches to continue on with the detailing mission, also treating a couple of minor surface rust spots in the newly exposed areas.

Yes please! That's further down on the priority list for now but keen to know what works for when I get around to it.

It's a relatively straightforward job, no coding required, just 3 wires to run - 1 to the DME and 2 to splice into the LCM wiring. So long as that's done correctly it will just work. This guide is probably the most detailed one out there. I've got a spare set of Msport sway bars (24mm F & 19mm R) but yeah, down in Christchurch unfortunately. Happy to pass them along if you know of anyone heading up your way.

Perhaps I can make a contribution on the audio front to our collective knowledge on Touring audio - at least if I can be arsed doing it myself! I did initially think of the double-din android units like you and @adro have done, though can't be arsed on the extra cost of the unit and running in a Camera (as useful as that would be). I'd rather spend the extra on Konis 😊

Funny you say that. I recently discovered my B30 isn't as quick as a B30 either 😅 Still enjoy driving it although it's been a good 2 months since I have... I've not done anything on the audio front apart from the headunit so doubt you'll find anything useful.

So I finally got a replacement diff. Thanks to Jon for finding the car, a non-running M54B25 325i Touring, pre facelinft slicktop. It was quite a mission, aligning help from different mates. Won the auction, kindly lent car trailer by another mate. Road trip! All the way to Taranaki in my freshly-serviced F25 X3 X-Drive 30D, to pick up a 2000 325i Touring with the all-important 3.46 diff. Couldn't have done it without help of friends. Dragging the parts car home, Taranaki Diesel Fillup in Wanganui Having got back to Welly with a 700km round-trip day, I reflected on how well the X3 tows. The trailer towed well, the little X3 just torqued away. It turned out the oil that came out of the diff is nice and clean. Sadly the alternator had been nicked. Bonus was some speakers and an amp. Got some spare mirrors. And the post-recall airbag for sports steering wheel, so I'll be able to fit that wheel and get the steering wheel controls working, code up cruise control with luck (research needed). The rest of the parts car is now Jon's to part-out - so if you've been wanting to build an e46 Touring race car now's your chance! Nice clean oil out of the new diff. Photo: Jon @ Begley Motor Works Next weekend was Matariki, so I cleaned Blue Zoo and prepped it to take on a car club trip to the Wairarapa. Still such a fun car to drive. [EDIT] The Suspension is tiring, feeling a bit worn. [/EDIT] I think it's worth sorting out. The Hawk HPS pads are working beautifully. The ANSA replacement exhaust has a nicer rasp to it. Barely any louder, just a slightly different note. Ideal. Blue Zoo in the Wairarapa, 29 June 2024 So I need a FRONT Anti roll bar 24mm: P/N 31351094542 in excellent condition. Can anyone help? And it's time to get sorted with the Diff replacement, get the steering wheel swap done, and get some sounds sorted. I'll go for a Kenwood mechless head (like in Grey Thunder), fit the Alpine amp, and two-way component speakers in the front door to replace the factory units. I guess the boot speakers will be knackered too so I'll replace them. I'll also need to make sure I can use the steering wheel controls with new stereo, so there'll be a conversion unit there too. Perhaps August/September.

Awesome progress! god loves an e46 touring! Took mine on a club trip last weekend, the M54B25 certainly isn't quick like a B30, though the car remains enjoyable to drive. Going to hunt back through your thread looking at speakers and amplifier areas.

Has to be the best kept E46 in the country

Yes I have. Although i wasn't patient enough with the road rash bits, as it wiped too much off. (I need to do again). For normal chips its good and easier to level than OEM touch up paint. It's really the only option I can see for road rash areas. I would recommend.

