Planned trip to the Nurburging!

[applehero]

As the thread says, I am going to the Nurburgring!

Now I have been twice before, but circumstances have not been right for me to actually get to drive on the Ring. That wil change in August!

I have the opportunity to go on a BMW Training Course - mostly based off the Ring ironically. Its to understand the testing process of the Test Engineers based at the Ring. I may have the opportunity to drive an M car on the track as part of the package - still a little sketchy on the details.

So course is booked, but the second part makes things a little harder (maybe challenging is a better word), I want to drive the e46 330i, I acquired last year, all the way to the 'Ring around a couple of laps and drive back with no problems. (I am based in the UK btw)

There are two points to this thread: 1) Document my trip and share experiences so other Fanatics can benefit if they decide to drive the ring. 2) The other so I make sure I complete the objective of completing all the work on the car and don't just fly instead!

There are a number of things that I have to do to ensure that there will be no problems during the trip. From a car point of view:

1) Sort out the suspension. Car has been lowered. Front Dampers and Springs are okay. Rear dampers are stock with shortened springs! So either all springs and dampers back to stock, or rear aftermarket springs and dampers. (I am still undecided at this point)

2) Front Control arms and Bushes. Car tramlines all over the place, generally following the camber of the road.

3) Water Pump Replacement - Car has 278 000 kms on the clock. Probably a good point to replace whatever was in there when I got it. Changed the Belt already, will change pulleys and Thermostat at the same time. Thermostat was bought previously just in case.

4) Gearbox - Suspect damaged Dual Mass Flywheel. May as well change Clutch at the same time. Also the Gear Lever sticks to the right - so fix that at the same time.

5) Fuel Filter - Last done about 65 000kms ago! So replacing this ASAP. Parts should arrive tomorrow.

6) Oil Service - might as well get fresh oil in there for the Road Trip.

7) Suspect Brake Discs to be warped. May need to skim discs. Warmping may be due to sticking Callipers.

There are a number of things to be done, but I am keen to get going and get this plan in motion.

There are other smaller niggly issues such as: Noisy Power Steering Pump - Flushing the Fluid in steps. Rough Idle at Cold Start - Think this may be a blocked Cat, perhaps a long road trip will burn this out.

From a Driver Point of view, I will be doing a few Track Days in the UK to get myself ready as well as assess the changes I make.

Here is some relevant info to the course.

M Power Insider​

 

[AndreasSA]

Be careful....it is called also the green hell!

I had 7 to 800 rounds per year there for 6 years...:=):

P.S.: You brakes will not work there long, not even one round...

 

[icechilli]

sounds good - the website seems to state that you will be trained on an M4

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

 

[Twinz]

Very exciting indeed. Congrats also on the opportunity to do the Bmw training course.
raise::inlove:

Enjoy the Ring thoroughly. :thumbs:

Sounds like the e46 needs plenty attention. Do as much of the suspension repairs as you can and as Andreas suggested get the brakes ready and overhauled as much as you can do. Any race track makes huge demands on the brakes but the Ring is notorious. :thumbs:

 

[444YYY]

Hey Applehero..
Long time....
What an awesome course to go on.
Take lots of notes and ask lots of questions, and share it all with us :=):

All the best with your car prep.
I wouldn't stress about getting the car Race ready. It just needs to be acceptable. The first outing you will be focussing on learning the correct lines etc... So you will not be (shouldn't be) near the cars limit.....

Keep us posted!

 

[saeedmayat]

my dream

 

[applehero]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments. I am just approaching this from the point of view that I have a set of goals that need to be achieved.

For me I am not going to be going out for all out pace when at the ring. I am going to enjoy it and have fun. Gonna take many many laps to work out which way I am going. Let alone the ideal line! :=):

@444YYY! It has been a while! I will definitely be asking questions. If anyone has something specific they want to know, I may be able to ask. I won't be able to ask everything but will see what's possible.

I want to get the car as ready as possible. Reason being is I have respect for this track and want everything to perform as well as possible. Having a niggly problem would sour a good experience.

Work I did today:
I am continuously clearing out the old Power Steering Fluid. Appears to be getting that little clearer each time.

I ordered some intake boots (cracks started appearing) and fuel filter. Should be available tomorrow. Fitment to be done probably the weekend.

I am adding Oil Filter Housing Gasket to the list of things to do. The leak seems pretty bad. Would rather not have that get worse on the way there. Anyone know whether I need to completely drain the Oil in order to change the Gasket Change? I will do some research in the meantime.

 

[AndreasSA]

If somebody is having questions about the ring...I can answer a lot I think....

By the way....you need approx. 30-50 rounds to know the way only a little bit....after 50 rounds you feel a bit safer regarding directions....after 100 rounds you become faster....most accidents with total loss happen afterwards because guys think they now the track now...

After approx. 500 rounds you become fast.....:=):

Good place to look is "Bruennchen" and "Adenauer Forst" (long walk necessary and nearly slowest corner on track, most cars go straight there...)

Good advice: Your car should be completely tight, no leakages! Sometimes bike driver run around at the parking area at the entrance to find leaking cars...to get their damages paid back! Is very popular and if I got you right you are coming from great britain and don't have insurance on the track...

