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Hi,
First of all, sorry for any typing mistakes, it is my second language after all. I am from Slovenia, Europe.
EDIT: Secondly. This is really long post.
I've been watching this site for a while now and finally decided to join it. Because I share your philosophy of driving around in cars that can not be easily driven and enjoyable on road bumps, gravel etc.
My first lowered car, actually made me fell in love with stiff suspensions and the looks, was an Alfa Romeo 145 QV. Of course original looks didn't do it for me so it got Zender Body kit:
Preety nice alternative to Honda Civic in that time it was. Followed by B6 Audi 1.8T:
And then, actually still don't know why I have sold it - must be that the reason was that I was bored one day, nevertheless then came E39 528iA. It was to low, for our roads of course:
But regarding to my yearly milage and costs of petrol in Europe it was quite expensive to run, so I have switched two cars in between and then got hold of this "golddigger".
2001 320 diesel touring, a car that would most likely finish on the dumpyard in 2-3 years
:
On picture above it had around 290k km (cca. 180.000 miles). And the neverending spending began.
Firstly the service zone with the first input:
- Changing the thermostat
- Changing the hardy joint
- Changing the oil
- Changing the oil filter
- Change the breather ("Filter for turbine" or something like that)
- Air Filter
- Filter for air conditionig
- Filter for diesel
- Tubes and pipes along the upper side of the engine.
- Return pipe
- Antifreeze
Second service then
:
- Rear discs, pads
- Handbrake
- Heating plugs for diesel engine (one of them was snapped in the engine, so it took me cca. 300 $ extra to resolve the problem).
- Change of engine mounts
- Reconstruction of jets (injectors)
- Replacement of all seals on in and out collectors
- Replacement of tubes, pipes on the down side of the engine.
Procedure done:
Of course, not even near to finish, left rear axle said goodbye in terms of being a loud axle once pedal was quickly pressed in. Changed that later on.
Some things were already in the garage waiting, so we have slowly began the visualization as well
:
So we started, one last look before disassembly:
We have used the trunk as temporary warehouse:
Rust, garages best friend since ever:
We did all the interior decor into carbon vinyl:
It went very well for the first time, but not even close to perfection:
Matt silver gauge rings:
All the doors and trunk door were additionally isolated, cutted my hands on the doors that I was looking like an "Emo" :
And the biggest mistake and most fun (well not if you ask friend who was in charge for this), installing a chinese 2 DIN radio instead of buying something plug&play for E46, Dynavin for an example, no.. It was cheap and I already had full head of problems with the car due to some technical (and financial due to technical problems) problems that I simply went for it
:
We had to cut original heating:
Added to the cart:
Ground Zero GTX system.
Not final picture, but close enough:
Rear bumper getting ready for painting:
First bumper came in later that week:
Waiting for new paint:
In the meanwhile we had lost a whole working day installing the headlamp washer's (it was like the car is jinxed, one of the clips has cracked, it was Sunday, so we had to improvize):
It was time for the change of parking lights:
I know, some will disagree, that I have should got thos LED whites/blue, but OEM color is nicer to my eyes.
Car partially assembled, and re-painted to silver.
I have decided to put a facelift (01-05) hood on it, as it has wider grill and goes on lights, giving them a nicer shape:
Backlights were changed to LEDs, I know they look weird on the pictures (heard a lot of those comments already, but in real life several skeptics were convinced that they are the right thing for this car).
I went on a first 100km trip with it, so it was dirty:
Oh, and I forgot to mention, that friend that did the paint job, had also a nice rear spoiler for me, handmade:
The car was quite comfortable, but it was to high and was not in side line as I imagined.
Car had some mistakes on the hood (paint job), so we decided to repair it:
Rembemer the axle? It was finally time for it:
Left one out, right one in:
It was time to lower the car a bit again:
And looking at the car and that silver piece of metal in the grill... immediately solved:
Made some pics:
And finally started enjoying the car right?
WRONG!
Neighbours hit it (already in above pics it was hit)
:
Funny bump, when I started to washing the car suddenly the paint went off..
I said, ok second time jinx. Third one is a charm.
It wasn't too much damage, let's go enjoying and make some nice photos. And I went:
Summer equipment in the car:
When taking the last picture, two guys came to me and ask me how much, if I sell. Well I didn't clearly, but maybe I should.
Everything was going well,... for a week. When black diesel clouds behind me got bigger and bigger and cars consumption went from those regulary 5,5-6,5L/100km (for those driving big v6 and v8's , 6L/100km that is very little) to 8,2-9L/100km (consumption of let's say 330i).
It was really time for service again, and I have seen what our bumpy roads have done to my car, girlfriend helped a lot too with her style going to the curbs "when car rises a bit, it is parked":
Original 5w-30 BMW Longlife going out:
Gearbox oil out:
Diff oil out as well:
Left the car "hanging" for quite some time so everything really dripped out.
