heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[heinzboehmer]

Here are the parts lists and instructions if anyone wants them. Again, pretty happy with how it turned out with the exception of the engine stand. Let me know if anyone wants the design files to tweak things.

[eml]

Here are the parts lists and instructions if anyone wants them. Again, pretty happy with how it turned out with the exception of the engine stand. Let me know if anyone wants the design files to tweak things.

Hmmm ... am getting "Invalid File Specified" errors

[heinzboehmer]

Hmmm ... am getting "Invalid File Specified" errors

Weird, but I got the same error. I've reuploaded everything and now it's working for me.

[eml]

Weird, but I got the same error. I've reuploaded everything and now it's working for me.

All good now - thanks! Now the hunt for pieces begins.

[heinzboehmer]

May 2020

Rented some shop space to replace clutch, flywheel, and other transmission parts. I can't imagine doing this on jack stands and commend those who do. Ended up spending 12.2 hours without breaks, but got everything done in a day. The thing I spent the longest on was getting the transmission out. I put it on the transmission jack but apparently didn't tie it down tight enough. This let the trans rotate and get stuck on the trans tunnel. Took me about an hour to straighten it back up and pull it out.

I had originally planned to replace all transmission seals, detents and the rear main seal. Ended up just replacing the shift selector rod seal. I've had bad experiences with radial seals before, so I also decided against doing the rear main seal, since it looked totally fine. Hopefully I don't regret this decision. I did replace all detents, except for those inside the bell housing, since I couldn't find a way to get the detent caps out without removing the bell housing.

Plastic pivot pin looked fine for ~121k mi. Some mushrooming was present, but hadn't failed (those marks on the side are from the vise grips I used to pull it out).



Also found that my shifter bushing carrier had ripped out of the transmission tunnel. No clue if this was was due to having a poly bushing in or due to me being too aggressive when installing my shift knob in the past.




Replaced everything with stock parts and an AutoSolutions AutoCross SSK. I know that coming from a shifter with a ripped out carrier isn't the best comparison, but the AS SSK feels way, way better. I'm glad I decided to go with this.

Also, it's pretty crazy how far off center my previous 330d shifter was.

330d:


AutoSolutions:


Clutch and flywheel looked like I expected them to at this mileage. Not terrible, but I'm glad I changed them:




Also took the opportunity to replace the FCABs with new OE ones. This is what my hands looked like at the end of the day. Hoping I don't have to do this again anytime soon:

[heinzboehmer]

May 2020

A couple weeks later, I took off my airbox to fix the underside bung for the line that leads to the oil pan. I found that that bung and the one on top for the shut off valve were a bit too big to let the connectors snap correctly into place. I decided to modify the plastic connectors. Filed them down until they snapped correctly into place. This is what the bottom connector looked like after the modification:



Also took the opportunity to snap a picture of my MAP and IAT wiring for future reference.



After that I modified the original brake duct snorkel thing to fit with the Karbonius snorkel. This is what I ended up cutting off. I probably should have cut a bit higher, but there's not much I can do about that now.



Tried my best to take a picture of the duct with the snorkel installed:



With the airbox off. I noticed I hadn't plugged the hole where the alternator cable bracket goes, which meant a small amount of unfiltered air was being allowed in.



Plugged it with a screw I found laying around and some threadlocker:




Messing around with the airbox made me realize just how dirty I had let my engine bay get, so I did this:



Right side clean, left side still dirty:





And finally all clean:



Looks so much better!

[timmo]

Geez, was the shifter extra-wobbly before you realized the carrier was loose? Also I think I may be coming up on FCABs in the near future, hopefully it's not too bad of a job

[heinzboehmer]

Geez, was the shifter extra-wobbly before you realized the carrier was loose? Also I think I may be coming up on FCABs in the near future, hopefully it's not too bad of a job

Honestly the shifter felt fine. I attributed the looseness to worn bushings. Only weird thing I had noticed was that if I was in second and pulled the shifter backwards it would vibrate. Doesn't do it anymore.

I think the reason why I hadn't noticed the carrier was loose was because it was resting on the sound deadening, which was acting like a much worse carrier bracket. When I removed everything, the sound deadening crumbled away in my hands. It probably would have only lasted a little more before it broke off on its own and let the shifter fall onto the driveshaft. That trans tunnel picture shows just how bad it was. Glad I caught it when I did.

FCABs are actually pretty simple. A three jaw puller makes removal super easy and lubing the new bushings up with dish soap allows you to push them on with your hands. Make sure to use dish soap, it's the only thing that actually worked for me. Also make sure to line up the bracket correctly before trying to thread in the bolts. Because of how the whole suspension is fighting you when aligning them, it's easy to thread the bolts incorrectly and cross thread the mounts.

[heinzboehmer]

Forgot to add this. I developed a battery drain problem a few weeks ago. The battery would go flat in about two days or so. Measured current consumption and it was about 1 A when the car was supposed to be asleep. Started pulling fuses and found that the current consumption dropped by about 0.8 A when the radio fuse was disconnected. After disconnecting every single thing that had to do with the radio, I found that the actual CD 53 head unit was the problem.

Bought a used head unit off of someone on the forums, combined the plastics off both to build one with the least worn components, and the drain was gone. This also fixed my dead pixel issue, since the unit I bought had all pixels working just fine.

[skristedja]

Awesome journal. I'd love to hear more about how you did the mss54hp conversion! I'm thinking of attempting it and will probably have the same questions you had. If you can share what terra and nz helped you with that would be a huge help!

[heinzboehmer]

Awesome journal. I'd love to hear more about how you did the mss54hp conversion! I'm thinking of attempting it and will probably have the same questions you had. If you can share what terra and nz helped you with that would be a huge help!

Thanks! I documented all the hardware process here: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...p-csl-h-bridge and then flashed the new chips with an FGTech Galletto 4 using the same process documented here: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...ech-galletto-4

[skristedja]

Thanks! I documented all the hardware process here: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...p-csl-h-bridge and then flashed the new chips with an FGTech Galletto 4 using the same process documented here: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/s...ech-galletto-4

Thank you for documenting this! I thought it was lost when m3f went the way of the dinosaur. So cool that the e46 community is so helpful! I'm probably going to be giving this a shot in the next couple months.

[heinzboehmer]

Thank you for documenting this! I thought it was lost when m3f went the way of the dinosaur. So cool that the e46 community is so helpful! I'm probably going to be giving this a shot in the next couple months.

Nice, feel free to reach out with any questions.

[M3tro81]

Here are the parts lists and instructions if anyone wants them. Again, pretty happy with how it turned out with the exception of the engine stand. Let me know if anyone wants the design files to tweak things.

Epic! Thanks for providing this. My kids are always playing with LEGO, now I get to have a set all to myself!

[heinzboehmer]

Just realized that my car got featured in the listing of an apartment I went to take a look at.



That garage was ridiculously tight. It opened up towards the back, but my mirrors were about two inches from the wall at the front. Can't imagine parking in there everyday.