Vass

I was out exploring the great outdoors (i.e. Pick-A-Part) one weekend, scavenging for some random parts I needed for a new project car when I noticed one of the cars there was equipped with a feature I'd been thirsting after ever since having it on my first ever E46 325ci - automatic lights & wipers. After a quick Google to look up what all is needed for the retrofit, I turned a quick parts trip into a 4-hour mission of untangling the whole wiring loom to look up exactly how everything is routed in order to get the end result as close to factory standard as possible. Turns out all you need is the rain-light sensor, bulkier mirror surround, LCM fascia panel with the auto lights position and 4 wires to run, then just enable the feature with PA Soft or similar and off you go. Of course the windshield itself will need modifying or replacing with one with a black surround where the sensor attaches to. I'm still hoping to catch a stray rock from a haulage truck passing by and get a brand new screen through insurance but might bust out some black paint and install it as is if I get bored in the meantime. Now I just need to find a towing module & wiring so I can rip out the interior and install this, the heated seat wiring and possibly dash cam + radar detector hardwiring all in one go.

One thing I'd been meaning to address ever since getting the car was the fact it only came with one key. Lose that and I'd be screwed. After putting it off for ages I was resigned to finally make my way to the dealership and drop $500 to have a spare made up... until I got to chatting to @Eagle who encouraged me to have a go at coding some keys myself. Having superficially looked into it aaaages ago I had filed the task away as something beyond the realm of my abilities but after all the sh*t I've seen and done over the past couple of years it didn't seem as daunting a mission on second glance. A couple of special tools/adapters were required but I was surprised to find you could get all that you need for under $100 off Aliexpress. Probably even half that but I also got a special adapter for an EWS4 that helps avoid any soldering since RealOEM had told me that's what my car had. Turns out it still had the older EWS3 in it so I could have gotten away with just the AK90 unit but I'm sure it'll come in handy eventually. Getting the EWS data read was a bit finnicky but once that was done the coding of the key itself went smoothly. Did the synchronising procedure in the car and the remote started successfully locking/unlocking the doors straight after. Only thing left to do was to get the key physically cut. Easier said than done. Took it in, got it back 5 minutes & $50 later, got home to the car only to discover the key was cut incorrectly and was essentially ruined. Took it back the next day, they ordered in a new blank key, cut it properly this time, somehow transferred the insides over from the previous one and I finally had a fully functional spare key the day after. Great success. If anyone needs a key coded in the Christchurch area feel free to hit me up, happy to help out. Will also tell you who to avoid going to to get it cut hahah.

Hahah doubt it. Not yet anyway, but I'm working on it

The detailing mission still slowly chugging along, I took on tackling the front bumper, which is by far the roughest panel on the car. It's suffered quite a bit of abuse throughout its life and probably deserves a full respray but that's not something I'm willing to entertain at this point so will settle for an improvement instead of perfection for now. The mounting rails that slide onto the hanger brackets were already broken when I got the car with the passenger side one being particularly bad. The bumper was sagging quite badly initially but I managed to align it well enough that it wasn't too obvious. Was about time to properly address the issue though so I used it as an opportunity to further hone my plastic welding skills. Bent the broken bits back in place and melted in some steel mesh for reinforcement. Won't be good as new but will hold much better than before anyway. The paint was badly stone-chipped all over, beginning to crack in a few places and had a few rough scratches here and there as well. I polished it up best I could, touched up the rock chips and the worst of the scratches on the underside. The mesh grille was looking quite faded and rock chipped as well so gave it a few coats of paint to bring it back to black. Only got a before photo of it though. The trim inserts got some Carpro Perl treatment to rejuvenate the front end even further. The result was never going to be perfect but from a few feet away now looks infinitely more presentable, which was the best I could have hoped for without it becoming a full blown repaint. Mint.

