2009 E92 M3 - Monte Carlo Edition

[4340BB]

horico said:

Cheers! You're correct - the OEM tips are black. The previous owner secured a mint OEM backbox and did the 2 pipe mod to it before fitting to match the hyper silver alloys. I'm in agreement with his motives though as he felt the black tips got lost a little.

Ah, ok fair one. And the 2 pipe mod is the first thing to be done to one of these in my eyes.
It's all about the V8 noise.

[horico]

4340BB said:

Ah, ok fair one. And the 2 pipe mod is the first thing to be done to one of these in my eyes.
It's all about the V8 noise.

I couldn't have it without!

Not necessarily a car update but a solution to the first world problem of too many sets of wheels lying around.

Take one piece of 18mm ply
20181009_112948 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr


Trim and draw round a wheel
20181009_113630 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

A little jigsaw action before adding some wheels:
20181009_115806 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

Something comfy for the wheel to sit on:
20181009_121442 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr


Wheels stacked and strapped together:
20181009_122405 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

[horico]

When I bought the car, I kept the V5 and sent it off with the paperwork for my private plate - the new V5 arrived today! I wasted no time getting the plate on - the front is a std width but 85mm height as the bumper is without the plinth so the std plate looks a little cumbersome. Here it is stuck on:

20181013_153627 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

I still have my old metal pressed plates from my old M3 so as I'm using a std rear, I ad the choice of a new plain plate of the pressed version. I tried the plain one first:


20181013_151450 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

It looked a little too plain for me so I went with the metal pressed one despite is looking a tiny bit weathered:

20181013_153558 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

In mildy boring news, I filled up today after draining it after 209 miles. Maybe I need a daily....

[horico]

Just after leaving work on Saturday night, the 'flat tyre' warning popped up on the dash. I stopped and couldn't detect anything obvious visually but there was a tug at the wheel. Luckily, it's only a 7 mile drive home and I made it without drama. By the time I got home though, I could see the offside front was on it's way down but as it was late I just parked it a waited til morning.

I then learned that I could do with a lower trolley jack as it wouldn't go under the car. I had previously kncked up a shoddy wheel ramp when I had the old M3 and it was still lying round the garage so using that and a 25kg plate or two, I managed to get the car high enough to jack up.

20181015_112238 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

Wheel off and large screw located in the centre of the tyre (which I didn't snap). I put the original wheel on and got down to a local tyre place with the flat.

20181015_114406 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

They got back to me an hour or so later and said it was possible to repair. I know opinion is split on this but the internet suggests no actual record of any death related incidents being attributed to a plugged tyre and many thousands of happy miles covered on road and track by the pro-plug camp. The tyre has plenty of tread left and the plug is in the centre of the tyre in the rain channel, not the treadblock so I'm happy (and circa £160 richer as a result).

[MikeGoodwin]

Typical... SGS do a race jack that fit under my old e92 perfectly. Bet Keith is kicking himself for selling this.

[horico]

MikeGoodwin said:

Typical... SGS do a race jack that fit under my old e92 perfectly. Bet Keith is kicking himself for selling this.

Thanks for the tip - I've had a look and one's on my shopping list - the above is a right ballache. I know Keith was torn but it's the right decision at the right time - I think we've all been there at one point and had to make a small sacrifice for the bigger picture. Anyway, back on to the rambling...

After the tyre was sorted first thing, I had the car booked in at BMW for the nearside sidelight / halo ring / angel eye to be looked at. They did have white bulbs in but one stopped working. On replacing with the original bulbs the NS one still didn't work so must have been down to a module or similar. I left the car with BMW and apart from fault find, I asked them to make sure they didn't wash the car. To keep me mobile, I was given a 130 miles old 530i:

20181016_095502 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

Lovely car but not what I'd call sporty. I'd love a diesel touring version to use as a tow car though. It's a very nice place to sit and do some miles in. After a couple of hours, I got a video explaining that when a bulb goes or an error is detected, the module switches itself off and needs resetting through diagnostics. They completed a visual inspection of the rest of the car and gave it a clean bill of health which, while expected, was nice to hear.


