My $10K, 175K Miles, E92 M3 Build Journal

[JPetro10]

I've been meaning to make this build journal for a while but I'm absolutely horrible at taking pictures/documenting things, unless it's video, lol. I won't be posting my video's here unless people specifically ask for them, but if you're interested, this build will be on my YT channel, link is in my sig. That's as much pimping out my channel as I'll do, lol. With that being said, the first part of this story may be a little long winded.

So, where to start with this thing. I found this 2008 E92 M3, 6 speed with carbon roof on Craigslist in Houston, about 3 hours from where I live in Austin, TX. I wasn't necessarily looking for another project but I'm sure you all do the same type of CL/FB marketplace cruising like I do...just to tempt yourself for no reason, lol.

Anyways, I found this E92 M3 and was immediately interested. It's a 2008 E92 M3, 6 speed manual with a carbon roof in Sparkling Graphite Metallic/black interior with 173k (ish) miles. However, it was a 1-owner car with a clean Carfax that showed very regular maintenance. I'm totally cool with high mileage cars...IF there's some form of maintenance proof or you can tell the person took care of the car.

I got in touch with the seller for VIN, pics, etc. and decided it's definitely worth the 3 hour drive. Here are the pics of the car as it was posted on CL.








PS...he "detailed" it with that shiny/greasy sh!t people use...that's the WORST stuff ever. Not sure what it is...but please do NOT use it people. lol.

There was one more pic on CL that I forgot to save...so I'll use this one as a replacement. It was a basic frontend pic.



We hadn't settled on a price at this point so I believe I pulled out $11k just in case but I had already told the seller I wasn't going to go above $10k. If memory serves he was asking $12k. Keep in mind, this was within 30 days of Covid being a thing, so cars weren't necessarily flying off the floor.

I meet the seller, an early 20's male and I'm immediately skeptical...That would mean he bought the car when he was about 8 years old, lol. Keep in mind, the entire time we've text, he's said it's a one-owner car. I have no reason to think otherwise as Carfax backs this up as well.

I start the car and the entire dashboard lights up. Luckily I brought my scan tool, so I plugged that in to find literally every code in the book has been thrown. I mean, there was everything, headlight switch error, etc etc. I'm not a tech by any means, but to me that screamed system reset of some sort. I asked the seller if RB's and TB actuators had been done. He didn't know. It also had the ABS/DSC lights on as well. I did a bit of research and found that this was common and fairly easy to fix, so I wasn't too worried about that either.

So I start asking him about the one-owner claim. This is where it got weird and where I eventually learned a lesson.

He ends up being a private dealer (jumping ahead in the story but it's important to know, he wound up being a wholesale dealer...I didn't know that at the time and he didn't tell me). He bought the car from Auction after it had been traded into BMW.

However, when a dealership buys it, they don't do a title transfer. The title gets signed over to them, they sign the title, but the title is never put in their name. So, that explains his lack of knowledge on the car. That's also when I thought, okay, this car could have had a dead battery at some point, there's a good chance that's why every check engine light in the book is being thrown yet the car runs and drives fine and is in no form of limp mode.

So, after some haggling we settled on, I believe $10,300 or $10,400, I'm not sure. I give him the cash, he signs off on the title, I sign the title, I take the title, we part ways.

Since he had no clue about service history, I will say that was the scariest 3 hour drive of my life. The car ran perfect but I was beyond nervous about the dang RB's. As soon as I got it home I made an appointment to have the RB's done. It took about two weeks for that appointment and the car didn't move until that day, lol.

Fast forward in the story, the car DID have the OG RB's and I'm VERY glad I did them. There's no way I wouldn't have done them but they were definitely on their last leg. Not the worst I've seen, but definitely on their way out.







While the car was getting the RB's done, my buddy (the tech that did the RB's) reset all the check engine lights for me. It was apparently something along the lines of the battery was replaced but wasn't coded to the car. 10 minutes of my buddy messing around on his scan tool and boom, check engine lights/issues solved! ABS/DSC needed to be coded to the battery as well (I believe but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

So, back to the title. After getting the car home I get a text from the seller.

Seller - "Hey man, I need the title back"
Me - "Um, no....Why?"
Seller - "Well, I'm a wholesale dealer and my brother just told me I wasn't supposed to sell the car to a private party"

At this point I have no clue what the legalities are in this matter and as far as I'm concerned, it's not my problem and at this point, I just don't trust the guy.

Me - "I gave you the cash, I'm not giving you back the title"
Seller - "Well, if you don't you won't be able to title the car"
Me - "I'll figure it out"
Seller - "If you try to title the car, I could get in trouble"
Me - no response.

