Karter16

Quick update - today the replacement auto-dimming mirror glass for the rear view mirror arrived. I've been meaning to get this sorted since I bought the car in 2015!!! I also received notification over the weekend that the shipment of parts I'm waiting on is with NZ Customs, so just waiting for them to send me the bill and then it will be cleared for delivery. I'm particularly looking forward to getting the rear seat sound insulation and the bracket and handbrake boot for the centre console!

“I don’t need a professional, I’ll just do it myself” what they did:

It’s expired certificate time again admins 🙂

ah lucky you! right on your doorstep!

The Coromandel coast road is a great drive when there's not too much traffic. I like to pair it with Kawakawa Bay to Miranda road if I have time - that road really suits the E46 M3.

It’s to reduce noise coming into the cabin through the rear seat. The seat itself actually does a lot of this. You can certainly just remove it and have the seat on bare, that’s how I’ve been driving round the last few weeks. So not strictly necessary for sure.

Well doesn't time fly when you have children and a busy job! Since my last post I've spend a lot of time with children in hospital and busy with a major go-live at work. I have however managed to drive the car a number of times and enjoy the CSL seats. They make such a difference to the driving experience, you feel so much more connected to the road, held in place, and also means a noticeably quieter interior as they don't move or squeak at all. I've also been working on furthering the refresh of the interior. To this end I dropped by M3_Power's the other day and picked up this: It's a slippery slope.... The quality of the console is amazing, and I was surprised how lightweight it is (which I shouldn't have been given its carbon fibre). Replacing the standard console with this one gives me multiple benefits. Firstly of course it's awesome, secondly it will be nice to not have my elbow bumping into it, thirdly it gives me the opportunity to properly pull the standard one apart and rebuild it without the squeaks (I purchased a number of replacement parts for it some time ago, so will be able to get to work on it once I've swapped it out). I have an order coming for the other bits and pieces I need for the console-swap (mounting bracket, handbrake boot, etc.), so actually swapping it in will probably be a Christmas holidays job. The other thing I picked up from M3_Power was this: The MSport interior (G7AT) uses the same Laser cloth centres as the CSL seats, and the bolsters are Alcantara. The Alcantara is very close in colour to the Amaretta that comes on the CSL seats, it's a couple of shades different, but close enough that you can't tell unless you put them side by side. This is great for me as it means I can put my black leather rear seat into storage along with the fronts to keep them in good condition and can have rears in the car that pretty much match the CSL fronts. I need to give these seats a clean, but also before they go in the car I have a few other things to do. Under the rear seat is a butyl-like sound deadening insulation. As we know this goes brittle over time. I removed mine intending to replace it, but when I looked up the part number to replace it I encountered something interesting. The part number on what I removed is 51488204055 and is indeed the butyl-style item. Checking on realoem, etc. however this part is not listed as ever having been spec'd to the M3, only to the standard 3 series! As we know realoem isn't infallible, so likely what has happened is that it was used from the factory and then superseded at a later time, and realoem isn't showing the history. I intend to dig into it in more detail when I get a chance. The item that realoem lists (51488252759) is a newer woolly type item as used on newer BMWs. It's very lovely and it looks like this: Although it's not the original item, it should be better in every respect, will last better, weighs less than half as much, etc. So I decided to go ahead and order it. It's on it's way and again will hopefully be here in time for the Christmas break. The other thing I need to do with the rear seat out is remove the access covers for the fuel pumps, strip them and repaint them, as they are rusting along one edge where moisture has presumably come down through the seat. At the same time I'll strip and repaint the ISOFix anchors as well. Once all that's done then I'll put the new to me rear seat in. In the same order I've ordered a bunch of other bits and pieces, notably including Titan Shadow dash trim to replace my silver set. I've also ordered some BM-3109 fabric to have a go at redoing the A/B/C pillars. I object to the current price of new ones, and also many people have had trouble recently with the fabric not matching on new items from BMW, so I'll go the DIY route first. If it's not successful (e.g. if I'm not skilled enough at upholstery) then I'll stump up the cash. Oh and I finally ordered a replacement ISOFix cover which was actually the very first part I put on my "parts to purchase" spreadsheet back in 2015! Anyway - lots of bits and pieces on the go, hopefully everything arrives in time for the Christmas break, when I will hopefully have some time here and there to apply some of the increasing pile of parts to the car 🙂

My goodness - the plate history on that car is dizzying Plate Effective Date CKE614 22-Dec-2004 MMMPWR 09-Oct-2004 CDC836 02-Jul-2004 DDGDD 30-Apr-2004 BTT129 30-Jan-2004 E46M3 13-Jan-2004 BSW377 05-Jan-2004

a boy-racer'd silver E90 on Quay St this evening. The burble and pop tune was so over the top that the car sounded like a truck jake braking every time he lifted off the gas 🤦‍♂️

A lovely silver E39 on Glenfield Road this evening. Came up behind it and was admiring it as I drove past. The driver then caught up with me to complement my car. Such beautiful cars!

