Space Fox e92 M3 ZCP

[JIMN9NE]

I am in the same group buy. I have a Space Grey E90 M3 and I can't decide from the Blue or black. These cars are supposed to be under the radar and I think anything yellow, red, etc. just don't fit the theme of these cars.

[Space Fox]

Originally Posted by JIMN9NE

I am in the same group buy. I have a Space Grey E90 M3 and I can't decide from the Blue or black. These cars are supposed to be under the radar and I think anything yellow, red, etc. just don't fit the theme of these cars.

I'm with you. I'm pretty much set on the blue at this point. Especially given I can buy rear calipers from an M4 down the road that already match.
I considered the black for a second as well as it matches the GTS but I think for this type of upgrade it should look a bit different from stock.

[Space Fox]

Went for a foggy Sunday morning drive before the first F1 race of the season. Perfect morning for it.





Gas..of course


Still waiting on the BBK group buy to finish production. Will be adding M4 rotors and new PS4S while I'm at it. Should be set for a few more track days once finished. What constitutes a Club Sport spec? I'm thinking w/ half cage, BBK, carbon plenum I'm getting close. Maybe bucket seats/harness?

[Space Fox]

Rolled off of the production line 9 years ago today.

[Space Fox]

Been a bit busy lately and haven't had time to dedicate to the car as much. Got a new boat so that was taking up a lot of my free time and disposable income..



As to the car - most recently the battery finally went. The car would sporadically give me 'increased battery discharge' warnings really since shortly after purchasing it a little over a year and a half ago. I have had it on a tender to extend the battery life as much as I could when the car sits between weekend drives. A few weeks back the car wouldn't even try to turn over and the electronics started going completely haywire (wipers going off, DSC malfunction, headlights flashing, etc.) so I turned it off and finally purchased a new battery. I read that the H6 battery works well on the M3 platform with some decent size and weight savings without sacrificing reliability too much and for a reasonable price. I picked up the Odyssey ODP AGM48 H6 L3 for $230 and about 12lbs shed. I was initially looking at some different manufacturers but ultimately had to go with what was in stock. Both suppliers I was working with had severe shortages in supply.
Removal of the old BMW battery wasn't bad outside of it being heavy as S*&t. Once I had it out I expected it to be quite old but to my surprise had a date stamp of 5/2018. That seemed a bit young for the battery to be completely shot, maybe some others can chime in? It was a Virginia car in its previous life and I know the cold can have negative effects on battery longevity but still curious. Another thing worth mentioning is that even when coming home from a long drive and throwing the battery on the tender, the tender would read 'charging' typically for hours before the green light representing full charge would come on. Meaning that the battery was never nearly fully charged even after longer, spirited drives - or at least the tender led me to believe this. I always thought this was curious as well. Happy with the new battery thus far, coded/registered it with Carly to the lower Ah, was a breeze. Will keep an eye on things. My fear is the alternator is next to go. Hard to believe on a 2012 car w 51k miles. I know there are ways to measure it's output so maybe I'll dig in a bit more.




My newest gremlin is some noticeable oil drippings left on my garage floor. Haven't had time to inspect fully but a quite flash light glance under the car leads me to believe it is my drain plug. When I had my bearings replaced they had to time sert a stripped plug and the last oil change I did the sert came out w/ the plug seized to it so I wasn't able to replace the copper crush washer. Thinking/hoping it's something as simple as that. Always something! In all honestly this car has been great to me and maintenance has been no problem at all. Will report back w findings.

Lastly, on the upgrades front - was waiting patiently for the BBK retrofit group buy and after months of little to no communication was told it had fallen apart. Back to square one. I really would like to upgrade the front calipers to a 6-piston set that fits to M4 rotors so I can take advantage of the FCP Euro lifetime replacement. Will keep digging for now. Hoping to have it dialed before Fall/Winter for some more track time.

Cheers

[Space Fox]

Celebrated 2 years of ownership yesterday with a good wash! Still enjoying ownership as much as I was when I picked her up.




Not much to update. Itching to get back on track but brakes must come first. I had a lead on a very cheap set of M4 calipers/rotors that fell through. Back to the drawing board once again! I'm leaning towards the Maserati 6 pot fronts w M4 rears and F8x rotors all around. Will see what I can get done!

[Space Fox]

Mini update. Just crossed over 10k miles under my ownership. The car has been without fault throughout. Such a joy.





