Project: 2003 BMW M3

[RawrImAMonster]

Stop making me want more cars :finger:

My mom's will be for sale in about 4 months here. Same color, rougher exterior wise but mechanically bulletproof. That's basically my MO. :lol:

These pictures make it look cleaner than it is. It's a great looking car from a few feet away, but if you get up close it has a bunch of little scratches and rock chips. Can't complain for what I've paid for it and how reliable it's been so far. The only things I've had to fix were those two leaky injectors and an o2 sensor.

[Beej]

Looks awesome! What an outrageously good looking wheel, especially for the price. I remember falling in love with the concave BBC RC's back in the day - I do wish there was some sort of a center cap option, though.

[rherold9]

My mom's will be for sale in about 4 months here. Same color, rougher exterior wise but mechanically bulletproof. That's basically my MO. :lol:

:lol: If only I had the money. Time to sell the truck :mrgreen:

[JPolen01]

My mom's will be for sale in about 4 months here. Same color, rougher exterior wise but mechanically bulletproof. That's basically my MO. :lol:

:lol: If only I had the money. Time to sell the truck :mrgreen:

Ehh you don't really want an SMG do you?

[rherold9]

Ehh you don't really want an SMG do you?

There's worse transmission's. SMG isn't all that bad, just weird. No clutch pedal but you shift :dunno: . It's slightly faster but obviously not as fun. How does rev matching such work with an SMG? Just rev and shift? How do you start just push it in 1st and press the gas? It would take some getting used to that's for sure. I'd get one and if I got tired of it or when the pump/solenoid went out I'd try to swap it if possible. Not like I'm actually going to sell the truck for an e46 m3 though.

[Senor_Taylor]

My mom's will be for sale in about 4 months here. Same color, rougher exterior wise but mechanically bulletproof. That's basically my MO. :lol:

:lol: If only I had the money. Time to sell the truck :mrgreen:

Ehh you don't really want an SMG do you?

It's all a part of DJ's plan to secure side projects. He's done a SMG->MT swap before.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[SlimKlim]

Ehh you don't really want an SMG do you?

There's worse transmission's. SMG isn't all that bad, just weird. No clutch pedal but you shift :dunno: . It's slightly faster but obviously not as fun. How does rev matching such work with an SMG? Just rev and shift? How do you start just push it in 1st and press the gas? It would take some getting used to that's for sure. I'd get one and if I got tired of it or when the pump/solenoid went out I'd try to swap it if possible. Not like I'm actually going to sell the truck for an e46 m3 though.

The car rev matches for you like a modern dual clutch does, just clunky-er.

But the reason people hate the SMG isn't because of how they behave when you're driving balls out. If you've got your foot on the floor it'll give you a pretty satisfying slam into the next gear in a reasonable amount of time, if you want an aggressive downshift it'll give it to you no problem.

It's the low speed behavior that'll make you want to rip your hair out, if you're not WOT and want a smooth up shift you have to let your foot off the gas, shift, then roll gently back on the gas, it takes at least as long as a regular manual. Starting from a stop is probably its biggest weakness, if you don't roll on the gas just right it'll buck and kick like a 14 year old learning stick with oil rubbed all over the sole of his left shoe.

[RawrImAMonster]

You can buy tunes for them to make the SMG much more tolerable from what I hear. I think TTFS is one of the more popular ones.

E46M transmissions just aren't great in general. The manual is known for being really clunky as well. It shifts perfectly at high rpm, but around town its pretty meh. Both my e36m and 135i transmissions were way more pleasant to drive. That's really my biggest gripe with the E46 M3.

[Senor_Taylor]

You can buy tunes for them to make the SMG much more tolerable from what I hear. I think TTFS is one of the more popular ones.

E46M transmissions just aren't great in general. The manual is known for being really clunky as well. It shifts perfectly at high rpm, but around town its pretty meh. Both my e36m and 135i transmissions were way more pleasant to drive. That's really my biggest gripe with the E46 M3.

In all fairness, most E46's seem to be hard to shift smoothly in lower gears when you're not really giving it the beans.

[RawrImAMonster]

Had a chance to get my real camera out last night and take a few. I was hoping the clouds would help and kill some of the direct sun right around sunset, but they weren't doing me any favors. I definitely still need to either lower the rear a bit or raise the front. It has a bit of the rake at the moment that is very apparent if you take pictures from the back of the car.

I also got my girlfriend to drive this for the first time and holy shit does it sound good when you're standing behind it. I was worried some rasp would still come through, but it sounds as good as you can hope for an S54.

[rherold9]

Can't tell if Google Pixel or DSLR? :dunno:

Looks so good :thumbup:

[Senor_Taylor]

Can't tell if Google Pixel or DSLR? :dunno:

Looks so good :thumbup:

Definitely some shitty DSLR. Not enough HDR for the photon-bending miracle device, Google Pixel.

[RawrImAMonster]

Can't tell if Google Pixel or DSLR? :dunno:

Looks so good :thumbup:

The pixel is good, but not that good. It's a Nikon D7000 w/ the Nikkor 16-85mm

[rherold9]

The pixel is good, but not that good. It's a Nikon D7000 w/ the Nikkor 16-85mm

Figures. Lighting was too nice. The Pixel would have over-sharpened and too high contrasted it. Golden hour makes miracles happen in photos

[RawrImAMonster]

I've developed some sort of high pitched squeak/chirp in the rear of the car when going over bumps at low speeds. My first thought was rear shock mounts since they were looking a little rough. I replaced those with the Rogue rear shock mounts, but that didn't make any difference. I'm thinking it might be old RTAB's at this point. Any suggestions?

[rherold9]

Just low speeds?

Have you checked to make sure there is no rubbing happening somewhere on short travel length?

[Beej]

Do you have rubber ones? I'd expect tire wear and a loose rear end before any noises - at least that's my limited experience with them.

FWIW, my Powerflex ones occasionally chirp over quick bumps and groan at low speeds. I tried to regrease them when doing the rear subframe, but it only changed the noise instead of making it go away.

[ScottyB]

is there any new poly or hard durometer rubber in the moving suspension joints back there? that stuff will squeak and carry on like crazy if its not lubed. made that mistake with my trailing arm bushings when i installed them.

it could also be a trunk hinge. there may be something about the frequency of the vibrations at that speed that make a slight looseness in some of that hardware suddenly move enough to create a noise. check out the supports/arms/struts for looseness or lack of grease.

[RawrImAMonster]

For those not on the group chat or friends with me on facebook, my car sprung a massive oil leak leaving me stranded in a rite aid parking lot about a mile away from my house. Today I put some extra oil in it and limped it home safely. The engine is fine other than the fact that it's spewing oil.

I'm pretty sure the culprit is the bottom of the vanos oil line. Honestly it looks like one of the crush washers is missing in the one picture. Is it possible to blow them out? It's definitely coming from somewhere in that general area so it pretty much has to be that.

[RawrImAMonster]

New vanos oil line ordered.  Should be here tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll have it back up and running tomorrow.

Oil change time is coming up in about 1k miles and having to add a bunch of extra new oil because of this leak will mess with my results for blackstone.  Maybe I'll just go ahead and do the rod bearings.  I've got a lift available to me whenever on the weekends now so it shouldn't be too bad.

There was good lighting the other day right after I got the car back to my house so I snapped a cell phone pic: