Matt's 1999 M3

[D_Eclipse9916]

Ive got fog lights if you want to buy em, 30 bucks.

[Sully]

I might take those of your hands this summer if you still got em, i might go smoked fogs though,
I might try to get that radiator off you if you still want to sell it over summer though

[D_Eclipse9916]

radiator is sold, suspension and my PTG wing are for sale...

[Sully]

I have Bilsteins already but I would rather have H&R springs over my DDM ones but it would still be this summer, so I'll hit ya up when I can afford em and see if you still got it all

[Sully]

Starting to get my summer project list going, I figure I need about 2k worth of work to make this what I believe to be a solid daily driver and autocrossing platform, so here it goes:

Cooling:
Aluminum Radiator
Stewarts Water Pump
New Overflow and sensor
New Water Pump housing
Electric Fan conversion
New Thermostat
Replace all Water lines (ALL)

Power Steering:
Refurb Power Steering pump
New HP line
New Return line
New PS Reservoir
(New belt while I have it off? Probably)

Engine:
New Ignition Coils (Bav Auto unless someone objects: $275 a set with new boots)
New Spark Plugs
New Oil pan gasket
New Motor Mounts
Redo M50 swap

Transmission:
New Transmission mounts
New Guibo
Z3 shifter with new Bushings

Interior:
Most of my bulbs on the OBC are burnt out so I am going to order some LED's and replace them rather than buying BMW bulbs....There are various other bulbs of the same style that I will change out as well
I plan to cut the bottom of my cup holders off and mount some bigger ones underneath them / within them so I can fit a cup inside my "cup Holder"
Some other interior stuff but not really important, adn I will address it when I get to it

[D_Eclipse9916]

Why new ignition coils?
Why new oil pan gasket (and if your doing that THEN DEFINITELY safety wire your oil pump nut)
New ps lines, look up the better fix, dont replace em with OEM, they will start to leak again. If you dont know what im talking about ill find the link.

[.RJ]

Dont forget shock mounts & front balljoints/bushings.

[Sully]

Ignition coils because it needs one, its what's causing my cel and id figure I just do a set so I'm not replacing one every year for the next six years
Oil pan gasket because previous owner said it had a slow leak, I will investigate further when I get under the car

I believe the previous owner replaced shock mounts but I will be sure to check them and he also replaced bushings somewhere but I don't remember where so I will look at all and see which ones he did...

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[Sully]

If you could get the link, that would be great, I rememeber looking at yours at the autocross real quick but a link with some detail would be great

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[Sully]

Finally replaced the clutch pedal bushings although I have had them since I got the car. First off, got to say that the clutch pedal just feels 200% better. Reading the directions made it sound like it was going to be tedious and time consuming. I watched a youtube video and found a way to do it without compressing the spring with zip-ties and what-not. I tihnk it took me maybe 20min to disassemble and maybe 25min to re-assemble everything and that was taking my time dickin around while i did everything. The hardest part of the whole thing was the clips i broke on the interior sill trim piece and attempting to get that piece back on. Why that was off you may ask. It was because I thought i felt water coming through the carpet which would mean a leak possibly the sunroof drainage lines but as far as I can tell, there are no leaks so I don't know what it was. I attempted to blow the sunroof lines out but couldn't really figure out how to but anyways, here are the pics that you all love.







Btw, also realized why my cruise control acts a little funny when i push the clutch in, the last owner must have broken the cruise control clutch switch so instead of being in the bracket behind the clutch, it was taped up under the trim panel.

[V1GiLaNtE]

^ funny how things like that get "fixed" and then you find out why they're really not working.. good to see some progress man

[Sully]

By far the best mod one can do to these carsor perhaps the most pointless)


Decided to play around with some LED's, removed the old yellow weak one and replaced with this bright ass white one.

