BMW E46 M3, the story so far...

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White_Lady_170

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Decided to throw a thread up covering the purchase of the car in September 2015 until now.

Having sold my 2010 E92 335d M Sport with the intention of freeing up some money to put towards building a house, I purchased this, 2004 E46 M3. Imola red, manual and fully loaded.

Nice amount of money in back pocket and a fun car for the summer which i thought by limiting the miles I do in it as I drive a Landrover Discovery as a daily, would be a sound investment and I wouldn't have to put much money into it.

A few pictures of the car after purchase to begin with.




With my Reg transferred and after noticing a minor rust issue hiding behind the rear number plate.
Worth noting at this point when I purchased the car I was informed it had previously been painted, if memory serves, everything except the bootlid and the roof. More on this to come...



A trip to JKC to log a request for a respray under BMW corrosion warranty proved fruitful and they had it treated and sprayed. I also noticed the bootlid handle was faulty and had them replace this at the same time. They noted the car had not been seen at the time of the airbag fault recall so this was also arranged for a later date and carried out.



When I had a look around the car before I bought it, I had missed the fact that the rims were finished in 2 different styles with the drivers side being finished in what i think is probably a diamond cut with lacquer on top and the passenger side appearing to just be a bare metal polished finish with no lacquer whatsoever.

Drivers side

Passenger side

I had decided these would need sorted eventually, however, I was willing to leave them until such times as a refurb was required (none of them were in particularly bad condition) or potentially a new or different set would be purchased.

What i had noticed before buying the car was the rear/backbox section of the exhaust had rusted clamps that needed replaced, a common issue which my mate had with his and as he viewed the car with me, we quickly had a look to see if this one needed a new set too. One of the first things I did was to break off what was left of the old clamps and replace with new I6 Automotive clamps, which were a complete pain for all involved, including several members of a local tyre and exhaust company I ended up having to go to as some grinding was required.

Unfortunately this was only the beginning of the long road ahead, to get the car to the level I really had expected it to be at when i initially purchased it, naivety on my part perhaps?

I'll stop here to try and break the thread up into posts instead of having everything contained within one post.
 
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redanni

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Love an Imola Red M3:p
Can't wait to see the pics...............hurry up ha ha(y)
 

White_Lady_170

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Ok so next up were a few discoveries made after the first few times I had taken the car for a drive.

First thing was I noticed the rear view mirror did not dim at night as it should. This is a common problem with the OEM item and being liquid based with the potential to leak was swiftly replaced with one of MirrorJohn from M3cutters forums gel based mirrors. My interior has the fairly rare brushed aluminium trim and I didn't want to come out one morning to the interior ruined by the highly corrosive liquid from the OEM mirror.

I had also noticed the wing mirrors were not heating and when removed discovered why. Very poor workmanship and again these were replaced with brand new items supplied by MirrorJohn.


Next on the list was the first real non-cosmetic issue which needed addressed. The car was intermittently not displaying the speed and as a result wasn't updating the odometer. Turns out this was the item at fault and a new OEM part sourced on Ebay was fitted.


Thankfully this appeared to be all the niggles sorted out, for now... So I had time to turn to addressing some areas which I wanted to do to try and freshen up the car, as opposed to having to do out of necessity.
 

AlpineF30

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Lovely looking E46. Was this bought from a fella trading as NI Prestige Motors? As there can't be too many Imola's about?
 

White_Lady_170

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So with that being said, I purchased and fitted this, an F10 M5 illuminated gearknob. Looks great and really helps the feel of the gear change.






The car had the sat nav unit but this has become fairly dated and it was all original therefore the tv module was still analogue and the navigation DVD was out of date. I ended up buying and fitting this. An Alpine ilx-700 Apple CarPlay unit.






Now this proved rather troublesome and less than straightforward, mainly because the kit I originally bought did not contain anything required to wire the unit to the rear of the car. Also required the cage holding the unit in the dash to be modified with a little DIY cutting and mounting of a custom bracket.




A lot of adding and removing of more wires from rear to front and fighting with pieces of trim and this was the final result.


Happy with my installation it was time to turn my attention to the next problem I discovered while fitting the headunit.
 

White_Lady_170

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While running the wires from the rear to the front of the car i stumbled upon this dreaded nightmare, water. Both lying under the sound deadening of the rear seat and forming a pool in the battery well.




The car was being kept outside overnight at the time and I had also noticed a terrible amount of condensation gathering, so this needed dealt with ASAP. I dried the interior out thoroughly and set about looking for the reason behind the water.


I'm hoping there is a video of the reason behind the water attached above but should it not work, it shows a taillight with enough water in it to keep a goldfish. I dried this out and sealed the cracks up again. To date I have not found anymore water, fingers crossed this was the one and only reason for the water.
 

White_Lady_170

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So having fixed the latest problem to surface and everything appearing in order, I returned to freshening things up and bought a nice new keyring


Set of for the pub to play some pool and was greeted by my friend pointing out that my car sat rather low at one corner...



Yes, not one but both rear springs were broken. Now this gave me a decision to make. Do I go for OEM again, knowing full well they are brittle and may too break during my ownership? Or do I go down the aftermarket route?
I decided to grab these, since they seemed good value for money.



I dropped the car off for these to be fitted and for the car to be checked over, just in case anything else needed addressed. I was not happy with the outcome.

Firstly, 30secs into arriving into the yard, rust bubbles on both front wings were pointed out to me, my heart sank. As I had previously mentioned the car was sprayed before, I hadn't for one minute expected this to be carried out on rusty panels. It just so happened that since purchase of this well presented car, the deterioration was incredible. Nearly every single panel had been finished to a poor standard with several issues including isopon scratches being pointed out to me. I left the car dazed and quite frankly worried about what I had bought.

I received a call after some time and was told to come down to be walked through the car from front to back.

Front strut - not an M3 part, not even a part for an E46 full stop.
Front caliper - Seized.
Front pads - fell out in bits.
Front tyres - defective with a bulge forming just off centre around the whole tyre
Front control arm - The car was put through MOT after I left a deposit on it. Failed on the arm and this was replaced and retested. The item was more than likely of Chinese origin and my mechanic point blank refused to let the car out of his garage with it still attached.
Front tie-rod - bent.
Front headlight leveling sensor/mechanism - completely missing.
Rear pads - fell out in bits.
Rear headlight leveling sensor/mechanism - broken.

So again, I was faced with a decision. Do I call it a day, piece the car back as best I can and sell it on, undoubtedly taking a severe hit financially, or do I decide to fix everything properly? I think we all know what I ended up doing...
 

Woodcutter

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So having fixed the latest problem to surface and everything appearing in order, I returned to freshening things up and bought a nice new keyring


Set of for the pub to play some pool and was greeted by my friend pointing out that my car sat rather low at one corner...



Yes, not one but both rear springs were broken. Now this gave me a decision to make. Do I go for OEM again, knowing full well they are brittle and may too break during my ownership? Or do I go down the aftermarket route?
I decided to grab these, since they seemed good value for money.



I dropped the car off for these to be fitted and for the car to be checked over, just in case anything else needed addressed. I was not happy with the outcome.

Firstly, 30secs into arriving into the yard, rust bubbles on both front wings were pointed out to me, my heart sank. As I had previously mentioned the car was sprayed before, I hadn't for one minute expected this to be carried out on rusty panels. It just so happened that since purchase of this well presented car, the deterioration was incredible. Nearly every single panel had been finished to a poor standard with several issues including isopon scratches being pointed out to me. I left the car dazed and quite frankly worried about what I had bought.

I received a call after some time and was told to come down to be walked through the car from front to back.

Front strut - not an M3 part, not even a part for an E46 full stop.
Front caliper - Seized.
Front pads - fell out in bits.
Front tyres - defective with a bulge forming just off centre around the whole tyre
Front control arm - The car was put through MOT after I left a deposit on it. Failed on the arm and this was replaced and retested. The item was more than likely of Chinese origin and my mechanic point blank refused to let the car out of his garage with it still attached.
Front tie-rod - bent.
Front headlight leveling sensor/mechanism - completely missing.
Rear pads - fell out in bits.
Rear headlight leveling sensor/mechanism - broken.

