loginfailed's 2001 E46 Touring

Today I had a little free time...

Put it in the air.

Supplies: trans fluid, axle fluid, transfer pump, and a set of big hex keys for the rear axle drain/fill bolts. Yea, I collect Hotwheels & Matchbox. Makes for some nifty (albeit expensive) wallpaper for the garage.

I changed the trans pan gasket & filter too. The old one is pretty black. Not sure if the PO ever changed it, but at 152k miles I figured I'd check to make sure the old filter hadn't disintegrated.

The fluid I used. Meets LT71141 specs. $5.29/quart. Purists might say to go with the $15/quart stuff so I got my flame suit ready.

Dirty pan & caked up magnets.

All clean.

Also had a chance to mount my air hose reel. Been wanting do do this for a while but never got around to it. Sure beats fighting with unrolling and rerolling the hose everytime I use it.

is that your garage ?

Garage is looking good! New set of smoked corner lights and sidemarkers I see? Very nice.

Originally Posted by jyerabutar

is that your garage ?

Yep.

Originally Posted by tesko.pk

Garage is looking good! New set of smoked corner lights and sidemarkers I see? Very nice.

Thanks! Yea, I got the corners & sides about a month ago. Now I just need to do something about the tail lights. I'm not a fan of the amber lamps. Plus, it doesn't flow too well with the other lights being smoked.

Amber lamps... Reminds me of:

The new wheels look really good. I like where this is going

I love the new wheels...

nice work

search for red tinted tail lights, some people have applied a spray tint that makes the amber appear nearly OEM color red. cheap way to lose the amber.

Diggin this thread. How long did the tranny fluid change take you?

tourings ftw

Looks sweet! and I used to collect matchbox's and hotwheels when I was younger! Still wish I did!

Originally Posted by Studdly_Studright

The new wheels look really good. I like where this is going

Originally Posted by mikeyb74

I love the new wheels...

Thanks guys, the encouragement helps keep me going.

Originally Posted by simsima325

nice work

search for red tinted tail lights, some people have applied a spray tint that makes the amber appear nearly OEM color red. cheap way to lose the amber.

Thanks! After some searching like you said, I found a couple DIY's to get ideas. I think I may try to tint the lights myself. The tail lamps I want are about $210 shipped so it is definitely worth a try.

Originally Posted by Snail_Power

Diggin this thread. How long did the tranny fluid change take you?

Thanks, from start to finish it took me about 2 hours total to do the rear diff fluid and the trans fluid & filter. I am a mechanic and this would normally take about 30 minutes but at home in my garage I do not have a vehicle lift or a parts washer.

Doing these types of things at home adds a considerable amount of time due to crawling around on the floor and jacking each corner of the car to put jack stands under it. Then more crawling around to do the actual work. Having a parts washer also makes cleaning parts much faster too, I just used brake parts cleaner and a bunch of red rags.

Plus I stopped a couple times to help my neighbor with changing the front brake pads on his wife's Toyota Sienna.

Originally Posted by 330i ZHP

tourings ftw

Yes... At work in the wholesale pen, here is a nice clean 2005 330i sedan with 38k miles for $11k. Its grey outside & black inside & has M68 wheels, sport package, zenon headlights, power leatherette sport seats, MtechI package.

I thought seriously about trading my touring for it. But I can't part with my touring, I love it too much. It offers so much utility and I've grown so attached to it.

The other option was to buy the sedan, and swap all of its good stuff onto my touring (power sport seats, sport steering wheel, MtechI front etc..maybe even the engine?) then respray it to match and sell the 330i. But thats just too much work and hassle.

Originally Posted by SalM

Looks sweet! and I used to collect matchbox's and hotwheels when I was younger! Still wish I did!

Hey its never too late to start collecting. They are only $1 each. I just go to the toy isle everytime I go to Walmart or Target or if I go to ToysRUs with the kids. I only collect the ones that are real production cars, no space ship or alien looking ones. (except I do have a Batmobile one, but hey Batman is cool right?)

Woot! I had a long weekend off from work (Friday - Tuesday) and finally got around to something I've been wanting to do for a while now..

When i bought the car, it only came with one key. I've been worried that I would lose my only key so I stopped by the BMW dealer on Friday to order a new key.

While I was there, I thought "Hey! I may as well order 2 keys so I could use one to do a remote start!". So now that the keys were on the way, I went to my buddy at Car Toys to see what alarms he could get.

I wanted the longest range possible because I park pretty far from the building at work. I ended up going with a Viper 5901.



Full details:
http://www.viper.com/ShopViperProduc...ItemCode=5702V

I also picked up a Directed Electronics 556UW for the EWS bypass.

Over the weekend I slowly worked on the install. I installed for 10 years previously, but I've been out of the game for a few years so I just took my time.

