2008 E92 AW/FR Intro and Journal

[crowtrobot]

Hi all,

Migrating over to these boards from 1addicts after picking up a 2008 E92 M3! I have been driving a 2011 128i, which I've modified quite a bit to be a track/DD car, but have been shopping for a long time for something more capable right out of the box. Finally found the right combo of price/options/location and took the plunge. Here is the previous ride:







The new-to-me car is a 6MT with 54000mi on it, EDC with Dinan springs, unmodified engine, and some nice forged RAC wheels. Car had definitely been sitting a bit, but quarantine is perfect for setting aside time to change fluids and detail.

Here is the car as she stands now:

[crowtrobot]

First things first after getting the car home, was cleaning in the engine bay. As mentioned, it looked like it had been sitting a bit. Had an order from FCP Euro ready to go with new cabin filters, air filter, and misc other things.

[crowtrobot]

Next up, changing fluids. Changed the engine oil (and grabbed a sample for Blackstone), transmission oil, and brake fluid.

Ran into two snags:

• Transmission fill plug tore itself apart at around 20ftlb (spec is 25ftlb)
• I like using INPA to get a good flush with the brake fluid, and I kept getting "IHF-0003: DATATRANSMISSION TO INTERFACE DISTURBED" errors trying to connect.

Solutions:

• Found a replacement plug last minute at a nearby dealer, definitely worse ways for a part to fail, was pretty thankful all things considered.
• For the INPA problem, I ordered a proper Bimmergeeks cable instead of the cheap amazon cable I had used previously, and voila(!) it worked.

Fluid was pretty gross looking, not sure if it was from age, or possibly the old blue tinted fluid. Either case, now it's got a fresh supply of clean Motul 600.

[crowtrobot]

Next up was the trunk. Car came with a Vorsteiner CF trunk, which was a little flashy for my taste, so I wanted to go back to stock.

Found a trunk nearby on ebay for a decent price, was able to get a better deal with a local pickup in cash. Condition underneath wasn't perfect, but the paint match was good and the exterior was in great condition. This also gave me an opportunity to clean out the rear gutters which had been full of junk.

Really satisfied with the clean, spoiler-less look.

[crowtrobot]

I somehow didn't notice when I bought the car that there was an EDC error. Used INPA to read the code back, which was "5FE1 - Steering angle correction value exceeded"

I followed a couple guides on the boards here to try to reset the limits via tool32, but this did not help. It looked like the next step was to buy a new EDC module.

I found a used EDC module for a reasonable price on ebay nearby, again able to get a decent discount for a local pickup in cash. Got the module home, and started this job after dinner, thinking the module was in the passenger footwell and would be a piece of cake...kind of a mistake.

First step was reading out the memory of the current module, just in case coding was necessary. I used NCSExpert to read the EDC module and saved the trace file away.

Quickly found that the module was in the passenger rear wheel well, not in the footwell up front. Working with the trunk liners fighting against me was not particularly pleasant, but not the worst job ever, either. Pulled the old module out, swapped in the new used one, and was greeted to a whole bunch of new EDC errors (the new module came from an E89 Z4). Re-flashed the EDC module with NCSExpert, and then cleared the errors, and hell yeah, the EDC worked! Mission accomplished... around 11pm.

Also took the opportunity to swap my Optima yellow top from the 1er into the M3. 30lb of weight saved instantly!

[Vedubin01]

I love threads like this! Nice work!!!

[crowtrobot]

Another thing I wasn't totally sold on was the BMWP v1 steering wheel that came with the car. The leather was looking a bit rough on top, and the alcantara was kind of nappy and beat down.

Before I went down the route of removing the wheel (and pulling/reworking the associated wiring harnesses), I decided to try tidying it up.

From my 1er experience, I knew that the faceplates are pretty disposable on E8x/E9x era cars, so I already had one on hand. I replaced the faceplate for the Performance wheel, and hit the leather with some cleaner and sealant. The cleaner got a ton of crud off, and after applying the sealer and buffing, the leather turned out pretty good!

