Karter16's Silbergrau E46 M3 Journal

[karter16]

Quick project today to replace the rubber steering giubo with a solid coupler from CMP. In the last little while I've had noticeable deadness around centre. The car tracks fine on the road, but small steering inputs are annoying as you have to steer through the deadness before you can make adjustments. I thought it was likely this was the giubo, but can never tell until you try it.

Note: For those of you with LHD please note that you cannot use this item in your LHD car. LHD cars rely on the rubber giubo to account for the slight off-axis play needed in the LHD column. The RHD coupler is different and includes a universal joint, so a solid coupler like this is just fine for RHD, but a no-go for LHD. I recently saw a very sad thread on Facebook where someone asked for peoples' experience with the CMP solid coupler and it was roundly rubbished by a number of people who had used it on their LHD car. Shame for CMP as they make it clear it is an RHD part and sucks to see uninformed customers rubbish a product when they're the ones who have used it incorrectly.

Anyhow - this was a pretty quick project. I'd painted the coupler with matte black enamel as I'm not keen on the flashy purple for my build. The removal of the coupler is trivial, dismantling it and rebuilding is likewise simple so long as you take your time and make sure you prepare the mating surfaces well. All up the project took me about 3 hours to do.



From reading about others experiences of before and after with a solid coupler I was expecting a mild improvement and no additional NVH.

Mine must have been very worn as the difference between before and after was not mild. I could tell as soon as I started manoeuvring the car in the driveway. The rubber was not broken or degraded in any way, but was soft, so the solid coupler has made a massive difference. Steering play is gone and the steering feels more direct and is less spongy. As expected I don't get any unpleasant NVH - just more precise steering control.

$100 well spent.

[karter16]

I almost exclusively use the Xtrons headunit for CarPlay, however on the occasions that I have a need to do something else I find the default Xtrons launcher to be a pretty jarring experience. I've been having a bit of a look around at options, and have had a play around with iDrive Launcher (https://idrive.ibus-app.de/index_en.html). I know that NBT iDrive didn't come on the E46, however it certainly feels a lot less flashy and feels like it fits much better in the E46 than the standard Xtrons launcher. I think it's an acceptable compromise, given I've already compromised by putting newer technology in the E46 anyway.

I have to say I'm super-impressed with the software. It's very nicely built, fast, reliable, configurable. It's a pretty nice experience to get in the car, turn it on and see the BMW boot logo, then the iDrive launcher home menu, then have CarPlay auto-connect.

I've got more work to do to sort out the menus (I don't need the Multimedia, Navigation or ConnectedDrive items for example) but will get that sorted once I've got everything figured out and optimised.

I'm also working on mapping the second (right hand) control knob on the Xtrons unit to the navigation controls for the launcher, if I can get this figured out it means the interface can be controlled with the control knob/SWCs which would be a nice added touch.

Here's a few average iPhone photos - doesn't really do justice to the super-smooth animations/transitions, but you get the idea.








Interestingly these photos also show that I haven't quite got the RGB/luminosity of the head unit illuminated buttons right. I 100% can't tell in person, but the photos clearly show it up - will have a play to get it closer.

[karter16]

It's been a busy few months at work, but I've done a few tiny bits and pieces here and there - quick summary below:

Replaced the broken clamp on the negative battery cable which broke - replacement thanks to a member on the NZ forum.




I also noticed that when I'd installed the new gas struts on the boot, I'd installed them upside down 🤦♂️ so quickly sorted that:




Also realised I didn't update on adjusting the xtrons headunit to fit the dash trim properly. It turned out it needed to be adjusted a lot - more than could be achieved with a file - photo shows how far out it is:




Next up will be getting a chance to get some decent photos of the xtrons and then will write up my thoughts on it now that I've owned it for 6 months or so.

Also waiting for the Yurkan 6 point brace to arrive, it's currently somewhere between Germany and here.

[robgill]

Another little side project I've been working on is this:

As time goes on my collection of spare/new parts continues to increase to the point that it's challenging to keep track in a spreadsheet of what I've purchased/fitted/quantities remaining, etc. I also want to be able to more easily plan out future projects and map that back to parts I have/need to get.

To this end I've setup an inventree instance and loaded into it the complete list of part numbers for my specific VIN. Now that I've got this base setup I can go through my parts shelves, load in the quantities etc. and then I have an easy view of what I've got without having to dig through boxes. When I fit parts I can decrease the stock on hand, etc. I can also make use of some of inventree's other features to build BOMs for projects, track what parts I need to order, etc.

Is this overkill? absolutely, 100%. But it will make things a bit easier for me, plus it's cool to have a complete list of part numbers for reference.

My method is searching email for the part # to see if I already ordered it. Then hunting around my shop for the part I already ordered 😂.

[karter16]

You’re the man, thanks.

Also that’s rad that you’ve got your own inventory tool! Now I’m curious how you got a file that contains your car’s full bill of materials..

I was reading something last night that suggested there's a way of enabling wifi ADB via terminal without root, so I might give that a go when I get a chance.

There's no magic way I got the file unfortunately - it was old-school scrapey scrape (which I left running overnight at a slow pace to not annoy anyone too much).

