M3AN

Very little adjustment available so I'll spec my own: Max front camber that can be matched both sides (up to 2 degrees), I'll be surprised if they can get much more than 1.6* so about ideal. Weighing up either 0 toe or perhaps 10 minutes toe out up front for turn-in, if I go out at the front I'll go toe in (50% of front e.g. 5 minutes) at the rear for tracking. Might go for 0 all around to experience the new camber changes alone... undecided. Raise the rear ride height by 5mm - to see if that eliminates the slight rubbing I get with the 255's on there at the moment. Max rear camber which will be very little I imagine (I don't know what e87 spec is to be honest). I have a bit of time to decide, can't get an alignment until next week now. The M3 will get some love in the meantime.

It won't be going further than the alignment shop anyway really. I did expect it after swapping M3 suspension into my old 328 which, even with an eye alignment, still felt sketchy. It's amazing what a few degrees of this and that can do!

Ahh, diesel only, I didn't realise. Still that FCP price for a BEHR one seems pretty sharp.

Interesting part, it's only used on the 4 cylinder and boosted E8x/E9x cars, the NA 6's use a different part. But that does mean pretty much every wrecker in NZ will have one from a 116, 118, 120 etc... for dirt cheap (~$30). Turners have one from US$100 which is pretty good for a new one, not sure on shipping. FCP is cheaper: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products?keywords=64539229021

I finished the front control arms today, greased, reinstalled and torqued the upper arms and greased, installed and torqued the new lower arms. I also installed the replacement headlight adjuster (Xenon) arm. A few tips: Have a T40 torx bit handy in case you need to hold/lock the ball joint shafts. The M3 bearing assembly on the lower arm is a fraction wider (~0.5mm) than the standard item but a bit of gentle persuasion with a rubber mallet and a block of wood fixed that (3 mins per side). None of the DIY's I read mentioned that the new headlight adjuster arm doesn't come with nuts, you can reuse one from the stock item but you'll need another. A quick bike ride to Mitre 10 and I had a pack of stainless self locking M6 nuts. Took it for a quick drive around the block to see if there were any knocks and, as expected it handles terribly, dangerously even. I certainly wouldn't allow anyone else to drive it in this state. But no knocks and an alignment this week. Also nice to meet @Navin today when he came and picked up the spare M3 arms for what I paid for them so that worked out perfectly. Lovely E82 mate! Holy camber Batman!

Failed to remove the oil filter cap for an oil change so skipped that and moved on to installing the M3 front control arms. I was utterly stoked to find all of the nuts and bolts are new(ish) and had anti-seize on the threads. Somebody has loved this one in the past. Low and behold, as I inspected the current upper arms I noted that they were poly-bushed but removed one anyway to check it out. Turns out it's already an M3 arm, same length as the one I had to put in from the M3... Edit: I've been advised that the M3 and stock arms are the same length, only the bushing is better, the M3 one is far superior to the stock one. The poly bush negates that advantage. So, unless I'm advised otherwise the poly-bushed ones will go back in and I'll sell I've sold (1 hour) the M3 ones to recover my costs. Lower arms are definitely stock... And the M3 bushing is obviously far superior... Should finish tomorrow, then off to Autolign for an alignment.

The cap is in really good condition so I don't want to damage it. The tool I'm using is suitable, it just wont grip hard enough (so not really suitable lol). I've seen the proper tool but thought I'd get away without it. @Jacko - I might take you up on the offer, you'll need to come to our July coffee meet! ?

Failed to do an oil change on the 130... lucky I tried to remove the filter cap before I undid the sump plug. Have an oil filter cap strap wrench and still, there's no way that bugger is coming off with just that! Need to put my thinking cap back on. It's not due, just peace of mind. In the process of putting the M3 control arms in so not much wasted time really.

Does TPMS apply to runflats? If so I'd expect you to need to use the valves because the wheelspeed sensor wouldn't see a meaningful change.

Hi folks, I have a 'lowly' N52 but it does have the 6HP box, a couple of questions for you: Do you know where you can find the version of the software already running on your transmission? I don't have XHP (yet) but I do have a suite of BMW software. I think my trans might have a tune but would like to confirm. And, with XHP do you get gear indicators (not shift indicators) when in normal drive? i.e. D1, D2... D6? I already get that it sport manual mode (M1, M2, M3 etc) but I'd also like it in normal drive. Cheers.

Gaudy is the word that immediately springs to my mind.

S65

Cool, that's what I thought (and thought I said).

No, not at all, "factory" is perfectly fine, thanks for the confirmation and paint me floored. I won't repeat it, I might get banned, but your description is apt.

As a bit of a left-field consideration... since you seem to be able to set it and it then goes out over a relatively short period of time... Are you confident the timing chain, guides and tensioners are good? I can imagine a scenario where if the chain were a little bit out of kilter it could (because of the VVT/Valvetronic) pull the timing out of kilter also. Having said that, I'd expect it to get progressively worse to the point of not starting, rather than settle.

Are you using an obtuse way of saying coding and registering are mutually exclusive or have I misunderstood?

I'll take it out of the mathematical realm because, to be honest, I'm not following the math. Could @3pedals numbers be considered representatively accurate even if they're not literally accurate? i.e. could they represent the real-world outcome even if they're not precise? Genuine question, I really don't know. Either way, I do agree that empirical, experience based evidence is more valuable than theoretical modelling.

Regardless of whether the "style language" catches on, they're disproportionate and non-functional (either largely or entirely blanked off). That they've actually admitted why they've done it, to pander to the predominantly Chinese Asian market, makes it even worse. That's the tail wagging the traditional BMW dog as naked as can be. Tesla have already convinced many people that cars can look better without grills, it's difficult to see where BMW are going with this. Maybe they'll eventually just paint them on? Pure engineering that.

Remember, unless the new battery is exactly the same type (not brand) and has exactly the specs as the one coming out it needs to be coded and registered.

They were also making fun of front wheel drives.

Although that would be a rip-off it's good to know. A bit like my exhaust... just not economical to build but some people do it anyway! or any BMWP part lol.

Very rarely do these people create their own base tunes on a dyno, they're typically downloaded from international subscription databases that contain images that have been developed on a dyno. I'm not sure what extra tuning you can do without a dyno... it would all be guesswork I'd think.

It's alive! ?

Sorry if I missed it elsewhere, who's doing the tune? Do you know what you're getting yet?

Hi Kyle, Do you still have the swaybar? If so and it's genuine M3 I'll take it and the bushes for $200. Any reason you're selling and not putting it on the 130?