Jason's 2006 E46 M3 6MT Coupe - Tiag/Imola

[Titaniu//M]

Hi all,

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these times. I had a journal over on M3F before it went down, but didn’t really keep up with it all that much. Hopefully I will be more diligent with this one.

My M3 is a 2006 6MT coupe, finished in Tiag over Imola. As a March ’06 build, it is among the last E46 M3s built. I took ownership of the car in December ’18, the day after Christmas at 45k miles.

Owning an E46 M3 was a childhood dream of mine. I’ve been searching on and off since 2015. I came close to buying a few examples, but ended up buying an automatic E92 335i in the meantime since I ultimately couldn’t find a 6MT E46 M3 clean enough, and within my budget. Glad to finally own the //M I've always lusted after.

At just over a year of ownership, I’ve completed a number of maintenance items and installed a few reversible mods.

Gone but not forgotten - My 2007 E92 335i Coupe - Monaco Blue/Grey



My E46 M3 the day I bought it - December 2018



At my preferred mechanic, RRT in Dulles, VA for a post-purchase inspection and brake fluid flush - January 2019



Current pics of the car - June 2020








Wheels
BBS LM Wheels
F: 19x8.5, ET +32
R: 19x10, ET +25

Tires
Michelin PS4S Tires
F: 245/35/R19
R: 275/30/R19

Suspension
Bilstein PSS10 Coilovers
Turner Motorsport Subframe Reinforcement Plates
Road Racing Technologies (RRT) RTAB Shims

Engine Bay
Dinan D180-0464 Strut Tower Brace
Dinan D763-1600 Cold Air Intake
Supersprint Race Muffler, Section 3
Beisan VANOS Rebuild

Interior
Ledermanz Alcantara/Leather Steering Wheel w/Red Stripe
Front Seats Restored by Fibrenew NRWF
AVIN Avant 4 Head Unit
BavSound Speakers
Dynavin HVAC Relocation Bracket
OEM Illuminated ZHP Knob from an F10 M5
OEM Alcantara Shift Boot
OEM M-Performance Handbrake Handle
OEM Euro Imola Red Armrest
OEM Euro Center Console Tray

Exterior
OEM CSL Trunk Lid
OEM Euro Front Bumper w/Reflector Delete

[Titaniu//M]

While quarantined at home, one of the things I did last week was rebuild my VANOS with upgraded Beisan components. Took me 3 days working about 6 hours a day, with one day spent cleaning all the parts.

My valvetrain isn’t as clean as I would like it, but not the worst I have seen either. Thankfully both exhaust hub tabs were intact. Had either tab been broken, this would have added between $400-1000 to the repair as a used replacement or upgraded disc would have been needed.

The Beisan DIY is very through, and Raj with Beisan was quick to answer any questions I had, even at 1 am. One thing to point out is that Beisan is now shipping a new oil pump disk design, which is no longer a re-drilled stock disc, but a new part made by the same supplier that BMW uses. I expressed my concerns and Raj assured me the new disk has been extensively tested in 50+ cars at this point.

I had some trouble retarding the cams. At first, I had trouble finding a 24mm open ended wrench that was thin enough to fit on the cams. The Beisan DIY does not convey that the 24mm wrench needed cannot just be any 24mm wrench, but it needs to be one that is thin enough to slide over the hexagonal section of the cams. I went to multiple places all over town, until I found a Craftsman one at Lowes that was thin enough (for $24 – Yikes!). Then, I couldn’t get the exhaust camshaft to budge. The pin for the timing bridge fit into the exhaust cam fine with the motor at TDC (crank pin fully inserted), so I assumed it was fully retarded as-is.

Everything else went pretty smoothly. I went through 4 cans of brake cleaner to scrub all the sludge off the VANOS unit. One thing the Beisan DIY doesn’t mention, but I found helpful was to mark the position of all rotating parts with an oil-based paint pen prior to disassembly. This made re-assembly a lot easier.

