The new daily - E46 330i Touring

[modocrat]

No...the M-sport steering wheel is much nicer. And it may be a bit too much wood if it is on the steering wheel as well - even for me!

@M3boi and @TBP88 would never say no to too much of (Morning) wood..

 

[Peter@AEW]

No...the M-sport steering wheel is much nicer. And it may be a bit too much wood if it is on the steering wheel as well - even for me!

At my age there is no such thing as "too much wood"
My touring has wood and I shall keep it

 

[Benji]

After distractions manifested themselves in the shapes of a L322 and a blown headgasket amongst other things, i finally got around to refreshing the suspension on the E46.

Start off my pulling the subframe


I tried to Ctr-X, Crtl-V but it didnt work...Will have to do this the old school way


The subframe mount and other bushes were actually in surprisingly good condition considering they have over 500,000km on them:


The trailing arm upper balljoint was very worn and had noticeable axial play


Start "swearing in languages you didnt know you can speak" to remove all 17 subframe bushings. Got the propshaft serviced and rebalanced while it was out


Install rear trailing arm limiters


Explode the diff


Install Blackline LSD. As far as I can tell, this is a Chinese copy of a Quiffe helical LSD, but it has good reviews, will see how it goes.


All done, backlash measured at 0.11mm, same as before I removed it, thankfully no shims needed



Throw it all back in with a 21mm Eibach stabiliser bar


I wont lie, I quite enjoyed not cleaning anything while reassembling, evidently my therapy has worked, those OCD days are behind me

Mandatory side quest: thought I would try this upgraded selector rod joint with a ball bearing instead of a bushing. It has noticeably less play compared to a new OEM unit, quite pleased with it and will be throwing one in all my cars going forwards. Would have been rude not to change the shifter lever bearing and gearbox oil while I was in there.

Upgraded Late Model Selector Rod Joint - 25117580281

The OEM BMW selector rod joint uses a phenolic bushing that wears out and can cause a sloppy shifter feel. We took this design and went a step further with our upgraded billet aluminum selector rod joint for late model BMWs. This rod joint is CAD designed and is a direct replacement for BMW PN...

racegerman.com

Monroe front shocks in the bin, where they belong


After much deliberating, gnashing of teeth and debating, I decided to go with Bilstein B4 for M-sport which are around R4000 for a set, compared to not-available for B6, 15k for Koni FSD and 20k for OEM. I still have PTSD from how hard the B6s in my E39 are which has ruined that car for me. Weirdly, only the fronts are specific to M-sport, the rear Bilsteins are generic for E36 and all E46 but RealOEM does have different part numbers for M-sport. The rear definetely feels softer than the front tho, maybe it is the extra weight of the touring. I am not sure what I will do about this. Probably nothing.

I threw in some E90 ix front shock mounts which supposedly lowers the front of the car by 5mm...but as far as I can tell, my old mounts were collapsed by 5mm...Throw it all back in with matching 27mm Eibach stabiliser, new control arms, tie-rods and stabiliser links:

The eagle eyed reader may notice the rare beast that is a BMW with no oil leaks.

Second side quest: After adding sound deadening to the back of the touring, it accentuated this weird road noise, almost like a door was ajar. I added some sound deadening mat to the front halves of the rear wheel wells (previously only did the rear halves) and some sound absorption foam to the front boot trims. It is weird that the rear trims have a sound absorbing layer, but these front ones dont...


Third side quest: I must be the only idiot out there to retrofit the OEM 330i vacuum operated exhaust valve control. My car is louder than stock, to the point of drowning out the admittedly feeble bass produced by the speakers. I have been enjoying running with the valve permanently in the closed position even tho this did noticeably reduce the power at the top end....if only I could have the best of both worlds...Thankfully BMW has a solution which cost R500 from my breakers and took 2 hours to install...


Annoyingly, the valve closes when I manually give it 12V, but somehow the ECU is not controlling it, so now the valve is always open. Will need to investigate.

Fourth side quest: Install a black centre console. I prefer this to the grey, I think I will keep it, just need to find a set of black cupholders and rear ashtray


Now to attempt to do 500km this week so I can change the diff oil (run in procedure) before a roadtrip to Slaapstad with the wagon next week. Thereafter, I will focus on some aesthetics:

• Bumper repaint
• New windscreen
• New front light lenses
• Upgraded projectors
• Refreshed bumper trims

Dare I say, coming together nicely now

 

[KPM3_30]

Awesome work Benji, I'm sure it feels like a new car now. Difference on mine was massive when I did the refresh, can imagine yours after double the mileage!

 

[Tinuva]

After much deliberating, gnashing of teeth and debating, I decided to go with Bilstein B4 for M-sport which are around R4000 for a set, compared to not-available for B6, 15k for Koni FSD and 20k for OEM. I still have PTSD from how hard the B6s in my E39 are which has ruined that car for me. Weirdly, only the fronts are specific to M-sport, the rear Bilsteins are generic for E36 and all E46 but RealOEM does have different part numbers for M-sport. The rear definetely feels softer than the front tho, maybe it is the extra weight of the touring. I am not sure what I will do about this. Probably nothing.

There definitely different rear shocks. For example on the Koni Special Active shocks I run on 2x 330s, I remember the order was delayed because when the parts arrived in SA initially the wrong rear shocks came with the order.
From my reading back then, if you get the non-sport ones on car with sport springs, the springs would fall out every time the car is lifted up, because the length of the non-sport shocks are longer.
So depending on the springs you have, if they non-sport, the non-sport shocks will do fine. I dont see anything that you changed that. Front doesn't matter because you press the spring in I think?

