BMW E46 M3 Lemans/Cinnamon

[Frode D]

What an outstanding color combination!

Thank you, I really like it.

-

I received the rear suspension from BWS, but the height adjuster was missing so I'm still waiting for that one to arrive. As I am going to use the front struts from the E92 I had to replace the camber plates. But this wasn't straight forward when combining this with the Electronic Damper Control (EDC). The EDC comes with a shorter top nut for the shock shaft to free threads to install the EDC. Due to the design on the E46 camber plates the spacer below the bearing is longer, which eats up the threads to mount the EDC onto.

E90 Spacer - E46 spacer - regular nut - shorter nut:


I tried to use the short spacer, but 6mm space between spring seat and bearing is uncomfortably little. Left is with short spacer, right is standard E92 setup:
img]https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5650/31032705845_5480fd3298_b.jpg[/img]

After some thinking I decided to install the E9x bearing into the E46 top plate. This increases the ride height by 10mm, but this turned out to be a good thing later on. In the stage of assembly:


Bilstein coilovers vs BWS coilovers:


I installed them with the same height as on the E92, to compare. And wow, it is tucking hard on jack stands..


Raised them 35mm and installed them again. I think this height will be good with the new 18" wheels, but I will probably do some more adjustments later. These 245/35-19s are a bit meaty.


I also installed the rear shocks and springs temporarily onto the Bilstein adjuster, but will replace this and lower the rear once the adjuster arrives. Hopefully next week.

[becausephilchow]

Can't wait! It looks great man! I absolutely love E46s. If the ones for sale around me weret' so beat up, I might've ended up with one!

[Wilz_vagroots]

love the changes mate

[The Simps]

Good detailed work as always!

Are the e46 and e9x strut tops different then, I thought they were all the same pattern (about 95mm between studs)?

[Frode D]

Can't wait! It looks great man! I absolutely love E46s. If the ones for sale around me weret' so beat up, I might've ended up with one!

Thank you! I can imagine finding a good one over there is hard. It seems like most M3s here are taken good care of, at least to a certain point.

love the changes mate

Thanks! It looks kind of halfway done at this stage, and it kind of is as well. More to come

Good detailed work as always!

Are the e46 and e9x strut tops different then, I thought they were all the same pattern (about 95mm between studs)?

Thank you! I like reading detailed threads more than just before and after pics, so I try to do the same.

They have the same pattern, but E9x top mounts are rotated 45 degrees or so. The camber adjustment would have pointed towards the front of the engine.

[Frode D]

I have installed the motors to control the shocks and pulled the wires to control them. I tried to make the best out of it as the motors are pretty big and the wires have one standard length.

Right rear side. Motor beside the battery:


Left rear side. Motor attached to the amplifier bracket.


Left front side. I tried to fit the motor next to the fuse box, but the motor was too big.. Will make a new nicer looking bracket sometime later on.

Right front side. Fitted inside with the DSC unit.


Pulled the wires inside the plastic to make it look as OEM as possible.
Har trukket ledningen inni plasten med andre ting for å skjule de mest mulig:



Full control from the drivers seat.




The only thing remaining is to wire a relay as the power source I found was not via ignition. Everything works perfecly

[LCG]

So good!

do the shocks click like manual shocks or they move freely?

very curious how the motors / software manages that.

[Frode D]

So good!

do the shocks click like manual shocks or they move freely?

very curious how the motors / software manages that.

I removed the clicker-mechanism to install the cable, and they rotate freely. The clicks are in the adjuster, not the shock shaft. I suppose the control unit is calibrated to match the clicks. I can choose from 1-24 steps, just like with the clicker mechanism.

[The Simps]

Looks like a cool piece of kit!

[Frode D]

Looks like a cool piece of kit!

It is! By having this kit I don't need to disassemble the panels in the trunk to adjust the shocks.

-

Installed a relay to ensure the battery doesn't drain, hooked it up via the light in the ash tray.

Also, i replaced a few things. I broke a clip on a hose when removing the air box last time, so i bought a new coupling, hose and clamps. This was before, with a temporary fix:


All new, good to go:


One thing I didn't see until the first time I got home with the car was how poor condition the inside of the trunk was. No clips were installed and both plastic trays were broken several places. This annoys the hell out of me, so I went ahead and replaced the trays and installed the clips:



All good, except the stain on the floor mat.

[C2_mad]

great as ussual. i just sold my e46 and got an e90.so we kinda did the oposite thing.lol quick question, the e90 coilovers fit the e46? and vice versa?i mean the front obviously

[Frode D]

great as ussual. i just sold my e46 and got an e90.so we kinda did the oposite thing.lol quick question, the e90 coilovers fit the e46? and vice versa?i mean the front obviously

Congrats

Yes, the coilovers fit, but the top mount is different and the lower mount needs to be rotated 45 degrees or so to fit the sway bar end links.
Edit: The E9x shocks are 4cm shorter than E46 btw. Which is why mine is this low (and at the highest setting).

[C2_mad]

i thought the top mounts were the same, cause i see people selling the lowered top mounts for both the e46 and e90

[Frode D]

i thought the top mounts were the same, cause i see people selling the lowered top mounts for both the e46 and e90

All camber plates I've seen for sale are either e36/e46 or E9x, not all together.

So I've been trying to get ahold of BWS to order the longer E46 front struts, but no luck yet. I guess they are very busy during black friday sales. I really want to try the air cups from stanceparts.com and I need longer shocks and assist springs to make it work. http://www.stanceparts.com/air-cup-lift-system/

I've done some things to prepare for this, and done some other modifications.

The carbon fibre air ducts I have were just open into the fender, so I figured I could use one of them to get more cold air to the air filter. Felt so ashamed buying this "race mesh"



Shaped to fit inside the pipe, hopefully this will prevent leaves and other shit into the filter.


In place:



Top location:



Made a new bracket as the other one were temporayr:




One thing I'm planning to do is to change the CD-player with an Eonon Android unit, and this requires a change out of the frame. As I'm not going to use the sigarette lighter I fitted an USB socket to charge my phone and installed a button in the tray.

Cut out of a plastic frame, customized and painted:






Made a floor for the compressor:




More to come later.

[The Simps]

Great work as always.

I looked into air cups to fit my HSD coilovers but was told that because they are inverted dampers it wasn't possible. BC do a kit that suits the air cups but again its there regular damper not the inverted one. What are your BWS coils?

I was advised that for the M3 front set up it really needs to be an inverted set up, otherwise I would of also loved an air cup set up.