Harper's M-Texture E46 M3

[Harper 547]

31 minutes ago, m325i said:

I have a mint OEM sunglass tray that I took out 7 years ago to replace with cupholders. Are they worth money? 

The sunglass tray is about 85NZD plus shipping. It's the bottom section that runs at a higher price. Anywhere between 160 - 290NZD. Going off prices from schmiedmann as they seem to be the cheapest for RHD specific parts. 

[Harper 547]

Today was a good day...

Seat brackets showed up unexpectedly despite it looking pretty grim yesterday. No tracking updates and they were meant to hold them aside for me when they found them so I could pick them up. Except I noticed a box at my door at about 12 and sure enough...

 

Everything needs a good clean and a wipe down after installing them but I was too excited and was running out of daylight. Thinking I might build out a small plate to cover the ugly parts of the exposed slider on the side, could help make it look a bit nicer. Have the rear seats and remaining trim pieces all ready to go in tomorrow followed by a good vacuum and clean. 

Driving impressions are unbelievable. By far the biggest improvement so far. The stock seats are horrendous. I found them uncomfortable and not supportive at all. The recaros couldn't be further on the opposite side of the spectrum. Way more comfortable, like I'm bolted to the car. Rear seat is still accessible but definitely not quite as easy as a folding seat. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Harper

[3 SERIES 93]

Bloody awesome! Bet you're wrapped with the outcome. 

[Michael. 2313]

So classy sir. Well done. 

[qube 3570]

they look fantastic and right at home with the m rain fabric.

is it okay to have non folding seats in a coupe?

also whats the deal with no stereo? haha

[Harper 547]

8 hours ago, qube said:

Is it okay to have non folding seats in a coupe?

Depends what you mean by okay haha. Needs to have the rear seat removed to get a cert because rear seat access is probably too difficult to pass. Although imo it's not that bad. 

8 hours ago, qube said:

also whats the deal with no stereo? haha

A previous owner had an aftermarket stereo in it and it was ugly. I pulled it out but the loom had been hacked up. It's fixable and I have a clean oem headunit but I don't often listen to anything when I'm driving so for now there's a factory delete panel. 

[balancerider 757]

@Harper this is the definition of OEM+. Seats look great, hard to go past for a weekend car. 

[Neal 544]

Those seats look great . Love how they are trimmed.

[Harper 547]

Some cool stuff to add here. New alcantara wheel. Went with royal steering wheels from the UK over someone like Cobywheel cause I don't like the way they just wrap over an original. I wanted to retain OEM thickness etc. The other option was one of the European guys on ebay but half of them can't use the stock grey 9002 alcantara and use 9040 which is much darker. I already have 9002 on the gear/handbrake levers and boots, so matching was important. Not to mention the ebay guys are significantly more expensive. Went with black stitching instead of the tri-colour. Not my thing, and I have black stitching everywhere else. Overall fairly impressed given the price. There is some slight bunching at 9 and 3 on the wheel but pretty good. 

This section in particularly is rough on the cobywheel and was the reason I was looking elsewhere. The cobywheels have loose material hanging off here because they are just wraps. 

 

Other than that over the last few weeks I have rebuilt some sedan sliders and mounted the recaros on those instead of coupe sliders. Significantly more travel on the passenger side and makes rear seat access better. Unfortunately I fried my phone and lost the photos but I just cleaned them down and painted them gloss black. I also decided I would have a go regluing my A and C pillars which were sagging (again lost the before photos). I had seen people suggest using a glue stick. I was sceptical but figured if it didn't work I would just replace them anyway. To my surprise, it worked super well and they are still holding pretty firm a few weeks later. We will see if they survive the summer. 

Replaced the headlight lenses and removed the angel eyes. Photos don't do justice how much of a difference fresh lenses make. 

Before:

After:

Replaced all the window seals for fresh ones since the old ones were dry and disintegrated, and a fresh center hood grill as well (lost the before shots but they were knackered).

 

In a happy place with the car for now. Time for a breather. 

[E28E30 335]

@Harper that interior is A+++ standard and so nice

[BozzaFC 300]

Fantastic work! 
 

Is that 156 yours too?