On the first drive post subframe work last year I was going 80 on the motorway near Kaiapoi, going round the bend I suddenly spot a pair of steel cap boots smack in the middle of the road. Only caught sight of them at the very last second due to the car in front and had no time or space for any evasive manoeuvres so ended up running straight over them with a nasty sounding clunk. Didn't think much of it but later on discovered the damage - they'd busted through the plastic arch liner behind the driver side front wheel. Beyond the gaping hole, the liners didn't look great and were also cracked where they meet the front bumper on either side. Thought about replacing them but hadn't yet gotten to the point where I could justify dropping $164+GST each through the dealership. Then stumbled upon a set of aftermarket ones on Spareto, costing just 18€ + 11€ shipping each so around $100 shipped for both. Seemed a decent deal so tacked it on to my starter+brake booster order and was soon greeted with this ridiculously bulky package coming home one day. How this cost just $30-odd to ship all the way from Europe I have no idea but I'm not complaining. Proceeded to strip the old liners off only to discover the catch. The material of the replacement liners didn't feel great but seemed sturdy enough. The problem was the fitment though. The aftermarket one has a weird bulge where the original wraps around the chassis and is also missing one opening for where the reinforcement plate bolts in. Could probably be chopped up a bit and made to work but I couldn't bother with it. Was worth the punt at that price but will eventually get brand new front and rear liners when I've got a spare ~$700 burning a hole in my pocket. For now just duct taped up the new hole and smacked the old liners back on. With the liners and wings off the car I took the chance to give the area a good clean. Man did it need one... 20 years worth of mud, dirt and rotten leaves. Got a good scoop full from either side. Enough to start a wee veggie patch. Also took off the side skirts and cleaned up in behind those as well. With the wings and skirts off I gave them a cut and polish and touched up the worst stone chips & scratches to continue on with the detailing mission, also treating a couple of minor surface rust spots in the newly exposed areas.

Put in an order on a bunch of backordered genuine bits through Schmiedmann a while back. After a month-and-a-bit wait the package arrived. Mostly aesthetic stuff as well as some random maintenance items and titbits that never seem to be held in stock anywhere. Most exciting bits were the boot storage tray hook and nice new chrome tips for the ugly tailpipes. Also got a new DME relay (as per @Olaf's suggestion), a windshield washer strainer tube/rubber seal that had started leaking somehow, boot floor cargo straps, caps for front and rear washer reservoirs etc. etc. I'd been having a niggling issue with the windshield wipers where they would occasionally get "stuck" and refuse to work consistently. On intermittent mode, every second/third sweep they'd try to engage, jump a few cm, then abort the mission straight away and skip a sweep or two, then go back to working normally. In constant-on mode they'd work as they should. I wanted to get a brand new wiper relay along with the DME one but somehow a wiper relay is ~5x the price of a main relay ($30 vs $180...) so abandoned that thought with a quickness. Luckily I had a few spare used ones laying around, threw one of them in and the issue seems to have gone away. Another small annoyance ticked off the list. With the car in the garage for some other work I decided to tackle the starter replacement in my never-ending quest to hunt down the source of that niggly startup rattle. After much deliberation I went with a Hella brand one that originated from... *shock and horror* Size wise, the body of the Hella unit is slightly longer than the old Bosch one but fit in all the same. The old Bosch didn't show any noticeable wear but shaking it did produce a rattling noise that the new unit didn't have so I was hopeful it might be the culprit behind my paranoia. Went the least invasive route of tackling it - from the underside without removing neither the intake nor the gearbox. Not the most fun of jobs but got it done with the help of some wrist gymnastics, long extensions and swivel sockets. Ended up essentially doing the whole mission twice. Having hooked up the electrical leads the first time around and managing to start the bolts after a healthy dose of fiddling, the starter flat out refused to go all the way in with the dowel pin getting stuck half way on. After a bunch of swearing I gave up and ripped it back out and decided to try it on the starter adapter plate I'd made out of an old transmission bell housing when hunting for the oil leak post engine rebuild. Turns out the opening was just ever so slightly too tight and it would get stuck on the pin half way on. Filed away at it a little bit to open it up and things went much smoother at the second attempt. I've barely driven the car post install (because reasons) but, incredibly annoyingly, during the few startups it has had since the rattle still seems to be present. It must either be the gearbox itself or some sort of mental illness at this point.

I've been having the same issue since last night. "There was a problem uploading the file." Have also tried with tiny images under 100 KB without luck.

