Karter16

Looking good - really enjoying following your progress! keep it up!

I full agree with your advice @M3_Power it’s so important to keep pressing, especially if you feel that you’re not being taken seriously. With my son we were fortunate that he presented with some very clear symptoms that meant the escalation path was clear (weird to be using the word “fortunate” to describe that experience). 12 hours later he was under the Gastro team at Starship, who have been absolutely incredible. The nurses and doctors at Starship are fantastic and have supported us through long months of admissions. Its an absolutely horrible experience when your child is sick with a disease/condition and there’s really very little you can do to make it better, and I can’t imagine what it must be like to be fighting to be taken seriously at the same time... I wish you and your family all the best in the journey ahead. It’s a very hard road that, despite best intentions, people can’t fully appreciate if they haven’t travelled a similar path...

I don’t even want to think about totaling what I’ve spent so far?

Just bought a second hand E46 M3 muffler for $8. ? I don't really need another one, but for $8 I couldn't come up with a reason to not get it!

Update #21 Been meaning to post an update for a while, but have kept putting it off.. In August last year my son was born, at two and a half weeks old he was rushed to Starship and after a week of tests was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition. As a result of the condition he has liver disease and we've spent the last year in and out of Starship (more in than out for most of the year). Its been pretty hard on my wife and I, several times in the last year things have looked pretty grim, the last couple of months have been a bit quieter and we're hoping that that continues for a while. Progress on the car has obviously been non-existent as a result. I haven't had much opportunity to drive it (apart from some trips to and from hospital), it's ticked over about 2000km since I did the rod bearings. I dropped by Auckland City BMW a couple of weekends ago and picked up oil and filter ready for a change. I'll post here when I do. Excitingly though we're in the process of buying a house (cause we haven't had enough excitement for the year), which means that the car will hopefully be garaged in the near future (hooray!). Which means that I can start getting onto the cosmetic side of things, which I've been intentionally ignoring while the car was somewhat exposed to the elements. I haven't planned in detail, but a rough list of things to do are (no particular order other than mechanical being higher priority than cosmetic): Structural Foam in front RACP mounts. Mechanical fan replacement. Water pump replacement. Attempt to get to and clean the ICV without breaking the little clip on the SMG reservoir. Remove the additional trailer connector wiring in the boot. Replace the plastic bits on the bonnet and the plastic weatherstrip at the bottom of the windscreen. Replace the side indicator enclosures with new ones that aren't UV damaged. Replace the weather trim on the B Pillar exteriors. Re-align driver's side door. Re-align and plastic weld front bumper. Re-align and plastic weld rear bumper where it's been attacked to make e-bay diffuser fit. Replace said e-bay diffuser with OE. Remove window tinting now that the car will be garaged (looking forward to being able to see when reversing at night). Inspect the underbody restoration work done a year ago and make sure all is well. Hopefully its not so long to the next update!

Unless it's changed recently I think that BMW's response will be that if the cracks are less than 20mm (from memory) they advise welding repair and foam in the rear mounts if not already done (foam after welding, unless you want everything to be on fire ?), and if the cracks are more than 20mm I believe the official advice is a replacement RACP.... Will definitely provide an update here (http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/57571-karter-16s-e46-m3-journal/) when I do the foam on the front mounts - and sure, provided it's successful I'd be happy to pass on what I've learned! Remember as well that although it's definitely something to be aware of and keep an eye on it shouldn't take away the enjoyment of the car in the mean time! The real danger is not knowing/assuming it's not a problem!!

Ha - I looked at buying this car in 2008 at which point it had about 140k on it from memory. Fortunately I decided to wait and pay off my student loan instead. Glad I did, not sure I was mature enough for a powerful car and the need for lots of proactive maintenance!

Yeah the RACP/subframe is definitely worth reinforcing. Also it's worth noting that unless the shop removed/dropped the subframe to inspect the RACP mounts it's still possible that you've got some cracking that isn't visible yet (like mine had). In terms of reinforcement, there are different views, the prevailing view when I did mine 18 months ago was that the only way to really solve the issue was to move the load away from the RACP mounts and spot welds. The advice at that time was to use a "bar" approach to redirect the load, and I'd almost certainly have gone this route if I was tracking my car. As it is I'm not pushing my car to the limits and I decided to go down the route of a combination of epoxied plates and structural foam. My car had had the structural foam injected into the rear points by BMW as part of the corrective action. My rear points have zero cracking in them as of ~150k. The front points had some reasonably minor cracking (one of which someone had attempted to repair previously). We drilled and welded the cracks and then epoxied reinforcement plates on all 4 mounts. I'll also be foaming the front two points (as soon as my 11 month old stays out of starship long enough). Couple of general observations from my research. There seem to be very few cases of cracks appearing after the structural foam has been applied. There is a lot of debate around welding/epoxying plates, I opted for epoxy to ensure an even spread of load across the surface, rather than only around the weld edges. (it's worth noting that you can't weld after you've epoxied unless you want to risk setting fire to everything). The bar approach (e.g. Mason Bar, Vince Bar, CMP Bar) that redirects load appears to be a very good solution, although it's more intrusive in terms of installation. No one has the definitive answer as to what's best, as a lot of the newer methods haven't been around long enough to fully prove. There are definitely cases where welded reinforcement plates have failed/resulted in more cracks. It's worth being realistic about how bullet proof you need to make it. I can't recommend where to go to get this stuff done as I did mine myself. I would think that the indy shops generally recommended here would be able to help, but happy to give you any other detail/info from my experiences if it's useful at any stage.