So, after getting the car passed emissions, etc, I'm ready to try titling this thing. By this point I had done some research into what he was saying and for the most part I found it was correct. However, I was told I could get a 'bonded title' if needed. A bonded title is completely different than a salvage title. It's not the best route to go but it's an option.

With Covid it's nearly impossible to get an appointment at the tax office to do the title transfer, so I went to a local title transfer spot. Long story short, they said they can't do the transfer AND since the "dealer" is still in business, I can't do a bonded title either. Since the dealer is still in business, I HAVE to go through him to do the title transfer.

So, that brings us to where we're at now. I've reached back out to the seller, he's agreed to do the title transfer and he got me a two month permit so I could drive the car.

With ALL of that being said, that didn't stop me from buying parts for the car, lol.

I'll update this thread with what I've done to the car thus far but for now, I think this first post is long enough! Long story short, I got a smoking deal on what seems to be a fairly clean E92 M3 with high miles.

PS. Forgot to mention I found the original owner and reached out to him! He mentioned the car had about $13k in maintenance work done around 11/2018 which included things like injectors, gaskets, etc....However they didn't do actuators or RB's? I was pretty shocked, lol.

PPS. If any of y'all are interested, here are a few pics of my S54 swapped E36 M3...another project car that I continually tinker with, lol. This is more of an OEM + style build whereas the E92 will be more of a track oriented build.











Aaand if you're into S2000's, here's the S2000 I bought with a blown up engine that had been sitting in someone's driveway for 3 years. I completely went through this thing, it was actually the project I was working on when I bought the E92, lol!











Annnd, now she's supercharged and making roughly 350 WHP and 215 WTQ

[b4hand]

Hello fellow Austinite! What is the purpose of this build? I am hoping your day track car 🙂

[JPetro10]

Originally Posted by b4hand

Hello fellow Austinite! What is the purpose of this build? I am hoping your day track car 🙂

Heyyyy! Yessir! This will still be a street car but it will be a more focused track build that I can still drive. In fact, I just installed TC Kline coilovers..I'll post about those soon. I got them specifically for the track. They don't allow for as much drop as I'd like if this were just a street car, but for the track, it should be great!

[911r]

Yo! I'm the guy who commented on your TCK install video about coil-overs. Glad you made a build journal!

[JPetro10]

Originally Posted by 911r

Yo! I'm the guy who commented on your TCK install video about coil-overs. Glad you made a build journal!

Yooo! I owe ya one! Gave me the motivation to actually do it! I'm so bad at these journals and just documenting this stuff in general. I was looking for any TCK pics I took...yup, none, lol! I'll post an update soon with how it looks but I'm bummed I didn't take any pics of the suspension when it was new.

[ZachE90M3]

I'm sure the rules vary from state to state, but he can sell you the car just not direct like that. It has to be sold with certain paperwork and then the title gets sent to the state who reassign it in your name. Then it gets mailed to you in your name. If you're buying the car and you have an out of state address then you just take the title and register it on your own.

[JPetro10]

Originally Posted by ZachE90M3

I'm sure the rules vary from state to state, but he can sell you the car just not direct like that. It has to be sold with certain paperwork and then the title gets sent to the state who reassign it in your name. Then it gets mailed to you in your name. If you're buying the car and you have an out of state address then you just take the title and register it on your own.

Yup, I believe you're right. If I were out of state, this wouldn't be an issue. I wish that were the case, lol. I definitely wouldn't be stressing about it! However, I'm still hopeful he'll do the right thing. So far, I have no reason to think otherwise...*knock on wood*, lol.

[ZachE90M3]

Originally Posted by JPetro10

Yup, I believe you're right. If I were out of state, this wouldn't be an issue. I wish that were the case, lol. I definitely wouldn't be stressing about it! However, I'm still hopeful he'll do the right thing. So far, I have no reason to think otherwise...*knock on wood*, lol.

Ya in Wisconsin that's how it is. I worked at a used car dealer and that's how it's done.

[Yvette]

Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed reading the stories

[Blindside_137]

Looks like a great car! Thanks for sharing the story. We do crazy things for these cars. I went to buy mine after a 16 hour night shift and drove it straight home

[JPetro10]

Originally Posted by Yvette

Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed reading the stories

My pleasure! Hopefully I'll have some good updates soon!

Originally Posted by Blindside_137

Looks like a great car! Thanks for sharing the story. We do crazy things for these cars. I went to buy mine after a 16 hour night shift and drove it straight home

Man, ain't that the truth, lol!

I just got done installing an Autosolutions SSK...not the easiest thing but definitely not the hardest and my car was in DESPERATE need of a new shifter. The improvement is absolutely insane!

I'll try to get an update posted soon. I have to post about the TCK coilovers, Autosolutions SSK and Coby wheel, shift boot, shift knob, e-brake boot and e-brake handle.