Project: 2003 BMW M3

[D_Eclipse9916]

I used Southern Auto Body in Fredericksburg... they did a great job on mine for the E36.

Uh, you have an E36 M3 dont you? It came with the reinforcements stock :wink: No wonder it was cheap! (Unless you are refering the Rear sway bar reinforcers or trailing arm reinforcement). Some 95 M3s didn't come with the reinforcement, but other than that, ALL E36 M3s had the reinforcement from the factory.

[SlimKlim]

^ I guess that's why I've never checked mine. :lol:

[ispoonwithmugen]

Hahah whoops I'm talking about the front strut tower not the subframe :lol: ... also can 2nd CoHo. I've done photography work for them and have friends who work there... hear of nothing but good stuff from them.

[Jake]

Another +1 to Coho, they've done good work and tend to be better priced than most shops around the area.

RRT has a lot of experience with subframe jobs but it seems like the quality of their work varies drastically given the phase of the moon.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Another +1 to Coho, they've done good work and tend to be better priced than most shops around the area.

RRT has a lot of experience with subframe jobs but it seems like the quality of their work varies drastically given the phase of the moon.

I have heard the same out of Coho in terms of what you say for RRT (depends on the phase of the moon).

I think you just have to inspect whatever comes out of a shop.

[Beej]

I was seeing prices of 1000ish for labor on the forums.

I've seen that too, and I just don't really see how it's possible. Granted I replaced a lot of while-you're-in-there stuff like Guibo/CSB/fluids/subframe bushings/diff seals/misc hardware...I'm sure I spent close to that in parts alone. Plus some money for labor for alignment and bushing pressing/diff seal replacement - it added up quickly.

Not to mention you're removing everything from the driveshaft back, including the fuel tank if you're welding. MAYBE with the right tools (trans jack, whatever) you can just lower the rear subframe instead of removing it...

[JPolen01]

Ok, I sent both RRT and Bimmerworld an email as well as called Mid-atlantic. Apparently their service manager has done it before as well. We'll see what prices they get back to me with.

I believe Jason @ Mid Atlantic did the reinforcement on Trevor's e46. He is a good guy, very detail oriented and cares about his work on everything.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Wow, got a call from my mom this morning.

I saw a little wetness from the rear pinion seal last maintenance check up on my mom's E46 and noted it about 7 months ago. But it just looked like it was sweating. Now my mom noticed a couple drops in her garage from the rear of the car. Looks like I am pulling the diff to replace the pinion seal.

Might just order up the kit and do it while I am back there.

[rherold9]

Wow, got a call from my mom this morning.

I saw a little wetness from the rear pinion seal last maintenance check up on my mom's E46 and noted it about 7 months ago. But it just looked like it was sweating. Now my mom noticed a couple drops in her garage from the rear of the car. Looks like I am pulling the diff to replace the pinion seal.

Might just order up the kit and do it while I am back there.

Are you in the right thread?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[D_Eclipse9916]

Wow, got a call from my mom this morning.

I saw a little wetness from the rear pinion seal last maintenance check up on my mom's E46 and noted it about 7 months ago. But it just looked like it was sweating. Now my mom noticed a couple drops in her garage from the rear of the car. Looks like I am pulling the diff to replace the pinion seal.

Might just order up the kit and do it while I am back there.

Are you in the right thread?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Yes, I dont really have a project thread for my my mom's m3. Thought it relevant because we are all discussing E46 M3 maintenance and I probably have to do the reinforcement when the diff is out...Just funny since we were all discussing it today. MM is built on topics going off-topic with a quickness, I at least kept it relavant :dunno: :hate hate hate hate:

[rherold9]

Context makes more sense now.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[RawrImAMonster]

Bimmerworld is much more reasonable. They estimate 6-10 hours depending on what all they're doing and charge $90 an hour. Looks like I could get it done right around $1k through them.

Jason from Mid-Atlantic is supposed to be giving me a call back still.

[RawrImAMonster]

So, ECS offers a really affordable valve adjustment kit for the S54. It's only 100 bucks if you want just the shims. 190 if you want the shims + valve cover gasket set. The shims are made by Wiseco so I'm not worried at all about quality.

I guess I'm going to go ahead and grab this kit, looks like it comes with everything I need except the feelers. It has 3 shims for each size rather than 6 in the OEM kit, but at less than a quarter of the price, who cares.

Edit: Actually, it looks like that 190 kit has the feelers too based on the picture.

Edit2: Added more kits, and the individual shims. Prices aren't bad at all.

