2003 BMW M3 - The New Daily

[SebringMan]

It's about time this thread was updated! What have I been up to I hear you ask? OK, maybe I was imagining things .

Firstly I dealt with a costly job I have been putting off for quite some time ; the front end respray! While the pictures made it look good and unless you looked very closely (well, closer than 5 feet!) you could tell that the wings still had a tiny amount of bubble rust that had not grown, the bonnet was littered with touched up stonechips, the passenger wing had signs of a poor painjob previously and a hasty touch up in addition to the bumper having been painted before and looking a little 'off' in its shine and pepper, but with the peppering looking to be beneath the paint!

Originally I planned to just get the wings done and then the bonnet! However, when the lacquer started coming off parts of the bumper I decided to bite the bullet and get the lot done! With that in mind the bumper was taken back to the plastic and started all over again.

Along the way the grille clips snapped as did the heated washer jets, which apparently were broken before (they looked fine before!) Anyway, this was all sorted in the end. The result? A car that looks significantly fresher than when I bought it! It's got a nice honesty about it! The car is no show winner but it is looking lovely now, more than good enough for a daily, with the new grilles complimenting the car well



What's more I decided to deal with another job the car has had wrong with it from the day I bought it ; the rear view mirror.

It seems there was a manufacturing fault with the original units that is now fixed with the revised items. Mine had the typical leak within itself inside as well as the autodimming function no longer working! I mean, who does enjoy their retinas being destroyed at night time? But besides that, why would I risk the alien like blood leaking out of the mirror and wrecking my mirror and not limit itself to marking the trim and seats badly?

With that in mind I ordered another mirror from MirrorJohn! No, he is not an Arthur Daley character, but well known in the M3 circles on M3Cutters. I put the job off for quite some time with all of my busy weekends but I finally managed to put some time aside.



Yup, it's gone!



The obligatory "tools in use" shot:



The new one looks slightly better!



The mirror now fixed!

MirrorJohns' instructions were spot but I did differ my method to his a little:

-I split the mirror casing apart with a credit card and not a craft knife
-The mirror being stuck onto the backplate I did with a combination of a snap-on knife and a credit card. No, I am not trying to reduce my spending for those wondering!
-The rear light sensor I placed into the front mirror casing first and then put the mirror back together. This made life alot easier.

Sure enough it works a treat. Now I don't need to perv at drivers with the rear view mirror at night time, not that I could before with a distorted rear mirror . Joking aside the mirror has made a pleasant difference inside the car, really helping the car feel that bit nice and see more of where I am going, and where I have been! Night time driving I have yet to do in the car.

That is all for now folks!

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 15th November 14:33

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 15th November 15:01

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 22 September 22:35

[SebringMan]

It seems it has been another busy month for me on the car! Like other jobs I knew it needed doing, but this one did creep up on me!

Firstly, I had the airbag recall done. BMW were happy with the state of the car. They however were no happy with a few things:

-O/S headlight not working. It does, but it picks it's moments to not work now and again ; the ignitor is gone. Those who know how awkward it is change will know why I am putting this off. I do have the ignitor however. Seeing as I have a spare weekend next week I may give it a go
-Rear tyres are on the limit. They measured the rears at 2mm in parts!

When I bought the car it was on Falkens all round. Faster forward 4,000 miles on and the rears were on around 2mm from 5mm! What the hell?

With that in mind it was time to spend some dollar I really didn't want to spend! After scouring around the prices from the usual suspects and debating on the tyres I decided to go with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s. Pricey I know but if they lasted well over 10k (well the PS2s) on a 300BHP 944 Turbo they should be fine on an M3. Better than the Falkens anyway which IMO have an abysmal wear rate! In the end my usual tyre place turned out to be just as cheap as Black Circles and as cheap as anyone else for that matter by the time I accounted from fitting if I bought them off Camskill (around £15. I know of one place who would fit them for £10 but he did say that his machine would struggle to fit 19" wheels. Given he marked (ableit slightly) a 15" wheel with the careless use of a crowbar when I was there I decided to give him a miss. I would have used Event tyres but Christ they are expensive for 19" tyres!

It was then time to book myself in. Working all week ruled out a weekday fitting. It was time to go on the weekend, but somehow I end up being stupidly busy on the weekends. No a problem I thought. Get up earlier and go to the tyre shop early.

It was fair to say that was freezing!




