325TI - Project Mpact
Discussion
Something I made a while ago and forgot to post,
Where the Rear Shock Mount fixes into the rear Strut Tower/Wheel Arches this is another known week spot on E46's (and other Models). The thin Steel can fracture, eventually causing the Top Mount to punch through into the inside of the Vehicle.
As I was putting stiffer Shocks/Springs on I thought it would be worth while Reinforcing it slightly to help prevent fractures. This can be done buy purchasing Reinforcement plates, a simple Plate with three holes in that fixes between the nuts and the body, sandwiching the thin steel of the Body between the Strut Top Mount and the Reinforcement plate spreading the load over a larger area.
I thought I'd make some but got a bit carried away, as usual. I made a cardboard template of the hole centers and then stared at it....for a while. I wanted to add a Rear Strut Brace at some point (mainly for mounting a spare wheel to), but wanted it to be removable and have no protruding parts into the Boot area.
So this is what i came up with, all out of Stainless as i had some off cuts
For what ever reason one of the rear Strut Tops is slightly twisted off-center on the Compact, which was a pain in the arse.....
When i designed them I didn't want to cut a huge hole in the Insulation, I allowed for a small gap between the vertical part of the Rear tub and Reinforcement plate so that the Insulation could be tucked between the two, then all that needed to be done was a small slit to be cut into the Insulation for the Reinforcement plate to poke through.
At a later date i'll get some extenders for the Shock adjustment,
With the Interior back in I could carefully mark out where the two Mounting Points would be for the Strut Brace to attach to, Trimmed two rectangles out and put a small bit of PVA Glue on the cut surfaces to stop any fraying.
And this is all that can be seen,
Where the 12v Socket is, this is where the Adjuster for the Shock will end up..... i'll just have to mirror it onto the opposite side.
I haven't thought much about the Removable Strut Brace yet, maybe have it so it locates into the Axle Carrier brace that's under the carpet. But i don't want too much of a climbing frame going on, Compact boot is small enough
and I'd like it to be a 'usable' space.
That's all for now!
Where the Rear Shock Mount fixes into the rear Strut Tower/Wheel Arches this is another known week spot on E46's (and other Models). The thin Steel can fracture, eventually causing the Top Mount to punch through into the inside of the Vehicle.
As I was putting stiffer Shocks/Springs on I thought it would be worth while Reinforcing it slightly to help prevent fractures. This can be done buy purchasing Reinforcement plates, a simple Plate with three holes in that fixes between the nuts and the body, sandwiching the thin steel of the Body between the Strut Top Mount and the Reinforcement plate spreading the load over a larger area.
I thought I'd make some but got a bit carried away, as usual. I made a cardboard template of the hole centers and then stared at it....for a while. I wanted to add a Rear Strut Brace at some point (mainly for mounting a spare wheel to), but wanted it to be removable and have no protruding parts into the Boot area.
So this is what i came up with, all out of Stainless as i had some off cuts
For what ever reason one of the rear Strut Tops is slightly twisted off-center on the Compact, which was a pain in the arse.....
When i designed them I didn't want to cut a huge hole in the Insulation, I allowed for a small gap between the vertical part of the Rear tub and Reinforcement plate so that the Insulation could be tucked between the two, then all that needed to be done was a small slit to be cut into the Insulation for the Reinforcement plate to poke through.
At a later date i'll get some extenders for the Shock adjustment,
With the Interior back in I could carefully mark out where the two Mounting Points would be for the Strut Brace to attach to, Trimmed two rectangles out and put a small bit of PVA Glue on the cut surfaces to stop any fraying.
And this is all that can be seen,
Where the 12v Socket is, this is where the Adjuster for the Shock will end up..... i'll just have to mirror it onto the opposite side.
I haven't thought much about the Removable Strut Brace yet, maybe have it so it locates into the Axle Carrier brace that's under the carpet. But i don't want too much of a climbing frame going on, Compact boot is small enough
and I'd like it to be a 'usable' space.That's all for now!
windymissile said:
Ah, shame. We're all going the weekend after. 32 of us with 30 vehicles. ??
