Obioban's Long Term e46 M3 build

Yeah but you're not running quick fits.  Your rear harness mounting points aren't the quick fit mounting points.  Your seats aren't meant to be used with the quick fits.  No matter what HMS is going to do, right now, they're not meant to be used with quick fits.

PCA wants either a rollbar or a harness bar for multi point harnesses, unless they're quick fits.  You aren't using either a rollbar or a harness bar or a set of quick fits.  You have an amalgamation of harness parts to work the way you want but it's not a cohesive system.

Despite you trying to say I don't know what I'm talking about, I do.   End of the day, do what you want.  Your current setup wouldn't fly here.

docwyte said:

Yeah but you're not running quick fits.  Your rear harness mounting points aren't the quick fit mounting points.  Your seats aren't meant to be used with the quick fits.  No matter what HMS is going to do, right now, they're not meant to be used with quick fits.

PCA wants either a rollbar or a harness bar for multi point harnesses, unless they're quick fits.  You aren't using either a rollbar or a harness bar or a set of quick fits.  You have an amalgamation of harness parts to work the way you want but it's not a cohesive system.

Despite you trying to say I don't know what I'm talking about, I do.   End of the day, do what you want.  Your current setup wouldn't fly here.

 

Okay, so are we now in agreement that your previous statement that PCA requires a roll bar or roll cage to run a harness was, in fact, wrong? I'll take that as progress! 

Please show me the requirement that harnesses are only to be attached to harness bars and/or roll bars. I see no requirement listed on the PCA rules (https://www.pca.org/drivers-education-minimum-standards) that my setup does not meet. 

How do you feel about this harness mount, for a 981? It is neither harness bar nor roll bar:  https://www.bkauto.com/R_1046_Shoulder_Harness_Mount_p/r-1046.htm

I guess I'm not certain what you think is magical about a harness bar or roll bar for harness mounting. So long as the mounting point is sufficiently strong, and the belt angles are correct, what else are you hoping to achieve? Also, didn't you say all harness bars are dangerous (not that I agreed with that statement)?

I wasn't trying to say that I am running a quick fit-- I was attempted to explain the concept behind it to give context to the conversation, provide food for thought to maybe get you thinking instead of just knee jerk reacting, explain why certain seats are approved for use with the quickfit and others are not, give some context to the length of my belt runs (less than the quickfits, with less stretchy belts), and point out that my setup puts considerably less strain on the seats.

New car is en routed and getting dropped off tomorrow. Getting excited! It's going to be pretty different... 

With some miles under my belt, my initial impressions I posted over on M3F

Well, there's a bit of hell froze over feeling to it, but we bought an i3. 

The basic thought process was this... 
1) inbound baby in a couple weeks 
2) baby's are disgusting and ruin cars 
3) I don't want them ruining and of the M cars
4) a slightly used (CPO 2017 in this case) i3 is cheap enough that the money we're not spending on gas 100% (and then some) costs the cost of it over 3-4 years, so long as we actually drive the thing
5) They are also essentially maintenance free driving (so long as you don't get the REX), which will be useful to my decreased free time. No engine, fuel system, transmission, etc vastly cuts down on upkeep. E.g. BMW's free maintenance covers two things on this car-- wiper blades and brake fluid

The i3 is kind of a cool car in a lot of ways. Ways that would be much cooler with a high revving, NA engine, but cool either way. E.g.
-Carbon monocoque 
-all the panels are plastic or CF. 
-total weight of <2800 lbs for a full functional 4 seat car (took it to dinner in comfort last night with me (6'4), my brother (6'6), my super pregnant wife, and my brother's wife)
-rear wheel drive
-50:50 weight distro
-super stiff chassis
-instant throttle response 
-super low COG

My option needs were pretty specific:
-94aH battery (so 2017 or later) 
-No REX (adds 300 lbs, maintenance, seemingly 99% of the failure points)
-HK stereo (because my wife really cares)
-no sunroof
-"tera world" (for the leather interior, instead of cloth interior) 
-never smoked in or had an air freshener installed
-not silver
-20" wheels... because that's they way you can get summers (as opposed to all seasons). 