Next was the alcantara. Haven't dealt with this before, but a quick googling shows two options: plain ol' dishsoap, and a special Sonax product. I decided to try the dishsoap first (for obvious reasons). Put a few drops of soap in a cereal bowl filled with warm water, then soaked a towel in the soapy water and rung it out. Once the towel was just a bit damp, I massaged the alcantara with the towel. The light blue-ish towel turned pretty brown after a few passes, which was a good sign.

Went back over it with a microfiber (which still came up a little dirty), and then let it dry for a few hours. Results were pretty darn good! I think that I'll probably have another go with soapy water soon too, given that the drying towel was still pulling up some dirt, but I think I'll keep the wheel

[fs34]

Welcome! Love the M3 and the thread so far.

[Space Fox]

Great intro thread! Welcome to the club. Love the work you're doing and congratulations on the great find. Enjoy the car and remember to ring it out!

Two questions:

Excellent work on the engine bay detail. Care to share your method? I've been hesitant to hose down my engine bay and have settled for detailing by hand for the time being.

How has the Yellow Top worked for you? My battery appears to be on its last leg and I'm between the Optima Yellow and Red tops. Did you need a mounting kit or direct replacement?

[Jerezblack.m3]

Show us your 1 series!

[Sterling Sackey]

Awesome stuff!

[crowtrobot]

Originally Posted by Space Fox

Great intro thread! Welcome to the club. Love the work you're doing and congratulations on the great find. Enjoy the car and remember to ring it out!

Two questions:

Excellent work on the engine bay detail. Care to share your method? I've been hesitant to hose down my engine bay and have settled for detailing by hand for the time being.

How has the Yellow Top worked for you? My battery appears to be on its last leg and I'm between the Optima Yellow and Red tops. Did you need a mounting kit or direct replacement?

Thanks for the kind words!

My engine bay detailing is pretty humble. Combination of damp cloths, Armorall cleaning wipes (not that oily sealer crap), and quick detailer spray. I take as much apart as is reasonable so I can reach, and if I'm ever doing work in the engine bay, I'll make sure to tidy up whatever might have been previously inaccessible. I think it does a reasonably good job without the risk of hosing the thing down.

The Yellowtop has been great! I got it from bimmerworld when they ran a special. Optima was running a rebate, and bw had a promotion where the mounting kit was either half-off or free. The mounting kit is of great quality. The 1er sat for weeks at a time over the winter and the battery held up fine.

@Jerezblack.m3: updated the first post at your request

[New2Roundel]

Congrats on the new car! Nothing like getting knee deep in things right off the bat. Happy to hear that you got all the problems worked out. The car should treat you great from here on out. I'll have to keep an eye out for your car if you're local. I live in the Malvern area.

[Shrike360]

Originally Posted by Space Fox

Great intro thread! Welcome to the club. Love the work you're doing and congratulations on the great find. Enjoy the car and remember to ring it out!

Two questions:

Excellent work on the engine bay detail. Care to share your method? I've been hesitant to hose down my engine bay and have settled for detailing by hand for the time being.

How has the Yellow Top worked for you? My battery appears to be on its last leg and I'm between the Optima Yellow and Red tops. Did you need a mounting kit or direct replacement?

I've used the Obsessed Garage method twice on my car without issues. This involves spraying down the engine bay with all purpose cleaner, some minor scrubbing in a few spots and then cleaning it up with a pressure washer. Then spraying some diluted Meguiars Hyper Dressing on and just closing the hood after that. Come back later and it looks fantastic with very little effort.

[Drifter2090]

Congrats and great job so far!! Definitely should pick up some LCI taillights!

Also maybe move the thread to "M3 Photos/Video/Media Gallery", that's where most build threads are

[WAKman]

Great thread--thanks. Looks like you are off to a great start. I wish I knew a little bit more about all the coding and computer stuff in these car. I learned back when cars still had points and condensors.

I've never had a problem dousing the entire engine in my M3 with water. No ill effects whatsoever. I use common sense--I don't blast high pressure water on electrical boxes, but I do wash the engine each time I wash the rest of the car. Modern cars are made to be pretty waterproof under the hood, unlike it years past.

