Neal

I remember that the 1.9 litre version that I hired had a square setup with 4x225s back in 1999. Larger engined versions like the 3.0 had a staggered setup. I won a long weekend in one a couple years later. Rear rims should have size stamped on them on the inner spoke area. 7.5 will be 225 8.5 will be 245

Thanks Olaf The es100ks can be got for about $750 per pair at the moment. They jump to 900 -1000 on some of the NZ retailers at times. Not sure why. Focal also have a inside series for BMW as well ,around that $550 mark for components that bolt straight in and use factory connectors. Otherwise there is quite a few drop in solutions from other vendors. Interesting enough underseat woofers replacement seems to be varied in opinions. Some say the drop in replacements aren’t nessacary an upgrade if you have HK drivers as quite efficient and good in midbass region. Really undecided what to do. I tried to model up Stereo Intergity new TM8 but with the f80s shallow enclosure and low seat rail clearance was too marginal. Might be an option for the X3 ? Ideally need to model some driver behaviours based on TS parameters. Sounds like the BMW enclosure and vent into side sill equals a .6 cubic foot leaky sealed enclosure so a good sized area for a 200mm speaker.

Have ordered a Mobridge Most25 8.1.1 Amplifier https://mobridge.us/product/mobridge-most25-amp/ This is a single box solution that contains 9 amplifier channels and DSP. It behaves in the same manner as the BMW Harman Kardon digital amplifier but has substantially more power. It’s also power efficient. Has some really nice features such as 10 channel DSP for time alignment and frequency controls on each amplifier. From an IDrive point of view Mobridge have coded the amplifier to be fully controlled by the IDrive. It supports all audio Sinks so you still get 4 channel PDC in surround, front audio for nav and telephone audio plus usual idrive music options.etc. All the factory sound controls functions work such as fader and equaliser. The two factory audio presets map to Morbridge DSP maps which is handy as I’ll be able to run 2 different Tuning curves so one for driver position and one tune for when passengers in the car. With the amp being MOST based music is fully digital from the idrive system. So Basically DDA in the audio path. Great for reducing system noise. Amp / DSP will be configured in the following way. Power is peak rating at 4 ohms Channel 1&2 Front L / R tweeters 150 watts x2 3500hz to 20;000hz Channel 3&4 Front Door L /R Mid bass 150 watts x2 150/200 hz to 3500hz Channel 5&6 rear door components running passive crossovers 150/200 hz to 20,000 hz Channel 7/8 underseat woofers 300 watts x 2 ( running 8 inch HK 7 ohm speakers so 150 watts expected ) 70-150/200hZ Channel 9 Boot subwoofer 2 ohm 800 watt. 20-70hz

NZ focals es100ks have dropped down in price again My final choice was focals for door components as price dropped. But if they hadn’t option would have been other companies drivers. Have two sets coming in March / April. Once they arrive will sort spacers / adapters.Would love to have a 3D printer at this point, but suspect I’ll use painted MDF in the doors and work out how to get the tweeter fitting in HK mounts.

Unfortunately new 8 inch driver didn’t work out, was too close to seat rail for comfort. Will try HK underseat woofers. FYI the distance between underseat woofer enclosure mounting face and seat rail is approximately 38mm. looks like any conventional speaker replacement limit would be a something that fits with no more than a 12mm spacer without raising the seat. Some people have managed an AD W800 neo driver which has 56mm depth, 18mm spacer , but it sounds like they raise the seat height with spacers on the mounts. Would require Cert process in NZ. Was interesting to compare HK subwoofer enclosure with 8 inch driver to base audio with 6.5 inch driver. Base audio is quite light and flimsy and baffle to side sill vent quite restrictive. HK has more volume, but is substantially stronger. Wouldn’t recommend base audio enclosure with 8 inch driver fitted. Suspect it would vibrate badly as per is added.

Transfers off and it’s not bad. Come to think of it…80s were worse.

Ordered some second hand F3x Harmon Kardon underseat 200mm woofers and enclosures These will replace the base audio woofer enclosures and their 17cm woofer. The base audio woofers sound a bit Bose esk with an overblown 80-90hz bass region and then roll off quickly. Will put in a box so I can revert system to standard as I did with last build. Hk enclosures have larger air volume than base audio although both vent into side sills. Apparently the combination of enclosure plus side sill gives a enclosure equivalent of 0.6 cubic feet ( info from Bill Fitzs on another forum ) The HK woofer size is ideally suited to that size. It’s close to 8 ohms and is run to about 125 watts on factory amp. Going to try and improve on the HK woofers although they do come up well and a number of drop in upgrades actually don’t model as well. Have chosen new after market SQ oriented 8 inch drivers and looking to run these from 55hz to 150-200hz. These will get roughly up to 300 watts so can be driven to mechanical limits with low distortion. The unknown is if I can get the factory grill to fit. Going to be tight fit ! TBA LOL 😀 Also brought F30 HK speaker grills for door midbass and rear tweeters. These look to be far more open than Stock / HiFi option First picture, base audio underseat woofer , Second HK.

You’ll need an aftermarket amp, new speakers or some passive crossovers for the existing and some rewiring of speakers. This will all depend on what system you had within the CCC line ( base audio , hifi or Hk ) , how many of the speakers were active and had dedicated amplifier channels. Also if you have underset woofers. Also with CCC some had fibre optic connections between idrive, amp , combo unit etc. basically nothing straight forward such as adding a aux cable.