This was the scene at 8:45AM on a Saturday. Joy. A queue:



One complaint about the FK453s was their lack of sidewall. I tried to measure this but the shakes got the better of me in this shot. For those wondering they give around 0.5mm of protection for the rim. On the fronts? Nothing ; the rim protector is there more as a decorative feature:



Eventually the rears were fitted by 9.25AM and I was on my way:



As for the PS4s what are they like I hear you ask? Honestly? The car is quieter with these on over the Falkens by quite a way! The rear end also feels far less loose than it has done for a good few months now! It's lovely! I need to change the fronts however, but at 4mm I think I may wear them down a bit more first!

When I say on my way I was going with a friend for a 30th Birthday gift we all got him. An American car day out



With this done I have gone back to piling on the miles! It's fair to say it is a little cold out there mind you!



It's a lovely car however! It's a great cruiser that with a couple of flicks of the paddles and some careful application of the throttle can turn into quite a serious beast! Once you get used to the 'box you wonder what the fuss is about regarding the hate!

Yup, for now I am liking the car! Cheap to run however it ain't!

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 22 September 22:38

[SebringMan]

TheDukeGTi said:

Great progress on this! I'm doing similar jobs on my E36; freshening up. The little details make all the difference.

Cheers! It's surprising the details the little bits make isn't it? On my 944 they certainly made the car more liveable with and nicer overall which, let's be honest is a large factor.

Speaking of living with a car, I decided to give it a clean! But not clean enough for the shots with all of the salt present! Still, it could have been worse!

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 22 September 22:39

[SebringMan]

It seems that despite me cleaning the car quite often and pampering it where I can it demanded more attention! It is fair to say it has not been the best of months for now, but maybe it was partly my fault. The niggle list is certainly alot smaller and after Xmas I'll be dealing with the very few that are now left.

Firstly the car decided it would throw a bit of a tantrum after I left work. The fuel tank was close to empty when I left work ; I planned to brim it on the way back, but I did not bank on the traffic being absolutely horrific! At this point a misfire joined the party with the car losing quite a bit of power. Sure enough, the EML light wanted to make an appearance too. With a misfiring car and the damage that can happen to the cats I dumped the car back at work and picked it up later on when the roads were quieter and nursed the car back home.

Plugging my generic code reader into the car was futile ; it claimed the car had no errors at all (For the record, that was with a U380 code reader).



Clearly, that was codswallop - It would have been nice if the car was running right, but running like a 3 legged dog, that was not going to wash with me! It was time to plug the car into the well-known INPA system that quite a few BMW owners talk about! It was fair to say the codes were just a little more comprehensive!

These were the errors that greeted me:

210 Misfire, cyl.6, without cylinder cutout
149 Error if tank is empty
201 Misfire, cyl.6, with cylinder cutout

Normally I'd order the part online and wait. But time was of the essence. I needed the car for the next two days for a change and I had access to no other car bar a hire one! Something had to be done, fast.

Usually, I'd switch coils around to ensure the coil is at fault but given it was cold and dark outside I simply bought another coil and thought I would see if it would fix it, as well as buying a spare for the future should another coil decide to fail. Sure enough, the coil was dead! The old coil could have looked better mind you!:



So the car was back to running well again, or so it seemed. For quite some time, well, since I bought the car the lights tended to dim inside on occasion and then recover quickly again. I noticed that it also did this when the car was revved from idle. I guess I should have known that the alternator was not long for this world! Yup, I now had an intermittent battery light come on in the same week!

Off I went to recharge the battery which was useless as I suspected it would be. I normally don't like changing alternators as IME pattern items rarely last any length of time and the genuine items are stupidly priced, around £600-700 in this case! Previously, one car of ours had a Valeo, Halfords, cheapo, and then finally a an Ford alternator (sold the car with this on). All of these died within a 3 year period! At least that was easy to change!

On another car, a 6 month old alternator caught me out in Italy of all places. That was the Carlsberg breakdowns of breakdowns however, but I'll leave that for another time.



With the alternator off I decided to see if I could get to the regulator which seemed like a likely culprit. This was easy:



Some part nos. for people who want to research things. The Valeo no. is 2542432B:



With the regulator off I checked the brushes. They had clearly seen their day TBH! You can't see it in the shots but the rear brush of the 2 was quite badly worn:





Great I thought. Get a new regulator and put it in! I did think this until I checked the prices:
BMW : £128
Elsewhere : £100-125 (Valeo OE item).

You can get pattern ones on eBay but they don't look the same as what I took off of as said I didn't want to be doing this job again. I then decided to bite the bullet and just buy a new but trusted brand of alternator, and some INA pulleys, the same brand as what BMW themselves use:



On the plus side, the box does say it has a 3 year warranty, so maybe this one won't be too bad:



After I got back home last night I tackled it in the freezing cold and somehow had the car back together and running in over an hour. Admitedly it did feel like my fingers were going to succomb to frostbite! With the pulleys changed it was time to fire her up. It certainly sounds alot quieter and if I am honest it vibrates a little less throughout the car as well! A job well done all in!

