World's Cheapest Clean Title E92 M3 Build Thread

[Nickco43]

This past Tuesday was a dream come true to me; I flew out to LA and purchased a Silverstone E92 M3 for $7500!

But it did not come without some issues...



The previous owner was rear ended in it. Since the responsible party did not have enough coverage to total out the M3 the previous owner got paid out and got to keep the car with the clean title. I called the owner, asked if the engine ran, transmission shifted, brakes stopped and the tires held air. The owner said yes to all of that and I booked a one way ticket to LA. The owner picked me up at LAX, I confirmed the car was safe to drive and bought the car.



Before anything I obviously needed to fit a CIC + combox for BT media. I had to drive the car to my buddies shop in Sacramento which turned out to be a seven hour drive.



The previous owner had it since 45K miles and after my road trip it is now sitting at 204k! 10 years and over 150k miles! No issues on my 7 hours trip to Sacramento; drove straight as an arrow all the way up the 5.

I have service records for:
Rod bearings
Throttle actuators
Alternator
Spark plugs
Radiator + hoses
Front wheel bearings
Brakes

Current issues:
EDC fault (Front shocks faulty)
CA fault (Faulty original key)
Headliner sagging
Rear carpet damaged
Windshield trim replaced with caulk
Front tires dry rotted
Front seats worn
Rear parcel shelf faded
CF roof clear coat failure

Accident Damage:
Trunk (Replacement purchased for $60 in silver)
Bumper cover (Located a Silverstone bumper in NYC for $300 + shipping)
Bumper support (Purchased for $100)
Frame pull (Est $1500)
Paint + Blend ($300 a panel)
Trunk interior damaged
Taillights damaged


So far everything is going to plan and the repairs are on budget. I am looking to be all in at 12k for the car repaired, 15k dialed in. I am not sure how to go about repairing the CF roof, the front seats and the headliner. Does anyone here have any experience repairing these things?

[derbo]

Excited to see you work on this!

Been following your CIC/NBT adventures and glad you are in a V8 now

[amrazM]

these cars can take a hit, that rear inner bumper panel may need to be replaced to get the trunk to line up right. is the plastic under the trunk carpet broken?

[bipp]

wow! impressive entry price point, good luck with the build! definitely interested to see how this one goes.

[Nickco43]

My buddy got a chance to pull off the rear bumper. The edge of the trunk pan is buckled in quite a bit but once again everything looks fixable without too much fuss.

I ended up getting the Silverstone rear bumper in the Bronx for $300 + a $50 tip for my buddy to pick it up for me. I do have a business both a UPS and Fedex account so fingers crossed shipping to California is not too bad.

I did go on a shopping spree:

TRW Front Control Arms: $280
TRW Rear Control Arms: $437
TRW Swap Bar End Links Front + Rear: $53
Bilstein B6 None EDC Shocks: $761
Shock Mounts : $62
Lemforder Tie Rod Ends and Billows: $110

~$1700 taxed and shipped

This miniature restoration is going to be a balance between making the car nice and keeping the car economical. I could full M359 restorations on this car but I need to make sure I can always get my money out of this if needed.

[kevinm03]

Looking forward to following this.

Be careful buying TRW arms now. TRW have changed factories. The non-bmw ones are now made in Malaysia, and they have serious issues with the ball joints, they are wearing out in months. There may still be stock of the Germany-made arms in the US, but in Europe, all you can get are the Malaysian arms.

If the arms are made in Malaysia, return them and take the pain on genuine ones.

[DrFerry]

Sub'd..

[Nickco43]

Originally Posted by kevinm03

Looking forward to following this.

Be careful buying TRW arms now. TRW have changed factories. The non-bmw ones are now made in Malaysia, and they have serious issues with the ball joints, they are wearing out in months. There may still be stock of the Germany-made arms in the US, but in Europe, all you can get are the Malaysian arms.

If the arms are made in Malaysia, return them and take the pain on genuine ones.

All of my TRW suspension parts are either made in Germany, Italy, Taiwan, or the Czech Republic ... except the front control arms. I remember the previous owner said that a few of the front arms were replaced at some point. Maybe they are already good and don't need to be changed.

speedbunny Do you remember exactly what control arms were replaced?

[spammysammich]

The Malaysian made tension struts had a different shape than the European made counterparts.

[na6spdv8]

Wow amazing pickup and excited for your journey

[Nickco43]

Donor car picked up. I am taking the rear end, trunk trim and carpet, weather seals and a few more bits and bobs for $400.

I now have everything I need for the frame shop, fingers crossed I can get the car in sometime next week.

Due to going nuts with maintenance items I am now looking to be into this car for $15,500.

[Nickco43]

Got the car back from the frame shop after spending $1500 to pull the frame and weld in the new metal. Everything lined up pretty nice but nothing was seam sealed or primed so I was not terribly happy.



I then had the car towed to another body shop who for $500 seam sealed, body filtered and primed the entire rear end.





Tomorrow the car goes to paint and should be done this Wednesday. I booked my flight back to California for next Wednesday to collect the car and bring it back to Denver.

Assuming nothing else pops up I am going to be about $4,000 into the accident damage repair which is not too bad.

[DrFerry]

Hope it all goes well and thanks for the update. Good luck for your drive back from CA to Denver. Post a few pics of the car after painting.

[Nickco43]

Out of paint and it looks fantastic at least in the photo and what my buddy said when he picked it up. The only way you can tell that the car was hit is now the rear jams are painted Silverstone metallic instead of the flat silver it was painted in.



I can't wait to be reunited with the car next week and spend three full days in a 110 degree shop replacing 200k mile wear items next week!

For everyone following at home here is what I am in the car financially:

[Redd]

Is that just a reflection or is a big piece of your CF roof clearcoat missing?

[Nickco43]

Originally Posted by Redd

Is that just a reflection or is a big piece of your CF roof clearcoat missing?

The previous owner repaired that spot and then it reacted and failed again.

I am going to sand down that spot and then wrap the roof gloss black for now. Once I find someone to repair it properly I will have the CF roof repaired.

[Nickco43]

I finally got my M3 to Denver but boy do I have a story to tell.

I arrived at my buddy's shop around 10AM with almost three full days to get the car dialed in and ready for a 18 hour drive back to Denver.

Originally on the list to do was:
Clean up and install rear trunk carpet
Install Rear Bumper
Replace Front and Rear control arms
Install Evolve Vanos Covers
Replace Oil filter housing gasket
Install OEM backup camera
Replace rear carpet
Replace Shocks
Replace water pump and thermostat
Replace drive belts and idler pulley
Alignment
Program new car keys




What actually happened:

Day one:
Inspect the car and assemble rear end.

The car was completely dead after sitting around for two months. The previous owner put in a brand new AGM battery only a few months before I bought the car so I was a little confused why it died. Turns out the plastic around the negative terminal was cracked and the battery was no good. Thankfully my buddy found a year old OEM BMW battery in the shop that tested in excellent condition so that went in the car. Once the car was fired up I was greeted with the warm amber glow of the check engine light and the air bag light. I thought nothing about the two lights and brushed them off as being caused by the dead battery.

The color match was spot on and the painter did a fantastic job. The frame guy left a bunch of what I assumed was welding rod that had to be cleaned from the rear of the car. The trunk and the bumper lined up pretty good considering some of the bumper tabs were broken.






Day Two:

Front and rear control arms and shocks were replaced by my buddy while I worked on the engine. Right of the bat one of the PCV parts that are on each of the valve covers broke at the seem. Thankfully Specialized German had a replacement in stock for $20 so it was not a big deal. Popping off the valve cover revealed that the previous owner kept up on his oil changes.

I replaced the brittle plastic Vanos covers with metal ones from Evolve tuning. I made sure to verify that all the clips were on all the way by spinning the engine over by hand. Hopefully they do not suffer from the same issues as some of the other Vanos covers that some forum users have had.

Thermostat and water pump came out no problem.

When it was time to remove the oil filter housing this is when I discovered the entire lower end of the motor was caked with oil. It was so bad it took me forever to find most of the bolts. Once removed the gasket was hard as a rock and definitely original to the car.

Assembling the car again I found out that the water pump I ordered had the holes for the pulley drilled in slightly the wrong spots so I swapped out the new gasket onto the original pump and put it back in the car. Not entirely happy about this but I was unable to source a new pump in time.

Once everything was assembled it was about midnight, a very long 12 hour work day.

I go to code out TPMS, EDC on the car and clear the codes. All the lights went away but the check engine light was still on for.... Bank two throttle actuator. I was baffled as both throttle actuators were rebuilt back in 2019 and had a lifetime warranty. Thankfully I was still able to rev the engine to 4,000 RPM so I limped the car back to my buddy's house.












