E92 M3 'refresher' thread

[Ratslaaf]

Out with the old



In with the new.



One of the last interior bits that irritated me on the car. It's hard to see in the pics, but on the old know the writing under the clear area started pulling away from its base, so when lit it looked uneven. That, and the leather was pretty worn on the knob

I've also replaced the oil filler cap. Interestingly the new cap doesn't have Castrol anywhere near it :roflol:



Lastly, I've received the new velour carpets and clips as the old ones looked a little worn. I'll replace these when I lift the base carpets for thorough cleaning.

 

[Gizmo]

I would be interested in the old gear knob if you have no more use for it.:rollsmile:

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How come the old oil cap doesn't have the M badge on it?

 

[Ratslaaf]

Sure bud, it's yours.

I have no idea. The new one doesn't have it either, although the new one had to come from Germany, like the new boot, carpets, MT filler bolts, etc etc...

Clearly you shouldn't be in a hurry when you want to refresh one of these cars

 

[S65B44]

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=120623

That's the mod im going for as soon as my car is back from the damn stealership!!! Never liked the height of the original shift knob.

 

[Gizmo]

Thank you ever so much Gert. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. :chef:

 

[Ratslaaf]

Pleasure man.

It's a pity I only see the shorter knob now, I would've liked going for that as well. It is what it is though.

 

[Gizmo]

Then get yourself a 545i or z4m shift lever.

 

[Ratslaaf]

To be honest, I drove the car with the new lever and it sits much stiffer (the old one felt a little loose) and it doesn't feel bad hey. I'm hoping to flush the tranny this weekend and I think that will give some more improvements still.

In other news, I reset CBS last night and truth be told, I think my oil indicator is powered by some strong voodoo. After I did the oil change it was sitting on half level - this after many manual resets. This was strange as I'd added 8.8L of oil on the dot; I would've thought that it would be at max level.

After the CBS reset, the oil level is now sitting where I would expect it to be, at just under max. I did a manual reset again and still sitting at the same spot. Eish. It's been said before, but this electronic oil level meter is a kak idea on a car like this and there's no way other than draining the oil again to be 100% sure how much oil is actually in the car.

 

[Gizmo]

Guess the old dip stick was too reliable for BMW...:thumbdo:

 

[Legacy]

Guess the old dip stick was too reliable for BMW...:thumbdo:

http://store.bimmerworld.com/e9x-m3-s65-oil-dipstick-retrofit-kit-p2042.aspx

Expensive but way cheaper than a busted S65.

http://www.amspeedracing.co.uk/product-detail?cid=&pid=1248

If you have a friend living in the UK.

 

[Ratslaaf]

I saw the one on Bimmerworld, but not the one in the UK. I can have it fitted to the sump, so thanks for the headsup Legacy!

 

[moranor@axis]

I would do the dipstick mod no question

 

[Ratslaaf]

I've been putting off installing USB and BT for long enough now. The fact that a mate lent me his professional carpet cleaning machine finally urged me to strip the seats out. I was planning on removing the carpets, but there's just too much wiring running above the carpet for the centre console, mostly going to the Airbag controller. I don't have the guts to take that apart



So I took the speakers out under the seats and closed up any open connectors and took to getting the carpets nicely cleaned. This carpet machine is actually the bees knees and did a pretty good job of drying the carpets again. I'm glad did it though, the waste water looked pretty vile.

I'll let it stand overnight and carry on in the morning. I'm off to an afternoon snooze now, my slight hangover insists on it...

 

[cOlDFuSiOn]

Absolute legend man, wish I had the guts to just replace a foglight bulb let alone strip the interior! :coolShake:

 

[GPGrobler]

Hallo Gert,

Can your brother do a decat for my E46, and if so how much will he charge more or less?

 

[Ratslaaf]

Absolute legend man, wish I had the guts to just replace a foglight bulb let alone strip the interior! :coolShake:

Nah man, it's just like stripping anything else; Just be real careful and meticulous about storing screws and bits that come off. It's also a great opportunity to clean all the hard to get spot before assembly.

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Hallo Gert,

Can your brother do a decat for my E46, and if so how much will he charge more or less?

Hey Gerbrandt, I already checked and he's not into doing privates hey. Hes got his plate full at the moment. His words were something along the lines of "if he had to charge for what his time is worth it won't be affordable" :roflol:

 

[WyKiD]

G-Man strikes again...you take fanatical to a whole different level...:=):

 

[Ratslaaf]

Thanks Marvin. But no, I personally think if you going to spend the effort to do something, you should do it in a way you can be proud of. Don't get me wrong, I'm not immune to taking shortcuts, but I know it'll bug me till I do it right so end up re doing things.:rollsmile:

So the carpets are now nice and clean and dry. I've also removed the rear seats in order to clean under there as well



Im a big believer in making things look stock. Or at least, make sure whatever you add to the car must look as factory as possible. So I prewrap the new cables in fibre tape prior to installation



And once installed won't look out of place or stand out



The cables also follow the same channeling as the stock looms. In the case of this car, it was already pre wired for BT so all I'm doing is adding the new USB and audio cable for the Combox. This is muuuuch easier than the install in my E90 that had absolutely no cabling at all. That was a pain :blueCry:



This will all get nicely routed once I've got the Combox installed.

 

[Ratslaaf]

The whole interior is now put together. Took long because I was cleaning all the interior bits as it went it. I fixed the Velcro pads that hold the velour carpets using a more permanent solution, as these keep pulling out when you remove the carpets. I also installed more Velcro pads on the passenger side to hold that carpet down properly and finally I've installed the new velour carpets as well. I must say, the interior now looks nice and fresh and has that new car feel to it.

Also, the BT antenna and mic has been installed and I've also rewired the MOST loop to include the Combox. For now, I'm just running a bridge at the Combox end in order to keep the loop going till I install that. I wanted this done and tested as the MOST hub sits behind the rear seat bolster.

I also need to still make off the USB and audio connectors under the armrest and at the back end of the Combox. At least all the hard work is done. *phew*

Just a quick peek at a Very Busy MOST hub. This one has an amp, a CDP and a Combox wired into it. To think most cars out there aren't even configured to use the MOST hub.

 

[Ratslaaf]

Finally, it's all working and neatened up. USB, iPod, BT, all working like a charm.



Green is for Go!



This wasn't easy and like I said elsewhere, I'm still not happy that I've got the process down 100% as it's still a little hit and miss. The big issue comes from the fact that software later than 2010 is a problem, as it battled to differentiate between The older HU's and the newer ones that has BT and USB built in. I have to basically jippo the software a little and then write a blank .man file to the Rad2 unit so it can pull the correct configs from the VO stored in the CAS. Interestingly, not even Ista/P gets this right so you have to resort to NCS to get it done.

To top it all, I even tried recoding the whole car using Ista/P and it promptly went and deleted all the steering angle adaptations (it does warn you though). It wasn't just good enough relearning the steering angle values, I had to relearn the DSC sensor values as well for it to come right.

Also, I've changed the VIN on the Mulf/Combox so that it doesn't show the donor car's VIN when it's pairing phones. Silly, I know, but I wanted it perfect. After a lot of searching, I figured out a way to do this using Tool32 and the ULF2.prg job. Thing is, you can't do this with a DCan cable as the Mulf sits on the Most bus, so you'll need an ICOM to do this.

So there you go, success. In hindsight it's a good thing that I battle like this as I always learn new things about the cars. It's just frustrating to battle with things that you've done before many times.