BMW E46 M3 Lemans/Cinnamon

[Earl]

That's a great look! Did you pay less than you sold them for? Haha

[Frode D]

Sooo, I just bought my old wheels back.

[Frode D]

Looking back at the pictures of yours without the spring & top hat on you might be ok as the shaft does't look too think - do you know its diameter? The old bilsteins look like they are inverted. Mine are like this so the shaft is too thick for the air cup for it to slide up and down on. Its not meant to compress the spring its meant to push against it to pull out the piston, so whether you have a helper or not, it needs to be able to draw up and open the piston up into itself. That was my understanding anyway.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/The%20M3/EB1B9653-BC06-4BD0-8334-66FBA60CAE94.jpg/img]


Also, I went for 120mm 18k and wish I had went for 100mm too.

Just found the old emails i had sent to Stanceparts back in february and back then the cups only went up to a shaft size of 22mm.

Mine are 20mm, so their air cups should work. I do need helper springs as these coilovers have separate height and preload adjustment. The preload is recommended to compress the spring 1/8", which means the shaft is at the top of its travel. If I install air cups without assist springs, I will be able to lift the car the same height as the weight of the car compresses the spring/lowers the shaft, which is 15mm.

With helper springs I will be able to get more lift without removing all of the preload and leave the spring loose. But the next issue is the travel from the spring seat and shock body being 7-8cm, so I dont have much room to play after installing the air cups. They eat up 20mm, and helper springs will do the same...

I wonder if I could order shocks with longer shafts, to make them fit...

[The Simps]

Just found the old emails i had sent to Stanceparts back in february and back then the cups only went up to a shaft size of 22mm.

[The Simps]

Thanks!

I don't think these are inverted, I haven't read anything about that. Not 100% sure I can make air cups work, but I will give it a shot. But I will need assist or helper springs to do it, as the springs only compress 15mm with the weight of the car.

Looking back at the pictures of yours without the spring & top hat on you might be ok as the shaft does't look too think - do you know its diameter? The old bilsteins look like they are inverted. Mine are like this so the shaft is too thick for the air cup for it to slide up and down on. Its not meant to compress the spring its meant to push against it to pull out the piston, so whether you have a helper or not, it needs to be able to draw up and open the piston up into itself. That was my understanding anyway.




Also, I went for 120mm 18k and wish I had went for 100mm too.

[Frode D]

Got the rear adjustment today and I'm kind of disappointed at the height. It is now at the lowest setting and it is not very low... Looks like I'm going to need 4" springs.

[Frode D]

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.

Thanks!

I don't think these are inverted, I haven't read anything about that. Not 100% sure I can make air cups work, but I will give it a shot. But I will need assist or helper springs to do it, as the springs only compress 15mm with the weight of the car.

[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.

[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.

[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]

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]

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]

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.

[The Simps]

Looks like a cool piece of kit!

[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.