And a shot of the hidden work now it has been done. Oh, and sorry for the poor photos. I was in a hurry to just get on with the work, otherwise I would have done a "How-To". Yes, I am sad enough to copper grease the bolts when I am replacing them:

Edited by SebringMan on Thursday 22 December 01:08

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 22 September 22:42

[SebringMan]

mwstewart said:

It looks very nice all cleaned up in the sun.

What happened in Italy?

Many thanks. It would be nice if the car was as nice as yours mind you ; it certainly gives some inspiration!

Italy was a few years ago with a couple of mates, some of whom are fellow PHers. In essence we bought a sheddy XR3i Cabrio. We got it prepped and sorted a few niggles for Italy (driveshaft, service, cambelt, paint, the usual stuff). One issue for me was the alternator ; it was a pattern replacement with the receipt to go with it.

Normally I wouldn't have been concerned but I do remember my dad's XR3i 7 years prior to this one. The original alternator lasted 2 years in our ownership. Within the space of 2 years the car went through around 4 or 5 alternators, including Halfords, Valeo, and a couple of other brands. When we sold the car it went back onto a genuine Ford alternator, albeit one from a scrap car which worked fine and didn't cause issues.

Sure enough, the battery light with every single consumer started coming on very dimly at night time on the night we were leaving. To add insult to injury the alternator decided it would undo itself! I ended up tightening the casing bolts on the side of the road with a time limit in place for the hotel! Not what you need with a red hot exhaust next to it!

On the way to Italy the headlights would need to be used loads again with all of the tunnels on the motorway near Genova ;aka God's racetrack. It seems it would prove too much. By this point the alternator from fully charging went to fully discharging, meaning the car was only running on battery power. With the exhaust also cracking at the downpipe join and breaking off it was the final straw. We basically had a car that had a range of its battery life. With that in mind we limped the car into Genova with battery life alone and the world's loudest exhaust in a petrol forecourt.

While thoughts were going through of dumping the car, possibly locating a spare alternator from a scrappy with a language issue (Good Translate wasn't around in 2007!) we were reliant on what the locals would do. Much to our surprise we were in luck. A bloke in a chavved up Peugeot 306 who initially seemed like a risky lead was willing to help our cause. After going to a backstreet garage they concluded what we already knew. The "generator" was duff and the exhaust downpipe flange was too weak.

The above was translated by a local Italian girl, who then offered for us to stay with her and her sisters. No I am not joking about this! I cannot imagine anyone to this day allowing a bunch of twenty-something year olds to stay with them! We certainly go to see a bit of Genova with our personal tour guides .

After being treated to dinner and lunch by them and their family the car was ready with a replacement genuine alternator and a bodged/welded exhaust ; the exhaust was their worry in terms of sourcing the part.

Hence why I said, if Carlsberg did breakdowns . :thumbsup:. I do have more photos but I'll have to dig them up.

roadie said:

Lovely looking car and sounds like you are enjoying it. And the maintenance it requires!

Many thanks! I am enjoying the car for sure ; it ticks many boxes in this guise. Part sports car, part raw racer (ish), part GT cruiser. Long journeys in this are a joy! If I go to Germany next year it should be quite the toy!

As for enjoying working on it, that depends! I was hoping to not do quite as much and hopefully I've not made mine sound like a nail! But I do like a car to be just so . I also knew that while a lower mileage car *may* have had less issues I'd have soon found some and trashed its value with the mileage I am putting on. I have already put on close to 5,000 miles since May. Not a massive amount but probably more than what the average M3 is seeing annually.

That and I have previously been stung by garages and my dad a BMW dealer with his now very much gone but not forgotten E36 325tds. I guess I am a bit of a cynic and possibly also be a little tight!

Finally, if I can help someone else out in some small way with the above information then at least it's been beneficial to a few guys out there .

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 23 December 10:30

[SebringMan]

culpz said:

Lovely car and looks like a nice example. As much as they get criticised, i think i'd go for an SMG version if i was ever to purchase one. I think it would suit the car nicely, especially if being used as a daily.

It always bothers me when people say things like "I must be mad to go for an E46 as a daily". It's a BMW coupe with a big engine, it's perfectly usable day-to day and it's designed for exactly that. As long as you can afford the upkeep it's a good shout in my eyes. No offense to yourself btw

Many thanks .

