BMW E46 M3

Author
Discussion

Diablo85

Original Poster:

1,561 posts

142 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
Hi All

This is my 2003 E46 M3 SMG in Silver Grey which I have owned for nearly two years.

In some ways this car is quite special (to me) because it took me a while to find it. There are endless E46 M3's out there but trying to find one with the right specs, colour and in great condition was incredibly difficult, I had my fair share of endless disappointments when viewing M3s for sale, so a bit of luck and persistence paid off massively in the end.

One day in July 2012 I arrived back home after yet another M3 viewing disaster at a dealer located in Gloucestershire. This was pretty much end of the line, I was done with my M3 search. Then a little voice in my head told me to check Pistonheads again... And so I did and that's when I found this guy cool

The specs, condition and service history looked perfect - there was some 'quality' extras included too. The advert had been posted 3 hours ago, I knew I had a chance! I called the seller, the car was still available so I booked some train tickets and went to see the car in central London. Everything checked out, we did the deal and the rest is history.



Brining the ///M home

These are the first two pictures I took on my phone once I had bought the car home from London - a day I'll never forget!








... a few more pics I took with a my proper camera





















It's been a busy two years since, and I have many updates to share. I have carried out some extensive maintenance, most of which is preventative to keep the S54 engine in good health.

I will post my updates very soon, thanks for reading byebye

boothy1987

223 posts

139 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
Very nice

Is that the Liberty Stadium in the background?

Alfa GTV

236 posts

162 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
Looks great, I have just sold my E46 330CI and am now on the lookout for a well maintained un-molested M3, the search begins!

Lynch91

471 posts

138 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
That looks brilliant, is it lowered?

Diablo85

Original Poster:

1,561 posts

142 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
boothy1987 said:
Very nice

Is that the Liberty Stadium in the background?
Thanks - It's Pride Park, or IPro as it's called now?

Alfa GTV said:
Looks great, I have just sold my E46 330CI and am now on the lookout for a well maintained un-molested M3, the search begins!
Good luck and I hope you find your perfect M3 thumbup

Lynch91 said:
That looks brilliant, is it lowered?
Thank you, these pics were taken two years ago, I've been through a few suspension systems as you will see when I post the next updates. At the time these pictures were taken the car was on coilovers. smile

mwstewart

7,554 posts

187 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
That looks great and arguably the best colour too. I'm not a fan of the grey, spaced wheels, but I can see it's immaculate.

I would like a Climate Comfort screen for mine as I think they protect the interior a bit.

Hark

592 posts

179 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
What a cracking looking car. I like the CSL wheels as well, interior looks alot more modern that I remembererd it being.

aspirated

2,539 posts

145 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
quotequote all
Like your LED front indicators, much more OEM looking than the smoked type smile

jaacck

188 posts

139 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
quotequote all
If you ever decide to sell, message me as looks like an quality example

northwest monkey

6,370 posts

188 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
quotequote all
Hark said:
What a cracking looking car. I like the CSL wheels as well, interior looks alot more modern that I remembererd it being.
These cars are aging incredibly well. I think it was a superb design of a car.

rossi1

773 posts

201 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
quotequote all
Looks great , Wheels look to be spaced, if so they are spot on smile

GregK2

1,651 posts

145 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
quotequote all
That looks spot on yes

TheHighlander

1,291 posts

197 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
quotequote all
Lovely.

Had 4 E46 m3s in the past 2 years.

Alpine white manual
Black Manual
Grey Manual
Dakar Yellow SMG

Loved them all :-)

The best all round car I have owned.

Diablo85

Original Poster:

1,561 posts

142 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
quotequote all
mwstewart said:
That looks great and arguably the best colour too. I'm not a fan of the grey, spaced wheels, but I can see it's immaculate.

I would like a Climate Comfort screen for mine as I think they protect the interior a bit.
Hark said:
What a cracking looking car. I like the CSL wheels as well, interior looks alot more modern that I remembererd it being.
Thanks guys - the interior has been well looked after by previous owners, its simple but functional.


aspirated said:
Like your LED front indicators, much more OEM looking than the smoked type smile
Cheers, I had smoked depos quite a few years ago on my 325, back then it was not as common. Smoked depos will not appear on this car, I just don't like them anymore - I'm much more into the OEM+ game.

jaacck said:
If you ever decide to sell, message me as looks like an quality example
Haha, I'll take that as a compliment bud smile

rossi1 said:
Looks great , Wheels look to be spaced, if so they are spot on smile
GregK2 said:
That looks spot on yes
Thanks Chaps - wheels are spaced, 12mm all round. wink


TheHighlander said:
Lovely.

