Bran.Stum's first 'M' - 2002 M3

[bran.stum]

Alright, so I guess I'll just start from the beginning, including some history under the previous owner.

This is my 2002 M3 Dinan S2 that I officially bought on May 22, 2017. I bought this off a fellow M3F forum member and friend of mine, Bray. Interestingly enough I actually found this on craigslist for him. He had purchased it in I want to say either 2014 or 2015 from a dealer in Fresno. Was a 2 owner all CA car, clean title, 142k miles, SMG, and had the full Dinan S2 package as well, even down to the Dinan floormats.

Unfortunately, his very in-depth ownership journal (along with mine) went down with M3F so I don't have a ton of photos under his ownership. I'll upload what I have since I uploaded the more important bits onto VinWiki.

As he picked it up, before his usual huge process of cleaning, refurbishing, and replacing parts.
Titan silver over black, SMG, some terribly done subwoofer install, Dinan goodies, etc. Under a layer of crud and dirt was a pretty good condition car, aside from corded tires and common trim wear.




Next few are slightly lower resolution as they're taken from VinWiki.

Dash components cleaned up.


Headlights got a complete teardown with new lenses and gaskets.






New OE chrome kidneys and roundel as well.


New sidemarkers.


New windshield cowl installed.


A-pillars were bunching so they were replaced.


Rear view mirror was replaced as well.


New soft touch


Engine bay detailed and front end reassembled. All cooling hoses were replaced, oil cooler flushed and cleaned up, Dinan strut bar refreshed, all new OEM pulleys, tensioners, and belts, OE BMW oil change, and an OEM fuel filter somewhere in there.


Interior detailed. Seats were fully removed and degreased, then the carpet was heat extracted.




New armrest delete center console with euro sliding tray


Dinan airbox was cleaned up along with a new Dinan air filter.




All underside plastics and panels were removed and detailed. Soaked in gasoline and scrubbed then cleaned with Simple Green.


New OE M3 floormats.


Front and rear wheel wells fully detailed along with refreshed calipers.






The rear Dinan bar was refreshed and Subwoofer removed along with all the wiring reintegrated. Whatever idiot installed it cut half the freaking harness apart.


Car finally back on the ground after a solid month. Bray is incredibly meticulous with everything, so the e46 looked almost new inside and out.
Dinan wheels were sold off and replaced with new hyper silver Apex Arc 8s plus new Michelin PSS.


New CSF radiator was installed at some point. Ended up being defective.


Dinan 3.91 diff was replaced with a stock 3.62. Stock unit was torn down and refreshed, including new bolts and finned diff cover.


Window seals being replaced.




Vanos rebuild. My car got a Beisan seal kit, Beisan redrilled disk, Bray's rattle fix, new OE upper chain guide, OE vanos gasket, new OE exhaust hub w/ cryo treatment, and refurbished cam gears. I believe a valve adjustment was also performed.




Rear parcel shelf was redyded.


The defective CSF unit was replaced with a new OE unit.


Decent sized parts pile accumulated.


Brand new OE LED taillights were purchased and retrofitted.


PO also had a set of Imola Z4M seats in for a bit.


Dinan throttle bodies before a cleaning.


SMG to 6MT conversion being done.


All SMG related wiring was removed from engine bay.


Wiring loom rewrapped and zip tied into original position.


Clutch pedal in.


New CSB and giubo.


Cutout made for the manual shifter, resprayed with a factory matching coating.


Lolipops were bead blasted with new FCABs also installed.


New LUK clutch kit.


New throwout bearing among other things.


Steering giubo needed to be replaced and one of the motor mounts had actually collapsed. New parts were installed.


New RTABs being installed.


Manual cluster insert being installed. Bray usually sells these on his website.


F10 M5 knob wired in.


Cluster back in place.


And everything back together! Worklist included new motor mounts, Rogue transmission mounts, e60 shift lever, F10 M5 knob, OE selector rod, OE aluminum joint, Rogue clutch pedal bushings, Rogue shifter carrier oval bushings, new steering giubo, new driveline giubo, new CSB, new FCABs, manual airbox, manual cluster insert, and ECU flash from SMG to manual.