To be fair I quite like it now, especially with more idiots about in town etc. You do however have to relearn how to use a gearbox however. I for instance do block change with it now and again on a run it's great to just flick the paddle a couple of times to get into 4 and put your foot down . Have you driven one however?

I'm debating getting the CSL software onto my gearbox however. But I like that I can heel and toe with the current setup. What I would want to is if I could reverse the CSL setup back to stock.

I see what you mean about that but I guess people say that, including myself because most people I know go for a Focus 1.6 or a newish car as a daily. It's not like parts are cheap for these cars either and that includes consumables. Saying that, my spreadsheet at home claims it's costing me £15-20 a month more to run than the Clio by the time you account for depreciation/appreciation but with no fuel in the mix. So that cost also includes servicing, repairs, tax and insurance.

One thing to bear in mind is that I did all of the work myself bar the bodywork. If I outsourced that you can add another £1k onto my costs which does become a tipping point...

The surprising thing for me is the MPG on a run. Going to Guildford and back would have cost me around £30ish in the Clio 172, not a bad figure in my eyes.

If the last refuel of the car was correct it cost me £37-40 tops all in and I was going faster on the motorway!

[SebringMan]

culpz said:

I haven't tbh so, ultimately, i'd have to hold out a proper opinion on it until i have. I can just imagine in my mind that i'd prefer the SMG but maybe it's because i'm getting a bit bored and tired of using a manual truth be told. Also, i've driven various BMW's and their gearshift isn't the best and can be fairly notchy.

Sometimes it's good to drive something slow and ordinary so that when you step into something like this it really makes you realise how special it is. I suppose it's easy to lose that spark when driving it daily.

Speaking of the Clio, how was it as a daily? I've always wanted a Clio 172/182 and it's definitely on the radar as my next car to finally scratch the itch. The other car i'd be considering is an E46 325i/330i coupe with potentially the auto gearbox. I know it's not an SMG but they appear to be slower, more thirsty and potentially more unreliable than the manual.

It's part of the reason why I chose one. While I don't mind manuals the 323i made me almost hate them. A quick flick from 3rd to 4th without crunching very slightly? Not a chance. At the time I owned an Escort RS Turbo with a Helix 4 paddle and considering you had to rev match that car up the up/down changes to prevent the entire car shaking I still preferred that to the 323i! It's probably the first time I have ever wanted an auto over a manual in a car and that's saying something!

It's not like I've not owned many manual cars either. I think out of the 30/40 odd cars I have owned/driven alot this is the 5th "auto" I have owned to put things into perspective.

That said, I can see why people are not a fan of the setup at at times at the start I wondered what had I done? I at one point had the keys to this and the MX-5 as well as a Mondeo 2.5T I borrow now and again. I almost always pick up the keys for this now for a drive out .

MOTK said:

Am I missing something here. You heel and toe in a car without a manual clutch?
I suppose I can see it working, never occurred to me before though that you could!

Indeed! You have to love forums here and information;). Ultimately the SMG uses the same gearbox and clutch setup as a manual car. It's the clutch actuation and gearshift that are controlled through electrohydraulics.

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 30th December 15:33

Edited by SebringMan on Wednesday 4th January 13:27

[SebringMan]

MOTK said:

Indeed! I learn something new every day thank you
So just to work it outing my little mind you have to guesstimate when the clutch is going to re-engage? I suppose you just get used to it?

Pretty much it. Initially I used to mis gauge it but now it is near enough second nature. I tend to do it if I am going change down a little early or if I block change up.

[SebringMan]

This post does not have much in the way of content but it is good stuff to divulge regardless.

Some of you will recall how I said that I had the driver's side airbag recall done back in November last year. I was also aware that I had the passenger side airbag replaced in 2015 thanks to the service history of the car. However, I only have stamps for the rest of the service history although it appears that up to 90k it had all of the work carried out by Altwood/Stratstone BMW in Maidenhead who are now Sytner Maidenhead. There were two recalls I was unaware of being carried out on the car but nonetheless they are recalls I am pleased to hear about for a few reasons. These include:

-Rod end bearing recall
-SMG Gearbox Module Enhancement.

As said previously it seems the first owner had the car a while and got everything done from brake fluid changes to the Inspection IIs from BMW right from the moment he bought it. It certainly seems he kept on top the car which is always good to hear from elsewhere.

[SebringMan]

flimper said:

A good read, keep the updates coming

Cheers! It's good to know that the ramblings of a car nut can be enjoyable .

Speaking of which, now and again you end doing a job that you have been putting off for some time? I started such a job...:





Let's see if from the shoddy images and a odd moan about it on thread about what job I started. Some of you will know why I put the said job off!

More shall arrive soon .

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 22 September 22:43

[SebringMan]

appletonn said:

Watching your thread with interest as I've just put a deposit on a 52 plate manual car.

Will be my daily for the next couple of years, or at least that's the current plan!!

Not sure if I'm completely nuts or whether I'm doing the right thing, time will tell!

I'm surprised my thread hasn't put you off! It's good to see that it is providing some value to you and others mind you .

Speaking of value it's time to speak of my headlight saga.

When I bought the car I was told that the offside headlight would turn on intermittently. Indeed this seemed to be the case, albeit it did power up 80% of the time and stay powered up. Coming forward to now and that figure had dropped to 5%. Before I could "cheat" it and flick the lights on and off to turn it on but now it was not having it, even after a 30 minute journey! With an MOT looming something had to be done.

With that decided I ordered myself another headlamp ballast. I figured that having spares for the headlights was not a bad shout in all honesty. I already have a known working bulb, so adding a ballast into the mix will compliment that. But let's be honest I am getting ahead of myself. So there I began removing the affected headlight:



After removing it I decided to break the headlight apart into many parts. While it was fiddly I will find it easier in the future, not that I would want to do it again!



All of this just to change the ignitor inside the headlamp casing. This for the record is the black box with two wires coming off it with a red connector. But "while you are there" other jobs always creep onto the scene. This one being no exception. Many months ago I bought a set of genuine AL lenses at a bargainous price through the M3Cutters forum. While my lenses were not too bad it seemed a shame to fit them when I had some new items in the shed. With the new lenses dusted off it was time to clean and reassemble the lights back together.

Ah yes, I do remember the reflector:



This rather poor iPhone photo demonstrates the difference between the old and new lenses:


So I had one amazing looking headlight that would hopefully work after dissecting but naturally the other side looked worse for wear. So off came the nearside headlight. Well, it wasn't that easy. When my painter painted the car he removed the headlights and washer jet assembly as one by taking off the bumper, so the indicator removal was not necessary. The issue? The screwhead had been rounded off by yours truly. Suffice to say that with some patience, bravery and care I somehow managed to remove the headlight with the indicator while leaving the car unscathed:



But that would not get me out of the woods! I would need to remove the indicator to remove the lens! I could have used a Dremel but I decided to work indoors so I sacked off the Dremel idea. Molegrips looked like a no goer with the collar/retained being rusted onto the screw! With a hacksaw I cut down the side of the screw retainer on the headlight and indicator assembly. With this done the molegrips took care of the rest:



And so it was time to fit the new item. You can just about make out the new screw and retainer. BMW call this a bush. It doesn't look like a bush to me!:



With that all taken care of I managed to reassemble the final light with the new lens:



But would the lights work?

Edited by SebringMan on Saturday 23 September 05:55

[SebringMan]

While I gather some bits together for the light update and other stuff I can provide a rather belated video of me having fun at the Pistonheads Sunday Service back in October at Silverstone. I wasn't the quickest driver but I did have a good time . I managed a lap of 1:15 according to Harry's Laptimer on the semi worn Falkens all round so there is room for improvement :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0w72JN9Vy0

[SebringMan]

I almost forgot that I put the lights back together. In short, they did work!. Being very excited at no longer fearing a policeman and being able to see where I was going finally I took a shot of the lights. It would have helped if I cleaned the salt etc. off them mind you!









In other news the car got another ticket! This is always a welcome addition, seeing that it passed first time too .

On another note I have booked the car into a known specialist for a known flaw on the rear of these M3s.

Normally at this point I start getting cold feet and looking at something else! But then the car is heading in the right direction, and at least in my mind a reinforced M3 is an easier car to live with and sell on .

Edited by SebringMan on Saturday 23 September 06:00

[SebringMan]

appletonn said:

Ah the dreaded rear subframe mount/boot floor issue!

Which specialist have you chosen, one near Bristol?

Has yours got signs of cracking or are you simply taking the proactive approach?

Indeedy!

I was going to choose Redish but I've chosen another by Brands Hatch. As a bonus a friend of mine recommends them, which for him is something as he is hesitant to recommend a specialist.

Honestly? It's for a few reasons, not all of them logical. But it is on the proactive side to some extent.
-I have a slight metallic knock from the rear of the car when going over certain speed bumps at low speed. I unbolted the rear dampers and there is zero play in the rear shock mounts. The shocks are also in very good condition, tying up with the dates on them. After having had myself check the balljoints on the rear as well as one or two garages/specialists near me they look to be fine.