I stopped for lunch on the way home and it was a nice spot for a couple of snaps:

20181016_170856 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

20181016_144125 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

I really need to get the lights back to white again. I got the car home and gave her a wash before the kids arrived! The results of the quick mini detail I gave the car last week could be seen after the rain:

Swissvax Crystal Rock beading nicely on the bootlid:
20181017_101136 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

AutoFinesse Illusion on the roof:

20181017_101148 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

I'm looking in to getting the GTS DCT update and the Comp Pack EDC coding done shortly as well as seeing if I need the engine software update. I'll also get things like folding mirrors on lock and a few other bits done. I also want bluetooth audio which requires a combox and wiring (to be oem) but if I don't do it myself (which is the likely route) then it isn't a cheap thing to do for a single bit of functionality. I'm going to wait and think about this one some more.

[horico]

Impatience got the better of me (again) and I popped in to town to pick up a Bluetooth adapter. There were slightly cheaper ones on Amazon but as I just mentioned, I'm impatient and I ended up with a Griffin item from Argos. After a quick charge I plugged in both the USB charger and 3.5mm jack wire I already had and tested it on the car.

Good news! it works! It connects automatically when turned on and the quality of sound is spot on through the Logic 7 setup. My phone can also deal with sending audio to the Griffin and phone to the car so I'll still have hands free calls on the go.

While faffing with the cigar lighter and power leads I've discovered neither sockets are chucking out power so a check of the fuses is required to make sure I can charge my phone on the go. Here's a pic of the Griffin:

20181017_141322 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/120760751@N02/][/url], on Flickr

[tektas]

Surely a shorter AUX cable is on the books?

[horico]

tektas said:

Surely a shorter AUX cable is on the books?

Of course! And that arm rest cubby needs a clean...

[13aines]

I have something similar in my car (sadly not an M3 - but one day).

They work really well - including the controls to pause, change track etc. and invoke Siri.

Why not mount it somewhere subtle and hide all of the wiring so that you can use the controls?

[si_xsi]

You didn't happen to be in Botley yesterday around midday? If notbi saw an identicle MCB e92 M3!

[horico]

13aines said:

I have something similar in my car (sadly not an M3 - but one day).

They work really well - including the controls to pause, change track etc. and invoke Siri.

Why not mount it somewhere subtle and hide all of the wiring so that you can use the controls?

I'll definitely try to find a decent mount location - the lifting of the armrest each time will quickly become tiring.

si_xsi said:

You didn't happen to be in Botley yesterday around midday? If notbi saw an identicle MCB e92 M3!

Given that I had to google where Botley was, it definitely wasn't me!

[TheAngryDog]

I found the sound through the aux quite poor on my M5, so surprised to learn that it is better in your car. I wonder if the CIC has anything to do with it? (If yours is CIC?)

[PorkRind]

That blue, its absolutely beautiful. I bet it sounds, goes and handles well too doesnt it? I wish Merc did more interesting colours like that, it was black or silver for me in the c63, red and white were about but red were rare and white i dont like so much... Enjoy.

[horico]

TheAngryDog said:

I found the sound through the aux quite poor on my M5, so surprised to learn that it is better in your car. I wonder if the CIC has anything to do with it? (If yours is CIC?)

I'm not sure - the sound (to my primitive ears) is pretty good and I can't detect and drop in quality just by going through the AUX.

PorkRind said:

That blue, its absolutely beautiful. I bet it sounds, goes and handles well too doesnt it? I wish Merc did more interesting colours like that, it was black or silver for me in the c63, red and white were about but red were rare and white i dont like so much... Enjoy.

I agree - she is a looker and is a different shade depending on the prevailing light conditions. I'm getting more used to the handling and performance which goes from very sheep-like in the wrong gear, like 5th at 40mph but get half way round the rev range and it's genuinely brisk. Once the tyres are warm and on a decent road, it's like the car gets up on it's toes and feels really agile despite the weight of it all. The wife's had two Golf R's and they only started to come alive when really hammering along and arguably, taking liberties, but the M3 has a broader band of appeal.

I noticed the lack of colours on the C63's when I was looking - they didn't really have much variety back then although I'm not really sure why. There are some lovely BMW colours out there, particularly from the individual range. I recently found I'd quite fancy a speed yellow E92 after someone mentioned the colour to me, much better than the Dakar variant.

