Project e46

Sound is surprisingly decent actually - would be well down the to do list regardless.

Mechanical stuff (and tyres) first, then wheels etc

Facelift is definitely the better (more modern) looking car, but I like both anyway. Bodywork was the biggest factor for me really, everything else I can sort out myself - amazing the amount of £5k cars that are beginning to rust quite badly or have just been completely neglected. There was quite a tempting facelift but it really needed the sills and rear arches sorting which just....worried me. Don't mind when a panel can be unbolted and replaced but once you start cutting rust out it can get very expensive very quickly
 
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Bah, exhaust flap is well and truly stuck, need to figure a way of loosening it up, copious amounts of WD will be put on tonight and hope it manages to sort it, failing that, apparently whacking it will loosen it but it'll never work again
 
Stuck closed? That seems unusual.

WD40 it and give it a push with something blunt to the right hand side of the flap (so you're pivoting it the right way) - it should still work fine even if you bend it out of shape a little, just dont totally deform it.
 
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Tried giving it a bit of a whack with what I have at work but nothing yet, WD and a whack tonight might sort it, or break it.. we'll see
 
Coolant flush, stat and waterpump today.

Once I had the fan out I could see the stat gasket was away as well as the stat being broken, was also a bit disappointed to find the waterpump was actually a metal impellar once. Was half tempted to put it back in but I had a nice new one and gasket anyway.

Bit odd as the thermostat was a BMW item (the pump obviously wasn't) - looks to me like someone has replaced the waterpump but not the stat - yet another odd thing that's been done to the car in the past!

Bloody coolant expansion tank drain plug head broke going back in too....luckily (or not perhaps) the head broke as it was fully tight anyway. Its a captive plug so I suspect replacement may not be possible - need to check
 
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[TW]Fox;24271724 said:
Does it make anyone else feel old seeing an E46 330Ci Sport as an 'old project car'?

I can remember on here when Jez sold his 330Ci of the same age for £15k and Moeks bought one for £24k!
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frontside.jpg


Old pic is old :(
 
Well, the exhaust flap was well and truly stuck, whacked it with a screw driver and have bent one side of it, which is lucky as it sounds fantastic but isn't intrusive when driving along normally, I imagine it'd be really annoying in an automatic if fully open
 
Mine is open all the time, can't say I notice it too much. The only time I really hear it booming away is first thing in the morning on my drive when it seems to reverberate around a little but on the road, it sounds a lot 'meatier' than it did prior to the golf tee mod.

Just need to remove the resonators now to give it a nicer top end sound :)
 
Atari said:
Mine is open all the time, can't say I notice it too much. The only time I really hear it booming away is first thing in the morning on my drive when it seems to reverberate around a little but on the road, it sounds a lot 'meatier' than it did prior to the golf tee mod.

Just need to remove the resonators now to give it a nicer top end sound :)
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I could definitely have lived with it, but prefer the relative silence at motorway speeds instead of the drone.

Wired the ancient nokia bluetooth kit back in last night - it's crap though (which isn't a surprise to be fair) so I'm going to disconnect it and strip it out / bin it.
 
Done some work on the leather today to make some of the cracks/creases less noticeable.

Have used the scuffmaster leather dyes in the past and they do a good job so have started going over some areas with that. Not quite finished yet but it's looking a bit better, it's not and never will be perfect though and still needs to be conditioned.

Also still need to sort out the handbrake area - might plastidip it and buy a cupholder from the dealer.








New non horrid wheels too (car is only at that angle as I had to push it to do the passenger side leather!) Can see where the lips have been damaged on speedbumps etc here too, I won't be fixing it!

 
acemastr said:
Well, the exhaust flap was well and truly stuck, whacked it with a screw driver and have bent one side of it, which is lucky as it sounds fantastic but isn't intrusive when driving along normally, I imagine it'd be really annoying in an automatic if fully open
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I golf tee modded my e36 328i Auto, (which iirc kept the flap open at all times) - it sounded wonderful, and had a nice drone at cruising speed, but didn't resonate.
 
So much better with silver wheels. Massively so!!

I still think the E46 is the perfect 3 series from a design perspective, it still looks modern, that's why its so odd to see them so cheap now. It just doesn't compute!
 
Same, on the E90 you can just unplug the electrical connection and the flap would stay open.

Annoyed me after a day as it would drone on the motorway
 
Vanos day today

Turns out my torque wrench doesn't actually go as low as it claims to - broke one of the piston cap bolts (luckily the kit had replacements), then assumed something odd had happened and proceeded to break one of the 6 studs that hold the vanos on.

Nevermind, BMW to the rescue, £3 later and some very tentative tightening and we're back in business.

Has made things a bit smoother, nothing ground breaking but my apparent vac leak seems to have improved too which is good - the valve and spark plug well gaskets were in a shocking state (incredibly brittle) so I'm glad I bought replacements.

Someone asked me to take a pic of the inside of the valve cover (can't remember the thread) so here it is:

Wasn't too badly gunked up

 
Just remembered this thread existed. Always meant to keep it up to date even if just to remind myself what's been done to the car.

Since this it's had:

Oil/Filters some time in August



CCV September (not fun)



New bearing/Hub osf Sep/October



This thing went in (good head unit, just looks wrong)



Alignment October to fix the mess I made of it after doing the trailing arm Bushes



Proceeeded to knock it out almost immediately on hitting a small crater on the way into our street..which was nice

Oil filter housing gasket a couple of weeks ago



Plugs this weekend after I looked through and seen they were last done March 11 (one went awol). Found a bubbling coil while i was there so replaced that too. Also let the cabin filter get a bit wet so things were a bit steamy for a while yesterday



Took horrible looking head unit out this morning and actually hoovered/cleaned the interior a little. (Dodgy light but you get the idea) Can't find where I've put the clubsport gearknob so it's not in and neither is the rather refreshed gaiter i've got (thanks mrk)



This year if I keep it I'll probably do the suspension, possibly get the nsf wing resprayed as it's been replaced in the past and doesn't blend well enough for my liking, discs/pads on the front are crap so i'll replace them at some point and I could be doing with flushing the fluid through too.

Keep considering picking up some oem xenons from the front but inevitably when I actually find some i've lost interest again/ convinced myself I don't care.

Oh and sort out whichever lambda is causing the intermittent fault code stored.
 
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"If I keep it" so you're considering selling? Is that due to what it needs doing? IIRC you did purchase it with an "eyes wide open" attitude so am interested to hear if this has changed.

I only ask because I still would consider an E46 as a daily but doing ~20k a year I fear it needing work all the time. Unless I went on a mad one and replaced lots of things straight after purchasing.
 
No I'm perfectly happy with it tbh - it doesn't really need anything doing now just a case of keeping it fresh. You'd never drive or look at the car and think " this needs work"

I only say if I keep it as I get bored easily. Could easily convince myself I could do with something with a hatchback but tbh there's absolutely nothing I've actually looked at that makes me feel like there would be any point spending money over the e46.

I may be doing 20k again soon, that would probably drive me to keep the car tbh as it won't really hurt its value now, its comfy, reasonably economical and will be unlikely to ever leave me stranded.

Would I buy one specifically to do 20kpa though? Not sure I would.

There will always be something that you'd like to do to the car or that will need sorted soon but then mine is 11 years old you can't get away from age
 
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