Nimraynn Posted July 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 Cheers guys It's going back in tomorrow for a few minor fixes and to have the ClubSport splitters fitted, then it's a long drive up to Scotland with it So are you still in the Topaz club It's still topaz What about about the rear bmw badge? Is there any holes for it or it just doesn't go there?I'm still trying to work that one out. There are no holes for it, but there is a sort of indented section for a badge. Someone on here, the guys in the bodyshop and the supplier all suggested snapping the pins off the back of the original badge and sticking it on, but the shape of the badge is completely different so when you line it up, it has a HUGE gap behind it and won't sit right. I tried sticking it down anyway with some trim tape but it wasn't having it. The Laird 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArfurSleep Posted July 15, 2015 Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 Could you use a Dremel to remove the pins then warm the badge up a bit in the oven,fold it around something round to get the correct profile? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruesta Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Just spotted this...... WOW! Looks amazing, bet your well chuffed. I've been considering getting mine done later in the year, also topaz. It has some areas of lacquer peel and a little rust on the nearside rear arch - seeing yours looking so good makes me want to do mine even more. Topaz is such a nice colour when its looking fresh, did you keep it completely OEM or was more flake added? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mk2majik Posted July 18, 2015 Report Share Posted July 18, 2015 Car looks great mate,I personally like the grey m3 leathers too ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted July 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 Cheers guys Got my splitters fitted on Thursday and been up to Scottish Car Show for the weekend Could you use a Dremel to remove the pins then warm the badge up a bit in the oven,fold it around something round to get the correct profile? Maybe... I've already removed the pins by just snapping them with a pair of pliers... but it doesn't shape at all. Maybe adding heat will work, but the plastic is quite thick so would imagine it'd take a lot of heat and might not keep its new form. Plus the bonnet badges like to go yellow with the engine heat so I'm a bit reluctant to heat up the boot badge... I'll see if I can get a gel dome badge and see if I can make that take the shape did you keep it completely OEM or was more flake added? I didn't ask them in the end to change anything, so it's just their mix of OEM Topaz The_Judge_ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley1995 Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 looks awesome mate, I would make the foglights clear and remove the film though. Other than that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted March 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 So, the car is seriously testing my patience at the moment... Been a while since this was updated, but to be honest, not a lot interesting has changed with the car as I've had other commitments so not had the time/money to do any more mods. Not that I had a lot more planned, just a few little bits like gearknob, handbrake, etc... but the list of problems is ever growing. There is a mix of big and small problems which overall all mount up and in general, it's just pissing me off at the moment. Wing mirror covers, I don't think they were taken off properly when the respray was done so the clips are broken and won't go back on properly. As I'm beginning to not be all that bothered, I'm probably just gonna use some silicone or glue or something to bond them on. Front passenger side indicator, the mount for it snapped so the screw can easily get pushed out. I think this happened when I had an accident last year or whenever it was as it broke that indicator. Think it snapped the mount as well. Was able to get the screw to grip and hold it, but it wasn't perfect... and one day it proved this by falling out randomly on the motorway, taking the screw with it. Bought a new headlight on eBay which was advertised as a pre-facelift coupe/convertible. Turned up and it was a broken, badly repaired saloon/touring facelift headlight. Haven't got round to doing anything else about it yet. A spare indicator is currently gaffataped in place. Gas struts on the boot lid have given up the ghost, so rather than it flinging open due tot he lightness of the carbon fibre, it now takes effort to open, but will drop shut no problems. Really can't be bothered to do anything about this. Maybe if it was still a heavier metal boot lid I might. Front brakes have been making odd wub wub wub noise. It's been a noise coming from the front passenger side for a while when you hit 30-40mph. Doesn't appear to be a bearing problem, only seems to do it in a straight line, never when going round corners. Front brakes needed replacing anyway and I think it's a warped disc or something like that. I went to replace the front discs and pads, but found the caliper carrier bolts were too tight and started to round off (using a 12-point socket probably didn't help), so I stopped there and just replaced the pads as it was nearly metal on metal. I noticed when I spun the disc, no noises. Put the caliper and pads back on, rubbing noise as it went round that seemed to match the wub wub wub pattern of the noise I was hearing, so looks to definitely be brake related. Hopefully replacing the discs will fix that problem. Rear wheels... noticed I had lack of traction and tyres looked OKish while it was on the ground but hard to see. While I had it jacked up to do the brakes, had a look at the rear tyres. Not as good as I thought they were and more alarmingly, the inside edge was bald and showing a couple strands of canvas on one side. As my spare set of wheels as a puncture in one tyre, decided to take the rear wheels off, put my front wheels on the rear and put a pair of my spare 17s on the front for the time being. That way I had a decent set of tyres for the time being while I gather the funds to get new tyres... but a simple job like that can't be easy. As I was removing the drivers side rear wheel, one of the wheel bolts snapped in the hub. After a bit of raging, took the rear disc off and managed to get a pair of pliers around a small bit of the bolt protruding out of the hub. Removed the bolt, put it all back together and replaced it with a spare