On initial inspection my subframe bushes look OK, but not amazing ; I reckon they could be seated tighter and with less "goo" around the bottom of them ; I suspect these are the culprits ; what is strange is that the handling is fine ; my E36 on new suspension was wayward and unsettled in comparison to this! My floor however looks OK. I could change the bushes myself in the subframe but it would involve the car being off for quite some time.

-It seems a few of them will now crack past the 10 year mark. My friend's E46 328i Touring had it's mounts repaired back a few years ago.

-It's the one question that is always asked when you come to sell. While a lot of people say "it's been checked by BMW" like mine or "it's had a replacement floor by BMW" it is not always a guarantee that it won't crack.

With the reinforcements done it should help the car and its resale should that time come. I know I'll never get all of the money back but it should certainly help.

-I'm going to the Nurburgring in May, DN17 in particular. I have deliberately been a little gentle on the gearchanges etc. The above should have me using the car as intended. Knowing me, I'll probably do a few more trackdays in good time as well.

As another note I also plan to get the CSL software for the gearbox. I have the software do it all with (WinKFP), but I am lacking a charger. I plan to either get the CTEK MXS10 for the job or I'll use a mate's 20Ah Absaar charger to maintain charge.

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 24th January 13:44

[SebringMan]

shalmaneser said:

It's a good idea. Will certainly help resale when/if you need to move it on.

The alternative is to wait for it to go and to have random noises from the rear.

I was told BMW charge between £4-5k to replace the boot floor/RACP. While I am muttering at what it will be costing me it's not too bad when you consider that the poly bushes and plates come to £300 on their own.

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 24th January 19:01

[SebringMan]

mudy said:

Very well written thread and kudos for doing all the work yourself - lovely car, congrats

Many thanks! It's come a long way from when I bought it! While the changes I have done are small they have had a great impact on the car overall.

Uncle John said:

Just read all of it & very much enjoyed it.

Great car, but didn't realise the maintenance required on these.

Would be no good for me as I'm a cack handed oaf.

Good work & keep up the updates!

Good to see that my ramblings are keeping you all entertained and hopefully informed!

Which bit of the maintenance are you referring to? If the alternator it seems quite a few have either gone or have been replaced ; mine was the original item). If it is the valve clearances they are due every 30,000 miles or 4 years, whichever comes first. While I admit they are not pleasant or easy to do I guess it beats a cambelt change in some respects .

Speaking of updates that time has come again!

Alot of us are willing to put up with stuff. Part of it is laziness, some of it being time related, and the other being down to not wanting to find out what you will find. Finally, what you do may actually have no difference! In this case I am referring to cleaning the interior on a car that you own. Sure enough, it was a mixture of all of the above for me!

Armed with some Megs cleaning products (interior cleaner in addition to the all purpose cleaner) I decided not to waste any time in getting stuck in. After all, the car was fine externally, but not quite the same inside! With a clean rag I went around the car cleaning it up! What greeted me in the sink was not so pleasant when I was rinsing it out!:



Lovely.

That said, I am surprised at how much life I put back into the steering wheel! I was considering getting the steering wheel retrimmed by Royal Steering wheels but I really am not sure now. Sure, it's not perfect but it has come up well and it does give the car a nice honesty :



But it seemed my efforts were paying off! The seats came up well with the Gliptone cleaner ; the rears it should be pointed out I didn't touch ; they look like they have never been sat in!

I was in for a surprise with the front seats however, especially the passenger seat! That responded surprisingly well to the conditioner! Even the more worn driver's seat improved but I suspect it may require further attention:


A slight improvement there...

Besides that another improvement has hit the car. Those of you with keen eyes will recall that the car had tape deck and some poor mats inside. While one of them is still a work in progress the car actually came to me with the factory mats beneath the cheap rubbish! When a set of cheap thick mats came along however I snapped them up! I may as well protect the mats that the car came with:



Guess what is still a WIP. There will be more on that later.



As said I suspect I will need to take further action with the driver's seat. It's in full working order but it would be nice to have a tidier seat. Part of me is tempted just to recolour the bolster. Another part has me wanting to search for another set of front seats. What do you folks reckon?

Grey haters look away!:



It looks a little more inviting anyway I would like to think as opposed to a grimefest!



Anyway, enough of that. I also went to the Sunday Service at Prodrive! The car looked great there, and to my surprise very tidy compared to other M3s there ; Surprising given that it has rolled over another milestone:



As for the low fuel, it's normally got a little more in than that! But my local Shell decided it would close for a refurb this week...

