2mAns Daily Driver Thread - who knows what it is today...

[2mAn]

weird that it's running on the 323 ECU still...

(I'm learning) I believe the thinking behind this is that my car runs a MS42 which is Drive by Cable still and they would need to convert it to MS43 (Drive By Wire) to use the ECU. I think this actually is better because the BAR apparently recognize the VIN on the ECU, at least that's the problem with my MR2. I prefer drive by cable anyways. I plan to drive out to meet a knowledgeable E46 enthusiast later this week and he will see what's going on with the tune, and hopefully can correct it... and if he cant, well... who had their money on 3 months?

[Northern]

weird that it's running on the 323 ECU still...

[2mAn]

Small update from the weekend. Ive started doing some investigating work that some E46 Fanatics have me doing. Things I've learned so far:

-It appears to be the original ECU


-These weird mods in the ECU box were the automatics connectors and the two isolated wires are for the reverse lights





-It has purple injectors, so these are the M54 units?






The Good News is that it overall does appear to be a fairly well done swap and there were no smog failures listed on the CA DMV Page, but the Bad News is that I have made zero progress towards having all monitors ready to go to get a passing smog.

[mjweimer]

My coveted Forester XT is slowly growing to be a piece of shite, and I look for good manual daily hatch/wagon options constantly. The results of my searches are dismal, and I’m far too cheap to buy a new car.

Your recent purchase has my wheels turning..... car is looking good!!

I know of a sorted red/grey facelift RWD Touring (MY2002) that might be on the market soon. It's an auto but the 5MT swap is not hard...TX car so no rust. I always knew you would start to come around.

[Staszek]

Please dont dump that car! Its too nice. It makes me miss my E46 so much.

[mike.bmw]

E46 manual wagon! Don't get rid of it! Looking good.

[AWDBOB]

My coveted Forester XT is slowly growing to be a piece of shite, and I look for good manual daily hatch/wagon options constantly. The results of my searches are dismal, and I’m far too cheap to buy a new car.

Your recent purchase has my wheels turning..... car is looking good!!

[2mAn]

Well, its been nearly a month and most of that month the car was at a shop who I asked to do the Drive Cycle on their dyno and then smog the car. Bada Bing Bada Boom...

HA! Cant it ever be that easy for me?.... That yielded nothing and they spent the next few weeks trying to figure out what was going on. They scoped the O2s and they were all reporting properly, they verified the cat was doing its job, but they did find a leak on the intake side of things so they fixed that for me. They drove it around (nearly 150 miles!), no SES/ CEL light came on, another Drive Cycle on the dyno and again, Not Ready. Frustrated I listed the car for sale LOL I still had some things to do on the car, and it was nice being reconnected with the car after all that time...

Recall that I bought the antenna adapter while the car was away and I figured I should install it and the Tan All- Weather Mats I bought on the E46 Fanatics classifieds. Quick install and it fixed the Radio problem. Yay!







I also sent a message to George Hill (on E46 Fanatics) and asked if he could guide me on the right path. He gave me some good things to look into, but ultimately it points again to the ECU & Tune. Im going to try and get this done because working on the car, sitting in the car and driving it around yesterday made me really want to put the effort into keeping it. Add to the fact that all of the other options Im considering for a car to replace this with are quite disappointing. Theres a reason I sent money to this guy and jumped on a plane.


TLDR; Im not quitting yet.


While here, I might as well post one of the pics I took yesterday for the FS ad. Just got a new iPhone 12 Mini and the pics are pretty damn nice, other than the idiot clicking the button.

[2mAn]

This past Friday night, I thought let me give this Drive Cycle another shot... its not that easy to do living in Los Angeles. Even at like 10pm theres still a decent amount of cars on the road. I think Im going to hand this off to a shop that has a dyno that they can leave the car on overnight and run the cycle with no outside distractions like stoplights, people, cars, etc...




Annoyed about that, I decided I would work on another small project. Car came with the US license plate holder, but not installed. Not planning to install it, I purchased the plate delete panel from ECS for all of $20 along with a few other small items for the car when I first arrived home. I immediately sprayed the new trim with some SEM Trim paint and installed it. However, it didnt match the trims surrounding it so this was something I wanted to do. Its also not centered so that will annoy me ...forever...









After being annoyed with the Drive Cycle not working (Cats are still "Not Ready") I spent some time masking off the front of the car and prepping it for paint, which I did Saturday morning.









After pulling the blue tape off, it actually took some paint from the center trim... *sigh* ... I guess thats how things will go for this car. 2 steps forward and 1 back haha

[Staszek]

Thanks for that!

That conversion looks like it has an extra piece I don’t need, which from my internet searching is if I also have flat pins on the CD53 which luckily I don’t. I guess I just need that adapter piece.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=DR63-USA---E39-BMW-540i&diagId=65_0780

~$30 looks 5x better than $150 lol

Yea depending on which one you have you only need antenna, mine was a 2000 so I needed both.

[mjweimer]

Thanks for that!

That conversion looks like it has an extra piece I don’t need, which from my internet searching is if I also have flat pins on the CD53 which luckily I don’t. I guess I just need that adapter piece.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=DR63-USA---E39-BMW-540i&diagId=65_0780

~$30 looks 5x better than $150 lol

Yes, 61 12 6 913 955 is the part you need or you can use two Metra adapters in series....I posted the p/n's over on E46F.



MJ

[2mAn]

Isnt that it in black on the left bottom side? The CD43 has a different antenna connector and there is an adapter for it. I upgraded mine on my old E46.

https://www.bavtekinc.com/parts/61126913957

Thanks for that!

That conversion looks like it has an extra piece I don’t need, which from my internet searching is if I also have flat pins on the CD53 which luckily I don’t. I guess I just need that adapter piece.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=DR63-USA---E39-BMW-540i&diagId=65_0780

~$30 looks 5x better than $150 lol

[Staszek]

Ignoring the smog, I decided I’ll move forward with a small stereo upgrade. Seller included a CD53 and I planned to pair this with a BlueBus adapter so after a fun classified experience selling the Cassette player I went and installed the CD53 today.


It was totally straightforward until it came time to plug everything back in... looks like the antenna connection is missing from the CD53, or am I blind?...











CD player works and while the CD changer is still installed for now that works also, but radio can’t find a single station, so hopefully there’s a simple solution.

Isnt that it in black on the left bottom side? The CD43 has a different antenna connector and there is an adapter for it. I upgraded mine on my old E46.

https://www.bavtekinc.com/parts/61126913957

[2mAn]

Ignoring the smog, I decided I’ll move forward with a small stereo upgrade. Seller included a CD53 and I planned to pair this with a BlueBus adapter so after a fun classified experience selling the Cassette player I went and installed the CD53 today.


It was totally straightforward until it came time to plug everything back in... looks like the antenna connection is missing from the CD53, or am I blind?...











CD player works and while the CD changer is still installed for now that works also, but radio can’t find a single station, so hopefully there’s a simple solution.

[betz]

I friggin love my E46 wagon. Mine's an xi. Excellent choice. I even love mine with the M54B25. Will probably swap in the 3.0 some day, I just don't ever see myself parting with it. Same color as mine too. If I were you I'd upgrade to the sport seats if you can find some. Mine was manual, full sport package, with manual-adjust heated sport seats, and KNOBS for the hvac controls. Never seen one like it but pretty sure you can swap it all in if you wanted!

Here's mine carrying two patio tables, 8 chairs, and a full E30 exhaust.. in style. You will learn to trust the M54. Mine has been flawless.