clarkson's e46 m3 and previous cars - lots of pics

clarkson's e46 m3 and previous cars - lots of pics

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clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Tuesday 31st May 2022
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Car passed mot other week absolutely nothing wrong with it , (bloody shouldn't be!)
Came out one morning and some tw@t had robbed my driver's side indicator , broke clip that bolts to side of headlight pulled the wing out and now has a slight crease managed to push it in but you can slightly see it so I'm going to order some new wings, they didn't even get it out in one piece so it's useless to them!!! frown headlight washer trims scratched surprised they didn't take that aswell.
I hardly ever park my car Infront of the house but that will be the last time!!!
So off to BMW might as well get a fresh passenger side indicator aswell!! Even came with bulb holders and bulbs!

Luckily they didn't break the metal tab I riveted on to side of headlight to bolt indicator in

New on drivers side old on passenger

Both new

You can see the pointy bit on wing where it was creased, managed to get it flattish but still need a new one as there's ABIT of rust comming back through


Oh and went to lock car one night and key just spun so for 9 quid replaced lock all works good again



clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Friday 10th June 2022
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Eml light kept popping up till it stayed lit, pre cat lambda sensor bank 1, so bought 2 new Bosch sensors and some o2 sensor tools and swopped them out

Also swopped out the MAF for a new Bosch one

The euro car parts elring valve gasket was leaking onto the manifold again !!! So off to BMW and got a genuine one


Think I'm going to get a carbon air box soon for it smile and going to have the diff rebuilt with the 3.91 ratio

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Thursday 16th June 2022
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Eml light came back on exhaust cam sensor , whoops forgot to plug it back in and it melted on the exhaust manifold and wouldn't get a connection, so hunted around and got a new connector from web as BMW couldn't find me one even with part number on the plug!!
ABIT melted

De-pinned

New one on

Works fine now **touches wood**

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Thursday 23rd June 2022
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Sorted.out the passenger side wing mirror base , usual corrosion didn't spray the wing mirror as that's in good condition


Sanded all corrosion


2k primer in a can


3 coats of primer and then sanded smooth and moved inside the garage for colour and lacquer

3 coats of basecoat


3 coats of 2k lacquer in a can


On the car a few days later


Edited by clarkson22 on Thursday 23 June 21:53


Edited by clarkson22 on Thursday 23 June 21:54

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Tuesday 28th June 2022
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A big present turned up today!






The Geoff steel sticker will be coming off and m power on going on!
ECU getting sent off for CSL clone got to fit map sensor and iat and few other things smile

darreni

3,792 posts

270 months

Tuesday 28th June 2022
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I really enjoy reading these updates, that is some amount of work you’ve done.

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Wednesday 29th June 2022
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Cheers man smile

Started off by peeling Geoff steel stickers off using hair dryer and plastic scraper

Airbox off

Made up my map sensor loom some braided wire protector heat shrink at the bottom and pins for ECU on 2 wires crimped

Didn't like the green plug so sprayed it black



On the connector it's labeled a b c for the 3 wires
So wire a ( blue wire) went to pin 16 on the ECU connector - ground
Wire b ( purple) went to pin 18 on ECU connector
Wire c ( red) was spliced into the green/red wire from pin 7 on the same connector

You can see the purple and blue wire going into the connector


Wire c spliced into pin 7 just further back from connector


Cut the hose here to add the t piece for the map sensor


Tie wrapped the map sensor to the ECU box lid bracket and connected up ( see would of been a green plug if it wasn't sprayed black wink )


T piece in with 5mm silicone hose to map sensor



Bits required to connect it up


Excuse the finger prints all over the box



Still need to put the other bit of snorkel on, I had to unbolt the dipstick spin to where it's sitting in that pic and bolt it back down .

ECU went off to be converted to a hp and a map put on smile
Beer time

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Thursday 30th June 2022
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Finished it off today just got to wait for my ECU to come back

Iat loom and sensor


Screwed in iat


Pull pin 22 out of connector x60003 (same one a the one for map sensor)


Replace the wire that's just been pulled out with signal wire from iat into pin 22 and splice the ground wire into pin 17 ( ground from MAF)
Forgot to take pics of this !

Bought some little rubber feet as you can't bolt the box to the standard airbox y bracket thing so it now sits on these



Put some self adhesive foam pads on top


Iat plugged in


All done just awaiting ECU




Sprayed my strut brace as it was all scratched

2k primer , black and then 2k lacquer




Till next time!

helix402

7,871 posts

182 months

Thursday 30th June 2022
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All looking great. I do like a good old E46.

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Friday 1st July 2022
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Cheers dude!

Decided I couldn't just spray the strut had to do the bits around the shock towers as well!
scuffed up


2 coats of black and 2 of lacquer


Gave the engine bay a good clean as well and fitted my brace back




Much better smile

Krikkit

26,534 posts

181 months

Friday 1st July 2022
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Very nice indeed, that carbon intake looks absolutely mega.

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Saturday 2nd July 2022
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Cheers man just wish I could drive it!!! Probably another week till ECU is back and done

But anyway sticker came for box so got tape and tape measure and got sticking
The sticker as per the CSL is 72 mm ish from top and 52 mm ish from side but I moved it back to 30mm so the strut brace goes between the BMW and the npower bit.








