Eagle

That isn't the correct spec Penrite oil for the 6HP - this is which is much more expensive - https://penriteoil.com.au/products/atf-bmv-full-syn You need at least 2 changes (3 if its bad) to get most of the old oil diluted enough with the fresh stuff if its never been done before (using the drain and fill method). The only time i would do one drain\fill is if its clearly been done before and the oil looks still looks fairly clean.

Having to sign up and pay a $50 fee then do an induction day (not sure if that a separate day?). I thought also needed gloves, boots and neck brace also last time i looked, but maybe they changed that or i got it wrong. Do they do the full circuit often? The club circuit looks rather un-appealing for anything with power wanting to be unleashed.

Skid pan bolts are heavily re-used id say, spending $50 every time you take it off probably never happens. If you doing all the front end work at in one go and not likely to ever remove it in near future it makes more sense. I can see how are going to end up with $200 of bolts now, but most people are probably re-using most of that as you suggest.

M6 bolt is low strength to begin with and fairly easy to snap compared to a M12 subframe bolt. I dont see anything on realoem that says the subframe ones cant be re-used. If they are stretch bolts and need additional angle torque you wouldn't attempt to torque it to that spec if re-using the bolts. Probably as pay as you say to just to do them if you dont want any risk. Just make sure your torque wrench is accurate. Yeah lots of that is for liability reasons im guessing, E46 front subframe brace is a good example. Reality is they are getting used over and over without issue. Even dealers don't seem to follow their own guidelines alot of the time.

Dealers can be reasonably priced for quite a few genuine parts. Ive bought a quite a few bits of RHD specfic stuff and trim bits which ended up being cheaper than Schmiedmann. They just dont seem to stock that much of the older stuff anymore but maybe E90's fair better. If you ordering a whole bunch of stuff already then may as well replace oil pan ones which should be cheap. I probably wouldnt bother with the subframe ones myself but depends on the cost of them and were you are ordering from.

HELLBM is another wrecker one who have those sort of parts Rockauto also add GST unlike the others. They usually only good for a single or a few smaller parts on OE branded stuff, their shipping prices are all over the place are rarely end up cheaper than the others.

Stupid video. Spouts a load of crap with no caveats and puts them all in the comments instead.

Ballin

Completely agree. Paint costs arent cheap and finding something even remotely decent in these specs and price range was way harder than i expected. They are 6k new in US before any than other expenses so i thought 2k was very reasonable. Worst case i can repaint them down the line if i really want to. Ive been fortunate in the past to own 3 sets of various used forged BBS wheels that were all under 1k at the time. You still pay the brand tax but used quality beats all low quality aftermarket junk any day with a much lower premium.

Im sure ill post some more in better light with different caps, but i dont see the sun making a massive different tbh. Main benefits are minor increase in performance, way stronger and straighter wheels, nicer ride and look with the 40 profile tyre and offset and having a square setup for easy of use and cheaper tyres.

Pretty much. They were suppose to come black caps but he changed his mind hah. BBS diamond black(more of a gun metal grey) wasn't doable for various reasons so instead used a Mazda black which is appears noticeably darker but is suppose to be lighter in sun

Fixed it for you Im sure most agree these should be driven like all cars and you can't not appreciate E31 styling. Most of these have low mileage for their age so clearly arent driven very much. To me its either people aren't inclined to drive them due to rarity\parts availability\running costs, don't want to due to potential lower re-sale value or they are just that good at being garage queens. Maybe its all of the above. What's the k's on your one? How much they would increase over time i wouldnt know, but you probably aint going to lose on the purchase price provided you didnt over pay, its in good nick and you don't drive it much.

If they made it like the RHD E36 and E39 it wouldnt be much of an issue, just another example of cost cutting really.

Ordered some Black/gold ones which should match better and save cutting. BBS caps are all different fitment so you have to hack genuine stuff up or play around with lesser quality aliexpress bits.

I thought that dumb clutch line routing was an E46 thing.

Yeah it may well technically be worth its price but economic and market conditions as you say. Covid era pricing was artificially inflated and quite a few older BMW's now seem to be priced around their pre-covid values. Its certainly a speculator vehicle\garage queen at this point and that who would probably bit on it.

Sounds like its reasonably priced then. No coincidence the only people who own one think its cheap . It was actually cheap it probably would of sold already.

Shame all the rigmarole you gotta jump through with track days now but least you put it all to use.

BBS RG-R 18x8.5 ET38 on 245/40's Been on the look out for a decent set of wheels for awhile. E36\E46 wheel selection is pretty rubbish in terms of availability you if want something different in reasonable offset\tyre size. Saw these on locally on facebook along with set of similar LM's. Looking at photos i decided the RG's would suit a newer car like the E46 better. They are forged wheels at just over 8kg compared to 10-11kg style 72's, very light even with the tyres. Originally they had silver centers which i would of preferred, but beggers cant do choosers and they have been freshly power coated. Tyres fill the front wells great but do touch the fender lining under full lock as expected. Will be swapping out for current ones then moving over to a 235/40 square at some point. Gold center caps to replace to red ones if i can find some at reasonable price, otherwise ill swap BMW ones onto them. Part 2 of the DMSO clean. Didnt get everything as hot as id like and things were cooling down to fast to do a real throughout job but it works (completely black before). Used a vacuum bleeder to suck the fluid out which worked great, engine fired up instantly after cleaning Will do a another round in warmer weather to finish it off. Compression test after cleaning was 175-180 psi on all 6. Engine certainly feels stronger after doing these cleans, but be prepared for the exhaust to stink\smoke for ages if you do this part.

