MidnightRun85's Ride: Black Betti

4,966
United Kingdom
Druids Bend
Z4E_Midnight85
Hey GTPlanet,

Thought I'd share a few pics of my current ride: Black Betti. She's a 2002 BMW (E46) 325ti Sport, in Black Sapphire Metallic with Montana grey leather. I've owned her for two years now, buying off the original owner in July 2014 with 55,000mi on the clock, brilliant condition for her age, with only a few small cosmetic issues and reasonable wear and tear (for a 14 year old car anyway!). This week I ticked over 78,000, but that's still really low mileage for a car this age.

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Components fixed/replaced:
  • Front right brake caliper - the original ceased and caused a bit of a mess!
  • Rear left spring snapped, so both got replaced.
  • Bonnet emblem - the original had faded, replaced with a BMW-sourced one.
  • Handbrake assembly, including new disc shields - to replace the broken stuff.
  • Bonnet grilles - snapped one out by mistake, so replaced them with OEM.
  • Front indicators - new pair to replace the fogged up front right.

Components modified/upgraded:
  • Alloys: original M-sport MV1's replaced with Cades Tora in Hyper Silver (18" staggered fit) shod with Dunlop Sport Maxx RT (225/40/R18 and 255/35/R18).
  • Rear wiper delete: the original didn't work and I never use them anyway!
  • CD stacker removed: original didn't work, so I ripped it out and emptied out the compartment.
  • Head unit: factory cassette unit replaced with Alpine CD/Aux/USB unit.
  • Side repeaters: swapped out the blown-out clear side repeaters for smoked crystal repeaters. It's the little details that make the difference...
  • Mishimoto silicone intake boot: to replace the original which is worn and cracked.
  • Mtec dimpled/grooved discs: an upgrade to the OEM discs.
  • Rear trailing arm bushes: upgraded to PSB polyurethane bushes.
  • Rear suspension top mounts: upgraded to Strongflex polyurethane top mounts.
  • Anti-roll bar bushes: upgraded to Strongflex polyurethane top mounts.
  • Suspension: upgrade to H&R Sport Cup Kit for E46 Coupe/Convertible/Compact (35/15 drop).
  • Crash panel fasteners: replaced with Bolternatives fasteners.
  • Angel eyes: installed, but not yet wired up (soon...)
  • Tail lights: fitted facelift tail lights sourced off an 03/04 model.

Components being modified/upgraded in the near future:
  1. E60 545i short shift kit, with ZHP-style 5-speed gear knob.
  2. Wheel bolts: lug nut conversion kit with Titan-style lug nuts.
  3. Air filter: replace OEM panel filter with an aftermarket replacement.
  4. Rear subframe mounts and differential mounts (front/rear): upgrade to poly bushes.

Modifications/upgrades on the long-term list:
  • Vanos: rebuild/refresh to replenish lost power.
  • ECU remap: should take power over 200hp.
  • Strut brace: custom design/build carbon-fibre brace.
  • Intake manifold: 330i intake manifold, including fuel rail, air filter, MAF.
  • Radiator: Mishimoto aluminium high performance radiator, including silicone hose kit.
  • Expansion tank: Mishimoto aluminium expansion tank.

The big plan:
When money allows, and time allows, I'll be buying a bigger, newer, diesel BMW (preferably also in Metallic Black Sapphire) and taking Black Betti off the road. From here she'll be stripped out completely and undergo some mechanical upgrades to turn her into a track attack car. Watch this space...
 
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Nice,don't see too many 325ti's, I had a friend with one but most ones I see are 318tis. I'm planning to get an E91 at some point (330d) so you'll have to tell me how you find it.
 
Nice,don't see too many 325ti's, I had a friend with one but most ones I see are 318tis. I'm planning to get an E91 at some point (330d) so you'll have to tell me how you find it.
Will do! I'm only going to go for a 320d as it'll be the daily and just need something bigger. Will focus the tuning and associated time/money on the track-speccing of the little beast! It's so much fun to drive. Feels like it has infinite grip in the twisty stuff, loads of power when you're up in the rev range. Keeps a smile on my face!
 
I did look at one of these as you can get pre-facelift 325s for only a grand or so, seems a lot better than getting a fwd turbo four hatch.

What sort of mpg do you get? I've got 30.1mpg in my 130i (using fuelly not OBC) over the last 4800 miles in my car. Best take I've ever done was a real 34.5 mpg.
 
