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

One Vision said:
Thanks for the explanation MRK, much appreciated. Its a fast car but i do think there overated if im being honest. Ive had it for 18 months as well, i just seems that the engine is great and everything else built around that is sub standard. Id never buy another E46 M3 ever again and the one ive got was apparently one of the better ones.
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It's not sub standard it's just an old performance car. If you want that level of power with dependability then you'll need to buy something much newer.
 
I have another problem, when I use the button to down all the windows they all go down. When I use the button to bring them all up they all come up except the drivers window. How do I fix this please?
 
That's by design.

Sounds like your battery was disconnected or idle too long hence why the driver window (well, both front really) goes into a reset state. To restore it, you have to do one full open and close action using that window's button by holding the button open, then close. Then the window will work fully with the windows button.
 
I opened the window and then closed it. Didn’t work. I still have same problem, I also got a new abs sensor and changed it myself and I still got same problems, abs, dsc and tyre flat light on. I ******* hate this car, really can’t wait to see the back of it now...nothing but a POS.
 
Untwist your panties and stop being a baby about it, you left an older car for 3 months without so much of a battery tender or a start.. what do you expect?

Reset the TPMS. Replace the wheel speed sensor. Reset the window.

Then go buy a brand new car.
 
One Vision said:
I opened the window and then closed it. Didn’t work. I still have same problem, I also got a new abs sensor and changed it myself and I still got same problems, abs, dsc and tyre flat light on. I ******* hate this car, really can’t wait to see the back of it now...nothing but a POS.
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What ABS sensor did you get - what was the fault code when you read them? If the speedometer has stopped working, IIRC it's likely to the be rear passenger side one as I believe this provides the speedo with the speed.

RE the window: You normally need to hold the button for like 10 seconds after it has wound back up to reset it.

Anyway, it sounds like you're having a terrible time with this horrible, unreliable, money pit of a car. I'm going to be taking a massive risk, but i'll offer you £5k for it.
 
I fixed the issues and the car has now been sold. It went for 12.5k, it was sad watching it leave my drive but at the end of the day its just a car. Thankyou all for your help.
 
Well i've had an interesting week, all through my own stupidity!!!!

Bought a retrimed steering wheel from RoyalSteering Wheels, and a pair of new SMG paddles from Storm Workz. Did the usual research before in terms of fitting them myself and thought that looks straight forward enough, lets do this. I am someone who will pay someone to do it if im not confident enough myself and i was very confident this was a pretty straight forward job, the instructions that came from Royal Steering Wheels said 30 minute job.

Anyway had a go at it last weekend, started easy enough and disconnected the battery and removed the airbag pretty quickly. Underneath the airbag are 3 connectors, which i assumed were 3 things, smg paddles, airbag and steering wheel controls. At the time didnt know which was which, i just knew i needed to disconnect them before removing the steering wheel. This is where it all went wrong, the far left connector would not come out for love nor money, even with small set of pliers. The other two came out as expected, very easily, as they should. So this is where my stupidity started, i removed the steering wheel and balanced it on my knees so i could approach the connector from a different angle, bad idea!!!. The steering wheel slipped off my knee and one of the two wires going into the connector snapped. Head in hands time. After 5 minutes of panicking i said no worries i can sort this and fix the wire / connector. Tried removing the connector and it wouldnt budge so i then had my second moment of stupidity and thought lets remove the steering wheel boss / slip ring (people call them different things) and work on it inside. That worked and i took inside and put everything on the table and managed to free the connector.

I proceeded to fix the wire as i had crimps, wire etc, the wire by the way was too the SMG paddles, so one wire for down shift, one for up of course, the wire that snapped was too the downshift paddle. Then i proceeded to carry on with the expected job, i transferred all the innards of the old steering wheel into the new one, and then came the moment of truth, putting it all back on the car. Did that and then started the car up, no warning lights, and i put her in manual change mode, pressed up shift, it went up, pressed down and it went down. So i thought phew, i knackered it but i fixed it. Went out for a test drive and i literally turned left out my drive and i heard a very loud snapping / crack noise. So i stopped and checked everything and it wouldnt change up gear, so i just assumed the connector had gone wrong for some reason. Disconnected it all and everything looked fine, but it wasnt working.

Put it on the m3cutters forum and first guy said have you made sure the boss / slip ring wasnt moved too much one way or another, and yep in my head that made sense, when i was trying to get the connector out i didnt pay attention to the slip ring moving around, then when i put it back i moved it back so the connectors were at the top but not sure which way i turned it. They are set to a certain tension and more than likely the wires inside the slip ring had snapped. So ordered a new one and had to wait. Luckily the car was still driving fine in auto, so carried on going work etc all week. Then wednesday the thing started coming out of manual on its own and changing straight up through the gears to 6th, even at 10mph. So undriveable and had to park it up. It must have been making a connection inside the slip ring. For those that dont know the smg goes to paddle change mode once you press a paddle. Part arrived and proceed to swap out the slip ring today and hurray it worked and everything is working.

So yep i'm stupid :D and some pics of everything below

Old Steering wheel and paddles


Broken Wire


Wire Sorted


Old slip ring, all the connectors were seperated from the wire strip when i opened it up


New slip ring, the red thing snaps off, so once only use!!


All done




Cookie
 
Cookie12 said:
I've been telling myself for a week im the biggest muppet on the planet :D:D:D and yes telling yourself a job will be easy is the first mistake to make!!!
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I did a similar thing years ago on my Octavia vRS. They are known for sloppy/imprecise gear changes so I followed a guide on resetting the linkages. Pulled a spring back which released 3 fingers that locked on to a threaded shaft. One of the fingers snapped off and I disabled the car for a week waiting for the replacement part to arrive :rolleyes:

It happens.
 
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