bolt. All good. Alternator then died last Sunday.. Driving home from Brighton, been going about 45 minutes and then the battery light came on. Used Torque to monitor the volts and it was sat at 11.2V so below what it should be. Car still running OK and no dodgy noises so assumed dead alternator. Managed to get most of the way home but just before I got to Maidstone, the headlights started flashing. Turned off and put fogs on, then it told me my rear lights were old so I gave up and binned it as the side of the road. Called out AA, confirmed the alternator was dead but the guy wasn't interested in doing anything about it as he had finished his shift, so he left us on a dark street in the cold waiting for a flatbed to come tow me home. Four hours in total it took to get 6 miles down the road. Not impressed. And the flatbed guy nearly ripped my front bumper off. Text my Dad's mechanic mate who has a garage only round the corner from us and asked him to quote me for sorting out the front brake discs and replacing the alternator. Quoted me for the brakes, asked for more detail on the alternator. Quoted me the next day for the alternator, booked it in for Friday. Spoke to him Thursday and he said he'd pick it up. Friday afternoon we call him and he'd forgotten it was booked in. Came and collected it after charging the battery up a bit, then apparently the new alternator was faulty. Denied all knowledge that I'd asked for him to do the brakes even though I still had the texts to prove he'd quoted me. Alternator finally done on Monday but he can't do the brakes til next week. Back to the wheels, got new tyres fitted Saturday. Gave the wheels a good clean out last night and went to fit them back on the car. Guess what happened when taking the wheel off. Other side this time, but another snapped wheel bolt. This time though, it didn't snap in quite the same place. Bit further in, so nothing of the bolt protruding the hub so even if I took the disc off, not gonna get it out. I was seconds away from sticking my torque wrench through the rear window in anger. It's really testing my patience right now. So I put the wheel back on and put just 4 bolts in. Driven it gently to work this morning avoiding the motorway, checking the torque on the wheel bolts half way. Given it to a garage to get the broken bolt out which they've already done thankfully. Airbag light is still on since I had the respray done. I'm sure there is more minor problems I've forgotten about. I'm really at the point now where I'm going to fix what needs fixing, get it through show season and buy a new car. I've hit a point where I can't keep pumping money into it.. New car won't be another E46, it's been nice owning it, but I know a lot of these problems are age-related, so I don't think I'm going to go for another car the same age. TL;DR, my car is broken, I hate it and I want a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriggerFish Posted March 11, 2016 Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Bad times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted March 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) Oh and there's more!!! Had a number plate light out for a while. Hadn't actually looked at it but you know how you simply assume it just needs a new bulb? Hahahahahahaha. No. Just went out to change the bulbs... [img=] The other side doesn't look much prettier, although it still works Edited March 15, 2016 by Nimraynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mocup Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 Hey man, my plate bulb was the same, I sanded away some of the corrosion where the bulb makes contact and it now works fine again. Mine didn't look much better than that either so may be worth a shot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted March 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 The terminal on the right hand side has completely disintegrated. There isn't enough of it left to sand anything away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mocup Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Ah crap man, might be able to use a donor handle panel bit for a new set of terminals? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Judge_ Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 ouch - bad times .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted March 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Just a thought. Are the number plate units removeable? If so, are they the same on a pre-facelift and facelift coupe? I've got a facelift boot lid sitting in my bedroom which I'm pretty sure has the number plate light units. I know the whole handle won't fit, but if I can remove the lights from it, that might be a quick fix if they'll fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Judge_ Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 The light strip is easily removable on my saloon. I had damage like yours (not as bad), I got away with spraying some contact cleaner. Weidly enough it was cheaper getting a can from Halfords than Maplins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted March 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 Well after a bit of a rage this morning, I got my front brake discs replaced and they're noticeably better performing than the old ones. Also swapped the wheels around this morning. Been running style 44's up front with my 8J 18" CSL reps up back for a while due to tyre wear and financials. Got new tyres on the 9J 18" CSL reps last weekend, just needed to do a bit of switchy switchy to put everything in the right place. After having snapped two wheel bolts already, I was very pissed off when I found that the garage who helped me remove one of the snapped wheel bolts had overtightened two of the bolts so they were a missing to get off. One of them was one of the crap quality bolts too so I thought I was gonna snap it. Thankfully no more snappers and I've put better bolts in now. I've removed the RGB angel eyes as they were playing up. Since having the alternator replaced, they flicker massively and none of the colours match the remote. If I pick red on the remote, I get green. If I pick green, I get blue. If I pick blue I sort of get green. Checked all the cables were connected and everything seems fine... but I've had a few LEDs dying on them too so I've just binned them. I do wonder though if it's related to a fault with the first replacement alternator. The other guy that works in the garage kindly told me this morning that the "fault" with the alternator that meant it took another day or two was that