Nick_08

I'd be more surprised if THAT was the reason you got pulled over.

Ah gotcha, for some reason I thought you were running coils/camber plates. Thanks! Good to know you can fit a decent tire without leaning them way in

I have factory upper strut mounts and IE3 springs. Once I get it in for an alignment this spring I can certainly come back and post a number for you if you would like. 

Plenty of room, just need the right offset!
Good info. I didn't want to risk the wheels not fitting with the 330i brakes. 
For some reason I get no notifications of posts even though I have the notifications turned on. Is this a common issue with the forum?
Finally got the car on the ground. I approve. NO POKE!

Plenty of room, just need the right offset!
Good info. I didn't want to risk the wheels not fitting with the 330i brakes. 
For some reason I get no notifications of posts even though I have the notifications turned on. Is this a common issue with the forum?
Finally got the car on the ground. I approve. NO POKE!

Been awhile, here are some updates on the car. 
Finally got around to installing the remote brake bias adjuster. 

I got some new front wheels and tires. The tires rubbed on the factory wheel well liner so I made some new ones from hdpe. They clear with about a 1/4" to spare! Don't mind the socket spacer, I have some proper spacers on the way from McMaster along with some button head screws to replace those hex heads. 



Yes, transmission jack...the spring is removed. 

Official start to my E46 M3 build thread! This is joining my garage along with my 2015 335i M Sport and my 2008 328i daily. Progress may be slow over the winter months, but progress is better than none at all! Car is completely bone stock minus a brake rotor upgrade and some Bilstein shocks. It also came with a mountain of maintenance receipts to sift through, but the most important are vanos and rod bearing replacements. Sadly didn't come with subframe reinforcement so that will likely be the first order of business come spring. It was inspected and in great shape, but we all know how important it is to do preventatively on these cars. Here's a quick spec list and a nice roller photo I got on the drive home!
WBSBL93492JR17883
2002 BMW M3
Steel Gray on Black Nappa
6 Speed Manual Coupe
134,210 miles


01/2022 (@135k) Updates
Engine
Fabspeed catless headers WPC treated rod bearings + ARP rod bolts OE coolant expansion tank OE expansion tank line OE BMW coolant OE BMW motor mounts Achilles Motorsports SAP block off plate SAP + valve delete Valve adjustment OE valve cover gasket kit OE Meyle fan clutch + fan blades NGK spark plugs Transmission
Rogue Engineering transmission mounts UUC Evo 3 short throw shifter + DSSR Trans fluid change - Redline DT4 ATF (auto/manual) Delrin shift carrier bushings Chassis
TMS RACP reinforcement weld in plates Revshift 80A differential bushings Revshift 80A subframe bushings Differential output flange + input shaft seals Differential fluid change - OE BMW SAF-XJ + FM booster TMS Zinc-Nickel plated stainless steel brake lines Motul RBF600 brake fluid Suspension
Turner sealed monoball RTABs TCK S/A Coilovers (F - 500lb R - 600lb) Ground Control race camber plates OE BMW front strut reinforcement plates OE Lemforder end links Rogue engineering RSM + perch reinforcement plates TCK RSM + buna bushings Exterior
Paint matched front reflectors OE BMW LED tail lights + OE BMW wiring adapters Interior
OE BMW Cinnamon interior swap OE BMW Aluminum trim swap OE BMW M3 floor mats OE Illuminated 6 speed ZHP knob

Its the only thing that has kept Chrysler relevant. I’d even love a Singer 911 type modern tribute of a 2002 or E30.

Correct, the loop serves to dissipate heat from the exhaust gasses passing through before reaching the pressure sensor. It also dampens the exhaust pulses as they pass through the tubing and absorbs vibrations. I also installed a 0.04" restrictor/damper just prior to the sensor just to make sure the readings are stable. 

Good story; good read. I keep hoping BMW is going to do one of these retro kicks like the big three have done recently. I'll take a 2025 e30 M3 :). Never gonna happen. 