 

[Benji]

Awesome work Benji, I'm sure it feels like a new car now. Difference on mine was massive when I did the refresh, can imagine yours after double the mileage!

I've only driven it 5km to work, need to do a wheel alignment today before I can judge, but yeah, it already feels a lot better

There definitely different rear shocks. For example on the Koni Special Active shocks I run on 2x 330s, I remember the order was delayed because when the parts arrived in SA initially the wrong rear shocks came with the order.
From my reading back then, if you get the non-sport ones on car with sport springs, the springs would fall out every time the car is lifted up, because the length of the non-sport shocks are longer.
So depending on the springs you have, if they non-sport, the non-sport shocks will do fine. I dont see anything that you changed that. Front doesn't matter because you press the spring in I think?

Yeah Sachs also have different part nrs for sport shocks, but Bilstein dont...

My springs are still very tight at full drop, so Im not worried about them falling out, but it definetely feels like the rear is softer than the front. In my old age, I quite enjoy a softly suspended car

 

[M3boi]

Proper refresh! Let me know when you're in town and we can get the two silver surfers together.

 

[Benji]

Took her in for an alignment. There is life before LSD and then there is life after LSD...if you know, you know...

Really enjoying it, she will step out in 2nd gear in the dry The E39 would only step out in the wet.

Also I forgot how cool this car sounds with the exhaust valve open As you can see, the front is not any lower really...

 

[Benji]

Two days before my trip to Cape Town, I took the E46 to site to test my suspension work. On the way there, I had a weird tyre vibration, but on the way back, it was fine...hmmm, I recall hearing something loose inside my rear tyre, so I popped back to Tyremart and they found this:


Previous owner of these wheels/tyres made good use of the RFT technology. Thankfully I still have my style 68s so I popped those back on.

A coffee stop somewhere in the Karroo...weird how low the rear looks on the style 68s...


Cruise control kept at a pig-friendly 140...who needs diesel anyway?


This car is an absolute hoot to drive at the coast! It can actually be classified as "fast" whereas it is merely adequate at altitude. I am loving the Eibach stabilisers, there has been no compromise on comfort, but this car handles like it is on rails now! The drawback is the increased NVH and squeaking from the poly mounts. I am 95% sure the rubber mounts from an M3 are the same diameter and will bolt straight in, so that is next on the shopping list. My mate (who owns a E46 M3) drove my car and mentioned that mine handles better and is more comfortable than his M3. I think his M3 suspension is a big baggy tho. Anyway, the mountain passes in the WC are enough reason to move there...




My consumption rose to 7.9 L/100 on the drive back with some extra weight and strong head winds. Overall a smooth and stress free roadtrip beautifully taken in its stride.

Many bugs gave the ultimate sacrifice

 

[MR_Y]

@Benji you need to create a YouTube channel for your cars 👍

 

[Benji]

@Benji you need to create a YouTube channel for your cars 👍

I am both too lazy and ugly to do such a thing

Also, "making it" on Youtube is a huge challenge which requires years of dedication - look at Ruan Schneider, he builds proper exotics, Brabus 6x6 etc, yet has only 40K subscribers over 1 year which is actually pretty impressive

 

[individj]

I should actually pop him a visit .. he is like right next to me.

 

[Benji]

I made a bit more time for the touring starting with installing new projector lenses as my light output would not impress a peasant from the 1600s. The lenses were looking a bit sorry for themselves - this is after about 10,000km of driving with the HB Body Lens Clear paint. Rubbish product, would not recommend.


Out with the old, in with the new. Old projectors have 2 problems - the glass gets hazy and the reflector burns which translates to slow night time driving.



While the lights were out, I opened up the air filter secondary air duct and created a pathway for the duct to access high pressure air from in front of the radiator. I swear it has made a noticeable difference. My bum dyno says around 2kW. Before vs after:


@FISAACS very kindly donated me his "old" headlight lenses which I then polished up and applied PPF to protect them. Drivers side done:


Light output is vastly improved with that beautiful cutoff line visible. Result.

Threw the Style 216s back on and the touring was then roped in for skid pan duties, arranged by BMW CCG. Awesome fun as always! I had to test the LSD you see. Verdict: It works. Quite well actually. It was a bit of an adjustment doing it in an "underpowered" car which required a few tickles of the clutch to encourage it to play along.




Besides some lifter tick and fending off suiters trying to buy her off me, the day went very well and was a lot of fun.

Abandon your diesels, buy an M54! I actually saw 6.1 L/100km on the cluster...what a perfect daily

 

[rodga]

Nice what projector replacements are those?

 

[evnmopwr]

Xenons ... 🥵

3.0l gives shocking good kms on a tank.

Mine is currently on 10.2l/100km. ( mixed driving, mainly stop and go, short distance ) ...
As soon as i hit the highway, then she drops lekker. best i got on open road with cruise control was 7l/100km.

Oh and if i ever want to sell my car, im gona send it up to you .... You know why.

 

[Benji]

Nice what projector replacements are those?

Britune off ebay, but I assume they were just reselling some chinese crap...

Xenons ... 🥵

3.0l gives shocking good kms on a tank.

Mine is currently on 10.2l/100km. ( mixed driving, mainly stop and go, short distance ) ...
As soon as i hit the highway, then she drops lekker. best i got on open road with cruise control was 7l/100km.

Oh and if i ever want to sell my car, im gona send it up to you .... You know why.

Bring it! Will add small commission

 

[Benji]

Little clip of play time at the skid pan