Thanks for the feedback. Out of curiosity, what cosmetics do you think are a downgrade?

@@mikeomalley1683 in my honest personal opinion, all of them. The black wheels, the smoked corner and taillights, the yellow fog lights with those covers, that front splitter...even the blackout kidney and fender grills. To me, they make the car look 'cheap'. One of the current E46 M3's I own is a silver convertible, that was probably even less expensive than yours due to the bad transmission and some terrible cosmetic modifications that had been made (hideous wheels, poor quality CSL style trunk, blackout grills, etc). On top of that it also has a salvage title from a previous accident. I replaced the transmission (original 6sp car), the trunk, cooling system, suspension (stock springs with Bilstein B4's), and installed a set of original ZCP/CSL style wheels...essentially returning it back to an unmodified cosmetic condition. Although I previously hated convertibles, a silver E46 M3 vert with the wheels you have (or the CSL style) is one of the best looking designs I've seen in a stock configuration. I think it's great that you are trying to save the car instead of parting it out, as likely most people would with a high mileage M3 6sp vert...I just think it looked great as-is. Enjoy your M3!

​@@egiles Thanks man. I actually did like the stock wheel color, But the Brakes became invisible. I wanted a contrast so you can see them. And they also had hunks of aluminum missing. If I wanted to restore the polished look. I would have had to tig weld and have them spun machine finished. The reason I smoked the Lenses was due to aging and small stress cracking. By tinting and clear coating them, I was able to save the OEM, and not have to buy aftermarkets. And I also Don't like any chrome on a Car. So the kidneys and side vents had to go. But thanks again for the feedback, Enjoy your Bmw's

@@mikeomalley1683 Although I too tend to like the original look better, in the end its a matter of personal taste. Enjoy the car the way you see fit. Its really a great machine. Been driving one for past 7 yrs now and it keeps getting better

Nope, coilovers, carbon intake and other shit is more important than doing something actually important...

At the time when Mike purchased it, it was the cheapest, running E46 M3 on the market. Yours was definitely cheaper though! It really is awesome to see these cars in their high mileage states, and still running and driving!

Got mine for $1800 145k, only needed a front left caliper, they told me it had a transmission issue not letting them go into gear (it was SMG), I accepted the challenge, towed it home scanned it no fualts, i guess they never closed the hood all the way bc thats all i had to do to get it back shifting gears lol 5 years later today i have 174mi have only done regular maintenance on the engine, waterpump, plugs etc, and a 6speed conversion, just now putting new brakes and overhauling the suspension lol I have yet to see a cheaper running e46 M3 than mine

That might have been addressed before, but yeah, if it is due to all that important stuff, then I wouldn't be able to sleep either without replacing all that as a preventative measure at the best

Valid point. Bearings, Timing chain and Vanos are on the radar. In it's current condition the engine is surprisingly healthy. Leak down and compression test came back near prefect. There's no need to do a subframe reinforcement on an 04 convertible. Especially a street car.

Except on factory original bearings, it's a miracle for these motors. Would be interested to tear it apart and see if they are original still.

For a dry sump 6 cyl. with bearings that are a normal wear item. It's quite impressive. The engine appears to have never even been cracked open!

@@racecarcamp9056 It's only a "miracle" going by internet FUD about the "big 3". Spun bearings are a *risk*, not a guarantee, heavily dependent on how the car was driven/warmed up. Very similar situation with the RACP (subframe). As well as the IMS situation on 996s.

Yeah its not impressive for your mother’s camry,but for a bmw m3 that has been abused more or less for the past almost 20 years it is very impressive!

@@racecarcamp9056huh? Lmao you contradicted yourself

Nice, thanks for that clarity! Not filmed but we ran into that as an issue in addition to the leaky reservoir. New OEM replacement lines and the PS reservoir should dry that all up nicely! Surprisingly the pump was super clean!

The verts don't have the same subframe issues the hardtops have and we did not see signs of cracking on this car. Since it's a dedicated street car, we didn't see much reason to do the subframe. However, we did some welding on our E46 330 track car earlier this year if you want to see that build: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mpOpptSCzbW7lXU.html Similarly, the rotating assembly in this M3 didn't show bad compression or leak down nor metal flake in the oil so we opted to leave it undisturbed. But we do agree, bearings would be on the short list for a lifetime collectible!

@@ecstuning thanks. I’m sure you guys were all over it.

If you've got some good content to share on KZfaq, send us some info to our partnerships email.

Manual is definitely the way to go!

Thanks for catching, I'm changing before driving!

Yuup

You can use 10w60, 10w50 or 10w40 without issues, the 60 weight was more for noise than anything from factory and many have run 50/40 without issue, with some even stating there is less engine wear on 50/40 vs 60.

Kind of. The Mk7 has factory BBK options from VW and the "performance pack" brake kit. EBC has those larger pad options to support those larger brakes. If you want to check out those OEM+ BBK brakes, ECS added them to the Racewagen MK7 GTI in the other youtube series.

I’m sure if I had MIG welded it instead of tig, only welded the 4 subframe mounts instead of also the RTAB pockets and other smaller plates, and had a trans jack to make removal and install of the rear end a lot easier, I could have saved some work.

Yeah $15-25k for a 20 year old car is unobtainable to the average Joe.

Thank you!

Yes, I'm still waiting on the tune to be emailed back unfortunately. Car does like 3mph.

Odd...I think the Paint looks great, It gets tons of compliments. it's a 20 year old 250k Car, Should we bust out the rotisserie? LOL. Thanks for the comments😂

@mikeomalley1683 bust it out . Yeah, im sure you get compliments all the time

If you've got some good content to share on KZfaq, send us some info to our partnerships email. If you are looking for some inspiration, checkout our 243k mile E46 330 track car build! We go through pretty much every pain point on the car!

Surprisingly very clean! Not even a little bubble in any of the common spots. We didn't film every repair, but there was a leaky power steering line that did a nice job undercoating the car for years ha ha. It's fixed now, let's hope no rust moved in!

How much was it?

Upgrading a bone stock GTI is definitely something on our list! We'll reach out to you about it!

@@ecstuning!!!!

Submit your info to our Partnership Program on our website ecstuning.com

@@ecstuning I emailed the email associated with the partnership do they reply back?!

Hey great idea, we'll send you a message regarding it!

@@ecstuning looking forward to it 🤘

Actually we just released a BUNCH of NEW mods for the E53 X5. Checkout our overland build series on that truck. The new products featured in that video have been put into production so you can mod your own truck! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nMmRYJZlva7ek2g.html

Lol true, Didn't want to give exact price in case I wanted to sell it. But it was under 10k. thanks!

@@mikeomalley1683 i m selling right now e46 m3 for 9500 and cant sell..so mine basically cheapest in country right now and nobody buying for a few month already

@@vandalov777 What's the details? Miles? Coupe?

@@mikeomalley1683 2003 convertible 199k miles smg