static667
07-04-2020, 07:42 PM
After spending ten yeas, almost 200,000 miles, and quite a lot of money in my '02 325ci, I have moved on to another BMW. I will absolutely miss my old car. I put a lot of time into it and can say with a lot of certainty that I replaced almost every wear part in that car...twice. The E46 platform still stands as one of my favorites, right with the E30.
Now for the new...
At the end of May, I purchased (read financed) a 2017 M2. At the time of purchase, it had 8,000 miles on it. That is 120,000 miles less than my E46 when I bought it. It is Long Beach Blue with black interior, sick top, and a six speed manual. The previous owner loaded it with Dinan goodies. It has an intake, intercooler, big turbo, and stage 4 software. He also had the BMW performance steering wheel installed as well as the BMW performance coilover set. And not to mention the Passport 9500ci built in radar system. It's pretty tricked out.
I picked it up from the local Bentley/Rolls-Royce/McLaren/Aston Martin dealership. Seems like it just wasn't quite fast enough, so he traded it for an Aston... Score for me as I get a loaded car for relatively cheap....considering all the goodies that is.
Damn.... This thing is fast. By far the fastest thing I have ever owned. I currently have the tune backed down stage 1. I don't need to be blasting around at 450 horses all the time... Although it is fun as hell.
One of the first things that I noticed that needed fixing was the stereo. It seems that the whole 2 series line got shafted when it comes to that category. There is no logic 7 like all of the other BMWs. Needless to say, it left much to be desired. Since there is nothing that needs fixing, a feeling I am very unfamiliar with, I can go right to solving the crap radio issue.
The issue that I'm running into is the lack of tunability. There is no real dialing in of the sound because all they have is 'bass' and 'treble' and no sort of equalizer. Since there really isn't a "head unit" to replace, I have to look elsewhere to improve audio quality. I figure that the speakers aren't the problem or the solution here either. Replacing those can get expensive fast anyway. I determined that I need to add a graphic equalizer and swap out the factory amp to fix my issue. And I was correct. I replaced the factory amp with a compact Kenwood four channel amp, added a Phoenix Gold 9 band EQ, and added a 10" subwoofer. Thanks to TechnicPnP, I didn't have to cut any wires. They make the harness just for the job.
I wired the front and rear speakers to the front channel of the amp and the factory subs to the rear channel. I left the center channel out because it completely throws the sound balance off. Let's say it was a drastic improvement. The factory speakers are good quality and deliver clear sound, all it needed was some tuning.
Now that that issue is corrected, I'm very happy with the M2. It really does feel a lot like my E46 in a lot of ways, yet it is so very different. I'm just gonna say that this thing is bad ass. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/87571bf1695507480da9e37d6af7270f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/76c4725f81ee9a37e505b8ce6b2d882e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/914f43bc3a6547bf01c1e4396c0a3499.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/efc3abee530ea0ceae53a0071a419aa6.jpg
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Now for the new...
At the end of May, I purchased (read financed) a 2017 M2. At the time of purchase, it had 8,000 miles on it. That is 120,000 miles less than my E46 when I bought it. It is Long Beach Blue with black interior, sick top, and a six speed manual. The previous owner loaded it with Dinan goodies. It has an intake, intercooler, big turbo, and stage 4 software. He also had the BMW performance steering wheel installed as well as the BMW performance coilover set. And not to mention the Passport 9500ci built in radar system. It's pretty tricked out.
I picked it up from the local Bentley/Rolls-Royce/McLaren/Aston Martin dealership. Seems like it just wasn't quite fast enough, so he traded it for an Aston... Score for me as I get a loaded car for relatively cheap....considering all the goodies that is.
Damn.... This thing is fast. By far the fastest thing I have ever owned. I currently have the tune backed down stage 1. I don't need to be blasting around at 450 horses all the time... Although it is fun as hell.
One of the first things that I noticed that needed fixing was the stereo. It seems that the whole 2 series line got shafted when it comes to that category. There is no logic 7 like all of the other BMWs. Needless to say, it left much to be desired. Since there is nothing that needs fixing, a feeling I am very unfamiliar with, I can go right to solving the crap radio issue.
The issue that I'm running into is the lack of tunability. There is no real dialing in of the sound because all they have is 'bass' and 'treble' and no sort of equalizer. Since there really isn't a "head unit" to replace, I have to look elsewhere to improve audio quality. I figure that the speakers aren't the problem or the solution here either. Replacing those can get expensive fast anyway. I determined that I need to add a graphic equalizer and swap out the factory amp to fix my issue. And I was correct. I replaced the factory amp with a compact Kenwood four channel amp, added a Phoenix Gold 9 band EQ, and added a 10" subwoofer. Thanks to TechnicPnP, I didn't have to cut any wires. They make the harness just for the job.
I wired the front and rear speakers to the front channel of the amp and the factory subs to the rear channel. I left the center channel out because it completely throws the sound balance off. Let's say it was a drastic improvement. The factory speakers are good quality and deliver clear sound, all it needed was some tuning.
Now that that issue is corrected, I'm very happy with the M2. It really does feel a lot like my E46 in a lot of ways, yet it is so very different. I'm just gonna say that this thing is bad ass. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/87571bf1695507480da9e37d6af7270f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/76c4725f81ee9a37e505b8ce6b2d882e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/914f43bc3a6547bf01c1e4396c0a3499.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200705/efc3abee530ea0ceae53a0071a419aa6.jpg
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk