E46 Touring - Clean & Bagged Daily Driver

[austinscottphotography]

so the wagon has been down for about a month and I've been miserable.

The build originally was put on hold for the following reasons:

I moved to a new state
had to find a new job
make new friends with tools and knowledge to help me
buy parts to replace the old worn out stuff

So i was driving the car as is and then the shock decided to blow out on me.



This prompted me to start working on the build ASAP.

...and then I hit a snag


was removing bolts to pull out old suspension and add in bags and the damn bolt sheared right off

after many many attempts to remove it with my extraction kit and penetrating oil i gave up and decided to take off the entire assembly.




unfortunately, i was unable to remove the axle nut with a breaker bar and my muscles so i had to wait until a friend brought his bad as electric impact wrench and pulled both sides off for me.

[austinscottphotography]

so while the wagon was down I decided to get it all prepped and ready for bags by running power and air lines.
it's def a slow process for a newbie and a lot of trial and error
hopefully my build thread can help other builders get through all these issues much more quickly.




use tape to mock valves and once you're sure of their placement use this loctite stuff to make it permanent


I realized the wiring harness wasn't long enough to reach my original placement, so I gave it a new home

see how short it is - test everything before making it permanent!!!!


Power for pumps!!!

[austinscottphotography]

I decided to keep all my lines safe and sound inside the vehicle and run them under the floor

luckily BMW already ran a bunch of power lines here so it made it much easier to find space for the air and management lines.



I ran the e-level lines through a pre-existing hole in the firewall. even has it's own rubber plug i was able to use.





then i ran the air lines through two existing rubber tubes in the firewall....it's like they were made specifically for this.



to keep the line for the driver's side in place, i drilled a hole in the plastic piece.
it works like a charm!!!

[Tino21]

Work looks neat, great progress !

[Thooooom]

sooooooo close to looking sick!

[austinscottphotography]

sooooooo close to looking sick!

yet SOOOOOO far away.

i've been trying to remove the old suspension for 3 days now with no luck.

Like i said earlier, a bolt snapped so I have to pull the entire Hub Assembly...but rust and stubborn bolts are making it damn near impossible. I have a BMW expert stopping by with special tools to help me today (if it doesn't rain). hopefully i can get it all removed so i can start adding the bags.

then I have to pull everything in the rear, hoping that will me a much easier task but i have had nothing but bad luck on this car so far.

i'm gonna work on running power to everything so once the new stuff is installed i can plug it in and be on the road ASAP.

[austinscottphotography]

after 3 days of struggling to remove the suspension and hub I finally got it out thanks to the amazing members of the North Texas Bimmers Club (NTBC).

Rust has made this job damn near impossible and I required an extra set of hands, a BMW tech and special tools to get this far.

the parts go to the machine shop in the morning to get the old rusty bolt drilled out so i can install the bags.

(all these pics were cell pics - hands were too dirty to touch my camera)





Finally off and in the trunk ready to go to machine shop

[Tino21]

Dam that rust has been a real b*tch !

[Thooooom]

i had similar issues with mine, but not as bad as you it seems! these cars really do suck for rust, both underneath and on the exterior panels haha

one step closer though dude!

[austinscottphotography]

no worries though, all rusty parts are getting replaced in the near future.

and all essential suspension components are getting replaced now. i'm not throwing this car on bags without being 100% confident that the suspension can handle it

[austinscottphotography]

everything is back from the machine shop and it wasn't great news when i got the bill :/ it cost me an entire leg and half my arm but the bolt is finally out. they said the bolt was so rusted that it had all but become part of the metal surrounding it.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT install airbags alone!!! This is def. a job for two people and I have had one hell of a hard time working on this by myself.
passenger side front bag is in but nothing is tightened yet.




fed the air line and sensor line through the stock opening

[austinscottphotography]

NEXT STEP:

wiring the ECU to the ignition and the headlights.
I ran the purple wire under the side rails and up to the headlight switch and soldered it onto the green and yellow striped wire.




remember kids, always wrap your wires



next i kept the orange wire (ignition) in the rear of the car and wired it into to yellow and green wire in this thing (not sure what it's for, 330i ZHP told me to do it...lol and i'm sure he'll explain what it is in his next post)




here's the hot mess that is my wiring. my approach is to leave LOTS of excess wire until you have everything in it's final place. I am making sure everything works the way it should and leaving extra wire in case anything needs to be moved. Also, i am making a removable system so i want to make sure that when i pick up the whole system to access the spare tire that all of the wires are long enough to reach. I will clean it all up once i'm comfortable with how everything works.



i tested everything and both compressors work!!! It was such an exciting moment to hear them turn on.

[austinscottphotography]

TOP TIP:

if you're looking for access to the rear bags there are two clever ways to do it.

1: there's a hole with a plastic plug that goes straight down to the passenger side rear suspension (LHD vehicles).




2. you can pass the wire and air tubes through the air vent that goes to the rear bumper.

[NickL]

Curious how the front axles will hold up to being laid out. Hopefully you don't run into problems with the boots tearing or joints seperating.

[austinscottphotography]

Curious how the front axles will hold up to being laid out. Hopefully you don't run into problems with the boots tearing or joints seperating.

well thanks for the positive vibes negative nancy...lol

but yeah, i'm curious as well. i'm replacing all the suspension components within the year to reduce the chance of anything breaking.