Remap

Finally got the car remapped by Enda from The End Tuning. Hoping to put my car on a RR soon so will be able to give details of the exact figures then. According to Enda I should be looking at at 40bhp increase with bucket loads of extra torque. Verdict so far is that the car feels so much smoother to drive, the flat spots have gone and the pickup in acceleration is a lot better. Defiantly a worthwhile mod.

EGR delete kit

As I'm soon to be getting my car remapped I wanted to get rid of the EGR. An Allard EGR delete kit ticked all the boxes. Judging by the amount of cr@p in the EGR I'm glad I have now got rid. So far there it seems there is a very slight increase in performance which is a bonus. Now bring on the remap! :)

Euro look - Front indicators (done!)

The euro'd E46 look is now complete. Rears, sides and now front ambers all fitted. 

Rear arch rolling

As mentioned previously, due to lowering my car on coilovers I was in need of getting my rear arches rolled. I used a website called www.archenemy.co.uk one of their agents a top bloke called Phil did all the work. Very impressed!

Euro look - Front indicators (sort of!)

So the rear and side ambers were on the car and all I needed was a set of fronts. Couldn't afford the dealer prices so decided to order some amber tint film to see if I could do a DIY job. As you can see from the pics the final finish didn't go to plan. Although its looks a bit cool and certainly different its only temporary.

UUC Gearknob

Have been after one for a while. They are not cheap to say the least! A good friend of mine has let me borrow his to see if want to buy one. The answer is YES.

Euro look - Side indicators

With rear ambers on it was now time to swap the side indicators. Slowly getting there.

LED Numberplate bulbs

The angel eyes, HIDs, and fogs all gave off a nice crisp white light. It was time for the number plate bulbs to be swapped.

Summer look so far

With the ride height just right, the summer wheels on and the euro look beginning to take shape, the car was looking promising.

Euro look - Rear lights

Wanting to upgrade my rear lights for something a little different. It was either to be LED rears or old school ambers. I decided that I wanted to go down the old school euro look. The rears were bought and fitted first.

Lower, Lower, Lower

Just couldn't resist going even lower on the coilovers. Will need the rear arches rolled in the future as its slightly rubbing.

Time for the LMs to go back on

Although I hadn't yet decked my car on the newly installed coilovers the weather was getting better so the LMs had to go back on.

Silver wheel bolts

Whilst cleaning and polished the 19" LMs ready to put them back on the car I thought that nothing looks worse than when you have nice rims all clean and shiny and the old rusty looking wheel bolts spoil the look. A little clean up and a touch up of spray means they won't let the look down.

Final Winter look

Now with the coilovers fitted and black csls and number plate delete the winter look was in full force. Much prefer the summer look but still this is a nice change.

LED Fog Bulbs

Having had CCFL angel eyes and a HID kit fitted to my car for a quite a while the original halogen fog bulbs really didn't suit the modern look. I decided to replace these with a LED bulbs. The overall look when all lights are on is much better now.

Number Plate Delete

Seen a few other E46s with the number plate delete and really liked the look. Its a OEM part (No: 51118195304) which just replaces the middle part of the bumper strip. Really love the clean look...

Coilovers

I had been urrming and rrring for quite a while on what suspension setup to choose. My current suspenion had now been on the car since new so was showing signs of age and affecting the overall ride quality. I consided going for sports shocks and lowering springs all round but as I changed my wheels a fair bit I wanted a suspenison option which could easily be adjusted. Slammed in the summer months but a sensible height during the winter month, for this reason I decided to go for coilovers. After some research I ended up going for a set of Lowtec H9.3s. These will remain at a sensible height on the winter rims  (40mm front / 30mm rear) and once the 19" LMs go back on the car these will be dropped further:

Mudflaps removal

The mudflaps that I had on the car were fitted from factory. As they were OEM they looked just right and did a good job but as they had been on the car since 2004 they were getting a bit tired looking. The choice to replace them with new ones or remove them for good had to be made. As I was planning on upgrading my suspension I knew that mudflaps wouldnt really work so decided to remove: