2006 BMW M3

[SlimKlim]

new ride height looks right on and glad to hear it rides better as a bonus. if it was me i'd be sweating bullets driving that thing around DC daily on the original PO's setup with it so low. suspension travel...its what cars crave!

I drove a friend to Union Station years ago before I bought the first VW. That was the first and last time my E36 will ever go into the city. I seriously doubt I'll ever drive it further east than Vienna. Every manhole cover of every intersection was inappropriately touching my undercarriage. Still makes me shudder remembering it. :vomit:

[ScottyB]

the first time you hear a subframe smear itself all over the asphalt under your seat is not something you forget :lol

[Jake]

It honestly wasn't too bad from a ride height perspective, even on the #LowIsALifestyle springs. The worst part was various driveway aprons, including the one leaving/entering my apartment complex. The H&R Sports got it up enough to make aprons and speedbumps and potholes basically a non-issue. The slightly higher ride height is nice, but honestly, the biggest improvement has come from new shocks all around - it's far less "crashy" everywhere and soaks up smaller road imperfections a bit more gracefully.

[Senor_Taylor]

it's far less "crashy" everywhere

What do you mean by this?

[ScottyB]

it's far less "crashy" everywhere

What do you mean by this?

shocks just being poorly matched to the spring rate and transmitting all kinds of rucus up through the bushings and bearings instead of letting the wheel move smoothly up and down. (talking for Jake here).

[Jake]

it's far less "crashy" everywhere

What do you mean by this?

shocks just being poorly matched to the spring rate and transmitting all kinds of rucus up through the bushings and bearings instead of letting the wheel move smoothly up and down. (talking for Jake here).

It's kind of a two-parter. The first answer is what Scotty said, a stock/OEM shock matched to a very stiff spring is naturally going to ride like shit.

The other part comes from said OEM shocks having 129k miles on them. If you can compress a shock by hand with very little effort, it's blown. And the ride becomes "crashy" in the sense that when you hit a pothole or bump, the springs end up doing much of the work, because the shock can't do its' job of compression/rebound control.

[D_Eclipse9916]

When you slam your car, shocks don't have enough travel. You end up crashing into the bump stops. H&R races and others that slam it on a stock style shock typically have this problem.


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[Jake]

Passenger HID headlight is dead.

Didn't get any pink eye syndrome before it went out so I'm guessing it's a ballast, although I'm going to swap bulbs left to right just to make sure. Sounds like the proper troubleshooting is bulb --> ballast --> igniter.

Yay, cars.

[rherold9]

Passenger HID headlight is dead.

Didn't get any pink eye syndrome before it went out so I'm guessing it's a ballast, although I'm going to swap bulbs left to right just to make sure. Sounds like the proper troubleshooting is bulb --> ballast --> igniter.

Yay, cars.

TRS if anything is broken

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[D_Eclipse9916]

I have a whole passenger HID Headlight assembly for sale...... Has ballast/bulb/ignitor.

[Jake]

I have a whole passenger HID Headlight assembly for sale...... Has ballast/bulb/ignitor.

Of course you do. I'll Facebook you.

[Jake]

Eye surgery:



Fixed:



Not sure if it was the igniter or ballast, DJ sold me the entire headlight assembly and I just installed it as-is. Yay, now I can drive in the dark again.

[.RJ]

your grills are so shiny. i dont know how i feel about this.

[Jake]

your grills are so shiny. i dont know how i feel about this.

I have the shiniest grills, the best grills. My grills are going to be seen across the highways and byways of this great land. I'm going to make kidney grills great again.

:roll:

But really, I only like black kidneys on lighter-colored cars.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Glad it worked (and I loled).

Now you need some wheels

[Jake]

Glad it worked (and I loled).

Now you need some wheels

I'm on E92 M3 wheels already, they're forged y0! :thumbup:

I'd love some 18x9" Apexes or CSL reps, but these look pretty good and cost me $0 to keep.

[Beej]

Ha, nice. One of my headlights went right before my CPO warranty expired and I dunno if it was the ballast or ignitor but it was like a $4-500 part. Congrats on your new light on such a dark day. :roll:

I prefer chrome grilles on most BMW's, but on e46's in particular, the 'ring' part is so wide that it just makes them too large and nostril-like for me.

[Jake]

Five thousand miles of ownership since October 15th.

I'm still warming up to the car, to be honest. It's a very different animal compared to the other BMWs I've owned, and by far the most picky/finicky daily driver I've owned. It looks fantastic, it drives well once it's warmed up, and it's so great to drop the top and hear the S54 scream down a narrow road. It's just somewhat clunky in traffic where the old 328iC was smoother and easier to manage (or just not care about).

We celebrated the mileage milestone with an oil change. The S54 has an idiotic drain bolt design compared to any other motor I've seen. It requires a 6mm hex socket (or allen key) and naturally, mine was semi-rounded out. The previous owner claims he used two different BMW dealerships for oil changes so maybe one of those shops did a poor job.

In any case, the plug doesn't leak and I didn't want to risk it, so I bucked up and bought a Mityvac after hearing good things for several years. And this thing is so cool. The claim of "oil changes can be done in a tux!" is mostly true. I bought the 7201 model, which can both evacuate and purge. That means you suck the oil out of the dipstick tube, flip a switch, and pump it out into your used oil jugs - no funnel needed. Much cleaner and worth the money... plus the fact that with the BMWs, I don't have to jack them up anymore as the filter is in a canister on top.

[JPolen01]

That pump is seriously cool. I want one, but I would still have to jack up my car to get to the filter. Lame.

[WRXtranceformed]

That thing is really cool man!

What do you mean by clunky? Is it the transmission? Or just how the suspension is tuned?