E46 330ci project/progress - Coilovers on, New Rimz inside

[Tom]

Oh hell yeah! Looks class mate!

[Midnightclub]

Cheers dude

[Niall]

Looks great on the new wheels mate

[7057sam]

Wheels look lush

saw on facebook your archs eat a side wall?

[Midnightclub]

Cheers guys

Not quite Sam, the coilover spring was rotated towards the sidewall and with the high offset of the stock wheels with that drop it had just dragged the side of the spring against the inside of the sidewall.. cue one destroyed brand new tyre

[Grant]

Looking sweet man. Saw this on FB, looks 100x better on the new shoes

Bringing it to FCS or pugfest?

[Midnightclub]

Cheers dude!

Doubt I'll be going FCS, but may well do pugfest again this year and take her up the hill climb, it's more than capable now

[Midnightclub]

Finally got round to painting the gash silver lower grille, looks much better in black now! Also sorted out a few issues with it, leaky rocker cover gasket, changed the plugs at the same time, also removed the exhaust flap as some clever mong had bent it to buggery and it had completely closed the whole right hand pipe! Needless to say it sounds substantially better now and pulls a bit harder (although that's largely due to the vacuum leaks being fixed and it running properly)

pics:

[Ruan]

I really like it, but I'll admit I'm never sure on these with black kidney grilles... I always can't help but think they'd look less gangsta if they were the OEM silver!!

Have you thought about a facelift front bumper - not 100% on them, do look a it less mean on the front, but I think they look a little cleaner!

[Piggy]

Those wheels...

[Midnightclub]

I really like it, but I'll admit I'm never sure on these with black kidney grilles... I always can't help but think they'd look less gangsta if they were the OEM silver!!

Have you thought about a facelift front bumper - not 100% on them, do look a it less mean on the front, but I think they look a little cleaner!

Cheers mate, I know what you mean, it was the previous owner that painted them and not well so I may spray the outside of the kidneys the same colour as the car and keep the 'fins' black.

Have seen them and know what you mean but I've got an M sport bumper that's been sat in my bedroom for months that needs painting otherwise I probably would've as they look smart

Those wheels...

Cheers dude hard to get a decent picture of them clean, they reflect too much light really (hyper silver) so I may change it for an anth colour at some point

[Midnightclub]

Well little update to this, gave it a good service, replaced the rocker cover gasket (albeit that was a little while back), put in 2 new wishbones for MOT time and also changed from the short hyundai drop links to proper adjustable ones.. handling seems to be substantially improved and feels like there's grip forever now. Also adjusted the coilies all round on the damping side so it's a little softer and more forgiving and less bouncy now, feels much better.

Reason for swapping to adjustables, started wearing the lines on the ARB :O:

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Will be swapping out the inner and outer track rods for both sides on the weekend (weather permitting) and hoping that cures the stupid amount of play in the steering, if not.. it'll be new rack time

Now I've got my own garage I'll actually be able to finish getting the front bumper prepared then painted, although as the wings need replacing I may well just do it all at the same time, mainly so the paint matches better.

[silverzx]

Garage, where? When we having this Morrison dual carriage way race?

[Midnightclub]

Moved house man! So got my own little garage with elecy, lighting etc.. still in weston.

And I didn't realise we were..? lol.. obviously i'd never condone street racing too! it would only be fairer after she's not quite so poorly too! (fuelling issues)

[silverzx]

Moved house man! So got my own little garage with elecy, lighting etc.. still in weston.

And I didn't realise we were..? lol.. obviously i'd never condone street racing too! it would only be fairer after she's not quite so poorly too! (fuelling issues)

Nice, just you, Emma and the pup's now?

You gotta just take it as it is (poorly or not). My cars poorly 90% of the time anyway!

[Midnightclub]

Yeah man, muuuuuch better now!

Yours is still running more than stock though is it not? When I have these issues it feels like 40hp down lolol, pretty certain it's just the fuel filter, as it also houses the fuel pressure reg in it to and hasn't been changed in god knows how long. Just need to get round to doing it.

[silverzx]

Yeah man, muuuuuch better now!

Yours is still running more than stock though is it not? When I have these issues it feels like 40hp down lolol, pretty certain it's just the fuel filter, as it also houses the fuel pressure reg in it to and hasn't been changed in god knows how long. Just need to get round to doing it.

Good stuff.

Standard mapping so yeah, stock!

I did my fuel filter a couple of months back, certainly runs slightly better.

[Midnightclub]

Damn man, need to get a stage 1 chip and 'get on dis ting'

Those are around 200hp stock? Could make for an interesting 'blat' depending on weight.

[Midnightclub]

Inner and outer track rods were changed and all the play is gone, 1000% better to drive now, also put it in for a hunter alignment and got them to dial in some more camber whilst they were at it.

[Midnightclub]

Have had some underlying performance issues for a while now causing me to lose the love a bit, had a read online recently and saw that a faulty cam position sensor can cause up to a 40hp loss up top (VANOS doesn't engage at all when the sensor is faulty) found a code suggesting a faulty sensor (still no EML mind), swapped it out on the weekend and hugely better performance now. £27 sensor and what feels like a massive hike in torque and power, dead chuffed.

[Midnightclub]

Lowered it a little bit more on the rear maybe 20mm? Got myself an M sport rear bumper and side skirts in the same colour, match is actually really good. Think it looks a lot better.

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[Matt-Rallye]

Damn that looks uber clean! Nicely done

[mr_fish]

Shes sitting well now Danny.

Wheels suit it very well.

Wrong fuel still but I suppose we can forgive you for that.

[Midnightclub]

Damn that looks uber clean! Nicely done

Cheers dude

Shes sitting well now Danny.

Wheels suit it very well.

Wrong fuel still but I suppose we can forgive you for that.

Ha ha, thanks man! Well that's down to opinion I guess, plenty of torque for an N/A petrol motor though! Over 220 lb/ft peak with most of that available from 1,500-2,000 rpm.

Granted the 330d would have more torque, but the noise isn't quite the same.

[rocker8742]

Looks sweet that mate, can't beat the petrol for noise

Turbo it and have best of both worlds

[Midnightclub]

Turbo would be awesome, but the steering column is completely in the way annoyingly. Fairly easy to do on LHD ones though and make decent power, quite jelly

[Matt]

Looking good mate. Sits perfect now!

[jammapic]

Nice motor. Not a massive fan of the rear spoiler, but the rest of it is tasty as!!

JP

[rocker8742]

Mount the turbo ontop of the bonnet lol

[Midnightclub]

Cheers dudes

I wasn't a fan of the spoiler initially but it's grown on me so will be staying for now, until I decide where this is going next. I have quite a hankering for an M3 but i'm considering a few other options with this still as now I've gotten it the way I like it i'm more attached. Bonus is most of my stuff will bolt straight on an M3 so there's that...

Even with the turbo top mounted, you then have the problem of trying to fit a probably 2.5/3" downpipe past the steering column.. although a company called HPF have managed to make a twin turbo M3 so it must be possible with some good engineering, may take some measurements and make something up in CAD