[Harper 547]

3 minutes ago, BozzaFC said:

Fantastic work! 
 

Is that 156 yours too?

Good eye. Sure is. Was using it as a daily driver when I had to commute pre-lockdown. V6 Manual, cool little thing and bought it for jelly beans too because they seem to be worth nothing. 

[BozzaFC 300]

I had the same experience with mine. One of the greatest engines ever. 
 

What excellent taste you have! 

Edited November 22, 2021 by BozzaFC

[KwS 2425]

On 11/22/2021 at 6:56 PM, BozzaFC said:

One of the greatest engines ever. 

sh*t i wouldnt go that far. They sound/look good but dont set the world on fire for performance.

In saying that, i enjoyed mine too, despite sinking a bunch of money into it, having it strand me, and then ending up scrapped due to rust.

[Harper 547]

38 minutes ago, KwS said:

sh*t i wouldnt go that far. They sound/look good but dont set the world on fire for performance.

In saying that, i enjoyed mine too, despite sinking a bunch of money into it, having it strand me, and then ending up scrapped due to rust.

Bought mine for under $1000, rust free. Owned by an elderly woman for the last 10 years and full service history for that period. Bought some GTA wheels for cheap. Went to a scrapyard where there were a few 156s and came away with bilstein shocks and an aftermarket exhaust for $200. It's treated me very well for what I'm in on it. One day I'll look at dropping a 3L in it in place of the 2.5 but for now it does the job well. 

[Karter16 404]

On 11/22/2021 at 5:25 PM, Harper said:

Some cool stuff to add here. New alcantara wheel. Went with royal steering wheels from the UK over someone like Cobywheel cause I don't like the way they just wrap over an original. I wanted to retain OEM thickness etc. The other option was one of the European guys on ebay but half of them can't use the stock grey 9002 alcantara and use 9040 which is much darker. I already have 9002 on the gear/handbrake levers and boots, so matching was important. Not to mention the ebay guys are significantly more expensive. Went with black stitching instead of the tri-colour. Not my thing, and I have black stitching everywhere else. Overall fairly impressed given the price. There is some slight bunching at 9 and 3 on the wheel but pretty good. 

This section in particularly is rough on the cobywheel and was the reason I was looking elsewhere. The cobywheels have loose material hanging off here because they are just wraps. 

 

Other than that over the last few weeks I have rebuilt some sedan sliders and mounted the recaros on those instead of coupe sliders. Significantly more travel on the passenger side and makes rear seat access better. Unfortunately I fried my phone and lost the photos but I just cleaned them down and painted them gloss black. I also decided I would have a go regluing my A and C pillars which were sagging (again lost the before photos). I had seen people suggest using a glue stick. I was sceptical but figured if it didn't work I would just replace them anyway. To my surprise, it worked super well and they are still holding pretty firm a few weeks later. We will see if they survive the summer. 

Replaced the headlight lenses and removed the angel eyes. Photos don't do justice how much of a difference fresh lenses make. 

Before:

After:

Replaced all the window seals for fresh ones since the old ones were dry and disintegrated, and a fresh center hood grill as well (lost the before shots but they were knackered).

 

In a happy place with the car for now. Time for a breather. 

The seats look awesome! How much more travel do you get with the sedan sliders. Is it enough to give you 300mm of access to the rear seat? Am trying to plan options to keep the WOF people happy 🙃

[Harper 547]

16 hours ago, Karter16 said:

The seats look awesome! How much more travel do you get with the sedan sliders. Is it enough to give you 300mm of access to the rear seat? Am trying to plan options to keep the WOF people happy 🙃

Thanks mate, yeah I'm over the moon with them. They are infinitely better than the stock seat for me. More comfortable, the grip is so much better.

The sedan sliders have significantly more travel. Attached a couple photos below with a ruler. 

