2002 BMW E46 330i Touring - Not your average daily

[Sf_Manta]

Figured I'd least do a thread on here on my daily driver, a 2002 BMW 3 series in touring flavour with the M54B30 engine as standard.
From what i've dug up , this is one of about 180 Sport manual tourings left on the road, making it quite a rare beast.

Having owned it since December 2014, at which time I picked it up from a dealer in Nottingham for just under £5k and on a insanely low milege of 54,900 miles I've since done over 70k since including several trips to the continent including Stuttgart, Spa, Nordschleife, and Le Mans. It's managed a 9:42 BTG time with video footage, gets at least a 2-3 track days a year, last one being at Brands Hatch Indy and been been driven by a youtuber known as Jimmy Broadbent whom commented the car is well balanced and a decent car.

I've also re-engineered the vehicle extensively in the 8 years I've had it and it's evolved into something that on first look doesn't stand out, but if you looked closer, the details hint that something is definately different about the car. It certainly gets a few looks on track days as it's the last thing you expect to be turning some reasonably quick laps and will give Porsche Boxsters and Mk1 elises a good run for their money

I did attend the Mallory Park meeting but never made it into the show due to someone not knowing the model came out in 1997 as it's a grey area... Ah well , next time perhaps?

Specification is below

Engine
 M54B30 3.0 Straight six
 Fully balanced incl flywheel and balancer
 Achilles Oil pump upgrade
 ARP Rod bolts
 ARP Head studs
 ARP Main Cap studs
 VAC Motorsport Bearings
 Alpina B3 Harmonic balancer
 Baffled Sump
 K&N 57i intake with gold heat tape for additional heat protection on shield
 CSF high performance radiator
 JustDeutsch V1T Camshafts
 Modified E46 M3 System, 200 Cell CATs and Eisenmann Rear silencer.
 Remapped on Rolling road
 261bhp @ 6214rpm
 333Nm @ 3391rpm

Transmission
 E36 M3 Evo 6 speed gearbox
 ECS single mass flywheel conversion inc E34 M5 Sachs clutch
 E46 M3 Gearbox shift linkage
 E46 M3 gearbox support
 E46 M3 propshaft + custom spacer
 Gripper plate type LSD – 60/35 ramps with 8 plate clutch pack. (1.5 way)
 DSSR selector rod
 Turner Motorsport short throw shifter + Rally shifter extension
 HEL Clutch line + Delay valve delete.

Wheels & tyres
BBS CHR Staggered setup
 Front - 8 x 18in
 Rear – 9 x 18in
Tyres are Michelin PS4 all round(F/R)

Suspension
 KW V3 coilovers
 H&R roll bars (M3 specification)
 Meyle heavy duty front arms
 Stock front top mounts + Turner Motorsport camber plates.
 Powerflex bushes
 Front lolipops
 RTA bushes
 Subframe and diff bushes
 Rear damper mounts
 Powerflex rear camber arms
 BMW Ball joint swap in lower rear bushes in RTAs ala' M3 specification

Brakes
 Front - Porsche 986 (Boxter 3.2) 4 pot conversion
 Front - BMW M3 CSL 2 piece discs (345mm)
 Rear – Stock callipers and discs
 Pads all round – Ferrodo DS2500 pads
 HEL Stainless lines all round
 ATE TYP200 fluid.
 ECS Brass slider upgrade for rear calipers

Interior
 Royal Steering wheels retrim in alcantara leather, M colours stitching + blue
center line
 Royal steering wheels – Gearshift gator and handbrake with M colours stitching.
 Original Leather interior with driver's seat swap to Sparco Evo seat
 Sony CD / MP3 / USB / DAB radio – as original CD changer failed.
 Red needle and bezels on clocks upgraded to Alpina versions.

Exterior
 Mystyle front Clubsport front lip spoilers in Carbon fibre
 Mstyle rear valance in carbon fibre
 Full respray in original metallic Orient Blue.
 Front wings repaired and rustproofed
 Rear arches cleaned and rustproofed.

