M3_Power

It's about finding a good car ... like I said you only ever hear of the ones that have had catastrophic failures ... you never really hear about the ones that have done 200k km ... The big end bearing failure is another one I forgot to add to the list above - but presuming the car was NZ new it should have been recalled. Do your home work and research before you buy one. I think the mistake a lot of people make about the E46 M3 is people think they can afford to keep this car going because the car is now very cheap to buy, but they forget this was a $140k car when new and a very highly strung high revving motor. Heck the motorsport version of these motor only made 420hp and lasts a couple of hours ... the standard motor isn't really far from that horsepower and it is suppose to last at least 100k km trouble free. The other thing to be mindful I think about the s54 is that there's a whole wealth of knowledge out there now about these (even to the extent in the ability to remove vanos completely and run it on the stock standard DME system by writing it out of the codes) - so in a way it's comforting to know that should something go wrong, at least there is a whole knowledge base out there that allows you to read up on how to fix things .... try that with an Audi ... I couldn't even find a resource to tell me how to take the rear plastic trim panels out of an A3 the other day - shocking!!

I might recompile my list actually as it really needs updating. But if you can get your hands on a diagnostic machine that records vanos actuation in real time then hook it up to the car and drive around in it - I've done this a couple of times and you can tell if the system is functioning correctly quite easily from it - if it's not switching timing smoothly and correctly you get spikes in the real timing graphs. But in my opinion these are the biggest issues you really need to check on the E46 M3: 1. Rear subframe floor mounting area, rear wheel well (the infamous rear subframe mouting cracks - check inside boot and from under the car (any cracks in the seam seal, walk away)- if you can lift up the rear seat bench (it's not hard just pull the front up and slide it out) - the first of the points to go is the front driver side - this shows up under the seat bench along the seam seal and around the seat belt buckle area if serious enough. But definitely have the car up on a hoist to check - The next one to go is the rear left. If the RTAB, rear lower arm bush, diff busings and rear subframe bushings look worn - WALK AWAY. Check also the wheel wells - I've seen cars where the cracks are developed here first, not the actual floor mount. 2. Listen for rattles with the vanos unit - hook it up to a diagnostic machine that reads real time if you can and check that the vanos is operating correctly. Unfortunately without opening the cam over, you won't be able to tell for sure if anything is cracked or about to sheer off. 3. Check service history - if it didn't get regular oil service ... walk away - or buy a spare motor haha. 4. Front control arm bush (the lollipop one) these only last about 30,000km max ... Similarly the RTAB. 5. broken rear spring - very common. 6. oil leak near the CPV (Constant pressure valve) - I suspect this also causes a lot of the failures and people ignore it thinking it's just another typical bmw oil leak - this valve is critical in ensuring oil pressure and it's near the exhaust headers so hard to spot. 7. rear diff seal leaks - very common and pain in the arse I have to say ... (both side including the main seal which is an arse to replace. You also get a lot of sensor faults on this car ... DSC pressure (the two on the brake master cylinder, I've yet to see one that hasn't had one of these sensors replaced), cam and crank position, air temp, O2 pre and post cat (usually bank 2 on the post and bank 1 on the pre cat - don't ask me why, I've yet to figure this one out). There's lot more ... but the top few are the ones I'd check thoroughly ... if it's an SMG car ... I'll have to come back on that one as there are way more things that can go wrong with those unfortunately!! 2.

Inspected, yes. Overhauled, no I suspect also that a lot of these failures are due to improper maintenance to be honest. The service interval for the s54b32 is 25,000km .... by the time that oil comes out of that motor it's like sludge. The oil cooling on the s54 is also very insufficient in terms of design and these motors will run very hot with a little bit of spirited driving. This temperature fluctuation is what breaks down the oil prematurely. Original owners of these cars would have simply relied on dealership service intervals as these would have been free (first 3 years of ownership, plus say the next owner with 2 year premium selection) ... who knows what happened the next 5 years with various other owners. I'd be surprised if many of the cars with 100,000km on the clock have had more than 5 oil services ... mine's had over 10 now ... and it's 10 years old. Also the vanos system in this engine requires very high oil pressure to run properly - so basically anything within the oil line should be as clean as possible. I rarely see people replace the filter on the vanos solenoid unit or the seals on the vanos unit itself, these can all lead to premature failures. The bolt thing is a bit of a lottery in my opinion - but my take is if it's moving as freely as it was designed, you'll get less residual shock and rattle through the system causing bolts to back out. The replacement bolt isn't an improvement in my opinion, I've seen failures with both the new and old bolts ... Although you can usually hear something's not right if the bolts have started to back out, so in my opinion it's not as large of a concern. The hub tabs however, that's a whole different story ... those let go without warning and on some cars, the tabs can sheer off completely and get stuck and still turn the hub unit - making the owner none the wiser!!