Put in an order on a bunch of backordered genuine bits through Schmiedmann a while back. After a month-and-a-bit wait the package arrived. Mostly aesthetic stuff as well as some random maintenance items and titbits that never seem to be held in stock anywhere. Most exciting bits were the boot storage tray hook and nice new chrome tips for the ugly tailpipes. Also got a new DME relay (as per @Olaf's suggestion), a windshield washer strainer tube/rubber seal that had started leaking somehow, boot floor cargo straps, caps for front and rear washer reservoirs etc. etc. I'd been having a niggling issue with the windshield wipers where they would occasionally get "stuck" and refuse to work consistently. On intermittent mode, every second/third sweep they'd try to engage, jump a few cm, then abort the mission straight away and skip a sweep or two, then go back to working normally. In constant-on mode they'd work as they should. I wanted to get a brand new wiper relay along with the DME one but somehow a wiper relay is ~5x the price of a main relay ($30 vs $180...) so abandoned that thought with a quickness. Luckily I had a few spare used ones laying around, threw one of them in and the issue seems to have gone away. Another small annoyance ticked off the list. With the car in the garage for some other work I decided to tackle the starter replacement in my never-ending quest to hunt down the source of that niggly startup rattle. After much deliberation I went with a Hella brand one that originated from... *shock and horror* Size wise, the body of the Hella unit is slightly longer than the old Bosch one but fit in all the same. The old Bosch didn't show any noticeable wear but shaking it did produce a rattling noise that the new unit didn't have so I was hopeful it might be the culprit behind my paranoia. Went the least invasive route of tackling it - from the underside without removing neither the intake nor the gearbox. Not the most fun of jobs but got it done with the help of some wrist gymnastics, long extensions and swivel sockets. Ended up essentially doing the whole mission twice. Having hooked up the electrical leads the first time around and managing to start the bolts after a healthy dose of fiddling, the starter flat out refused to go all the way in with the dowel pin getting stuck half way on. After a bunch of swearing I gave up and ripped it back out and decided to try it on the starter adapter plate I'd made out of an old transmission bell housing when hunting for the oil leak post engine rebuild. Turns out the opening was just ever so slightly too tight and it would get stuck on the pin half way on. Filed away at it a little bit to open it up and things went much smoother at the second attempt. I've barely driven the car post install (because reasons) but, incredibly annoyingly, during the few startups it has had since the rattle still seems to be present. It must either be the gearbox itself or some sort of mental illness at this point.

Keen to see before and afters when you end up doing it!

Took care of some under the hood aesthetics to finish things off. The sagging fabric insulation was becoming an eye sore having shrunk to the point where the sides began to sag as the tabs wouldn't clip in anymore. Not sure if it serves much of a functional purpose, a lot of people seem to remove them altogether. Didn't want to leave it completely exposed as it looked a bit untidy so grabbed a foam one that the 4-cylinder cars came with. Also noticed the hood latches rusted up beyond the point that I could clean up so swapped those out for a couple of tidy ones as well. The release hook/handle had also been annoying me as every time you opened the hood it would press up against the grille and push it out so realigned it properly. I tacked on a pair of cheapo Maxgear xenon bulbs onto my latest order and now threw those in. The old bulbs were mismatched so just wanted something matching and at that price was worth a shot. Made quite a massive difference, straight away being noticeably brighter and of an even tone. Mint.

Continued on with the 'gentrification' by dropping in a new brake booster & master cylinder. Not that it necessarily needed it worth replacing after 20+ years of service since it was the last untouched component that could have been responsible for a suspected slight vacuum leak. Went with an OE ATE booster with a Febi master cylinder. Would have loved an ATE unit for the latter as well but unfortunately it was backordered, as were all other variants apart from the Febi one on Spareto and I wasn't keen on a 28 day wait. Febi obviously used a different casting method than the original but didn't look too bad quality wise. I guess time will tell as to its longevity. Transferred over the sensors, hoses and reservoir. I flushed the brake fluid when doing the engine swap and it still looked fresh up top, until I removed the strainer tube that revealed a puddle of black sludge sitting at the bottom of the reservoir. Glad to have all that washed out. With the booster disconnected I used the opportunity to easily take out the pedal box and change out the plastic pedal bushes. I hadn't thought of getting new ones at the time of the swap but did get a fresh set in the meantime, was just waiting for a chance to drop them in. I hadn't noticed any issues during normal operation but did notice the clutch pedal having some excessive side-to-side play when removing it, something that the new bushes tightened right up. The bleeding procedure was made infinitely easier by the cheapo pressure bleeder kit I picked up recently. Best $100 ever spent! Made the whole process an absolute breeze even as a one-man-band. Got the major bubbles out on all 4 corners, then ran the ABS bleeding procedure through INPA by routing my dedicated scanning laptop under the car using a bunch of USB cable extensions and bleeding the brakes through thoroughly once more. Then did the clutch and job's a good 'un. Whilst under there, I also drained the ATF from the gearbox and replaced it with some Redline MTL that @Sammo had generously given away. Absolute legend, owe you one mate. Threw on a new set of drain plugs along with it. Having driven it a few times since, naturally the MTL alone didn't make a night and day difference but feels like it added that little bit more weight to the shifts, making it feel a tad more solid and robust. I'm sure it also offers a bit more protection than the ATF so definitely glad to have the proper stuff in there now. Might be placebo but it also seems to have made it less prone to lurching when taking off in 1st gear. A bunch of effort for some slight 1% gains, all to get it closer to the point where I can just take the car out and enjoy driving it without fretting over something or another needing worked on. Finally getting there.