It's a great little car, I payed nearly £3k for mine, but it was in excellent condition all round (few little cosmetic things I've tidied up) with low mileage and one owner. Using OBC I'm on 32.6 over the two years I've owned it, and that includes some pretty heavy driving. Mpg isn't amazing, but it's pretty reasonable for an engine of it's size. They're relatively light, so that definitely helps. I've got a slight issue of a loose handbrake shoe at the moment, which isn't helping mileage, but I'll get that sorted and she'll be running like a dream again soon.
 
Weekend update:

On Saturday I devoted pretty much an entire day to replacing the brake discs and pads. I purchased a set of Mtec grooved/dimpled discs with black treatment, a set of Textar (OEM-spec) pads, and E-Tech brake caliper paint set (blue), and set about trying to upgrade my brakes.

Discs:
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Pads:
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Brake caliper paint kit, wire brushes and paint brushes:
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I started with the right rear, and instantly things were more difficult than anticipated. The wheel nuts were on so tight I had to really jump on the wheel spanner to crack the bolts off. And in the process I found my wheel spanner really damaged the area around each bolt hole, tearing off the coating on the wheels. I'm not incredibly happy about it, so I might get in touch with the manufacturer to see if they can recommend anything. Once the wheel was eventually off (honestly took nearly 10 minutes!) I set about getting the rusty caliper and horribly worn and rusty disc off. Of course the one allen key I needed (a 7mm) was the one missing from my tool kit, so I had to put the wheel back on, mission it to Halfords, and get back and start again. While at Halfords I alspo picked up a caliper piston rewind tool, which I'd recommend to anyone undertaking this small mission.

Once I'd managed to get the caliper and carrier off, this is the beast I was now facing:
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Normally the disc should come off with a little coaxing. Mine was a bit more temperamental though. As the car is 14 years old and the discs have never been changed, the bolts for the carrier were a handful, and then the disc itself was so stuck to the hub I had to break out the hammer and get hammering. After about 25 minutes of hammering, rotating, pulling, wobbling, and cursing, the disc eventually came free of the hub, bringing half of the handbrake shoe with it after tearing one of the spring pins through the disc shield! Eventually I managed to get the handbrake shoe to sit properly, tightened it up, and started cleaning everything up. I hit all the rusty surfaces with a wire brush, coated them with Hammerite rust gel to get rid of all the nasty stuff, and let them settle for a while before coming back and giving them a wipe down and a spray with some brake cleaner. I then fitted the new disc, pads, re-seated the carrier and caliper, and put everything back in place. One down, three to go (this only took 3 hours...)

I then did the left rear, after my experience with the right rear, and managed to get it done in under an hour! Winning!!

Result:
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Close-up, showing the disc, caliper (still a little early to do the paint on the calipers) and the damage in the bolt holes.
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Then came the fronts. I moved on to the left front, dismantled everything until I got to the caliper carrier. The two bolts holding the caliper carrier on are both so completely seized I cannot undo them. I tried hammering them, coating them with rust remover, gaining as much leverage as possible, jumping on the wrench, hammering the wrench, all to no avail!!

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While waiting for the rust remover to work it's way into the bolt head, I decided to try removing the air intake boot (which has a crack in the lower boot) to replace it with a Mishimoto silicone boot kit (in blue of course!). I set about pulling all the bits and pieces out, but got a bit stuck around the DISA valve and surrounding components. I'm going to do a bit of research on these bits and have another go later this week.

By this stage it was 6pm, I'd had enough. My body was sore (it's hard work cranking through seized bolts which haven't moved in over a decade!) and it was time for a beer! More to come, all before VanityBMW this weekend!!
 
The paint on the car looks very nice :cheers:, use a good quality wax on your car to keep it nice and shiny, after you wax it never wash your car in car wash detergent because you only wash of the wax.​
 
I get it hand washed regularly by the guys down the road and give it a full colour-treatment polish once every few weeks. Gives it a deep, dark colour and keeps everything in great order. I need to get hold of some decent wax to seal in the clean. Will think of that when I've got some money again (spent it all on brakes and tools at the moment!).
 
Nice car - always liked both generations of 3-series compact. Wheels suit it too, though it looks like you can afford to go a bit lower on the ride height... ;)
 
Nice car - always liked both generations of 3-series compact. Wheels suit it too, though it looks like you can afford to go a bit lower on the ride height... ;)
Thanks! I've been looking at the suspension this weekend while working on the brakes. Saving up for some decent springs, and will look at replacing the rear shocks at the same time. I can definitely drop it a little...