Since most cars are REX and/or have the cloth interior, it was actually pretty tough to find a car. I quickly gave up on finding one locally (seems like very few were sold in this part of the country). After 6 months, I finally found a car in Florida that met my needs. M3F member Dave B went over to check the car out for me, test drive it, and make sure it didn't have any evidence of a former life owned by a smoker or air freshener user (it didn't). So, after 2 weeks of the dealership being the worst I've ever dealt with Lauderdale BMW Pembroke Pines), it arrived at my door 

Pictures from the dealer: 











Wired up the garage with a 240v charger (0%-100% in ~4.5 hours):




Arrived: 




Car in the garage for the first time:



Until the kid arrives, I'll be using it for my daily ~100 mile commute. Including today. Initial impressions: 
-the car feels incredibly solid. 
-It's weird to drive an EV by a real car company. Previously I've only driven ones that... aren't quite complete cars yet
-it's NOT slow. Not at all. 
-it feels rwd, in every way you'd hope for 
-steering feel is typical EPS, aka not great 
-no engine sound is very strange. Great for DD, remarkably detracting from driving hard 
-94mph top speed is seriously annoying. I'm going to try to get that removed, or at least raised the i3s's (same engine and battery) 100mph. 
-interior, in tera world form, is really nice 
-my driving style is not efficient. The Connected Drive app rates your driving efficiency on a scale of 1-5 stars. I'm averaging 1/2 of a star. 
-regen braking takes some getting used to. It also makes the car feel strangely heavy, as if there's a ton of friction slowing you down
-LED headlights are bright! 

Mods I'm considering... 
-DIY trunk extension (into the area where the REX engine would be)
-bimmertech MMI carplay retrofit box
-OE BMW sunshades on the passenger rear seat
-Britax car seat base on the passenger rear seat

Cool. I didn't know BMW offered an EV-only version of the i3.  After a small amount of digging - I see what you mean - not easy to find.

"-my driving style is not efficient. The Connected Drive app rates your driving efficiency on a scale of 1-5 stars. I'm averaging 1/2 of a star."

Where is my "shocked" face. 

In reply to Ian F :

Yep. BEV take rate in the US seems like it was crazy low-- pretty much why I ended up shipping one from far away! They don't even offer the REx outside of the USA anymore, but here... seems like it was almost standard. 

It's a lot easier to not care about efficiency when charging the car from empty cost $1.42! 

I suddenly have a desire for an i3.

I didn't really realize there was as much cool tech packed into these as there is. 

The idea of a daily commuter that is still fun to slide around snowy corners in the winter while also costing pennies per mile and being dead silent seems pretty cool.

In reply to klodkrawler05 :

It's a lot of manufacturing tech that's normally only used in exotics, and dirt cheap used. I picked this one up, 2 years old with a CPO warranty, for $19,100. 

So long as we drive it, it'll be cheaper than not owning it (by gas not used) in <4 years-- and that's before factoring in the lack of maintenance!

This is the video that really sealed the deal on me wanting one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGi-KmYGuZE 

Is the i3 still the quickest BMW to 30mph? I remember reading that somewhere...

The regen on throttle lift takes some getting used to eh? I was worried someone would rearend me whenever I let off the "gas" pedal until I learned that it activates the brake lights too. It's fun to try and drive one with just one pedal.

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

I doubt it's the quickest of them all (e.g. awd M5 with launch control), but it's certainly not slow below ~50-60mph.  It's not difficult to win stop light drag races, and nobody sees it coming from a hatch back/minivan/space ship combination. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO5z32L32aY

Obioban said:

In reply to Ian F :

Yep. BEV take rate in the US seems like it was crazy low-- pretty much why I ended up shipping one from far away! They don't even offer the REx outside of the USA anymore, but here... seems like it was almost standard. 

It's a lot easier to not care about efficiency when charging the car from empty cost $1.42! 

Because everyone in the US: "OMG!!!  RANGE????"  

True. It amazes me how a lot of folks really underestimate how cheap charging an electric car can be. 

To be fair, the range on the earlier ones especially does seem pretty low. Lots of my friends spend an hour+ commuting each way to work which does sort of kill their idea as a commuter for them.

My commute from home-work is 45 miles. so that's 90 miles round trip, which the i3 should be able to do although depending how much you use the heater in the winter it may be close. On the days when I go to school in the evening and my daily commute stretches to 150 miles I have to find a way to charge mid day before I can return home.