Good stuff! Glad it’s going to someone on here!!

*Disclaimer* I've read the stickies in both this sub-forum and the "For Sale" sub-forum and I think that this is where I am supposed to/allowed to post this. The sticky in this sub says you're allowed to post trademe listings you own in the "For Sale" section, but then a reply from a mod to the sticky in the "For Sale" section says if you want to sell as an auction then you need to use Trademe... So... I think this is the right place. Apologies to the mods if I've interpreted the rules incorrectly. I have for sale on Trademe the old steering wheel out of my 2005 E46 M3. I have set it to $1 reserve as a) can't work out a good way to realistically price in NZ and b) would like it to get out of my house and to someone who has a use for it. Details and link below: This wheel is out of a 2005 E46 M3 and comes with wheel, upper trim with multi-function buttons, lower trim, SMG paddles, wiring, etc. It does NOT come with airbag. This wheel is in generally poor condition as can be seen in the photos. However the upper trim with buttons is in excellent condition, with no scratches or marks that I can see. It therefore probably makes a great candidate wheel for someone who wants to get it re-wrapped and the lower trim repainted. Note also that the paint is bubbling on the back of the SMG paddles where your fingers rest. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/bmw/steering/listing/4272553508

Can’t wait to see the end result!! Such a cool project

Front strut brace was added from March 2002 production onwards. Given this is an '02 it's possible it didn't come with one from the factory.

Sorry didn’t mean that to come across as short - was making dinner and looking after little one at the same time and just read it back to myself!!

Looking at your thread on the electronics forum - voltage either side of the resistor won’t tell you anything as LEDs have a fixed voltage drop (approx 1.8v in this case), voltage drop across the resistors will therefore be fixed. V=IR therefore means, in this case, that with fixed voltage drop across resistors and varying resistance, the current will vary through each LED, which in turn will influence brightness (although not enough to be able to tell it would seem) so 🤷‍♂️

I wonder if it’s something to do with the button icons having different surface areas that illuminate, and they have adjusted the brightness of each LED so the brightness of each button appears to match?

Great stuff!!! Very cool 😎

Oh yours is next level! You could just about slap a badge on that and sell it!

Might be worth having a look at https://github.com/Wnthr/arduino-alpine-remote/blob/master/src/AlpineRemote.cpp which might be helpful in that it references the hex codes to send for various commands. Might be an easier place to start than trying to capture the IR signals and replay them. I note that the readme.md on that project indicates that it's a variation on the standard NEC IR protocol. Cool project!

Yeah that's what Dad and I did a few years ago when we were applying 3M 7333 epoxy to the RACP reinforcement plates - ours looked like the below. It worked great, and was better than spending hundreds of dollars on something we needed to use once.

looks like the valueline rear bumper part number 51128222609 to me.

Hey thanks for that - good to have your details as I do have a couple of other pieces of the interior that I'd like to get touched up, so will reach out to you when I'm ready for that 👍

Yeah I'm thinking that I'll probably go down this route. The current silver trim I have is absolutely flawless, so thinking that I'll sell it on to someone who wants the silver and then replace with a new set of Titan Shadow rather than painting over trim that's in mint condition. I don't have to do the door handles as a previous owner had them wrapped in leather/pleather and it's actually a pretty decent job and wears well, so will probably leave as is.

Well another weekend day, another nap time, another short window to get some stuff done on the car. The plan for the day was replacing the steering wheel with the new OE item that I purchased last year, but while I waited after disconnecting the battery to be sure to be sure that the airbags were clear to work with I decided that today was finally replacing the gas struts on the boot so that the car no longer sounds like a dying goat when you open the boot lid. The old one The new one - not genuine because I couldn't justify $50 more each to get the "E46 M3" stamp on the genuine one, given these are probably going to start groaning again after a couple of years anyway. Then it was on to swapping out the wheel. Pressing in on the clock springs to release the airbag is the trickiest part of the exercise, but even that was pretty straightforward as I had the new wheel to refer to which meant I was able to see exactly what it was I was trying to press on, and how much force was needed to depress the spring. I had the old one out in fairly short order. And the new one was even easier to install. Pushing the airbag back into place at the end is extremely satisfying. Am planning on getting the dash and gear surround trim in Titan Shadow at some point so that it all matches/looks original.