That's... actually pretty cool. Looks to be done to a good standard, can't hate it. Biggest downside for me is the lack of an Msport body kit. The standard bumpers are just bland as hell.

Which part are they alleging to be too low? The front subframe? Have you tried measuring? If it's a few mm then by all means tell them to stuff it. They'd pick it up at the cert inspection anyway whenever you go for that.

Funnily enough, to the unscrupulous eye the main giveaway might be the 330 badge on the boot

Manual swap incoming? 👀

That's an epic first car! Should be easy enough to work on and maintain, and heaps of fun to drive. If anything, your first car should be memorable, not some run-of-the-mill banged up Corolla. All power to him. Had a Saab 93 convertible as the first car I ever bought and paid for myself. Absolute money pit but damn was it awesome cruising down the motorway at night with the top down and the Milky Way stretching out across the sky above you. Still remember it fondly despite the financial disaster it turned out to be.

Seems like a weird load of hackery for an issue that can be solved properly by just adding a clutch switch.

Know of a replacement engine in Christchurch/Rangiora for $2.5k, not sure what shipping might cost you though. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/nekyJU8qPS6iUa39/?mibextid=oFDknk

@Eagle😏

No, so the clutch switch does two things: Send signal to the EWS to only allow the starter to get power once the pedal is pressed in - a feature generally used only in US & Japanese markets. This can easily be switched off so you can start the car regardless of clutch position. Send signal to the DME to cut throttle and turn off cruise control once the clutch is pressed in. This needs to be wired in and be operating properly to avoid rev hang. Some lightweight flywheels can cause rev hang as well even with all the coding and wiring done correctly but since you're using the Valeo one that shouldn't be the cause, unless they make several different variants. We weighed the Valeo one we put in and iirc it might have actually been ever so slightly heavier than the old dual mass. Are you still using an MS43 with that setup? And don't have a clutch switch wired in at all?

True, my bad, got my wires crossed up. EU2 cars would have come with that feature disabled from factory but yeah, it's a correlation not a causation. The feature can easily be switched off in EWS coding with PA Soft, a simple box ticking exercise. Although if you've done the ZCS coding correctly prior to this it will have switched it to the manual gearbox option already.

Ohh yeah, that was only a thing on US cars (and maybe some Japanese ones as well?). If you're putting an EU2 tune on then you can disregard that altogether, no need to run that wire to EWS at all. You'll only need 3 wires to the clutch switch - 12V, ground (can tap into the brake switch for those two) and to DME (pin 23, assuming it's the same on the V8).

We've just got done converting @Carbon's E39 to manual. It is a 2001 530i so has an M54 with an MS43 DME and went with a 5-speed ZF so not sure how much of this will be directly applicable. He went with a Valeo SMF kit. We were a bit hesitant in regards to clutch chatter but there's no sign of it whatsoever, very quiet at idle and the shifts are nice and smooth. If I were to do my E46 conversion all over again I'd probably go with that kit as well. Weight wise the flywheel was close to the dual mass that it replaced so retained the overall feel, just with fewer moving parts. Would happily recommend it if Valeo do a G420 version of it. RockAuto was the cheapest place to source one at the time. Only part of it that seemed a bit on the cheapo side was the throwout bearing so we went with a Sachs one instead which was cheap enough. Swapping parts over was fairly straightforward so long as you've got all the parts. Weird issue we ran into on the 530i was that the automatic diff input flange is 82mm PCD whilst the manual is 86mm so the manual driveshaft didn't mate up to the existing diff. The kit didn't come with a manual diff and couldn't find one anywhere so ended up sourcing an 86mm diff input flange from Kayne Barrie and swapping it onto the auto diff. Might not have those compatibility issues on the 540i though, I couldn't tell you. Wiring and coding were very similar to my E46. Mostly followed videos from ShopLifeTV (used the coding instructions in the video description) and O'Leary's Garage that are both thorough and well detailed. I repurposed the old automatic wiring for the reverse light switch as well as some wires that ran from the DME box to the center console and EWS for the clutch switch and cluster wiring which saved running new wires the whole length. Mostly followed suggestions from those videos as to the wires to use and tested continuity with a multimeter. After all was said and done we just couldn't get rid of the rev hang. I redid all the coding, double-triple checked all the wiring, swapped the clutch switch (the newer style one that attaches to the master cylinder) from my own car all without luck - the clutch was constantly registering in the ON position. Was losing my mind until @Eagle saved the day by suggesting the magnet in the master cylinder that the hall sensor uses might be stuck. Sure enough, threw in a new master cylinder and she's now good as gold. Not sure how much of it will be applicable to a different engine/gearbox/DME combo from what we had but feel free to sing out if you get stuck on some specifics, happy to help out if I can.