I then took a detour and decided to try and hunt down the annoying rattle coming somewhere from the passenger door region that had been eating away at me for months. Having taken the door card off I was greeted with this. Guess that's a quicker way of replacing a window regulator. I've of course had the door cards off before but somehow it hadn't registered. It would have been prior to the engine swap so the priorities would have been elsewhere. I then reached into the door and discovered a handful of glass shards. Would never have noticed it otherwise but the window was of some random brand and not stamped with a BMW logo like the rest of them. Only then I discovered that it was also the only side window to not have window tints. To top it off it also had a row of little gashes on the inside in one place from something rubbing against it. Not enough to notice on its own, but enough to annoy me having discovered it. I'm planning on redoing the window tints all round before next summer so figured I might as well have a set of original windows and not lock in some random, slightly damaged one. So, being the lunatic that I am, I set off to Pick-A-Part for a replacement original window and vapour barrier. Having carefully peeled away the vapour barrier and taken out the glass, I discovered that the car I'd been scavenging was pre-wired for heated seats. Score! The seats themselves were already taken, which made access to the wiring that much easier. Naturally I turned a quick half-hour trip for a new window glass into a 5-hour mission of extracting the heated seat wiring all in one piece... Got to satisfy my curiosity in knowing exactly how it was done from factory and have the full kit ready for when I eventually get around to ripping my interior apart again. What started off as trying to chase down a rattle had well and truly snowballed out of control. With the window out, I figured why stop there - I might as well remove the door handle and give the whole door a good cut and polish as well. It definitely needed it. From there on, the window regulator also came out, as did the whole door lock mechanism and everything else along with it until all that remained was the wiring. "But hey, since you've got it all apart, why not install some sound deadening", said my stupid brain. The door panel got the same treatment as the hood, minus the wet sanding. Came out pretty sweet. The door cavity got a proper cleanout with a vacuum and blown out with compressed air. The door lock mechanism, door handle and window regulator got cleaned and lubed up with some white lithium grease. All internals reassembled, I sealed it by taking a heat gun to the butyl tape attached to the new vapour barrier and sticking it on nice and snug. All the door and window rubbers also got some Gummi Pfledge treatment whilst I was at it. Not that there was anything noticeably wrong with it prior but the door handle and window regulator now seem to operate slightly smoother, and the door sounds that wee bit less tinny when slamming it shut. Took it for a quick test drive around the block and... ...the damn rattle is still there. Looks like it might have been the seat belt trim inside the B-pilar all along. Cars are pain.

Have barely driven the car of late, instead choosing to stumble down all manner of wormholes. First was an easy one. The typical cluster clock adjustment arms finally gave out so one of these 3D printed replacements got ordered in and installed. Quick and easy fix, 10/10 product. Then made a start on a task I've been putting off for the longest time - addressing the aesthetics, namely the shoddy state of the paintwork. Having zero prior experience in any sort of cutting & polishing it wasn't a task I'd been too confident in taking on, on a black car no less, but having pretty much resigned to eventually needing a full respray anyway I figured I might as well try my hand at it. Worst comes to worst it would just bring the timeline forward. Armed with some hands-on knowledge through a detailing clinic with United Car Care and a hodgepodge assortment of products I kicked off the journey. I started off on the hood as it looked in the most desperate need for a tidy up. Having done several passes with a heavy cut compound on a wool pad and seemingly not making any progress I went with the nuclear option and jumped head first into wet sanding. Not sure if I was doing it right, and it did look pretty scary at times, but somehow I seem to have gotten away with it. The sequence was as follows: Wash & clay bar. 2000-grit sandpaper on the heavier scratches & imperfections. Several passes with a Koch Chemie H9.01 heavy cut compound on wool pads with a 150mm DA & 75mm polisher for tighter spots. Fill in rock chips, remaining deep scratches and bird dropping etchings with touch-up paint. Menzerna 3 in 1 polish on medium foam pads. Clean down with a quick detailer. Protect with Fireball Pirouette. Still left with plenty of imperfections with some deep scratches going nowhere and touch-up paint making the inherited damage from the etched in bird sh*t only ever so slightly less apparent. Never going to win any awards but still heaps better than the swirly, scratched up mess that it was before. Will make turning up to club meets that wee bit less embarrassing anyway so have to be happy with the effort.

