Dream car purchased

[Lushdial]

So I got my dream car from high school - 2003.5 m3 carbon black 6 speed with just under 21k miles.
Was owned the first 15 years or so by an Exonn engineer who did all of the tasteful upgrades and servicing - I assume he did a lot himself. He drove the car a lot the first few years relatively speaking (around 15k miles first 4 years) and then went overseas for exonn and put the car in storage.
The car was then purchased by a collector who had it for 3 years and put less than 1,000 miles on it, but spent 5k paint correcting and doing a full PPF.
here are the mods.
tint, reflector deletes,halos, stealth bulbs,xeno fogs
full ppf after paint correction
ground control race coil overs
ground control f/r sway bars
supersprint s pipe
supersprint x pipe
eisenmann race exhaust
eurobahn superchip
bhs underdrive pullies
euro cross drilled rotors
goodridge Stainless steel brake lines
Uuc evo3 short shifter
stock e46 19s with e92 19s included


passed ppi with flying colors and I had the following just done for initial piece of mind;
-power steering flush
-differential oil and mt fluid replacement
-Brake flush
-coolant flush
-oil change

they checked the subframe and it didn’t have any cracks.

question for you guys....vanos should be addressed with this low of mileage? Rod bearings replaced at factory so good to go there.
best to just buy a refurb vanos and get it installed from my Indy shop?
anything I am missing?
really excited for it to warm up in the Midwest so I can take it out.

[Good]

So I got my dream car from high school - 2003.5 m3 carbon black 6 speed with just under 21k miles.
Was owned the first 15 years or so by an Exonn engineer who did all of the tasteful upgrades and servicing - I assume he did a lot himself. He drove the car a lot the first few years relatively speaking (around 15k miles first 4 years) and then went overseas for exonn and put the car in storage.
The car was then purchased by a collector who had it for 3 years and put less than 1,000 miles on it, but spent 5k paint correcting and doing a full PPF.
here are the mods.
ground control race coil overs
ground control f/r sway bars
supersprint s pipe
supersprint x pipe
eisenmann race exhaust
eurobahn superchip
bhs underdrive pullies
euro cross drilled rotors
goodridge Stainless steel brake lines
Uuc evo3 short shifter

Congrats! Pretty sweet


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[WestBankM4]

Nice pickup man! Sounds like you have a solid platform to begin with.

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[Syfon]

Beautiful purchase. Congrats!

IMHO even though it has very low mileage, I'd still do the vanos and racp for peace of mind. It really depends how you intend on driving it too. If you want to daily it but plan on hurting her every so often, I'd be doind all preventative maintenance now. On the other hand, if you plan on just cruising around with zero track or auto-x or hard street driving, the vanos and racp can likely wait a while.

[Lushdial]

Beautiful purchase. Congrats!

IMHO even though it has very low mileage, I'd still do the vanos and racp for peace of mind. It really depends how you intend on driving it too. If you want to daily it but plan on hurting her every so often, I'd be doind all preventative maintenance now. On the other hand, if you plan on just cruising around with zero track or auto-x or hard street driving, the vanos and racp can likely wait a while.

It will def be a weekend cruiser and won’t be driven daily. Just finally found one worth jumping on and will drive it a few thousand miles a year max.

[liam821]

My first e46m3 had it's subframe done at 9k miles. Just because it hasn't had issues doesn't mean it shouldn't get done right away.

Congratulations on the car though! She's beautiful. I bet that interior is minty fresh.

[DropTopKingM3]

Congrats on your purchase. I would definitely reinforce the subframe and change out the subframe bushings first. The car has very low mileage and the vanos can wait a bit longer.


PS. If you want to unload those style 67 wheels shoot me a PM.

[Obioban]

Nice pickup!

... what was the name of the first owner? I think I might know him...

[jbfrancis3]

Absolutely beautiful. Would love to see some more pics. Congrats!

[Mystic3]

Incredibly low mileage, truly a buy.
with the picture that's loaded it's easy to see the blue black of the carbon black color . when I was looking to purchase Mine, it fooled me a couple of times on pictures I looked at.

[Lushdial]

Nice pickup!

... what was the name of the first owner? I think I might know him...

I have to look it up - he was from Houston.

[Cubieman]

Get the Beisan parts for the vanos or buy them and see if a local indy shop will do the install.
My local shop would ONLY install a new vanos unit from BMW which does NOT solve any problems, they didn't want anything to do with pulling it apart for o-rings, pump disc etc.
But hopefully you have options where you are. It's relatively easy but if you do the upgraded cam sleeve bolts /"anti-rattle" procedure you are going to have to go a bit further and this requires you to reset engine timing, this turned out to be challenging for me as I have zero experience with engine internals and my install didn't exactly go smoothly.
When I bought my M3 the PO listed that the "vanos bolts" had been upgraded, but I had to see it for myself, sure enough they had been done but I did them again as I had the parts.

ANYWAYS...awesome car, looking good!

[stash1]

Nice pick up, and nice garage!

[Rich022]

Wonderful addition!
I'd be surprised if the power steering hoses weren't leaking--so common on these cars. At this crazy low mileage vanos should be fine, however Dr. Vanos has a full refresh kit etc. You certainly can refresh for peace of mind purposes. I also upgraded the exhaust hub and you should replace the plastic chain tensioner while you are there-- I own carbon black also, it's a wonderful color.

[sapote]

question for you guys....vanos should be addressed with this low of mileage?

Congratulations and it's a nice car!
1) The first thing I do is to remove, clean the oil, red Loctite all the cam sleeves 12 bolts. If these bolts back out and sheared off then pistons hit and bend the valves -- major damage. Since your car is low miles so I would not trade in the vanos pump disk for an already machined new smaller holes but unknown other wear and tear on the disk; instead, I would have a machine shop machines your low miles disk to have the 2 new smaller holes given the dimension. Research for the new hole dimension.
2) If you're not going to drive it hard, I would leave the subframe untouched. I think without the reinforcement brackets welded to the floor the next buyer will have clearer view of the subframe condition, and the car has higher value with the stock no cracked floor.