What have you done to your car today?

Finally replaced the hideous 3-piece wheels that were on the M3 with some nice forged mono-blocks today. Some teething pains with fitment forced me to raise the car about 20mm all around, which if I'm honest I should have done awhile ago cause it has been inconveniently low since I bought it.

All done now and fitted up nice. Need to camber the rears just a touch more eventually cause they rub just a tiny bit in heavy compression, but for now it's drivable. I probably ought to go to a professional and just get it re-aligned in general with raising it, plus then the fronts could get tucked into the fenders a bit more than they are right now.

All in all a productive morning.
 
I found out that I slightly de-lensed my front right indicator when removing the bumper a week ago. New pair on order as a result. Also fixed a faulty reverse light. Now off to meet with the rest of the BMW club for breakfast!
 
Took advantage of a "snow day" and did some basic maintenance for a 200k mile car. Replaced the spark plugs and wires with pretty blue ngk, cleaned my maf sensor, dustes out my air filter (and made a note to pic up a new one), and tightened up my throttle cable. After all that when I backed my car out of the garage I discovered a puddle of oil and chased it down to the valve cover gasket. A project for another time, though oil will now be carried in the trunk just in case.


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New grill is under way!
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First coat of paint is on, and we'll be spraying the second sometime tomorrow.
 
I spent the whole weekend replacing my factory exhaust manifold amd front pipe with a racing beat header. All of the nuts came off every stud without a single one breaking. The only problem was the o2 sensor, which was incredibly stubborn. I tried to just cut the wire so I could rewire a new one, but anything short of the sensor being out wouldnt allow enough clearance by a mere 1/8 of an inch. I didfinally get that sensor out though, and from there it was a cake walk to finish up. Sound is slightly throatier, and I got rid of the horrible rattle from my heat shields.

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Installed some LED H7 bulbs.

Look from front(the yellow foglights make the headlights look more blue)
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From drivers door.(the yellow foglights make the headlights look more blue)
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Headlights only
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Fog lights only(they are a little more yellow that what is seen here)
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Grayfox
Installed some LED H7 bulbs.

Look from front(the yellow foglights make the headlights look more blue)
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From drivers door.(the yellow foglights make the headlights look more blue)
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Headlights only
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Fog lights only(they are a little more yellow that what is seen here)
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I need to do this too! My headlights are so yellow! Did you car already have LED's or did you have to do a retro-fit with drivers, etc?
 
I did this the other day. Just a new ZHP-style gear knob, but massive improvement over the original M Sport knob.

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E60 short shifter going in soon.
 
MidnightRun85
I need to do this too! My headlights are so yellow! Did you car already have LED's or did you have to do a retro-fit with drivers, etc?
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Ones off ebay.

Only use LEDs if your car has projector headlights as they work much better.

But i am thinking of going to HIDs these are 4000lm total and it doesnt look as bright.
 
Grayfox
Ones off ebay.

Only use LEDs if your car has projector headlights as they work much better.

But i am thinking of going to HIDs these are 4000lm total and it doesnt look as bright.
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Mine just have standard old halogens. I'm considering HID retrofit, need better light!
 
Poked and prodded each fuse in the engine bay as the dashboard clock is not working.
I have looked at the service manuals wiring diagram which says the fuse I checked powers it which means the clock is dead.
I now have to remove the headunit to remove it and replace or fix it.
 
Picked up my 996 last night after it had spent a week at my Indy whilst I was in the US on holiday. A full exhaust system - stainless manifolds (headers), 100 cell cats & Dansk back boxes.

The manifolds were cracked, the cats wouldn’t pass emissions, and the back boxes were splitting. So the car ran rough and had a pretty big hole in the mid range, though it did make a fabulous (and very loud!) noise on WOT :D

This is not a job for Kwikfit, mostly down to how difficult it is to get the manifolds off.

Car has 163k miles, and was on its original system other than back boxes. There are 12 manifold studs, and all bar one snapped. It’s then a matter of welding a nut on to the end of the stud until eventually they come out. Except 3 didn’t, and snapped inside the head… meaning they then had to be drilled out (very carefully!). 120 nuts bit the dust, and in total, 22 of hours labour were charged for (fortunately, I’d agreed a limit on labour costs prior to dropping the car off – but the bill was still eye watering).

It’s made a huge difference to the car.

No more backfiring when it’s still cold, no more hole in the mid range, a massive improvement in acceleration (and it was exactly slow previously), and lovely low burble at low revs.

Only thing I don’t like is it’s just too quiet at the top of the rev range… might have to get the back boxes hacked to add a bit more volume.
 
Bought a suede gearstick gaiter, quality of material was nice but whoever cut it didn't o a very good job. It isn't anywhere near fitting probably, got on at them to send me a better on work or give me my money back.
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Removed Headunit fascia, removed headunit, removed clock, disassembled clock assembly.

Now I need to try to figure out what has failed on it.

Power is being supplied to the unit.
 
I didn't do it myself, since I'm mechanically inept, however I had DBA slotted rotors and EBC RedStuff brake pads fitted. They felt a lot stronger driving them, can't wait to get them hot at speed since the should work even better than the originals at temperature.

Clark
Bought a suede gearstick gaiter, quality of material was nice but whoever cut it didn't o a very good job. It isn't anywhere near fitting probably, got on at them to send me a better on work or give me my money back. View attachment 639145View attachment 639146
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Wow, was that a kit made specifically for your car? That's pretty poor mate, hope you get it sorted with them.
 
Yeah it was an eBay job and said for E87 BMWs, gonna have to look and see if heres any better ones.
 
Paulie
I didn't do it myself, since I'm mechanically inept, however I had DBA slotted rotors and EBC RedStuff brake pads fitted. They felt a lot stronger driving them, can't wait to get them hot at speed since the should work even better than the originals at temperature.
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Had a good experience with EBC - running their slotted/drilled rotors and Yellow Stuff pads on my Mazda. Lighter car obviously, but the brakes feel as good at the end of a trackday as they do at the start.
 
I keep kicking myself for not getting RedStuff when I bought the bigger slotted rotors for my car. I got the police spec pads they used in the Impala pursuit car, and they bite very well but leave a ridiculous mess.
 
Stomached the cost and went for OEM on the gearstick and handbrake gaiters. Got the short shift kit as well and going to fit that on the weekend. Got a BMW performance knob (:lol: ) as well but think I'll stick with my Storm Motorwerks weighted one.
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