So, Hello 2017...and Good bye 2017. Hello 2018!!! LOL!!!
I am never not a car guy. I might be in some kind of hibernation, but its because life has it's higher priorities. I am about a week away from my 40th birthday, so I'm smack dab in the middle of my life. Any funds that might go to a 2nd car, a project car, or to my daily driver "fun" car (yes, its currently still the 2001 BMW 330ci) are going towards the family, the mortgage (only 9 years left until its paid off, hmm, seems close, yet so far away), food to feed 4 boys, competitive sports for those 4 hosers, etc. etc. I just read some inspiring car guy blogs recently (lots of down time during this Holiday vacation) that talk about how car guys are always car guys, they might just take some time off, but that you can and will always come back. I'm trying to stick to the "Rich dad, poor dad" mantra of "live like no one else now, so you can live like no one else later". Meaning, be wise with your money now, so you'll have some later in life when you can enjoy retirement, enjoy your grandkids, etc. Ok, so didn't mean for this to become a financial advise blog but the point is, my car writing is almost non-existent, but I'm still that car guy at heart. I still spend way too much time watching youtube car videos, surfing my usual car related websites, etc.
I do have some minor updates to share though, so here goes...
The bimmer daily now has 129,000 miles. Here's the quic....err long update on where the car is at today. During the summer, I took the car in for the annual safety inspection and smog test. I was pretty confident it was all good, which means of course, I was set up for failure. LOL The smog passed no problem, but my rear Michelin Pilot Super Sports were showing chords on the inside due to -2 degrees of camber and the front control arm bushings were toast, err... I mean marshmallows. The quote for parts and labor from the local tire/mechanic shop was right around $1000. Being 100% honest with you, I drove home thinking to myself, "$1000? Ah crap! Welp, I wonder how much I can get for the bimmer? Maybe $5000, $4500?" I was seriously mentally done with the car. I was doing calculations like "$1000 bucks? That's like a quarter of the value of the entire car? For front control arms/bushings and labor? Ahhh nahhh!"
After texting my dad, bro, cousin, and the local neighborhood car buddies, I calmed down enough to start youtub'ing the removal and replacement for e46 front control arms, as well as how to remove ball joints. It looked doable with hand tools. Then started shopping for polyurethane front control arm bushings. My other thought was "well shoot, if I have to get new tires, I might as well get some new wheels right?" Isn't that how car guys think? How can I switch things up? How can I upgrade this part or that part?
I ordered new control arms ($90 per side, not bad) and a ball joint removal fork tool off of "Amazon Speed Shop". Found the best price on some poly front control arm bushings from one of the tried-and-true aftermarket bimmer parts shops online. For new wheel ideas, I remember watching the "Speed Academy" YouTube channel, the episodes where they built Peter Tarach's brother's daily driver Civic into a track car and used the new Konig Hypergram flow formed aluminum wheels. They talked about how they were strong, light, and affordable. I had previously bought aftermarket wheels off eBay 3 other times. My '95 Civic got 16x7" silver Nippon 5 spoke wheels (looks like a Rota Slipstream), my '98 Civic got 16x7 bronze Rota Grids and my '02 WRX got 17x9 white Rota Grids. I'm all about buying quality parts (can't you tell from my previous wheel purchases? :\), especially if they're affordable. The current wheels were black VMR 18x8.5 +35mm for the front and 18x9.5 +45mm for the rears. Konig made the same front size and fitment and for the rear the same size but with +35mm offset in a nice gunmetal grey color. I paid $840 shipped I think. Really nice price I think! For tires, my history has shown that I have gone on the cheaper side. Shocker! I went with Acellera PHI in 245/35/18 front, 265/35/18 rear. Had to go wider didn't I! I figured the Michelin's run wider than a cheaper brand. I did some rudimentary measuring of the current set up and figured if I had to I could roll the rear fenders. After busting out the install of the front control arms and bushings and getting a new alignment on the new wheel and tire setup, the first drive to work that morning proved that, although not horrible rubbing in the rear, I would need to roll the rear fender lips. I ordered the best cheap fender roller and heat gun I could find ("Amazon Speed Shop" baby!!!) and took about 5 hours one weekend night. The job would have been much easier if BMW hadn't put that rubber seal inside the fender lip in the rear. Thanks German engineering! I had to use a box knife to cut up the seal so the fender would move. That was the hardest part. I did have to watch a youtube video on fender rolling to figure out how to configure the roller. The heat gun worked well to keep the 16 year old paint from cracking! I've gone about 10k miles on this setup and it only rubs on the big freeway bumps! Those dad taxi runs to baseball practice with 3 teenagers in the back with all their baseball gear in the trunk does make it rub on the big street bumps too but hey, dad car guy life wasn't gonna be easy!!! Here's a pic of the new setup!
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| Konig Hypergram 5x120 BMW E46 Fitment (18x8.5 +35mm front, 18x9.5 +35mm rear) |
I thought I'd feel more difference with the poly bushings up front, but the difference was very minimal. Could be that the difference between Michelin tires/worn out bushing vs Acellera tires/poly bushing is very small. If I had a high quality tire with the poly bushings maybe it'd be more noticable? Who knows. I had the car aligned at the same shop and it ended up -2 rear camber, -1 front camber with the toe put to stock specs. Drives nice and straight and very little wear on the tires after 10k miles. The tread wear on these Acelleras is 320, so kind of a middle of the road number for a performance tire. I'm happy with the setup for a daily driver. I paid like $430 for the set. Not bad for wide 18's eh. I sold the VMR wheels for $460 to a local Utah 1 series owner.
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| Acellera PHI 265/35/18 compared to stock sized 205/50/17 Kumho |
I think that's about it for the bimmus. It's knocking down 28mpg on the daily commute. It's on the 20k/year plan. It's also recently become a new driver training vehicle. LOL My oldest son just turned 15 and passed the Utah Drivers Permit exam 2 days after his birthday. Pretty cool actually. Growing up in California in the 90's, I had to be 15 and a half to get my permit. So, the day after Christmas, on the way back from the Sporting Goods store, we dropped in at the Church parking lot and did some stick shift driving practice in the bimmer. I think its actually a good car for a new driver to learn on. It's not a Honda, so the clutch is not feather light. It's actually pretty resilient to teenage new driver inputs. haha The torquey 3.0L engine helps it lug around at low rpms and not do the bucking bronco motions. It's also made driving the family minivan (2007 Honda Oydssey) feel way easier. So, the next generation Hechtspeed'er is now on its way to driving. Time will tell if the car passion hits any of them.
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