Mike's Cosmos Black 1998 M3 Sedan (M3/4/5) - Project Concord

[iXBeater]

After a 40-minute drive with the blower motor squeaking at every fan speed yesterday, it was finally time to replace it. I've had the part sitting on a shelf for a year, but couldn't motivate myself to tackle this job as access and space are terrible, and there's a lot of fragile plastic that needs to be moved or removed.

The job was just as terrible as I imagined, and 6 hours later I have the cuts on my arms, hands, and fingers to prove it. There were times I questioned my sanity, but I worked through problems as they came up and eventually got everything back together. Having a quiet blower motor is going to make driving this E36 M3 so much nicer.

That's good work - it's amazing how quiet everything feels once you've buttoned up something like that.

For the sake of comparison, I've swapped two complete E30 dashboards, which are long and tedious jobs with many parts and fasteners, and those were much easier (and enjoyable) jobs due to space and design.

This is excellent news - I'll let you know when I'm ready to swap the dashboard in my E30 so you can come help...

[mike.bmw]

After a 40-minute drive with the blower motor squeaking at every fan speed yesterday, it was finally time to replace it. I've had the part sitting on a shelf for a year, but couldn't motivate myself to tackle this job as access and space are terrible, and there's a lot of fragile plastic that needs to be moved or removed.

The job was just as terrible as I imagined, and 6 hours later I have the cuts on my arms, hands, and fingers to prove it. There were times I questioned my sanity, but I worked through problems as they came up and eventually got everything back together. Having a quiet blower motor is going to make driving this E36 M3 so much nicer.

For the sake of comparison, I've swapped two complete E30 dashboards, which are long and tedious jobs with many parts and fasteners, and those were much easier (and enjoyable) jobs due to space and design.

E36 life?
PXL_20251105_002406616 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

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[mike.bmw]

The saga continues!

Last month I thought I had finally resolved an intermittent issue with air entering my cooling system. How wrong I was!

PXL_20251028_002316057~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I had done this before, multiple times, but I went over EVERY SINGLE HOSE AND CLAMP. I also checked the expansion tank for cracks. That's when I saw this, a tiny amount of liquid around the hose that connects to the expansion tank bleeder.

PXL_20251027_211304154 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Well, the PEX clamp was quite loose. There was a small amount of coolant leaking out (and air getting in), but because it leaked between the expansion tank and fan shroud intermittently, never leaving a visible trace or puddle, it was very had to track down.

PXL_20251028_000321656~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I removed the PEX clamp and installed a proper BMW 12-15mm hose clamp, which I had leftover from replacing all the fuel hoses/clamps on my E30.

PXL_20251028_001103507~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

PXL_20251028_001551505~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And then I re-bled the system. All good for the last few days! I know I've said I fixed this before, but this time I'm more confident. There hasn't been any coolant loss, and I haven't felt or heard any air in the upper radiator hose when squeezing it.

PXL_20251028_010836232~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

It's never ending with this car...

After some odd clutch pedal/engagement behavior, I decided to inspect and bleed the clutch slave cylinder. I've found that removing it from the transmission and pushing the rod into the clutch slave while opening the bleed screw (pointed upward) works well. However, when I removed the clutch slave cylinder from the transmission, the rod fell out and onto the floor. I've seen people make the mistake of applying pressure or pumping the clutch pedal with the clutch slave removed, which will force the rod out, but that wasn't the case here. It just fell out!

Given the odd clutch engagement behavior and the fact the rod fell out (which can be reinserted easily, but I didn't trust it), I decided to order a new FTE unit as it was only $54 shipped. I left the car on jack stands for the better part of the week and installed the new clutch slave cylinder when it arrived in the mail yesterday. The clutch pedal/engagement feels much better/smoother now.

PXL_20251022_164423538~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

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[mike.bmw]

Earlier this week I replaced the idler pulley and tensioner pulley assemblies. The tensioner pulley shock actually broke during removal, preventing me from removing the pulley while it was still on the car. Fortunately, I was able to get a socket behind the pulley to remove the blocked bolt and remove/replace the entire assembly. It's much smoother/quieter with the new pulleys installed.

Here's a short YouTube video of the process: https://youtube.com/shorts/MF-mPHhQQ...pWry2IzYQyBOSs


PXL_20251015_010101710 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

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[iXBeater]

Those really are pretty wheels...

[mike.bmw]

I have solved the very-intermittent problem of air being introduced into my M3's cooling system. It started about a year ago. After parking the car overnight, I would sometimes feel/hear trace amounts of air in the upper radiator hose. I had gone through every coolant hose and clamp as I had replaced ALL of those during the head gasket job, expecting to find a loose connection, but I never did. I was fully expecting that, similar to last time, it was a head gasket issue and exhaust gasses were making their way into the cooling system.

