Sammo

I don't know anything about E53's but I would be looking at Scmeidman / FCP Euro / ECS Tuning and OEM parts before Trade Me. A lot of those TM listings look like sellers importing unknown ebay type parts and marking them up to OEM prices. FCP Euro in particular has very fast, well priced shipping and good pricing on OEM components.

Great to see this car being sorted - great colour!

Not the ball joint, but I did my CABs on saturday and bought a pickle fork for it - didn't work, not with the limited room of being under jackstands anyway. Used a gear puller thing that did great though.

Update on this - gave it a a bit of a shake out last night with some heavy braking etc and seems less noisy now. Regardless, I've booked the car in at Bellars Motorworks next Monday for a good going over of the suspension and driveline bushings etc. Was planning this anyways so I have a better plan around maintenance / improvements than just winging it / throwing parts at it.

@B.M.W Ltd no worries, my first pictures were poor and totally different angles ?

@Eagle Hmmm - checking that Bavauto guide, I'm not far off at all? rotate clockwise a bit so the end of spring is around a quarter turn from the 'notch'. Wonder if that would help my ride height at all... Aligning with the 'spring end stop' is an E36 and earlier thing?

@3pedals - will do, If I can get another 10mm or so think I'll be content.

@M3AN nope, no change in the pics, just different angles and a poor choice of first pics too. Compress them while still bolted in an try to twist around?

OK, this makes sense - there is an ledge / step in the pad at each end - I should be rotating the spring to align the end of the lower spring up against that which would drop the car a little more.

These are more similar angles of left and right side (note the notch on each perch)

@3pedals Pic 1 is the passenger side, pic 2 drivers side - different angles though, should have taken more / better pics. I'm confident the pads are right as they have the alignment mark to match the strut perch best shown below.

@B.M.W Ltd Cheers Glenn - bugger - will get it sorted

Cheers mate - yeah, had read about the knuckle, so made sure it aligned with the pins and got the strut seated in all the way. Good idea, will drive the car and get them looked at while I'm at the shop having the RTABs done.

@3pedals thank you - we had aligned it that way as it wasn't possible to align both 'point' of the egg / oblong in the spring and perch and the end of the spring in the factory location - the new springs were about two inches shorter there so didn't wrap all the round. I'll have a pro check it out this week, assuming its safe to drive for a few days given they are at least secure.

These ones here - the strut perch is silver but the springs had a noticeable point to the egg / oblong shape vs stock springs https://www.ap.de/shop/_/-/-/21320041 Could misalignment on the spring perch cause 20-25mm impact to ride height?

@M3AN cheers Dave.... Sooo... about the spring seating - I was wondering about this as we couldn't get the springs to line up the way the stock ones did in the lower perch. The perch is 'egg' shaped and the spring had a pronounced 'egg' shape at one end - so installed them that way - with the point of the egg aligned on strut and spring, rather than the end of the coil sitting in the indent he factory spring left. Upon reviewing my pics however I just noticed the spring writing is upside down the way I did them ?

@qube rescue it!

So a friend and I installed my new suspension in the E46 yesterday. AP Suspension front struts / rear shocks AP Suspension lowering springs - 40mm front / 20mm rear (Having Msport springs, expectation was of a 20-25mm drop in front, marginal in rear) New Lemforder strut and shock mounts and strut mount reinforcement plates with new Msport bumpstops. Meyle HD control arm bushings Re-used stock spring pads as they were good and did not change my swaybar endlinks. Car had old Msport shocks and springs in (front springs red and white stripe / rear three white stripes) The new springs didn't seem any shorter but wasn't concerned as they were progressive with an overall higher spring rate. Confirmed product numbers correct. Anyways, long story short, the car is no lower in the front than before (about 3-3.5cm wheel gap with slightly oversized tyres) - the rear ironically is a little lower which is the opposite of what I had wanted / expected and now rubs a little in the passenger rear (18x8.5 ET30 with 235/40). I've put about 75km on them waiting for the mythical 'settling' but wondering if I've done something wrong now? Also noticing some light clicking noises from the front (upper I think) on undulating roads this morning - so I pulled the wheels off and rechecked my bolts and the strut tower nuts - all good. Little concerned I've done something wrong, or perhaps just being paranoid and I should drive it a week and see the height and noise settle? Should I have used shorter endlinks / 'preloaded' the sway bar? Should I have 'trimmed' the bumpstops? Possibly seated the springs on the perch incorrectly? - (pics below) I'm looking to take the car to the shop to do the RTABs (above my paygrade) so can have them check everything over. Will be pretty annoyed if this is just the new ride height though - been planning this pre lockdown! Car does feel good though, flatter and stiffer and rides better - not a massive improvement but definitely better.

@Harper Hell BM had an M Texture interior for sale for quite a while but put it in one of his cars in April by the look. Could be worth hitting him up for a trade plus cash? I imagine it would be a much easier / cost effective approach than reupholstering if it worked out...

What an awesome little car - attainable and real world exploitable weekend warrior IMO. Wheels maybe a size too large but nice OEM+ style upgrades.

@E30 325i Rag-Top I've now evolved ?

@qube thanks - think I prefer the plate only look so it doesn't get too cluttered, so may look into the thick tape method Rear plate currently sits too high (i.e. closer to the boot handle than I would like) due to the location of those holes and me being in a rush to slap them on... I am loving the euro plate look though.

Looks lovely - can't remember the last time I saw one of these (non M) in manual on Trade Me. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/2720329119?bof=yT6rkPHM Not as sure about the E39 wheels on it and why these NZ E24s are always in grandad colours though...

Good plan I think, might do something similar (stages). Car looks great, it must drive amazing with such well considered mods ?