Enjoy it!

 

[applehero]

Well as usual, an update is necessary.

Been busy these last couple of days. According to the numbers above I have done a thing or two. Have taken a couple of pics. More to follow.

1) Suspension. Decided to taking the rears back to stock was a better idea - car is a daily driver and plan on doing a fair amount of driving on normal roads. Will be done the same time as point 2 below.

2) Front Control Arms and Bushes: Made an enquiry into labour and availability. Seems reasonable.

3) Changed Pulleys, Water Pump and Thermostat. Glad I did that. Power Steering Pulley shows fine cracks. Wouldn't know when that would fail.

4) I thought the Dual Mass Flywheel to be kaput, but now have my suspiscions. I can hear a heavy clunk when stationary and go from neutral into first. Inspected the Differential Bush Mount and it's quite cracked!

5) Fuel Filter will probably be attended to next week - not driving much until then. Have parts though!

6) To be done after Oil Filter Housing Gasket - a fair amount of oil is leaking out.

7) As suspected, the front calipers were sticking. Some idiot use copper slip on them. :fencelook: So cleaned and corrected that, the copper slip was binding with brake dust, creating a thick paste. Braking feel is much improved now.

Will post more pics when I can get them off my phone.

 

[applehero]

So... Pictures.

3) Changed Pulleys, Water Pump, Thermostat.

Cracked Power Steering Pulley!

Changed the Water Pump. Old one is the original from the factory from what I can tell by the date on the part.

Perished Rear Diff Mount!

5) Did Fuel Filter yesterday. Quite a straight forward thing, just took my time to make sure it was done correctly. Again, the filter looked like the original part. Date stamp from 2002! Could have been changed, and the part replaced with one made previously. The clamps seem to be single use only - you can't tighten them back up. This is slightly worrying - service book stamped twice for this to be changed and current mileage is around 278 000 kms!

Will post some more pics soon.

 

[Peter@AEW]

Oil filter housing gasket will not require you draining all the oil.
Merely loosen the top so that the oil can drain back into the sump and then loosen power steering pump alternator serpentine belts and finally the housing.
Some oil will seep out so have some newspaper under the car or a big plastic tray.

When re installing tighten bolts at 10Nm in a cross wise fashion and final torque 15Nm.
Do not use any sealants as it will leak.

 

[Twinz]

Thats alot of work but i like how the Ring plan is coming together :thumbs:

 

[applehero]

A1exander, thanks for the advice. Glad I don't have to drain the oil just to do this.

Twinz, thanks man. A little bit of encouragement goes a long way. :=):

So... Booked the Channel Crossing. Getting a bit more real now. :rollsmile:

Some more pics:

Fuel Filter changed on saturday:

Fuel Filter produced March 2002! Pretty sure this is the exact same Filter as fitted at the factory.

One of the Clamps from the Fuel Filter Lines. Note, this appears designed not to be reused.

And finally, Perished Intake Boot that I replaced recently:

Oh, and last but not least, I am ordering stickers. Undecided between all white and the blue and white. So ordered both, will see how they look when they are with the car.

 

[applehero]

Time is moving fast. Less time, so more work...

1) Bought a few suspension bits: Rear Dampers and Springs. Installed them myself. A relatively straight forward process.

Note! Always check your parts over. One of the Rear Dampers was leaking - I can only imagine what 30 000 kms would do to it. Let them know and no fuss to get a new part. :=):

2) Lower Control Arms and Bushes. After the pain of trying to remove the Differential Bushes, I decided just to send the car in to get the Control Arms and the Bushes done.

4) Differential Bushes. I had quite a tough time getting the Diff Bushes out. A combination of Rust, rounded off bolts and lack of time for the upcoming trip "forced" me to send in the car to get a couple of things done.

Power Flex Differential Bushes

Rounded off Torx Bolt in side shaft

Inner rubber portion removed. The outer metal housing has rusted to the subframe.

So the car is in at the moment. Couple of other things were highlighted.

Exhaust manifold studs were in pretty bad shape and were then removed.

The extent of the Oil Filter Housing Leak was brought home a bit stronger. So this will be the focus of the next DIY.

Picked up some parts recently and had the privilege of getting into this. :=): No test drive sadly.

 

[Gilbert]

Great thread! :thumbs:

 

[boost3d]

a trip to the ring, is on my bucket list...

sadly the poor state of the Rand, really makes this a bit difficult

 

[Jeremy]

:thumbs: awesome thread

 

[applehero]

So some more updates:

Got the car back from the Workshop. Not exactly a cheap exercise but wasn't bad.

They couldn't o the wheel alignment after the Lower Control Arms as the Tie Rods were rusted solid! So its going in again this week for this. The wheel alignment is in a pretty bad way, regardless I can feel the difference on the new arms. Amazing! Will post a couple more pics when I can.

Just about getting to the end of the list of things before I go to the ring. getting quite excited now. :=):

 

[mo_s]

interesting thread :thumbs: and enjoy the track, I'm sure all the effort will only make the trip more enjoyable :thumbs:

 

[AndreasSA]

When will you be at the northloop? I will go to Germany end of August and take some rounds again....