Lovely motor mate, good thing you got those flaps sorted!

Flaps on this one went and caused it to have new valves, turbo and head. What a mission

Thanks for the nice feedback people.

Cant decide what to do with wheels, bit of an awkward one.

I have read on various BMW forums and I thought people said retarded things on here, I was wrong, jesus they're full of absolute idiots!

Think I have access to a brand new genuine turbo should I need.

Yeah things are expensive, and admittedly spending a lot more than I thought, but I actually spend a lot more time/miles in this so, and something to tinker around with I guess, cant leave things alone!

wow this is getting some work - hope we dont loose you to bmwland.

If its any re-assurance, my turbo has basically given up after 160k non motorway miles if you get me - first turbo.

Well it might not be the turbo but the boost isnt turning into performance - just whooshing noise and plenty of black smoke if booted.

Enjoy the ride but watch the spending - as the car will ask for some of that cash naturally eventually!

Hope your finding it a superior car as i have done.

Thought you sold your 330? You replacing the turbo? Got any idea what they are costing?

Fucking chatting on my build thread

Shit mod

Right new set of dampers ordered, will collect tomorrow, ordered rear ball joints for both sides, once Iv got them Ill turn up some tools to use as pullers.

Going to change the handbrake shoes too.

Will get in touch with my contact at Eibach and see what a Pro Kit is gonna cost me :)

Other than that, fuck all exciting, no pictures, who really cares :)

Yay dampers, be amazed how much effort it took arguing with suppliers about M sport and standard ones!

Both good reputable brands, sourced via the part numbers on current dampers fitted to car.

& here's what I have narrowed down to be the slight knock, will try make some tools up soon to swap them.

I thought the the OE were Boge.. You having different front and rear or just ordered loads of different ones? :)

They're to OE spec so travels, rebound springs, forces and gas pressure oil volume etc all the same mate. BOGE are OE to merc I think, or on some models. Tbh I'm sure some other cars have mismatched brands from factory, I know a model VW has Tenneco on the rear but something else on the front, all boils down to cost really.

But yeah they're made to a spec, just imagine different brands may have better quality to others. But I have rated brand new OE billstein dampers and found them to be out of the tolerance they should be so probably pissing in the wind whatever you do, depends on tolerance bands I guess, 30newtons of force could put it out of spec but not even be noticeable to 99% of people unless you have the worlds most sensitive arse

Blaaah, was gonna change rear rose joints and handbrake shoes a few mornings this week but basically ill after poloshow :(

Will do them at the weekend, and get springs ordered up, then will be a case of swapping springs/dampers and redoing the geometry at the changed ride height.

Think I have decided on just getting the MV2's refurbished for now, need to see what spacers I can run on the rear, at a guess around 13mm should be ok within the confines of the MASSIVE arch lip but we shall see.

Also, does anyone know if I can buy some crystal clear lensed, or projector type front fogs? These ones look a bit naff and old now, not as faded as some but clear to match the headlights would be good?

Edited 11 July, 201313 yr by harris.racing

Hey hey fellow retarded BMW forum retards! ...oh wait maybe safer here.

So last weekend decided to crack on a little bit,

Picked a nice day for it..

Set about changing the rear rose joints, and whilst having the brakes off did the handbrake shoes too.

Found some suitable toolage to change them without taking the whole knuckle assemblies off the car to use a press...

Some BMW forum retardery suggested a socket and a hammer, decided I'd at least try and do it properly.

Got some access and pressed worn ones out..

Winding new one in..

All in place..

With the polo..

Happy days.

Then finally sorted some springs out, have chosen different rates to the pro kit in the end..

Rear stuff installed..

Forgot to take any pictures of the front, nothing exciting though.

Went for a full setup again due to new ride height and wanted to try some new alignment settings..

Had a ride height concern after the lowering so used the corner scales to determine a potential spring or height issue, but after doing some maths for cross axis masses etc was happy to continue and set the alignment. (Figures are a bit off here as it has the geometry kit hanging off the wheels when I took the pic)

After ride height, it's only a subtle drop. Perhaps 25ish front, maybe 10-15 rear, but I like how it sits, didn't need much for what I wanted.

