Funkyflynz

I wonder about the value of tunes as well, but there seems to be a consistent flow of positive feedback from those that get tunes.  HellBM have a $400 tune for the community that apparently nets a few more HP's.   But from what I have read the best mod is to put in 4.10 gears.  Really keen to see how you get on.

Cool, are they doing a custom tune or is it just to check fault codes and program them out?  

Looks amazing.  What did you do about the sensors when you removed the cats?  Looking forward to the clips as it's something I have been thinking about doing.

These are fantastic!  i have used it to check faults codes, change light and lock settings etc.  well worth the money as any trip to the shop to plug into the computer is at least $50 each time.  

Amazing, such attention to detail mate.  Be like a new car!  

Wow, what an awesome purchase and mod bro!  good on you for taking the leap, certainly helps when you got the likes of people like Tom to help, really keen to hear your thoughts on how you car feels now and if you think theres a definite performance gain you can feel with he box and CSL tune.  

In prep for the Gentle Annie this weekend i replaced the transmission fluid, after much thought decided to go with Motul, its the same specs as the BMW fluid 75w80.  A $10 oil pump made the job pretty easy :-).

The difference is very noticeable, the gearbox is a lot less notchy and down shifts esp are smoother.  Super happy.

1 minute ago, M3_Power said:

I am not talking about performance gains. Heck I can make a stock M3 go faster and corner better. But add up the values of all the bespoke parts and you'll be over the $100k mark easy. Trust me! I wrote the original parts list and have been following parts prices for years. 

Wow, sounds like its a steal at $138k then.  How about that ride?

5 minutes ago, M3_Power said:

Hmmmm Have you seen the list of unique and bespoke parts for this car?? It is fairly extensive ... I should know!!!

By all accounts its a beast for sure, but $100k more?  Im more than happy to compare the standard M3 to a CSL back to back anytime ;-)

BMW are all about the driving experience right?  so I've had plans for the wheel, shifter and seat for a while now.  First on the list was an Alcantara wheel, and after researching the options i decided to go for a Coby wheel - www.cobywheel.com.  They actually apply alcantara over the existing wheel which makes it a little thicker (something i was after) and its one of the cheapest options out there.  I opted for the exchange, where they send me a recovered wheel and then i swap it out and send my old one back to them.  Mike from Coby is good dude to deal with.

The wheel arrived today and i was able to fit it in about 30mins.  Really happy with the feel and quality of work.  

20 hours ago, Olaf said:

by the time you get it finished, it'll be worth more than your M3!  How's progress?

Property and cars are all speculative, though depreciation risk through mobile holes in the road must be greater.  Besides, you're not so far south of the CSL; at least you're creating memories for your old age in an e46 M3, today!

LOL, if it is ever finished, progress is slow mate but finally got the chassis rail completed with some help from a youtuber i sold my first BMW to, lol - check it out... 

2 hours ago, Olaf said:

Yep, I remember them being advertised in the paper in the late 70's for under $20k.  Mind you, a decent 3BR house in a second or third-tier suburb in Wellington was about $20k at that time!

Barry, I reckon he should store with you for the next ten years.  I have an inkling these'll double that price in that time.

Those good ole days aye, i remember when i brought a Valiant charger for under $2500, and that was running and on the road.  That was only 10ish years ago, same condition car now is $25-30k.

Im not sure the CSL differentiates itself from the base M3 enough to command the kind of money these guys are asking? But in 15 years time I'm sure i will regret not selling the house to buy one lol

47 minutes ago, Olaf said:

top video skills Lee, what you shooting with?

Never thought of the steering coupler, I take it that's a feature of regular e46 etc?  

Thanks Richard, just using an iPhone 7 plus.  from what I've read all E46, but i would expect most BMW would have one.  Its common across all marques to have a flexi disk somewhere on the steering linkage

If you have a high mileage vehicle then i recommend looking into replacing your steering coupler, made a huge difference to my E46 and was a pretty easy job.  cost about $200 in parts.   Some detail in this post...

Awesome build.  Have you checked with BMW if your car had the bearing recall done?  It would be interesting to know  

I contacted them and was given the below detail which was really helpful...

Below I have enclosed your vehicles recall status.

Defect Code               Defect Description                                                                            Done  

0011760100                E46 S54 Big-end bearing                                                                    Yes    

0011950100                E46 S54 Replacing big-end bearing shells (2. KDB)                          Yes    

0032480200                E39 E46 E53 Fahrerairbag prüfen ggf. ersetzen (Ersatzteile)           No    

0072410100                E46 replace front passenger airbag                                                   No

2nd CSL on TM this year.  whats going on?

So after a few weeks of driving the M3 ive started to notice things that don't feel quite right, for example the on-center steering feels really dead, researching this i found that a worn steering coupler can often be the cause. Today i set about replacing it to find out if it would help solve the dead feeling

Its a faily simple process, took me about 1.5-2 hrs.  There were two annoying parts to this process...

1) Finding the right part to order as the LHD and RHD parts are different, namely the RHD has a heat shield as it runs on the exhaust side and close to the headers.  The part number for the steering coupler is 32306761571, the two bolts are 32306778608.

2) On test driving with he new coupler the DSC was kicking in and activating the ABS.  I was able to find and clear the fault with my Carly ODB2 connector and iPhone app, after it was cleared it ran fine with no ABS activation or steering angle faults.

The difference with the new coupler installed was immediate, on-center steering was no longer dead, a much more direct feel with better feed back.  So a great thing to do if you have a high mileage car, mine is 100k miles.

Video here showing difference between old and new...

And yes those engine mounts needs to be replaced as well, they are on the list ;-)

good score, how much for the strut brace?

On 4/25/2017 at 6:04 PM, m325i said:

Try this guy. I am very happy with mine.

 

http://cobywheel.com/

Thanks for this, Mike at Coby is a good guy to deal with, my new wheel is on the way :-)

8 minutes ago, Olaf said:

Is that a little south of National Park on the way to Raetihi, Lee?

Car's looking good.  I see you've cultivated a styling tache and taken to wearing exotic hats. ?

LOL, yea that's the place, its land banked.  been working on my tan as well ;-)

Boohoo for the guy in hawkes Bay, but great for me! ;-) Thanks Rowan really enjoying the car. 

Recently lone wolfed a roadie and stumbled across the old Waikune prison and the caretaker gentleman allowed me to shoot a few photos.  

Why not post a few photos to log my ownership of this money slurping fun machine.  Previous owners posts are here -

Have a few small changes in mind, mainly based around driving experience, stay tuned...

Previous owners post here -

On ‎13‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 1:17 PM, CSET said:

Why didn't I get this console sooner, makes so much difference with lower seats! 

Console by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

Also tried my cover over big wang. It kind of works, but looks lol.

Cover by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

Ive been looking for one of the arm rest delete consoles, where did you get your from?  Mint looking car bro!

On ‎22‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 9:35 PM, CSET said:

They are pretty low - which suits me ok being lanky but probably wouldn't suit many others!

Pulled the seats out again today and moved rails back an inch on the drivers side - seating position is now absolutely spot on! Thanks again to Atlantiskiwi you rock.

Are you using the NZKW sliding rails for those seats? side brackets or bottom mount? Im wanting to install a racing bucket but need to make sure its sits lower than the factory seats as I find im sitting way to high in them, im 6'1"  Cheers.