Bought an old BMW M3, filled with regret...

Blinkz · 2 Feb 2015 at 07:58

Jeez I'm starting to miss my old E46 M3

They really are lovely cars, Altho the last year of ownership wasn't fun as it was full of SMG problems! Ignoring that though it was a beautiful machine.

Having said that I prefer my E92 M3

Atari · 2 Feb 2015 at 10:28

Gaygle said:
Mrk/any other E46 owners - what phones have you got and do they connect OK to the BMW Bluetooth? My HTC One M7, gfs HTC one M8 and Galaxy S3 all connect for about 3 seconds then disconnect.

Very annoying!

My One M7 does this. The only solution I had was to revert back to and earlier version of the custom ROM I was running. Anthing 4.1.2 or below works perfectly, 4.2.x is hit and miss I found

A mate's offered to swap the BT module out of his 2005 M3 CS so hopefully that'll work with later versions of Android.

Love the Euro tips Mrk, they set the car off perfectly in comparison to the old exhaust tips!

mrk · 2 Feb 2015 at 11:23

Cheers! Have to say the back end does look a bit more aggressive with the slightly larger tips.

Edit*
Have to order another double din fascia, £40 mistake happened today... Fascia arrived, seemed decent enough quality and as you do, I decided to bend it to see how tough it was before thinking "no I should not do this, it will break..."

...

....... It broke

Gaygle · 2 Feb 2015 at 19:02

Atari said:
My One M7 does this. The only solution I had was to revert back to and earlier version of the custom ROM I was running. Anthing 4.1.2 or below works perfectly, 4.2.x is hit and miss I found

A mate's offered to swap the BT module out of his 2005 M3 CS so hopefully that'll work with later versions of Android.

Love the Euro tips Mrk, they set the car off perfectly in comparison to the old exhaust tips!

Yeh its a royal pain in the arse. I either need to downgrade my phone software to what it was over 2 years ago, or buy an iPhone - both of which I'm not prepared to do. The latest BT modules are rarer than hens teeth and direct from BMW will set you back a cool £500. :mad:

Don't suppose you've got another mate who fancies giving me a 2005 BT module?!

Tom|Nbk · 3 Feb 2015 at 06:15

mrk said:
They won't do the mirror base as it's not counted as part of the body but instead as trim, and trim isn't covered by the anti corrosion warranty! Luckily I've got the driver mirror replaced free by the dealer I bought the car off with a newly painted one, so all good. BMW told me if the car was say 4 or 5 years old then they'd replace trim under good will but not for trim on a 9 year old one.

My arches are clean too! I'll have to keep an eye on though as indeed E46 arch rust isn't uncommon.

Less common on the M3 it seems

Gaygle · 3 Feb 2015 at 08:00

mrk said:
They won't do the mirror base as it's not counted as part of the body but instead as trim, and trim isn't covered by the anti corrosion warranty! Luckily I've got the driver mirror replaced free by the dealer I bought the car off with a newly painted one, so all good. BMW told me if the car was say 4 or 5 years old then they'd replace trim under good will but not for trim on a 9 year old one.

My arches are clean too! I'll have to keep an eye on though as indeed E46 arch rust isn't uncommon.

Took it to a different dealer and they said they'll try to twist BMW'S arm into doing it. Also found more rust on the sills where they meet the wheel arch so we'll try and get that done too.

The mirror isn't too bad and the body shop guy said even if BMW reject it claiming it's trim

rolleyes

they'll do it for £40.

Atari · 3 Feb 2015 at 09:47

Gaygle said:
Yeh its a royal pain in the arse. I either need to downgrade my phone software to what it was over 2 years ago, or buy an iPhone - both of which I'm not prepared to do. The latest BT modules are rarer than hens teeth and direct from BMW will set you back a cool £500.

Don't suppose you've got another mate who fancies giving me a 2005 BT module?!

He does have a 2005 318ci so I can certainly ask him

Even in 2005 I think it was only the 6th gen ULF so it's still not the latest 13th gen one.

I didn't find Navcoder that useful If I'm honest, I think I've used it maybe twice since I was given a copy of it, once to temporarily disable the headlight warnings when I retrofitted OEM xenon's, and once recently to disable TV in Motion on said mates 05 CS. More than welcome to trial my version if you want Mrk, it works off the usual cable (mine is a bog standard one).

The PAsoft software & dongle look to be a million times better for coding duties, tick boxes ahoy!

Will Gill · 3 Feb 2015 at 09:53

You should try intravee for not only ipod integration but also programming, gives you many bespoke functions and an easy to user interface.

Never used it myself but hear nothing but good things about it

Eliot · 3 Feb 2015 at 09:53

Tom|Nbk said:
Less common on the M3 it seems

My bros 2002 model is Clean as a whistle underneath. So it does seem that way

NVP · 3 Feb 2015 at 10:32

Gaygle · 3 Feb 2015 at 12:46

Atari said:
He does have a 2005 318ci so I can certainly ask him Even in 2005 I think it was only the 6th gen ULF so it's still not the latest 13th gen one.

I didn't find Navcoder that useful If I'm honest, I think I've used it maybe twice since I was given a copy of it, once to temporarily disable the headlight warnings when I retrofitted OEM xenon's, and once recently to disable TV in Motion on said mates 05 CS. More than welcome to trial my version if you want Mrk, it works off the usual cable (mine is a bog standard one).

The PAsoft software & dongle look to be a million times better for coding duties, tick boxes ahoy!

