Sammo

I've been wanting to do something with my intake for a while to give me some more induction noise to tide me over until I get to the exhaust. Originally planned on doing a long tube CAI but no room with the Xenon ballast in the way and seemed like a pain to relocate, so decided on the dirty old short ram with a heat shield to stop it being a Hot air intake. Was going to try building my own with aluminium sheets but saw a cheap E46 for sale on Facebook that happened to have a nice intake on it that I had seen online but wasn't about to pay $600 odd all up to get shipped to NZ. Its the Cosmo racing one pictured below but not the carbon fibre finish. Got a deal done with the guy and swapped for my stock airbox plus a few $$. I like this design as its fibreglass, really nicely moulded, utilises the factory air scoop and actually blocks off the expansion tank as well (most don't). I also had some really good 10mm foil backed foam insulation I bought a few years ago to insulate my home brewing kettle - a very effective product as brewing, I'm boiling for 90 minutes and this retains heat and is cool to the touch while 35 litres of 100c beer bounces around inside - very sticky too, has lasted 4 years plus on the brewing set up. I used this on the outside of the heatshield to get a much better thermal barrier than 3mm of fibreglass and then finished with aluminium tape to finish - should be very effective at reflecting / blocking engine bay heat. So it looks pretty good, sounds great and shouldn't be losing any ponies - quick test with my dual probe smoking thermometer showed about 9-10c differential in the air compartment vs engine bay after a 5 minute ideal - worst case heat soak scenario really. Next step is a new coupler for the filter pipe (one with it is shot) , new 'boot seal' for the top to get a better seal with underside of the bonnet and might also run some 3" flexible ducting up from the brake duct.

The Q&A on that one... ?

Damn - great spotting - looks like it - I can see MBEXXX, the same chintzy door speakers and its a Wellington car, same spec and colour. Someone has either done a good job tidying it up or looking to make a few $$$

So my suspension from Demontweeks has been lost by Parcelforce - still no scans since the 10th of April. Demontweeks have now requested them to return to sender and will refund me... Going to pick up the same product from Speedfactor now - small price premium but given the economy, much happier to be supporting a local business and they've already given me good advice ?

What kind of improvements did you get - anything measurable on the dyno?

Reserve $25K... 180km but black, 6 speed, looks tidy and has subframe and bearing recall done... https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2643948496.htm?rsqid=6c18eb71483946daaf3d7212a4cee6a2-002 Very light on the description and photos though?

Lovely car IMO, cheap even, given E30 tax these days

My wife used to have a 1.8 NA MX5 that I of course drove a lot - thing was great fun thrashing around under 100kmh

Fun weekend car... or daily plus a bit of fun in weekends? For weekend I'd be looking to a nice E36 328 manual coupe with a few dollars left over sorting suspension. Daily plus weekend, a manual E46 is the route I went and love it. As M3AN says, the 130i is a hoot as well and prices on those are rock bottom at the moment.

Nice! Somehow I owe them despite being soley a PAYE salary man....

Interesting, always thought it was just the under bonnet insulation. Beautiful car, regardless.

A good looking 325i manual sedan popped up with a kit and ACS wheels for similar money. Actually, yesterday a bunch of older manual BMWs popped up on TM....

Beautiful car for sure, if it was manual ? Less sure about comments that Clubsport suspension being 15mm lower than Msport / Clubs port exhaust and '20kg' of sound insulation ?

Demontweeks now appears to agree that parcel force has lost my struts and springs so now I need to figure out whats next... Looks like Speed Factor are starting to carry the same product range (AP Suspension) so will at least be able to get locally for small premium. Or tempted to spend a few more $$$ and go for a basic coilover like XYZ or BC.... ?

Haha thanks man! In my dreams ? That car was actually my initial inspiration - I follow him on Instagram...

E92 looks great, and love an R32, those have aged so well IMO.

Still no scans since 10th of April for my suspension, enquiry has not lead anywhere yet. To rub salt in the wound, Spark also charged me $27 for a 30 minute call to Demontweeks customer service line.. Also been waiting 3 weeks for Supercheap to deliver my MTF and diff oil after first package went walkabout. The shitlist is getting bigger ?

Quite pricey actually, I switched my (driver and passenger) seat bases on mine which helped a little, upper (inflating) side bolsters were fine though https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S54_3.2L/Interior/Seats/Seat_Foam/

Mine were fine aside the finish when I recoloured mine but you saw can purchase new foam supports for bolsters etc. Not sure if that would be any more cost effective than a local upholsterer however.

Everything I've ordered via FCP using their fed ex shipping (quite reasonably priced) has arrived in a week with no GST (orders under $1k) That was all through March and April too ?

Not sure, got a leather steering wheel wrap, ordered late March from Ali Express China - arrived in less than 3 weeks if I recall - was pleasantly surprised.

Looks fantastic with the Style 23's - one of the best wheel-chassis combo's IMO - clean as a whistle. I quite like the more yellow beams on an older car too.

Thanks, agree; will change the fluids and if that doesn't help get it looked at.

Have had this nasty whine (kind of like a rattly supercharger) in lower gears under heavy load above 3k rpm for some time, seems like it has been getting worse. Nothing in neutral, easiest heard when the windows are up, sounds like it is coming from in front of me. Sadly sounds worse than it does in the videos, ugly noise. Just put on new tensioners and pulleys (which were toast) but no improvement. Next port of call is to change the MTF and diff oil and then guess I'll be taking it to a pro. Pretty sure gearbox is ZF310 (car was manual swapped prior to my ownership and has ZF stamped on the box housing). VID_20200508_145156.mp4 VID_20200508_145236.mp4

Replaced my AC and drive belt tensioners and pulleys and idler pulley today - really easy little job. Old pulleys were toast and the E46 mechanical tensioners come all-together hence doing them all.