Blimey! 32, there was only 6 of us going and that was hard enough to get organised. And it's this weekend I'm meant to be there, Was the Compact ready...yes, did it make it to Germany......no. But that's a story for later on!Nunga said:
Ah yes, I've seen those. Seems to be a couple of similar designs kicking about. ThanksBigRusko said:
amc_adam said:
lordf said:
Between MWS's F430 and this it is hard to choose for one's favourite build. Top work, keep it up.
I haven't seen this thread, i'll be sure to keep an eye ball open for it. Thank you!https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
It's been a few weeks since the last update, quite a lot has been achieved.
The Catalytic Converters,
When I purchased the M3 Donor car, it had no Cat's in it..... Just some cheap nasty Toyosport De-cat pipes. After looking about for some second hand ones and missing some that went for £250, I was a bit stuck with what to do. Time was pressing and I needed to get some Cat's on the car for when it was ready to start. So i purchased two Magnaflow 200 cell (same cell count as OEM) spun Cats, with the intention of chopping a section from the De-cat pipes and welding the new Cat's in place.
But under closer observation the De-cat pipes really where
. They didn't run parallel and the joins in the tube didn't meet well,
Notice how no gaskets were used, just lots of exhaust paste,
In the end I just chopped up the De-cat pipes and reused all the items (I should have just bought new Elbows, Tube and Flanges...would have taken less time. Lesson learnt).
All the bits together,
I then started putting all the parts back on the underside of the car, any fixing that held an Arch liner, Heat shield or Under Tray on the car was replaced with a Stainless Steel item.
The brace off the M3 had a bit of a clean up/polish,
The Catalytic Converters,
When I purchased the M3 Donor car, it had no Cat's in it..... Just some cheap nasty Toyosport De-cat pipes. After looking about for some second hand ones and missing some that went for £250, I was a bit stuck with what to do. Time was pressing and I needed to get some Cat's on the car for when it was ready to start. So i purchased two Magnaflow 200 cell (same cell count as OEM) spun Cats, with the intention of chopping a section from the De-cat pipes and welding the new Cat's in place.
But under closer observation the De-cat pipes really where
. They didn't run parallel and the joins in the tube didn't meet well, Notice how no gaskets were used, just lots of exhaust paste,
In the end I just chopped up the De-cat pipes and reused all the items (I should have just bought new Elbows, Tube and Flanges...would have taken less time. Lesson learnt).
All the bits together,
I then started putting all the parts back on the underside of the car, any fixing that held an Arch liner, Heat shield or Under Tray on the car was replaced with a Stainless Steel item.
The brace off the M3 had a bit of a clean up/polish,
The Coding.
Now this was a bit of a ballache. I would like to go into more depth with this to help people out in the future, but it's completely over my head. My friend Danny (same chap who helped with the Rod Bearings) put a ridiculous amount of hours in to help me out with this, many, many 1am finishes over a period of a month squeezed into his busy schedule to help get this done.
I bought a BMcables Lead and Disc from Ebay, which seemed to be quite good, we also had access to a new SnapOn reader which was handy, and auto data to look at wiring Diagrams.
So the basics,
E46 M3 Donor Pre- Facelift (2001) SMG (now Converted to manual)
E46 Compact Post- Facelift (2005) Manual
With everything swapped over, M3 dials, EWS, ECU, Barrel and ignition key. A wire had to be added to to the back of the dials/cluster as pre- facelift cars have a separate pin for illumitating the back light on the clocks, a pin on the clutch switch was also repinned for the cruise control.
Danny accessed the ECU and changed it to the manual software, turned the key and the car started! But the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree, literally every warning light imaginable was on. Slowly but surely, over the next month Danny got one light off at a time, but nothing seemed as easy as it should have been..... something wasn't right and it was like trying to break the Enigma code.