I've finally honed in on what I believe is the best OEM+ brake kit out there. I am hoping to have the parts installed by late March. Will post a thorough update once they're in.

[Rino924]

Interested to see what your OEM+ solution is. I am now starting to look around for fun.

[SEFcollector]

The build is so clean. Did you find from where the oil in the garage was? What about the alternator?

[Space Fox]

Originally Posted by SEFcollector

The build is so clean. Did you find from where the oil in the garage was? What about the alternator?

I appreciate that! That's been my overall goal - clean, tasteful, OEM+

Oil drippings are coming from the time sert that was installed by the last shop that did the oil change post-rod bearings. Said the drain plug was stripped and needed to install a time sert to fix. They did but now the time sert comes out w the plug and I couldn't find a crush washer to fit so it's slowly leaking. Good news I suppose as it could have been something much worse but bad news as its an annoyance and I don't have a good solution for it at the moment until I'm back under there for another oil change.

Alternator I'm still not sure. New battery is holding up fine, I just keep it on a battery tender any time I park it. I believe there is a way to test the voltage/health of the alternator via the dash unit but I haven't gone that far. I suspect it's going out. Closing in on 10 years so I guess that's not that hard to believe!

[Space Fox]

Brake kit is paid for in full! Unfortunately it's 5-6 weeks out due to powder coating back up. I will post more details on the kit once received.

[Drifter2090]

Brakes are gonna be great! Any plans to lower the car?

[M3_Legend]

Love you thread, I have 2009 SG on Fox E90 M3 which I picked up in Florida 3 years ago and can't get tired of the combo. Beautiful cars.

[Space Fox]

Originally Posted by Drifter2090

Brakes are gonna be great! Any plans to lower the car?

I've gone back and forth on it. Ultimately I love the adjustability of the EDC and current ride heights usability is great given my front lip and steep driveway, etc. I have no qualms about general compliance and handling either with the stock springs so at this point the costs outweigh the benefits for me.
Maybe additional track time will change my mind.

[Space Fox]

Originally Posted by M3_Legend

Love you thread, I have 2009 SG on Fox E90 M3 which I pick up in Florida 3 years ago and can't get tired of the combo. Beautiful cars.

Thank you! It really is such a great combo. Aging well also!
Very lucky to have found this car when I did.

[Drifter2090]

Originally Posted by Space Fox

I've gone back and forth on it. Ultimately I love the adjustability of the EDC and current ride heights usability is great given my front lip and steep driveway, etc. I have no qualms about general compliance and handling either with the stock springs so at this point the costs outweigh the benefits for me.
Maybe additional track time will change my mind.

Yeah keeping EDC is great for daily driving, that's why KW HAS kit is so great. Mine rides just like it did stock and I'm lowered almost all the way, but yeah ride height is also super nice to have lol

[Gossypiboma]

FYI Carly doesn't properly register the battery, search and you'll find a lot of info regarding the issue.

[Space Fox]

Originally Posted by Gossypiboma

FYI Carly doesn't properly register the battery, search and you'll find a lot of info regarding the issue.

Well that's unfortunate.

[Space Fox]

Wrapped up some maintenance items and decided to throw in a mod 'while I'm in there'

Installed a new alternator, replaced power steering reservoir/fluid, and installed Active Autowerke's underdrive pulley.



Old vs New Alternator



New AA Pulley Kit



Pretty substantial difference vs. OEM



My power steering fluid was in dire need of replacement and I purchased the entire kit from FCP so I figured I would replace the reservoir while I was at it as the reservoir contains a filter component. I used the turkey baster method (I have an actual hand pump) and pumped out 3 fills worth with the old reservoir. I then replaced the reservoir and ran two more through it. Fluid looks good. Difficult to avoid making a mess when replacing the reservoir regardless of how much fluid you extract. Seems like there is a good amount stored in the bottom half of the reservoir that's going to end up seeping out when you remove the lines. Lots of rags..



Alternator job was surprisingly pretty straightforward. The only trick is the bottom bolt. Thanks to this forum I learned that you need to hammer the bottom bolt after backing it out a bit to loosen the sliding internal lock. After that the alternator came right off. It's a bit awkward and you're working in tight quarters (surprise BMW) but really I didn't have any problems. You have to put some weight into the tensioner to remove/reinstall the belt but easy enough. Not 100% certain the alternator solved my electrical/charging gremlins, will need to run some tests to confirm.