Had 4 E46 m3s in the past 2 years.

Alpine white manual
Black Manual
Grey Manual
Dakar Yellow SMG

Loved them all :-)

The best all round car I have owned.
Wow, four M3's in two years? - Interesting to see your last one was SMG?





I haven't delved into the specs much because it's an ongoing thing and I have more updates to add, but for now here is the general spec:

Nov 2003 BMW M3 Coupe - (Silver Grey) 65k miles
FSH - BMW + 2 Indy
New SMG gear position sensor fitted
All Options: Heated seats, HK, Sunblind
Performance Frictions Pad with Goodrich braided hoses
Genuine Eisenmann Sport Exhaust
Coilovers (will provide more info soon)
Eibach front/rear anti-roll bars
Eibach front/rear spacers
Umnitza Orion II LED Angel Eyes
FX-R Headlight Projector Upgrade
Rogue Engineering RTABS
Evosport Steering Power Pulley Kit
Intravee + Alpine 420i Ipod interface
All OEM suspension/other parts included in original sale

  • Some of these are not visible in the pics, but will be soon - just need to edit my journals



So a few weeks later I attended my first M3 meet in London, there were some great cars on display...












Vines BMW

In November 2012, I took the M3 to Vines BMW in redhill (near gatwick). At the time, this particular dealer had the best track record for subframe repairs. They still have a great reputation however today there are other dealers offering the same level of service. Jim (BMW Tech) located a small hairline crack in the rear boot floor. After taking some pictures the application was submitted to BMW where it was then approved one week later for a subframe repair. The subframe issue with the E46 is a common design flaw, particularly with the M3 variant. BMW will only offer to replace the boot floor with a stronger more improved version FoC if the car is within the 10 year build date. I probably should mention here that I had at least 2 documents when I bought the car that confirmed the rear boot had been checked and was crack free - these are worthless in my opinion, as most garages simply don't know where to look for such cracks. I took the car to Vines simply because I didn't trust the documents, turned out I made the right call rolleyes






Evolve - Stage 1 Map

Having read such good reviews about the standard Evolve map on the S54, I decided to get this done towards the end of November. This isn't some trixy map to push the S54 to its limit - HP wise the gains are not massive at all (10-20hp), rather it improves the overall power band so that the car is much more 'drivable', particularly in city traffic.








Upon leaving Evolve, I could tell the map had made a big difference, I highly recommend fellow E46 M owners to give it a go.

That's all for now folks - thanks for reading biglaugh

carinaman

21,222 posts

171 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
quotequote all
Very nice. Good you got the boot floor done in time. smile

Diablo85

Original Poster:

1,561 posts

142 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
quotequote all
carinaman said:
Very nice. Good you got the boot floor done in time. smile
Thanks mate smile




Next update:

The previous owner had HSD coilovers installed for less than 3 months. I loved the handling they provided but unfortunately after a few months they started making all kinds of knocking noises. This is when I started to realise you get what you pay for in the suspension game.

I removed the coilovers and replaced them with stock OEM suspension. This was a temporary move as the car was due for it's subframe repair very soon. After this I would make plans to install a better suspension system.

Around May last year, the car went in for a new boot floor - here is a pic I took upon collection. As you can see it's riding a lot higher on stock suspension. redface





Everything turned out great, they chaps at the bodyshop had done an excellent job. I still get comments today from those who inspect the subframe area on the quality of the install.

The OEM suspension annoyed me, I just hated the increased body roll - I guess you could say I was spoilt by the coilovers.


Following day, I gave the car a good clean and took some snaps with it's new OEM ride height:












In the next update, I'll discuss more about my new suspension choice and other components fellow E46M owners may want to consider replacing.

