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

Hah, my bad! Must've cocked up turning them into clickable links..

The 6.0 one is model number ES6046B
and the 7.1 ES4746B

I'll have to contact them to confirm they have the oem style buttons I guess. But if they do, it seems they are indeed releasing newer units in this style!

I'm guessing you can't easily update the version of Android on these? But like you say, as long as you can run the latest apps from playstore, it doesn't matter.


I suspect my guibo will be the original (now 107k mile) one, so definitely should get it replaced. Mine does clunk a bit but I always thought it was the diff.
 
You can update ROMs, but only if there's a custom one available on xda for that model. Usually there is iirc but custom ROMs can have stability issues, and that's the last thing you want mid navigation on the motorway!

There will be clunks and noises as is the norm even when brand new, but it's a different flavour of them when something like the flex disc is cracking and allowing play on the shaft. It's harder to tell the difference if you've not had the car through a wide mileage range though to observe the gradual change.
 
My Rear Trailing Arm Bush (RTAB) decided to give up the ghost last week. Must have been going for a while but never twigged. Rear end has been very twitchy for weeks (m3 in wet and cold so just thought it was me lol). Then two weeks ago i put on a set on vredestein wintrac xtremes and the rear end was horrible, thought it was the tyres and thought about removing them. Must have been coincidence as last week i started hearing a horrible knocking noise and so jacked it up and had a good look round and noticed the rubber on the RTAB on the passenger side literally hanging out.

Had both sides replaced (OEM not polybush) and it has completely transformed the rear end / handling, even with the wintrac xtremes on.

Also my rear discs were completely shot so i've had them replaced too, again with OEM discs and pads, plus new sensors.

Price wise wasnt too bad considering what i have had done, but i know people in the trade so got some good discounts. The two RTAB cost £26, i got the discs, pads and sensors for £265 and fitting was £120. So just over £400 all in.

In terms of the above (ROMS) i installed a custom ROM on my 1Gb unit and the stock ROM was shockingly slow (ERISIN Unit). It initially sped up the unit, but then it went back to a similar speed to stock. I did the freezing google services etc trick and its pretty nippy now. Every now and again i unfreeze them and run play updates and stuff and then freeze them again. I prefer the custom ROM as i dont have any stability issues at all and the menu's are a lot nicer as they must be off a different unit / ROM. i.e. the standard music player as cover art displayed which the original didnt. I actually like the unit as a whole and it works well with steering wheel controls and HK audio.
 
Where did you get OEM discs so cheap? Seems ideal.

Yeah I had all my bushes replaced with OEM ones last year and the handling has been sublime since. Not everyone puts consideration into a full bushings refresh once a car is at a certain age, makes a big difference and helps improve other areas of the car like uneven tyre wear.

My rear tyres are approaching their tread life now so will be able to get some PS4 S on there completing the full set. Not looking forward to the price, but they should last a very long time, and with the Inspection 2 out of the way, the only annual physical expense should just be the £46 MOT :cool:
 
Insurance, VED etc. Stuff that doesn't require you to physically take the car somewhere and pay to keep it roadworthy.

Picked up the replacement for the new key from dealer today. What a massive faff it ended up being. Because I had a third party spare key added when I first got the car, BMW assigned the same EWS slot to the new key I bought from them because that's what they saw free on their records.

Naturally this means the new key won't start the car as the EWS rolling codes won't match with the transponder on the new key.

Explaining this to the dealership staff was a headache, and in the end even after I told them exactly what they need to do (reprogram the key to the next slot along with their AK90), they deemed a new key was needed, so ordered me a new key which was assigned to the next slot by BMW remotely.
 
mrk said:
Where did you get OEM discs so cheap? Seems ideal.

Yeah I had all my bushes replaced with OEM ones last year and the handling has been sublime since. Not everyone puts consideration into a full bushings refresh once a car is at a certain age, makes a big difference and helps improve other areas of the car like uneven tyre wear.

My rear tyres are approaching their tread life now so will be able to get some PS4 S on there completing the full set. Not looking forward to the price, but they should last a very long time, and with the Inspection 2 out of the way, the only annual physical expense should just be the £46 MOT :cool:
Click to expand...

I originally rang KnightsBMW who wanted £299 for just discs. So rang EuroCarParts to see what they could do (thinking decent aftermarket alternative maybe). They said they could only provide OEM at same price as knightsBMW as they just get them off them. Then went on Ebay and saw the below advert and rang knights back and they said because that was an advert from a BMW dealer they would match the price. So sorted.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-...791984?hash=item2a92c1aa30:g:U6AAAOxyjxlTLCOG

Brakes are so much better now too. Just shows how little the rears were working.
 
TThat's rather good, I usually forget to check the BMW eBay store because they often have really good prices as long as the part you want is listed at that time.
 
Nothing else really I want to do to. Just drive and enjoy that induction noise.


I'll upgrade to an E92 when the interior quality improves ;)
 
mrk said:
Nothing else really I want to do to. Just drive and enjoy that induction noise.
I'll upgrade to an E92 when the interior quality improves ;)
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Haha.