Day 3:

I wake up to a coolant puddle on the driveway.... not good. Looking under the car the leak was from the back on the engine. Checked all the hoses and nothing was leaking. It had to be from the either the water pump or Thermostat.

I topped the car off with distilled water from the grocery store and but now when I try to start the car all I heard was a click. After two more tries the car fired to life but now my starter motor is going out. Thankfully I brought with me a good used starter but now I needed to source throttle actuators, install the starter and find a coolant leak before I needed to leave the next morning.

After a 9AM phone call to the local BMW dealer, I was able to have two new throttle actuators and a new thermostat in by the end of the day for $1500. One crisis solved.

I had an alignment appointment to make at 10AM so I limped the car to the alignment shop were they did a fantastic job on the alignment. But as I went to limp the car back home all I got was a clicking sound trying to start the car. After 20-30 times of clicking, jump packs, grounding cables, etc it was time to call a tow truck.

I have had old BMWs since I was 16 years old and never was left stranded by any of them until now. At this point I hopped in my buddies car and headed to the dealer to pick up my parts. We came back to the alignment shop and after about an hour the tow truck driver came but before he puts the M3 on the flat bed he tried to start the car one more time and to everyones amazement the car fired up.

I did not join the BMW tow truck club, at least not that day. Quickly, I hopped back in the car and limped it back to my buddies shop.

After getting something quick to eat it was now 8PM and I needed to be on the road by 8AM tomorrow morning. We worked through the night and were able to replace the throttle actuators, the starter motor and diagnose the coolant leak as a broken O ring on the thermostat housing (even thought it was brand new and lubed with coolant before putting in). It was now 2AM but the car was finally working and was able to handle a spirited drive back to my buddies place.




Day 4:

I get up and I am on the road by 8AM after a very nice four hours of sleep. The car fired right up and I didn't see any coolant leaks on the drive way. The only issue I noticed now was oil from either overnight or since I bought the car has / had leaked on the passenger side header and was now burning. With no other option I topped the car off with oil and set out on a 10 hour drive to SLC. I ended up going through about a liter of oil every 300 miles... not good. I was going at good pace through rural Nevada and Utah so maybe the S65 burns more oil then, I am not sure.

Day Five:

After going through almost all of my spare oil I stop at the autoparts store for more oil. When I get out a noticed that the rear bumper was covered in droplets of oil... once again not good. Topped off with oil I set out on my final driving day back to Denver. I was driving much more relaxed this day since I only had about a 7-8 hour drive back and had plenty of time. 1/2 way through Wyoming I start to feel the car jerk. Immediately I thought the DCT was low on fluid and it was game over for me. The car did this three times before the DSC, ABS and brake light trifecta illuminated. The jerking stopped after the errors popped up which was a good sign. I pulled over I scanned the car and thankfully only my rear right wheel speed sensor had failed. Annoying but I could continue driving.

Soon after I crossed the boarder into Colorado I hit torrential hail. I slowly kept driving to get out of the storm cell but eventually the hail became so heavy I couldn't see a thing out of my windshield. At this point I thought it was game over for my M3 and it would be totaled out for hail damage. Out of the storm I stopped at a gas station and to my amazement the only thing that was damaged was the freshly wrapped roof was starting to peel at once corner.

I cruised the rest of the way into Denver without incident.






Conclusion:

I am now 19k into a 205k mile E92 M3 that is mostly sorted.

Current issues:
Headliner still needs to be done
Muffler mounts need to be replaced
Wheel speed sensors need to be replaced
It is probably a good idea to swap out the original 205k fuel pump and water pump out of the car.
The car may or may not be leaking oil out of the valve covers (either I didn't fit the gaskets correctly or the valve covers are warped)
Tires need to be swapped out before winter

Was all of this worth it?

If the car ends up behaving for a while then yes but as of right now I am being nickeled and dimmed beyond my tolerance (10% of the car's purchase price upfront and 1-2k per year).

Then again the car does haul ass and drives better than any BMW I have ever owned.

[roastbeef]

i'm sorry to say it, but you have $19k and a lot of work into a $19k car.

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by Nickco43

Conclusion: I am now 19k into a 205k mile E92 M3 that is mostly sorted.

