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DAILY UPDATES

6M views 45K replies 4K participants last post by  das_autobahn 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Welcome to the daily update thread! Post any mods, repairs, whatever you have done to your E46!

Today I

Debadge the trunk lid (roundel still intact)
Added black grills
Yellow fogs
Clear front reflectors (PITA!!!)
6K D2S bulbs

 
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1
#43,302 ·
Finally replaced the leaking injectors on my 325i. The donor was an X3 2006. Got all 6 of them for 60CAD. Best purchase ever! :excited:
It's extremely cold here (-30) so I was able to test them. No more gas fumes for me.:woot:
Same thing happened to mine this week, except only 2 are leaking. Its bad enough though that I lose over 1/4 of a tank every morning, so I wound up parking it yesterday. Hopefully found a set to replace them this weekend, with all new O Rings too.
 
#43,303 · (Edited)
Also the current value of an E46 very in no salt, no rust, excellent condition with 125k is about $4-5.5k
You have the advantage of rust free cars to choose from, not so for us in the rust belt. Almost every one needs lot's of new metal around here. I keep mine because of the snow we get and I want to get some use out of all the new parts I've put in. I just turned over 158K yesterday and my 98 e36 hasn't hit 150 yet.
 
#43,305 ·
So I've been dealing with a weird clunking, almost like a "bottom falling out" feeling in the front end for maybe 6-8 months now, and in the past few weeks started getting fed up with it. Couldn't replicate any kind of noise with the front end jacked up, or by pressing down on the corners and bouncing the car. I've replaced every suspension component in the front down to all the hardware with OEM/OEM+ parts in the last 40k, so naturally this pissed me off even more.

Fast forward to today, poking around I noticed if I tug on the ECS Carbon Fiber strut bar it creaks. It seemed tight so instead of tightening further, I removed it. Just like that no more front end creaking. I've had it for years without issue, but I think over time the anodized coating between the parts wore down. Maybe some lithium grease between the pieces will solve the issue? :dunno:
 
#43,306 ·
So I've been dealing with a weird clunking, almost like a "bottom falling out" feeling in the front end for maybe 6-8 months now, and in the past few weeks started getting fed up with it. Couldn't replicate any kind of noise with the front end jacked up, or by pressing down on the corners and bouncing the car. I've replaced every suspension component in the front down to all the hardware with OEM/OEM+ parts in the last 40k, so naturally this pissed me off even more.

Fast forward to today, poking around I noticed if I tug on the ECS Carbon Fiber strut bar it creaks. It seemed tight so instead of tightening further, I removed it. Just like that no more front end creaking. I've had it for years without issue, but I think over time the anodized coating between the parts wore down. Maybe some lithium grease between the pieces will solve the issue? :dunno:
 
#43,307 ·
The ECS bar isn't a very good bar. Bars that come on cars from the factory come preloaded. Meaning they have a nut that you turn maybe like 720 degrees to slightly push the towers apart thereby preloading it. Unless the bar has this nut, it really isn't doing much of anything at all. No nut to turn means no preload means no way to actually make it tight
 
#43,308 ·
I have done an awful lot since I bought the car last August. B6 all around, fuel pump, filter, oil change, CCV refresh, hard coolant pipes, belt tensioner and belts, plugs, intake gaskets, vac lines/o rings, started saving up for wheel/tire but developed the valve tick today.

I drove the car 250 miles on the interstate to charlotte and back and when I got home I heard the lifter tick before I shut her down. Hot engine, loud tick rpm dependent tick. Dont know what to do. I still get the lean codes, so I think I will put new O2 sensors in and see what happens.

Throwing parts at a car that has 240000 miles isn***8217;t a bad strategy so I am willing. Everything is new outside of the O2 and fuel injectors. I did buy a smoke tester, haven***8217;t used it yet.
 
#43,312 ·
Not an e46 but an m54b30. Helped a friend do vanos seals, found out the hard way that the smaller Teflon isn't as flexible as you'd hope it is. One broke while trying to install it. After that we made sure they were warm, managed to salvage one of the old ones and reinstalled it. Putting the fan and shroud back on an e39 is a much bigger PITA than on our cars, hoses that have to clip into the shroud, even less room to install the fan onto the water pump. I'm ready to attempt the seals on mine now, maybe I'll upgrade to the electric fan at the same time.
 