If you need additional resources, ShopLifeTV also did a nice DIY for this on YouTube.

The total cost for all the parts and specialized tools came out to just under $800, plus the cost of shop towels, brake cleaner and other consumables.

The car feels somewhat smoother, and the VANOS seems slightly less noisy, but maybe that is just placebo effect.

Part Desc.	Part No.	Quantity	Vendor	Cost
Beisan Upgraded Oil Pump Disk	BS025	1	Beisan	$150.00
Beisan S54 Sealing Plate Repair Kit	BS024	1	Beisan	$10.00
Beisan S54 Rebuilt Vanos Solenoid Coil Pack	BS023	1	Beisan	$150.00
Beisan S54 Vanos Seals Repair Kit	BS021	1	Beisan	$60.00
Beisan S54 Vanos Rattle Repair Kit	BS022	1	Beisan	$80.00
Beisan S54/S62 Vanos Rattle Tools	BS095	1	Beisan	$20.00
Beisan Exhaust Upper Chain Guide	BS026	1	Beisan	$80.00
OEM Vanos Gasket	11367831938	1	BMW of Fairfax	$14.03
OEM Valve Cover Stud Grommet	11121437395	2	BMW of Fairfax	$3.26
OEM Oil Hose Drain Crush Washer	07119963129	2	BMW of Fairfax	$1.10
OEM Vanos Oil Accumulator Pipe Crush Washer	07119963072	2	BMW of Fairfax	$0.80
OEM Vanos Filter	11361401971	1	BMW of Fairfax	$23.39
OEM S62 Sprocket Hub Diaghragm Spring and Pressure Plate	11367833218	2	BMW of Fairfax	$70.68
OEM Sprocket Sleeve Bolts	07129905536	12	BMW of Fairfax	$10.68
OEM Chain Guide Mounting Bolt Washer	07119963342	1	BMW of Fairfax	$0.79
OEM Crankshaft Tensioner Washer	07119963418	1	BMW of Fairfax	$0.85
OEM Camshaft Alignment Bridge	83300493749	1	BMW of Fairfax	$101.00
OEM Crankshaft Locking Pin	83300490861	1	BMW of Fairfax	$21.00
			TOTAL	$776.58

[xpme46m3]

Nice!

[Mike0032]

Tiag is such a great color on the E46 chassis.

I always thought the Imola interior was more of a fire engine red, rather than "brick red." Either way, a great combo.

[Titaniu//M]

Nice!

Thanks!

[Titaniu//M]

Tiag is such a great color on the E46 chassis.

I always thought the Imola interior was more of a fire engine red, rather than "brick red." Either way, a great combo.

Thanks! I guess it's because the pics were taken on a cloudy day. Imola is indeed like a fire engine red under direct sunlight, pic of my center console on a sunny day for comparison.

[Titaniu//M]

With lots of free time on my hands now that a stay at home order is in place, I have begun tackling many of the projects I have always hoped to do but never got around to.

I picked up a used Dinan intake from a local E46 M3 owner last month, before the lockdown began. It wasn’t really on my radar to install an intake on this car, but the price was very fair and it goes along nicely with the Dinan strut tower brace on the car. The intake kit was almost entirely complete including the original CARB sticker and instructions, sans a couple of small nuts and bolts.





I found a pdf of the installation instructions (attached) which was a lifesaver compared to the grainy printout from 2005.




The installation was a lot more involved than I imagined. I thought it was going to take an hour or two tops, but it ended up taking me 4-5 hours to get everything to fit properly.

The kit requires two holes to be drilled in the front fender liner, to relocate the headlight igniter. I don’t completely agree with Dinan’s placement of the headlight igniter, and if I had to do it again, I would place the igniter an inch or two lower. The higher placement of the igniter interfered with the placement of the horns, and I barely got everything to fit without touching.



Installation requires removal of the driver’s side headlight. Masking tape protected the top of the bumper, and zip-ties were handy in holding the headlight while I bolted the attached headlight igniter on.