Very nice - saw this when it was advertised - hope you have a long and happy ownership!

So this arrived today from BMW AG. Goes nicely with my collection!

Is that M logo in the bubble wrap for an E46 M3? I can't quite see through the bubble wrap. If so is it genuine?

Nice man! welcome! - will keep an eye out for you when I'm out and about :-)

I'm pretty sure that the front rotor size is different between the USA (non-ZCP) and Euro spec M3's. Might be worth checking at least :-)

yeah they've got that behind the rear headrests, but not for the front.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNHViIgmQo0

How you see them in the photo is how they are normally. The vert has no B pillar to mount the front seatbelts on, so the driver and passenger seat are reinforced and the seatbelt is mounted there next to the headrest.

That's the Roll Over Protection System/seatbelt mounts that verts come with.

Mine were almost toast at 140k (only put a couple of thousand k on it after buying and before doing the bearings). Mine is an '05 so wasn't part of the recall/preventative action/whatever BMW call it. That's only my experience and I don't know for sure how the owners before me treated the car - lots of other people seem to get more mileage out of them, but going forward I'll be playing it safe and replacing maybe every 80k-100k (If I ever put that many k's on the car!!) Hope my entirely subjective and non-statistically significant opinion is helpful!

I think Neal was suggesting that Brent does an oil sample. I don't think there'd be much point in you doing one now - you know the rod is spun and that you've got work to do. Oil sample would more be an indicator of likely bearing wear for someone who was trying to tell how worn their bearings were without looking at them. (also FWIW a single oil analysis isn't so helpful, it's more a series of them that can show a trend (e.g. more lead/more copper over time)). Good luck with getting your car sorted, sounds like you probably have a bit of work ahead to ascertain the condition of the rod, crankshaft, etc.

Today I looked at it and thought to myself that it desperately needs a wash. Our 6 month old has been in and out of hospital a lot since birth so understandably attention for the BMW has been minimal. When I find time it'll be getting a good clean and an oil and filter change as coming up about 1800km since the rod-bearings replacement (the car not the baby).

So as I understand it, if the rego has lapsed for more than 12 months NZTA cancel the registration and chase the owner for payment of the registration fees. So you'd be looking at the cost of reregistering (http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/licensing-rego/vehicle-fees/registration-fees/). I would think you'd also want to establish whether the previous owner had paid up to NZTA for the registration for the first 12 months it was lapsed. If not then you're probably up for that as well.

Nice one - I live in Greenhithe, so that view is very familiar to me!

Very nice! The background in that second picture looks familiar ;-) - Did you get the car in Auckland?

Hi all, If anyone is interested I can provide paper templates for those who want to manufacture their own E46 M3 RACP reinforcement plates. The plates and process are as per this thread: http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/57571-karter-16s-e46-m3-journal/ The templates come with the expectation that final adjustments will be needed for fitting. The individual pieces of the plates need to be welded together. Some pieces can be folded. The plates were designed with the intent of epoxy affixing to the RACP using 3M 7333 Epoxy. The plates come with zero warranty/guarantee, however I have reasonably high standards and I fitted these to my car. I am aware that RACP plates only solve part of the problem (and indeed might cause new ones), something which everyone should be aware of before they do anything to their RACP. I fitted these plates as a part solution. I am using the BMW structural epoxy to reinforce the front mount points as well (rear points already done under BMW corrective action in my case). I am not tracking my car, and I'm not rough on it. If you are looking for a super solution you should look at a Mason bar and/or other such more comprehensive solutions. These plates require DIY skills, welding skills, etc. but are offered as they will help others save time if they are wanting to go down the DIY route. No charge - happy to copy the paper templates and post within NZ for free. Cheers, Matt

How's everything going? Any updates?

Or New Vegas?