After a couple of spring aid tweeks, initial impressions of the car coupled with the new dampers it feels good, body control feels better which is probably due to the dampers mainly, but pitch and roll is a lot flatter and the car feels more balanced and pretty planted, steering response and input levels are a lot nicer to drive with, ride hasn't particularly suffered, perhaps picks up more road surface feeling a bit more, and the car is firmer so has less general "up and down motion" if you like in general primary ride, but it's not uncomfortable, just "sporty" I'd say.

Geometry settings were a bit of a trial thing so likely going to redo it again this week to something else, but hey experimenting is learning at the end of the day.

Coming up next likely to be wheel refurb, new tyres, and probably clean up and paint the calipers to tidy them up.

Keep toying with other ideas such as some slight tints on windows etc but I think I need to leave this alone a bit really and concentrate on the polo a bit more.

But hey ho, all good fun.

Nick

Gave it a clean today, seems horrendous for flies going all over the front end, must be doing several billion MPH while tailgating on the motorway or other BMW related dickhead activities.

Also did a little tweak with the front spring aids today to make sure the clearance is the same left to right, little pic of installed new spring/damper/drop link..

cleaned, well deserved, gave it a quick wax too..

Still unsure with wheel colour, shadow chrome looks nice on MV2's but not sure about car colour suitability..

Nick

Re did the geometry last night to a more sensible setting.

After doing it last week the car drove straight and fairly nicely but the steering wheel was to the right whilst going straight, arguably just down to a ride height discrepancy of the springs settling.

So re did it, read spot on, took it off the rig drove the car to settle it down, but it back on, measured up identically so shows no error, (trying a new process) but in the same situation, steering wheel just wants to be to the right. Currently one rear tyre is more worn than the other, so thought it may be that (even though the car doesnt pull) swapped them side to side, drove it, no difference, swapped the fronts, again no difference.

Car measures up well but the wheel is just to the right, very annoying and myself and a couple of other dynamical clever people cant really pinpoint it to anything, if you steer straight (as it steering wheel straight) the car goes left.

It doesnt pull if you let go, just insists on the wheel being right. I could easily just tweak the front toe settings (add some one side remove the same the other) but then technically youre just fighting against yourself as it measures up correctly with the wheel straight.

Its only since changing the springs and dampers too I might add, as you may rememeber I set it up a few weeks ago on the standard suspension and it was spot on, (virtually back at those settings now too) so its a bit beyond me, going to do a bit of thinking and potentially try it on a different rig, which I'm not particularly happy about as the kit iv used is has generally been spot on in the past.

Apart from that, loving the car, aircon is awesome, and the handling now its all bedded down is plenty good enough for what i want, feels so much more controlled and rolls a lot less, awesome chassis, point the wheel where you want and it goes no drama, good but almost a bit bland, having driven the BMW spiritedly last night, and then the polo this morning, its safe to say the polo is massively shit in comparison but 10 times more entertaining.

Thoughts on wheels?

Nick

Fixed my steering wheel issue, basically I think these columns, like some other cars, have a bush half way down, so its effectively joined by rubber, with some pins which when the bush twists a certain amount lock out and make it metal on metal, E46's have a fairly soft bush in the column.

Basically, as id put the steering wheel in the straight ahead position on a geometry rig, and lock the wheel in place, due to the friction in the tyres/turn plates, the bush on the column would be slightly preloaded, therefore Id adjust the alignment, and would read spot on, yet driving along the road, that bush whilst going straight would be relaxed (no pre load) which was springing the steering wheel slightly to the right.

So I had to basically find the central point where the bush was relaxed with no preload, and ensure the wheel was dead straight ahead and the front toe was adjusted in that condition, and now its actually straight, I showed Jamie what I meant yesterday, but its certainly one to remember, and a learning curve too, glad I found it though!

Nothing new, loving this car though.

Handles well on the new springs, budget tyres are quite understeery in the wet mind.

Economy is there if you want it too, on board computer actually says you're doing worse than you are which makes a nice change.

Gave it a wash yesterday for the first time in weeks due to holiday etc, it looked clean but was actually filthy, looks so fresh now

Just the wheels let it down.

Currently on the lookout for a cheap set of 17" Alloys to put winter tyres on, 18" winters cost a lot, whereas the 17's in 225/45 (same circumferance) are a lot cheaper and more available.

While I'm rocking winter wheels I'll get the MV2's refurbished and put some new rubber on them (probably Kuhmos as recommended by Mr Crox and a few others)

Such a nice cruiser though, miles fly by un-noticed