Diaries of a Daily Driver
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I've been low key looking for an E92 M3 for a year or two now, and have had little success in finding what I was after. Recently a forum members old M3 went up for sale for a staggeringly good price, but there was error in communications and it went to a dealer who then wanted 5k more than they got it for and wouldn't budge on it. Since then I had been keeping a more serious eye out.
This popped up the other day so I contemplated it for a day or two (that s52 head rebuild was not cheap) and decided to go look at it and deal with my decisions later. Needless to say it came home with me.
Awesome dealer specializing in higher end cars, he appreciated how thorough I was being in my inspection and questions and he was very honest with me about the whole thing. We struck up a deal and away I went.
Also got a ride in his FBO F90 M5 with meth that was ~800 AWHP and holy hell I have never felt something launch like that before.Anywho
08 M3 6mt 105k, carbon roof, black interior, premium and comfort package, Vorsteiner wheels, KW coils, glorified straight pipes on it (zero rasp, sounds amazing, just a bit loud inside)
It has been a riot thus far
I don’t think I could possibly be any more jealous. I’d do anything to just hear a perfect rev match down shift, gotta send a lil tingle down the spine. Congrats, this is an absolute beautiful car/spec!!
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I don’t think I could possibly be any more jealous. I’d do anything to just hear a perfect rev match down shift, gotta send a lil tingle down the spine. Congrats, this is an absolute beautiful car/spec!!
The perfect rev match downshift with three pedals is a thing of glory, and I manage to get them perfect about half the time hahah.
Drivers side audio sound a tad bit like tin. Played with it and found the drivers side underseat sub to be dead. Unbolted the seat and took the cover off for the speaker and was greeted by a non stock low range speaker. 9v test proved it was dead, so will need to replace that.
Other than that so far so good
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I think you have to keep the white E30 now with having this. Think of the Instagram likes!
Ah yes, instagram likes, my primary concern!
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A couple small fixes
The drivers side headlight had its vertical adjustments backwards, Lee noted the SMC is the module responsible for these things, and that module helped me google my way through finding out the reset through ProTools (possible best $150 license I've ever bought). After a recode the headlight went right where it should and all motor directions are correct.
Drivers mirror was drifting around between drives which was annoying. Found a thread linking this issue to corroded pins in the mirror motor connector, so I pulled it all apart, cleaned up the contacts, and applied a smidge of dielectric grease before reinstalling. It seems 99% of people have had success with this, so I hope I keep the trend going!
The driveway situation, before I put the truck in front of the 128 and E30
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The best angle for an E92 M...
Short exhaust clip for the kids
I replaced the plugs, and it makes me sad how bad the old ones were.
This thing is a f*cking riot to drive
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Exhaust drone from 1800-3000 rpm is a bit.. strong.
Found a stock muffler for $20 right near my house, so I went and picked it up. Installed it, started it, rolled back under the car and took it out, way too quiet. Will be cracking it open and replacing one of the perforated tubes in each side to get some volume out of it.
Current exhaust is interesting, and done well. At this point those cans are completely empty though. I will be grabbing some mufflers to replace them with as well and see how that goes. $50 for some cherry bombs cant be worse than it is haha.
All to avoid spending $700 on the muffler I truly want.
A friend has a set of quick jacks, these things are really slick, and for $1300 it is a pretty sweet option. The older I get the less I care to jack up a lowered car and put it on stands...
I've been working on a priority list of things I want to do on this car, as none of it is cheap. Wheels / tires could stand to be replaced and the engine / driveline could use some maintenance. I miss having a proper winter that keeps me from wanting to drive cars, they don't salt anything out here so it is just a slide-fest.
I don't want to sell my other cars (E30's) but man I haven't touched them
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We got a bunch of snow recently, had to move the M3 out of the garage to work on other things. She didn't like the cold.
Ordered rod bearings, motor mounts, and exhaust gaskets.
I really enjoy this thing. I have neglected all other vehicles since obtaining the M3...
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We got a bunch of snow recently, had to move the M3 out of the garage to work on other things. She didn't like the cold.
Ordered rod bearings, motor mounts, and exhaust gaskets.
I really enjoy this thing. I have neglected all other vehicles since obtaining the M3...Sure the S65 is like the S54 with constant debate about which bearings are the best, coated vs non coated etc. Curious what you ended up going with?
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Sure the S65 is like the S54 with constant debate about which bearings are the best, coated vs non coated etc. Curious what you ended up going with?
You are oh so correct about there being thousands of posts and debates about what is best.
I avoided coated bearings as it seems they are typically coating stock sized bearings, which is extra not good.
I went with BE bearings and bolts, as it seems they are the most consistent in sizing and you are basically paying for them to check and provide matched sets over something like ACL's where you want to mix shells to get extra clearance but not too much. I don't want to have to be in there twice so the extra couple dollars for QC is worth it to me.
In looking at the journal dimensions and bearing tolerances I quickly understand why these have bearing failures, that's a damn tight clearance!
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Doing the BE bearings with the ARP install hardware is by far the best move. That peace of mind of worth the money. Best money I spent on my car. They’re the most popular choice out there (when they’re available). I haven’t seen a single failure on the forums when they’ve been installed.
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It was a very busy couple of days for the M3!
At 109k miles I did the rod bearings and bolts, motor mounts, header gaskets, trans mounts, driveshaft center support bearing, trans fluid, and engine oil.
The motor mount on passenger side was two pieces, and the drivers side was collapsed and the oil pan was resting on the sway bar.Bearings looked acceptable for the mileage, but good to have piece of mind that they're done.
The motor had been replaced by the dealer at around 300 miles for a stuck injector, and it looks like they didn't do the header gaskets correctly...
The drive after felt great, significantly smoother with the engine not rocking around in there and being properly isolated from vibrations.
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Now you can rev to the moon with no fears! ALL THE RPM's!!!!
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What's better than having 5 vehicles? Having 6!
A poor picture for intro, but its the only one I have right meowThis was a spur of the moment decision, and is planned to replace my truck and 1 series.
2011 x5 35d Sports package, HUD, 360 cam, premium package, pano sunroof, and a set of snow tires + to go with itMore details / photos later
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Hitch installed
Nice an easy access to get that one installed.......
Got a bike rack after much deliberation. Settled on a 1up Recon 5 vertical rack. 5 places for bikes, pivots out of the way of the hatch, and weighs a cool 95lbs! I've been enjoying it vs the truck
Did some light off-road driving in Whistler to car camp after a day of biking (full size mattress fits perfectly with the seats folded down) and found I need to get rid of the 20's as soon as possible.
Went up to Mazama to visit a friend, rock climb, mountain bike, and go for a hike and brought the X5.
On the way back got an error for oil level over max, which I thought was odd as I had checked it after purchase and the oil level was near the top, but not over. Checked on the dipstick and it was indeed over the max mark, meaning the oil level sensor was intact. The oil smelled like diesel so the hunt was on. After pulling up the coolant temp and driving around a bit I found that the thermostat is stuck open, and am trying to find when the last DPF regen was as it likely got up to temp to be able to do a regen while climbing the mountains, but then cooled down and just dumped all that extra fuel into the oil. I can't get the coolant temp to go over 150 on the highway, with 140 being the average. Running temp is to be in the 190-195 range, so I'm getting plenty of fuel past the pistons.New thermostat and EGR delete on the way! Of course with an oil change in the next couple of days.
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Glad mine had the hitch already! Curious to hear about the delete job. How many miles on yours?
133k
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