it caught fire! Thanks for withholding that bit of information until now!!! I've now siliconed a new indicator in place of the one that fell out taking the mountings with it. Hopefully it'll stick alright. It's a bit tight and awkward to get to. Will find out in the morning I guess. As I'm off to Belgium for a car show on Saturday morning, I've been giving it some deserved TLC. Started by detailing the interior, which I've not yet actually finished. I ran out of light and energy, so I've left it with about 1/3 of the interior left to do. While I was doing this, I did some tweaking of the sub & amp positioning. Previously, the speaker wires were a bit of a mess running up to the amp. As I've now got some spare, I used a length of black split conduit to hide the wiring away. I'd been using this for protecting some of the wiring for the angel eyes in the engine bay but no longer required so I recycled it Now looks like this. Amazing what a little bit of tidy black plastic can do. So tomorrow I need to finish detailing the interior, then give the exterior a proper detailing as well... I'm slightly happier with it now that I'm beginning to get a few things sorted. I blame my girlfriend for all these problems. We met 8 months ago and she's been getting all the love... so the car is getting its own back. "I thought you loved me! LOVE MEEE!!!" And for anyone interested, here is an old vs new comparison of the number plate bulbs The_Judge_ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevej330 Posted March 21, 2016 Report Share Posted March 21, 2016 Nice blog mate. See you are in Maidstone too, I'll have to keep an eye out for you. Where did you buy your CSL reps? Nimraynn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted March 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2016 (edited) Cheers. I picked them up online from CM Wheels. So I'm a bit happier with the car now... but still not overly happy. Still need to get the handbrake and number plate light sorted, plus a few other non-critical problems. Oddly the airbag light has been on since I had it in the bodyshop, but after giving the interior a thorough clean out on Friday, it has mysteriously turned itself off. I thought you had to manually reset the airbag light on these cars with a proper diagnostic tool, but it's fixed itself. I think I might've knocked a loose plug with the hoover or something. Only explanation I can think of. It made it to Anderlecht and back over the weekend for Heaven on Wheels Tuningday 13 without anything else breaking or falling off. Hopefully it stays like that for a while Edited March 21, 2016 by Nimraynn Ruesta and The_Judge_ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovin_it Posted April 1, 2016 Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 So much awesome work gone into this lovely motor. Well done mate. I think it looks absolutely spot on and some very nice mods too. Love the wheels and love the remote control to change the colour of your angle eyes. Sits really nice mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevej330 Posted May 13, 2016 Report Share Posted May 13, 2016 Seen your car a few times this week after work round the one way system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jd26 Posted June 16, 2016 Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 You still got this dude? Finding it highly inspirational for my topaz project which csl reps are they? Ie: where from as I'm going 18" myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevej330 Posted November 9, 2016 Report Share Posted November 9, 2016 Have you got any contact details on your friends body shop you can PM me?. The paintwork looks mint? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimraynn Posted March 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 (edited) Well it's been a good 4 years and I've done a good 100k miles in it, but it's time for me to call it quits on the E46. Last year it had a new alternator, wheel bearing, suspension arms and a few other bits and pieces.. then it started to leak coolant which we've worked out is a severely bowed radiator as well as a thermostat which has eaten itself. The leak has been slow so I've just been topping it up when it needed (every couple weeks the coolant light would come on) but I ran out of coolant so it's just been distilled water for a few months. I do wonder how much coolant is still left in it On top of that, the suspension is making all kinds of bad noises, as are the brakes. I keep snapping drop links. The list goes on and on and on. The paintwork is also shocking in places. The front bumper is peeling on both corners and is stonechipped so much it looks like I've sat behind a gritter for a year. It looks like the edges of the rear bumper are starting to peel as well. Some smart person also drove into the side of it in a car park, left a nasty scrape down the drivers door, then drove off without a trace. It was great for a few years, never skipped a beat so I kept putting money into modifying it... then when I finally got to a decent point, it started falling apart. My girlfriend thinks she's at fault because it was fine before I met her... then the attention changed from car to female and it threw a hissy fit I'm done with pumping money into it, so I'm moving onto something else. I know a few people are going to groan because it's a Vauxhall, but I've always been a Vauxhall man form the start. Picked up a 56 plate Vauxhall Signum just over a week ago. Wanted something more practical, but also something a little bit rare. It's essentially fat Astra based on the Vectra with a few unusual quirks. Main thing is I picked a 2.8 Turbo with an apparently very rare manual gear box It's the same lump in the Vectra VXR, albeit detuned to 230bhp. A remap will supposedly get 285bhp out of it though Undecided what exactly I'm doing with the E46 at the moment. I'm beginning to strip bits off it ready to stick up for sale (I'll renew my subscription when I'm ready) but I'm undecided whether to just return it to standard & flog it with issues, or just break it. Edited March 14, 2017 by Nimraynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Judge_ Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 Sad news dude! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriggerFish Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 I always liked yours, shame it's died, but 4 years is a good innings. I'm not a Vauxhall fan, but i do have a weird soft spot for the signum. Shame it never caught on as an idea though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
