Neal

Can’t quite see but do the early din speaker connectors look like a match https://www.jaycar.co.nz/2-pin-din-plug/p/PP0300

Thats the reality and people talk themselves out of owning great cars Still loving my factory standard m3 with smg 7 years on and 120,000 kms .... and it’s a early 2002 model ?

Wife’s new car had a $400 version done from the dealer. Even at that low price I find her suv quicker to clean than my m3. Paint comes up great with a simple wash and towel. 1 year on still please with the results

Great project, looking forward to more posts

Thought I’d cooked a subwoofer. Turned out to a screw working loose on the badge causing a voice coil gone type rattle

I think he’ll only part with it if he finds a 850csi that he’s after ( or gets another Volvo ?)

I think if anything unless well hidden a change of system may devalue a E39 M5. Bavsound could be worth considering. Quite well thought out drop in speakers and amp option. https://www.bavsound.com/

I park near the blue on from time to time. Looks and sounds nice. Tyres are stretched a bit. Pitty the black in wasn’t SMG. Otherwise would take a closer look. Wouldn’t go back to manual now.

It’s basically an amp and speaker (10) plus sub replacement to take it to the next level. On the bm53/54 The difference between the balanced outputs and converting it unbalanced is noticeable for CD listening but hard to tell on radio. I found from a sound quality POV it brought it up to a mid range car CD player. i did evolve the system in my e46 over a few years in pursuit of audio goodness. But also set a budget of 3k for speakers/ sub / amps / Dsp sounds I didn’t get carried away. Basically it has a entry home hifi sound and is still largely controlled via factory the board monitor. if you want some lite reading I have a build thread on here . It should hopefully give you an idea of what is needed to uplift a e39/e46 system.

I think BMW made two errors the e46 & e39 systems over other years. First was Midbass treatments on the front going into small enclosure rather than using the door space. Gave limited and strangled upfront mid bass. The second was the bm53/54 using a poor final stage to the amps. Ironically the audio stage before that used opamps used in recording studio mixing boards. On paper they should have been better. Each speaker getting its own amp . Active 3 way front stage.Reasonable dac and preamp stage etc. Ironically the only model with the Midbass advantage was the e46 318ti but tended to have the poverty pack stereo. I sorted my e46 for the same reason above.

Mercedes also ran the Hirschman brand power antennas so could be a source of parts.The earlier metal body ones from e21s and other BMWs late 70s early 80s should also fit the e30. Otherwise look for universal ones such as below. https://mercedessource.com/store/hirschmann-universal-replacement-power-antenna-custom-instructions

Same dyno day the best sounding car was s54 powered with CF airbox. What surprised me was both the e46 m3 and 1m were rated around 250 kw at the flywheel yet the 1m was doing closer to 300kw at the hubs verse mine at 210kw. What got me was around the time I brought the m3 ($50k nz) I visited San Diego a lhd new 1m could be had for $52k nzd for the base car. Here they where 102k or something like that. The m3 has halfed it’s price in that time was as the 1m has dropped less than 25%. 1M must be one of the lowest drops outside of a z8. btw... m3 e46 replacement was stopped initially by child / single income / house mods and then wife’s new suv. My first choice would be f10 m5 or m2 as I do like turbos . But the e46 m3 will need to stay based on its unrefined raw nature and the induction noise makes it a grim factor package that’s not worth a lot so can be daily driven. 1M still one hell of a good car and it’s understated power will surprise.

It would be slower and have less torque. We had a dyno day a few and the the 1m made more torque and kw than a s62 and it was in standard form. Far more than the 250kw advertised.

My car history has a few. They have been service items like wiper blades, tyre tread death ( eg 1.4mm on rears a couple of series back) and rotors. wifes car has been down to items such as brake light blubs and stuff like that . so to answer the failures are often wear items that might look ok from the owners point of view. Only thing I’d be concerned about is failure due to rust or major structural repairs

aux option was a late 2002 build option. what radio combo do you have ? Depending on unit you can add a Denison or Grom device to give you aux / USB / Bluetooth. https://www.dension.com/automotive Otherwise some units such as bm54 can be flashed to give aux, mo3 I’d tags etc, but the process is very easy to brick the unit. Bm54 is a tuner module used with Nav screen setups

Was it Palmerston North based early in its ownership ? Remember a white one based there in the 1990s . id leave yh period body kits on

I find in Wellington the service to be very good to excellent. It could be worth moving yourself and family down here. It’s not.too large to get bounced around the various group but seems to have critical mass in terms of specialists. My daughter has been a frequent flyer of the system and we’ve done well with the right level of attention. Had similar experience with elderly mother over the last couple of months which went from very serious , bed ridden to back home and living normally. with my wife, she is here today due to the quick action of hospital staff. Even with myself after having chest pains. From doctors through to hospital specialists. so if you get continued run around in Auckland. See if you can find a specialist in Wellington and consider the move. ( big decisions, but your already making these) Ethierway, hope you find the right people to help with your son in what are obviously stressful times.

Info on ibus / gen 2 tv module digital tv upgrade. Applicable to circa 2000 plus E39, E46, E53 and later ZMcoupes scroll to last couple of pages for tv tuner

Paul, this is the conversion for ibus based tv modules. I’ve done this to my e46. From memory I only had the choice of one tuner module that did both the nz standard with Dolby ac3 for sound.. The key to the conversion was a custom micro controller that mapped the bmw button commands to a tuner standard. The realty is the coverage isn’t great . I get tv coverage in parts of Wellington only. But it’s very good when you can get it.

For the windscreen end I’d wrap it in tex or cloth tape so it doesn’t rattle and pull it back into the area above the map lights For the trunk module if you have an ibus (e39 and e46) based car it can be unplugged and the car will forget the module. I took the harness out of my e46 loom, but spent hours studying circuit diagrams before doing so. For a fibre based car such as e60 / e90 I’d be inclined to leave the vics module alone.

N is the ultimate in performance.... Neal

No, serves no function in nz. I experimented with using as a Bluetooth antenna (2.4 gigs) for my hands free ulf. But range was poor. Went in the bin shortly after as did the vics module installed in the boot.

Unfortunately not, similar to bavsound in that you’d need to import your own. Freight via Europe quite often cheaper that the USA though. The gladen woofers seem to be the choice for the underseat oem replacement for higher end audio. If I take my e46 audio to the next stage I’d use these in the floors and cut down the reliance on my sub for 100hz down. just watch the options with the gladen sets as some are more suited to aftermarket amps. The system upgrades get quite complex from this point on. Some video info

Consider Gladen drop in speakers if you want the next level up from Bavsound. https://www.gladen.com/compo_coax.html

Certainly gone 110% on intake and exhaust. Will be watching with envy. Interested in power gains.... and induction sound to die for