Last weekend was the first club DIY for me since last year. Both my M cars are up to date on maintenance items. That’s when I start to think about items that, as far as I know, are original to the car. Both cars are over 20 years old and preventative replacement can make sense. […]
There’s exciting news on the E46 M3 front this month. I purchased a beautiful set of Dinan Champion wheels from a fellow member of the NAM3 forum. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a while but had never seen a set as perfect as this before. I’d come close in 2024 to buying a […]
Last weekend I did an E46 M3 brake fluid change on my 2006 M3. Craftsman Auto Care, a long-time friend of the CCA National Chapter, invited us into their Ashburn location. It was the first DIY event in a while, mainly because the club organizers were traveling a lot in the summer. Changing the brake […]
This weekend I completed a front-end refresh on my E46 M3 that I started thinking about last year. Last March I sent my headlights to Lightwerkz and had more modern projectors retrofitted into the stock assemblies. That got me thinking about what else up front should be refreshed. So this weekend I replaced the plastic […]
This past weekend I tackled some minor paint issues, one on each car. I also changed the oil in my E46 M3, doing it in my driveway since a club DIY got canceled. Neither paint issue was major. My E39 M5 came to me in 2011 with two long scratches on the driver side rear […]
I thought I was done with M3 news after the last DIY event. But the car had other ideas. My alternator died last week while I was driving through Old Town Alexandria, taking the battery with it. After I got that settled I decided to buy a Bluebus Bluetooth device for the car, like I […]
Another National Capital Chapter (NCC) BMY DIY event, more maintenance for my 2006 E46 M3. We were graciously hosted again by BMW of Annapolis. On my agenda was fuel filter replacement, refreshing the passenger side muffler hanger, and a cosmetic repair to my steering wheel. The fuel filter I replaced was not original to the […]
Last week at a club DIY event I installed a Vorsteiner rear diffuser on my E46 M3. I had thought about getting one for a while. But the high cost of a quality piece pushed it down the priority list. That changed after a conversation with a fellow National Capital Chapter member who had no […]
Last weekend I changed the coolant on my 2006 M3 at a club DIY event. BMW of Sterling was our gracious host for the event, giving us access to its large and state-of-the-art facility. I had done the same maintenance in 2018 at Sterling. I went in hoping I could again borrow a fluid exchange […]
I’ve just completed what became a long saga improving my E46 M3 headlight performance. Regular visitors might remember it started about a year ago when I replaced the projector lenses in my headlights. All was fine for a while afterwards. Then last fall I noticed that the passenger side light was much lower than the […]
The last two DIY events have involved straightforward changes of BMW fluids, so I’m combining them into one post. In the first I changed the differential fluid and rear diffuser on my E39 M5, and during the second I changed the power steering fluid in my E46 M3. I had last done the differential fluid […]
Last weekend I replaced the rear brake rotors and brake pads on my 2006 M3. For an amateur DIY enthusiast like myself that’s a pretty big job, and I’m happy to say it went smoothly. Craftsman Auto Care hosted our local chapter at their Chantilly location. Craftsman is a regular sponsor and a great partner […]