Danny's ZHP (Slicktop 6-speed sedan)

[dannyzabolotny]

I'm back! This time, with an actual ZHP!

Previously, I had owned a 2003 330i/5 sedan in Oxford Green over gray, and then I owned an automatic 2003 330ci coupe in the ever-so-exciting Silver over gray combo. After that I just stuck to daily driving E34's for a few years, and while that was fun, I've been wanting something a little less project-y and more livable for a daily driver.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7914/40311180093_f1ab9ab993_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50322722922_4942763482_b.jpg

Earlier this week on Tuesday night, my friend sent me an ad on OfferUp for a 2003 330i ZHP sedan. The ad was incredibly minimal as far as actual information, but the pictures showed a very clean looking Silver Gray ZHP sedan with a black leather interior, 6-speed manual, and most importantly, no sunroof! As a lover of all things slicktop, I just had to have it. I got the sellers phone number, talked to him on the phone, and then bought some very expensive plane tickets the next day, flying from Phoenix, AZ to Eureka, CA.

The first leg of the flight was to San Francisco, nothing unusual there. For the flight from San Francisco to Eureka, it was a real small plane, and the whole airport at Eureka was tiny. It reminded me of flying to small towns in Russia and Ukraine as a kid.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201647898_9dc726ece8_b.jpg

The seller was kind enough to pick me up at the airport, and after talking for a bit and looking at the car, we exchanged cash & title, and I was on my way. My initial impression of the car was that it was actually better than it looked in the ad. The paint is dirty but in pretty good shape, and the interior is remarkably intact for an E46, thanks to the car living in Northern California since 2013 (and it was sold new in Southern California). Yes, those yellow headlights need to be fixed ASAP (more on that later).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201643393_62db7b15ac_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52202118315_e712d72232_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201643148_9e0db120f3_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52202118100_bc4f8dc413_b.jpg

The slicktop headliner isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good for being original.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52202118055_5284095b13_b.jpg

I drove around town a bit, Eureka's a cool-looking place. Very green and lots of intricate Victorian-style architecture everywhere.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52202118480_a778989364_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201618661_d6f440d15f_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201618621_87cff98bd8_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52200618657_3ffa48aca3_b.jpg

There's a neat harbor and boardwalk too. I'll have to come back some day and explore this city some more. Before leaving, I had an incredibly good burger at this spot called Opera Alley Bistro, it was excellent. The weather was pretty good too, mid-60's and overcast which meant I could eat outside— it's 110º in Phoenix at the moment so I was happy to enjoy a meal outdoors for once.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201890199_9901f0195c_b.jpg

Leaving Eureka, I headed down the 101 and was greeted with an incredibly scenic drive.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52202117875_661271e4ab_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201889389_8d00394598_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52200617607_0c91dbbcd2_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52200617537_de908465f3_b.jpg

A few hours later, I made it to the Bay Area, and got through it without encountering any major traffic. Initially I planned on drinking a bunch of Red Bull and powering through the entire 17-hour drive, but my lack of sleep from the previous night was starting to catch up to me, so I admitted defeat and booked a motel near Buttonwillow, slightly north of the LA area.

The next morning, I woke up and continued the drive.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201617541_9f997235d9_b.jpg

As if by magic, I managed to avoid running into any traffic when passing through LA, and before long, I was back in Arizona.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201618696_aea0308b5c_b.jpg

I averaged 27.7mpg throughout the trip, running 87 octane because California gas is expensive. The M54 didn't particularly seem to care, since I wasn't really beating on it. Incredibly, the car didn't seem to burn/consume any measurable amount of oil in the roughly 1000 mile trip, which is a nice change for me (I'm used to my E34's burning a quart every 1000 miles).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52202118690_7e83f4acf9_b.jpg

All in all, a very smooth and comfortable road trip. The slicktop ZHP was incredibly quiet on the highway, even at 90mph. The M54B30 had plenty of power to accelerate and pass in 6th gear, even when driving uphill. The suspension feels pretty good on this car, I suspect most of it has been replaced at 182k miles. Tires were some cheap brand, but didn't shake and were relatively quiet at high speed. My radar detector easily paid for itself, allowing me to shave a good bit of travel time by going fast in the more open stretches of the drive.