Thanks for reading byebye

Dal

Shenanigans

2,964 posts

188 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
quotequote all
That looks stunning! Well looked after thumbup

jaacck

188 posts

139 months

Friday 9th May 2014
quotequote all
Love this thread

Diablo85

Original Poster:

1,561 posts

142 months

Tuesday 13th May 2014
quotequote all
Thanks gents!

Shortly after the subframe repair back in June 2013, it was time to start thinking about my next suspension move. My mechanic kept banging on about Bilstein dampers... I started researching them and went through a mammoth 50+ page thread on Bilstein B12 Kit, took me months to get through but by far contained the most valuable suspension info for the E46 M3 I have found to date.

The B12 kit consists of B6 dampers and eibach springs - however it should be noted that the serial/part number on these items seem to match 'off the shelf parts'. In other words the B12 kit is actually a set of B6 shocks bundled with eibach springs.

Going from coilovers to OEM suspension was never going to be fun, but I seriously underestimated just how rubbish the OEM suspension was. It had only done 30k and already felt like it was shot!

In the end I didn't go for the B12 simply because I wanted to find a more 'sport/firm' setup but at the same time a suspension that is very 'road' compliant....


Bilstein B6 Shocks




H&R Springs




Ground Control Street Plates




Rogue Engineering Rear Shock Mounts




Steering Coupler (Upper and Lower)




New OEM Drop-Links




Install






Before: Donor OEM Suspension (30k old - awful ride quality, hated everyday of it)



After Shots (B6 + H&R Springs) (not fully settled, 3 days old)














Overview
Finally the car was handling great again. I wanted to wait 2 weeks before writing up about the new suspension so that I could get a feel for it - its firm but not back breaking and very road compliant.

The B6's literally eat all the bumps in the road, its made my commute much more enjoyable, you can really feel the high pressure dampers pushing the wheels into the ground over bumps - fantastic.

This is all without wheel alignment which is what I'm about to do next - I wanted to let the suspension settle a bit first.

Ground Control Street Camber Plates:
At first this may seem like an nice extra, but there is much more to it than that. I had them specially ordered from GC in California to my spec. Having this plate allows me to enjoy the same flexibility you would have on coilovers with regards to more camber and castor adjustment - but that isn't the main reason for my purchase...

In order for a damper to be truly efficient, it must be able to use a decent amount of travel, now the B6's are intended as a direct replacement for the OEM sachs shock, and to be paired with OEM springs.... eibachs are relatively close to OEM hence the B12 is a perfect full kit 'OEM' replacement.

By using a lowering spring like the H&R's the damper travel has been reduced somewhat - this is less of an issue for B6's as they are highly pressurized, but more damper travel would mean better ride quality. So, getting back to the camber plates, their unique design means that the shock will gain an extra 3cm of damper travel without 'increasing' the ride height. When you consider that one can use a lowering spring like H&R and reduce/eliminate loss of damper travel that is truly win win cool

Steering Coupler
If you have a 70k+ M3 certainly get it done. I had felt some play in my steering wheel a few months ago, strange thing is it appeared to happen overnight. I've had this part for a few months, I decided to get it fitted along with the new B6 kit and it made a world of difference, now have factory razor sharp steering back.

I inspected the old part, you can't tell if its worn visually, I tried to move the linkages and they were very loose! 7/10 the lower joint is the problem, it's a cheaper option at £60... I decided to get the upper one done too just in case.



I still had a few more things planned, but the geometry setup was the next thing on the list.

I made some notes on the handling characteristics 6 months later, I'll share those soon.



For any fellow E46M owners, here are the coupler part numbers you'll need:



Upper Coupler: Part 3 (£130) #32306761571
Lower Coupler: Part 4 (£60) #32306764007



Thats all for now folks! smile

Captainawesome

1,817 posts

162 months

Tuesday 13th May 2014
quotequote all
Lovely car. They do get under your skin. I've spent the day today at evolve having a supersprint lightweight exhaust and their carbon air box fitted. I know it's expensive but I have literally giggled all the way home. THAT BOX!!! THE NOISE!!!!! If you can, save up and buy one. I had mine mapped with them a couple of months ago an gained 13HP, just got another 14 from the box.I can highly recommend it. Makes the car sound like a muscle car.

Mystewart has another great thread on his E46 build. They may be getting on a bit but there are plenty of us out there just starting on our E46 missions.