My E46 in the USA

[inferno nexus]

Here it is installed:


Initial impressions: Going from a thin sports steering wheel to this M3 wheel, the increased thickness makes the steering feel a little lighter. The new leather also make the whole car feel newer.

One thing I dislike about this cover is that my thumbs rest over the stitching at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions, whereas in the original BMW and Coby wraps, they move the stitching to the back of the wheel.
But for a wrap with a 95-99% fitment that costs US$56, I think it's a pretty good compromise.

 

[Citizen69]

thank you for all the updates, especially the pics. Really informative and interesting, even though I'm not even a novice at DIY! Really envy other countries where you can keep the car for many years and can really DIY to your liking stage by stage according to your pace!

 

[inferno nexus]

thank you for all the updates, especially the pics. Really informative and interesting, even though I'm not even a novice at DIY! Really envy other countries where you can keep the car for many years and can really DIY to your liking stage by stage according to your pace!

No problem and thanks for the compliments. Yeah my car is 13 years old and COE would have long expired if it had one.
If you can get the tools, parts and a place to work on your car, you can always start with easy DIYs. My first DIY was replacing the windshield washer pump. I slowly progressed from there and when I needed to jack up my car, I went online to look for help and found someone.

 

[inferno nexus]

Haven't posted here in a while because I've been busy with a lot of things, but today I replaced the original 15-year old DISA valve with 146K miles (235K km) on it. The flap does not spring back any more, so hopefully the new valve will fix the vacuum leak I've been having.

 

[imprezawrxsti22b]

You do realize photobucket no longer works on forums for free right? Haven’t been able to see your pics in the last few pages.

 

[inferno nexus]

You do realize photobucket no longer works on forums for free right? Haven’t been able to see your pics in the last few pages.

Yes, but there's an extension in Google Chrome that fixes it

 

[imprezawrxsti22b]

Oic didn’t know that. I’m using iPhone to surf. Hope to see your pics some day, was reading from page 1 and was interesting enough for me to comment here on page 7

 

[inferno nexus]

After 6.5 years of ownership, I will be parting with this car because it has been totaled.
I was involved in a chain collision while driving on the highway, where the first car brake-checked the second car behind it and I hit that second car. It sucks because I'm at fault for hitting the car in front of me, but hopefully my dashcam video will prove them otherwise. Anyway, since the cost of repairs exceeds the market value of the car, the insurance company has totaled the car and will be sending me a check for it.

All the effort I put into maintaining this car is gone, but at least I wasn't seriously injured.

Signing off from this thread....