Rod bearing replacement at 162k-ish miles.


These are actually the second set of bearings. The original ones were replaced under the service bulletin at around 32k miles.


New oil level sensor installed as well.


And here are the last few pics under his ownership.


Had a minty M Texture interior along with brand new Titan Shadow trim, that I, unfortunately, could not afford

[COVID-19]

Very nice!

[bran.stum]

Then here's when my journal started on M3F.

Purchased at 164k miles. As I said above, I could not afford the interior that was previously in the car. So it came with your standard black interior and brushed aluminum trim. Still a decent enough combo for a starting M3 owner.

This was also my first ever manual car. I literally bought this car not knowing how to drive it.

The Apexs were replaced with another brand new hyper silver set and new Michelin PSS.










Also did not buy it with the Dinan strut bars or throttle bodies. So here it is with a stock strut bar. The Middle section was sandblasted and sanded to look like the Dinan finish lol.


Dinan exhaust of course sounds amazing.


First thing I did was remove all the warning labels in the interior.





Next was a Recaro Pole Position, Macht Schnell floor mounts, along with Recaro side mounts and sliders. This was the exact seat that was originally in the car before I bough it.


Then eventually got around to some alcantara goodies. Traded my best friend for his e39 M5 wheel, then had it shipped out to Coby Wheel to be rewrapped. Opted for a stock look, 9002 alcantara and tri color stitching. Also bought an OE CSL handbrake, alcantara handbrake boot, and OE alcantara shift boot as well.








Small photoshoot with my best friends e36 M3.






New plush trunkmat.


And M Texture door cards.








Fixed up the rear bumper corner sag.




Car also came with a new master key and valet key.


Bray also included a replica CSL valance that he had lying around.

[bran.stum]

I ordered a replica CSL trunklid from an up and coming business based in Europe, ended up being a huge mistake. You'll see later on.


My B and C pillars were falling apart. Replaced both, spent like $300-400 in the process.😅


Scored a ZCP steering wheel trim set for stupid cheap. I usually see just the top piece go for over $100, I got the full set for $30 shipped lol.


Painted the upper portion flat black, kept my lower Titan Shadow piece.


New M badge too.


Also stumbled upon a rear Dinan strut bar on eBay, quickly bought it.


Refurbishing it.




Some new hardware for the ends too.




There was also a pretty good sale on ECS for the front strut bar, was close to like $100 off.

Then finally received my CSL trunklid after a few months of delays and waiting.


If you never saw my thread on M3F about the issues I had, let me just sum it up real quick. It fit terribly (like it was warped), was terrible quality and craftsmanship, even the paint was garbage. Owner of the company was super argumentative and couldn't accept that his company had sent out a defective piece and just screwed me over. Sold it for a loss.

I'll admit, it looked pretty good from a few yards away,






But uhhhh..














I'm not one to keep low-quality parts on this car, so off it came.


So here's an aftermarket part that fits as intended lol.


Also replaced the cabin airfilter cover.


Then found a set of used Bilstein PSS10 coilovers for sale. I had a picture of them cleaned up but can't find it for the life of me.


Bray did the install for me.


And had a blackstone analysis done somewhere in there.


Few small things: Rear ashtray delete, one piece front lip, and color matched bumper reflectors.

[bran.stum]

Last year I got it in my head that I needed to sell the e46. So I started prepping it for sale. Removed the CSL valance, one piece lip, and sold off the M Texture door cards.

A friend of mine was originally wanting to buy it, so he jumped the gun a little bit and bought a very good condition interior from an '06 ZCP lol. He ended up having to back out of buying, just came down to not being good timing. I just ended up buying the interior off him.

Before degreasing.


And after. I mentioned very good condition right?


Rear seats looked like they'd never been used. Even the top portion was basically untouched and had no sunbaked damage.