I'm fine with charging an EV every night like it's my cellphone or something but if I have to start planning out my daily commute to include a stop at a charger for a half hour to get home it loses all of it's appeal for me. 

In another 4 weeks when school is done forever and my commute is much more consistently 90 miles it becomes a much more appealing concept.

That all said, it still seems like a way cooler "performance" alternative than a Chevy Bolt/Nissan Leaf .

In reply to klodkrawler05 :

My work commute is 98 miles/day. I could do it one charge, but I can charge at work for free... so I do. Technically that means I could get away with a 2014-2016 i3 (60aH), but my parents are 35 miles away (70 miles round trip is getting tight on the 60aH cars), and sometimes I need to do something on my way home from work, etc. The 94aH (2017-2018) i3 is enough range for pretty much all of my "daily" needs without mid trip charging, worrying about efficiency, worrying about cold weather, or really thinking about range at all. Road trip... taking a gas car. 

For MY2019 they bumped the battery capacity up again, to 120aH. But, they haven't suffered the massive depreciation yet, that helped make this car appealing to me.

yea the massive depreciation is really what makes them intriguing. one of our local scca guys has a bolt and it's actually fun on an autox, has a pretty impressive range etc. Probably the practical choice. But it's a cheaper car new, and 2 year old versions are $5-10k more than an i3 which I think ignoring the range is the better car in all other aspects. 

I'd certainly be shopping the 2017-2018 cars as well to make range a non issue for my commute.

So, interesting update (at least to me). 

I added two shims to the M3 coupe's steering pump pressure regulator, to reduce the assistance... but at the same time did the ZHP steering rack, CSL kingpins, and converted the fluid to CHF-11s. The net result was no notable increase in steering weight. 

Last weekend I added two shims to the M3 wagon's steering pump, with no other changes, and the increased steering heft was immediately notable... enough so that I have some level of concern that my wife isn't going to like it. I might code the M5 to be heavier to see if she doesn't notice, if they're both the same  

My running theory is that the thinner when cold CHF-11S in the coupe (vs ATF in the coupe) made the additional weight unnoticeable. 

... which kind of makes me want to convert the wagon to CHF-11S-- my goal wasn't to make the steering heavier, but to reduce the load on the system (and eliminate the power steering line seep without going to aftermarket lines).

Hit a massive pot hole (top of a hill, couldn't see it coming), and for the first time ever bent a wheel 

Look at this thing!  

Ouch.  That looks like it could be fixed? 

In reply to Ian F :

Hopefully!

So, this winter/spring I did a ton of engine projects on the wagon (was running when parked, but things need refreshing at 200,000 miles). Entire belt drive system (belts, tensioners, idlers), cooling system, fuel injector rebuild, rod bearings, idle control valve, valve adjustment, and did euro headers/cats/tune (with new precat 02s). All told, there were a couple of areas where I could have done something that would ruin the engine. 

A couple of weeks ago I fired it up for the first time to do a test drive. Drove around the block-- everything was fine. Relief was felt. 

The next day I was driving it to bimmerworks for state inspection (lapsed while the car was apart). I was enjoying myself (within the restriction of engine break in RPM and throttle) and remembering how much I love driving this car. Life was good.... 

... and then I came to a traffic light, and suddenly the car started running more horribly than any car I've ever been in. 

I had to get to our baby shower, so I abandoned the car in a neighborhood. But, that evening hail was in the forecast, so instead of dealing with it myself I called a tow truck and had it flatbedded to bimmerworks for diagnostic. I wasn't feeling very good about the situation-- with how much engine internal work I had just done, it seemed somewhat likely that this was going to be a big issue. 

But then, the next morning, bimmerworks emailed me these pictures, and life was good again 





This was a fuel rail bolt. I had dropped it when reinstalling the fuel rail, and thought I heard it fall through. I couldn't find it at the time, so I replaced it with another bolt I had. Turns out... it didn't fall through. When I came to a stop at the traffic light, it must have fallen from where it was hiding and blocked the throttle arm, holding them closed. With no air, the engine was not happy.