I did the entire install using solder and 3M "Super 33" tape. Soldering all connections (versus crimp connectors) ensures the most reliable and trouble free operation over the long haul.

My keys arrived at the BMW dealer on Monday and after picking the keys up, I was finally able to fully test it and button everything up.

I didn't take any pictures along the way, SORRY! There are several write ups on alarm installs already anyway.

I hooked up 3 external outputs. #1 is a pulse for rear hatch glass release, #2 opens the windows and sunroof, #3 closes the windows & sunroof.

I've been using the system for 2 days now and I'm really satisfied with it. The range on the remote is great. I think later I will add the Viper "Smart Start" module so I can control the unit from my iPhone.

I've read reports on various forums that BMWs do not mix well with remote starts. I am here to say that those statements are false. When correctly installed, everything works as designed.

I'm planning to get a Dynavin soon. So I ordered the nav version of the center bezel so that I can relocate my a/c controls.



Since the Dynavin's does not have an adjustable subwoofer output, I decided to use a PAC LC-1 to control my subwoofer level:



I bought a new switch blank panel to mount the LC-1 next to the DSC button. So on with the drilling..



The button rubbed a little on the switch blank so I had to figure out a solution.



I took the button apart and found a washer that fits perfectly into the button to space it out.





Now it sits out a bit so it won't rub the paint off my brand new switch blank.



While I was drilling holes in the switch blank, I decided to mount my K40 radar detector controls and LED's on the other side. More holes to drill!

There isn't enough room behind the bezel for the entire control knob thingy, so I had to disassemble it. Took the box off.



Now it will fit.





Drilled holes for the LED's. The big LED is the power light. It is a bi-color LED that lights up green for highway mode and amber for city mode.

For the smaller LED's, the top one is for front alert and the bottom one is for rear alert.



I had to replace the original red LED's from my previous install because they were glued into the old switch blank. They were glued so good that I couldnt get them out with out breaking them. Here are the new LED's I used. They are SUPER bright compared with the old ones. For the top I used a blue one and the bottom I used a green one.



I used this awesome glue to keep the LED's in place.



LED's in place.



Knobs in place.



Wiring all cleaned up. The little red/black twisted pairs are for the piezo speakers from the K40. Even though they are behind the bezel they are still plenty loud.



All installed and ready to roll. Just needs a Dynavin!



I also swapped out the steering guibo today. The steering wheel had a lot of play. So much so, that I though there may have been a problem with the steering rack. After replacing the guibo, all of the play is gone! Steering is back to how it should be.

I tried to make video of the old guibo. You may have to turn the volume up to hear it. **Click on 720p for better quality**

very nice. lots of DIY action in this thread

Great thread - I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before, given that it's about a Touring! Good luck with the pending Dynavin install.

Regarding the taillights, I also thought about tinting my original ones, but decided against it. Found some sweet looking smoked ones, which should arrive from Europe next week. If for some reason the State inspector doesn't cotton to them, it's an easy matter to temporarily R&R them. Not really worried, though, since he didn't have a problem with smoked corners & indicators.

Originally Posted by jwm5

very nice. lots of DIY action in this thread

Thanks! To be honest, when I first joined this forum your car was one of the ones that motivated me to start modding mine.

Originally Posted by Jaundiced Outlook

Great thread - I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before, given that it's about a Touring! Good luck with the pending Dynavin install.

Regarding the taillights, I also thought about tinting my original ones, but decided against it. Found some sweet looking smoked ones, which should arrive from Europe next week. If for some reason the State inspector doesn't cotton to them, it's an easy matter to temporarily R&R them. Not really worried, though, since he didn't have a problem with smoked corners & indicators.

Thanks, and post a link or a pic of the lights you ordered. I'd like to see which ones you went with.

Originally Posted by loginfailed

Thanks, and post a link or a pic of the lights you ordered. I'd like to see which ones you went with.

Here's the link, they're from eBay Germany:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Shipping to the U.S. was 35 Euros, so the total was ~$225. It's a gamble, but I was looking for smoked non-LED and these looked nice. Bonus matching tailgate lights. The sellers replied in English after my fractured German request about shipping to the States.

I noticed this picture of what appears to be the same lights, over on 330i ZHP's build thread:

I hadn't seen your thread before either....and I'm a 'wagon hunter' too. great thread...and congrats. thanks for posting - the iPhone dock is exactly what I'm looking for.

that custom bezel for the subwoofer control is sweet, props to you. are you sure that the dynavin does not let you control the subwoofer from the unit, or does it only let you control the bass of the midrange speakers?

Awesome job on the sub control. I'm thinking about doing something similar for the switch for the sprint booster. My next two DIYs are rear fogs and steering wheel paddle shifters.