[crowtrobot]

Originally Posted by Drifter2090

Congrats and great job so far!! Definitely should pick up some LCI taillights!

Also maybe move the thread to "M3 Photos/Video/Media Gallery", that's where most build threads are

Drifter2090 Cool, thanks for the feedback! Is there a way I can move the thread, or do admins have to do this?

[crowtrobot]

Been continuing to tidy up the car and make small cosmetic mods. Bought a set of BMW Performance gloss black kidney grills to replace the existing CF grills (again taking the opportunity to clean when the parts were removed). Job was super easy: undo the 4 T25s at the top of the bumper to make some space to reach behind the grills, then undo the clips. I was able to do all of the clips by hand except for the one close to the headlamp where I used a trim tool. Liking the clean black look:









The car also had matching CF fender grills. I had ordered a set of stock fender grills from a local yard, but despite the pictures shown, they unfortunately came a bit scuffed up with some pretty weathered ///M3 decals. Also, with no other chrome trim on the car, it looks a little out of place.



So I tried my hand at rattlecanning the chrome with gloss black and a few coats of clear. Results were...OK.





It's probably like a 15ft paint job. I ended up ordering some iND gloss black fender grills to properly replace these. The yard that sent the OE grills was kind enough to ship me some new labels, but they don't quite look OE to me...



Now I'm waiting a few days for $100 stickers from FCP Euro to wrap this up.

[crowtrobot]

The car must have had a front lip on it at some point during its life; I'm guessing quite some time ago, as the ample remnants of 3M tape were really showing some age.



The car has PPL on it (which I'm guessing is also pretty old), so I could just replace the layer and the tape would go away, but until then the car would be looking a bit crusty, so I figured I'd have a go at it and see if I couldn't clean it up.

Took about 3hr under the car to heat a section, soak it in Goo Gone spray, and attack it with a plastic razor. No matter how much adhesive came up with the Goo Gone, there was always more the next time I went over it with the razor.







Results were decent. Looks a helluvalot better from afar, and I think it is sufficient until the PPL gets replaced. Removing the tape revealed some drilled holes in the bumper, but they're not super visible unless you're close up under the car.

[crowtrobot]

There were two things from my E82 that I was fortunately able to move over: one was the Optima Yellow battery, the other was the set of Schroth Quickfit Pros I had recently purchased. These are cross-compatible between the E82 and E92s. This is a really nice easy install, esp. since I had the quickfit clips pre-bent. Just pull up the rear seat bench (literally just pull up), unbolt the T50 bolts holding the seatbelt to the bench, and install the quickfit clips. The other side of the quickfit will use the existing seatbelt receptacles.

As always, took the opportunity to clean some normally-unseen areas, namely some old frenchfries, sour patch kids, and LEGO parts that were lurking under the seat. I'm a little disturbed that the frenchfries were in better condition than the candy...



I also found a 3pin blue, red, brown mystery cable hanging out under the seat. This looks like it goes back to the battery compartment, where it is also unplugged. Anyone know what this might be for?



These are a little obnoxious for street use, but looking forward to testing them out in the M3 whenever the tracks start to open up and clubs start running again.

[wyatth]

Nice work, cleaning up nicely!
Love the RACs.

[crowtrobot]

Finally got the sidemarker situation squared away. iND fender grills arrived, paint is obviously way better than the rattle can job I did.



Unfortunately, the fitment wasn't as good as the paint, the screwdown for the light fixture was off by a few mm. Ended up drilling out the hole on the light fixture to accommodate it. Not a huge deal, but went with iND to avoid this kind of stuff...



Got some replacement ///M3 emblems for the new markers from FCP Euro, so everything looks neat and tidy now! Went from this:



to this:



Think I'm done with the cosmetic mods for now. Car is itching for quarantine to be over and NJMP to finally open back up...

Also debating going from CCC -> CIC. I *really* wanted a single-hump dash, but it seems like too much work and too much money to do an iDrive delete, so trying to make the best of the situation.