Must of measure it about a 1000 times, finishes it off nicely

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Tuesday 5th July 2022
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Got my ECU back from being converted to a hp and sent it off again to be loaded with a CSL map and tune ,

So in the meantime I've been meaning to clean up the battery tray area
Took out the rusty tray




Ground down what ever I could then used sandpaper , some rust converter and then 2k primer and threw some silver on it till I get se beige that matches

I deleted the pictures of this by accident but you get the gist
Wire flaped this



You know the score , 2k primer, black , 2k lacquer






Metal still has pitting but it shouldn't rust again


Need to order some used boot carpets , I tried to dye them black years ago and now they look st and they looked st dyed so back to grey

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Monday 11th July 2022
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Had the ECU back now since last Thursday and the sound is insane!!!! Feels good drives like stock, pulls nice and hard no jerkiness,
Trimmed and fitted the rad/fan shroud


So decided to sort the cold air feed out as the standard feed from fog light was to tall to let the snorkel sit far enough down so trimmed it and stuck a 2.5 inch cold air hose down from fog light straight up the carbon snorkel
Even has a anodised black end!

Smaller hose fed from the kidney grill scoop area


And the f'kin speakers there's really no oomph from the bass so I bypassed the Harmon kardon amp and tapped into the rear right and rear left speaker signal just before it goes into the amp and sent them straight to the alpine 6x9s in the sub basket and it still retains all other speakers working
Rear right

Same again for rear left and send them into the parcel shelf then into the sub basket
OEM loom tape back on


Removes standard connectors from basket and feed the new speaker wires through the grommet

Routed next to OEM wiring

What a difference ! More bass ,sounds more clearer comming straight from the headunit than going through the amp and it's weird settings.
And finally polished the airbox with some small drill attachments


Edited by clarkson22 on Monday 11th July 20:00


Edited by clarkson22 on Monday 11th July 20:02

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Wednesday 20th July 2022
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amp and sub install

Whilst running the 6x9s straight from the headunit the bass was improved but everytime I got in my e91 with OEM hifi amp I put in a while back the bass was alot punchier and better so I decided to install a amp and sub

Juice amp 4 channel 1500w I just mounted it with short self tappers into the seat back


Running front and rear RCA cables and remote turn on from headunit to amp


Power cables done , had to use a red coloured earth cable as the black one supplied was way to short I've wrapped it in black wire protector but I'll swop it for black soon as its doing my head in
Inline fuse connected to power cable next to battery

Wired the to 6x9s to other spare channels





Can still get a few bags In lol,

I'm going to remove the 6x9s and sub basket totally, take the front speakers that I changed swop them with the parcel shelf speakers and run them off the amp and leave the Harmon kardon amp doing the front speakers and tweeters only

But NOW I have bass smile and sounds decent without blowing windows out

d_a_n1979

8,411 posts

72 months

Wednesday 20th July 2022
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What a great project thumbup

Odd that Elring gaskets have failed as they're OEM

Them and Victor Reinz IIRC

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Saturday 23rd July 2022
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Cheers man funnily enough the OEM One is leaking now, it's leaking right where you have to put sealent between the timing chain cover and head, I think the sealent I used was st going to take it off and get some other brand , think I used elring sealent as well!

Anyway quick fix , I kept getting waffs of fuel when going round drivers side wheel area , thought it was one of pipes that I had off a few times , but no it was the fuel cap o ring !



No more fuel smells

d_a_n1979

8,411 posts

72 months

Saturday 23rd July 2022
quotequote all
clarkson22 said:
Cheers man funnily enough the OEM One is leaking now, it's leaking right where you have to put sealent between the timing chain cover and head, I think the sealent I used was st going to take it off and get some other brand , think I used elring sealent as well!

Anyway quick fix , I kept getting waffs of fuel when going round drivers side wheel area , thought it was one of pipes that I had off a few times , but no it was the fuel cap o ring !



No more fuel smells
Hmmm.. Have you checked the cover with a bright torch to see if there's a hairline crack at all? Use a straight rule too to check the covers not warped.

For sealant, I've used Hylomar Blue, Loctite and Reinzosil and both have been faultless...

A little goes a long way etc

Loctite 5926 Silicone gasket sealant (blue) 100ml https://amzn.eu/d/7IVxXvD


REINZ FLEXIBLE BLACK SILICONE SEALANT 200ml https://amzn.eu/d/aqjk7Pt

Blue Hylomar Gasket Size: 100g https://amzn.eu/d/8WX7U2J

My preference is the Loctite or Reinzosil

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Saturday 23rd July 2022
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Not checked it yet dude was going to check it properly when it's off , I didn't put alot of silicone on it last time, just a smear , might not have been enough , and thanks for links man smile

clarkson22

Original Poster:

471 posts

164 months

Tuesday 26th July 2022
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Quick job literally took me 40 mins to have it done and back together! ,Needed to re seal the valve cover , I didn't put enough silicone last time at all , checked rocker cover with flat edge and it's all ok , so got some sealent that was recommended and the reviews were all good so on that went !




It's only been a day of driving , still dry so that's a good sign lol!