#43,313 · (Edited)
Doing a complete rebuild of an M54B30. My car is an 02 325Ci. I picked up a complete engine from a 02 330Ci. The engine was supposed to have 147,000 miles. I had planned on just replacing all of the hoses and known m54 leak points. I ran a carfax report on the vin from the dme of the donor car. The last known miles reported was ~212,000. Seeing as how my car currently only has 168k on the clock, I couldn't swap the motor in good conscience. I currently have a spreadsheet of all the parts, prices, and vendors of where the parts are being purchased from. This project should be fun. It would be easier and more cost effective to buy an e46 330 or e46 m3, but it is my first car and I still love it.

<a href="https://imgur.com/qsMp0np"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qsMp0np.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
 
#43,314 ·
Doing a complete rebuild of an M54B30. My car is an 02 325Ci. I picked up a complete engine from a 02 330Ci. The engine was supposed to have 147,000 miles. I had planned on just replacing all of the hoses and known m54 leak points. I ran a carfax report on the vin from the dme of the donor car. The last known miles reported was ~212,000. Seeing as how my car currently only has 168k on the clock, I couldn't swap the motor in good conscience. I currently have a spreadsheet of all the parts, prices, and vendors of where the parts are being purchased from. This project should be fun. It would be easier and more cost effective to buy an e46 330 or e46 m3, but it is my first car and I still love it.

<a href="https://imgur.com/qsMp0np"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qsMp0np.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>


So clean................... I wish I could get my hands on a nice used m54b30. I’d tear those internals up


Sent from my iPhone using E46Fanatics mobile app
 
#43,315 ·
Doing a complete rebuild of an M54B30. My car is an 02 325Ci. I picked up a complete engine from a 02 330Ci. The engine was supposed to have 147,000 miles. I had planned on just replacing all of the hoses and known m54 leak points. I ran a carfax report on the vin from the dme of the donor car. The last known miles reported was ~212,000. Seeing as how my car currently only has 168k on the clock, I couldn't swap the motor in good conscience. I currently have a spreadsheet of all the parts, prices, and vendors of where the parts are being purchased from. This project should be fun. It would be easier and more cost effective to buy an e46 330 or e46 m3, but it is my first car and I still love it.

<a href="https://imgur.com/qsMp0np"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qsMp0np.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
That is really frustrating, and I would definitely contact the seller and ask for a partial refund. It is actually fraud.

If you decide to plow forward - I just did this (twice in the past two months) and I put together a task list and part list for it - Maybe helpful to compare to yours, and I would love to see yours for comparison!

I am about to do it for a third time!
 
#43,316 ·
That is really frustrating, and I would definitely contact the seller and ask for a partial refund. It is actually fraud.

If you decide to plow forward - I just did this (twice in the past two months) and I put together a task list and part list for it - Maybe helpful to compare to yours, and I would love to see yours for comparison!

I am about to do it for a third time!
Yeah, it is really frustrating how shady people can be. The engine was bought through a seller on FB marketplace. I was close to making a post on FB in all of my local BMW communities, but I can not with out a doubt prove that he lied. I ended up just letting it go and taking this as a life lesson. I drove about 6 hour round trip. At the time it seemed like a great deal. I got the whole wire harness, complete engine, dme, ews, and key from the donor vehicle for $600. The seller had a video of the car running before the engine was pulled. Who knows... he may've been truthful about the miles, but the vin and car in the video suggest otherwise.

I dissembled the whole engine and brought the bottom end parts to a local machine shop to clean and inspect. The whole bottom end is in good shape. Piston bores are mildly out of round consistent with normal wear for an engine with high mileage. The machine shop told me a .50 over-bore would take car of that. The crank is near perfect.

I will be sending you the parts list via PM shortly. It is not quite complete because this engine is being built from the ground up, and I and I am sure there will be more unexpected parts / expenses that will come up.

Only performance mods currently:
- Forged CP-Carrillo Forged Piston Set 84.5mm (rings included and teflon coated skirt)
Factory specs / compression ratio 10.2:1

(Went with forged pistons because I the vendor that sells over-bored factory spec Mahle pistons told me they were back ordered indefinitely. I refuse to pay upwards of $300 for 1 BMW boxed piston. Plus the only over-bored OEM BMW piston I could find was just .25 and I wanted to go .50)

- Catless Headers

I am still on the fence about ZHP or shrick cams. Looks like I missed the boat on that purchase because I guess BMW used to sell the BMW ZHP cam kit for under $500 as pn. 11120429575 several years back.
 
#43,317 · (Edited)
Looked at your list. Only things I noticed:

So smart to do exhaust manifold gasket. Mine rattles like crazy.

Starter should be replaced when I take or engine is out
Did you do crank position sensor?
Replace MAF and pre-cat if MAF is older than 150k miles and pre-cat are older that 100k. Given that you have an intake air sensor I am presuming narrowband o2 sensors

Also test your fuel pressure (replace filter at 60k miles and pump can lose pressure at 125k)

Did you do belt and pulleys?
 