Anyway, that was about as pain free of a fix as I could have hoped for! I've driven the car another 800 miles since them, and am feeling pretty confident with the the car again 

I don't know if it's the euro headers/cats/tunes, or the general refresh of everything (e.g. 200,000 mile fuel injectors), but the wagon is feeling notably faster after its winter refresh! Butt dyno says I picked up an easy 20-30 hp. 

Ian F said:

Ouch.  That looks like it could be fixed? 

Those are Pennsylvania roads, chance of it being fixed is low.

Oh, the wheel. Probably.  It's sort of interesting that PA lets you straighten wheels, Vermont does not.  If the inspecting mechanic knows, they're supposed to fail you.  Consequently, there are no wheel repair shops in the state.  I had four E90 wheels go egg shaped due to all summer road construction.  On average, PA has been better to my wheels, but I had a matching one on my snows a few years back.

In reply to Hotspur :

I would normally replace it, but I'm pretty sure they're NLA. 

In reply to Obioban :

Yeah. Repaired is probably okay for street use. Vermont has some really peculiar limitations to prevent people from rednecking things up too much. Even if you look online to replace something NLA, you don't really know it's history either.

The wheel I wrecked here was my 16" winter cheap special from tire rack, replacing it was cheaper and faster. The set I ovaled in Vermont was a reason to upgrade - Apex wheels are substantially lighter than stock, and on a 328 it made a difference.

Oh, and your response still works as a reason PennDOT would give! :P

3000 miles into i3 ownership, here are my complaints: 
-I strongly dislike iDrive. It's super inefficient and distracting to get to anything. I'm going to do the retrofit CarPlay module largely so I can stop using it. 
-there's no next track button on the steering wheel. If you want to go to the next track, without taking your hands off the wheel, the procedure is click in scroll wheel, turn down one (with poor tactile feedback) on the cluster list, click in a second time... and then it fails 1 time in 5. Instead I end up reaching for the head unit next track button, which is far enough away that I have to take my eyes off the road to look at it every time. Terrible removal-- next track is easily the most used buttons on the steering wheels on my other cars.
-the door pocket sticks out too far from the door and hits my leg
-EPS remains EPS
-no Michelin tire option
-94mph top speed is frustrating almost every time I drive it
-no regen when the battery is full makes for an inconsistent driving experience-- when I leave the neighborhood, the car drives/brakes distinctly differently than every other time I'm driving it. 
-stock high beams are garbage (maybe not for MY2019+, when they changed them to biLED, but mine only had LED lowbeams). I've swapped the halogen highs for LED reflector housing highs, but haven't had a chance to drive it in the dark since then... we'll see. I'm not super optimistic. 
-comfort access: when the car is on, the buttons on the fob should be non functional. The number of times I've popped the trunk because I shifted position in the seat, and my pants hit the pop trunk button, is asinine. 
-comfort access: why the berkeley am I still carrying a key around? My phone and/or watch should be able to handle all the comfort access functionality ala Tesla. Thankfully it doesn't use the "upgraded" key from some of their other cars:



Overall I'm enjoying it. Interestingly, the things I dislike about it the most (comfort access, steering wheel controls, and iDrive) are non i3 specific, general modern BMW issues.

Since I only posted things I don't like about the car last posts, things I do like: 
-babies like a champion. The child seat is easy to load (as long as you have the space to work the suicide doors, plenty of space in the back for my wife to sit with the kid, enough space so far for all the gear
-uses little enough electricity that we haven't noticed a difference on our power bill
-undefeated in traffic light drag races 
-a silent car is relaxing 
-light weight and instant accelerator response make it enjoyable if I find myself on an unplanned back road (planned back roads see M cars), even if the EPS is EPS. 
-being super quiet means you get more auditory feedback from the tires, as you approach/exceed their limits
-the chassis is stiff like a bank vault. 
-bluetooth phone call sound quality is amazing with the lack of engine noise 
-LED low beams are pretty good-- better than any factory BMW Xenon I've used... still worse than every other car I own
-I actually like the electric motor acceleration noises :P
-accelerator pedal response is great
-any time you're not on the highway it feels quite quick. 
-I still have yet to have any range anxiety, have not used a public charger, and never driven it in a slightly efficient manner other than not G loading the baby (when on board)
-it's super easy to justify driving anywhere/everywhere, when the cost is effectively ~$0.

I'm hoping to have time to stick it on my scales this weekend.