Neal

Get the smg conv e46 m3 M3_power, I'll arrange the toppings ;-)

Was looking to see if it had the original Alpine din connector or early cd stacker connection. The first would give you a .5 volt output that could be connected to your sony amp rca inputs giving a cleaner signal than connecting to speaker out. The second (if it had CD stacker din connector) could be used as an AUX input. otherwise , trace the tape head to a small PCB board. This will more than likely have a grey screen cable which contains two wires and a braid surround which will go off to the main HU board. This is where you'd tap into to give to piggy back and aux. Make sure that if going down this path you don't use full volume of phone / mp3 player otherwise damage to the electronics may occur if the signal can be 2 volts from the RCA.

Getting cheaper to replace. Often see the Mk4 on ebay uk for under $400 NZ

Had a 85 323i for about 15 years . Brought it at 74,000km and sold it at 330,000km 15 years later. Most of the items replaced where wear and tear , a few sets of rotors /pads , the odd light bulb, two water pumps (Don't use those plastic impeller ones as replacements), cam belts every 60,000 km, one inlet idle control thingie , front exhaust section (replaced with Stainless system) , one clutch & release bearing , two front wheel bearings. Car blew a head gasket at 190,000km, , long story , but happened on the way home after a routine service. Brother was a mechanic so pulled the engine down to check for any damage. Bottom end checked by engine reconditioner , comment was that bottom end was within new tolerances (Ran on Mobil 1) The rest was good. Only other issue was a spot of rust at the bottom of the A pillar. Power wise ok, low down torque was good. You can let the clutch out without foot on gas and it won't stall. Usual e30 handling . Mine had standard suspension and 14" 195/6x/14s rims. Best tyre I found in that size as the yoko 509 In all it was a good reliable car .

Picture of back ?

More sticky tyre choices at the 18 inch size if you want light wheels and grip. Was an m3 on here with 20s that looked stunning. Edit , were on cset's car ^^^^^^^

This will be my lotto project.

I'm amazed at what these are selling at. Got one for my e21 in the 80's and by today's standards it's a very poor as a torch. Was then as well. Still have one somewhere.

No need to be sorry in terms of every one owning an M3. Not many clubsports in NZ . I'd be happy to replace the 328 with a 330i at some stage.

Driven both , 330 is brisk , m3 is fast. 330 has good road holding and is forgiving on bumpy roads. M3 has superb road holding and cornering with larger brakes but you feel every cats eye or road joint. Spec wise the M3 s have more of the options boxes ticked. Don't go for smg as we want to keep the prices for those of us in the know of how good they are in the M3. Plenty of fud about the smg setup on the internet.

Had a good look when adding extra cables for processor and iPhone audio and video. Based on the above I might try spraying or replacing the ashtray and aircon relation panel and getting the main console covered. Probably similar price to replacing with new bits but should be more durable.

Has anyone recoated the rubber console trim on their e46's ? Mine needs a good tidy up and not sure if I should plasti coat it , wrap it or go leather covering like the BMW individual consoles ?

Car came with the japan eject box. The iphone 5 was too wide to fit in. Idea is to add charging , passive aerial , audio and video out from the phone. Used a rotary tool to trim the plastic so the phone would fit. More work to do.

Rear speaker replacement proved to be problematic. The 355cs are a similar depth to factory speakers. It initially looked like simple adaptors would mean the speakers would just bolted in. The best part of a day later I finally managed to mount them. Adaptor rings were offset mounted and trimmed down. This stopped the rear speaker magnet assemblies fouling on the inner basket. The bottom of the speaker has 2 mm clearance . The cone excursion comes within 3 mm of the covers. I'll see how these sound , otherwise will make up an alternative.

Progressed to rear parcel shelve. My original idea was to mount the crossovers in the tyre well . After taking the interior out I released that the rear parcel shelve had the potential to conceal the rear PPI 355cs crossovers. A quick check revelled there was just enough height to do so. 14 Gauge speaker wire has been added to ensure minimal cable loss. The sound damping was trimmed to allow the rear parcel tray to fit

My sony gear over the years has been a bit hit and miss. Brought a high end unit and had the tuner and face ribbon connector fail which was replaced under warranty. With the 24 bit system dacs you need to watch playing mp3s as the sampling rate is 96 kHz on many of them rather than 2 x sampling @ 88.2 I find on the wife's system the fore runner to the above (all sony xs ) wma and mp3 s don't sound as good as they should.

Met some great people in chile so welcome.

Last one to try is dynamo laundry liquid. 1 part dynamo to 3 parts warm water. Scrub in and leave for 5 mins. Wash off. Works well for removing brake dust and chain oil contamination on my motorcycle swing arm.

If your looking at the higher end of the audio spectrum then the pioneer deh-80prs is worth a look. Has slightly retro styling and if you go down the slippery slope of high end car audio at a later date it has every possible feature for running time alignment , active speakers etc.

Yep , put it down to experience ...... Like your first big off when learning to ride a push bike .....

I'm staying Clear of this thread , still in trouble with her indoors after spell checker change her name from Ang to Nag

Looking forward to you build. I'm a bit behind the times but are MANZ certing moly cages ?

The map here http://www.ispmap.co.nz/topmap.html gives an indication of the tier 1/2/3 providers. Global gateway is Telecom btw. You'll notice that trademe is bolted in as a tier 3 isp would be.

Cheers Tim I guess in terms of goals a man has to have enjoyable projects. For me I've been tinkering with audio since my first kit set amp at the age of 12. Until recently it's been easy to improve on BMW sound systems. With this build the focus is on improving clarity and dynamic headroom of the system. Also the reason of integrating a PC means I've got my music catalog on tap in lossless format .:

Next The rear speakers. Ran into some issues with mounting the mid basses in the rear factory locations. Speakers sit 5 mm too high. Will need to modify the baskets and make up some custom spacers. Looks like crossovers will be able to sit on parcel tray. A few mm of height to spare. To be continued .....