Anyway, back to Prodrive. I figured I may as well take the obligatory shots:







A friend of mine decided to join me at the PHSS too. Him in a car that you would no longer call exactly, well, common. A Mitsibish 3000 GTT Manual:



That said, there was plenty to like at the event. Definitely a superb way to spend a Sunday. I'll leave the pics for the SS thread, but here is a taster of what was there:



The now forlorn Manor Racing:



90s goodness at its best. Sad but a couple of us were looking at the Mondeo quite a bit as well as the Scooby:



My mate ended up becoming dillusional with so much tasty metal on display. What is he like?





Call me silly but I do get a little weak at the knees with some Rothmans goodness on display:

[IMG]http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a68/randhawac/2017%20Events/PHSS%20190217%2019%20of%2047.jpg[~original/IMG]

Anyway, that is all for now. Apologies for the small update!

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 28th February 19:21

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 28th February 19:24

Edited by SebringMan on Saturday 23 September 06:05

[SebringMan]

Some of you may have noticed that I have gone or a month of two without spending a small fortune on the car! While my to-do list is dwindling I decided it was time to reward the car somehow.

Today was the point where the car took a bit of a different corner. It received a modification. I said that I would attempt to keep this standard but I guess if you were once a tinkerer, you will always be a tinkerer.

So what tinkering would I do? The gearbox. Specifically, the software.

Some of you will know that I am not the keenest of manual 'boxes in BMWs. Maybe BL stuff, Fords and the MX-5 spoiled me here. That said, while I didn't mind the SMG it was not without its issues. I got used to using it and even managed to used some flaws to my advantage ; I could rev-match the gears myself for instance. That said.

-While the auto mode had its place and is handy it can be a little slow and dimwitted in D2 or D3. Any higher and the car is just a bit of a rev fest. Sure I could plant my foot to make it work but I wanted a more elegant solution.
-While heel and toeing could make the downchanges quick and be rewarding it was not a quick downchanger without doing it, and generally was not the smoothest thing if changing gears at the last minute. I heeled and toed all of the time like I do in most manuals.
-Erm? It can be a little harsh when giving it the beans but it is part of the fun!

A number of people mentioned the SMG CSL Sofware and claimed that it would practically cure world famine etc. While the reports on the face of it sounded promising I am always cautious about stuff being pushed in my direction. I always like to do a little research myself if I can.

What is it? In short the CSL Software comprises of three parts:

[b]Engine DME Side of things:[/u]

-CSL SMG Shifting / Rev Matching

-SMG Inertia Update

SMG ECU Side of things

-CSL 255 Software

Plenty of people were recommending all three. The Inertia update seems to be vaguely described and not making much sense (how can you clamp a clutch harder without changing the pressure plate for example?). It is meant to be harder on the clutch so I was wondering if I could have the other features without it.

Without paying somebody twice I wanted to make the changes on the go, at my own pace. But how would I do this?

Enter Stage Left:



Some of you will know this as being a program called BMWFlash. This program can change a few parameters of the car and can map the car through binary files. Here I was taking a backup of what the car already had.

However, it is all good and well having the program. But how do you create a binary file tailored to what you want the car to do? Simple. Get a program which can write the files. Such a program is the MSS Binary Tool supplied by Martyn Thomas and ECUWorx. Some of you will have heard of this program ; it's also known as Martyn's Binary Tool:



A rundown of what the program does can be found below:

http://www.ecuworx.co.uk/how-to/a-run-down-of-feat...

With this in mind I added the following options to my car:

-Sport button memory ; it will stay in Sport mode if I selected it even when the car is turned off
-SMG CSL Shifting/rev-matching

Depending on the above I would select the inertia update later.

And so I wrote the file using the MSS Tool as a tickbox exercise. Then it was time to upload the changes onto the car:




When I saw the tyre pressure monitor come on in addition to the car claiming it was overheating I was a little tense! However, after turning the car off and then on again all was well.

Was there a difference? You bet! The software and its creator (Martyn) certainly deserve alot of praise! The shifting/rev-matching has transformed the car! No heel and toeing is no longer required. Sure it takes away an element of fun but it really does open up alot of doors!

-Approaching a slow corner and need to grab 3rd or second without launching yourself towards the windscreen (when you can't heel and toe). Not a problem.
-Quick downchanges on the fly but also surprisingly smooth? Dead easy
-A blip on low-mid and above rpm downshifts? Done automatically upon hitting the paddle/gearstick.
-Grab a gear quickly to make that overtaking. Done without barely thinking about it.
-Reduce the low-rpm clutch slur in second when in Auto and D2 mode (or 5 modes)? Less pronounced.
-Quicker changes in auto even in the 'chilled' modes? Done.
-Quicker kickdown from a reasonable kickdown in auto? Not an issue.

