loginfailed's 2001 E46 Touring

I joined the E46 family a month or two ago. It's got high miles (130k) but it's hard to tell by looking at it.

How I bought it:


My buddy traded his 2001 330ci for a 2007 Infiniti M35. He had some RPM 505 wheels with some decent rubber, so he offered to trade me for my stock wheels (for free!). I took a few pics the other day (sorry car is dirty):




future plans:
buy a hitch mount for my mountain bike, then remove the entire roof rack (slick top)
set of 18" CSL replicas
lower the front by about 1" or so for a more level stance

Comments? (good or bad)

go for 19" csls instead...they will look amazing. Other than that, your plans sound good, and the car looks great!

Cool man, nice touring.. excited to see what you do to it (+1 on the 19"s)

Originally Posted by jose325i

go for 19" csls instead...they will look amazing. Other than that, your plans sound good, and the car looks great!

Or you could not do what everyone else does


... Car looks great man!

Originally Posted by xxcosmicxx

Or you could not do what everyone else does


... Car looks great man!

So true.


Looks great man! But does it have 350hp at WOT

Very nice touring!

i like your current wheels nice car

H&R Cupkit would be nice. if ur shocks have 130k on them, you will enjoy having a new matched spring/shock setup, with a marginal drop

Originally Posted by jose325i

go for 19" csls instead...they will look amazing. Other than that, your plans sound good, and the car looks great!

Originally Posted by DTMdan

Cool man, nice touring.. excited to see what you do to it (+1 on the 19"s)

I hear you guys on the 19's. I'll have to look into the price difference of the wheels & tires to see how much more it is. I just figured I'd go with 18's to save some cash since I wouldn't have to buy new tires.

Originally Posted by mikeyb74

Very nice touring!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by simsima325

i like your current wheels nice car

H&R Cupkit would be nice. if ur shocks have 130k on them, you will enjoy having a new matched spring/shock setup, with a marginal drop

Thanks for the thumbs up on the wheels. I like the way the current wheels look too, except for a couple issues. They are curbed pretty bad, some of the clear coat is peeling in spots & I think a couple of them are a bit bent even. Also, they have the fake rivets which I don't mind the look of, but they are a beotch to clean.

I'm sure the shocks & springs are original. New shocks would definitely help. It rides OK, but since I put the heavier 18's on I can tell the shocks are worn. I havent really put much thought into what suspension setup I want to do yet though. The H&R cup kit is a possibility though. I had a set on my old 94 Integra back in the day & I was pretty happy with them.

Here's a pic of the Kuda leather phone mount and the proclip mount in case anyone was curious what they look like (sorry my interior isn't too clean at the moment):




^The leather mount looks in the pic like it is a different color, but in person it matches really well.

Nice!

The other wheels were vibrating REALLY bad on the freeway. I tried having them balanced (which did help) but discovered they have some bends in them while watching them spin on the balancer. They are also curbed pretty bad & the clear coat is starting to peel.

Basically, the easiest fix was new wheels. So I picked up a cheap set from Discount Tire. Now the car rides really smooth on the freeway. They are Drag DB-37, Hyper Silver, 18x8.5, +40 offset. I think they look pretty decent.

I've read people call these CSL reps but I think they look a little different than CSL's (at least in person). Either way I like them. I need to round up a set of BMW center caps, adjust front end ride height and I'll be happy.

I've been working on the car a bit this weekend. I've been pretty productive and finished of a BUNCH of items on my never ending punch list. Here is what I've accomplished over the last 2 days:

• New Water Pump (w/ metal impeller)
• ECS Aluminum Water Pump Pulley
• New Fan Clutch
• New Fan Blade
• New Thermostat
• New Upper & Lower Radiator Hoses
• New Coolant Temp Sensor
• New Expansion Tank & Cap
• New OEM BMW Coolant
• New Oil Filter Housting Gasket
• Replaced Engine Oil w/ Mobil1 0w-40
• New Final Stage Unit / Blower Resistor (old one had a mind of it's own)
• New Sunroof Shade Slides (the shade was getting stuck)
• New Passenger Front Window Regulator (finally not afraid to roll it down lol)
• Removed Touring Roof Rack Rails
• New Driver Door Midrange Speaker (was broken & fell into door)
• Replaced "Drag" Center Caps w/ OEM BMW Center Caps
• Cleaned & Organized Garage & Tools (long overdue)
• Maybe some other stuff I forgot..

Everyone's seen all this stuff done before. To be honest I didn't feel like stopping every few minutes to take a pic, lol.

I'll clean the car tomorrow and hopefully post up some proper pics with the new center caps and no roof rails.

woow looks sick!!
that list is awesome!

e46 are great cars, they dont get broken in until 100k, good luck!

keep it up. Love it.

I really like the new wheels.

I was off work Wednesday & Thursday and finally got a chance to catch up on some much needed garage time.

• Installed sport pkg springs in the front to reduce wheel gap
• Replaced inner and outer tie rods
• Hand washed exterior, detailed wheels, vacuumed & detailed the interior
• Took some pics!

The front gap is about even with the rear now, compared to being at least 1/2" higher before. I guess the .6" stated for sport springs in the wiki is just about right on. The chassis however has a nice rake to it. I measured ground clearance at the lift pads.

Front:

Rear:


I took some shots with my point and shoot camera. Not the best quality, but here are the picks (pun intended) of the litter.







I know my passenger mirror is black and driver side is blue. The cover was loose when I bought the car. It finally fell off and I haven't had a chance to get the new one painted yet.

Tomorrow it is getting an alignment and 4 new tires.

Comments, suggestions and/or criticisms welcomed and appreciated!

we've got twin cars

I haven't put up any pics lately. Here are a few. Since my last post, I've tinted the windows & installed new tires.

Sorry about the lighting, I took the pics too late in the evening. I also suck at photography.