I've just spent my entire morning calling about a billion different people/breakers looking for a more up to date module. I think the one I have at the moment is a 4th or 5th gen and managed to find an 8th gen one for £125. Will sell my old one for around £70 which means cost to change is only around £55 which isn't too bad i guess - provided the damn thing actually does work!!!

mrk · 3 Feb 2015 at 13:01

I'm more certain than ever NVP that that will be the case. Popped by my indy on the way to work at lunch (had morning off to take care of some stuff so drove into work) and they said it was one of the nicest examples under the bonnet they have seen and now have on their system. Said they get a lot of E46 M3s in year round and eyebrows are raised so to speak!

Inspection 2 here is £550, that is with valve clearance etc.

Gaygle said:
Took it to a different dealer and they said they'll try to twist BMW'S arm into doing it. Also found more rust on the sills where they meet the wheel arch so we'll try and get that done too.

The mirror isn't too bad and the body shop guy said even if BMW reject it claiming it's trim rolleyes they'll do it for £40.

That's a good price, I assume that's just painting the base after sanding it down and not painting to match the mirror housing too?

Eliot said:
My bros 2002 model is Clean as a whistle underneath. So it does seem that way

Ah that's reassuring then. But still good practice to pressure wash under there anyway I guess!

Gaygle · 3 Feb 2015 at 13:46

mrk said:
That's a good price, I assume that's just painting the base after sanding it down and not painting to match the mirror housing too?

Yeh, just painting the base. Hopefully it should match the mirror housing and the rest of the car too!

mrk · 5 Feb 2015 at 08:54

Gaygle said:
Yeh, just painting the base. Hopefully it should match the mirror housing and the rest of the car too!

With grey/silver you tend to notice any differences mostly in sunlight as the rays will refract/reflect differently based on the paint/lacquer quality and layering, at least that is from my experience in the past having had trim and wing resprayed by body shops and the went back to have it done again after observing on a sunny day!

But the wing mirror mount is small and in an area surrounded by black trim edging so shouldn't be easily noticeable if it is a bit different

-

The Parrot Asteroid Smart arrived the other day, the double din fascia should be arriving today, will pick up a BMW to normal antennae adapter later on today and will fit it at the weekend after modifying the existing single din harness to internally accommodate the Parrot unit. Looking at it all it seems really quite simple. Way simpler than pictures and posts online seem to suggest,

I guess that's the upshot of seeing what you're working with in front of you as opposed to visualising it through the internet.

All in all, what was needed for this job was:

1: Double din fascia @ £39 (CT23BM07).
2: Steering wheel controls + ISO adapter @ ~£25 (CTSBM003.2, the Parrot allows you to customise what button does what).
3: Aerial adapter @ £3.49 (WNB5-100).
4: Head unit @ £300.
5: Flat mount bracket pair @ £3.50 (Halfords AV section).

panthro · 5 Feb 2015 at 10:15

Look forward to seeing the finished install.

Also FYI about the talk of wheel arch rust earlier; if your car is registered after Jan 2004 then you're covered by the 12 year anti corrosion warranty. I'm going to sort out getting my 330d arches done under warranty.

Gaygle · 5 Feb 2015 at 12:39

Yup, but you still have to throw yourself at the merci of BMWs warranty process.

"Sorry sir, I noticed your service was 5miles overdue in 2006, and we believe this may have contributed to the rust. Also, the places in which there are rust are not classed as bodywork, they are "body panels" and it is for this reason we cannot help you"

Ill eat my words if they come through for me, but something tells me there will be some reason as to why they can't help me.

mrk · 5 Feb 2015 at 12:54

BMW, wanting to help you? Hehe

panthro · 5 Feb 2015 at 14:17

Gaygle said:
Yup, but you still have to throw yourself at the merci of BMWs warranty process.

"Sorry sir, I noticed your service was 5miles overdue in 2006, and we believe this may have contributed to the rust. Also, the places in which there are rust are not classed as bodywork, they are "body panels" and it is for this reason we cannot help you"

Ill eat my words if they come through for me, but something tells me there will be some reason as to why they can't help me.

Taking the 330d tomorrow to BMW so we'll see how it goes. I'm armed with googled info on rusty rear arches!

mrk · 6 Feb 2015 at 18:19

(ignore the gap on the right side, that's just the way it's resting on my makeshift thingy

)

Managed to spend 30minutes after work before it got dark to take out the existing HVAC and surround to install into the new trim and have a quick look at how it all "should" look once in the car.

The double din fascia out of the box did not have the same finish as the rest of the BMW plastic, it was shinier and blacker. I had some spare flat black heat resistive paint in the shed so applied a few layers which resulted in a finish that was as close to the BMW finish as possible and it also has a similar matte texture too, which is nice.

Tomorrow I'll put it all together, some fiddly work left to do such as figuring out how best to secure the Asteroid to the existing single din harness post modification. It will be easy once it's in front of me I guess.

Jez · 6 Feb 2015 at 19:06

Couple of thoughts re that install mrk as an E46 owner;

1) Whats with the "gaps" at the egdes on the bottom edge of the stereo facia between it and the HVAC top egde?

2) Knowing the inside of the E46 dash quite well how is that double din going to fit? It will foul on the HVAC piping? There is hardly any space inside there. This is why the dynavin units are actually single din with a "double" frontage only. Edit: Fox tells me that unit isnt actually double din depth, makes sense