So there was a post from Europe that a guy ordering a replacement carbon roof for his CSL ended up getting sent a steel roof from the standard M3 - he queried his parts department and they came back from BMW Germany that CSL parts are no longer re-produced - which is no surprise really. A lot of speculations as to what was going on and whether this was true ... so a couple of guys and myself have been doing a bit of digging. And I've just got the official word back and it is true. This year is the 10th year anniversary for the M3 CSL (if you can make it to Munich, there's a big birthday bash for the car) ... but it is also the year that bespoked CSL parts will no longer be made. In place will be the standard E46 M3 parts. So order those spare parts if you can, because soon there won't be any and you will have no choice but to use standard M3 parts to keep the cars going.

It's not just the Vanos bolts, it's the vanos hub tabs also - those sheer off and do just as much damage (have a look at Central M3's maintenance post on how he tested his). Vanos is a bit of a lottery on the S54B32 to be honest - unlike the big end bearings where there are specific manufacture years that are affected. There have been a lot of cars that have done over 200k miles and still on the original engine ect ... There's also debate as to whether the replacement bolts are actually better - I recall someone taking a set to have them tested and they were exactly the same strength and sheer properties. Unlike the differential bolts (which I HIGHLY recommend people replace) which are a completely different design. But by in large, the E46 M3 is riddled with a lot of very serious issues, which if goes wrong, goes very very wrong. But if doesn't, will give many years of almost trouble free motoring.

That's incorrect ... have a read of section 16 carefully - it doesn't apply. To the OP - I think you are best to import one from the USA or UK - the s54 is still bloody expensive to buy locally, compared to what you can pick one up for overseas.

Used once only at a Christmas party ... in almost brand new condition - very clean and very tidy. The costume was the talk of the party I must say!!! The costume consists of a foam pull over angry bird costume with pillow pouches. The pillows and pants are not included. Half price of what it would cost brand new. No longer needed for obvious reasons ... $55 (brand new these were over $100) - why hire??

ebay Matt - just make sure you do your homework first, not all CD53 are the same - only some will play MP3 files. http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=722025 You might be able to try European Autosource from CA, USA - I bought mine brand new from them a couple of years back for less than half of what a new one costs locally. Having said that mine's sitting in a box at the moment : P

Great buy on the CSL ... it's gone to a good owner guys, someone capable of bringing it back to its former glory. (and no it's not me, that'd be greedy haha). Lots of bargains to be had at that auction from what I've heard ... wish I'd picked up the GT3 : )

Thanks for all the help and replies guys ... will get in contact with some of the suggested. MLM ... love your work on the intake plenum!! Might have to come and see you one day : ) bellicose .... I gather you are no longer in the same line of work? Amazing how many ex F1 people are here in NZ!!! Awesome.

Matt, do you do composite work yourself? If so would you like to give this a go? If not, where would you recommend I buy the resin and products from? Cheers!!

Thanks for the offering and providing price indications!! - I actually already had another member who does design offering to help if I needed this drawn up. I have to say I was expecting it to be expensive, but not that expensive haha ... From what I can gather so far and the prices I've received it seems that Composites is the way to go. Looks like I might just have to find an E46 M3 owner that can do composite work and really want unique replica CSL parts in his car and perhaps come to some sort of arrangement : P Or maybe try moulding this myself by buying a kit .... hmmmmmm Not what I am looking for - I am looking at making replicas of this, not to get a finish effect on it. But thanks anyway.

PM'd : )

I think injection moulded ABS is probably out of the question (most definitely in NZ anyway) and possibly even RRIM. Is the item too large for 3D printing? I've looked all over the net and it seems to me a lot of the printers floating around have a maximum print dimension of around 350mm x 350mm Ideally I'd like it in CF (either laminate or pre-preg autoclave). Do you know what the rough per piece cost is for the above methods you've mentioned?

Have this item below that I would like to replicate either in Carbon Fiber, ABS plastic or just simple 3D printing ... anyone know what the rough cost might be for something like this? Anyone here in this line of work or know someone that might be able to help? Rough dimension - 550 x 260 x 150 Item : ) Thank you.