I'm looking forward to taking this ZHP to 200k miles and beyond— in this initial trip it has proven to be an excellent road trip vehicle so I look forward to doing more long trips in the future.

[dannyzabolotny]

Looking over the car at the shop, the first order of business was to figure out the headlights... the yellow looks awful. Thankfully, it actually ended up being a film on the lenses, so some heat + Goo Gone had the nasty yellow gone in no time at all, revealing some very clean, clear headlights. I also removed the tow hook plate mount since Arizona doesn't require front plates.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52202117270_a5e6fdd48c_b.jpg

I also ordered a factory BMW aux-in kit, so that should hopefully get here soon. The CD player doesn't work, so I was forced to just use the radio or my phone + headphones on the drive home. I know, first world problems! I also noticed that some of the speakers are dead, so I'll be making a trip to the local junkyard in the near future to grab some replacements. The trunk also seems to be missing the factory HK subs (probably had an aftermarket sub at some point), so I'll have to grab a set of those as well.

Looking under the hood, I spotted the radiator leaking a bit from a small crack at the top. Good thing it waited until I got back home to start leaking. Time to start gathering parts for a cooling system refresh, especially since it's going to be 110º+ for at least the next week or so.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52201889004_c28f348f5f_b.jpg

After that, I found an aftermarket clutch stop and adjusted it so that I could start the engine consistently— it previously kept not allowing the clutch safety switch to disengage unless I really forced the pedal down.

Other things I noted:

- The CSB needs replacing soon, as it causes the driveshaft to thump against the floor when taking off hard in first gear. I can keep it happy for now by taking off smoothly. Would be a good excuse to do the shifter bushings too...
- The diff bushings are starting to split apart, so they'll need to be done soon.
- The transmission feels a little notchy when it's cold, so I'll plan to replace the fluid.
- Power steering lines are all leaking/seeping, so they'll need to be replaced.
- Hood/trunk badges are looking pretty cruddy, along with the wheel center caps.
- The paint is in good shape but a little dull, it would really benefit from a good paint correction. I'll wait until it cools down to do that though.
- The window switches on the rear doors are falling apart, so those will need to be replaced.
- The alcantara steering wheel is incredibly gross, so I'll have to find a decent leather wheel.
- The interior needs a good cleaning to get the cigarette smells out from the previous owner.

I'm sure I'll find more things that need doing once I find some time to put the car on the lift at my shop.

[fredo]

Good find, sir. Congrats.

[BMWCurves]

https://i.imgur.com/CCfyJsS.gif

[dannyzabolotny]

Thanks y'all! Glad to have a ZHP, I've been enjoying the heck out of it.

Earlier today, my friend Dane and I went to the junkyard to grab some parts for our cars. He's got a 330i/5 with the M-Tech 1 body kit. We showed up at 8am to try and beat the heat, as the high for today was forecasted to be 112ºF.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52205431116_615ee4e938_b.jpg

I grabbed a bunch of door speakers + tweeters from an HK-equipped car, along with some interior lights, and a window switch. I also found a really nice cupholder, so I grabbed it just to have a spare. Unfortunately every E46 at the junkyard with HK had a trunk that was closed with the emergency release torn off, so I ended up bashing out a ski passthrough on one and removed the subwoofers through that... needless to say, it was an incredibly sweaty and uncomfortable time.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52205450468_0487015be3_b.jpg

Once back at the shop, the first order of business was replacing the nasty blue LED's in the trunk with stock bulbs, and then I installed the factory HK subs. Thankfully the sub amp was still present, just dangling around.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52205697239_e11503f97e_b.jpg

Much better.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52204423102_92859289ed_b.jpg

After that, I replaced all the interior lights with proper stock ones. I don't like LED's inside a car, especially when they flicker.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52205933460_90d0788568_b.jpg

With the lighting situation fixed and the subwoofers working properly, I turned my attention to the blown door speakers. The driver's door only had a working low-mid speaker, the mid and tweeter were almost completely dead, emitting nothing more than a crackle here and there. Swapping both out, I was rewarded with a fully working left channel. The passenger door ended up needing a tweeter as well, and after that I had a 100% functioning sound system.

