Skip to main content

Car Sales Vehicle Purchase

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 service history and was basically stock aside from the AP Racing BBK.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mishimoto Cooling Upgrade Order

As the car had done ~94k miles I thought it would be time to refresh the cooling system as part of the build project. It also gave me an opportunity to remove the viscous clutch fan, as I have never liked these. This is similar to my dislike for sleeving engines that aren't low-revving V8's, I have no science to support why I don't like them, I just don't. My main driver here was to upgrade to something better than stock with increased reliability. As with my other parts decisions I also wanted to stick to something that for the most part came as a ready to install kit specifically for the E46 M3. Fortunately (or unfortunately) there was a lot of options to chose from when it came to cooling upgrade for the E46 M3. I compiled a list of some of the options I reviewed / considered: Zionsville Radiator Fluidyne Radiator and Oil Cooler C&R Radiator and Oil Cooler Mishimoto Radiator and Oil Cooler CSF Radiator and Oil Cooler I am sure there is more opti...

MK60 DSC Module Identification

While waiting for my engine and ECU to be delivered I thought I would try and confirm if I have a MK60 DSC Module. This would allow me to enable M-Track Mode (CSL style DSC) through INPA when I get the car back together. Firstly I had to try figure out my modules serial / part number. Unfortunately this is very hard to do with the unit installed but I really didn't want to disassemble it... despite the fact the rest of the car is in pieces... To do this I used and Inspection Mirror and my camera to take a photo of the back of the unit where the identification information is. As you can see from the picture (although inverted by the mirror), I have a 10.0960-0813.3 unit. Next I did a bit of research on the MK60 DSC Module. There are a few good threads on the topic: MK60 DSC Thread MK60 ABS Standalone Info So it turns out the 0813.3 unit is the same hardware as the CSL unit but with a different software version. It can be modified or re-flashed with the CSL software,...

///M Clubsport Door Sills Search

Whilst starting the preparation and install for my Karbonius CSL Carbon Fibre Roof I started thinking about the final overall style of the car again. It particularly came to the front of my mind when a friend, who was working with me on the roof install, asked what the deal with the CS badge on the boot was. I realised tat whilst that choice had made sense to me it may not really land with others who are unfamiliar with BMWs and understand the history of the CS badging or the idea of what the Clubsport moniker encapsulates. From previous research and investigations into Clubsport branding from BMW that I could use to keep the style I knew of the somewhat rare E46 330i Clubsport so i thought I should take another look to see if there was anything from that that might help pull the theme together at all. It was at that point that I came across the ///M Clubsport door sills that are used on the  E46 330i Clubsport.  They struck me as perfect to help tie the theme together. They a...