2006 BMW M3

[Jake]

Mileage: 135,150

The Style 220's needed rear tires, and putting 255/35/19 tires on a car is expensive. This was a great time to switch up the wheels, as I've wanted to do for a while. I ended up with a set of replica 18x9" Style 219's - the real 219's are the 18" E92 M3 wheels. These are very similar and I think they look good on the E46. Pristine condition, no rash, etc and I sold the 220's to a guy with an automatic E90 325i for a pretty healthy price, given they were all rashed to shit with peeling center caps.

Nabbed a set of Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2 tires in 265/35/18 to put on the wheels. I know the old V12 Evo tires were kind of shit, but these seem okay so far. They're grippy enough and quiet enough. It's nice having more sidewall - the car rides way better now. Haven't tested their rain performance but I suspect it will be fine.

Last Tuesday marked 10k miles of ownership since I bought the car on October 15. I celebrated Ten Thousand Taco Tuesday in Old Town:



The weather was too perfect - 75* and no humidity - so I headed south on the George Washington Parkway for the sake of just kinda driving. It seemed like a shame to celebrate that milestone with a quick drive for tacos and nothing more. Ended up at Mount Vernon as my turnaround point. Snapped a few photos along the way.











Maintenance/Work It's Needed
I did this with the Denali and had a heart attack. Still, worth listing out what all I've had to do with the E46 in the last 10k.

• Front & rear shocks with new shock mounts
  
• Exchanged Vogtland springs for H&R Sport springs to raise ride height
  
• Front right wheel bearing
  
• Sway bar end links
  
• High-pressure power steering hose
  
• Oil change (with another due... nowish, trying for every 5-6k)
  
• Fuel pump, pressure regulator, filter

So, not all bad given the mileage and not-great life it lead before I took it on. I have a Blackstone oil analysis kit in the mail and will be sending them an oil sample to run when I do the next oil change here shortly. Would be great to know the status of this delicate unicorn engine so I can get ahead of what may lurk underneath.

As for maintenance coming up next:

• Tie rods
  
• Rear trailing arm bushings
  
• Rear lower control arms
  
• Alignment

There are a couple of bullshit parts that are broken, that I should replace (auto leveling headlight "arm" and strut tower brace mount) for the sake of the car being done right. I'll add them to my FCP order when I place it.

Overall I definitely like the car a lot. It looks fantastic, drives well, and does give you that "feel like a million bucks" fizzy feeling on a nice day or night with the top dropped and the S54 making its sewing-machine-taptaptap-angry-chainsaw mashup of noises all around you. The one problem I have with it is that the internet has whipped all of the "E46 M3 issues" into such a massive froth that I have a really hard time just not worrying about the car.

I think doing the Blackstone analysis for rod bearing wear will be good (or catastrophic) for my head. My mechanic told me to not worry about the subframe given it's a final-year convertible, likely wasn't driven super hard, and there are no cracks to be seen with the subframe installed. There is also the fear of VANOS failure, but I could always pull the valve cover off and check the bolts/tabs on the system. A new valve cover gasket is cheap and might as well be done if I'm cranking away on other stuff.

So yeah. I like it, I worry about it, then I start it and drive it with the top down and forget to worry anymore. Definitely want to keep it and continue to make it nicer/cleaner as I can.