The other day I got a factory aux-in kit, but when I had the radio out, I discovered that somebody had already wired a Bluetooth adapter in, score! I'm so annoyed I didn't check for that when I first got the car, I could've avoided driving home listening to music in headphones, haha.

[dannyzabolotny]

Got to 183k miles today, at this rate I'll be at 200k in no time! (One of my previous cars I got from 267k to 312k in like 1.5 years). The car's been doing great, with the AC keeping up pretty well despite the brutal heat... it was 112º over the weekend, and was 114º earlier today.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52210825218_ac297b8714_b.jpg

Not wanting to run into any potential problems from the leaking radiator, I took it upon myself to replace most of the cooling system today. You can see what a mess the radiator was making from the crack on top:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52210802246_419242cc25_b.jpg

The radiator was also starting to bow out at the bottom, lovely.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52209799087_3aede99234_b.jpg

The expansion tank, radiator hoses, thermostat, and water pump were also removed. Aside from the expansion tank and thermostat, all of the parts were original from 2002/2003, pretty crazy that it made it to 183k miles. The thermostat was from 2015, likely replaced due to emissions reasons (they throw a CEL if the electrical part fails).

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52211290295_62e03dde27_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52210802601_c37458ba53_b.jpg

And now for the shiny new parts:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52211077904_9e1e0ce32e_b.jpg

I went with a Nissens radiator, Mahle-Behr thermostat, Saleri water pump, Rein for hoses, and Mahle-Behr for the expansion tank/cap. I also got a new OEM sensor for the lower radiator hose, because why not.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52209799292_5366bc8b11_b.jpg

Everything went back together really nicely, perks of a slightly newer car, I suppose; I'm used to 30+ year old BMW's where everything fights me. Bled the cooling system, verified the thermostat was working correctly via the secret OBC readout, and then drove it to get dinner.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52211077364_abb19709f4_b.jpg

[johnrando]

Good info, nice pic!

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[///Mark_D]

Nice looking car, and really rare to see one without a sunroof. Congrats on the new E46!

The adventure of flying down and driving back is something that makes buying a car something special to remember. The scenery you had along the way was beautiful.

When I bought my E46 wagon I got a cheap rental car and drove from WI to VA, and then drove the wagon back. I'll never forget the scenery through the mountains in West Virginia and that feeling of excitement the whole way home.

[dannyzabolotny]

Nice looking car, and really rare to see one without a sunroof. Congrats on the new E46!

The adventure of flying down and driving back is something that makes buying a car something special to remember. The scenery you had along the way was beautiful.

When I bought my E46 wagon I got a cheap rental car and drove from WI to VA, and then drove the wagon back. I'll never forget the scenery through the mountains in West Virginia and that feeling of excitement the whole way home.

Thanks! For sure, the journey to get a car home is one of the best ways to bond with a car, especially if it makes it home without any major issues.

[dannyzabolotny]

The other night, my friend and I took the ZHP out to our favorite mountain road for some mild nighttime hooning. Even with the craptastic tires, the car did quite well, with the M54 providing plenty of torque to keep things moving at a brisk pace.

About halfway through, I started noticing the engine bucking, with the battery light coming on briefly. My radar detector had a voltage display and that showed the voltage holding steady around 14V, so it wasn't the alternator. We decided to turn around and head back into town, as being broken down in an area that was quite remote with shoddy cell service wasn't a great proposition. On the way back through the mountains, I noticed the engine had a pretty good misfire, but oddly enough no CEL. Code reader didn't show any active or pending CEL's, very strange.

