M3AN

It would be interesting to see what that exhaust system looked like underneath, it's certainly not stock BMW. Nice car though and welcome! Glad you're enjoying it. ?

For the record, brand new rear wheel bearings and shocks. Thanks to @zero for his help and company again!

But anyway... With the help of Nathan (@zero) I reassembled the rear end of the 328 today with new wheel bearings and shocks. That whole job was a total PITA, I don't think I'd do it again, I'd probably take it to a shop. Would still be working on it if it wasn't for Nathan so thanks mate! Pro tip 1: you do NOT need to remove the half shafts if that's going to be difficult for you, mark the camber bolt and remove the upper and lower arms from the spindle and you'll be able to lever the arm using the flex the RTAB gives you so the axle stub can be removed. Pro tip 2: reinstall the handbrake shoe assembly BEFORE putting the hub back on. Ask us how we know. Now to the new front shocks have to go in, then the 3rd alignment in 18 months and we're good to get a warrant. Don't you love "cheap" cars? Almost brand new from the inside out.

I reckon it's crooked and high, I think it should be vertically centred in the recess... might be wrong but aesthetically it doesn't suit me.

Sure that can't be mounted any lower? Looks like it's in the wrong place...

For the Hilux? ? I have a set, will PM you.

I didn't think BMW made M engines available to their "partner" aftermarket companies? Perhaps that's changed or I'm altogether wrong. It was my understanding that the only way to get a "hotter" M was to buy one retail then mod it. Which makes perfect sense to me. Who would buy an ///Mx knowing that Alpina (or any other "official partner") will rapidly release an even more powerful model?

Also, if you jack up each corner as you bleed that corner you'll encourage any bubbles that are in there to pop out.

Remove, clean and test the throttle position sensor (TPS) also. Mine gave me all sorts of crazy engine symptoms until I tracked it down. You need a range of ~3 ohms between min and max throttle on both sets of pins (centre+left, centre+right) as you actuate the sensor by hand. It should be a smooth increase (one side) and decrease (the other side). Range should be from about 1.5 ohms to 4.5 ohms but the ~3 ohm delta is the important part.

There's probably an ABS bleed procedure too (there is as far back as the e36) so if you have air trapped in the abs solenoid unit when you bled the system it'll just continue to travel around and give you a soft pedal. On the e36 the ABS unit itself has a bleed nipple, not sure about other BMW's.

Mine too. Somebody told me that in NZ (not sure about other countries) dealers injected it at an Inspection II as a preventative measure (to stop the covers blowing off once the solenoid seals failed). There was apparently no customer notification (how arrogant of any company, to do something to somebody's property and then elect not to tell them). So, I suppose the good news is that it was being serviced properly by the owner at the time.

One month should be fine, no need to drive it. Run the fuel down to 1/4 a tank if you can. If you disconnect the battery then any alarm won't work (properly) but if that's not a concern can't you lock and unlock the boot with a key? Either way, unless there's an electrical problem with the car the battery should be fine after a month. Enjoy the holiday!

No, not that way. I think I was lucky, with the puller on for a few days they came off easily enough.

Calipers are certainly one side only, brackets it depends. They'll be a mirror image but if they're ALSO symmetrical then they can be used on either side. Check RealOEM to see if there are different part numbers.

I'd jump down the throat of $500 and wouldn't even consider prepping it myself for that. Seems like a sharp price. What do you have to remove from the alu doors? And then it's just the indicator and two trim pieces per side, 5 mins work.

I agree that some blending is likely to be necessary and their proposal seems reasonable. You can of course save a lot by doing the prep on the doors yourself if you're so inclined. It's just sanding and primer, depends on how much they're proposing for that stage (they usually get the shop lackey to do it).

Did you remove the securing bolt from the rotor before trying to remove it? It's still in on your pics. Those calipers actually look really good...I'll be interested to see how the paint lives up to the abuse it's going to get. Good colour choice too, would look mint on my M3 I think.

1. did you have excessive oil temps before? If not, adding an oil cooler will do nothing except increase the amount of oil you need to fill it up with. 2. No, the hydraulic tensioners can last for 100's of thousands of km's, the mechanical ones die quickly however.

Long time no update... some info in the 'Today' thread but... Failed a warrant (expected) because of RHS rear wheel bearing and cracked front fog light. Also got an advisory for leaking front shocks (hey, they were free!). Purchased and installed black blanking plates for the fogs, no more crack. Purchased 2 front and 2 rear OE M3 Sachs shocks. Purchased two OEM (Meyle HD) rear wheel bearings and put them in the freezer. First I had to free the axle stubs from the hubs and remove the rotors... not a recommended method because your rotors could explode (see YouTube), but the only way I had... and it nailed both. Keep the lug bolts in loosely so steel doesn't fly everywhere. Then I had all sorts of drama getting the rear hubs off until I purchased a slide hammer hub puller... then the job took 2 mins for both sides. $119, almost certainly won't last a lifetime but that doesn't concern me in the slightest. Then I couldn't remove the half shafts from the diff so took the RHS arm off. As it turns out you don't need to remove the whole arm, if you undo the upper and lower control arms you can pivot the spindle and free the axle without removing the whole arm. If you mark the position of the camber bolt then this method is WAY easier than either removing the arm or removing the axle. In fact I can't understand why you'd ever bother removing the axle now that I know this method (edit: perhaps if your RTAB is really stiff). Anyway, new bearings in! Now to reassemble the rear end and then onto the front shocks. And a special thanks to @zero for popping around to give me a hand and keep me company!

Pow... Arm out... Removing bearing... Reckon I can reuse this... Ahh... And an extra thanks to Nathan (@zero) for coming around and doing the other side for me whilst I put this one back in!

He Trumped it!

Just tried to PM you - "Zero can't receive messages". So...

I'm not sure to be honest, I didn't pursue that line of questioning when I took my bumper in for painting. ? There is a proper headhunters HQ 400 metres down the road though. Ouch! That's the best way to do it but quite a bit more expensive. The won't/can't guarantee a match unless they have the whole car. Doors are a big slab of the car, surrounded by painted areas so if it didn't match it would be very noticeable. You could take the risk and if they didn't match then you could take the whole car in and get the quarter panels blended in but then you're probably over the original cost of taking the whole thing in. Best to ask for prices for both options and go from there. I took my bumper in and just gave them the paint code from the web. I'm lucky my paint is still pretty good, car has been garaged most of its life. But bumpers are much easier to do because of the angle you look at them and they're not typically surrounded by big patches of other painted areas. Side panels are always easier to see colour deviation in. I was delighted with my bumper though (I expected it to be a bit off and it wasn't).

I must say this looked pretty good at coffee last weekend, props.

I use Wagstaff European on Marua Road for my rear bumper, gave them the bumper and the paint code and it's a perfect match to the rest of the car. Make sure they have the bandwidth needed in the timeframe required before you commit or you could be at the end of a very long queue. And for this reason I wouldn't recommend them for a job that needed big prep without a serious discussion with them first about dates. GT Refinishers on Walls Road also do good work but they might be lacking a bit on consistency if some of the stories I've heard are true. They're still recommended though so perhaps it's just a matter of a few bad days - worthy of a chat nevertheless. Rear bumper cost me $250 at Wagstaff based on me letting them just fit it in between jobs over a couple of weeks (in the end it took about a week). I removed the bumper and trim, washed it and took it in still fully painted. Are the doors bare, primed or painted?