Hi all,
I have come to the conclusion that I have not really bonded with this car, and have decided to move on (possibly to an M2, watch this space).
It's an amazing car, but something about it has not clicked with me, so it's someone else's turn.
Good points:
- 80k miles
- Freshly overhauled suspension, including:
Every bush and bearing in the rear replaced with new OEM parts, almost all nuts and bolts have been replaced, and the rusty subframe and trailing arms were replaced with parts that had been recently powder coated.
Millway camber arms at the rear to replace the terrible stock camber bolt adjustment
AST coilovers all round with custom springs and valving for fast road use. These are incredible.
Rebuilt diff with new pinion bearing, pinion seal, and BMW motorsport 4.1 crownwheel and pinion for faster accelleration
New front suspension mounts
- Freshly refurbished wheels in gold to go with the black paint
- The interior is pretty much perfect. The seats look great and there is very little wear anywhere.
- It has the basic BMW professional radio, so no terrible quality screen to make the interior look dated. This has a Bluetooth adapter for streaming audio. I fitted a Magsafe wireless charging phone mount so your phone is held securely and charged while driving.
- Nearly new Goodyear All Season Contact 2 tyres all round in stock sizes. These were fitted because I did a road trip across Europe (which requires winter rated tyres), they are great tyres and make this car usable and safe all year round.
- Air conditioning was tested and topped up and is working perfectly
Bad points:
- The new diff gearset is makes a faint whining sound under acceleration at motorway speeds. According to some over on M3cutters, this is normal with the 4.1 because it's a motorsport part, but it's something to be aware of. It's possible that a specialist could fix this, I was planning to get it looked at if I kept the car. See this thread for more: https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/noise-from-rebuilt-diff-when-accellerating.275881/
The 4.1 diff could be sold easily, there are plenty of stock diffs available for about £600-£800 on eBay so it could be swapped back to standard for a small profit if needed. The feeling of driving the 4.1 is so good though.
- There is a very small oil leak, coming from the timing chain tensioner seal. This can easily be fixed when the car gets its next service or when you do the Vanos. It's not enough to require a top up in over 5000 miles of driving. You will struggle to find any BMW without a leak like this.
- When escaping a bus who decided it wanted to be in my lane I put a small scratch on one front wheel. This has been touched up and is invisible from over 1m, but if you look you will find it. The wheels are otherwise mint.
Other things:
Rod bearings and Vanos have not been done. Redish motorsport did a Vanos check and said it was currently working correctly. An oil analysis didn't raise any red flags for rod bearings, but I would get them done at some point. I have a set of ACL rod bearings and all the seals and bolts that you would replace when doing the job (oil level sender, sump gasket, reinforcement plate bolts, etc) that will be included with the sale.
The car is currently with a local body shop getting some paint fixed (usual scratches and chips for a car of this age), so it should look close to perfect, the headlights will be polished and looking snazzy too. With the new suspension and diff this would make a great basis for a road and track car, or for use as-is a fast road weapon (seriously, the suspension is brilliant).
Posting one photo for now, more will come when I pick it up from paint.
New genuine wheel center caps and stickers have been fitting since this photo was taken.
Looking for £14000 for a quick sale. This is what pretty much the trade in value + the resale value of the suspension. Car is in Bristol, it will be finished with paint in a week or so (currently waiting on a new chin spoiler from BMW).
I have come to the conclusion that I have not really bonded with this car, and have decided to move on (possibly to an M2, watch this space).
It's an amazing car, but something about it has not clicked with me, so it's someone else's turn.
Good points:
- 80k miles
- Freshly overhauled suspension, including:
Every bush and bearing in the rear replaced with new OEM parts, almost all nuts and bolts have been replaced, and the rusty subframe and trailing arms were replaced with parts that had been recently powder coated.
Millway camber arms at the rear to replace the terrible stock camber bolt adjustment
AST coilovers all round with custom springs and valving for fast road use. These are incredible.
Rebuilt diff with new pinion bearing, pinion seal, and BMW motorsport 4.1 crownwheel and pinion for faster accelleration
New front suspension mounts
- Freshly refurbished wheels in gold to go with the black paint
- The interior is pretty much perfect. The seats look great and there is very little wear anywhere.
- It has the basic BMW professional radio, so no terrible quality screen to make the interior look dated. This has a Bluetooth adapter for streaming audio. I fitted a Magsafe wireless charging phone mount so your phone is held securely and charged while driving.
- Nearly new Goodyear All Season Contact 2 tyres all round in stock sizes. These were fitted because I did a road trip across Europe (which requires winter rated tyres), they are great tyres and make this car usable and safe all year round.
- Air conditioning was tested and topped up and is working perfectly
Bad points:
- The new diff gearset is makes a faint whining sound under acceleration at motorway speeds. According to some over on M3cutters, this is normal with the 4.1 because it's a motorsport part, but it's something to be aware of. It's possible that a specialist could fix this, I was planning to get it looked at if I kept the car. See this thread for more: https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/noise-from-rebuilt-diff-when-accellerating.275881/
The 4.1 diff could be sold easily, there are plenty of stock diffs available for about £600-£800 on eBay so it could be swapped back to standard for a small profit if needed. The feeling of driving the 4.1 is so good though.
- There is a very small oil leak, coming from the timing chain tensioner seal. This can easily be fixed when the car gets its next service or when you do the Vanos. It's not enough to require a top up in over 5000 miles of driving. You will struggle to find any BMW without a leak like this.
- When escaping a bus who decided it wanted to be in my lane I put a small scratch on one front wheel. This has been touched up and is invisible from over 1m, but if you look you will find it. The wheels are otherwise mint.
Other things:
Rod bearings and Vanos have not been done. Redish motorsport did a Vanos check and said it was currently working correctly. An oil analysis didn't raise any red flags for rod bearings, but I would get them done at some point. I have a set of ACL rod bearings and all the seals and bolts that you would replace when doing the job (oil level sender, sump gasket, reinforcement plate bolts, etc) that will be included with the sale.
The car is currently with a local body shop getting some paint fixed (usual scratches and chips for a car of this age), so it should look close to perfect, the headlights will be polished and looking snazzy too. With the new suspension and diff this would make a great basis for a road and track car, or for use as-is a fast road weapon (seriously, the suspension is brilliant).
Posting one photo for now, more will come when I pick it up from paint.
New genuine wheel center caps and stickers have been fitting since this photo was taken.
Looking for £14000 for a quick sale. This is what pretty much the trade in value + the resale value of the suspension. Car is in Bristol, it will be finished with paint in a week or so (currently waiting on a new chin spoiler from BMW).
)with what’s been done this shouldn’t take long to sell. Personally I’d have it up for a fair bit more though I may be out of touch with prices. 