Thankfully the engine ran well enough that we were able to make it back into town and drive back to the shop. Once back at the shop, I turned the engine off and tried starting it again, which was followed by a very long crank before it sputtered to life. Checking the fuel pressure at the rail, I saw a pretty consistent 50psi, so I ruled out the fuel system. By this point, the car finally had a CEL, for the crankshaft position sensor. Makes sense with the way it failed, we got it pretty hot on the mountain road and it started shorting out. That also explains why it took out the traction control, since DSC had no idea what the engine was doing.

The next morning, I had a Continental VDO sensor delivered to the shop, which came in a pretty fancy box.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52215544434_dd00943968_b.jpg

After removing the intake boots and DISA, I had a fairly good line of sight to the crank position sensor. Oh and my DISA is in good shape too, diaphragm is intact and the pin is still staying in, looks to still be the original BMW unit. Anyways, after unplugging the sensor, a bunch of oil came out, wonderful. Reminds me of the M20 oil pressure switches that start leaking when they fail.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52215284023_71366f12e5_b.jpg

Removing the sensor wasn't too difficult, a ball head allen socket + compact ratchet made quick work of it. You can see how full of oil the sensor connector was:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52214264682_80c4c9edf3_b.jpg

You'd think that for $70, the new sensor would come with a new o-ring, but it did not. Good thing I had also ordered an o-ring, just in case.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52214264767_408b9c4825_b.jpg

With the new sensor installed and all the codes cleared in ISTA, the car fired right up with no misfire. A test drive confirmed that everything was back to normal.

Funnily enough, this is the only time I've ever had to replace a crank sensor, having owned 31 cars before this one (mostly old BMW's).

[YoitsTmac]

Congrats on the car! Hell of a flight for the pickup I'm sure. I have many fond memories driving through Eureka when I was younger. I have heard it's changed, but no doubt that it'd be cool to just fly in and drive out. Coastal 101 isn't a bad way to get home. Excited to see what you have planned!

[dannyzabolotny]

Lots happened to the car over this past week, so I'll try and cover it all in chronological order.

Now that we're entering the monsoon season in Arizona (translation, it's still violently hot, but now it's humid and there's an occasional thunderstorm that sprinkles dirt water onto cars) it was time to replace the wipers. I don't like the plasticky beam-style wipers, so I replaced them with OEM style wipers that have the little wind deflector piece.

Before:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230849791_b1696d778c_b.jpg

After:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52229850967_5381a64eaa_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52231123999_e4bb9e3390_b.jpg

It's the little things that count.

A few days later, I decided to pull the intake manifold to replace all the gaskets and the notoriously troublesome CCV. My car hadn't been smoking or consuming an excessive amount of oil, but it had a fairly rough idle on cold starts, so I figured it would be good to address any potential vacuum leaks.

I had the manifold off in about 30 minutes or so. Everything came apart pretty easily, and surprisingly, nothing broke or crumbled. I'm not used to plastic/rubber being this intact, that's the benefit of buying a car from a cooler place, I suppose.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230854298_5eca3e11a1_b.jpg

Even the CCV came out without shattering into a thousand pieces. Pretty impressive for being original at 183k miles.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52231123834_335e37ef5c_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230854213_2623fc02ea_b.jpg

In my pile of new parts, I have a Genuine BMW CCV (I've had aftermarket ones fail prematurely in the past), CCV lines, intake manifold gaskets, throttle body gasket, ICV gasket/grommet, Vanos oil line + crush washers, distribution pipe o-rings, and injector o-rings.

The Vanos oil line was seeping a bit, so I figured I would replace it while I had great access to it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230853933_dcce11b7b8_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230854013_e610a0c292_b.jpg

After everything was put back together, the engine ran great and seems to behave a bit better when it's cold, though still not perfect. Might do coils/plugs next, we'll see.