You don't really need new pressure plate bolts. They're not stretch to yield, new ones just come with thread locker pre-installed. You'll get the same result by cleaning up the old ones and applying some Loctite when installing, save yourself a few $.

So this guy got cert for just the wheels & spacers? Does look a nice setup though. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/4720878572?bof=DWbwwFsI

Took care of some under the hood aesthetics to finish things off. The sagging fabric insulation was becoming an eye sore having shrunk to the point where the sides began to sag as the tabs wouldn't clip in anymore. Not sure if it serves much of a functional purpose, a lot of people seem to remove them altogether. Didn't want to leave it completely exposed as it looked a bit untidy so grabbed a foam one that the 4-cylinder cars came with. Also noticed the hood latches rusted up beyond the point that I could clean up so swapped those out for a couple of tidy ones as well. The release hook/handle had also been annoying me as every time you opened the hood it would press up against the grille and push it out so realigned it properly. I tacked on a pair of cheapo Maxgear xenon bulbs onto my latest order and now threw those in. The old bulbs were mismatched so just wanted something matching and at that price was worth a shot. Made quite a massive difference, straight away being noticeably brighter and of an even tone. Mint.

Continued on with the 'gentrification' by dropping in a new brake booster & master cylinder. Not that it necessarily needed it worth replacing after 20+ years of service since it was the last untouched component that could have been responsible for a suspected slight vacuum leak. Went with an OE ATE booster with a Febi master cylinder. Would have loved an ATE unit for the latter as well but unfortunately it was backordered, as were all other variants apart from the Febi one on Spareto and I wasn't keen on a 28 day wait. Febi obviously used a different casting method than the original but didn't look too bad quality wise. I guess time will tell as to its longevity. Transferred over the sensors, hoses and reservoir. I flushed the brake fluid when doing the engine swap and it still looked fresh up top, until I removed the strainer tube that revealed a puddle of black sludge sitting at the bottom of the reservoir. Glad to have all that washed out. With the booster disconnected I used the opportunity to easily take out the pedal box and change out the plastic pedal bushes. I hadn't thought of getting new ones at the time of the swap but did get a fresh set in the meantime, was just waiting for a chance to drop them in. I hadn't noticed any issues during normal operation but did notice the clutch pedal having some excessive side-to-side play when removing it, something that the new bushes tightened right up. The bleeding procedure was made infinitely easier by the cheapo pressure bleeder kit I picked up recently. Best $100 ever spent! Made the whole process an absolute breeze even as a one-man-band. Got the major bubbles out on all 4 corners, then ran the ABS bleeding procedure through INPA by routing my dedicated scanning laptop under the car using a bunch of USB cable extensions and bleeding the brakes through thoroughly once more. Then did the clutch and job's a good 'un. Whilst under there, I also drained the ATF from the gearbox and replaced it with some Redline MTL that @Sammo had generously given away. Absolute legend, owe you one mate. Threw on a new set of drain plugs along with it. Having driven it a few times since, naturally the MTL alone didn't make a night and day difference but feels like it added that little bit more weight to the shifts, making it feel a tad more solid and robust. I'm sure it also offers a bit more protection than the ATF so definitely glad to have the proper stuff in there now. Might be placebo but it also seems to have made it less prone to lurching when taking off in 1st gear. A bunch of effort for some slight 1% gains, all to get it closer to the point where I can just take the car out and enjoy driving it without fretting over something or another needing worked on. Finally getting there.

Makes me want to see some pics now

Went to have a quick look at this lemon. Don't much care for the car itself but am in love with the seats! Someone please buy it and sell 'em to me!