Basically it gets to a point where it’s bad enough to require swap out with either a manual box or OEM German auto transmission. Have had two jerkco automatic e36s and both had issues , one at 80,000 (318i )and one at 120,000 (328i) The first one had a rebuild ($3k 20 years back ) and problem came back at 110k , second one made it to beyond 240,000 km with slight 1-2 jerk and gentle acceleration used most f it’s life. Best option for these transmissions is a 40 tonne catiplier bulldozer or a molten furnace.

They also do restomod jags like old mkii. Often trading in old jag projects. However , I don’t think I’ve seen any e type projects come up for 10k for quite a few decades

Here’s a picture from one of the pages from the e21 sales brochure. Sports pack option had Recaros , Leather steering wheel and optional LSD. I owned E21 323i in the 1980s and it had the sports pack Goid luck with the sale.

Haven’t moved on speaker choices. Focals es100ks have dropped back down a bit in price and the underseat woofers are back to orginal discounted pricing. Spent some time looking into power cable path all though ironically haven’t sorted Amp choice. Either way it will need either one or two 4 gauge feed’s depending on single multi channel amp or an additional dedicated sub woofer amp. Decided that in boot latch area will be the path and I can reuse e46 power harness I’d made. Found that there is enough room for the cable run behind boot carpet trim and used a curtain wire as a pilot cable. Also checked the positive battery terminal out for feed and will need to use a different terminator due to the design of it. Fuse(S) for first part of amp power will go against side of car and allow enough room for battery replacement when needed.

What a garage combo !

Not much progress other than sub box ready for carpet and made some brackets to lock sub into place. Went to order speakers last week but the focal K2 es100ks have gone up 50% since Black Friday and are closer to $1k a pair. Were $650. So would be roughly $2.7k for 2 pairs plus underseat woofers. I don’t think the price / performance is there with the focal k2s at new prices so looking at alternatives. Amazing how small 100mm component speakers are at a price premium.

Reduced to $390 . Need to fund my car audio project 😀

The AMP can just be seen behind the CD stacker rack. Just found some old pictures from my build of factory speakers to give you an idea of what you have. First is front door card , second rear parcel shelve , third is the factory speakers , fourth rear mid range , Fifth is BMW verse the PPI's The factory mid bass drivers use a foam surround which rots away. Replacements speakers can't be too deep. Rear deck speaker basket also limits speaker choices as basket tappers. I had to mod mine to fit speakers with larger magnets,.

Speaker wise ran PPI which were ADS brand. Very nice sounding speaker but only available second hand. Options such as focal , jl audio entry morel , cdt audio sound good. Bavsound also drop in and eBay has some overpriced Dayton drop in speakers as well.

10 channel amp should be left side in the boot next to external vent. Roughly 20 watts x 10 channels. Speakers front doors 2 x 6 inch ( metric equivalent ) plus mid and tweeter mounted by door pull 2x 6inch in rear parcel shelf 2x mid ranges in rear side car area. I did a system in my m3 a number of years back. Ran 5 1/4 passive component speakers front and rear with a sub. Roughly 100x4 rms and 600rms on bass. Time aligned and 1/3rd octave crossover on every channel and tuned for drivers seat. Sounded very good. Front doors do limit mid bass due to shallow door card air space. These e46s really need a sub

Always been temped and no doubt at some stage may get menoporsche.. Great story btw , hope you really enjoy driving it and ownership.

Welcome and sounding like BMW is in your family 😀 Im probably a bit like your father , Got my first BMW as a 21 y/o in 1988 (1981 e21 323i ) and 35 years later have owned 7 models and driven 700,000 kms in them. Last couple have been M cars which are a real hoot to drive, The model range has evolved into something for everyone Hopefully you can find a model that temps you into ownership. Do watch for some of the google says the car is really bad and will cost sqillions to repair and will ultimately end up exploding type posts. Seen may people talk themselves out of ownership as a result and mids out on owning a great car ( eg e46 M3 SMG which was a fantastic car to own )

Very smooth on the steering wheel. What an awesome sound 😀

550i e60 in Wellington. Tinted out , straight pipped , burble and pop tune. Pplate of Iran or similar. Car load having a bit of fun , on the gas / off the gas. Was torn between laughing and crying 😀 I must be getting old 🤘

Guessing you’d be really pleased with the time. Well done, that’s flying

2017 will either be ID5 or ID6 so can run CarPlay in software rather than needed an extra / aftermarket MMI module.

The old sub is certainly still very capable even these days and runs neodymium magnets, which makes it lighter that triple stacked subs (12kg verse 20kg plus ) Roughly has the surface area of a 13 inch sub. Has a massive 3.75 inch cone travel ( on a ported box ) and with 1000 rms can lay down mid to high 130 dbs. It can move some serious air. I’m running it in a sealed box of 1 cubic foot which is more sound quality aligned rather the running a ported enclosure . To help with bottom end below 45 hz also running a passive radiator which is a speaker without a motor. This helps with the bottom end and the F3 -3db point becomes 23hz rather than in the 30s. Gives a nice flat response on the low end. Needed to make some minor adjustments to the enclosure. Adding 6mm to the bottom as the sun will sit against the backseat. By doing so the top will sit high enough to be against the boot cross member. In addition looking to anchor the sub to the boot tie downs. With the F80 seat backs being a basic frame Want to ensure that the subbox can’t break through the back set in an accident situation. Also used a router and opened up the sides of the enclosure to vent the bass when up against the back seats. Need to find some speaker carpet to match the f80 boot or some other wrap