Account is old but bought my first BMW

[Glacial Pace 12]

I have just purchased a pretty high km E90 M3.

Pretty sure I'll be on here quite a bit getting advice on fixing it up. 

Rod bearings will be ordered soon, I'm going to diy the job at home.

Edited Thursday at 12:30 AM by Glacial Pace

[Palazzo 454]

Congrats. What’s the worst that could happen? 
Seriously, good on you for taking it on. Look forward to seeing the progress.

[Glacial Pace 12]

The worst? Let's not talk about that ok? Haha. 

It was this one of anyone is interested. I checked the vin and it is actually a ZCP car. Not many sedan ZCPs around I don't think.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/4762936988?archive=1

[Neil McCauley 322]

Great score! Was purchase price much higher than what it passed in at?

I didn't realise it was a ZCP, that makes it even better as there were only 4 new sold in NZ.

I'd almost be tempted to get an oil analysis before doing the bearings, could be a case of them actually being fine if they haven't popped by now.

Edit: Looking forward to seeing you around! If you see a black 335d give me a wave, there's also a black ZCP down here too.

Edited Thursday at 12:57 AM by Neil McCauley

[Glacial Pace 12]

I paid $17500 for it, which if it's even half decent I think it's a great price. 

I think I'll do rod bearings anyway for peace of mind, this one will eventually get roof racks with bike racks, so should be quite easy to spot.

[MD13 482]

Great looking car - I think the sedan looks better than the coupe. Love the detail on those mechanic receipts!

[Palazzo 454]

27 minutes ago, MD13 said:

Great looking car - I think the sedan looks better than the coupe. Love the detail on those mechanic receipts!

Particularly the price of wheel speed sensors and spark plugs compared with Spareto…

[Driftit 2008]

3 hours ago, Palazzo said:

Particularly the price of wheel speed sensors and spark plugs compared with Spareto…

Wholly shiii.  ATE ones are 23Euro each..

Awesome car.  Hope you enjoy working on it.

[Glacial Pace 12]

So wheel sure sensors and spark plugs were wildly over priced, or just the good stuff?

I'm sure there will be ups and downs while working on the car, I have a decent list of things I would like to do eventually, and I'm sure there will be more to add. 

Rod bearings will be done first, but I also have concerns over the rocker covers, vanos covers, oil pump maybe, idk, 280k km seems like a lot and a broken oil pump could be catastrophic, maybe I take it out and have a look when I'm in there doing the bearings. 

On top of that I'm sure it needs a suspension refresh, bushes and ball joints (seems like the way to go is just new arms) and the shocks must be worn, new EDC is pretty spendy though. Not sure what I'll do there. Maybe keep my eyes open for second hand low milage ones.

[Glacial Pace 12]

On 7/25/2024 at 12:53 PM, Neil McCauley said:

Great score! Was purchase price much higher than what it passed in at?

I didn't realise it was a ZCP, that makes it even better as there were only 4 new sold in NZ.

Only 4 zcp sedans? That seems wild to me. I guess NZ is a small market and sedans were less popular. I was pretty ambivalent on sedan vs coup tbh, just happy to get an M3.

[Neal 524]

Very cool car , congratulations. Rumours are the 2010s LCIs have slightly better performance. I guess ZCP is like the competition model in the next gen M3s ( USA name for them )

[Glacial Pace 12]

5 hours ago, Neal said:

Very cool car , congratulations. Rumours are the 2010s LCIs have slightly better performance. I guess ZCP is like the competition model in the next gen M3s ( USA name for them )

Yes, zcp is the option code for the competition pack. Which as far as I can tell is different wheels, 10mm lower, some different software for the gear box and the traction control maybe, possibly some other minor stuff. 

No engine change like the m2 comp.

Edited yesterday at 11:05 AM by Glacial Pace

[balancerider 736]

On 7/25/2024 at 1:12 PM, Glacial Pace said:

I paid $17500 for it, which if it's even half decent I think it's a great price. 

Seller nearly paid for all those services 😉

[Glacial Pace 12]

2 hours ago, balancerider said:

Seller nearly paid for all those services 😉

They also put 225k km on the car so I think they got their money's worth haha.

[Olaf 3262]

Looks like good buying, well done.  I agree with above, oil analysis.  Seller statement all Castrol Edge 10W60 incorrect, Werkstadt segments have indicated Fuchs F1 used on at least one, FWIW.  Careful maintenance should see fun running.  LCI updated rod bearing specs IIRC?  

A steal overall.  You've bought at a price that covers plenty of remedial maintenance to bring it up to brilliant and a great driver.

[Glacial Pace 12]

37 minutes ago, Olaf said:

Looks like good buying, well done.  I agree with above, oil analysis.  Seller statement all Castrol Edge 10W60 incorrect, Werkstadt segments have indicated Fuchs F1 used on at least one, FWIW.  Careful maintenance should see fun running.  LCI updated rod bearing specs IIRC?  

A steal overall.  You've bought at a price that covers plenty of remedial maintenance to bring it up to brilliant and a great driver.

Will oil analysis show much? I was under the impression that the newer bearings couldn't be picked up on it anyway. 

The owner did a bunch of their own maintenance, so I think they were saying that all the oil changes they had done were Castrol edge (is that the super car one or do they make 10w60 edge and supercar?)

New rod bearings have been purchased, I went with Mahle ones. BE are out of stock until October and I want to get the job done, Mahle seemed like a good option, I also went for OEM bolts, the torque sequence seems tedious but not hard, and they were $400 less than ARP. So that's $400 that can be put towards a suspension refresh. Now I need to buy tools. Dunno how many times in going to need to use and engine support bar but I guess I need to buy one for this job.

[Olaf 3262]

Yes, oil analysis will tell you much about the state of the bearings.  But hey you're committed, you've bought the parts.  

My knowlege of these engines - all the BMW M engines - is that whatever oil you run, it needs to have the right 'stuff' in it, not just be the right grade.  Eg - you may find subtle yet important differences between retail Edge 10W60 and what BMW spec.  Some people say this sh*t is irrelevant... Your mileage may vary. 

One supposes you've done a bottom end refresh on other vehicles, previously?

[Glacial Pace 12]

This will be my first bottom end refresh, but I have done multiple other jobs on various engines, and am confident that I can carry out the repair. 

Honestly some of the videos I have seen on yt of professionals doing this job have made me cringe, idk, maybe it's fine but I watched one a few days ago and the mechanic was removing the old roof bolts with an impact wrench, seems a bit rough to me.

I also have a friend who can lend me a high end torque wrench for the rod bolts. My torque wrenches are fine for most stuff, but I want that to be dead on.