Karter16's E46 M3 Journal

[zero 1162]

This is the best thread on bimmersport.

[Michael. 2313]

Very commendable attention to detail.

I approve! 

[Karter16 405]

On 6/4/2017 at 10:09 PM, zero said:

This is the best thread on bimmersport.

 

On 6/5/2017 at 0:07 AM, Michael. said:

Very commendable attention to detail.

I approve! 

 

Thanks guys!! it's been awesome to get stuck in and get a whole heap done, and it's great to be able to share the process here. Great to have a record as well of everything we've done!!

[Karter16 405]

Update #18

Just a quick update. We got the car back on the ground last Saturday, and on Sunday we fired it up and did a systems check. The car started first turn of the key and was running fine. Power steering needed the air flushed out of the lines which we did, but apart from that everything was looking good. Got a couple of codes on the first run to do with throttle body position sensors, etc. but haven't had a return of anything like that.

We did a short test drive (after warming the engine up) and everything seemed good. Car feels good, we got the alignment good enough to mean we can drive the car (slowly) to the shop for its suspension alignment, and everything seems to be working fine. Checked the car for codes after the first run and all seems fine.

We're getting a couple of dash lights appearing under braking and reading the codes it appears that it's probably to do with the fact that the wheel alignment is off and the steering wheel/rack isn't currently centred when travelling in a straight line, so expecting that steering/acceleration sensors are getting conflicting readings - expecting this to stop being an issue after the wheel alignment. If it's still an issue we'll investigate further.

Car's off for it's alignment on Monday - in the mean time here's a pic of it parked outside :-)

Edited July 4, 2017 by Karter16

[zero 1162]

What alignment specs are you going for?

The stock bmw ones are not very good.

[Karter16 405]

41 minutes ago, zero said:

What alignment specs are you going for?

The stock bmw ones are not very good.

That's a good question - I am actually going just for stock specs at this point. Mostly because I haven't really done any research into it. I am expecting that the alignment will need redoing in a couple of thousand km after everything's fully settled, so can look at making changes then. 

If you've got any recommendations or resources on the topic I'd be very interested to hear/see them :-)

[zero 1162]

For e46 I did alot of research and for a fast road car I settled on this;

 

Front; Max camber, zero toe, max castor.

Rear; -2 camber rear total (-1 each side), really small amount of toe in.

 

I found this made a good improvement.

Also, I can recommend Autolign in Mt Wellington.

 

Edited to say, remove the locating pins on top of the strut tower with a pair of pliers or vicegrips. This give you more camber adjustability.

Edited June 10, 2017 by zero

[M3_Power 636]

You need to reset the steering angle sensor with the factory tool and also reset the longitudinal acceleration sensor. And possibly the dsc unit also.

[Karter16 405]

42 minutes ago, M3_Power said:

You need to reset the steering angle sensor with the factory tool and also reset the longitudinal acceleration sensor. And possibly the dsc unit also.

Thank you! very helpful information - much appreciated! :-)

[Karter16 405]

Update #19

So the car went in for it's WOF last Monday. Failed on the handbrake, but everything else was 

Alignment went fine, they noted that the rear left was sitting slightly higher than the rear right, and as a result they couldn't quite get the camber on the rear-right within spec (it's only out by a very small amount).

They also did the driver's airbag recall at the same time.

After the wheel alignment, as I expected the dash lights all went away. The codes I was seeing were all related to the steering angle sensor not being within calibration. Once the alignment was sorted the dash lights cleared themselves, and scanning the car shows that the codes are now historical.

 

Today we sorted the handbrake adjustment and checked the rear to make sure there was nothing obvious. It's all looking as it should, so the plan is to drive the car for a while and let it settle in, and see if the rear comes back into adjustable range or not. If not then it'll be a bit of work to measure everything up and work out what's causing the issue.

 

Haven't done many miles in the car given it doesn't have a WOF, but what I have done has been 

The improvements from the new bushes and shocks, etc. have been much more noticeable than I was expecting. I wasn't anticipating such an obvious improvement. Driving over rough bits in roads is much quieter and less of a "crash" than it was before, and because of that interior rattles and squeaks are correspondingly much less. I haven't had a chance to drive the car "spiritedly" and won't be while the rod bearings are running in, but I'm looking forward to when I do, to see if I can feel the difference then as well.

 

The car's going in this week for the WOF re-check and once that's done I'll put some "run in" miles on it. Planning to do another oil change at about 1800km, just to clear out any dirt that might have entered the engine when we had the oil pan off.

 

Anyway - nice to get a bit of a feel of what the car was like when it was new :-)

[M3_Power 636]

They all site higher on the left, they are engineered that way as a left hand drive car. Every single one I have measured sits higher on the left.

[Karter16 405]

18 hours ago, M3_Power said:

They all site higher on the left, they are engineered that way as a left hand drive car. Every single one I have measured sits higher on the left.

Yeah I've read that, and it's interesting to hear that that's always been your experience as well. It certainly makes sense given these cars were designed as left hand drive cars.