[horico]

GTS DCT update / Comp Pack EDC / Folding mirrors

After speaking to M3Cutters member Alpina527 I popped down to his to get a couple of things coded in - These were the GTS DCT update, the competition pack EDC settings and minor coding like comfort access folding mirrors on lock / unlock. The GTS software speeds up the shifting between N and R when manoeuvring and also speeds up the shifts with S5+ becoming quite brutal. My actual expectation was for it to simply be faster and smoother but in my experience so far it's actually quite violent going up the gears on full throttle from 1>2>3>4. I don't know what others have experienced with the update but this has taken me by surprise as it actually feels a little SMG like which is surely a step back. I think I need to have some more time in the car with the new settings and see if they either settle down, in case there are any mythical adaptions taking place (my old SMG used to adapt over time) or whether this is how it is from now on. Changes elsewhere are fine and down changes seem smoother with less fuss.

The Competition Pack EDC settings are, I believe, just slightly cleverer in loading up the opposite side when cornering, for example, the right when turning left to keep things in check. Again, I need to have a bit more exposure to them around some decent roads to see how they've changed things. You could argue that both changes could have been done later in my tenure for me to feel all the differences but as you may have guessed, patience with such things isn't my strong point and I took the opportunity to have it done when I could.

As for the additional coding, all I had done was the folding mirrors - I don't really care about the early fuel warning - it's no big deal and things like true speed etc just mean you will have more chance of being over the limit than you might have been! I also found the option to turn the angel eyes on to work as DRL's as they'd been turned off, I presume by the previous owner, as only one used to work. On unlocking now, they look great and turn on with a gradual increase in light which I really like. I just need to change the bulbs back to bright white rather than amber.

[MikeGoodwin]

So you know.... the bulbs never look bright on the outer ring when you change them. They look crap during the day light. Id just keep them as they are mate.

EDC - When I drove away from Ian's house I noticed an immediate improvement in sport mode (Mine was a stock MC as well).

Before, it was a crashy mess. Once the comp pack was coded in sport was great, huge improvement, although one I quickly forgot. But it made the overall feel of the car in sport mode much much better.

GTS - I always used S4, S5 I didn't like for the same reasons you dont. I did like S6 though. After having the GTS software installed it was hugely quicker down the gears and a noticeable improvement up the gears. Auto operation was much improved as well, less dim witted. Not to say it was perfect, still some hesitation approaching a roundabout.

You now have a comp pack M3 btw. Congrats.

[horico]

MikeGoodwin said:

So you know.... the bulbs never look bright on the outer ring when you change them. They look crap during the day light. Id just keep them as they are mate.

EDC - When I drove away from Ian's house I noticed an immediate improvement in sport mode (Mine was a stock MC as well).

Before, it was a crashy mess. Once the comp pack was coded in sport was great, huge improvement, although one I quickly forgot. But it made the overall feel of the car in sport mode much much better.

GTS - I always used S4, S5 I didn't like for the same reasons you dont. I did like S6 though. After having the GTS software installed it was hugely quicker down the gears and a noticeable improvement up the gears. Auto operation was much improved as well, less dim witted. Not to say it was perfect, still some hesitation approaching a roundabout.

You now have a comp pack M3 btw. Congrats.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I'm glad it's not just my imagination although I definitely need more time with it. I'll try it on sport a bit more on the way to work as it's a terrible bit of road on one route so a good test.

Have you changed the bulbs on yours? I'd really like to have two solid white rings so will look into options - the warm lights on it now date it a little imo.

[fuzzy feeling]Yay to having a comp pack M3![/fuzzy feeling]

[MikeGoodwin]

E92 Perfekt Lighting H8 Angel Eye Bulbs by Michael Goodwin, on Flickr

Those were mine during the night but during the day the outer rings didnt look as though they were even lit. They were the perfekt lighting ones or whatever they are.

I didnt notice a difference in normal or comfort. never used them really, certainly not after I had the edc coded.

[horico]

MikeGoodwin said:

E92 Perfekt Lighting H8 Angel Eye Bulbs by Michael Goodwin, on Flickr

Those were mine during the night but during the day the outer rings didnt look as though they were even lit. They were the perfekt lighting ones or whatever they are.

I didnt notice a difference in normal or comfort. never used them really, certainly not after I had the edc coded.

The outer ring is the same with both colour bulbs to be fair - I'm going to assume that to make them solid requires taking the lights apart and tinkering with the actual rings a la E46? Oh and I'll see what sport feels like and report back n a few days.