The year was 2020. It was an unseasonably warm November evening, just after sundown on the outskirts of Milwaukee. I hopped into my E46 M3 with my 9 year old daughter who pleaded with me to go for one last drive in it before putting it away for the winter.  On our drive we passed some dealerships and I decided to take a quick look at what was on the lot. As we walked towards the new car section of the local BMW dealership. It was dark enough that the parking lot was illuminated but still easy enough to see a new G22 chassis code 440i x-drive with its controversial front grille. I took a look around the car to see if the polarizing style would be better from different angles and wondered if within time I would get used to it and realize that perhaps BMW was brilliant and ahead of their time, but I just wasn't seeing it.  
Parked next to the 440i was a new fwd-based 228i listed for $45k and scoffed at both the price tag and how small the interior was, immediately thinking about who might buy such an expensive and impractical car. I kept walking expecting to see some kind of M-sport model that would catch my attention that perhaps I could look forward to owning sometime in the next 10 years. 
My daughter shares a sliver of my BMW enthusiasm. With her curious excitement, she asked me which of all these new BMWs I would pick. As I paused and looked around, taking her question fairly seriously,  I glanced at the 4-series, a row of 2-series, some more basic 330's. 

"None of them. I honestly would not pick any of them.”

 In that peculiar moment I was surprised by my own response.
Once upon a time in Salt Lake City I was a 9 year old boy in the parking lot of an Acura dealership, struck with awe at a single car that captured my attention and completely changed my perception of a brand. Today, I am struck with awe that I cannot find a single car that captures my attention on the BMW lot. 
Once upon a time in Munich, the Ultimate Driving Machine was not so hard to identify.
 

 
END

While the Germans were busy adding more turbos, more cylinders,  and more obscure nonsensical models to their lineups, the rest of the automotive world was advancing rapidly on normal products. We have come out on the other side of this whirlwind with an insanely level playing field like we have never seen before. There is ALMOST no such thing as a bad new car. There are no Hyundai Pony, Yugo GV, Ford Fiesta.... wait.  There is a Ford Fiesta. and it comes in "ST" flavor with a turbo and people actually really like them. 
The bottom line is. There are A LOT of very good cars today. All of them are heavier, quieter, safer, and more numb than what we grew up with and thats what we want in our daily drivers/ family haulers. But where are the soul-stirring RWD, manual sport sedans that gave BMW their legendary reputation?

I look to the M2 Competition, the F80 M3/M4, perhaps even the M240i on the cheaper end of the spectrum and fragments of the pure E30, E36, and E46 that came before. You read reviews of them about how magnificent they are, perhaps lacking some steering feel, or rawness, but overall how they are very serious performance cars. You don't necessarily need to buy the biggest baddest fastest version of a car to enjoy driving it, or to be an enthusiast, but most normal people I know simply cannot and simply should not try to afford these newer performance versions of the cars. The F80 M3 starting price was in the upper 60's and can easily get up to $80k out the door. Again, the average enthusiast is not going to be able to afford these new, but how can you feel good about driving an $80k car hard and risking putting it into a ditch, or into the wall on track. It makes me nervous at least. So then what is the point of owning such a car if its too expensive, too fast, too difficult to repair, and doesn't really get used? There is entirely too much performance in many new cars for street use to where you might start to justify saving a load of money and "just getting an F30 328i 2.0t". After all,  for a MUCH more reasonable price, you can get:
-RWD - 242hp Turbocharged engine - M-sport aesthetic options - All the comfort and technology anybody really needs - Near 50/50 weight distribution -
All a very nice start to the classic BMW formula. But then comes the list of counterpoints:
Sure, it's RWD, but it has an open diff. You may as well get the AWD model to help out with adverse weather and just use the "X Delete" app to make it RWD with an open diff again when you want it.
-Both the 2.0T and the 3.0T engines are a gem, but the newer generations of BMW engines are still littered with stupid problems that really shouldn't have to exist anymore. 
-The balance between comfort and cornering grip in the new chassis is stellar, but there is very little sensation of speed and the "feel" is different. Different is not always bad, but it is different. 
-The automatic transmissions are getting so good that you should really just get an automatic. This is because you are getting older and since you aren't going to track the car and are getting an x-drive to make things more practical, you may as well just seal the deal with an automatic. 