With a date looming over head (16th August) as I was leaving for the Nurburgring only a week away, things were not looking hopeful. I took the car for a drive outside around the Industrial Estate,, the DSC light was on and we couldn't get rid of it, the car was gutless, no power, Rev's wouldn't go above 2,500rpm and the brake pedal had as much feed back as standing on a poo.
Limp mode was active, so the next day Danny said for me to strip the Airbox and Plenum so we could test each module (throttle position switch and actuator) but everything was working but had no power to them. That was until he was checking the fuses and connector blocks in the engine bay side, when i heard a small 'snick' noise followed by, "Adam, i think I've fixed it". A single white wire/pin had ever so slightly lifted out of the connector block, which was the wire that put power to the throttle switch and Actuator.
I quickly rebuilt the engine bay, turned the key and it started..... all lights were off, the brake pedal was hard and it drove as it should!
So, the last month of ridiculously late nights and weekends spent was due to a single, slightly lifted white wire/pin that wasn't visible to the naked eye was a cause to all the headaches..... we didn't know if to be happy or off.
M3 Clocks in,
And how does the Exhaust sound? Loud (as expected) up until about 3,000rpm and then quietens down when the Rasp come in.
But I have an idea of how to cancel out the droning inside the vehicle.
That will do for now folks!
Now this was a bit of a ballache. I would like to go into more depth with this to help people out in the future, but it's completely over my head. My friend Danny (same chap who helped with the Rod Bearings) put a ridiculous amount of hours in to help me out with this, many, many 1am finishes over a period of a month squeezed into his busy schedule to help get this done.
I bought a BMcables Lead and Disc from Ebay, which seemed to be quite good, we also had access to a new SnapOn reader which was handy, and auto data to look at wiring Diagrams.
So the basics,
E46 M3 Donor Pre- Facelift (2001) SMG (now Converted to manual)
E46 Compact Post- Facelift (2005) Manual
With everything swapped over, M3 dials, EWS, ECU, Barrel and ignition key. A wire had to be added to to the back of the dials/cluster as pre- facelift cars have a separate pin for illumitating the back light on the clocks, a pin on the clutch switch was also repinned for the cruise control.
Danny accessed the ECU and changed it to the manual software, turned the key and the car started! But the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree, literally every warning light imaginable was on. Slowly but surely, over the next month Danny got one light off at a time, but nothing seemed as easy as it should have been..... something wasn't right and it was like trying to break the Enigma code.
With a date looming over head (16th August) as I was leaving for the Nurburgring only a week away, things were not looking hopeful. I took the car for a drive outside around the Industrial Estate,, the DSC light was on and we couldn't get rid of it, the car was gutless, no power, Rev's wouldn't go above 2,500rpm and the brake pedal had as much feed back as standing on a poo.
Limp mode was active, so the next day Danny said for me to strip the Airbox and Plenum so we could test each module (throttle position switch and actuator) but everything was working but had no power to them. That was until he was checking the fuses and connector blocks in the engine bay side, when i heard a small 'snick' noise followed by, "Adam, i think I've fixed it". A single white wire/pin had ever so slightly lifted out of the connector block, which was the wire that put power to the throttle switch and Actuator.
I quickly rebuilt the engine bay, turned the key and it started..... all lights were off, the brake pedal was hard and it drove as it should!
So, the last month of ridiculously late nights and weekends spent was due to a single, slightly lifted white wire/pin that wasn't visible to the naked eye was a cause to all the headaches..... we didn't know if to be happy or
off.M3 Clocks in,
And how does the Exhaust sound? Loud (as expected) up until about 3,000rpm and then quietens down when the Rasp come in.
But I have an idea of how to cancel out the droning inside the vehicle.
That will do for now folks!
1602Mark said:
Brilliant. The OE+ styling on rear looks perfect.
