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SK-R's BMW E46 M3

Absolutely gorgeous this mate! Like the dream spec...right colour.. right wheels etc... been looking at them for weeks now as its always been the dream car, nice to see you've got big calipers sitting behind those wheels and the carbon airbox, must sound fantastic. Has it had the rear subframe work done? (the whole cracking crap...)

Torn between one of these and a DC5 next, but I know these are like 12K+ for a sorted example at the minute.

Thank you buddy, it is a well sorted car indeed. Needs a little TLC but nothing I can't sort out, especially given all the spare time we have at the moment.

Yeah the RACP has been reinforced with plates and resin injected :) The big jobs on these are rod bearings, racp, vanos and headgasket (on earlier cars). Mine has had the bearings done via recall in BMW, RACP done by CA Automotive in 2012 and I plan to overhaul the Vanos later in the year. Headgasket doesn't really need doing until it shows signs of cracking (pressure loss on cylinders ect.).

Realistically speaking though at this low mileage, I don't need to touch any of it. Most cars that get this done are well past 90k miles and this turned 40,700 yesterday lol.
 
Out of curiosity. Did you consider an e92 ?

Yes, as that was what I originally wanted to buy. Went to view a few late comp cars, some fully loaded, other special editions like the KA401 and LE500's.

Problem was finding one that was actually kept in good condition and/or had actuators and rod bearings done. Then it was the debate between Manual or DCT, the two DCT cars I test drove felt very weird in reverse/1st gear. Almost as if clutch slipping just to move, and vibrated my seat. Not sure if that's normal with DCT or a sign of a problem? The DCT M2C I test drove for a day was flawless and did not have such problems.

Not sure what I want to do with this car yet as originally I only bought it due to the amazing price and was planning on selling in a few months for profit, but I have some updates to come.
 
Since the mods have kindly created my purchase post into its own build thread, I shall oblige and post my journey. OP post has been updated to reflect this.

24th April 2020

Starting off, there were some errors on the dash in relation to the headlamps:
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Turns out these were the culprit!
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Quickly replaced and the dash is happy once more.
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The car actually came with tons of spares, including the rest of the LED kit so will be getting to do in due time.

The other issue I have is ride height. I love how it sits, but it unfortunately rubs in the rear when driving enthusiastically down some B roads. I checked the rebound on the KW's and it was far too soft, I have moved it to 8 clicks from hard and it is now a lot better, but still it needs to be raised up a tad in the rear, something I shall get to this weekend.

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And last but not least, the weather was amazing and I was running out of cider so went the scenic route to my local Waitrose:
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I am enjoying it so far, the SMG is definitely something that takes getting used to having had manuals for the last 7 years but it is special in its own way.

SK
 
29th April 2020


Cheeky pic looking back at it as we all do
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Unfortunately as mentioned previously this is the result of driving it around like that
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So I took the wheels off to have a look if I can adjust it on my drive but unfortunately it looks like a spring off job?
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Sadly while I am pretty handy with tools I have not attempted changing springs before and do not feel confident doing it without spring clamps so I rang TWG and booked the car for the 12th May to have ride height sorted and fresh alignment with CSL settings.

In the meantime, I gave the rear wheels a good scrub

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Had some old clay laying about so tackled some of the more stubborn bits
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The wheel bolts took some force to come out and their rusty state explained why... Don't think they had ever seen copper grease before lol.
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Forgot to take a photo once they were all done but they are all shiny now and will be given a lick of copper grease before they go back on.

After this it was getting dark so it was time to turn my attention to the rear spacers, which literally took WD40, a rubber hammer and a lot of persistence to remove them without damaging the alloy. I decided this is the easiest way to stop rubbing till the car's height is adjusted next month.

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The bells were looking a little sorry for themselves so a quick wirebrush session later and a bit of rust converter, they are back to their satin finish
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This stuff is really good! Once dry it is much harder than paint since it causes a reaction, so should keep them nice and black for a while. Initially I was going to strip the discs and get new bolts + powdercoat the centre but given the effort the spacers took to come out, I didn't want to risk snapping a bolt so went this route instead.

That's what I have for now, will inspect the front end tomorrow and have some audio related niggles to sort as well.

Thanks for reading
 
30th April 2020

Got a little update in the regards to the ride height, managed to squeeze some time onto an MOT ramp from a local garage and adjust the suspension with the spacers back on.
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Raised it about halfway from what it was
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Cleaned up spacer and back on it goes
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Much better :)
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It looks a bit higher in the second photo but it's just uneven ground.


On the way home this happened
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The tabs are broken on both the headlight assembly and the indicator housing. I was going to buy new indicators anyway for a front-end refresh, however I will have to hunt down a headlight too now :/

It has been temporarily fixed for now but this is rather annoying.

Overall quite happy with the stance at the back now, I think I will raise the front by 5mm to make it more even as my jack barely goes under the car and I am a function over form guy.
 
28th May 2020


The door mirrors looked a little tired so I ordered a new set from MirrorJohn. Super fast delivery!
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Side by side:
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After:
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Much better :)


Then it was time to address the indicator situation.