I was going to rent another exhaust gas tester, but in a last-ditch effort, last week I was poking around and I found the loose connection! There was a bunch of dried coolant around the hose and clamp that leads from the head to the throttle body. It's under the intake manifold and hard to see, but with a mirror and light shining in the right spot, it was obvious. It took a few turns before there was even resistance on the clamp. After, I bled the cooling system and since then there coolant level has remained steady and no air has been introduced into the system.

PXL_20250916_230839277~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

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[mike.bmw]

I replaced the cabin air filter last week. I have no idea when it was changed last and it was quite clogged with debris. As an added bonus of replacement, the HVAC flows at least twice as much air at full speed!

This was a straight-forward replacement, and I didn't remove the glove box to do it.

Here's a video, with some before and after fan speed comparisons: https://youtube.com/shorts/_2hJ-e0wx...Qt-5YReSrfNtLD

[mike.bmw]

While I was replacing the brake light switch last week, I noticed the accelerator pedal bushings were GONE. One was totally missing, one was resting in the under-dash panel, and the accelerator cable grommet just crumbled apart when I touched it. I ordered new OEM bushings/grommets and it was a quick install. WOW, what a difference in pedal feel!

And since I've been making a lot of short videos, I made one for this too: https://youtube.com/shorts/VBJexIZI8...D8vjDlAJklP

[mike.bmw]

I knocked out a couple of small jobs recently, and made short/silly videos about each.

Brake Light Switch Replacement: https://youtube.com/shorts/QngGBKc4f...ztUvO9MnRaQcO4

Trunk seal replacement: https://youtube.com/shorts/EHauQgh95...DExteuYOe8nucS

Oil Change: https://youtube.com/shorts/FWQG5AeM-...IMNmu-xQMPS9u-

While I was replacing the brake light switch, I noticed a distinct lack of accelerator pedal bushings. They're missing! So I've ordered a complete set and will install those next.

[mike.bmw]

Always good pics here!... my buddy is certain he wants a M3/4/5. Not sure there is anything unexpected to look out for. We found a local one thats a slicktop, so were leaning that way.

Slicktop is the way to go for any car. My sunroof is still broken, since the day I got the car. :-)

[2mAn]

Always good pics here!... my buddy is certain he wants a M3/4/5. Not sure there is anything unexpected to look out for. We found a local one thats a slicktop, so were leaning that way.

[mike.bmw]

We're a day or two away from hitting 258,000 miles!

Recently the glove box button decided to eject itself from the dashboard. Thankfully that was an easy fix. I made a silly video about it:

https://youtube.com/shorts/PH5UPev42R8?si=jfS2rE7x-126kTFA

I also decided to replace the trunk seal, which had a chunk missing. Again, another silly video:

https://youtube.com/shorts/FWQG5AeM-uo?si=dNmARAi3VI_D0fqC

BMW M's Instagram account showed some love recently:

Screenshot_20250801-092302 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And again this morning:

Screenshot_20250806-080359 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

We took a trip into Washington DC:

PXL_20250727_161324209~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And it rained. A lot:

PXL_20250727_171810958~2 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And some random photos from the past few weeks:

20250727-DSC_2852 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20250727-DSC_2838 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20250727-DSC_2831 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

I drove this car a good amount this past weekend and have some updates regarding my recent factory airbox swap.

• Cold start stumble gone! With the aftermarket intake, I used to experience a cold start stumble when backing out of my driveway. A couple of revs would clear this up and I'd be on my way. With the factory airbox this no longer happens.
• Occasional popping on deceleration gone! With the aftermarket intake, I would occasionally get a popping from the exhaust on deceleration. This is now gong with the factory airbox.
• A little less top end power. It seemed to pull a bit harder above 5K RPM with the aftermarket intake. Less so with the factory airbox. This is probably due to it running rich with the aftermarket intake. Similarly, with the aftermarket intake there would occasionally be a bit of black smoke (another sign of running rich) during second-gear pulls, this seems to be completely gone now.
• A little less induction noise. Yes, there's a little less inline-six induction noise with the factory intake, but it's not enough to make me want to reinstall the aftermarket intake. Induction noise is much more noticeable on ITB-equipped engines, like the S14 or S54. With the US-spec S52, there's not a huge difference in sound between aftermarket and factory intakes.

After a couple hundred miles, I'm happy with my decision to install the factory intake.

Some photos from a Sunday evening drive:

20250629-DSC_0483 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

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[mike.bmw]

Was that an AFE that was removed?... why? Looked legit

Yep, AFe intake for the E36. The car has been running a bit rich and experiencing some heat soak, which I'm thinking is caused by the intake. So, I'm trying out the stock setup, which flows well and can handle way more power than I'm making. The sound difference is negligible.