My Cheap e46 330i M-Tech Summer Beater

[danespann]

Picked up this E46 because it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up. M Tech 1 and Pre-LCI is my favorite...
But it had a ton of problems. And I had to bring my own wheels.



Had a trifecta light and transmission in failsafe(4th gear) along with no AC or AUX fan working. So I drove it to my friend Danny's shop and we looked through it.

-o2 wiring was melted to the exhaust manifold and had blown a bunch of fuses in the dme box under the hood.
-Driver's taillight didn't work and also had melted connector that had shorted.

Unplugging the o2 sensor and replacing blown fuses got rid of the trifecta and the transmission worked great again. However, no aircon deems a car un-drivable in the Arizona summer.
The other issues pointed to the K-Bus having some problems, so Danny went through and tested everything there, finding no real problems.

After many hours of diagnosis and testing modules with everything working as it should, but still no AC or AUX fan, we decided to just make it work.(Next post)

[danespann]

So, to address the AUX fan issue, I grabbed a behr electric fan for Manual E46's. We bypassed the control box which was not being triggered to turn on by the DME so we could put power directly to the fan.
The problem is that the fan on E46's has power at all times, even with the car completely off. So, a relay was put in line which is triggered by signal from the fuse for the TPMS system that this car was not equipped with.
I used proper gauge wire once we knew this worked. Be smart if you're doing this yourself.





Next up was the a/c compressor. A toggle switch was installed under the armrest that leads 2 wires to the A/C relay.
When the switch is flipped, it triggers the A/C relay to engage the compressor, just like the control unit would do ordinarily. (Yes the grey center console is awful)



Put some 17" wheels with new tires on the car and gave it a wash. Maybe I'll figure out how to fix it correctly, but for now it's a cheap car that works.

[dannyzabolotny]

Low key it was pretty fun wiring up all that stuff. I hate wiring and electricity but it can be real satisfying when a plan comes together like that.

The AC is seriously cold, like 10/10.

[danespann]

Dropped the car with Danny to have him address most of the car's major problems.

New control arm bushings (previous owner installed the wrong ones?...)



New oil dipstick O-Ring:



New Engine Mounts:



New Transmission Mounts: