Hey everyone! I got another BMW... well two more to be exact...
Back in May, before I left town for work, my very first car came up for sale. It's an E46, same chassis/generation as the M3 but it's only a 323i, so it only has a 2.5L inline 6 and makes about 170hp and 180ft-lbs, but it's an automatic, which I thought is perfect for a DD since I already have the M3. A little history on what happened to it; back the summer of 2010 I had just come home after being out of town for over a month and someone idiot kid on a test drive drove straight into my car on purpose in the Intercity parking lot. I never bought it back and I always kind of regretted it but I finally got a chance to get it back so I took it. Here's a few pictures of what it looked like I originally got it, just before it got totalled, after it got totalled, and what it looks like now.
To me it was a perfect opportunity and I was very happy to get back into an E46 and RWD and get rid of my VW. I'm very familiar with this chassis having owned 2 different ones over a combined 6 years and it was local, so that was a huge bonus for me. I got it back and I ordered a few things that it needed to get back into good running order, planning on fixing it once I got home in September. Then in July, George (purplebilmer), posted up his black E39 540i for sale. I was really interested in it since it's a bigger car, it has a V8 and I always kind of wanted an E39, but I had just got the 323 back in May, I was out of town for work and it needed a bit of work to get it on the road so I didn't really think about it seriously. Anyways, George sent me a price and told me to pick it up, and it just so happened that I had 3 days off and a flight available to go home, so I went and I bought it. Now the plan is to sell the VW, fix the 323 and sell that and fix up the 540 and keep it as a year-round daily driver.
Here's a few pictures from George's ad. As you can see it needs a new hood, door handle and mirror.
I never really got a chance to look over the car fully but I already have an extensive list of things that need to be fixed and things I want to do to it. It's a bit more than I was expecting but it's not anything that I don't think I can fix. There's one issue with the front driver's wheel sitting about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch too far forward and rubbing the fender and bumper that I still have to figure out.
Keep in mind, this car has had over 10 owners over 17 years so it's in pretty rough shape. I'm not sure who did this stuff and I don't really care, I just want to get it fixed to my standard, I can be a bit picky, and get it on the road
Here's the list of things to be done, why and what I'm doing, in no particular order:
- Hood - bent in half, picked up a used hood and struts
- Airbag light - internal ecu errors, new ecu ordered
- Cluster - infamous dead pixels and car thinks its an auto, needs to be reprogrammed and ribbon cable replaced
- Front left tire rubbing - not sure, possible bent thrust arm or control arm due to possible accident damage?
- New rear tire - Open diff burnouts
- Hood release cables - one cable broke already, others rusty
- Battery - died over the last month, aftermarket fog light switch left on
- Headlight wiring - adjuster wires cut, random splices and shit everywhere
- Headlights - broken adjusters, dead bulb, one aftermarket ballast, changing projectors
- Left rear tail light - leaking, aftermarket tail lights to be replaced
- Turn signals - bulbs just kind of sit in the headlight, facelift headlights require adapters and new holders
- Ambient air temp sensor - missing, rewire kit ordered
- Fender liners - missing, needs M sport version
- Belly pan - missing, needs M sport version and brackets
- Shifter - needs all parts replaced, extremely sloppy and sits to one side
- Climate control - broken button, used button ordered
- Front & rear windshield gaskets - rotten, to be replaced
- Rear view mirror - dangling, needs to be glued back to windshield
- Drive belts - basic maintenance
- All fluids and filters - basic maintenance
- Spark plugs - basic maintenance
- Throttle cable - sticky throttle, new cable ordered
- Passenger mirror - broken, provided but needs to be fixed and reattached
- Door handle - broken, new replacement provided
- Valve cover gaskets - leaking, replacing with OEM gaskets
- Front driver door catch - missing, used one ordered
- Sunroof - not working, guides probably broken
- Rear window regulators - both broken, windows don't work
- Front drivers window - rattles when closing door, probably a loose nut or regulator
- Fog lights - aftermarket and broken, will be replaced with OEM style lights
- Fog light switch - missing, hole left in dash
- Intake airbox - dirty, ugly pod filter and hacked up airbox
- Steering wheel controls - worn out, new controls ordered
- Engine cover - missing, used one ordered
- Tail lights - aftermarket ones are smoked and leaking, OEM facelift lights ordered
- Updated light control module (LCM) - needed for facelift tail lights
- Steering wheel - worn out, needs to be re-dyed
- Aftermarket headunit - no steering wheel controls, proper harness ordered
- Headunit rewire - clusterf**k of wires
- B pillars - need to be repainted, carbon fiber trim pulled the paint when I removed them
- Headliner - needs to be rewrapped, I don't like two tone
- Trim - don't like cracking wood, vinyl wrapping in satin silver
- Rust - slight rust on rear quarters and other small bits
- Interior - full clean and detail to be done
- Cup holders - front ones missing
- Paint & bodywork - paint in horrible condition w/ random dents, PDR and will be vinyl wrapped
- Front seat - stitching on driver's seat pulling apart
- Jack pads - All 4 pads are missing
- Speakers - front driver's side speakers hacked wiring or missing entirely
Now for some photos of said problems!
Hood folded in half. Release cable was broken so I just took an angle grinder to it and pulled the cable out
Stupidest intake I've ever seen
Broken mirror
Shifter just kind of sits there. It's hard to tell what gear its in.
Water from the tail light...
Lovely wiring job on the headunit. Random wires left hanging
Headlight wiring hacked
B pillar trim
Tired steering wheel
Hole in dash with AEM wideband wiring
Oil everywhere
Possibly broken tie rod?
Two-tone headliner
Random broken bits
Rust
WTF?
On the plus side it did come with a Pioneer headunit, Kenwood amp and a sub, but the sub is stuck in the trunk
I've already ordered most of the parts that I need, save for a few that I'm not really sure on just yet. I'll be picking up all the parts when I head down to Brainerd and I'm hoping to have it on the road for early October.