Might have to send them an email or something. I just reading through the brochures online at the moment. It seems to me that Bayer has quite a few good products in the soft touch range, but the application might not be as simple as I envisaged. Interesting film that ... I'd have to see one in person to really get a feel of it however and how durable it is. The thing with Automotive interior coating is that you want to make sure it is a non-toxic product as the original coatings, otherwise the heat and moisture it is exposed to could mean some pretty nasty stuff coming off it over time. Cheers Julian. I have spoken to two interior repair companies and all have told me that they can only replicate the colour but not the texture of the finish (i.e. the suede rubberised feel of the coating). But would be good to see what your guy uses if he can indeed replicate it.

Going to bring this back up as I know there are a couple of painters on this forum and perhaps some of you can chime in on this? There are guys in Bulgaria now using a different system to recoat the BMW interior plastics and it seems with good results from the photos I've seen posted. I've also started looking at other products given the difficulty in dealing with Nextel Mankiewicz (I am not the only person apparently - a lot of people have tried and hit brick walls with this company). So anyway, the guys in Bulgaria are using a urethane based soft touch clear coating system to replicate the finish - apparently this means that you can spray any colour base coats you desire. The product they've been using however is an architectural wood finish coating - but apparently works on plastic so long as you use a plastic primer first. I then came across these two products: first made by PPG It's called Vibrance Soft Touch Clear - VC5225 It is advertised as a 2 component urethane top coat that provides a very very low sheen finish with a scratch resistent soft touch feel. http://www.bapspaint.com/docs/psheets/PPG/...%20Bulletin.pdf Have any of you painters used this product in the past? What is the finish like? The second product I've come across is made by Bayer and it seems like there's an endless variety of possibilities with this product and it is also used within the automotive world. It is called Plastic Softfeel Softtouch: http://www.bayercoatings.de/BMS/DB-RSC/BMS...touch-06-08.pdf Anyone know if this can be purchased locally? http://www.bayercoatings.de/BMS/DB-RSC/BMS...OEN_1A5Softfeel

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ~~~~~~~~ WHY!!!!??? I hope this goes to a good home. Perhaps the most immaculate E30 M3 I have ever seen in person!!!(bar a certain Sport Evo) ...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article....jectid=10687280

28,900 on mine .... I am locking it away and never driving it again haha ... According to the records I've been keeping there's one floating around with about 26,000km also NZ new (unfortunately I don't know the owner of this car) ... And 2 UK import with under 30,000km (one I believe is actually around 24,000km - the other is Robbies and is similar km to mine). I know of one car in Istanbul with about 8000mile asking a tad under 100,000GBP ...(they are also similarly priced in Hong Kong ... so if you want to sell a CSL, send it to Istanbul or Hong Kong hehe)

In my humble opinion the Sport Evo will always be worth more than the CSL. Like for like between the CSL and the Sport Evo (in terms of condition and km) the Sport Evo would be easily 20%+ more in value. If anything, I actually think the Sport Evos have been going up in value quite a bit recently. My vote would be the Sport Evo ... I'd love to own one ... or a replica of one. Actually I'd love to own JK's car : P http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classif...sano-red/937496 Curiousity about this car however ... how did it gain nearly 3000km in travel since being impounded by the police .... presuming Turners listed the km correctly (when deregistered it had supposedly 33k km ... now it's 36k km ....).

If any of you miss out on this one and REALLY want a mint one owner NZ new car, PM me : )

Haha I don't ... I am probably the only one crazy enough to do so : P Just trying to bring a bit of twisted humor to the thread. Reality is most of these cars are now in the hands of enthusiasts that do bugger all km each year (it's as if it's a competition to see who has the lowest km car in X years time). I don't even know if mine still has one of the lowest km around, but at least I can lay claim to owning numero no.1 in NZ : ) It's an odd car in terms of value to be honest. Treasured in Germany (enough so that Germans are known to buy them from the UK and convert them into left hand drive!!) ... scrap yard special in the UK .... held in high regards over in the USA ... nobody wants one in Japan ... sought after still in other European countries but only if cheap enough to turn into a track car. There is of course only 9 official NZ car now in the Country ... one's in Australia now, but I know quite a few more have come in from overseas.

Good on you Ray!! Good luck : ) If you win and part it out let me know : P

Edit ... Mungous beat me to it : P Maybe this one? http://www.turners.co.nz/Vehicles/Pages/Ca...x?RefId=1089982 I was told about 6 or 7 cars in his possession at the time?