Managed to knock out the tedious task of repairing the boot harness over the past few weeks. Wasn't as straight-forward a process as I'd have liked but got there in the end. Also installed the reversing camera that had been sitting on the shelf for a good few years. Went with one that slots in instead of one of the number plate lights. Despite it being advertised specifically for an E46, turned out it didn't quite fit. Namely, it back cover was too large to fit into the housing and would hit the inside wall before reaching the seating surface. Had to take out the dremel and hack off quite a good chunk out of it until it clipped in, so much so that it left a few gaping holes in the thing that I sealed up with hot glue. Turned out quite ghetto, but as long as it works, it ain't stupid. The grommet for the boot wiring had been badly torn ever since I got the car so was long overdue being addressed. The plastic trims around the tailgate were also all busted up and were held in place with some disgusting goo that took quite a bit of effort to clean up. I already knew the black wire to be broken but also discovered the brown ground wire to be on its way out after cutting up the boot/grommet. The black wire was going up to the module under the hatch spoiler/brake light panel which turned out to be radio antenna amplifier. A few wires going in and out from either side so not exactly sure what that particular wire was supposedly powering. Never noticed issues with getting radio signal but good to have it repaired regardless. There was a lot of splicing involved. In total, there was 24 wires - 21 going to the main hatch and 3 to the glass window, all routed through the 3-legged "elephant trunk" harness. I went with this kit from Schmiedmann that included replacement wires, crimp connections and of course new boots/grommets. Weirdly, half of the crimp connectors were good quality ones with incorporated glued heatshrink sleeves and half were the shitty rigid plastic casing ones with no heatshrink. I wasn't a big fan of the latter so went out and bought some more to match the former, in sizes that I could find anyway. The kit looked like the perfect solution for the issue but unfortunately packed a major flaw, one that I only discovered having already hooked up the 3 wires going to the glass window. For some stupid reason the replacement grommet that goes to the body of the car was way too big to fit into the opening. The difference wasn't minor either but was a good 15-20mm longer than the original grommet. I tried ever which way to cram it in there but it just would not budge, the thing was just way too oversized. The process of reporting the issue to Schmiedmann turned out to be comically difficult. Must have gone back and forth with their representative a good 10+ times. Sent them the photos and the description of the issue, to which they said I must not have done it right, that the grommet is very flexible and should fit without issue, then demanded precise measurements of the grommets and the opening, photos of both grommets next to the opening, then claimed my car must not be standard as they've sold heaps of these and I'm the first one to complain so it's my fault somehow... All a bit silly as the photos really speak for themselves. The original grommet was already a tight fit into the opening and with the replacement one being proportionally longer by a good quarter there was just no way it would fit, without issue no less. The openings for the wires were the same size but the Schmiedmann grommet had about a cm of extra material either side of it compared to the original. Why they didn't just make it to match the genuine grommet I have no idea. In the end managed to claw out a partial 50% refund. Was going to use it on a new genuine grommet (part #61136900190) but unfortunately the lead times on those are 3-4 weeks and keeping the car out of action for that long wasn't an appealing option so I tried to make this one work by chopping it up. I cut away at the extra material either side of the opening and cut a new sealing groove with a razor, giving my fingers a good few cuts and bleeding all over the place in the process. Unfortunately, didn't take any photos of the end result as I didn't fancy taking it back out again after the first successful test-fitting, it didn't look pretty though. Luckily looks to have sealed up fine in the end. I'm a bit concerned about the angle the rubber folds at which makes me doubtful of its longevity, so I'm still putting an order in for a genuine grommet to have on hand as a backup. The most time consuming part was of course reconnecting the wires. Took my time numbering and labelling every wire to make sure nothing got crossed up. 48 crimps in total as well as soldering in the reversing camera connections and the new number plate light. Got quite repetitive in the end. In the end tidied up quite nicely. All the lights, boot latches and of course the reverse camera all fully functional without any hiccups, which was a great relief. I'm mindful of this solution introducing new potential failure points but the connection points should be far enough away from any moving parts that or pinch points that I'm fairly confident it won't be an issue. The shifty grommet is the main point of concern for me so will be something I keep my eye on.

Brake booster is another possibility. I heard mine but you could try to smoke test it if you remove the one way valve or make a test hose.