Current issues:
Headliner still needs to be done
Muffler mounts need to be replaced
Wheel speed sensors need to be replaced
It is probably a good idea to swap out the original 205k fuel pump and water pump out of the car.
The car may or may not be leaking oil out of the valve covers (either I didn't fit the gaskets correctly or the valve covers are warped)
Tires need to be swapped out before winter

Was all of this worth it? If the car ends up behaving for a while then yes but as of right now I am being nickeled and dimmed beyond my tolerance (10% of the car's purchase price upfront and 1-2k per year). Then again the car does haul ass and drives better than any BMW I have ever owned.

Thanks for the write up. It was a good read. Boy did you get lucky with that hail storm doing no damage... Seeing all that oil gunk on the skid plate makes me think the oil filter housing gasket needs replacing. They typically fail around the 80K mile mark. There's a DIY out there for the repair. Good luck with all the rest of the stuff that needs replacing. If I were you I'd set a budget $ figure you don't want to go beyond - say $21K, and prioritize the remaining repairs towards reliability and maintenance only. It's good to see a 205K mile E9X M3 still being used and enjoyed, but set some repair dollar limit to avoid the car becoming a money pit.

[qbak]

Hi Nico43, I've got a question to ask. You retrofitted this part into an e92 - 84102449887 (it's a wireless qi charger). The catalouge of BMW says it won't fit e92, and I am kinda scared to pay for it since there are no returns. Could you please confirm for me that it will fit ? I've got a 2010 M3 e92 Silverstone as well

[kevinm03]

Originally Posted by qbak

Hi Nico43, I've got a question to ask. You retrofitted this part into an e92 - 84102449887 (it's a wireless qi charger). The catalouge of BMW says it won't fit e92, and I am kinda scared to pay for it since there are no returns. Could you please confirm for me that it will fit ? I've got a 2010 M3 e92 Silverstone as well

I had that charger in my F36. It's not great, it will cook your phone's battery from the heat it generates, especially if you are using wireless carplay. I swapped out the USB A charger under the armrest for a genuine 2x USB C charger. Note this is a charge only usb hub.

[Nickco43]

Originally Posted by qbak

Hi Nico43, I've got a question to ask. You retrofitted this part into an e92 - 84102449887 (it's a wireless qi charger). The catalouge of BMW says it won't fit e92, and I am kinda scared to pay for it since there are no returns. Could you please confirm for me that it will fit ? I've got a 2010 M3 e92 Silverstone as well

Originally Posted by kevinm03

I had that charger in my F36. It's not great, it will cook your phone's battery from the heat it generates, especially if you are using wireless carplay. I swapped out the USB A charger under the armrest for a genuine 2x USB C charger. Note this is a charge only usb hub.

I got a single OEM USB type C that I am going to fit to the E92 at some point.

On my last E9x and F10 all you do is that a snap in adapter harness, chop it and pin in a four pin power connector to the USB socket. Super clean and easy install.


I got the M3 back from the shop last week after having new used valve covers put on, the front suspension clunk fixed, muffler mount fixed, new tires, DCT top off, SS brake lines and fluid flush performed. Add this $3,000 bill to the pile and now I am in this E92 for $22k. It will need to go back to the shop at some point in the coming weeks as there might be another oil leak from the rear main or the front timing cover.



The only thing left to do now is to drive the car. I ended up doing a 12 hour round trip around Colorado to stress test the car.

First stop was Pikes Peak about two hours away from Denver. I got at the gates at 9AM and with the heavy traffic I manage to summit in 50 minutes. Since I have already done all of the touristy bits I looped the parking lot and headed right back down. Without hitting traffic I made it back to the front gates in 30 minutes. Growing up in the northeast it is interesting to think this may have been the first time this car has ever seen snow living in SoCal its entire life.



After another two hour drive and a lunch stop in Buena Vista, I took the M3 up Cottonwood Pass. Hands down the nicest road I have ever driven in my entire life. Going up and down the pass everything made sense with the M3.







After making it back to Buena Vista, I headed up the road about an hour and a half to Vail for a quick dinner at Pazzo's pizza and then another 2 hours back to Denver. The total drive time for the day was 10 hours and managed to go over 400 very hard miles. The car had zero issues and felt like a brand new M3.

Rewarding the car for not leaving me stranded on top of a mountain I tackled rewrapping the headliner. It ended up turning out OKish. If the M3 continues to behave itself I will probably find a shop in Denver to professionally refinish it but for now at least it is not in my face.





That is it for now, I still need find time to wire in the OEM backup camera, Type C port and clean up the trunk.