Another quick update: painted the calipers yesterday. I think they look pretty decent! Still haven't got the fronts done due to the seized bolts though...

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Nice ride!! Like @fordlaser777 said The color looks awesome!!!

The first 2 photos you can really see the reflections of the background in the paint and the last one I can see you in the bumper, that's how you can tell it's got a good wax job on it.
Thanks man! I haven't actually waxed it at all in the 2 years I've owned it! I just keep it clean and polish it every now and then! :)
 
Update: 18/07/2016.

So this past week was an eventful one. As you guys know from the post above, I set about installing a new set of brakes (discs and pads), rust treating the braking components which were staying, and painting the calipers to keep them from rusting again! I got halfway before I got stuck with a couple of seized bolts on the front end and couldn't remove the carriers or the calipers.
Well, I managed to get the car to my mechanic on Saturday morning (after a noisy drive on Friday night...) who jacked the car up for me and helped me crack the bolts. While he worked on replacing the rear trailing arm bushes with poly bushes, I replaced the front discs/pads and re-assembled everything. I got him to check over my work and he was happy that I'd covered everything from what he could see, and the noise I'd had the night before was probably just things settling back down and the new pads bedding in. While we were there I got the new Mishimoto silicone air intake boot fitted, with a little help, and the intake noise is now brilliant! :)

Outside KWR Services, awaiting my turn to get stuff done.
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About to get jacked up.
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New intake boot fitted. Brilliant little kit which removes the relatively useless resonator, increases airflow, and plumbs straight in to the factory fitment.
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Work complete, I set off to go get a wheel alignment on the rear end. Not even 5 minutes into the journey though, a huge CLUNK out of the rear end! I limped to a stop on a normally busy road (which was thankfully nearly empty) and had a look. Couldn't see anything visible, so I limped around the corner where I could stop properly and have a better look. Still nothing! I limped slowly back to the mechanic's and we had another look. It turns out, due to my inexperience changing brake discs, I'd neglected to adjust the handbrake shoes during rear disc fitment, and the shoes had torn through the disc shield and were rolling around inside the hub! As the mechanic was flat out and they didn't have any of the necessary parts available, they stripped out the handbrake assembly for me on the driver's side and sent me on my way. I'm slightly hand(brake)icapped at the moment, but that'll get fixed soon!

Handbrake assembly being stripped out.
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After I'd had my wheel alignment done, I headed off down the road and got a wash, got the car home, and started detailing for Vanity BMW, which happened yesterday. I used Turtle Wax Colour Magic (black) and hand polished all paintwork and gave everything else a good wipe down. As you can see, she polishes up quite nicely!
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I also replaced the cheap eBay bonnet emblem I picked up a while ago with a genuine BMW bonnet badge off a wrecked E46, which is 14 years old and looks a million times better than the year-old cheapy.

The genuine badge is on the left:
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"New" bonnet emblem installed.
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Vanity BMW on Sunday:
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So, to recap:

Discs/pads installed all round.
New poly bushes on rear trailing arms.
Mishimoto silicone intake boot kit installed.
Handbrake assembly stripped - to be replaced shortly.
Wheel alignment done.
Cleaned/polished/detailed.
Bonnet emblem replaced.
Displayed at Vanity BMW at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu on Sunday 17th July.

It was a busy weekend!
 
Oh, and our club (Hampshire BMW Owner's Club) managed to grab the prize for Best Club Display. We had the biggest club appearance by far (61 cars!) and one of the group admin's spent a lot of time mapping out a great formation for the cars. :)
 
Performance update:

  • The newly-fitted silicone intake has produced some interesting results. I've got a really good sound out of the intake now (a bit of suction at first blow on the throttle, and a bit of a whistle at times) and I've got a bit more throttle response now, which is nice. However, I feel I may have more pronounced flat spots in the rev range now. I'm hopefully doing a remap and dyno run soon, so I'll be able to check it all out and iron out any flat spots.
  • The grooved/dimpled discs with new pads are brilliant. I've still not yet fully bedded them in (about 50 miles to go until I can start trying them out properly), but they're definitely more powerful than the rusty old discs. The sound is something you'd either love or hate: with no sounds on and the windows up, it sounds like you're being followed by a large swarm of bees wherever you go. Apply the brakes and you get a buzzing sound that slows as you slow - obviously the air escaping the slots during braking. I'll give it a good test once I've had the brakes bedded in properly and report back.
Coming up next - fix the handbrake, install BMC panel air filter replacement, remap and dyno tune.
 
Performance update:

  • The newly-fitted silicone intake has produced some interesting results. I've got a really good sound out of the intake now (a bit of suction at first blow on the throttle, and a bit of a whistle at times) and I've got a bit more throttle response now, which is nice. However, I feel I may have more pronounced flat spots in the rev range now. I'm hopefully doing a remap and dyno run soon, so I'll be able to check it all out and iron out any flat spots.
  • The grooved/dimpled discs with new pads are brilliant. I've still not yet fully bedded them in (about 50 miles to go until I can start trying them out properly), but they're definitely more powerful than the rusty old discs. The sound is something you'd either love or hate: with no sounds on and the windows up, it sounds like you're being followed by a large swarm of bees wherever you go. Apply the brakes and you get a buzzing sound that slows as you slow - obviously the air escaping the slots during braking. I'll give it a good test once I've had the brakes bedded in properly and report back.
Coming up next - fix the handbrake, install BMC panel air filter replacement, remap and dyno tune.
Interesting that it makes that sound when not braking, could just be them bedding in but I wouldn't expect that. I get a bit of a popping sound under heavy braking which is the air out of the dimples but that's it.

Yeah once you get rid of the resonator they can sound pretty cool. When it's turbocharged and you have a straight intake and pod filter it sounds like it's about to suck in small children when it spools up haha
 
Interesting that it makes that sound when not braking, could just be them bedding in but I wouldn't expect that. I get a bit of a popping sound under heavy braking which is the air out of the dimples but that's it.

Yeah once you get rid of the resonator they can sound pretty cool. When it's turbocharged and you have a straight intake and pod filter it sounds like it's about to suck in small children when it spools up haha

I get a ticking sound when driving at highway speeds with my windows down from my Znoelli DDS rotors which are slotted and dimpled then when I brake hard from high speed I get a rumble. Been on the car for 7+ years and no warping or cracks, just worn down after 80,000km.
 
I get a ticking sound when driving at highway speeds with my windows down from my Znoelli DDS rotors which are slotted and dimpled then when I brake hard from high speed I get a rumble. Been on the car for 7+ years and no warping or cracks, just worn down after 80,000km.
This^^ :)

Interesting that it makes that sound when not braking, could just be them bedding in but I wouldn't expect that. I get a bit of a popping sound under heavy braking which is the air out of the dimples but that's it.

Yeah once you get rid of the resonator they can sound pretty cool. When it's turbocharged and you have a straight intake and pod filter it sounds like it's about to suck in small children when it spools up haha
I was always expecting more noise from the grooved discs than from plain discs. It's the reason EBC calls them "turbo" brakes. Lol.
 
The rear brake shields have arrived at last, having been shipped from Germany. I decided to order BMW genuine parts, as I've had bad experiences with cheap eBay stuff in the past (like that badge a little further up the thread) and these are fairly important bits: they hold the handbrake assembly in place! The handbrake shoes and fitting kits have both arrived, and I've sourced some of the adjuster and anchor plates from someone who was breaking an E46 nearby. I've got to give them a bit of a spruce up and get the crap off them, then they'll be ready to get fitted. I'm getting the work done by a good friend at KWR Services in Southampton. While it's in I'm getting some new Powerflex Black Series rear top mounts installed as well. It'll be like a new car back there!!
 
Went out for a photoshoot last night. I'll get pics up shortly. They're for a magazine article. That's right: Black Betti is going in a magazine (bimmers magazine) due out early next week! ☺
 
That looks great. I'm not usually a fan of the compact body shape but this one looks nice, especially the wheels and brake setup.
Not many people are, but I've managed to convert a few haters. I'm keeping things clean and tidy, making sure the mods are all tastefully done, and all done with the performance as the main criteria.
 
Just found an intake from a 330Ci, which is a very tempting opportunity. I've been informed that if I do the intake conversion and a remap I could see gains upward of 50bhp!

Edit: Speaking to more sources, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'd only see around 20hp gains with the 330 intake and remap, which, for over £500 worth of components and me doing most of the mechanical work, is not exactly economical gains. I'll put this one on the backburner until I can find a cheaper 330 intake system...
 
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