Another gripe I had with the kit is the water solenoid relocation kit. The bracket that Dinan included is not a good design at all, and the water solenoid ended up sliding off before I even had the car fully back together. I ended up returning the solenoid to its stock location, but angling the intake elbow in a strategic way to prevent the two from touching.

I elected to replace the tired looking filter with a new one, which can still be purchased directly from Dinan.



All and all, my impressions of the kit were good. While the install posed a few challenges, it does look nice in the engine bay.

A new //M emblem on the engine cover, and full engine bay degreasing finished off the install.






I also completed a full paint correction on the car, replaced a few tired looking exterior trim pieces, and coated the entire car in Kamikaze Miyabi ceramic coating. Ceramic coatings are a semi-permanent alternative to waxes and sealants that have been gaining popularity in the detailing community in recent years. The BBS wheels were coated in CeramicPro wheel and caliper, which I had professionally installed. Normal ceramic coatings work fine on the car, but cannot withstand the harsher conditions on wheels and brakes.



I took the opportunity to remove the trunk lip spoiler on the car. This piece was most likely repainted, or initially painted and improperly prepped. It had chipped in multiple places, and I finally got tired of touching it up. Eventually, my goal is to replace the entire trunk with an OE CSL unit.




I didn’t realize how faded my hood vent had become after 14 years until I compared it side by side to a new piece.





Installed new kidney grilles to replace the pitted and tarnished original units.



A few pics of the car in my driveway – a better photoshoot will follow when I find the time.

[MrClutch55]

Beautiful ride and beautiful combo. Like how u are very meticulous of things

[Titaniu//M]

Beautiful ride and beautiful combo. Like how u are very meticulous of things

Many thanks!

[Titaniu//M]

Been spending quite a bit of time in the garage lately. Some major updates to come later.

First things first, I tied up some loose ends with the Dinan intake I installed a few weeks ago. The Dinan intake interferes with the heater control valve/auxiliary water pump assembly on top of the frame rail. It is possible to install the intake without relocating the assembly, but clearance is slim and I was concerned the intake would rub against the connector on top of the auxiliary water pump and eventually sever some wires. The relocation bracket Dinan provides is useless, as the assembly slides down and falls off the bracket super easily.

Installation instructions and pics from Dinan for reference. The point where the connector touches the intake elbow circled in red.




Some research led me to discover that the normal E46 3-series and E46 M3 CSL use a different version of the assembly that deletes the auxiliary water pump – part number 64118369805. I decided to give it a shot and sourced a Febi Bilstein version of this part, saving around $70 over the Genuine BMW counterpart. New part is a fraction of the weight and size of the original.




Installation was easy- I lost a bit of coolant, but overall it wasn’t a messy endeavor. The old connector was wrapped up in electrical tape and routed aside in case I need to revert to stock later. I did bleed the coolant afterwards just to be safe. I will need to code the auxiliary water pump out with NCS expert at a later date, but the car runs fine without coding for now.



I also installed a Bimmerworld silicone intake elbow while everything was apart, replacing the accordion style stock version. Hoping the new elbow will smooth airflow out a bit. Ate the Haribo gummy bears included with my purchase while I was at it. Fitment is very snug on both ends, but I managed to get it on. About 1” lengthwise needed to be trimmed off each end.





All finished under the hood (for now)

[Titaniu//M]

With the car (mostly) sorted mechanically, I decided to focus some efforts on the interior.

Some pictures to show what I'm starting out with (please ignore the missing dash trim).



Quite a bit of work has already been done since I purchased the car including

• New center console and HVAC bracket
• New OEM A, B, and C pillars all around
• New OEM headliner
• Illuminated ZHP knob from an F10 M5, paired with an OEM Alcantara boot
• OEM M-Performance e-brake boot and handle assembly
• European Imola Red armrest (US version is black leather, not red)
• Coby Alcantara wrapped steering wheel w/red leather stripe
• XTRONS 9" Android head unit

However, there were a few areas still in need of attention.