Misc
 Rear subframe re-enforcement kit from Radish Motorsport installed
 Rear end completely cleaned and rustproofed.
 Stereo replaced for Sony blue tooth and USB unit.


Some pictures below:























Feel free to ask me questions and advice, given my day job is working with HV batteries, I have worked for companies like Aston Martin, Dunlop Motorsport, Caterham Cars and currently with Cummins.

[thebaron]

Lovely car and a nice set of modifications.

[sc00bysnack]

That is a fine looking sport touring - a bit of a devil beneath the standard clothing!

I've got a bog standard manual sport touring that I've owned for about a decade and it still makes me smile every time I drive it

[Sf_Manta]

Sept 22, 2022 19:43:25 GMT sc00bysnack said:

That is a fine looking sport touring - a bit of a devil beneath the standard clothing!

That's the whole idea, though it's my Homage to BMW's E46 M3 Touring prototype that was only ever built once.

Thanks for the comments so far, I do have more pictures of the build and such if you want me to post more on it.

[Davey]

The fact that Jamble has driven it intrigues me.

Looks a great car.

[Sf_Manta]

ONe job that was done before the Gathering, was the rear right caliper. It'd decided to finally fail after 20 years on the car. This involved having to strip out the brass slider upgrade I'd installed to improve pedel feel. These needed a bit of help removing with the vice and a dead blow hammer to drive the caliper off the slider.










The link with Jimmer is that he's driven the car at Brands hatch.


Yes he did turn a few laps in the car, video below and no he didn't stuff it. Infact he pushed it pretty hard and commented the car was very well balanced and easy to drive at the limit.

[Alpina99]

Beautiful car, tastefully modified,
They are a brilliant car and so practical,
I had a 320d Auto Sport Touring until very recently, even though I love my E39 that replaced it I still miss it,
Nigel

[qwerty]

Love it, so subtle, yet the work under the skin will so massively improve it!

Tom

[Sf_Manta]

Bit of an update given I've had a week booked off this week, hitting the big 4-0..

Yesterday was spent doing a service on the handbrake mech, though needs new discs and pads soon for that too, so end of the month job there. No pictures though.

Today's job was to resolve the very crusty springs, and they arrived from KW yesterday. Today up went the car, first time i've been able to get it fully up on axle stands





Rusty front spring to show how bad they'd gotten, the dampers meanwhile besides a bit of grime on them, were still pretty much mint.






New bush for one of the dampers also got installed, despite bieng a complete PITA to refit!






All back together, just needs a coolant flush and that's about it.

[Sf_Manta]

Just a small update, managed the coolant flush and now running on the correct anti freeze after a bit of a mess.



Then the car proved it's load lugging capability in collecting something for another project

[Morris63]

Lovely! Any link to the other project; maybe on PH?

[Sf_Manta]

Nov 3, 2022 22:23:25 GMT Morris63 said:

Lovely! Any link to the other project; maybe on PH?

Nothing yet, it's been monthballed for a couple of years, and collecting parts again (after loosing some)
I will be making a thread in due course once i've aquired a house. That's been a real PITA lately what with the current market and mortgauge rates going nuts

[ChasR]

Nov 8, 2022 13:39:09 GMT Sf_Manta said:

Nov 3, 2022 22:23:25 GMT Morris63 said:

Lovely! Any link to the other project; maybe on PH?

Nothing yet, it's been monthballed for a couple of years, and collecting parts again (after loosing some)
I will be making a thread in due course once i've aquired a house. That's been a real PITA lately what with the current market and mortgauge rates going nuts

After having bought my house at the start of last year during the height of Covid, I do hear you. It's been a nightmare. Sod's law, I've been re-mortgaging the house. Bar not learning some lessons from last time, I've been pretty lucky to secure the rate that I did this time around. I suppose none of us thought we'd be in the situation we are in now. If you need some advice offline, feel free to PM me. Luckily, some friends have been the game more often than many have. There are pitfals I wish folks informed me of.

Anyway, that's a nice bit of work you have done to the car, and it's great to see it being enjoyed.