The E46 M3's induction noise with the Eventuri is really very nice indeed. However, I found that when I switched it back to the standard airbox although the lovely sound disappeared, the smoothness and responsiveness increased astronomically. You may well find the same thing. All this talk of "wow the Eventuri makes everything so smooth blah blah" is a bunch of crap. It doesn't at all, it robs the car of a lot of the smoothness through the rev ranger, albeit redeeming itself by the noise.
 
Hmm sure your engine and transmission were healthy?! MAF?

I had the standard airbox for a few months before installing the Eventuri, then a few months with the Eventuri on its own before having the remap done. Didn't notice any loss of smoothness before or after either change. The only time I saw slight loss in smoothness was when my MAF was on its death bed. New MAF later and it's back to how it used to be.
 
mrk said:
Hmm sure your engine and transmission were healthy?! MAF?

I had the standard airbox for a few months before installing the Eventuri, then a few months with the Eventuri on its own before having the remap done. Didn't notice any loss of smoothness before or after either change. The only time I saw slight loss in smoothness was when my MAF was on its death bed. New MAF later and it's back to how it used to be.
Click to expand...

Engine and transmission were perfect. There was a massive change between the smoothness of the original BMW airbox and the Eventuri, but only noticeable when switching back to the BMW airbox after 2 years of the Eventuri. I'd be surprised if you didn't notice it if/when you do it. My Eventuri was clean as well so that couldn't have been to blame.

Every "mod" I've ever had on a car, no matter what the claimed benefits, has always been less refined than the OE stuff. It really makes you recognise just how much work they put into the OE stuff to make it perfect.

Eventuri on E46 M3 - Not as smooth as standard airbox
Milltek exhaust on 335i - made a rattling noise from the resonation on some trim between the rear seats
Dual cone filters on 335i - caused surging and again, a loss of smoothness
High quality coilovers on an old 330ci - made a knock when turning and I think one eventually failed
Various mods on the Mini - again, a loss of smoothness and refinement which disappeared when removed.

I think this is why I don't want anyone remapping any of my cars. At least if I buy a bolt on mod, I can just remove it. If I pay someone £400 and I find the remap crap, I'm out of pocket big time.
 
Evolve do offer (or did back then anyway) a full refund policy on their remap if you weren't happy with it.

As said though, mine's been just as smooth and refined as the stock box.

Was yours a manual or SMG? Wondering if there could be a difference there.

I'm tempted to try it out and put the stock airbox back in one day and go for a drive, but I can't imagine my engine suddenly seeing any dramatic change. On the contrary a more free flowing intake should yield better engine response and smoothness compared to a more restricted one as on the stock.

Remember that when the E46 M3 was still new, no aftermarket intake solutions existed, and the CSL didn't come until later years anyway. It was some 10 odd years later that the Eventuri came to be.
Not everything was well thought out by BMW either, take the exhaust bracket clamps for example, you have a beautiful stainless steel exhaust, but steel clamps that rot so much that the rust fuses itself to the pipework!

And then there are the bare steel rear brake lines instead of stainless steel, so they corrode as well and need replacing.
 
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I have been looking to buy an E46 M3 coupe on and off for about a year now. Very nearly bought one before Christmas but the seller pulled out. My impression is that it is getting harder to find one that has been looked after that doesn't cost more than an E92.

I am contemplating going to see this one, however the service history does not follow the BMW schedule so whether I should give it a miss on that basis alone, or go and see how it is in reality.

I would be interested to know the thoughts of current E46 M3 owners?
 
Hmm.

No photos of the interior, vague comment about having recent tyres, cars like this, an owner would put down the make and model of the tyres. Leads me to believe they are just boggo rubber to get the job jobbed. The advert isn't written very well either. If they can't be bothered to write a decent ad, then can they be bothered to maintain a decent car?

Where did you see the service history of it?
 
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shez said:
I have been looking to buy an E46 M3 coupe on and off for about a year now. Very nearly bought one before Christmas but the seller pulled out. My impression is that it is getting harder to find one that has been looked after that doesn't cost more than an E92.

I am contemplating going to see this one, however the service history does not follow the BMW schedule so whether I should give it a miss on that basis alone, or go and see how it is in reality.

I would be interested to know the thoughts of current E46 M3 owners?
Click to expand...

Me and my mate were looking for cars for him for nearly three months, the cars in the 6-10k region now seem really pood, even looked at some as high as 15k with so called good mods done but upon inspection so many look liked they had being done cheap and skimped on. I drove a few manuals and SMG's with him and compared to mine they just felt tired and slow.

In the end he purchased two because he is crazy like that and is now spending a small fortune turning one into a track car and the other fully restoring to full stock original car, as of now they drive nowhere near the level of mine they just feel tired, but I know he will sort them right.

But unfortunately it does now seem anything good under 10k does not seem to exist unless you get lucky to be honest, so many have being ran on pennies and I am afraid it shows and they tend to drive really poor.
 
This is the last page on the service booklet. Makes me wonder if it's been clocked with so many oil services.
9sbFpZX.jpg.png
 
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