It does make it look a bit different now, nice to see it out on it's wheels rather than up against the wall on the ramp! Only thing is, it seems it attract little in their corsa's/chavtastic wagons want to sit so close behind 
So, as some of you may remember the last deadline I wanted to reach was to have the Compact ready to leave for Nurburgring on the Friday 16th of August.
Was the car ready, yes. Did it make it, no
The week before we were meant to leave things weren't looking hopeful, But on the Saturday we got the car running as it should. A local Garage (Mildens, of Mildenhall) managed to Squeeze the car in for it's MOT first thing on the Monday morning, which it passed just needed the headlight alignment adjusting.
On the Tuesday Another local Garage (C&L, Beckrow) done the wheel Alignment/Tracking (Stock 325ti Alignment), I'm always very cautious where I take my cars for work, and these two Companies went out there way to fit me in so soon and where very careful with the car.
Which left me Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening and Thursday to get as many miles on the car as I could as a shake down, every drive I went for was in continuous rain but there were no problems, not even a rattle or squeek. Managed to get 300 miles on the car, But the exhaust does drone, a lot (soon to be fiddled with, again).
So, the last minute I remembered I needed to modify the GoPro mount to fit in the Compact Headrest as I made it for the Cooper S the previous time we went to Germany.
With the car Fully loaded, spare oils, coils, tools, clothes and the Girlfriend had bought me enough food to feed an army (and baked the others Brownies and Flapjack) the car was ready to Leave for 3.30am Friday.
There was an on going joke between the others in the group that the Compact would never be done in time, so i'd kept it quiet that the Compact was road worthy and they were expecting me to be in the Mini again.
The meeting place was Stansted Services, ready to leave for 4.15am and head to the EuroTunnel. I'd picked up a passenger, was heading down the M11, pulled off at the slip road onto the big Roundabout at the services and then the steering went heavy...... really heavy.
Pulling in to meet the others in the group, them not knowing the Car was ready.... I opened the bonnet, removed the Airbox and one of the power steering Push-Fit lines had failed and Fluid was everywhere! Everyone was on hand to help me out, all torches were on (one lad not realising he'd actually missed the torch button and was playing music into the engine bay from his phone
) .
I managed to Cable Tie the hose back on, with about 8 Cable Ties. Filled it back up with Fluid, the others stayed 45 minutes longer than they should have to help out and with Only being 45 mins from home I decided I wasn't going to carry on with the Trip. My passenger jumped into another car and we headed our separate ways
.
Disheartened, but things could have been a lot worse. At least it didn't happen going across France or worse on the Nurburgring itself. I headed straight back to the workshop, luckily the ramp was empty. And then realised I hadn't given the other's their Flapjack and Brownies
The Power steering Fluid was everywhere!
Worked its way into the N/S front Caliper,
The entire underside was covered,
All of the N/S paint work and up the back of the car,
I just got Stuck in, Stripped everything
Started to clean and degrease everything, the fluid had even worked its way up a vent tube in the Headlight. So that had to be stripped too.
In total 3 days were spent cleaning all of the Power Steering fluid from the car, not wanting to risk it happening again and one expensive trip to BMW to get some new hoses,
The push-fit hose in the above picture is what failed (on the old hose) causing the problems, I compared the old hose with the new one and it seemed as if the four clips found inside the fitting had lost their "spring" over time and were not fully engaging. So with the hoses replaced, all is back to normal.
I realised I hadn't taken any photos of the car as i'd just been continuously driving it, so here are some i'd done for the insurance,
Was the car ready, yes. Did it make it, no
The week before we were meant to leave things weren't looking hopeful, But on the Saturday we got the car running as it should. A local Garage (Mildens, of Mildenhall) managed to Squeeze the car in for it's MOT first thing on the Monday morning, which it passed just needed the headlight alignment adjusting.
On the Tuesday Another local Garage (C&L, Beckrow) done the wheel Alignment/Tracking (Stock 325ti Alignment), I'm always very cautious where I take my cars for work, and these two Companies went out there way to fit me in so soon and where very careful with the car.