Filters after 15.000km:
Went for Motul on engine and gearbox and for Castrol on the diff:
Got the diagnostics, as the car was giving me signs that I want it:
Checked and cleared faults.
As the crickets in the door had the party of their own, it had to be solved with an extra fittings:
Still didn't solve the consumption and smoking problem.
At least for a day the car was stanced properly, on the day that one of the arms broke:
I have also noticed that rear suspension is making some squitchy noises. I thought it would be cheap one piece. Well, it was not, as I decided to solve it in complete for the future, ended up ordering:
Of course number 10, 15, 12, 8 and some other were ordered and changed as well on both sides.
I have ordered some new plugs for decors in the car that were not standing as they should.
Package arrived:
Then my father in law or how do you say it, went on work with it. He has transformed the car. Oh yeah, the ride and grip is really superb now for road use, and rear wheel bearing on the left wheel was changed to (what is 50 bucks against all the other things, right?). He has also solved the consumption issues, it was EGR vent. So everything back to normal.
Great car, it deserves a reward, and I went to dealer to get BMW Performance short shift.
So what has to be done? Bumper needs repaint, and here is a picture where I almost could not keep the tempo in a little Twilight car (Volvo C30) of my obviously ready to race girlfriend in my car (did know that before, at least in a highway manner not).
We have changed all the decors from carbon to silver (same color as the car). It is better now. And installed rear electrics for door glasses. I do not have the picture yet (well there is one where consol was changed when I took a pic of performance shiftknob). I thought to myself, only turbo rebuild, new winter 18" tyres (for this rims that are currently on the car), summer tyres for next seasons 20" Breyton Visions and change of the radio, along with some other details and the car is finished
Car got repainted, everything was great for 5 days.
Actually for the first time I was a proud owner of this slightly changed BMW. I had to go on a bussiness trip to Belgrade, went with company's car.
On Sunday (last week) evening when I came home, first thing that my lady tell's me: "Honey, goes what happened yesterday morning?" I ask: "What?". "I was moving away from one car on the parking a lot, and I have scratched the right side of the car a little bit." "Do not worry, I am sure we can polish it away."
What she did not tell me, was that she has broken sideskirts mounts, broke sideskirt in two places, did damage to the chasiss on the front right side below the sideskirt and that front right door will need some work too...
To be continued...
First of all, sorry for any typing mistakes, it is my second language after all. I am from Slovenia, Europe.
EDIT: Secondly. This is really long post.
I've been watching this site for a while now and finally decided to join it. Because I share your philosophy of driving around in cars that can not be easily driven and enjoyable on road bumps, gravel etc.
My first lowered car, actually made me fell in love with stiff suspensions and the looks, was an Alfa Romeo 145 QV. Of course original looks didn't do it for me so it got Zender Body kit:
Preety nice alternative to Honda Civic in that time it was. Followed by B6 Audi 1.8T:
And then, actually still don't know why I have sold it - must be that the reason was that I was bored one day, nevertheless then came E39 528iA. It was to low, for our roads of course:
But regarding to my yearly milage and costs of petrol in Europe it was quite expensive to run, so I have switched two cars in between and then got hold of this "golddigger".
2001 320 diesel touring, a car that would most likely finish on the dumpyard in 2-3 years
:On picture above it had around 290k km (cca. 180.000 miles). And the neverending spending began.
Firstly the service zone with the first input:
- Changing the thermostat
- Changing the hardy joint
- Changing the oil
- Changing the oil filter
- Change the breather ("Filter for turbine" or something like that)
- Air Filter
- Filter for air conditionig
- Filter for diesel
- Tubes and pipes along the upper side of the engine.
- Return pipe
- Antifreeze
Second service then
:- Rear discs, pads
- Handbrake
- Heating plugs for diesel engine (one of them was snapped in the engine, so it took me cca. 300 $ extra to resolve the problem).
- Change of engine mounts
- Reconstruction of jets (injectors)
- Replacement of all seals on in and out collectors
- Replacement of tubes, pipes on the down side of the engine.
Procedure done:
Of course, not even near to finish, left rear axle said goodbye in terms of being a loud axle once pedal was quickly pressed in. Changed that later on.
Some things were already in the garage waiting, so we have slowly began the visualization as well
:So we started, one last look before disassembly:
We have used the trunk as temporary warehouse:
Rust, garages best friend since ever:
We did all the interior decor into carbon vinyl:
It went very well for the first time, but not even close to perfection:
Matt silver gauge rings:
All the doors and trunk door were additionally isolated, cutted my hands on the doors that I was looking like an "Emo" :
And the biggest mistake and most fun (well not if you ask friend who was in charge for this), installing a chinese 2 DIN radio instead of buying something plug&play for E46, Dynavin for an example, no.. It was cheap and I already had full head of problems with the car due to some technical (and financial due to technical problems) problems that I simply went for it
:We had to cut original heating:
Added to the cart:
Ground Zero GTX system.
