Skip to main content

Hack Engineering Power Steering Lines

There was a fair few things that bothered me when I stripped the car. The main one was the use of "push-on" fittings which were a pain to use and most of which had perished to the point of requiring destructive removal. Given this and the terrible state of all the power steering hoses I knew straight away that I wanted to find an after-market alternative to replace the aged hoses and try and remove the "push-on" fittings from the system.







 During my research I found that there was a fair few people out there that had hose companies make them up replacement hoses instead of getting OEM replacements. As much as I liked the idea of this it still left me with basically the same hose setup so I kept looking and stumbled across the Hack Engineering Power Steering Lines Sets (for E46 M3).



There were three options to chose from:
  1. Replace the lines but keep the "push-on" connectors to the cooler
  2. Replace the lines and upgrade the cooler to AN fittings
  3. Replace the lines and upgrade the cooler to an aftermarket option
Obviously option 1 was no good as it kept the very connectors I wanted to remove so it had to be option 2 or 3. I didn't really see much of a need to upgrade to an aftermarket cooler and also believed that if I had upgraded all the lines to AN fittings then I could swap in an aftermarket cooler at a later date if it became apparent that it was required. So with that in mind I settled on Option 2 and placed an order.



 I am hoping that this works as intended and I don't suffer any power steering fluid temperature issues as I am not really keen to procure and mount an aftermarket cooler just for the power steering rack. I guess we will have to wait until I get this in and get it to the track, but anecdotally I have never heard of anyone having any power steering fluid temperature issues so this should work out.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Purple Tag Steering Rack

Given the age of the car and the condition of the steering rack I decided that I should investigate a rebuild or upgrade. My research brought me to a great thread over at M3Forum written by forum member Volke -  Comprehensive Steering Information Thread  (updated to NAM3Forum link). It seems as though the dead feeling I had been experiencing on my stock rack was due to the progressive nature of the stock E46 M3 rack. An "upgrade" or remedy to this would be the CS/CSL steering rack, E46 330i steering rack or a few options from the Z cars. Taking my research back over to M3Cutters (as M3Forum better serves LHD cars and my car is a Euro, hence RHD) I found that the E46 330i Steering Rack is normally noted with a "Purple Tag" on RHD cars and so a common upgrade is the Purple Tag Steering Rack upgrade.  As I dug further it seems that as this steering rack came off a more standard car they were cheaper and easier to come by - especially refurbished/rebuilt - and showed co...
Post a Comment
Read more

Engine Search

Iv'e been searching for a decent priced second hand engine or E46 M3 wreck for some time now to no avail. There have been a few pop up but their history has been questionable and the price too high considering I would need to purchase them sight unseen as they are not local. I have started to expand my search international and re-think some other potential options to get the car back on the road.
Post a Comment
Read more

Radium Automotive Order

After deciding on an purchasing a Evolve Carbon Fibre intake I wanted to look into an Oil Catch Can to protect the new intake from vented crank-case gases. There are multiple generic options out there ranging from ECS Tuning, to Mishimoto and there is obviously the option to build a custom kit, all of which would meet the brief. Although, as usual, I wanted a ready to go kit for this car. After a bit of research the only ready to go kit I could find for the E46 M3 was the Radium Automotive Oil Catch Can Kit . Checking out their website I also found a few other E46 M3 parts/kits they had on offer; Fuel Surge Tank Kit , Fuel Rail Kit and Fuel Pump Install Kit . Unfortunately I fell in love with their high build quality and marketing material as very quickly I found myself wanting it all. So as a result I set out to justify why I might need all of it. The Fuel Pump Install Kit was the easiest to justify in some ways as I was at the level of mileage where it would be prudent to re...
Post a Comment
Read more