What makes a later model-year M3 more desirable?

[scubastove]

If you want have all the fancy stuff the post facelift M3s have, it's going to cost a few thousand and take many many hours. Also rubber doesn't need miles to crap out. The older it is, the sooner it's going to die. Cosmetics are usually in worst condition in older M3s. In your case, cosmetics are good. LEDs are a must in my opinion. Parts are revised due to failures or lack of efficiency. The rule of thumb on any car is late model cars of any generation have the kinks worked out much more. Subframe wasn't mentioned but the rear subframe is even updated. If we compare an 02 to an 04, I doubt regular owners change oil based on time. The 02 had oil potentially sitting in there months longer than it should have.

PO was an older gentleman who serviced the car religiously, I have record of every oil change and they were all completed within 5k mi intervals. Dude put less than 10k mi/year on it owning it for 19 years.

[ethan]

Can you retrofit MK60? I have an early 01 for example.

I retrofitted a MK60 into one of my MK20 cars. The parts all swap without issue, but the stumbling block is that the MK20 unit is located on the passenger's side and is connected to the precharge pump and brake master on the driver's side by way of brake hard lines which cross the engine bay at the firewall. The MK60 deletes the precharge pump and lives underneath the master on the driver's side. As a result, the hard lines to each corner which mate to the caliper soft lines are completely different for MK60 vs MK20: MK60 lines terminate underneath the brake master, whereas MK20 ones end up in the passenger's "drug bin". My chassis was totally stripped and on a rotisserie, so it wasn't hard to bend custom lines for the MK60 unit, but it's hard to justify doing if you haven't dropped the gas tank and pulled the engine and what not.

[ethan]

Damn, so a 712 yellow tag steering rack won’t work on <09/2002 m3’s??

Mechanically it'll be fine of course, but the DSC will be expecting the slower non-ZCP rack and so may be more intrusive than it was designed for. In practice, the MK20 is so bad that I turn it off all the time anyway...

The MK60 has a coding option for the ZCP rack which adjusts its understanding of steering angle to account for the shorter rack.

[Altaran]

If you find a later model year for the same price in the same condition, then sure why not. I got a good deal on my 02 so that's what I have. The only thing I would desire is putting the later ABS Unit on mine, which I may do if I do an engine swap at some point. I don't care much about the DSC improvement, I have never had an issue driving on track without it; less electronics interfering is better for me. I also don't really car much about LED backlights and most of the other cosmetic changes, makes no difference to me.

[Obioban]

Okay, but I hear about people with all sorts of other cars experiencing "ice mode" on track, including some with 4 channel ABS. It sounds like this is highly situational, but what's the work around for early cars with MK20? Can you retrofit MK60? I have an early 01 for example.

Pull the abs/DSC fuse, though that gives you much worse braking performance all the time and the ability to flat spot your tires. Or... don’t push the braking limits on track.

[old///MFanatic]

Damn, so a 712 yellow tag steering rack won’t work on <09/2002 m3’s??

You’ll have to turn DSC off or it’ll trigger annoyingly.

[scubastove]

Agreed. And besides that, I've actually enjoyed retrofitting everything. The one thing I am not looking forward to (and probably won't do because of the hassle) is the MK60 swap.

Nice, what have you retrofitted?

[Nate047]

I retrofitted a MK60 into one of my MK20 cars. The parts all swap without issue, but the stumbling block is that the MK20 unit is located on the passenger's side and is connected to the precharge pump and brake master on the driver's side by way of brake hard lines which cross the engine bay at the firewall. The MK60 deletes the precharge pump and lives underneath the master on the driver's side. As a result, the hard lines to each corner which mate to the caliper soft lines are completely different for MK60 vs MK20: MK60 lines terminate underneath the brake master, whereas MK20 ones end up in the passenger's "drug bin". My chassis was totally stripped and on a rotisserie, so it wasn't hard to bend custom lines for the MK60 unit, but it's hard to justify doing if you haven't dropped the gas tank and pulled the engine and what not.

Thanks for the in depth follow up, I sent you a PM with some more questions.

[Nate047]

Pull the abs/DSC fuse, though that gives you much worse braking performance all the time and the ability to flat spot your tires. Or... don’t push the braking limits on track.

Yea so I get you can pull the fuse and disable ABS/DSC entirely. But basically what I'm trying to figure out is, how bad is the ABS on these cars compared to other older 3 channel ABS cars? Like is the E46 notably worse in some way, or is it just like what you'd expect from an older ABS system? Sorry, I'm new new to this chassis still and trying to decide if the car I have is worth building or not.

[heinzboehmer]

Nice, what have you retrofitted?

I've done LED tail lights and most recently an MSS54 to MSS54HP conversion. I've been looking into a cluster swap lately. I've been wanting to get a later model smg cluster and experiment with getting the gear display working on a manual car. Recently drove a manual 991.2 4s, which displayed the current gear on a screen by the tach and thought that was pretty cool.

[Gt4]

I think 2005-2006 also have a different LSD unit in the diff.

[Obioban]

I think 2005-2006 also have a different LSD unit in the diff.

The 01 has an 0.01 different final drive ratio. After that they’re all the same.

[Obioban]

Yea so I get you can pull the fuse and disable ABS/DSC entirely. But basically what I'm trying to figure out is, how bad is the ABS on these cars compared to other older 3 channel ABS cars? Like is the E46 notably worse in some way, or is it just like what you'd expect from an older ABS system? Sorry, I'm new new to this chassis still and trying to decide if the car I have is worth building or not.

I don’t know how it compares to older systems.

[usdmej]

what makes an '04 more desirable than an '02?

like for like, that's 2 years of use/possible abuse an 02 has that an 04 has not experienced

[Poowill]

The MK20 cars are actually dangerous, on track, once you get fast because of ice mode.

never heard of this, care to elaborate?