A few months ago I helped @Carbon manual swap his E39 530i. Awesome car, a stunning topaz blue 2001 Msport sitting on Style 65's. Shortly after the swap he stumbled upon a cheap, grandpa spec 530i and just couldn't pass it up. Despite the newly manual swapped one having tonnes of maintenance items ticked off and the newest purchase, although being tidy for its age and price, being borderline neglected, he was adamant about the former being noticeably low on power in comparison. My butt dyno wasn't as well calibrated so I couldn't feel much of a difference but to make it scientific, he organised to put both of them on a dyno power run and find out for sure. To satisfy my own curiosity and to add an extra point of comparison, I tagged along. Three M54B30's put to the test. First one up was the 2001 Msport 530i with around 150k km's on the clock, manual swapped with a 5-speed ZF and single mass Valeo flywheel. Maintenance included a rebuilt VANOS, rebuilt DISA, new fuel filter, new genuine camshaft & MAF sensors amongst other things so by all means well up to standard and running the latest EU2 tune. Somehow, it only managed to push out 250 Nm & 157 hp. The air-fuel ratio held steady up to around 4k RPM at which point it fell off a cliff, taking the power numbers down with it. The drop-off seems to occur roughly at the point VANOS and DISA kick in so we suspect one or the other. Currently in the process of swapping over VANOS units so will see what that does. Second was my Touring. Roughly 10k km's post engine rebuild, all reasonable and unreasonable maintenance addressed and well documented. The torque curve looked a wee bit better but still ended up low on power, pushing out 255 Nm & 166 hp. It seemed to be running on the rich side throughout. The tuner said he usually aims for an air-fuel ratio of around 13 when remapping NA engines, mine were floating around 11. He was fairly confident that with a remap there's easily another 20 hp in there and that he could tune for it but it's best to figure out why the mixture is as rich as it is in the first place. And lastly, the grandpa spec 2002 530i automatic with around 180k km's. Still very tidy for its age but out of the three definitely the least looked after and borderline mechanically neglected. Post-dyno we also discovered the DISA to be completely broken and non-functioning - the flap being completely loose and dangling around the shaft, unconnected. Lucky that the infamous pin hadn't dropped into the engine. All this made the results all the more puzzling... 268 Nm (disregarding the early peak) and 186 hp. What the actual hell. The M54B30 is supposed to produce 228 hp at the crank. Account for ~15% in driveline losses, the figure to aim for should be 194 hp at the hubs. The blue car fell 37 hp (19%) short of that figure, mine 28 hp (14%). The grey "broken" car had barely lost any power whilst we and our pReVeNtAtIvE mAiNtEnAnCe had basically managed to downgrade our engines to M54B25's. I guess the takeaway here being that we've both just wasted stupid amounts of money on upkeep and trivial brand new parts when all they needed was a healthy dose of neglect. Less is more. Grandpa spec FTW. I went back to the readings I pulled when I suspected I might have a vacuum leak, with the LTFT's sitting at 8.6%. Sure enough, the 8.6% actually had a '-' in front of it so I had been running rich this whole time, just wasn't clued up on how to read fuel trims properly to realise it at the time. I've since read up on there being a faulty batch of Hengst fuel filters out there with faulty fuel pressure regulators that produce around 60 PSI of pressure at the rail instead of the spec of 50.76 +/- 2.9 PSI. Sure enough, I had installed a Hengst filter just this past October so suspected it might be the cause of my rich running. I hoped for that to be the cause since that would have been an easy fix. So I went out and got a fuel pressure tester to verify only to find that it sits at a steady 52 PSI at idle - well within spec. With the engine turned off, the pressure quickly drops to 48 PSI and then holds steady for at least half an hour, which would also rule out leaky injectors. I tried clearing all adaptations, then ran the car at idle, logging running parameters and sure enough, after a few minutes STFT's shoot straight into the negative territory, sitting at around -15%. Something's not quite right and I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it further. The lack of power itself isn't really that noticeable since I barely ever push the car to its limit but constant rich running can't be good for it. MAF, O2 sensors are brand new OE, DISA is rebuilt and seemingly operating properly (which, judging by the grey car, might actually be a detriment), ICV cleaned, fresh VANOS seals etc etc. I could just go back to the dyno and have the car professionally tuned to aim for an AFR of 13-14 but would be good to figure out why it's currently running as rich as it is. Otherwise, if the issue eventually somehow fixes itself I might end up on the lean side instead. Could it be something to do with the EU2 tune and it being adjusted to the petrol used in Europe that's somehow different to what we're using here? Then again all 3 cars are running EU2 tunes and 95 octane so that shouldn't be a point of difference. All in all, the dyno experience was a good one and well worth doing, despite coming out of it slightly demoralised. Will need to do some more thorough data logging and keep myself up at night even more. Once the car is ready to see the light of day again that is.