What have you done with or to your M3 today?

Helmsman wrote

stimey wrote

Nice, I might do this preemptively as well. Do you have a link to UK rebuilds and were directions provided? How difficult was the job?

Here you are mate: https://www.rebuild.org.uk.
Went for complete refurbished actuators myself as those include some upgraded electronics while you're at it.

+1

Have both TAs replaced with these. Best price, lifetime guarantee - and Jason's service is faaasst.

Epoustouflant wrote

+1

Have both TAs replaced with these. Best price, lifetime guarantee - and Jason's service is faaasst.

The speed in my case was crazy; shipped over night from England to Sweden. To my surprise faster than a typical shipment within the country...

37 degree F; fingers are numb; and a quick warm bath; equals a big smile!!

GotV8? wrote

37 degree F; fingers are numb; and a quick warm bath; equals a big smile!!

I like them wheels!!! What are they?

Installed carbo project plenum, now working on stoptech st40 f/r kit

Scharbag wrote

I like them wheels!!! What are they?

Thank you sir, they're BBS CI-R... could not justify paying for BBS FI-R but the looks are very similar without the opening on the spokes for 1/4 the price. $600ish per wheels vs over $2,000.00 per wheel. compromise!! lol

130K miles worth of diff oil nastiness. and a regular oil change. It feels amazing after the oil change..

And keep digging into an airbag issue.

stimey wrote

Nice, I might do this preemptively as well. Do you have a link to UK rebuilds and were directions provided? How difficult was the job?

Yes, they provided directions. They gave a link to a youTube video () as well which explained things very well. It wasn't that difficult however you do to be very careful when drilling around the old shaft. Took me about 5 hours to rebuild both TAs. I paid $60 vs $700, so it was well worth the time. The items came in 3 days even to the US from UK. You can only do this if you are not having issues with the TAs already.

Here are some pics:

The first pic is the finished product. The white gears are the new ones.

jvana95 wrote

stimey wrote

Nice, I might do this preemptively as well. Do you have a link to UK rebuilds and were directions provided? How difficult was the job?

Yes, they provided directions. They gave a link to a youTube video (

) as well which explained things very well. It wasn't that difficult however you do to be very careful when drilling around the old shaft. Took me about 5 hours to rebuild both TAs. I paid $60 vs $700, so it was well worth the time. The items came in 3 days even to the US from UK. You can only do this if you are not having issues with the TAs already.

Here are some pics:

The first pic is the finished product. The white gears are the new ones.

Did you seat the pin all the way in? The picture shows it sticking out quite considerably.

Also, the angle of the pin loss like it barely off at all passes through the shaft.

DRLane wrote

jvana95 wrote

stimey wrote

Nice, I might do this preemptively as well. Do you have a link to UK rebuilds and were directions provided? How difficult was the job?

Yes, they provided directions. They gave a link to a youTube video (

) as well which explained things very well. It wasn't that difficult however you do to be very careful when drilling around the old shaft. Took me about 5 hours to rebuild both TAs. I paid $60 vs $700, so it was well worth the time. The items came in 3 days even to the US from UK. You can only do this if you are not having issues with the TAs already.

Here are some pics:

The first pic is the finished product. The white gears are the new ones.

Did you seat the pin all the way in? The picture shows it sticking out quite considerably.

Also, the angle of the pin loss like it barely off at all passes through the shaft.

Interesting. Apparently they have changed the gears they provide. I have rebuilt 2 sets, but it has been awhile. I agree about the pin, it should be drilled directly through the center of the shaft and only protrude slightly. What about gluing the shaft and over the pin? The kits I got used JB Weld.

romero1990 wrote

130K miles worth of diff oil nastiness. and a regular oil change. It feels amazing after the oil change..

And keep digging into an airbag issue.

130k on that coming out? Would have expected a black mess but looks pretty fair still!

I only had 25k on mine but it still made a significant difference on the diff chatter at low speed turning. Went with Castrol Syntrax that supposely have less friction modifier then OEM if anything so was happily surpriced. You notice any differences?

Finally got her back on the road after a week and a half. New stance with 12.5mm TMS spacers all around and lowered via H&R sport springs. Other work included Cool Carbon brake pads front and back, stainless steel brake lines, brake fluid flush + ABS, replaced primary oxygen sensors, swapped forward rotors which others had installed backwards.