[biturbo228]

My mate and I were debating his E46 330d Touring when we went to the Gathering as well. It's a tricky one. For me, despite being built in '97 it feels like a bit of a watershed for when 'modern' began (fully understanding that the early ones are fast approaching 25 years old now).

Still awesomely cool though, and a real sweet spot of old-school enough to feel connected and fun, but modern enough to benefit from all sorts of modern engine wizardry.

[ChasR]

Nov 30, 2022 11:31:51 GMT biturbo228 said:

My mate and I were debating his E46 330d Touring when we went to the Gathering as well. It's a tricky one. For me, despite being built in '97 it feels like a bit of a watershed for when 'modern' began (fully understanding that the early ones are fast approaching 25 years old now).

Still awesomely cool though, and a real sweet spot of old-school enough to feel connected and fun, but modern enough to benefit from all sorts of modern engine wizardry.

Development on the E46 began in the early-mid 90s. The E46 is very closely related to the E36. To me, it’s a great example of small changes all adding up to making quite the impact. Many parts are interchangeable to some degree, mechanically.

The E9x, however, is very much a departure from the E36 and 46

[biturbo228]

Yeah I definitely feel the E92 was a proper departure and a real step into modernity. The E46 has enough of an old-school feel about it for me.

BMW were quite good at making lots of little changes and coming out with a whole new car at the end of it. They did it with the E12/E28 as well...

[Sf_Manta]

Nov 30, 2022 11:31:51 GMT biturbo228 said:

My mate and I were debating his E46 330d Touring when we went to the Gathering as well. It's a tricky one. For me, despite being built in '97 it feels like a bit of a watershed for when 'modern' began (fully understanding that the early ones are fast approaching 25 years old now).

Still awesomely cool though, and a real sweet spot of old-school enough to feel connected and fun, but modern enough to benefit from all sorts of modern engine wizardry.

Mine was built in 2002, which i tried argueing with the guys on the gate it was still valid given it was designed in the 1990s and released in 1997 and i did end up seeing a half dozen E46's in the show while mine was out in the carpark. I was a bit miffed about that.

That said, you have to know BMW's fairly well to know that.

[ChasR]

Dec 1, 2022 8:05:45 GMT Sf_Manta said:

Nov 30, 2022 11:31:51 GMT biturbo228 said:

My mate and I were debating his E46 330d Touring when we went to the Gathering as well. It's a tricky one. For me, despite being built in '97 it feels like a bit of a watershed for when 'modern' began (fully understanding that the early ones are fast approaching 25 years old now).

Still awesomely cool though, and a real sweet spot of old-school enough to feel connected and fun, but modern enough to benefit from all sorts of modern engine wizardry.

Mine was built in 2002, which i tried argueing with the guys on the gate it was still valid given it was designed in the 1990s and released in 1997 and i did end up seeing a half dozen E46's in the show while mine was out in the carpark. I was a bit miffed about that.

That said, you have to know BMW's fairly well to know that.

Mine was one of them, but I suppose I got in cheekily and not as smoothly as an older car would, in additions to having details to backdate my car before it was even made.

I saw maybe 3 other E46 M3s in there. Several E36s, yes

[Sf_Manta]

Well, small disaster last night. Went to warm the car up and try and unstick the windows which had frozen in the cold weather by blasting the heater on full while driving around.

Driver's side made a few clunks then went down, went back up then went down... rapidly and didn't come up. Which is 99% the regulator's gone.
No pictures yet but the glass is fine, but a very cold drive home and the car's been confined to the garage for the moment.

A quick order from C3 BMW and a new regulator should be here in the next day or two.. just means me getting cold installing it.

[Sf_Manta]

So we're all back up and running , ready for Strassenkultur night at Caffine and Machine tonight.

Didn't get many pictures while replacing things as daylight hours were short, but ended up getting another window regulator from Euros after UPS didn't deliver on time and when it did arrive , didn't look anything like what the original looked like ..

So in went the Euro's one with a new motor then managed to get some fresh butile tape from BMW to stick back the vaper barrier properly as someone had been previously inside the door and made a bit of a mess of it.