Corner light out and some tape on the bumper to prevent damage when removing the headlamp.
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While it was out, I decided to refresh the lenses and cleanup some of the rubbers.
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Here is what they looked like after XX years of grime. It was literally baked on! A bucket of hot water and some scrubbing later you can see the comparison:
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Comparison between the new and old indicator (you can see how the tab is meant to look)
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At this point it was getting late so I took everything inside. The rubbers were then applied back onto the washer jet trim and added a drop of superglue at each end to make sure they don't come off too easily.
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As for the headlamp repair, well sourcing second hand ones seemed out of the question as they cost too much for what they are and usually have some broken tabs, so I had to get creative.

A bit of filing, epoxy and patience resulted in this:
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It is rock solid and does not flex at all, so should be good for another 18 years :D


Old vs new
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Secures very nicely now:
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Headlamp complete :)
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Now back to the car, it was hard to miss the rusty bonnet latches:
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So I have these to go on, unfortunately the ones rusty bolts seem very stubborn to the point where I broke 2 drill bits... Never the less, I shall buy some hardened ones, soak them in WD40 and try again later.
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Onto the next job, while the headlamps were out I decided to give those areas a good clean.
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Also noticed some of the electrical tape had gone deteriorated so it was redone.
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I did also tape the bonnet latch holes in preparation for rust converter but I had ran out, so that will be done this coming weekend instead.
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There was also a rattle from the driver's side ballast so I fixed it by applying some double sided thick sticky tape:
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I did the same for the airbox as it was rubbing against the metal but I left one side with the protective tape still on. No more rattles :)
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Ordered new screws for the headlamps which were now ready to go back on the car.
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While at it I removed the pollen filter to check condition and all was well, however the compartment it was in had seen better days so gave that a good scrub.
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And the last job for the day was to remove the old plates and fit my new gel ones. To my surprise the car had 2 sets on it :D

Front:
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Rear - I removed the original washers as I am taping the plates on, so it now sits flush
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And that's engine compartment TLC sorted for now. Once I swap the latches and paint those rusty gaping holes, it should look pretty "mint".
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Continued...

Next day I decided to change the side side indicators as they were holding water.
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Gave the area a good clean and changed for LEDs
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The car also had a knock from the rear window area when driving over uneven road, turns out these llittle orings were either missing or shot.
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Gave the area a good clean and put new ones from BMW
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Also decided to change my coin tray to a cupholder
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At this point I was satisfied with the work and since the car was filthy, I gave it a throughout clean inside out
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The day after I had it booked into Sytner for the airbag recall. This was actually ideal as I noticed the BMW badge on the steering wheel had a lot of scratches and was starting to look tacky.

Left it there in the morning:
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Was done by 2PM. I must say the service and handover was exceptional and the technicians commented on how good the condition was.
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to be continued...
 
I attended a cruise that Petroleum car club organised.
There was some really nice motors there, I was slightly jealous...

I was one of the first to arrive at the meetup point and felt slightly outnumbered by these german brutes!

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But then I got backup :)
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Civic was too low to get over that tiny speedbump :D
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And so we set off and my other half was trying to take some rolling shots (excuse quality ect.)

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First stop was the petrol station (typical)
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And then some at the final destination, Skittles anyone?
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Lovely M4CS with what appeared to be every single extra known to man! The e46 blended in ok though!
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After the meet me and my buddy in the GLA45 took a nice long drive through New Forest on our way back.

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And my favourite shot and current wallpaper!
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And that's me up to date now.

The car has an airbag light on the dash which I am going to book at TWG to investigate, but other than that she's been perfect!

Sorry for the picture spam
 
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Just realised I never updated this, but yeah car was sold back in August 2020 for a ridiculous profit, so it was a no brainer. Also, I really grew to hate the SMG and swore to never buy another computer infested transmission ever again.

Few final pics before it went:

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Been without a car ever since, not that I've needed one though with this sh*tty lockdowns. Never the less, new "whip" inbound, should get delivered to my place early next week.

I ll make a new thread for it :)
 
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Lovely car mate, or was! I don't know why you went with an SMG to begin with being a purist like all of us :)

I've still got the EP3 under a cover on the path and just dailying my iS220d... plans to move on from the EP3 this summer now though. Manual M4 next most likely!

Looking forward to seeing your new wheels.. you always pull an interesting one out the bag :)
 
Nice one E46M3’s are only going upwards in value (for good ones)

I know what you mean about the SMG, it’s not as a patch on the DCT’s they put in new M cars. Many people do a conversion if they are fortunate enough to own a CSL.
 
Lovely car mate, or was! I don't know why you went with an SMG to begin with being a purist like all of us :)

I've still got the EP3 under a cover on the path and just dailying my iS220d... plans to move on from the EP3 this summer now though. Manual M4 next most likely!

Looking forward to seeing your new wheels.. you always pull an interesting one out the bag :)

I went with it because I got it for an absolute steal given the spec and mileage. Literally no other reason haha. I was after an E92 M3 at the time :)


Was a looker for sure :cool:

Glad you made a few quid on it :D

Yeah man, that was the intention from the start. I knew what I bought was a good deal and they have skyrocketed in the last few years, for the low mileage well-sorted
examples at least.

Nice one E46M3’s are only going upwards in value (for good ones)

I know what you mean about the SMG, it’s not as a patch on the DCT’s they put in new M cars. Many people do a conversion if they are fortunate enough to own a CSL.

I agree, M-DCT is a totally different ballgame but as a whole, I am finding the lack of manual M cars a real disappointment. 15 years ago you'd go on BMW AUC and find almost every M car would come with a manual as well as a semi-auto option.
Now it's just ZF/DCT and the occasional manual mainly found in M2 variants.
 
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