DRLane wrote

Did you seat the pin all the way in? The picture shows it sticking out quite considerably.

Also, the angle of the pin loss like it barely off at all passes through the shaft.

Thanks for noticing this. I drilled the shaft through the gear first as shown in the video to the same length as the pin. Then I removed the gear from the shaft in order to put the shaft back in the casing and when I put the pin back in through the pre-drilled hole it hit the shaft before i could completely push it in. It then bent a little at the end therefore looking like it is off center. I think that since I had to remove the gear and put it back on again, it may have been a hair off, thereby causing the pin to not cleanly go back into the pre-drilled hole in the shaft. I tried to push it in as much as possible, so I'm hoping it went in a little. I glued the gear and pins to the shaft, so hopefully it will hold. It probably would have been better to drill the hole after putting on the gear on the shaft the second time. Not sure what the point was with putting the gear on the shaft and then removing it.

Dpc2u wrote

Interesting. Apparently they have changed the gears they provide. I have rebuilt 2 sets, but it has been awhile. I agree about the pin, it should be drilled directly through the center of the shaft and only protrude slightly. What about gluing the shaft and over the pin? The kits I got used JB Weld.

The kit I received had 2 glue type liquids which I had to mix together, I guess some type of epoxy glue. The resulting glue was black. I'm not sure it was JB Weld. I glued the shaft and pin per the instructions.

CamasM3e93 wrote

Finally got her back on the road after a week and a half. New stance with 12.5mm TMS spacers all around and lowered via H&R sport springs. Other work included Cool Carbon brake pads front and back, stainless steel brake lines, brake fluid flush + ABS, replaced primary oxygen sensors, swapped forward rotors which others had installed backwards.

Did you have any issues with removing the oem brake lines? Mine won't come off since the brake nut is stuck to the oem hard brake line which is part of the car. I'm afraid to twist the hard line too much. I heard that torching it might help but I'm afraid I might damage it if I torch it.

jvana95 wrote

Did you have any issues with removing the oem brake lines? Mine won't come off since the brake nut is stuck to the oem hard brake line which is part of the car. I'm afraid to twist the hard line too much. I heard that torching it might help but I'm afraid I might damage it if I torch it.

I didn't have issues with the nuts being bonded to the hard brake line. But I did come across a video of a guy in Britain who had that issue and twisted the hard lines. They didn't end up being an expensive replacement so if you were really committed to stainless steel line upgrades you could plan for them to be destroyed, buy the hard line sections, and just cut them out. I have to tell you though that I regretted doing to stainless steel lines. I ended up draining the entire brake fluid system, had to do a flush + an ABS flush, and was chasing air in the lines far too long. Also you should know (perhaps already do) that there is a 3rd section of rubber line - called the mid lines - that are hard to get to / hard to replace - that also technically need to get replaced.


Besides, those factory brake lines could be used to hang a horse they are so strong and reinforced. To do it over I'd leave them in but mine only had 8 years and 50k miles on them.

Helmsman wrote

romero1990 wrote

130K miles worth of diff oil nastiness. and a regular oil change. It feels amazing after the oil change..

And keep digging into an airbag issue.

130k on that coming out? Would have expected a black mess but looks pretty fair still!

I only had 25k on mine but it still made a significant difference on the diff chatter at low speed turning. Went with Castrol Syntrax that supposely have less friction modifier then OEM if anything so was happily surpriced. You notice any differences?

it's been very smooth so far. my 2pipe mod exhaust is louder than the chatter probably

romero1990 wrote

it's been very smooth so far. my 2pipe mod exhaust is louder than the chatter probably

No, the exhaust note doesn't cover the diff groan so then you probably didn't have any.

My headlight switch broke, so I upgraded to the euro switch with the rear fog button.

roastbeef wrote

My headlight switch broke, so I upgraded to the euro switch with the rear fog button.

Aha, you guys don't have rear fog light coming standard, in any cars?

Monday, I went ahead and installed my Swift springs that I've had sitting on my shelf for the last year. I was going to have a garage do it but decided that I had all the tools and the time, I might as well do it. Turned out great and not difficult at all.

Denny347 wrote

Monday, I went ahead and installed my Swift springs that I've had sitting on my shelf for the last year. I was going to have a garage do it but decided that I had all the tools and the time, I might as well do it. Turned out great and not difficult at all.

Looks awesome! Installing mine tonight with MS 12/15 spacers.