Not final picture, but close enough:
Rear bumper getting ready for painting:
First bumper came in later that week:
Waiting for new paint:
In the meanwhile we had lost a whole working day installing the headlamp washer's (it was like the car is jinxed, one of the clips has cracked, it was Sunday, so we had to improvize):
It was time for the change of parking lights:
I know, some will disagree, that I have should got thos LED whites/blue, but OEM color is nicer to my eyes.
Car partially assembled, and re-painted to silver.
I have decided to put a facelift (01-05) hood on it, as it has wider grill and goes on lights, giving them a nicer shape:
Backlights were changed to LEDs, I know they look weird on the pictures (heard a lot of those comments already, but in real life several skeptics were convinced that they are the right thing for this car).
I went on a first 100km trip with it, so it was dirty:
Oh, and I forgot to mention, that friend that did the paint job, had also a nice rear spoiler for me, handmade:
The car was quite comfortable, but it was to high and was not in side line as I imagined.
Car had some mistakes on the hood (paint job), so we decided to repair it:
Rembemer the axle? It was finally time for it:
Left one out, right one in:
It was time to lower the car a bit again:
And looking at the car and that silver piece of metal in the grill... immediately solved:
Made some pics:
And finally started enjoying the car right?
WRONG!
Neighbours hit it (already in above pics it was hit)
:Funny bump, when I started to washing the car suddenly the paint went off..
I said, ok second time jinx. Third one is a charm.
It wasn't too much damage, let's go enjoying and make some nice photos. And I went:
Summer equipment in the car:
When taking the last picture, two guys came to me and ask me how much, if I sell. Well I didn't clearly, but maybe I should.
Everything was going well,... for a week. When black diesel clouds behind me got bigger and bigger and cars consumption went from those regulary 5,5-6,5L/100km (for those driving big v6 and v8's , 6L/100km that is very little) to 8,2-9L/100km (consumption of let's say 330i).
It was really time for service again, and I have seen what our bumpy roads have done to my car, girlfriend helped a lot too with her style going to the curbs "when car rises a bit, it is parked":
Original 5w-30 BMW Longlife going out:
Gearbox oil out:
Diff oil out as well:
Left the car "hanging" for quite some time so everything really dripped out.
Filters after 15.000km:
Went for Motul on engine and gearbox and for Castrol on the diff:
Got the diagnostics, as the car was giving me signs that I want it:
Checked and cleared faults.
As the crickets in the door had the party of their own, it had to be solved with an extra fittings:
Still didn't solve the consumption and smoking problem.
At least for a day the car was stanced properly, on the day that one of the arms broke:
I have also noticed that rear suspension is making some squitchy noises. I thought it would be cheap one piece. Well, it was not, as I decided to solve it in complete for the future, ended up ordering:
Of course number 10, 15, 12, 8 and some other were ordered and changed as well on both sides.
I have ordered some new plugs for decors in the car that were not standing as they should.
Package arrived:
Then my father in law or how do you say it, went on work with it. He has transformed the car. Oh yeah, the ride and grip is really superb now for road use, and rear wheel bearing on the left wheel was changed to (what is 50 bucks against all the other things, right?). He has also solved the consumption issues, it was EGR vent. So everything back to normal.
Great car, it deserves a reward, and I went to dealer to get BMW Performance short shift.
So what has to be done? Bumper needs repaint, and here is a picture where I almost could not keep the tempo in a little Twilight car (Volvo C30) of my obviously ready to race girlfriend in my car (did know that before, at least in a highway manner not).
We have changed all the decors from carbon to silver (same color as the car). It is better now. And installed rear electrics for door glasses. I do not have the picture yet (well there is one where consol was changed when I took a pic of performance shiftknob). I thought to myself, only turbo rebuild, new winter 18" tyres (for this rims that are currently on the car), summer tyres for next seasons 20" Breyton Visions and change of the radio, along with some other details and the car is finished
Car got repainted, everything was great for 5 days.
Actually for the first time I was a proud owner of this slightly changed BMW. I had to go on a bussiness trip to Belgrade, went with company's car. On Sunday (last week) evening when I came home, first thing that my lady tell's me: "Honey, goes what happened yesterday morning?" I ask: "What?". "I was moving away from one car on the parking a lot, and I have scratched the right side of the car a little bit." "Do not worry, I am sure we can polish it away."
What she did not tell me, was that she has broken sideskirts mounts, broke sideskirt in two places, did damage to the chasiss on the front right side below the sideskirt and that front right door will need some work too...
To be continued...
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