Shim Kit + Magnetic installer tool + feelers + valve cover gasket set + oil change set = $270
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_3_Series_M3_S54_ECS_Assembled_Valve_Adjustment_Kit_Wiseco_Valve_Shims_2001_2002_2003_2004_2005_2006/ES2777613/">https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_ ... ES2777613/</a><!-- m -->

Shim Kit + Magnetic installer tool + feelers + valve cover gasket set = $190
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S54_3.2L/ES1893858/">https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S5 ... ES1893858/</a><!-- m -->

Shim Kit + Magnet Installer Tool = $100
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S54_3.2L/ES2807021/">https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S5 ... ES2807021/</a><!-- m -->

Just the shims (3 of each size) = $64
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_3_Series_M3_S54_ECS_Assembled_Valve_Adjustment_Kit_Wiseco_Valve_Shims_2001_2002_2003_2004_2005_2006/ES2748830/">https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_ ... ES2748830/</a><!-- m -->

Same Shims, 5 of each from amazon = $48
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Wiseco-VSK4-Premium-8-90mm-Valve/dp/B006573A6I/?tag=viglink21758-20">http://www.amazon.com/Wiseco-VSK4-Premi ... nk21758-20</a><!-- m -->

[D_Eclipse9916]

So, ECS offers a really affordable valve adjustment kit for the S54. It's only 100 bucks if you want just the shims. 190 if you want the shims + valve cover gasket set. The shims are made by Wiseco so I'm not worried at all about quality.

I guess I'm going to go ahead and grab this kit, looks like it comes with everything I need except the feelers. It has 3 shims for each size rather than 6 in the OEM kit, but at less than a quarter of the price, who cares.

Edit: Actually, it looks like that 190 kit has the feelers too based on the picture.

Edit2: Added more kits, and the individual shims. Prices aren't bad at all.

Shim Kit + Magnetic installer tool + feelers + valve cover gasket set + oil change set = $270
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_3_Series_M3_S54_ECS_Assembled_Valve_Adjustment_Kit_Wiseco_Valve_Shims_2001_2002_2003_2004_2005_2006/ES2777613/">https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_ ... ES2777613/</a><!-- m -->

Shim Kit + Magnetic installer tool + feelers + valve cover gasket set = $190
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S54_3.2L/ES1893858/">https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S5 ... ES1893858/</a><!-- m -->

Shim Kit + Magnet Installer Tool = $100
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S54_3.2L/ES2807021/">https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E46-M3-S5 ... ES2807021/</a><!-- m -->

Just the shims (3 of each size) = $64
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_3_Series_M3_S54_ECS_Assembled_Valve_Adjustment_Kit_Wiseco_Valve_Shims_2001_2002_2003_2004_2005_2006/ES2748830/">https://www.ecstuning.com/News/BMW_E46_ ... ES2748830/</a><!-- m -->

Same Shims, 5 of each from amazon = $48
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Wiseco-VSK4-Premium-8-90mm-Valve/dp/B006573A6I/?tag=viglink21758-20">http://www.amazon.com/Wiseco-VSK4-Premi ... nk21758-20</a><!-- m -->

I had already ordered 2 kits yesterday (one with the tools and one without). LOL Wish I had known about the shims on amazon.. Oh well. Only $12 difference

[Beej]

I wonder if those are the exact same ones that BMW uses - either way, wish they were around when I got my absurdly expensive kit.

You may want to get more than 3 shims of each size. I know I used like 5 of one size, even after re-using shims I pulled from other valves.

[RawrImAMonster]

I'm not sure if they are the same or not, but there is a thread on m3forum.net where they used some engineering departments tools to hardness test them and they come out the same as OEM. So, good enough for me.

But yeah, I'll probably order the amazon refill kit as well so I'll have a total of 8 of each size.

[RawrImAMonster]

Well, all of my valves were in spec so I didn't actually have to adjust any of them. It had been 30k since they were last adjusted so I'm guessing that means it has been babied since then. I have all new gaskets around the valve cover now anyways.

[Beej]

Ha, makes me not want to redo mine (also done 30k ago). According to my notes I had to adjust 10 of them back then.

Exhaust cam VANOS tabs look good?

[RawrImAMonster]

I forgot to check the tabs while I was in there yesterday, but I'm going to do the vanos bulletproofing before too long anyway.

[RawrImAMonster]

After doing a little more research on the subframe issue, I think I'm just going to check for cracks and if it doesn't have any, use BMW's foam injection method coupled with epoxying the TMS reinforcement kit. Epoxying seems to be the way to go instead of welding just in general and the foam is more cheap insurance.