I tried to take decent photos but it's quite hard to show because of the depth. The ruler is a bit longer than 300mm and is super close. It's within 5mm of a 300mm gap. When I spoke over the phone with NZTA they pretty much said when it's that close it would just be down to whoever is certifying it and whether they believe it's unreasonably difficult to get in or (more importantly) out. The other issue is the routing of the seatbelt. In the above photos you can see I have it tucked by the backseat which is what I do when getting in and out, but in it's natural state it is going across that entryway as a result of the cutout at the hip on the seat. Again, NZTA basically just said it would come down to the certifier whether the seatbelt unreasonably hinders exit. My guess is the combination of the gap being so close to 300mm and there also being a seatbelt in the way would result in a fail. You could eliminate the seatbelt issue with a different seat design like cobra nogaros which are closer to the CSL design in that they do not have a cutout and the seatbelt runs over the side of the seat bolster. Or Recaro Sportsters which can tilt to get more access etc. And that's not even mentioning the need for a rear release lever for the back seat. Summary is, I wouldn't bank on passing cert while retaining the rear seats if you have two fixed back bucket seats in the front, even though functionally the backseat is perfectly usable. For a perfectly legal setup Recaro Sportster CS's are probably the best bet, but they are not a true bucket seat.

[Karter16 404]

Thank you very much for your reply and for taking photos for me! Gee it’s very close to 300mm!

Yeah I’m thinking of maybe going the Nogaro route to retain the OE seatbelt routing (likely with custom upholstery to make them look more like the CSL seats). I would love to go with the Recaros being the manufacturer of the CSL seats, but I’m planning to keep my car otherwise stock, so I’m looking to avoid the need to cert. Assuming I do manage to get 300mm, I’d then just need to look to solve a lever to slide the seat forward that is accessible from the rear. My car is a weekend car and I never have anyone in the back seat, but obviously need to keep things legal and keep the WOF man happy.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and share your knowledge - much appreciated!

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Karter16
Accidentally quoted entire previous comment unnecessarily

[Harper 547]

1 hour ago, Karter16 said:

Thank you very much for your reply and for taking photos for me! Gee it’s very close to 300mm!

Yeah I’m thinking of maybe going the Nogaro route to retain the OE seatbelt routing (likely with custom upholstery to make them look more like the CSL seats). I would love to go with the Recaros being the manufacturer of the CSL seats, but I’m planning to keep my car otherwise stock, so I’m looking to avoid the need to cert. Assuming I do manage to get 300mm, I’d then just need to look to solve a lever to slide the seat forward that is accessible from the rear. My car is a weekend car and I never have anyone in the back seat, but obviously need to keep things legal and keep the WOF man happy.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and share your knowledge - much appreciated!

 

No worries. I assume you've seen the set of nogaros that someone had trimmed in CSL materials. They look very OE when done that way.

The manual sliders are a very basic mechanism so I'm sure the release handle would be an easy thing to fabricate. Hopefully the gap between the pillar is passable. I look forward to seeing what route you go.

[Karter16 404]

Just now, Harper said:

No worries. I assume you've seen the set of nogaros that someone had trimmed in CSL materials. They look very OE when done that way.

The manual sliders are a very basic mechanism so I'm sure the release handle would be an easy thing to fabricate. Hopefully the gap between the pillar is passable. I look forward to seeing what route you go.

Yes I have thank you! Running across those photos were what started me looking down the Nogaro route. I hadn't previously considered them really, but upholstered like that they look pretty close.

Hopefully I can figure something out that keeps everyone happy. Am in the middle of sorting out fabrics, etc. and finding out what can be done, so hopefully something in this space in the not too distant future!

Thanks again for letting me hijack your thread 🙂

[Harper 547]

Been ages since I last updated this so I'll definitely miss a few things that I've done. 

Most notably, had a problem with the ohlins dampers on the front sticking slightly on rebound. I was worried they might be bent or something but after removing them and sending them off to get rebuilt at KiwiSuspensionSolutions it turned out to just be some toasted internal bushings. I did really want to play around with getting some lower spring rate springs for the front while it was all disassembled and put a CSL front sway on to get the bounce frequencies closer to a flat ride setup, unfortunately cost just got in the way this time so I'll add it to the list of wants. 

Also finally updated the MAP sensor to the Kassel Performance unit to replace the old GM MAP sensor that had the wrong scaling for the OEM CSL engine management. Pretty easy swap over.

Finally got around to grabbing some facelift tail lights for a pretty reasonable price. 

       

Visually they were mint, unfortunately a couple of the LEDs in the left hand unit were dead though. Luckily the place I got them from was a wrecker in the states and has already shipped a replacement unit so I'm not too upset. 

Currently in the midst of gearing the car up for a track day and one of the items on that checklist was sorting the diff fluid which hasn't been changed since I owned the car. While I was there I decided to replace the side seals on the output flanges since the left side was weeping a small amount.

It should have been a straight forward job but for whatever reason I was having a nightmare doing it. Problem after problem. All went back together eventually though. Went with castrol fluid available from FCP and buying the friction modifier separately. Most people say to add 4.6%, I figured better to have too little than too much so I started with just under 4%. Went for the mandatory 'test drive' out to an empty paddock to make sure the diff still locked up and sure enough. No diff noise and the lockup feels sharp too, significant savings over the OE fluid so I'm satisfied. One day I'll get Kayne to build me a proper clutched diff since the fluid LSD's in these have a limited lifespan. 

Couple more things to do this week before the track day, flush brake fluid, new wheel studs etc. Really looking forward to going out on track in this, although the weather is making it look like I might spend a good amount of the day sideways...

Edited May 30, 2022 by Harper

[Harper 547]

First track day in the M3. Car was 'almost' flawless. Weather Couldn't have been better despite the days either side looking pretty miserable. Still can't believe how much attention this car garners even surrounded by some pretty cool cars.

Some CSL airbox noises:

We were just talking about how the car had been faultless before the second to last session and we must have jinxed it. I was getting a bit more comfortable in the later sessions and pedaling the car a bit harder. On the last lap of the second to last session I lost power steering mid corner and did the cool down lap with a plume of smoke coming out from underneath the car. When I came into the pits I could see it was power steering fluid that was on the undertray and assumed the high pressure rack lines had failed since mine were weeping a little bit already and I would call it a day. When I went to top the reservoir up to make the drive home I noticed it actually looked like the fluid had come out from underneath the cap and through the overflow hole. It was pretty clear the fluid had boiled. When I undid the cap to see what the level was at, the dipstick had completely melted off...

 

The power steering did return once the fluid had cooled down but it was clear on the drive home that the pump was toasted. It was whining under any kind of load and has probably had molten plastic pulled through it. I'm not really sure of the sequence of events, whether the pump failed and the bearing over heated which cooked the oil and the cap, or whether the oil boiled and caused the pump to fail. I have never heard of an E46 boiling power steering fluid while using ATF, I wasn't going sideways that much. Either way, looks like I'm gonna need to start buying some replacement parts..

Edited June 4, 2022 by Harper

[M3AN 4016]

Fluid then pump, if the pump failed first it's improbable that it could have pushed fluid through the rack and back up to the reservoir. Unfortunately this probably means you'll need a replacement rack (simply because a used replacement will cost less than a rebuild).

It is strange, I wonder if the cooler tube is damaged, or somehow misaligned out of the airflow? Or the fluid was old/bad.

Glad you had a good day though, and very glad this happened at the end of the day!

Edited June 5, 2022 by M3AN
pimp != pump

[Harper 547]

36 minutes ago, M3AN said:

Fluid then pimp, if the pump failed first it's improbable that it could have pushed fluid through the rack and back up to the reservoir. Unfortunately this probably means you'll need a replacement rack (simply because a used replacement will cost less than a rebuild).

It is strange, I wonder if the cooler tube is damaged, or somehow misaligned out of the airflow? Or the fluid was old/bad.

Glad you had a good day though, and very glad this happened at the end of the day!

The only reason I thought it might have been the pump first is just since its pretty unheard of for these to boil the fluid when using ATF, it can happen when using hydraulic fluid. But yes the cooler line might be partially blocked or damaged or something. I will have a closer inspection once I pull everything apart. The fluid was maybe a year old, flushed it not too long ago. Fortunately I have a spare steering rack if this one is toast too, hopefully not though. 

[sweetm3 180]

Glad to read you had a great time, track days  are a lot of fun.

Interesting that you also had powersteering problems at taupo.

I only had the fluid "boil" that once, left a puddle in the pits. No melting.

I'd never had a problem at Hampton Downs,  which I would have thought would work the steering harder. 

Ended up underdriving the steering pump after some internet research. 😁