Which left me Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening and Thursday to get as many miles on the car as I could as a shake down, every drive I went for was in continuous rain but there were no problems, not even a rattle or squeek. Managed to get 300 miles on the car, But the exhaust does drone, a lot (soon to be fiddled with, again).
So, the last minute I remembered I needed to modify the GoPro mount to fit in the Compact Headrest as I made it for the Cooper S the previous time we went to Germany.
With the car Fully loaded, spare oils, coils, tools, clothes and the Girlfriend had bought me enough food to feed an army (and baked the others Brownies and Flapjack) the car was ready to Leave for 3.30am Friday.
There was an on going joke between the others in the group that the Compact would never be done in time, so i'd kept it quiet that the Compact was road worthy and they were expecting me to be in the Mini again.
The meeting place was Stansted Services, ready to leave for 4.15am and head to the EuroTunnel. I'd picked up a passenger, was heading down the M11, pulled off at the slip road onto the big Roundabout at the services and then the steering went heavy...... really heavy.
Pulling in to meet the others in the group, them not knowing the Car was ready.... I opened the bonnet, removed the Airbox and one of the power steering Push-Fit lines had failed and Fluid was everywhere! Everyone was on hand to help me out, all torches were on (one lad not realising he'd actually missed the torch button and was playing music into the engine bay from his phone
) .I managed to Cable Tie the hose back on, with about 8 Cable Ties. Filled it back up with Fluid, the others stayed 45 minutes longer than they should have to help out and with Only being 45 mins from home I decided I wasn't going to carry on with the Trip. My passenger jumped into another car and we headed our separate ways
. Disheartened, but things could have been a lot worse. At least it didn't happen going across France or worse on the Nurburgring itself. I headed straight back to the workshop, luckily the ramp was empty. And then realised I hadn't given the other's their Flapjack and Brownies
The Power steering Fluid was everywhere!
Worked its way into the N/S front Caliper,
The entire underside was covered,
All of the N/S paint work and up the back of the car,
I just got Stuck in, Stripped everything
Started to clean and degrease everything, the fluid had even worked its way up a vent tube in the Headlight. So that had to be stripped too.
In total 3 days were spent cleaning all of the Power Steering fluid from the car, not wanting to risk it happening again and one expensive trip to BMW to get some new hoses,
The push-fit hose in the above picture is what failed (on the old hose) causing the problems, I compared the old hose with the new one and it seemed as if the four clips found inside the fitting had lost their "spring" over time and were not fully engaging. So with the hoses replaced, all is back to normal.
I realised I hadn't taken any photos of the car as i'd just been continuously driving it, so here are some i'd done for the insurance,
MDifficult said:
geeks said:
GoPro mount get its own thread? 
/subscribedBigRusko said:
amc_adam said:
... made a nice little mount for the GoPro .
In the theme of exquisute over engineering, I immediately thought of this;
james_TW said:
Can't remember if it's been asked, but how do you insure this? What do you declare? What's the insurance value of the car?
Sorry if that's too personal to ask, but given the fabrication of some of these parts, is the value immeasurable?
A few different Companies wouldn't touch the car, One Company wouldn't insure me as I hadn't previously driven a performance car (even though I drove the Donor M3 as a daily vehicle).Sorry if that's too personal to ask, but given the fabrication of some of these parts, is the value immeasurable?
Two well known Insurance Companies were happy to Insure the car with all the changes/mods, they had some photos and a link to this thread, both companies accepted the Value that I asked for.
After taking out a policy with one of the Insurance Companies and sending them copious amounts of information that was asked i.e Spread sheets of costs and hours spent, every receipt, photos and links to this Thread and my Website, I received a phone call to say that the Agreed Valuation they were going to give was less than half of what was accepted prior to taking out the policy, So I have been somewhat mislead..... and Is proving to be a bit of a battle at the moment.
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