WBM346Z Build Journal

So now finally came time to install the Redish Motorsport Reinforcement Plate Kit. I had the car up on a hoist and the entire rear-end removed by a mate. Most of the rear end parts (such as the Subframe, Control Arms, etc) had gone off to be refurbished. Some welders I knew through another mate then came over and did the install for me. We managed to snap a few really poor photos along the way: Luckily after we dropped everything we found no visible cracks that needed repair. So as a result this reinforcement was going to be purely preventative. Once the refurbished parts came back we were able to install the PowerFlex Street bushings and reinstate the entire rear end. I am pretty happy knowing that I have now dealt with the two major issues with the E46 M3.

I managed to arrange some time with a mate to help me install the AVIN Avant-2 and other goodies I ordered a little while back. Now being my first DIY job on the car I wanted to get a little bit of help so I went searching the forums for a guide. Luckily I managed to find some over at E46Fanatics: AVIN Avant-2 Install Guide AVIN Avant-2 Backup Camera Installation Guide AVIN Avant-2 Front Facing Camera Install Guide (Credit to raichean over at E46Fanatics for building and posting these guides)  So basically following these to the letter I was able to quite quickly and easily install the head unit, front facing camera and backup camera.  So far it is a massive improvement over the standard BMW Business Radio I removed. I managed to get Torque up and running pretty easily so I can read codes and log OBD-II information.

Next up it was time to look at locking down the Vanos. Now I had done a bit of research on this before buying the car so I already knew there were a few main options. The big issue was the failing tabs on the exhaust hub followed by some rattling issues in the cam gears and/or sprockets. The two main companies that offer solutions for these issues are Dr. Vanos and Beisan Systems . Based on the feedback over at M3Forum it would be fair to say that the Beisan Systems options are the most favoured. The issues I have with their offerings is they are all DIY and I am not really tooled up to complete this level of work at the moment. On the other hand Dr. Vanos solutions are ready to bolt in and even references some local Australia workshops which are competent at the install. As a result I decided to go ahead with Dr. Vanos as my source of solutions but now I had to decide what options and what workshop. To address the exhaust hub I really wanted to "upgrade" the parts ...

The car as I bought it unfortunately only came with a Tape Deck based BMW Business Radio. Which in 2014 is extremely dated, so I started looking for an upgrade. I am not hugely into after-market sound systems and the car already had the Harmon-Kardon kit so I was happy to stay with that and only wanted to upgrade the Head Unit so I could use more recent technologies. It was very important I be able to play music from easier sources such as CD's or USB stick and it needed to have Bluetooth connectivity for my phone. I also didn't want an obviously after-market Head Unit. I had done this previously in an Audi 90Q20V and regretted it every day I drove it. After a bit of research I found that there was a whole swathe of units that were OEM styled the most popular of these being the Dynavin and AVIN units. The AVIN unit seemed more popular on the forums and was developed by a community member: AVIN Avant-2 Launch Thread on E46Fanatics Luckily about the same tim...

So after doing some extensive research prior to purchasing the car I had already decided that I was going to need to address the "subframe" issue. I do not have the capability to do any custom fabrication work, yet, so as a result I wanted a ready-to-go kit of sorts. Based on my research I found that the two best, most available and most commonly used options were the Turner Motorsport Subframe Reinforcement Plates and the Redish Motorsport RACP Reinforcement Plate Kit . Redish Motorsport have YouTube channel ( www.YouTube.com/RedishMotorsport ) where they discuss their kit in quite a lot of detail and also have a fair few videos of the whole process. Based on this extra information and the larger size and better looking design I decided to go with the Redish Motorsport RACP Reinforcement Plate Kit over the Turner Motorsport option. Following the Redish Motorsport recommendations for the install I also decided to buy up a set of PowerFlex Street Bushings to replac...

So finally after months and months of searching I was able to find a pretty decent E46 M3 on CarSales.com.au. It was a nice 2003 Titanium Silver example, originally UK registered and now Personally Imported to Australia so as a result it had a few of the setbacks that come with European cars that have been driven during winter (ie extensive underside rust). There was also no evidence of Vanos or Subframe repairs or failure but I already intended on sorting these out myself.  It is hard to find a decent 6MT model here in Australia so I jumped in to this one head first and would address any of the missing preventative maintenance or repair work as I go. Here are a set of pictures taken just prior to purchase that I pulled from the CarSales advertisement: I managed to negotiate to a reasonably agreeable price which I was pretty happy with given the other E46 M3's available on the market and their condition. The car was very straight, with good servic...