#43,318 ·
Looked at your list. Only things I noticed:

So smart to do exhaust manifold gasket. Mine rattles like crazy.

Starter should be replaced when I take or engine is out
Did you do crank position sensor?
Replace MAF and pre-cat if MAF is older than 150k miles and pre-cat are older that 100k. Given that you have an intake air sensor I am presuming narrowband o2 sensors

Also test your fuel pressure (replace filter at 60k miles and pump can lose pressure at 125k)

Did you do belt and pulleys?
I'll look into a new starter. I figured my current one was still good, but it makes sense to change it now while I am in there. I believe I replaced the sensor under the Vanos unit as it was broken when I picked up the engine. I will add the crank sensor to my list. The engine came with a MAF, but I am not sure if it is new or old. I will check to see if I can find a build date stamped on it. I replaced the intake air sensor as preventative maintenance. It was a "while you are in there" part. It is just an OEM air intake sensor. I also replaced all the O-rings / gaskets.

Never thought about the fuel pressure check. I'll look into that.

Forgive my ignorance, but what are narrow band O2 sensors?

My M54B25 is currently running an EU2 manual flash with headers. No SAP, secondary 02 sensor disconnected. I will do a M54B30 EU2 flash so I can retain my same DME when the engine goes in the car.

Eventually I may take it to a shop for a real tune, but I want to run it as close to stock as possible while the car is at 0 miles.

I left the belts and pulley off of the list because they are the very last part. They will all be purchased before the motor goes in. Any preferences? OEM or Performance? I am trying to hit at least 250hp natural.

Eventually I may run a light boost turbo kit on the car, but the main focus is getting the new engine in and running.
 
#43,319 · (Edited)
I'll look into a new starter. I figured my current one was still good, but it makes sense to change it now while I am in there. I believe I replaced the sensor under the Vanos unit as it was broken when I picked up the engine. I will add the crank sensor to my list. The engine came with a MAF, but I am not sure if it is new or old. I will check to see if I can find a build date stamped on it. I replaced the intake air sensor as preventative maintenance. It was a "while you are in there" part. It is just an OEM air intake sensor. I also replaced all the O-rings / gaskets.
Starter and Crankshaft sensor are MUCH easier to service with the intake off and engine out, so I would always advise those two. Starter is a bitch to change with the engine in. Intake air sensor is so easy to replace and fails in a monitor able way.

Oil pressure and temp sensors are mounted on the Oil filter housing and are much easier to replace with the intake off. Same with Vanos oil line.

MAF is fiendishly hard to diagnose when it starts to soft failure at around 10 years/150k miles. It manifests in lean codes but gets conflated with impacts from fuel delivery, o2 sensors and vacuum leaks. PM at 175k.

Never thought about the fuel pressure check. I'll look into that.

Forgive my ignorance, but what are narrow band O2 sensors?
Narrow-band sensors essentially say ***8220;lean***8221; ***8220;rich***8221; or ***8220;good***8221; without much detail, and were used up through 03. They have a maintenance interval of 100k per Bosch.

Wideband can actually provide variable voltage to communicate how rich or lean, which allows more precise tuning. These are on later e46 models and have a 125k interval. You can identify from the square connectors or via real oem. Narrowband have 4 wires and wide and have 5. You have narrowband.

My M54B25 is currently running an EU2 manual flash with headers. No SAP, secondary 02 sensor disconnected. I will do a M54B30 EU2 flash so I can retain my same DME when the engine goes in the car.

Eventually I may take it to a shop for a real tune, but I want to run it as close to stock as possible while the car is at 0 miles.

I left the belts and pulley off of the list because they are the very last part. They will all be purchased before the motor goes in. Any preferences? OEM or Performance? I am trying to hit at least 250hp natural.

Eventually I may run a light boost turbo kit on the car, but the main focus is getting the new engine in and running.
I***8217;m not much of a modder, so I went stock. Others here are better to weigh in.
 
#43,320 ·
Starter and Crankshaft sensor are MUCH easier to service with the intake off and engine out, so I would always advise those two. Starter is a bitch to change with the engine in. Intake air sensor is so easy to replace and fails in a monitor able way.

Oil pressure and temp sensors are mounted on the Oil filter housing and are much easier to replace with the intake off. Same with Vanos oil line.

For what it’s worth did a VANOS line with a 10mm and 19mm. 30 minutes glove on to glove off. Not necessary to remove intake mani, even for the additional hassle

Sorry about the motor. We also had someone sell my friend a ZHP motor with a blown head, so we’re doing N54 this summer. Got the (friends) wife approval.
 
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