Oh yea, I replaced the piece of junk autolite spark plugs from the PO with some NGK Iridium ones today as well.
Might not need coils after all even though the plugs didn't look that bad

[Sully]

Oh yea, I replaced the piece of junk autolite spark plugs from the PO with some NGK Iridium ones today as well.
Might not need coils after all even though the plugs didn't look that bad

NVM, check engine light is back and car studdered a little bit today so I'm going to wait a week and drive it but I think I still need at least one new coil

[Jake]

Oh yea, I replaced the piece of junk autolite spark plugs from the PO with some NGK Iridium ones today as well.
Might not need coils after all even though the plugs didn't look that bad

NVM, check engine light is back and car studdered a little bit today so I'm going to wait a week and drive it but I think I still need at least one new coil

Do the plug/unplug while running test to see which coil is bad. If the car doesn't stumble when you unplug one, that's the bad one.

[Sully]

The problem with that is, it isnt always messed up...Its so intermittent that it stumbles when I unplug all of em individually. When the problem does occur though its bad, its usually just happens to be when I'm driving and not able to jump out and check em, although that could be interesting out at a stop light to run out and unplug one, like a really dangerous chinese fire drill

BTW check engine light is back off, it seems to reset itself more frequently now with new plugs...interesting :dunno:

[Sully]

Yay for LED's. Had a burnt out light bulb behind the clock on the OBC so I took it out and switched a bulb from the main display over to the clock. It worked for about a minute until I popped the OBC back in and the clock burnt out again. So I popped it out again and switched another one leaving my main display kind of dim and sad. But the clokc worked now so it wasn't a short. Thought about replacing all of them with LED's because they don't blow like regular bulbs and I don't have to get special BMW replacements when they do. Ordered 50 8mm(Test fitted an 8mm I had lying around from when I did the truck and it fit perfect) White LED's from hong kong for $5 + $10 shipping. (with free resistors...this is important)

So anyway, they finally showed up today and I went to work soldering them up with resistors in-line. I was going to glue them in but that would have made removal down the road difficult and once i soldered the contact in, they have no play or movement whatsoever. I made my contact very short for the grounds though, may have something to do with it.

LED's are sensitive to + and - unlike incandescent bulbs so I made sure I knew which contact strip was pos. Well by the time I got the OBC inside and taken apart to make working on it easier I had turned it around so many times and wasn't paying attention anymore and managed to hook them all up backwards. After a quick failed test I had the OBC apart again and got it right this time. It is still light out so I am not sure how it is going to look at night but looks good so far.

The screen seems more "crisp" so far with more contrast between the Text the background. Here are a few pics and I'll grab one tonight to to see. If you know about LED's, you know they are brighter but they don't radiate light as much to the surrounds which is how the OBC works so we will see how it turns out at night.

Pictures:
Before...There are three bulbs for the main screen, notice the sides are dim becasue only the center bulb is working.

During the install with screen pulled out of the OBC, wires were too short and couldn't be disconnected so the unit is still one piece with a little room to play with to get me a clear work space. This is the first install when they were connected backwards but you get the idea

After

[Tyler.M]

biutiful. Plan to do the same thing to my radio tomorrow. Damn back lit buttons!

[Sully]

Trying to get some feedback here...Are polyurethane bushings overkill on a street/auto-x car or would they be worth the extra NVH for the longetivity and performance they offer.

[Goodspeed]

Trying to get some feedback here...Are polyurethane bushings overkill on a street/auto-x car or would they be worth the extra NVH for the longetivity and performance they offer.

Not that I have much experience with them (yet - though I do have poly diff bushings and stiff motor mounts), but I'd go poly, with zerk fittings if you really want to do it right. I'd say they are well worth it - I've ridden in cars with them and felt just fine.

Though it would be an improvement of course, I think the only people I've ever seen recommend fresh OEM rubber are 65yr old guys who think any spring rate other than stock is going to rip your spinal chord out of your body.

[Sully]

How would you do a zerk fitting, the setups I've seen for M's pretty much just replace the bushings with the same hardware and what-not...would that mean custom drilling and mounting of said fittings?

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