From what I have found the reason the frames are cracking is fatigue failures. Same issue with aircraft hulls and the pressure changes. The metal eventually begins to fracture with constant pressurization and un-pressurization.
The fatigue part on an E46 m3 is the loading and unloading going around turns. This constant flexing causes the area to fail. Bad job by BMW not to beef this up as this is a performance car. The stiffer suspension only acerbates the issue faster. As the car has 59000 hard miles on it from back roads driving and being on CA roads I guess I am not surprised to know I would potentially have the issue.
Last, of the changes at this point in time was the 3.91 gears installed. These were immediate change I could feel when driving the car home after all the work was done. I took an image of the old 3.61 stock gears for history's sake.
By December 2012, the day has finally come to take the car to the shop and install all the remaining parts. This was a good day as I was getting tired of all the parts taking up space in my office. Before I loaded all the parts into the car, I went through and took images of each item so I had a record of what was being installed.
As the E46 M3 CSL is such a popular car, most BMW enthusiasts have seen the following parts images. As most of these parts would never been seen individually again I wanted to document them and take images of different angles I had never seen. My hope is by sharing these that fellow enthusiasts see things they have never seen before. An example in my case was the flares on the CSL Center console, which in images I had never noticed, as the angles never caught the subtleness of the flare.
First group is miscellaneous parts needed for the CSL intake install.
CSL Splitter and SMG expansion tank
Hidden air ducting and air filter
CSL Un-Filtered Housing
CSL Snorkel Intake
CSL Center Console
CSL Cams and Followers
CSL Main Filtered Housing
CSL Main Filtered Housing
I did want to share one image that proves the fiancée / soon to be wife at this point is allowed to drive the M3. Granted she does not like that much because it has the SMG system. She preferred to drive the 1M as it is a proper manual car. Images was taken and a social event in August at a parking garage in Down town Sacramento.
December 2012 and I loaded all the parts into the M3 and the fiancé’s Subaru. This is the last image of the car in its current configuration all be as it is transformed into a US Spec CSL car.
The fatigue part on an E46 m3 is the loading and unloading going around turns. This constant flexing causes the area to fail. Bad job by BMW not to beef this up as this is a performance car. The stiffer suspension only acerbates the issue faster. As the car has 59000 hard miles on it from back roads driving and being on CA roads I guess I am not surprised to know I would potentially have the issue.
Last, of the changes at this point in time was the 3.91 gears installed. These were immediate change I could feel when driving the car home after all the work was done. I took an image of the old 3.61 stock gears for history's sake.
By December 2012, the day has finally come to take the car to the shop and install all the remaining parts. This was a good day as I was getting tired of all the parts taking up space in my office. Before I loaded all the parts into the car, I went through and took images of each item so I had a record of what was being installed.
As the E46 M3 CSL is such a popular car, most BMW enthusiasts have seen the following parts images. As most of these parts would never been seen individually again I wanted to document them and take images of different angles I had never seen. My hope is by sharing these that fellow enthusiasts see things they have never seen before. An example in my case was the flares on the CSL Center console, which in images I had never noticed, as the angles never caught the subtleness of the flare.
First group is miscellaneous parts needed for the CSL intake install.
CSL Splitter and SMG expansion tank
Hidden air ducting and air filter
CSL Un-Filtered Housing
CSL Snorkel Intake
CSL Center Console
CSL Cams and Followers
CSL Main Filtered Housing
CSL Main Filtered Housing
I did want to share one image that proves the fiancée / soon to be wife at this point is allowed to drive the M3. Granted she does not like that much because it has the SMG system. She preferred to drive the 1M as it is a proper manual car. Images was taken and a social event in August at a parking garage in Down town Sacramento.
December 2012 and I loaded all the parts into the M3 and the fiancé’s Subaru. This is the last image of the car in its current configuration all be as it is transformed into a US Spec CSL car.
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