Space Grey E92 Journal and Maintenance Logs

[Contra]

Here's my cost / maintenance spreadsheet incase anyone's wondering about cost of ownership these days: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

I've been lurking on this forum for ages, but I finally got to a place where I could afford an M. In December 2020 I bought a 2008 6MT Space Grey M3 with 72k miles. I'll be using this thread as a journal to track the changes to the car throughout my ownership.

Here it is the day I bought it:



The previous owner was very young, and did quite a bit of "budget modding", but the car ticked all the boxes I cared about: Manual, Carbon Roof, relatively low mileage, and good maintenance records (previous owner did Blackstone analysis at every oil change and he bought it with 20k miles).

My intent is to take the car in a more OEM+ direction.

When purchased the car had the following known issues:
-Stereo didn't work
-Audible exhaust leaks
-TPMS light was on

The first order of business after purchase was removing all the stick on cosmetics the previous owner put on. The car had carbon fiber stickers over the mirrors, side markers, hood vents, and gas door, a double-sided taped on front plate mount, and the previous owner's instagram handle in vinyl on the rear quarter windows.

I peeled all that stuff off, but to my dismay the gas door cover was adhered with gorilla glue .

After a lot of research and frustration trying to remove the glue with chemicals, I decided to just buy a new painted gas door.

Then I dropped the car off at Markert to have VAC bearings and ARP bolts installed. The old bearings didn't look too bad, but I'm glad to have the peace of mind.



After getting the car back from the shop I chased down why the stereo wasn't working. Thanks to the nice little LEDs within the logic7 plugs, I found that the amplifier was dead. I bought a used amp off ebay and after fighting the amplifier plug for a couple of hours, I had the new amp installed and the sound worked perfectly.

Next up, I did some shopping at iND and got the "Edition" black chrome grilles and side markers, a black chrome rear M3 badge, and gloss black hood vent surrounds.

Here she is after a wash (M220 wheels were way more painful to clean than I imagined):







Shortly after the cosmetics, I started getting throttle actuator codes for bank 2. Decided to go ahead and do both while I was in there and replace them with the VGO actuators from FCP Euro for the warranty.

It was awfully sandy in the valley of the V, so I went ahead and cleaned that as best I could with a shop vac. I also cracked open both of the OEM actuators to take a look at the gears. Some of the teeth were razor thin.





The previous owner had previously straight piped the car, but reinstalled the OEM exhaust prior to sale. The OEM exhaust was pretty obviously cut up previously and the welds putting it back together were questionable at best.

Couldn't figure out video embed, so here's a link.

Old muffler welds and leaks:

View post on imgur.com

I ended up getting an RKP Street Pipe from iND and a Corsa rear section to bring the volume up while getting rid of all the ticking from the many exhaust leaks while keeping me emissions compliant.

More links. Maybe I'll move them to YouTube or something.

Cold Start:

View post on imgur.com

Revving:

View post on imgur.com

Currently hunting why my O2 sensors keep dying.

Anyways, glad to be a part of the forums. Gonna try and make my updates smaller moving forward. This 1st post is quite a novel.