Overall I am very surprised and am enjoying it even more! Corners are taken with more verve and the whole package just works so much better! If you are a reader of an SMG car or are considering buying one definitely get the rev-match done at a minimum. It really helps of the drive of the car. It won't cure world famine and definitely won't save nuns and kittens! But it does vastly improve the car for the better.

It's a bit of a shame I enjoyed the mod! I decided to go to the Pistonheads Sunday Service, where the car got quite filthy! But who cares when you are enjoying the experience?

Edited by SebringMan on Saturday 23 September 06:24

[SebringMan]

Cheers for all of the comments folks . C&C is welcome.

charltjr said:

Great thread, I've just bought an 02 SMG with the CSL rev matching mod and 100% echo your comments on it.

It is surprising the difference it makes isn't it? It transforms the car, for the better. At the risk of being called a heretic the gearbox actually compliments the car very well with the CSL software. The only issue now is that keeping hold of my licence just became alot harder.

appletonn said:

I've just swapped the interior on mine back to its original Kiwi - an acquired taste for many but I love it!

Need to tackle the headlight like you've done as I've got a reluctant n/s lamp that occasionally doesn't want to fire up!

Cleaned up and crack free Kiwi looks good . I originally wanted a red interior. LSB was out of the equation as was Cinnamon. How is yours coming along?

[SebringMan]

olly22n said:

I had a CSL and always wondered why SMG got such a panning. I liked it, it suited the car and was still involving. You had to master it.

Sounds like the regular SMG wasn't as good!

You are right about the mastering and involving bit. I will be honest. A day after owning mine I was beginning to hate the SMG but I came around to working with and mastering it as you say. After a week I was pretty much at home with it and picked up more things along the way. The CSL update removes a little of that but it also opens up alot of great things about it and the car overall.

The issue IMO is that the SMG was developed over the E46's time. Mine for instance had the BMW update done as part of a recall which is meant to really improve things; I wonder how many received this.

That and I think people also enjoy jumping on a bandwagon. When at a PHSS and even in this thread I mentioned that you can heel and toe in a non rev-matched/non-CSL SMG; it was a strange concept for some to understand on how it was possible. That is before I get to people thinking the pump is the price of Myrrh. Yes it does/can go but the repair is generally a £400 part (the motor) and the knowledge for repairing it does seem better than it used to be. *Touchwood* mine has been fine and will hopefully stay that way.

Even the CSL software doesn't seem to be too well known about ; I only found out by a friend mentioning it to me with others being oblivious to it.

That said, with some people, only a manual will always satisfy them, but that's a discussion for another thread .

But I guess I am a risk lover in some respects. I owned a Triumph Stag with the Triumph V8 (a car I said I'd never buy due to the reputation) ; that was fine, but God I heard some rubbish being thrown around regarding the engine and what a moneypit it would be. The car was a moneypit but the engine never really had much cash thrown towards it.

I once had a journalist saying to me at the Ace Cafe "They crack at the weld in the block where the two Dolomite engines are welded together don't they?" How I was not tempted to lead him on with that comment...

Edited by SebringMan on Wednesday 8th March 18:05

[SebringMan]

appletonn said:

Love the Stag engine quote - a little knowledge is usually a dangerous thing!

Ref the whole SMG debate, for me the weak link in the manual M3 is the gearbox/gear-change as it's occasionally recalcitrant when warm & downright awkward when cold, so it's not like it has the delicious & sweet gear-change of an MX5 etc!

I'm curious to try an updated & improved SMG in one of these, as the gear-change in mine is still not as good as the rest of the car, after new clutch, flywheel & gear linkage.

My wheels are away for blasting & powder-coating this week, so I'm slowly working my way through te smaller items on the snagging list - last night was PAS fluid change & also reattaching the loose AC Schnitzer rear window 'spoiler'. Onwards & upwards!

Your car is a great colour & I like the slightly darker wheels - was never a fan of the slightly 'blingy' diamond cut faces on those wheels.

Indeed it is!

If you are locallish you're welcome to give mine a go. I'm in Warwick. But prior to the updates it took me a day to work with the gearbox and a week to get used to it. With the update that time would come down dramatically .

That reminds me, I better do the gearbox oil change!

Cheers on the looks. I plan to keep the wheels in that shade or go to a slightly lighter shade. They are "Smoked Chrome" at the moment (a Grey on top of a black paint) so I may go to Shadow Chrome where the Silver is on top of a black coat. But that is way down on the priority list for now as you shall see.

Good to hear yours is going onwards and upwards .

Today, a package arrived. Some of you will already know where these puppies go on the car. The days are getting closer...

Edited by SebringMan on Thursday 23 March 19:02

Edited by SebringMan on Saturday 23 September 05:57