storeys66

Does anyone know how much power and torque the auto gearbox in a facelifted E46 330i M-Sport saloon could safely take? My car's completely standard at the moment, but I'm toying with the idea of a tuned M3 CSL (S54) engine and rear axle conversion.

Right, I've seen a couple of other people do it abroad and I think it's time to try it on home turf... No, not that. I'm talking about an E46 saloon M3 conversion. I currently have a facelift E46 330i M-Sport auto saloon and I really fancy switching M3 CSL running gear into it, but keeping the outside as standard as possible, making it a brilliant sleeper (but maybe with a custom 332i badge on the back to let the connoisseurs know what's underneath). I live in the Bristol area and was wondering whether there's a BMW specialist in the area who might be prepared to get involved with a project like this? I'm not a mechanic, but I'd love to be involved and do as much as I can myself. However, I don't have the space or the gear, nor the expertise. Related to this, is it possible to convert an auto to a manual or SMG? I understand that the SMG is just a manual gearbox, but with a special module added on instead of a clutch pedal, etc. Cheers.

Evening all. So, all 4 tyres on my E46 are going to need changing soon. As a subscriber of EVO, I see that the Continental Sport Contact 5 won the annual tyre test. However, I understand that BMW recommend Michelin Pilot Sports. Anyone got any experience of either of these tyres? I can get them both in the right sizes (225/40Y18 and 255/35Y18) and they'll both be around £600 fitted for the full set of 4. Cheers.

Yeah, in fairness it did look like a truly monumental amount of work went into it, especially for the body. The rest see,ed to be a pretty straightforward swap (running gear and interior). As for the cost, I suspect that having a perfectly good M3 coupe at your disposal helps keep part costs down (if you overlook the cost of buying it in the first place). Still, I bet it probably cost more to convert then buying a decent used M3 CSL... I'd still probably say it was worth it ough, as it's pretty much unique. I've seen a few pics floating around the net of a silver E46 Ms estate that's claimed to be a genuine BMW prototype... Not sure how accurate that is, but it looks factory finish and it would make sense that BMW at least carried out a feasibility study to see what changes would need to be made for the saloon and estate body.

Massive thanks to you all for the possible problems... The testing of brake disc temperatures after a quick run suggested it was a sticking caliper on the front off-side. I took it down to my local independent specialist, Sam at Autobase Bristol, and it did indeed turn out to be a sticking front off-side brake caliper. The wheels were out of alignment too, which probably didn't help matters. It's all fixed now and runs like it should. The only remaining niggle is that the steering wheel is still not straight when the car's pointing dead ahead. If anything, it now seems even more off centre... I can probably live with that though.

Hey Ceri. Welcome to the club! Lovely looking car you've got there. I've alwayd loved those split 5-spoke alloys. There's definitely some added cool about the 7 following James Bond's use of one...

Am finding out that maintaining older BMW's as "the ultimate driving machine" can be something of a labour of love, not to mention a little on the pricey side... Still, I'm still saying it's worth it to hear that straight six growl and experience the bomb-proof build quality.

Anyone else noticed how the facelifted E46 coupe tail lights look pretty similar to the Ministry of Sound logo?

Hey Dan. Cheers for that. I've got it booked in at my local independent specialist (not paying £108 for BMW to spend 45 mins pondering what it could be) on Thurs. Hopefully they'll be able to check all of the callipers and bushes when it's up on the ramps. I'll keep people posted about what it turns out to be. Hopefully not an imbalanced prop-shaft (another potential diagnosis)!

So I've seen a few photos online of a conversion that a forum user called JeppeJ carried out where he purchased a 2-door M3 and a 4-door 318i ES in order to make a 4-door M3. He used all of the M3 parts where possible, with the exception of new M3 rear wings and a carbon M3 CSL bootlid. The conversion looked spectacular at the end, like a genuine BMW E46 M3 saloon! Does anyone know whether it's possible to buy the body parts for a stock looking M3 conversion for the E46 saloon? It looked like the hardest parts of the conversion were the front and rear wings, as well as the rear tail light surrounds and mounts. I really quite fancy creating an E46 M3 saloon, perhaps even to CSL spec... ;)

Evening all, I've had my 2003 330i M-Sport auto saloon for over a month now and have covered a little under 1000 miles in it. Everything's brilliant on it, apart from a pretty worrying problem... At speeds between 40mph and 60mph, there's a judder / shaking through the steering that gets worse. In fact, it gets so bad that the whole car starts shaking quite severely :wacko:. I appreciate that there are hundreds of possible causes for this, including sticking brake callipers, wheels being off balance, worn control arm bushes, dodgy wheel alignment, etc. One thing I have noticed is that the nearside rear tyre pressure decreases more noticeably than it should, but that when the pressure is lower, the shaking is much less noticeable. The shaking goes away almost completely at speeds over 60mph, although I can feel a much higher frequency vibration through the steering wheel at around 85mph (where permitted, of course). Does anyone have any bright ideas for things I should look to eliminate before starting on the journey of replacing my entire suspension setup bit by bit? I've already had the wheels balanced :huh:... Cheers all, Sam

Sorry Stu, just seen from your website that you do 4-wheel alignment... Very smart website too I should say!

Hi Stu. Thanks for coming back to me on this one. It's much appreciated. What sort of availability have you got and can you do 4-wheel alignment?

I contacted my local BMW / MINI dealer this morning (d*ck Lovett, Bristol) to see about getting my car booked in for a diagnostic check to try and figure out what's wrong with the parking sensors and what's causing the very pronounced wobble through the steering wheel at motorway speeds and under heavy braking (not the wheels or tyres as I just had them checked)... They want £108 for 45mins diagnostic time, but this would go up if it takes longer to assess!! They're also booked up for the next week. So, do any of you friendly and knowledgable people know what might be causing really pronounced wobbles of the steering wheel ocassionally at motorway speeds and under heavy braking? Like I say, the wheels have just been balanced and the tyres all put to the correct pressure. My non-technical diagnosis would be something like suspension arms, suspension bushes, warped brake discs, wheel bearings, wheel hubs, etc... I don't really want to drive it too much, as it was really disconcerting today.