General E46 thread
 

The other day I wanted to post a tiny e46 victory, but didn't want to start a new thread or hijack someone elses. I figured I would start a thread for any random e46 stuff that didn't deserve it's own. We got the little wagon back from the body shop all fixed up. Before we dropped it off it had a small coolant leak. I was able to diagnose and fix it in my work parking lot as a return temp sensor o-ring. $2.75, 10 minutes of my time and no tools needed later all was fixed. Yea!
Here it is post body shop

And now for the real reason I started this thread:

BOOM!!!
COMFORT SEATS

These were the ones I got out of an E53 after reading they were drop in replacements.

They are. The install was very easy and they are such an improvement over my old base model vinyl ones.

I like this thread. :)

Status report on my E46:

15 years old with 148,xxx miles.

Still running strong, still enjoy driving her.

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Wow, comfort seats are awesome! What a huge upgrade!!!

That is sweet!

Well all's well that ends well, I guess... but...

I decided to take her out for a drive last night and quickly realized the seat belts didn't fit in the seat receptacles. The SRS light was also on. Long story short, the donor car had been in an airbag accident and when that happens, the seat belt receptacles pre-tension and become unusable. This morning I pulled the seats back out, swapped on the receptacles from the old e46 seats (I had to splice one wire, but it wasn't much of a PITA) and put it back in. I have the BMWHat app and Mycarly OBD programmer so I was able to reset the SRS light and now all truly is well.

The seat belts needing replacement wasn't mentioned on the seat listing. Had I know, I probably would have gone with these:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hQEAA...SK6/s-l500.jpg

e63 M6 seats. They are also a drop in, but this ad disclosed the need for new seatbelts.

Yeah, but, weeks/months from now this PITA won't matter, you will even chuckle about it

Argh I hate when you think your done with a project and then you find out something is wrong and you have to redo it but it is good to know this doesn't only happen to me :D

That's a whole lot of fancy seat for an E46 wagon ;).

When are you going to put in the M steering wheel?

Right after I win the argument with my wife and put a real transmission in it.

:D

Good luck with that!

Seriously, good luck with that

I had my M3 SMG wheel before I even took delivery of the [new] E46. This is a shot from some years later after additional changes were made (the big one you can see is the Birch Anthracite Individual trim). Yup, the paddles on the steering wheel are hooked up to the automatic for gear selection.

https://www.glaver.org/bmw/6F5S1921-l.jpg

Yeah, the m3 steering wheel is well worth it. Especially compared to the non-sport wheel. Though it may look funny next to those lounge chair seats. Haha

I also bought the M3 wheel and clear corners and had them installed at the dealer when my then new 01 330ci came in. Wouldn't you know by the next year the clears where standard.

And now clears on a E46 are considered passé.

:cool:


weird that I use to love clears but do not now:confused:

That's just beautiful.

Was that pic taken in 2004? Looks brand new!

Thanks!

I will be placing it for sale shortly.


Photo was taken this past Monday (09.04.17)

Miles?

Under 92,000

It is a 6 speed... The exterior is not flawless, door dings and clear coat failure on the roof rails and the top of three out of four door handles. The interior is a 8 out of 10, headliner sagging in the rear (common on E46). Mechanically the vehicle is very sound. Car is originally from Austin, Texas (rust free) I have all books, keys, and records. The original owner owned the vehicle until late March 2016. We purchased it early May 2016.

Edit: added some pics

Why are you selling so soon?

Will discuss via PM.

Which year is it?

'04

06.25.04 build date

09.22.04 in-service date

I bought clears for my 01 E46. Installed them, took them off 2-3 weeks later.

IMHO clears didn't look right against red car

Ha. It's kind of crazy how some of these cars sat when they were new. I remember the one that I bought had been on the lot for a while when I pulled the trigger.

EDIT: So does that mean no Bluetooth? Was that an '05 only thing?

Who loves window regulators

Woof. I had my 330i for 7 years and never had the regulator problem. Did have the sunroof cover run of the rails, though.

I never realized that this is what happens. Looks like a really bad design. Also, sort of looks like my fishing reel.

Me. I’ve had three of the four done on my E39. Still waiting for the ticking time bomb fourth.

Yeah, I've replace only one (driver window) in 14 years. And I open the window every day to badge into my office.

I wonder why they are so inconsistently reliable.

Now that to think about it, it was probably about 7 years ago. I wonder if this thread will trigger mine to fail now. :speechle:

I think the coupes failed much faster. Probably the same part, but the glass was bigger and heavier. I had 2 fail on my ‘01 in the nearly 4 years I had it...

Makes sense.

We'll add this to the list if reasons why sedans > coupes :D

I had no issues on any of my e46s until about 2 years ago. Since then I think I've done 5, this is the second drivers side door replacement. I've never seen one spool a cable like this.

Anyway, it is replaced and working, albeit slower than I would like. Seems like there is a lot of friction.

That doesn't sound good for longevity.

I think we did regulators 7 times in the first three years of the '02 325xiT.

I just replaced my fuel pump about a month ago, my 2nd pump in 15 years/150,000 miles.

As far as regulators, I've done 2: RR and LF.