Skip to main content

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 comparative value over getting my stock M3 rack rebuilt. It only took me a quick search on GumTree to find a local Steering Rack re-builder that was trading in rebuilt BMW steering racks to find a rebuilt ready-to-go Purple Tag rack for a good price.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

///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...

///M3 CS (ClubSport) Badging

As part of the overall theme of my car build I have wanted to set my car apart from other less modified or standard E46 M3s whilst staying true to a BMW styling. I wanted the car to look like it could have come off the factory floor as a BMW option package and drive well on the street, whilst also tearing up on the track. This is part of why for most of my build I have referred to it as a Clubsport build and this gave me the idea to try capture that naming and apply it to the theme of the car. There was never officially a BMW E46 M3 Clubsport as the BMW E46 M3 CS that Europe got was actually a Coupe Sport and obviously the CSL was the pinnacle model which as discussed previously I cannot really replicate from. So I started thinking about badging and labeling and was reminded of some of the M3Forum guys with Supercharged M3s who use a CSL badge but switch it around to give themselves a ///M3 sc which I always thought was kind of cool and set them apart without being too tacky. The use o...

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...