Pretty good. Screen reflection was always one of my biggest gripes with those android units compared to OE.

Schmiedmann have various ones on special. https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/bmw-E28/radiators-pg272-catn-ol

Id be going for a decent drive and re-check when its warmed up. Im not sure how long adaptions take to reset but probably more than a few mins on cold start. If its still that high then id hook up the gauge and drive just to be sure the regulator aint spiking somehow. If that checks out log the MAF and O2 sensors to rule them out.

Rebuilding M42\M44 aint cheap, timing parts are expensive and some are NLA. Wouldnt surprise me if most of pick a part ones had been overheated and had blown headgaskets\damaged head, given the cars are usually in one piece. Not to mention being exposed to elements. Probably cheaper to a worn 318i\318ti with a working engine you can check.

I use Posi-taps for those jobs (aliexpress has them). Less damage, more secure and easier to install and remove.

Tried a couple more diff's since the last post but results were similar to the above. Im current running a 3.15 ratio from a 325i which provides a little more pep with no real noticeable downsides (unless you care about 0-100 times as it taps out at around 98kph in 2nd gear). I think ill end up taking it to KBM at some point and get him to check it out, decide whats in the best condition and maybe swap the helical over if it checks out. I had a weird surge at low rpm when the engine was cold so decided to check the fuel system first. I discovered it was loosing pressure fairly quickly after shutdown(10mins it would be at 20psi) so decided to replace it with another VDO unit(after checking the fpr and injectors). Pressure now holds ~47 psi for at least 15mins and surge is gone too. Unfortunately the pump is much louder than the original VDO one, you can hear it whining as you step out of the vehicle or have the idle down at idle. Guess ill have to live with it for the time being and monitor it. Decided to try the CMP solid steering coupler. I hate the look of chrome plated bolts and nylock nuts and like OE look so OE bolts and new locknuts instead (did need a little extra filling to fit). Painted it in high temp silver paint to match. I had to disassemble it because i forgot to mark it and the BMW parts diagram showed the wrong clocking of the 2 halves. Wasnt expecting a massive improvement given i had new OE unit but its certainly reduced the vagueness and it feels much more like my E36 now. I did strip, clean and re-grease the steering rack too but upset the pinion seal in the process and created a leak. Ive ordered a used unit LPSR in Australia this time. They double the price($600) but at least they are inspected and tested, much better than wasting my time\money traveling around gambling. Ordered a seal kit from them too so i can repair my old for backup. Sump gasket started leaking more than i like that was changed out. Sump had no sludge as expected and just typical carbon staining. Was going to check the oil pump and nut but ran out of time, my poor man engine support was taking up lots of floor area making it hard to move around. Its a very rare failure for a normal car as far as im concerned. With all this cold foggy weather about i decided to try a DMSO engine flush based on a E46 fanatic thread - here. Can't say i remember reading about DMSO flushes but its supposedly a common procedure Russian etc. Ive never really accurately monitored my oil consumption, but it does use some when you are on the Waikato autobahn with higher rpm and vacuum conditions. I didnt notice the oil carboned up\got dirty very quickly when i did an oil change awhile back. I know the vehicles history and have had the valve cover and sump off so no real sludge to worry about. Id say most used M54 engines could benefit from this treatment if nothing more than a preventive measure in helping oil rings out. Lots of variations of this procedure but I did it slightly different due to time constraints and circumstances. I used 20W-50 because it was the cheapest i could get, but i agree with another poster that DMSO doesn't noticeably thin the oil so any cheap 10W-40 or 15W-40 is likely fine. Its hard to avoid inhaling some of the nasty vapors when draining oil on the ground especially the first drain, you could probably use a respirator if you were concerned. Fans coming off and on at various stages but coolant temp never went over 95 degrees. Having a refreshed cooling system is piece of mind and doing it in winter helps, i just periodically checked on it every 10mins. My Engine was already filled with fairly fresh oil and filter after sump gasket so wasn't going to waste it. It was quite darkened given id only done about 10km on it. Drove car for ~15mins to warm up oil. Drained ~1L of oil and mixed with 400ml to DMSO and re-added to oil Idled for 50mins. Drained oil and replaced filter. Re-fill with 6.5L 20W-50. Idled for another 50mins. Increased revs to 1500rpm for a couple of mins every 10mins. Drained oil and replaced filter. Filled with 5W-40 and idled car for 5mins. The following day drove 20mins on the highway mostly in the 2.5-3k rpm range. Drained oil and replaced filter. Filled with 5W-40 Drove same route as above with a some town driving, approx 20km. Inspected oil and filter (Minor carbon particles present in both) Light wouldn't penetrate the first jar it was so black with carbon. Filter is black with dissolved carbon and moderate carbon particles. The second had much better looking oil with the filter being less black and noticeably less particles. 3 3rd and 4th were much the same with pretty clean oil and filter with some minor carbon particles still being caught Oil now looks like new and i expect it to stay much cleaner with the filter catching the bulk of the remainder particles. No leaks and will monitor consumption from now on to get an idea. I'll do the second stage cylinder clean at next oil change - here