The Random E46/ZHP Question Thread

[az3579]

Mines not that bad. Another inferior plastic/rubber part by our Bavarian friends.


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"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - anonymous E46 fanatic

Inferior? A part like that lasting this long is rather impressive to me.

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[Sockethead]

Attachment 28109


Anybody have the rubber trim on the headlight lenses go gooy/crumbly?

I replaced mine a couple of months ago because they got gooey. I thought I spilled something on them... Never seen rubber deteriorate with so much goo

[san]

I mentioned this over in my project thread, but for anyone that has replaced their transmission or engine mounts, did you replace any additional hardware in the process like the nuts?

I replaced the nuts, as they weren't so expensive... the old ones were fine but I thought might as well since they're cheap...


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[Dual]

Inferior? A part like that lasting this long is rather impressive to me.

It shouldn't be. It's only been 11 years. What does that say about what's going in the places you can't see so easily?
I retired my 1993 German-made car last February and never saw stuff like that anywhere, ever. (In fact I don't think I've seen that kind of failure on any car anywhere in my family.)

[az3579]

It shouldn't be. It's only been 11 years. What does that say about what's going in the places you can't see so easily?
I retired my 1993 German-made car last February and never saw stuff like that anywhere, ever. (In fact I don't think I've seen that kind of failure on any car anywhere in my family.)

Consider yourself lucky. My E30's rubber bits have seen far better days when I got it, all original. It was 20 years old at the time.

It's rubber, and rubber is affected by climates and other environmental conditions that aren't the same everywhere. Not all rubber will last a long time. Usage matters too... my car has 258k on it and it shows. A ZHP with 40k on it may not have this problem despite being the same age. Probably better taken care of too, I admit.

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[sillieidiot]

That's what I saw on eBay but for SMGs rather than manuals. I'll have to keep hunting. What's an LCM go for? Someone on E46F is unwilling to separate an M3 cluster from the LCM, both for $160 total.

that's pretty cheap. LCMs go between $50-$75 usually. At least that's my experience with selling them. And they take a long time to sell.

[BMWCurves]

I replaced the nuts, as they weren't so expensive... the old ones were fine but I thought might as well since they're cheap...


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Perfect, thanks! I plan to just order a pair along with all my other stuff.

that's pretty cheap. LCMs go between $50-$75 usually. At least that's my experience with selling them. And they take a long time to sell.

I'm contemplating either selling or asking terra to do some programing on the LCM for my car if he has time

[holyc0w]

Is the armrest lock a wear item or is it pretty much lifetime?

I changed the cover and now I'm trying to get it to latch fully. It seems to only be half-way locked, though unlocking also requires a bit of extra work. It seems to have full motion when unattached.

edit: Never mind, I think I didn't pop the lock tabs into the holes.

[ELCID86]

Inferior? A part like that lasting this long is rather impressive to me.

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Not sure why Honda parts last longer.

[Karl Lazlo]

Mines not that bad. Another inferior plastic/rubber part by our Bavarian friends.

I am going to echo BP here.

I have identical headlights between my 2002 M3 and 2003 330ci ZSP.



I refreshed the 2003's headlights about 18 months ago - new lenses, seals, eyebrows and shortly thereafter, a ballast. And then, the other ballast. At the time, it had about 228k miles on it. No gooey eyebrows, just worn and nasty looking.

Last year, ordered a pair of lights for my broken M3. Stock, original, perfectly serviceable. I spent over an hour cleaning off the gooey leftover mess on each light ass'y with some windex, simple green, coffee grounds and profanity. And a little hate.

Environment does nasty shit to rubber and plastic. Find me any car and I will find "weird" things that fail with regularity and to some degree, frustration amongst its owners. BMWs and German cars do not hold a monopoly on broken widgets. <and here I am jinxing myself - I still have the original window regulators in each of the 2003's doors, 258200 miles later.>

Saab 9-3: Damn CV joints. Too close to the hot side of the turbo and cooked the grease inside. Failed always. DI Cassettes - owners kept them in the trunk, like many of us here do with fuel pumps.

Audis: Christ! Where do I start? My RS6 ate radiators like it was getting paid commission. Oh, and the RS tax makes the M tax look like a bottle deposit.

Nissan Maxima: Water and power steering pumps.

You also have to put this into context... It is nearly the end of 2016 and for many of us, our cars are getting close to 13, 14, 15 years old... My first car (I got licensed in 1987) was a 1980 Datsun 210. It was 8 years old and was a rat trap. Eight. Here I am doing math in my head hoping that my daughter can take one of my currently owned BMWs to school. She has eight years to go. My oldest BMW will be 22 years old at that point. Short of setting the thing on fire in a fit of madness before buying a Camry, I can't see why that can't happen. My point... The build quality of cars today (and 13 years ago) is light years beyond what it used to be back in the day.

We are different than your typical car buying/owner/driver. A cross section here has cars that are well over 100k in miles, atypical driving behaviors to include legal "racing" and/or HPDE-type events and we play with them. The average consumer doesn't do that. People flip cars before they are paid off, get rid of them at the end of the lease and they do not go through the trials, tribulations and celebrations of hitting mileage milestones on their rides. How many Camry owners are out there posting up a picture of their past track day and a short dwell time later, post a 250k mile odo shot? They also don't know the cycle of failed parts like we do because they are dumping their cars well before 50 or 75k.

I need more coffee.