When you start to be realistic about current day BMW ownership from the vantagepoint of a more basic 3-series, You have to accept the reality that you might be better off getting a Honda Accord Sport. The playing field might just be that level when you aren't targeting a new ///M car.


 
 
 
 

2006:
I tried to be cautious while modifying the S14. It was in great shape and hadn't been destroyed by unsavory modifications and criss-crossed zip-tie bumper repairs.

This was my first RWD car. I quickly gained an appreciation of how different the performance was from the FWD VWs I was used to. It was a great car, but it was no BMW. its "truck engine" open diff, basic interior, and an awkwardly styled rear end left me regretting not choosing the E34.
Life started to happen fast. I met my wife, once again liquidated some assets, including the 240SX to help pay for a wedding ring, tuition, and books for my first semester as ai moved to Wisconsin and started college.
Over the next couple years we were mostly a 1 car household, shared my wife's Beige 2001 Rav4. 
Like every car guy in college, I was sometimes a little bit distracted while studyIng and would find myself searching cars for sale on a study break and daydreaming about what I might buy once school is over and all the loans are paid off

By this point in 2007, my opinion of BMW had not changed and it seemed like they were beginning to spice things up and bring some fresh things to the table:
The M3 had a high revving V8 and a dual clutch transmission. Love it!

 
The M5 waa a family car with a V10. How cool is that?!

The Z4 styling had REALLY grown on me.

There was the Hydrogen 7, showing the world that BMW was still trying to be an innovator 

There was a twin turbo 1-series which I had always hoped would come stateside as a hatchback, but I will gladly take it. 


Wait, now hold on a second.

Theres a Nissan GT-R and it's how fast?!? 
Wow, even the the Rav4 has a V6 and does 0-60 in 6.3 sec! why would you even need that?
what else is in here...
The 350z now has a track package with Brembos, an LSD, and 306 hp, not bad!
The Camaro is back, I thought they killed the Camaro. The Dodge Challenger is coming back too!?
Hyundai now makes a RWD V8 sedan and their going to make a RWD coupe?
Some guy named Elon is going to start electrifying a Lotus Elise and sell it to the public, I bet it wont even go 60 miles on a charge.

Where on earth did all these rear wheel drive cars come from because the last time I checked I was pretty sure RWD was dying off due to consumer choices, packaging, and efficiency and that was part of what made BMW cool. The fact that they were one of the few companies who still made a car with RWD and a manual transmission. 
Right then and there I was beginning to feel that we were on the cusp of an automotive renaissance. V6 engines with 300hp and more were showing up in ordinary cars. Electric cars, hydrogen cars, hybrid cars, RWD cars, crazy CVT and dual clutch transmissions, lots of cars coming with all-wheel drive as an option. 400hp is the new 300hp for V8s, old nameplates being revived from the dead and more!
2008-2009, in my opinion, marked the start of something big in the auto industry. After the 2008 economic downturn, domestic automakers were forced to trim the fat and re-strategize. It almost seems that an industry-wide ass whoopin' had taken place in the which new management and executives were under fervent pressure to deliver to shareholders and to find a way to end any malaise that had been lingering.
The big 3 started to suck a lot less. Hyundai/Kia was nipping at the heels of Japanese automakers and really began digging into their market share. And then there were ze Germans.

What the hell was going on in Germany?!? New models of BMW, Audi and Mercedes were being created, seemingly out of thin air to fill gaps in the model range that people really weren't even aware existed and mostly didn't care.
Audi:  Sup. 
BMW: um, yeah?
Audi: We just made a 2 door version of our 4 door car. Check it.