Moving onto bigger changes, I got some new Kumho PS31 tires for my Apex ARC-8's. I previously had these as track wheels for my now-sold E34, I love the way they look. Being 17x9 and ET30, they're fairly aggressive on an E46. I'm glad to be retiring the ZHP wheels, as they're heavy and I don't enjoy the ride quality compromises of 18" wheels.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52229850362_2cbcedba90_b.jpg

You can see they look a bit silly at stock ride height:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52229850312_c00b70ccd0_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52229850197_ac010e9e3f_b.jpg

Earlier today, I fixed that by installing coilovers; bring out your pitchforks, I bought eBay coilovers for $250 shipped to my door. From ordering to having them in my hands, it was like 3 days, pretty impressive. The build quality is surprisingly decent for how cheap they are, and unlike a lot of cheap coilovers, these have separate ride height and spring pre-load adjustment, camber plates, and adjustable length shocks in the rear. They also came with adjustable sway bar endlinks for the front, what a deal!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52229849947_8aa3deee85_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230848766_d8dd92cf7c_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230848941_2d3fe7211d_b.jpg

Installing them was very straightforward, with the caveat being that the supplied instructions were almost completely useless. Having installed a few dozen sets of coilovers on my own cars and customer cars, it wasn't an issue. The front coilovers were set up to different heights and the springs were excessively pre-loaded, which was easily fixed. They also had no locating tabs, so I just had to make my own markings based on the shocks I removed from the car. The rear collars were put together upside-down, another easy fix. That's really the main issue with cheap coilovers— the QC isn't amazing so it's up to you to fix the little mistakes and inspect things before installing them.

For the fronts, I installed them with the camber maxed out, along with some Genuine BMW strut tower reinforcement plates I had laying around. I had to spin the ride height all the way down to get them low enough. The adjustable sway bar endlinks were set to their shortest length and installed, which kept the sway bar in a decent spot and not hitting anything during its range of travel.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52231123019_6968d426e1_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230853318_dc45b0dec0_b.jpg

The rears were installed with the adjustment collars spun all the way down. A neat feature I noticed when installing them was that the collar actually bolts to the lower control arm with a long bolt and washer. The shocks were adjusted to their shortest length, which kept the spring in place quite nicely even at full droop. The collars came with a lower spring pad and I reused the stock upper spring pad for a noise-free experience.

And now, for the final result. I'll get better pictures tomorrow, along with replacing those hideous half-functional LED plate lights, ick.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52231122924_8d3ba28530_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52231122859_2f9e9fce13_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52230848456_12aec4b8e5_b.jpg

The way I set it up, the rear never rubs, even on big bumps. Lots of travel in the front and back with this height; I have yet to hit bump stops, even on some truly awful roads. The extra camber in the front helps to fit those 17x9's in the front, and there's still plenty of room for turning. As for ride quality, my initial impressions are quite positive— they feel only slightly worse than the BC coilovers I'm accustomed to, and at less than a quarter of the cost, I'll take it! Road noise is minimal, and there's only a minimal increase in NVH despite having solid mounts. Compared to the tired OE shocks + rear KYB's, the car rides in a much more controlled manner, without being overly bouncy.

All that's left is to get the car aligned tomorrow.

[BADCLOWN]

sits very well on the 17 inch setup, I've bought cheap coilovers in the past (15+ years ago for Volkswagens I previously owned) but never $250 cheap haha. It does seem like the "cheap" setups are a LOT better than 5-10-15 years ago

[dannyzabolotny]

sits very well on the 17 inch setup, I've bought cheap coilovers in the past (15+ years ago for Volkswagens I previously owned) but never $250 cheap haha. It does seem like the "cheap" setups are a LOT better than 5-10-15 years ago

Yeah, the cheap coilovers have come a long way. Likely due to the fact that modern manufacturing makes it possible to do more complex coilovers while still remaining cheap. We'll see how these hold up!