Post-alternator install: https://youtube.com/shorts/Bhuo-VbHoag

Lastly, the power pulleys. I was on the fence about this mod but figured I was already 90% there with taking off the alternator belt and having everything open and accessible. This is also the last power mod outside of test pipes/forced induction. Figured it was worth the $300 to try it. I went with AA as it seemed well developed and somewhat conservative. I like that you're only replacing the crank pulley. Install was again surprisingly easy. Same thing, have to use some muscle on the tensioner and take your time re-routing the belts but everything went smoothly outside of some scrapes and cuts which I've found just come with the territory when working on this car. Badges of honor I suppose.
Started the car up and ensured everything was spinning in the right direction. Idle looked and sounded great, gave it some revs and everything was holding up. Time for a drive.

Post-pulley install: https://youtube.com/shorts/vUIRnRFfTPQ

I'm not going to sit here and say I can feel a 10hp difference. What I did notice is that the engine tends to rev more freely - whether under acceleration or on downshifts. Even more noticeable is the reduction in engine braking. I've always thought this car engine brakes heavily when coming off of throttle. I immediately notice a reduction in this with the new pulleys. The car coasts much better now and is smoother when coming off the throttle, which I like. So far I'm a fan. I don't perceive any noticeable difference in steering weight, etc. Will see how everything holds up on the next track day regarding cooling, etc.

Inside-of-plenum video for the hell of it: https://youtube.com/shorts/1tR2MpEUPjk

Speaking of track days. My new custom caliper set has officially shipped and I went ahead and purchased f8x rotors all the way round from FCP (lifetime replacement). Tempted to post a sneak peak of the set up but I think I'm going to wait until they arrive. Very excited about this next project as it's been a year or so in the making and I think will truly set the car apart.

[Space Fox]

Got the engine bay all cleaned up and coated after spilling oil in it ughhh.

Took the car for a spirited Easter morning drive. One of the best I've been on in a while. Sublime. Excited to get the new brake kit installed next week.

[Space Fox]

Forgot to post about the new brake kit! Duh!

Well. It's been just over a year since I signed up for the BBK group buy that ultimately ended up falling through. In that time I did a good bit of research into what the best OEM+ retrofit kit would be. I knew I did not want to shell out for a full Brembo BBK. I also knew I wanted to utilize FCP Euro's lifetime replacement warranty on rotors to help save on running costs long-term. Initially I was pretty set on the full F8x M4 retrofit but after doing some homework decided I didn't love the idea of having to replace the front spindles (increasing ride height). I knew the M4 rear rotors/calipers were a direct bolt on so really the front brakes became the focus. I dug into the BBK retrofit thread on here and saw some had good luck with the Alfa Giulia 6 piston front calipers. The only issue was a poor pad sweep. I tried sourcing these myself without much luck. I then stumbled upon MLT Engineering on Instagram and saw their fleet of M3s running the C63 AMG front calipers (w204). These are beefy as hell and I believe piston size increases by roughly 7%. The pad sweep was better than the Alfa's and they were readily available. I commissioned MLT to source the full set of calipers, rebuild, and refinish with custom painting to my liking. This ended up working beautifully as I was able to go with what I believe is the perfect OEM+ finish for this car - Brembo silver w red lettering. I had already previously decided that yellow was too loud and too 'Porsche', red too common, and while I liked the BMW blue it clashes with the Fox Red interior. Hence my decision on this color profile.
Thrilled with how they came out. I went ahead and sourced OEM F8x M rotors for all four corners from FCP Euro, pads, and caliper hardware. I think this set up will really set the car apart and fix what I believe is one of the only factory shortcomings of this platform.
I toyed with the idea of installing myself as none of it seems all that difficult outside of likely seized rotor bolts and pain in the ass brake bleeding. Ultimately I was convinced that this is the one mod that has a direct correlation to saving my life every time I drive the car and it is worth the $800 to leave the install to the professionals. Therefore I have install scheduled for next Thursday at my go-to local shop. Cannot wait to see how it all comes together and report back on stopping power, brake feel, etc.

[Rino924]

I was anxiously awaiting you to post your update. I sent a screen shot to a buddy of the MLT car after I was ordering my undertray from them using the AMG setup.

Def on my radar to piece some things together but still unsure of direction to take it. This is going to look awesome, can't wait to see them installed.