BMW: No problem, we’ll just call our 2 door 3-Series; a 4 series. And while we are at it halte mein bier...  How about a 4 door version of the 2 door version of our 4 door car called a “gran coupe"

MB: We made a van, lol. 

Audi: wtf, why?!?
BMW: LMAO
MB: Fine, We will bring bigger van to America and dominate sales. HA HA! You do not have a van.

BMW: Right, haven't you heard? The people do not like vans,  they want crossovers. But why give them crossovers when you can give them.... Sport Activity Vehicle! *mic drop*
    
MB: That's not even hard to do.


Audi: Those all look awful.... try again.

BMW:  (lets see if they'll take the bait)  UNCLE BENZ! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS???

***PORSCHE HAS ENTERED THE CHAT***
PORSCHE: Sup f***ers

Audi: This is getting too weird. Im out.
BMW: I need to go see how Lexus is doing, i’ll be back later.
 
MB: Hey Bim, I heard some of your guys were interviewing at Hyundai, you might want to check on that too, lol.

***AUDI HAS LEFT THE CHAT***
***BMW HAS LEFT THE CHAT***
***MB HAS LEFT THE CHAT***

Porsche: l bet you can’t guess where we put the engine on this one!
guys?....
 
 
 
 

Nice sir! Good call on lowering the subframe, saves a lot of choice words and maybe even contemplating lighting the whole thing on fire. 

Tank is in, everything clears...

Nicely done!

Tank is in, everything clears...

This car is wicked

Managed to get the flex sensor mounted under the car. I need to get two 6AN ptfe fittings to finish up the job (had the extra adapter fittings pictured laying around). I also decided to test my local premium 91 gasoline for ethanol content and contrary to what I've read on the internet, there is no ethanol (as advertised). The internet was saying even the premium-no ethanol still had some in it. 
Knowing the ethanol content is important because my current ve table is based on this fuel. The flex sensor should read this fuel as 0% and my will not add any fuel to compensate based on the flex multiplier table. Once the sensor begins reading ethanol %,  the ECU will multiply my base ve table to administer the proper ratio. Hooray for being able to use any fuel available. 




The struggle of dealing with someone else wiring harness.....

 

Managed to get the flex sensor mounted under the car. I need to get two 6AN ptfe fittings to finish up the job (had the extra adapter fittings pictured laying around). I also decided to test my local premium 91 gasoline for ethanol content and contrary to what I've read on the internet, there is no ethanol (as advertised). The internet was saying even the premium-no ethanol still had some in it. 
Knowing the ethanol content is important because my current ve table is based on this fuel. The flex sensor should read this fuel as 0% and my will not add any fuel to compensate based on the flex multiplier table. Once the sensor begins reading ethanol %,  the ECU will multiply my base ve table to administer the proper ratio. Hooray for being able to use any fuel available. 




The struggle of dealing with someone else wiring harness.....

 

You realize I don't know how to stop myself...?
 

Here is the e30 vs e46 rear caliper. 32mm vs 40mm piston 

Go the tires mounted, took a look at the fender difference here, the passenger side has been rolled/pulled and the drivers side has not been rolled yet. 

Finally got the carriers, so the calipers are on. Still need to get some anti-rattle clips. The e46 caliper piston is about 5mm larger than the e30. On another good note i've got the flex sensor harness run through the firewall and wired in, I will be working on mounting and plumbing that in soon. It's going to be badass not ever worrying about the fuel you put in the car. With the flex sensor the ECU will automatically adjust the VE table and ignition table for ethanol %. 

Starting the 5 lug conversion on the front end using the IRP kit, e46 bearings, and e46 325i brakes. Threw on some new sway bar end links while I was at it since those were crusty. I'm still waiting for the carriers to come in the mail. I will update with some comparison of the calipers, the piston diameter is quite close from e30 to e46. 


e30 (260mm) vs e46 rotor (300mm)


e30 Hawk HPS (which are trash) vs e46 Textar, not a huge difference. The textar is taller and wider.