[Bry5on]

I had a further look into this this evening. Building out the boot animation is easy - here is one attached for 1280x480 screen res: [ATTACH]n263171[/ATTACH]

I installed ADB and enabled developer tools on the Xtrons unit. Unfortunately it seems that the unit doesn't have an option to use wireless debugging. USB is indeed an option, however I don't have any USB headers installed at present, so any further work on this will need to wait until a future point in time.

If anyone else wants to give it a go you're welcome to use the attached file. If you do then let me know how you get on!

You’re the man, thanks.

Also that’s rad that you’ve got your own inventory tool! Now I’m curious how you got a file that contains your car’s full bill of materials..

[karter16]

Another little side project I've been working on is this:



As time goes on my collection of spare/new parts continues to increase to the point that it's challenging to keep track in a spreadsheet of what I've purchased/fitted/quantities remaining, etc. I also want to be able to more easily plan out future projects and map that back to parts I have/need to get.

To this end I've setup an inventree instance and loaded into it the complete list of part numbers for my specific VIN. Now that I've got this base setup I can go through my parts shelves, load in the quantities etc. and then I have an easy view of what I've got without having to dig through boxes. When I fit parts I can decrease the stock on hand, etc. I can also make use of some of inventree's other features to build BOMs for projects, track what parts I need to order, etc.

Is this overkill? absolutely, 100%. But it will make things a bit easier for me, plus it's cool to have a complete list of part numbers for reference.

[karter16]

Jumping back to this but taking it to 10/10.

There’s a boot animation that happens after the splash screen that says “powered by android” and it also appears to be customizable. It seems like the boot animation is fundamentally just PNG files zipped up. Did you consider also replacing the boot animation so it stays consistent with the stock boot up?

background on compiling a custom boot animation: https://emteria.com/blog/custom-boot...id?hs_amp=true

I’ll note that you made the right call with the Xtrons. It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the Avin unit that crapped out on me after two years. I should have switched earlier.

I had a further look into this this evening. Building out the boot animation is easy - here is one attached for 1280x480 screen res: bootanimation.zip
I installed ADB and enabled developer tools on the Xtrons unit. Unfortunately it seems that the unit doesn't have an option to use wireless debugging. USB is indeed an option, however I don't have any USB headers installed at present, so any further work on this will need to wait until a future point in time.

If anyone else wants to give it a go you're welcome to use the attached file. If you do then let me know how you get on!

[karter16]

Checked today and in fact there doesn't appear to be an option to turn off the boot animation. So I still have no idea why I don't see the animation under normal conditions. I confirmed this morning (driving car for first time in several days) that when I turn on/start the car the unit screen turns on, immediately showing the custom boot screen (BMW logo) from there as soon as the logo stops being displayed I'm straight into the home screen of the head unit...

[karter16]

Actually - thinking about this further - I think there's an option to turn off the boot animation that appears after the splash screen (it just shows the splash screen for longer instead) which would explain why I don't see it. Let me double check tomorrow when I'm in the car.

[karter16]

Jumping back to this but taking it to 10/10.

There’s a boot animation that happens after the splash screen that says “powered by android” and it also appears to be customizable. It seems like the boot animation is fundamentally just PNG files zipped up. Did you consider also replacing the boot animation so it stays consistent with the stock boot up?

background on compiling a custom boot animation: https://emteria.com/blog/custom-boot...id?hs_amp=true

I’ll note that you made the right call with the Xtrons. It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the Avin unit that crapped out on me after two years. I should have switched earlier.

Yeah interesting - several people have mentioned the boot animation. I'm not sure why but I don't see it on my unit under normal operation. The only time I ever see it is if I've disconnected the battery and the unit is doing a cold boot, or if I intentionally restart the unit (which I haven't had to do since first setting it up). Under these scenarios the boot animation shows BEFORE the splash screen, I don't see anything appear after the splash screen, it goes straight to the Home Screen/interface. Because of this I haven't made it a priority to look into further, but given a few people have mentioned this I'll give it a go when I get a chance!

Re the Xtrons - I have to say I'm pretty happy with it so far - I've been meaning to write up a bit of a more detailed review of my experience but need to get some time to get some decent photos to go along with the writeup - will try to get that done soon.

[Bry5on]

Nice one - I've very happy with it so far - better than I was expecting for sure.

FWIW he's a copy of the splash screen sized to fit that unit.

Jumping back to this but taking it to 10/10.

There’s a boot animation that happens after the splash screen that says “powered by android” and it also appears to be customizable. It seems like the boot animation is fundamentally just PNG files zipped up. Did you consider also replacing the boot animation so it stays consistent with the stock boot up?

background on compiling a custom boot animation: https://emteria.com/blog/custom-boot...id?hs_amp=true

I’ll note that you made the right call with the Xtrons. It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the Avin unit that crapped out on me after two years. I should have switched earlier.

[karter16]

Read through all of it, amazing work! and I hope everyone is in good health.

Thanks I really appreciate that - we've had a few months of relative calm on the health front which is fantastic and I'm enjoying every moment of it!


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[karter16]

Awesome build. Just picked up a silver grey! Cant wait to start a build thread soon

Thank you! Silver grey is a great colour (if I say so myself!) looking forward to following your build!


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[bavarian3]

Read through all of it, amazing work! and I hope everyone is in good health.