So again, I was faced with a decision. Do I call it a day, piece the car back as best I can and sell it on, undoubtedly taking a severe hit financially, or do I decide to fix everything properly? I think we all know what I ended up doing...

Grim!

Did you buy the car privately?

Horrible to find hidden history with a car, your heart just sinks!!
 

Dub_cub 89

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Have a wee look at the "what's wrong with my e46" thread, but make sure you're comfortable.... It's a long read! Also look on the bright side, your rear subframe hasn't started to disintegrate...




















Yet :-#
 

Carson

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Fair play to you for putting the things right. Nightmare to uncover hidden issues.
 

White_Lady_170

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White_Lady_170
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2004 E46 M3
So the order was placed with Eurocarparts for nearly everything that was needed and the rest was obtained from the Country Garage by my mechanic.

He needed the garage space so the springs were fitted in the meantime to allow it to be moved out of the way until everything arrived. I wasn't impressed, too low, back to square one.




Still reluctant to return to an OEM setup and wanting to avoid the brittle OEM springs, I ended up returning the set of shocks I had bought from Eurocarparts and had these shipped in from the Netherlands.





Once everything had arrived it was time to put it all together. I took the liberty of adding a few items, although not essential, I felt would benefit the car.



Some of the many new items fitted.



Covers and everything left off to allow easy access to all areas for the 4 wheel alignment.


How the car sits after all the work carried out.




So that was the mechanical side of things addressed. A trip to the port to discuss my options for the bodywork was in order next.
 

chris_b

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Liking this thread and those who want to, or are thinking of buying an older high performance car should pay very close attention.
This is in reality how much work needs to be done to these cars to leave them perfect and ensure years of happy motoring.
An E46 M3 or E60 M5 at bargain money is so for very good reason.

Who you using as your mechanic ? sounds like he knows his stuff
 
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Paul.

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Blimey, that car hasn't been kind to you so far! More than a little alarming to find that the front strut wasn't even for an E46, let alone an M3.

Seeing as the "What's wrong with my E46?" thread has been mentioned, here's a link. Might be helpful to read through to get an impression of what can go wrong, and if someone has figured out a simpler fix. I'll probably have to give that thread a read as well, for I've got a bit of a hankering for an E46.
 

Woodcutter

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Liking this thread and those who want to or are thinking of buying an older high performance car should pay very close attention. This is in reality how much work need to be done to these cars to leave them perfect and ensure years of happy motoring.

So true Chris. We see cars advertised regularly and they're described as mint, as new, needs nothing, freshly serviced etc etc. When in actual fact they get a wash/detail/tyre slick and look great to the untrained eye.

Really these cars need a full inspection on a ramp with someone on hand who knows what to look out for.

It's so easy to get conned into a car by shiny paintwork, a full service book and a set of branded tyres! Doesn't always mean the car is issue free.
 

Carson

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It's the cowboys buying these type of motors but can't afford or simply have no desire to maintain them.
 

White_Lady_170

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White_Lady_170
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2004 E46 M3
Lovely looking E46. Was this bought from a fella trading as NI Prestige Motors? As there can't be too many Imola's about?
No Mate, it wasn't.
Grim!

Did you buy the car privately?

Horrible to find hidden history with a car, your heart just sinks!!
The car was not bought privately.
Liking this thread and those who want to or are thinking of buying an older high performance car should pay very close attention. This is in reality how much work need to be done to these cars to leave them perfect and ensure years of happy motoring. An E46 M3 or E60 M5 at bargain money is so for very good reason.

Who you using as your mechanic ? sounds like he knows his stuff
He's a Specialist local to me, he knows his stuff and is as fussy and particular, if not more so than myself. Nothing will go unnoticed by him. I agree with you to an extent but it really depends on how much a previous owner scrimps on maintaining the car.
 
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EP82JM

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That looks great.

Good to see someone showing the problems theyve had rather than pretending their car is as it left the factory, make the thread worthy of a read.

Would love an M3 but I think id be bankrupt if I encountered these problems lol.
 
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