Obioban's 2005 IR/IR Coupe

[Obioban]

I've had a rethink on how I'm going to route it through the undertray.

I'm going to pass it through right below the sway bar mount bracket. But, instead of drilling a 3" hole and sticking the tube through, I'm going to print a bracket. On the far side I'll add some BMW under trim screw clips. The bracket will pass through and insert into another bracket on the other side. Screws will pass through the outside bracket, then through the underbody panel, then into the far side bracket with attached screw clips. This should minimize the hassle for any project where the undertray has to come out, or where I need the ducting out of the wheel well for car work, and make replacement hose easier (and less of it required) if something happens to the hose in the wheel well.

Inside bracket:



Outside bracket:



3 screws will take everything apart, while leaving the hose clamped onto the bracket

[Obioban]

Brand new parts are so satisfying to work with. It's like having a CA car :roll:

CSL kingpins (with anti seize), Hard Motorsports 355mm brake duct backing plates (which are shitty, but I can't find an alternative), and new OEM (***) wheel bearings with OE dust caps.

[Obioban]

Thought I should update last weekends progress before I started this weekend...

Cooked the studs out of my old hubs (getting replaced with the wheel bearings, as they're part of the same part):



Swapped the springs for 325 lb/in driver front, 300 lb/in passenger front, to try out the flat ride thing (still need to change the driver rear for a 700). Amazing how stock the Ohlins look with a black spring (as least if you're used to colors):



Swapped in the ZHP/yellow tag/712 steering rack (along with new (OEM) Lemforder inner and outer tie rods:



I'm also swapping the reservoir, since the PS fluid filter is built into it. But, I was pleased to see that the new cap is a CHF-11S cap, w which is the fluid I'll be running in this car going forward

[Obioban]

Winter projects underway! The front end is getting a bunch of stuff done. Including, but not limited to...
-ZHP steering rack
-fresh inner and outer tie rods
-reduced assistance from the power steering pump
-new power steering lines and reservoir, converting the system to CHF-11S
-CSL Kingpins
-new front wheel bearings
-new spring rates
-going back to the stock oil cooler
-the previously mentioned brake ducting
-replace all fluids, everywhere in the car

I had some time on new years day and started pulling her apart.





^that's copper anti-seize, not rust :lolhit:

Lots of original parts getting replaced, which doesn't happen very often anymore

[Obioban]

One of my winter projects on the M3 is brake ducting. I made some progress on that recently.

3D printed brake duct I designed. They are not cleaned up at all, because I didn't know if they'll be final.





They attach to the factory mount points, and run the air through the center of the factory brake duct/underbody mount bracket, so there won't be any hard bends in the 3" soft line.

They don't attach to the factory bumper, which means no unsightly screws visible on the bumper and taking the bumper off isn't a PITA:



They do fit with the fog light mount bracket attached.... but it's ugly.



Soooo... painful to do, after 15 years of faithful service from this bumper, but time to trim:



How it looks with the fog light mounting provisions all trimmed off:



Please excuse the Tesla like panel gaps in the bumper. Nothing was clipped in place because it was just a test fit-- still had to install the passenger side.

On the rotor side, I'm planning to use the Hard Motorsports 355mm BBK rotor duct, as it's the only solution I know of that's designed to work with 355mm rotors. It also vents into the center of the rotor, instead of the face, which is the correct way to do it (I was talking to one of Brembo's engineers, and his take was the ducting onto the rotor face on one side, but not the other, was worse than no ducting at all).

I did make an alternate version of the duct that include an intake air feed for the CSL box, similar in concept to the Evanturi bumper scoop. I'm going to monitor my IATs and install it if they're elevated vs ambient (they weren't before when above ~10mph). If they're not, I'd rather have equal brake ducting for the driver and passenger side.

I'm pretty enthused with the "look" of it, installed. That's pretty rare for me-- I almost always hate any change initially. But, I think they look "stock" if you didn't know the e46 m3 came with fogs from the factory. That's my criteria for any mods that change the look of the car-- if someone can pick out any given part as aftermarket, I don't want it on my car.

[Obioban]

I’m very pleased with the stock look of the avin3, and all the functionality it’s enabled (not to mention the ~50 lbs of weight saving)!

[Obioban]

Should be useful on track (running on my head unit):



Only needs these little sensors on the valve stems:

[Obioban]

Bought some corner balancing scales, though I haven’t used them for that yet.

I’m a bit disappointed. The truck/semi weight station had told me the car weighted 3071 lbs, but it would seem that was optimistic. 3112 lbs with a 3/4 tank. Pretty sure that means I’m not going to be able to get it under 3000 lbs with a full interior and quiet (stock weight) muffler

On the other hand, 52.6% front, 47.4% rear is better than I was expecting! 52.1% front with me in the car.





My winter projects will likely get it just under 3100 lbs.

[Obioban]

Got some new toys coming in the mail that I'm super excited about

[Obioban]

Inspired by Doogan's thread, my projects for this winter:
-Convert my alternator light to be canbus based
-Inspection 2 (all fluids, valve adjustment)
-replace the aux coolant pump with the one used in the CSL
-brake ducting, remove stock washer tank
-create adjustable rear end links for the OE rear sway bar, install
-corner balance the car. Use those results to choose new rates for the car, probably different at every corner. Re-corner balance
-BMW Motorsport subframe mounts (to recover suspension geometry)
-CSL front kingpins
-add soft velcro to the seat belt receivers to protect the center console from scratches, ala OE porsche seat belt receivers

[Obioban]

I've started running Race Technologies LLC RE10 brake pads on track. Racetech (brembo's US distributor) claims these last twice as long as traditional track pads. We shall see!

My context is performance friction PF01s, which I have been running for 14 years and have nothing bad to say about. But, if I can get twice as much use out of these, that's a significant value improvement.

My favorite ever street pad is Brembo's high performance street pad, so I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

One weekend on the RE10s used .042" of pad. I'm back at the track in my car this thursday/friday-- will report back after. So far, they are wearing ~half my PF01 wear rate.







They certainly have less bite that the PF01s.

So far, I think I like them. The pedal feel on track with these is very similar to the pedal feel with my Brembo street pads on the street-- eliminates the need to relearn the brake pedals when I first go out on track, if you know what I mean.

That said, that PF01 bite really inspires confidence (perhaps falsely, since they're not out braking other pads)

[Obioban]

Made some inserts to make the factory strut bar not slotted. You can see mine has been traveling in those slots some, over the years :P

[Obioban]

Paint doesn't look terrible for...
~150,000 miles
~10,000 track miles
~10 PA winter DD use
-never having been resprayed

[Obioban]

A friend of mine detailed the car for me for the e46 M3 only meet in NJ this weekend. Looks great, IMO-- Makes me wonder if I should clean it more often :P

[Obioban]

So pleased with CarPlay now that they've added 3rd party nav support (ios12). Waze on the nav screen using the phones data plan is what I've always wanted, and can't imagine wanting much more. Well, no, I lied-- can't wait till someone releases a wireless CarPlay dongle for this thing!

Since all the processing is done on the phone, everything is smooth/reliable/fast.

Waze running:



If you open your phone while it's running to waze, it provides the turn by turn list so that both screens are useful:



And other features, podcasts:



Visual voicemail functions as you'd expect:



And you can browse all your music with a nice interface (album art subtly in the background):



Hopefully Harry's GPS lap timer adds support, soon!

I'm seriously pleased with my Avin now that CarPlay does all this. I think as soon as wireless CarPlay becomes a thing, all the cars will be getting these.

Can't imagine wanting any factory nav/infotainment over this, from any company in any time period. Cop locations on OE looking nav!