It does seem a bit odd though that the rear-right camber can't be brought into "factory" spec though right? It's a bit hard of course in that I don't know if the car was out of spec before we started. In hind-sight it would have been good to get that checked before we started.

At this point I'm thinking its just worth letting everything settle for a bit and then check again. Would be interested in your thoughts :-)

Cheers,

Matt

[Karter16 405]

Update #20

So the car went back in again yesterday - Alignment on the rear closer to spec, so will let the car settle over the next couple of thousand k and do another alignment then.

The car also now has it's WOF
We've got to put a couple of the plastic undertray components back on, and replace the temporary zip ties on the steering boots with proper clamps, and then this round of work on the car is officially complete.

Have done about 100km on the car in the last couple of days - all in Auckland traffic but good to be back in the car and running in the bearings.

So stoked with how everything has gone, and now that the major maintenance work is done I can start thinking about what comes next

Edited June 21, 2017 by Karter16
fixing appalling spelling mistake

[zero 1162]

Is it just me, or have all the pictures disappeared?

[gjm 3258]

46 minutes ago, zero said:

Is it just me, or have all the pictures disappeared?

Photobucket being difficult.

Edited June 25, 2017 by gjm

[Karter16 405]

On 6/25/2017 at 5:18 PM, gjm said:

Photobucket being difficult.

Yeah spot on - apparently photobucket are now charging some obscene amount to host pictures, which I'm obviously not going to pay. So I now have to transfer to another host... 

[gjm 3258]

Google, flickr... I'm sure there are others.
I'm going to 'rescue' my photos from Photobucket while the site is still up. It's been showing increasing amunts of advertising lately, and getting slower, and slower...

[Olaf 3317]

I've been a (paying) Flickr consumer for more than ten years; for hosting your images they're rather good.  The now free service is excellent when compared with photobucket.

hth

[Karter16 405]

Well I've gone through the thread and changed all the images across to Flickr - here's hoping Flickr don't change their TOU any time soon!!!

[Karter16 405]

Something a bit simpler - this arrived in the mail today.

Since my car didn't come with it's manual and service book, etc. As part of my restoration efforts I've purchased new ones to go with it. This original item is in awesome condition in spite of being second hand. Very pleased with it.

I've put 1200km on the car since the rod bearings were done. Will be doing about another 800km and will do an oil and filter change. Will then be on to regular OCIs.

[zero 1162]

8 minutes ago, Karter16 said:

Something a bit simpler - this arrived in the mail today.

Since my car didn't come with it's manual and service book, etc. As part of my restoration efforts I've purchased new ones to go with it. This original item is in awesome condition in spite of being second hand. Very pleased with it.

I've put 1200km on the car since the rod bearings were done. Will be doing about another 800km and will do an oil and filter change. Will then be on to regular OCIs.

It will be interesting to see the colour of the oil.

[Karter16 405]

23 minutes ago, zero said:

It will be interesting to see the colour of the oil.

I'll post up photos here when I change it :-)

[Karter16 405]

Picked these up recently to add to the collection :-)

 

[Karter16 405]

Update #21

Been meaning to post an update for a while, but have kept putting it off..

In August last year my son was born, at two and a half weeks old he was rushed to Starship and after a week of tests was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition. As a result of the condition he has liver disease and we've spent the last year in and out of Starship (more in than out for most of the year). Its been pretty hard on my wife and I, several times in the last year things have looked pretty grim, the last couple of months have been a bit quieter and we're hoping that that continues for a while.

Progress on the car has obviously been non-existent as a result. I haven't had much opportunity to drive it (apart from some trips to and from hospital), it's ticked over about 2000km since I did the rod bearings. I dropped by Auckland City BMW a couple of weekends ago and picked up oil and filter ready for a change. I'll post here when I do.

Excitingly though we're in the process of buying a house (cause we haven't had enough excitement for the year), which means that the car will hopefully be garaged in the near future (hooray!). Which means that I can start getting onto the cosmetic side of things, which I've been intentionally ignoring while the car was somewhat exposed to the elements.

I haven't planned in detail, but a rough list of things to do are (no particular order other than mechanical being higher priority than cosmetic):

• Structural Foam in front RACP mounts.
• Mechanical fan replacement.
• Water pump replacement.
• Attempt to get to and clean the ICV without breaking the little clip on the SMG reservoir.
• Remove the additional trailer connector wiring in the boot.
• Replace the plastic bits on the bonnet and the plastic weatherstrip at the bottom of the windscreen.
• Replace the side indicator enclosures with new ones that aren't UV damaged.
• Replace the weather trim on the B Pillar exteriors.
• Re-align driver's side door.
• Re-align and plastic weld front bumper.
• Re-align and plastic weld rear bumper where it's been attacked to make e-bay diffuser fit.
• Replace said e-bay diffuser with OE.
• Remove window tinting now that the car will be garaged (looking forward to being able to see when reversing at night).
• Inspect the underbody restoration work done a year ago and make sure all is well.

 

Hopefully its not so long to the next update!

[M3AN 4016]

What the f' is up with the E46 M3 owners and their sick kids? ?

That sucks bro, hope your little boy's heath improves and you get to spend more time with both him and the car!