Ecrabb's ZHP Vert Project Log

[BMWCurves]

Any updates?

[ecrabb]

Any updates?

OMG, it's been months and months since I've updated my thread! I'm a giant slacker!

So, I got a new iPhone and turned off notifications for everything including Tapatalk and kind of just got out of the habit of checking it (and the forum). Shame on me! I also run a home theater group on Facebook, so I've been necessarily hanging around there more.

Give me a minute, and I'll post up some updates and get my thread current. Thanks for the bump!

SC

[ecrabb]

So, picking up after the alignment back at the end of April '16...

I think it was some time in May or June, I had a local indie shop that's managed by a BMW enthusiast do my exhaust mod. I talked about it extensively in another thread, so I won't bore anybody here, but to make a long story short... I told him exactly what I wanted and didn't want, and give him plenty of detail about what I liked and didn't like. I wanted a little more volume and throatiness and burble, not just "loud", and I definitely didn't want "16-year old in a Civic". I didn't want attention on me; I just wanted to hear the car make a fun sound when I mash the throttle.

So, his recommendation was a "cherry bomb" type glasspak. It sounded good in the parking lot when I picked it up. It sounded fine cold, and good at idle, and even sounded good revving it up in the parking lot. But, immediately on the drive home, I realized I hated it. Instant buyer's remorse! At anything over half-throttle, it sounded like total crap. It was all "hissy" and kind of a "metal bottle" sound. It was awful, and I hated it. With a passion. My car!

I didn't have the heart to bust the first guy's balls over it, so I just sucked it up. I tried to live with it awhile to see if I'd get used to it, but it was terrible. I literally didn't even want to step on the gas. So, after a month or so of that, I did what I should have done in the first place and ordered a Vibrant 1149 and took it to different shop to get it installed.

Success!!!

Here's the Vibrant just out of the package:







And here it is on the car...

Attachment 27042

Attachment 27043



And here's what I said in the Vibrant thread...

Oh, I made a little video, too. The audio in the moving clips are terrible, but you get a good idea of how bad the old setup sounded and how good the Vibrant setup now sounds.

https://youtu.be/89hhX-Cq2ik

In short, I like to mash the fun pedal again.

Cheers,
SC

[ecrabb]

These cars are about the fun you have with them, so here's some photos from some of things I actually did *with* with the car as opposed to just what I did *to* it...

In August, my son and I took the car up to Salzee Utah. It's an all-Euro show held at the Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains above Salt Lake City. Took lots of pictures of beautiful BMWs, McLarens, Lambos, Ferraris, Porsches, Audis, and plenty of other cool stuff. All those pictures and I forgot to take a picture of my own car there. Face palm. Next summer. The only evidence of my car being there is in a couple of shots I took with my iPhone from a rooftop patio.





The next day the same weekend, we took the car to Utah Motorsports Campus for the Pirelli World Challenge and Utah Supercar Grand Prix. I took lots of DSLR photos of the racing, and it's a fun event. We got Utah BMW Enthusiast paddock parking" inside the track.




End of September, we did a drive with a BMW group out I-80 to Wendover on the UT/NV border, and stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Took a few good photos with the DSLR, but this is one of the stops on the way. At one point, we had a section of clear road and I had fallen behind the group leaving a stop, so I got the stretch the legs out, *well* into the triple-digits. Flat, smooth, and confident. Didn't miss a beat. I could drive this car at well over 100MPH all day long with zero fatigue.






In early October, we did a fun day trip up into the canyons east of Salt Lake City, out into the hills on the way to Wyoming, and back to Park City for dinner. The scenery is stunning for most of the trip. We're planning a lot more of these for this summer.

[anandoc]

Awesome pics! I have done the drive from SLC to Wyoming (and eventually to Colorado) on the I80 and its very picturesque.

[ecrabb]

Beginning of November, I took the car into the dealer to do the airbag recall.

After half an hour or so of waiting, they gave me the keys and I went out to the car. Fired it up and went to leave and the hazards were stuck on. The button was physically stuck. I went back in and told the service advisor, he said it was a common issue, and he just grabbed the keys from me. Ten minutes later, he handed me the keys back and said I was on my way. Brand new hazard button, no invoice, and no charge. Nice! The whole thing didn't take 45 minutes.

And I got a spanky new airbag and steering wheel roundel...



Daddy like!!!

SC

[ecrabb]

Around the same time as the airbag recall, I washed the car and took some photos. It was a stormy and just about to rain, so I was in a hurry and didn't put the top down.





I shot a few photos in these two different positions, and it started to rain. I high-tailed it out of the ramp and drove the opposite direction and got the car in the garage before it got very wet.

These are the only really nice pics I have of the car. I need to make an effort to shoot some more in the spring - with the top down. The E46 is really a pretty car and photographs really nicely.

SC

[ecrabb]

In December, I gave the car a good cleaning, topped the gas, added Sea Foam, took it out on the highway to stretch the legs, took it back, vacuumed it, then put it in the garage and put the cover on for hibernation where it's been since.

Oh, here's a thing! So, I like the black M3 strut tower brace, but I just can't bring myself to spend $450 because that's just crazy. Even the $389 for the regular one is a little ridiculous. I mean, it's a bar, a couple of cast metal pieces and some hardware and a couple of rubber caps.

So, I just started watching and waiting. I added them both to my "wish list" on ECS. Then, early last summer at some point, a guy listed a black M3 bar - just the bar - on eBay, and I got it for $20 shipped! Score!!!



When it came in, I threw it in the parts cabinet and kept watching for the hardware, but no joy.

Fast forward... It's a week after Thanksgiving and I get an email from ECS that the price dropped on the regular set (with the chrome bar)...



$142!!! Hot damn! I clicked and bought it instantly, and it's been in the trunk of the car waiting for the garage to warm up a little. Now I just have to decide whether to use the new chrome bar, or the used black one (that has a few nicks on it). Originally I was thinking black, but the chrome one does look kind of neat in pictures I've seen. I'll have to post up some pics with both bars and see what you guys think.

I still need to pick up a new set of black mats; mine are trash. I need to do diff and transmission fluid. I'm hoping the transmission fluid change makes my shifter a little less "notch-y". It takes a few tries to get it into first gear sometimes.

Oh, and I've been kind of cheating on my beloved ZHP... I keep finding myself looking at E93 M3's on AutoTrader and CCA and cars.com. I can't resist. I'm in no hurry to get rid of the ZHP because I really do love the car, and there are things I actually don't like about the E9x M3, but I keep thinking about that and the sound of the S65 is like a siren song... Maybe a 2018 project. We'll see.

Cheers!!!
SC

[johnrando]

Good stuff!

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[BMWCurves]

Well shit, solid updates! I've been wanting an M3 strut bar but they really jacked up the prices on them in the last year.