I started out by addressing my front seats. My car was originally sold new in Florida, and spent most of its life there. This had kept the exterior and underside in immaculate shape, probably the best out of any car I've owned. However, the hot Florida sun had also dried out my front seats and left these small cracks along the entire edge of the driver's seat. Not too bad from looking at the photos, but the cracked areas had a really rough, scaly texture to them as well. The bolster is also worn from getting in and out of the car.






The leather on the driver's seat bottom was also somewhat loose, and had these strange crosshatching marks on it.



To top it off, the dealer technician that did my passenger side airbag recall must have had a pen in his back pocket, and marked up my passenger seat. Unfortunately I discovered this weeks later, or else I might have complained. I tried removing the ink stains with Leatherique pristine clean, but when the microfiber towel began turning red I stopped fearing I was going to damage the color.



After much thought, I decided the most reasonable solution was to have my seats reupholstered in blue plaid- inspired by the Volkswagen GTI.



Kidding aside......the Imola red interior is one of my favorite features of this car, so I decided it was worth the effort and expense to restore my seats. I did extensive research, and found a few professional, as well as DIY options. The basic process of restoration is that the seats need to be deep cleaned, lightly sanded, the cracks need to be filled and the seats need to be recolored. The Imola red finish on these seats is more of a paint than a dye.

Leatherique, and a company called LeatherX both sell kits that contain all the supplies to do this. However, body work and other artisan type stuff is not my strength so I decided this was a job better done by a pro.

I came across one of AMMO NYC's videos on YouTube featuring a BMW interior color change, and was confident that the company featured in the video- Fibrenew NRWF was who I wanted to restore my seats. Fibrenew is actually a network of leather repair franchises, but I was unsure if a franchise closer to me could deliver the same results. In the end, I took the seats out of the car, wrapped them up, loaded them into my Toyota Tacoma daily and made the 4 hour trip to Raleigh, NC.

Found 27 cents under my passenger seat 😂



Brian Marks, the owner of Fibrenew NWRF, is well known in the BMW community not only for his leather work, but for his wagon builds, including the S62 swapped E39 wagon that sold for $72k on BaT last spring. When I showed up to drop my seats off, he was very generous with his time and showed me all the interesting stuff in his garage, including a M57 swapped E91 wagon, and S54 swapped E46 wagon.



A week after I made the initial trip to drop the seats off, Brian reached out and told me the seats were finished. I borrowed my father's Kia Rondo for the return trip, as rain was expected along the way.



Finished product. In addition to having the seats restored, I also had Brian replace the bottom foam on the driver's side as it had lost much of its elasticity. Brian steamed the leather before installing the new foam, making the leather fit tighter and losing the baggy look it had before.

Some creases would not come out of the seats, but short having the seats entirely reupholstered, this is probably as close to new as it gets. Very pleased with how they came out.







Teaser pic to show what they look like in the car. A full photo shoot will follow once everything is back together. I seized the opportunity to do some other work while the front seats were gone, and unfortunately broke some plastic clips in the process. Waiting on those to come in so I can button everything back up.

[BMWahba]

Wow, that is some incredible work. I might have him do my M-texture seats. If you don't mind sharing, how much did that restoration cost you? Did he replace the leather or just repair and re-dye?

[Titaniu//M]

Wow, that is some incredible work. I might have him do my M-texture seats. If you don't mind sharing, how much did that restoration cost you? Did he replace the leather or just repair and re-dye?

Thanks! All the leather is original, he just repaired and re-dyed the seating surfaces. The color match is spot on, the headrests and seat backs are actually original and untouched, while the rest of the seat is re-dyed. I'll PM you what I paid, not sure if that is something he wants me to publicly share.

[Mike0032]

Beautiful, that turned out great. I need to have my Vaders completely redone.

[Titaniu//M]

Beautiful, that turned out great. I need to have my Vaders completely redone.

Thanks! Really transforms the experience with newly restored seats. It is one of the only things you make contact with in the car after all.