Recaro removed and carpets vacuumed.


Stock seat in.


Also swapped in Titan Shadow trim. Bought a used set of armrests sometime after too.


Here it is beside it's replacement: a cheap af, high mileage, auto, e36 M3 sedan w/ lux pack. My intentions with the e36 were to give it a very thorough cleaning (similar to Bray's original process on this car), address whatever maintenance it needed, and manual swap it. I also really wanted to supercharge it because why not.


Terrible paint aside, it actually looked pretty okay after putting some work into it.


But I of course decided that I loved my e46 way too much to sell it. How could you say no to something that looks as good as this?


Sold the e36 and never looked back.

[bran.stum]

After my decision to keep it, I started plugging away at some small things.

Pulled the ZCP trim apart to color match it to the Titan Shadow trim.




Trying out my new foam gun.


Threw the Recaro back in.


And finally received my yard of reproduction M Texture fabric. Wanting to have the Recaro insert reupholstered in this at some point. Will need to either buy more material, or source an M Texture interior when funds allow. Kind of regretting selling the door cards I had.


Testing out the new iPhone 11 Pro Max camera.






And had an extra Titan Shadow armrest that I stripped and painted. Used the same Duplicolor paint as I did on the ZCP wheel trim.








Replacing the corrugated wiring loom cover.


Slightly too big of diameter, but better than those ugly exposed wires.


Tailgate trim was looking terrible. Clearcoat was failing and badly. Looked 10x worse in person and even worse in direct sunlight.


Painted it with a Duplicolor paint that was pretty close. Finish is way too matte, I need to go back and wetsand/polish it. Not super worried about it as I full intend on just buying an OE CSL trunklid at some point.


Also scored a full Piano Black trim set from the junkyard.


I really liked it, but after a lot of back and forth I decided to stick with the Titan Shadow for now. End goal is either ZHP Black Cube trim or ZCP Silver Cube trim. If the right set pops up I'll most likely pull the trigger on it.


Then I discovered this while doing an oil change. Was rather peeved, tires had a lot of tread left on them too.


Removed the weights and detailed the inner barrel to prep for new tires.


New Michelin PS4S. Rears are still perfectly fine, they'll be replaced later on.

[bran.stum]

Got custom plates too!


Passenger side exhaust hanger was obviously minty. Replaced with new OE.


I also knew my exhaust was cracked but didn't know it was to this extent. I need to have this welded soon.


Convoy through the snow with an e90 335d, my e46 M3, and an f87 M2. Some arguably out of place cars lol.




Finally a break in the weather, so detailed the exterior and engine bay. This foam guns great.






Shes getting up there.


Took her on a trip to LA to visit some family. Stopped at the bottom of the grapevine for a few quick pics and food.


Dinan air filter was filthy so I cleaned it. No longer blue, I may pick up a recharge kit for it.






With my daily commute being 1hr almost every day, and it being the beginning of Spring, I'm definitely finding myself washing my car a lot more.


Really racking up the mileage, unsure how I feel about this.


Also sent my armrest pads out to be rewrapped. Coby Wheel did them in 9002 alcantara.






Began hoarding parts for my valve adjustment.


And also ordered a few other things.


And a few more things. I think I have a problem.




And one last find lol. Found a slicktop headliner for pretty cheap. Just needs to be recovered in bm134 fabric.

[bran.stum]

I was actually in class when my KWs arrived. Immediately got to work installing them when I got home.

My first time doing anything like this by myself, was quite interesting.




Unfortunately my front wheels did not clear the perch on the coilovers. Was backing out of my garage and felt resistance.


Had to raise the front ride height to clear the perches while I sorted out spacers.
Looking very stock up front.




Bought a pair of 12mm spacers from Achilles Motorsports in Fresno.


Fitment is very aggressive looking now. I'm not one for 'stance' but this is nice. Overall a very nice set of coilovers. I initially wanted to have my Bilsteins rebuilt, but did not want to deal with the hassle of having them rebuilt. One: I was getting rebuild quotes of $800+, and Two: this is my only car so I would have needed some sort of suspension to roll around on for however long it took for them to be rebuilt. It just made more sense to buy a new set.


