Vass

Thanks! Not sure which specific ones yet, angling for some 18's. Quite like the look of the ZHP's, was keen on ones but turned out to be a shoddy set. Just keeping an eye out really, don't want to spend a stupid amount. 68's will do for now, have plenty of tread left on the tyres so not in much of a hurry. Need to take care of the mechanics of it first anyway. Wondering if it's worth getting spacers for the meantime though, they sit stupidly deep inside the arch, doesn't look right. 20mm rear and 10/12mm front should be optimal from what I've read?

Yeah, I've got something similar, and it's annoying the hell out of me. The sound quality is crap, you get constant humming in the background and for some reason it stays on when I turn off the car. I thought it'd cut the power after a while but I've come back the next morning and the display was still lit up and working, so I started taking it out the cigarette lighter plug every time I park up. I really like the minimalism of this solution, unfortunately my unit is too old to support AUX input, so I'm just waiting until one becomes available at the wrecker's or something.

Hey, Yeah, wouldn't mind a catch-up, see what other folks are up to as I've not really got much to show for my efforts at this point. In regards to parts, I haven't gotten round to installing anything yet, discovered I'm still missing some bits & bobs for the work I'm planning to undertake so have put it off until they get here. But from what I've gathered, FCP Euro seems to be a solid place to get stuff. The site is laid out really well, they've got pictures and reviews for nearly all items, and even have put together kits for some of the more common jobs, which was awesome when ordering as they include all sorts of smaller gaskets & O-rings that would have been very easy to miss if I'd have had to put the shopping list together myself. Plus what I've found is the shops here mostly carry Genuine BMW parts, which are understandably more expensive. FCP carries both genuine and OEM & OE parts, so you can choose which components you are willing to take a risk on. For example, for radiator hoses I didn't see a reason to go all out genuine, as it's mostly rubber anyway, so I went with all Rein parts, who is a reputable OEM supplier, the particular hoses had great reviews and were roughly a third of the price of genuine, so even with shipping that came out to a massive win. Shipping also only takes a week, at least has done so far. Basically I just roughly compare the prices for each purchase and see which option comes out to be the better deal. If it's genuine parts, then it's sometimes even cheaper from local suppliers, but FCP is a great place to turn to for a wider selection of OEM components.

Thinking of just debadging it altogether. If it ever gets to the point where the whole car goes for a respray, I'd probably get rid of the emblems as well

Hi there, New member here, Christchurch based, first ever BMW and a realization of a dream of sorts. Been on the lookout for a good honest straight-6 3-series for a while and ended up snapping up this tidy 2003 (2002/05 produced) 325ci, full leather M Sport. Have been in love with it since, but definitely needs a decent amount of love to get up to standard. Came with comprehensive service history up to about 4 years ago, but didn't get any records from the previous owner, who'd had it for 3-4 years and having now spent some time under the hood, I see that a lot of preventative maintenance is long overdue, which I will be trying to address in the coming weeks and months. This is the first car that I've owned that I'm in the position to keep long term, and being an unapologetic perfectionist that I am, I really want to take as good a care of it as possible, with close to no expenses spared. I haven't done any major mechanical work on cars up to this point, but am generally good with tools and with the increasing amount of resources widely available on places such as this board and YouTube, I reckon the E46 is a perfect platform to learn, and I'm really keen to start going deeper down the rabbit hole. So far I've replaced the valve cover gasket and both front headlights and indicators, with the old ones being absolutely molested in order to facilitate some cheap sh*t LED "angel eyes", which is a whole catastrophic story for another day. I yesterday received my 3 big packages from FCP Euro with close to $2k worth of maintenance parts and am also waiting on a VANOS rebuild kit to arrive in order to get properly stuck in. The immediate plan: Cooling system refresh (expansion tank, auto trans thermostat, all radiator hoses) Oil filter housing gasket Replace auxiliary and clutch fan with electric fan (as seen on the manual models) Replace all belts, pulleys, tensioners and water pump Rebuild VANOS with new seals, bearing washers, gaskets and give it a good clean (was a bit shocked by the state of it whilst changing the valve cover gasket, but didn't want to take it apart without having the necessary parts on hand) Further down the line: Replace CCV/PCV system DISA valve Whatever other issues will inevitably crop up in the process Lower priority objectives: Get some kind of AUX solution sorted (current CD player is not AUX compatible but don't quite feel like abandoning the original look yet, waiting on a compatible head unit to become available, although patience is wearing thin with the current FM transmitter approach) Re-glue the A, C and possibly B pillars Doing up the paintwork - see how far a decent cut & polish would get me Other aesthetic stuff like getting the banged up front bumper resprayed, black out grilles and replace faded hood emblem Get a set of 18" wheels on to fill the fenders a little better, not a huge fan of the current style 68's That's about it for now. Wasn't sure whether to post it here or in the Projects section, but seeing as I'm mostly going to be addressing maintenance items and not any serious mods or rebuilds, I thought I'd just say hello and have the thread moved later on if need be. But anyway, happy to be part of the Bimmer fam, looking forward to getting stuck in and learning from folks on here! Will try not to repeat problems addressed in older topics, but would definitely welcome all tips, advice, warnings, cautions and criticisms Cheers