Excuse the filthy ass wheels.




New floormats. My old ones were only 3 years old and the foam backing was falling apart. Looks like BMW did a redesign on these as there's no foam backing, it looks like the velcro pads are sewn on instead. Hopefully they last longer.




My Dinan badge had already began to corrode and flake, but the fact that one day I found a whole ass letter missing definitely made my decision to remove it a little easier.
Super rare Dian M3.


Paint is etched. Rocking a ghost badge I guess. 🤷♂️


Grabbed a bluetooth module to retrofit into the e46. Still need a few things before I can completely finish it. I do want to replace the stock head unit with an Avin Avant 4 or their 9in model, so this may or may not be a total waste of time.


Also time to do the valve adjustment. Pulling everything apart.


VCG was leaking pretty bad in a few spots. OE BMW and only about 3 years old too. Sheesh🙄






The shims were actually all within spec and required no adjustment. There was a valve adjustment done during the vanos rebuild, also helps that I don't drive this car super hard. Either way, the VCG was leaking and needed replacement, so not a total waste of time and gaskets.


M badge on the beauty cover was bubbling and falling apart.


Literally came off in pieces.




Putting everything back together. I also discovered that my timing chain cover is leaking, so that's cool.


I snapped the freaking banjo bolt on the side of the head when putting everything back together. I lucked out so hard as I was able to unthread the rest of the bolt by hand. No damage to the threads or anything. I was so relieved. Could have been much much worse.


Went down to the dealer the next day and bought a new one. Everything buttoned up finally.


I had also replaced my idler pulley thinking it was the culprit responsible for the squeaking in my engine bay, but found my tensioner pulley was the one going bad. Replaced that along with the cracking AC belt.


I'm still getting a squeaking noise on cold start along with some noise coming from the alternator region. Wondering if there's a bearing inside it that needs to be replaced.


The e46 seems to be very happy right now. Running great, driving great, and sounding great as usual. Also helps to be looking better with a lower ride height and more aggressive fitment.




Still sorting out a few things rn. Have yet to find a sunroof delete or order fabric for the headliner, have also been very tempted to buy an e85 flex fuel kit for this. Just trying not to throw too much money into this car with the whole Corona Virus lockdown rn. Also need to do the subframe reinforcement as well. I have the plates for it, just need to purchase all the bushings and ball joints as well as a VinceBar. I'm also having a minor issue with my fuel gauge that needs to be addressed.

[liam821]

What did you use to degrease your seats with? They came out really good. 👍 Great looking car.

[Mike0032]

Such a great looking car, especially in Tiag. Great thread.

Also, the camera on the new iPhone sure is impressive!

[bran.stum]

What did you use to degrease your seats with? They came out really good. 👍 Great looking car.

The process I was shown was: spray the seat with heavily diluted simple green, scrub in circles with something like a fingernail brush, wipe with a clean microfiber and repeat as needed.
If you need to resort to more aggressive measures: use a soaked magic eraser and gently go over the seat with it, being careful around problem areas, and wiping clean with a microfiber. A magic eraser is essentially a fine abrasive, so as I said do it gently and be aware of already existing problem areas!

[liam821]

The process I was shown was: spray the seat with heavily diluted simple green, scrub in circles with something like a fingernail brush, wipe with a clean microfiber and repeat as needed.
If you need to resort to more aggressive measures: use a soaked magic eraser and gently go over the seat with it, being careful around problem areas, and wiping clean with a microfiber. A magic eraser is essentially a fine abrasive, so as I said do it gently and be aware of already existing problem areas!

Thanks, i'll give it a go.

[RoyalFlushness]

Dope build man

[Dino]

Beautiful!

Love the look of the alcantara steering wheel, how do you like it compared to leather?

[Tbonem3]

Great maintenance work, good job!