[dannyzabolotny]

I finally got around to deleting the CDV, I hate those things. They're completely unnecessary if you know how to drive a manual, and they make shifting smoothly quite difficult.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52252227750_faa602db3e_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52251725886_6dc76375ac_b.jpg

I also removed the last of the nasty LED's, in the license plate lights.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52252011734_4cff50043e_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52252227505_ebbfc4f211_b.jpg

A few days ago, a friend and I drove out to LA to deliver some parts he was selling, and to see some friends who had moved out there. The car drove flawlessly, averaging 28-29mpg throughout the trip, with the average cruising speed being around 85-90. Passed 185k miles on the way back, I'll be at 200k in no time at this rate.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52250753267_bc574ba6ce_b.jpg

Yesterday, I decided to tackle the interior, which still had the musty smell of cigarettes (the previous owner smoked in the car, unfortunately). The first step was to remove both front seats and the lower portion of the back seat, to give me access to all of the carpet. In my experience, that's where a lot of the bad smells seem to linger.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52251742573_7129ca622c_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52250752382_e62bb86255_b.jpg

After a thorough vacuuming, the carpets looked 95% better, at least in the visual sense.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52251724916_a638f8c30f_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52252227045_6d8dc58db0_b.jpg

The next step was to spray on some foaming carpet cleaner, followed by a thorough scrubbing with a stiff bristle brush. A drill brush would've made this much easier, but oh well. After two rounds of that, I used a carpet extractor to pull the dirt and carpet cleaner out.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52252011269_9eaef62d84_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52252011339_b6991f5e85_b.jpg

While the carpet was drying, I cleaned the seats thoroughly outside of the car. Unlike so many other cars I've owned, this car actually has pretty nice seats. I followed up by conditioning the leather, both to give it a nice smell and to protect them from the harsh Arizona sun.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52250752887_7f4c1ab6fd_b.jpg

With the seats bolted back in, I was left with a much nicer-smelling interior that also looked a lot cleaner.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52250752977_f9d144217f_b.jpg

Now the biggest eyesore in the interior is that awful old alcantara steering wheel. I'll likely replace it with a nice used M3 steering wheel in the near future, as I'm not a big fan of alcantara on the high-touch surfaces.

[BADCLOWN]

if you sell that steering wheel (no airbag obviously) id be interested

the interior cleaning did WONDERS, nice job on that.

[BADCLOWN]

if you sell that steering wheel (no airbag obviously) id be interested

the interior cleaning did WONDERS, nice job on that.

[dannyzabolotny]

if you sell that steering wheel (no airbag obviously) id be interested

the interior cleaning did WONDERS, nice job on that.

The steering wheel is super grubby, like that alcantara is beyond saving. There's a few small rips in it too.

And thanks! The smoker smell has been mostly gone since then; it hasn't come back, even with the car sitting in triple-digit heat all day.

[dannyzabolotny]

The other day, my friend and I drove out to the Roosevelt Dam, which was a pretty fun drive.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52257737626_2595b17824_b.jpg

We then looped back through Globe, which has a charming little downtown area with old buildings.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52257737486_44bcacb1e3_b.jpg

After that, we drove around the outskirts of town, looking for cool roads. We found one that was in a pretty remote area, beautiful views all around.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52256772042_76c484b9b2_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52258019614_da48da5b18_b.jpg

Some of the roads were paved, and some weren't, but that didn't stop the ZHP. It was a bit of a bouncy ride with the eBay coilovers, but they held up just fine.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52256771717_455caa9594_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52258019724_6fd26d1e25_b.jpg

After the last three weeks of having fun with the car, it was finally time to wash it. While the dark gray color hides dirt quite well, it was getting to a point where it still looked pretty filthy, especially after off-roading. I hit it with my usual arsenal of AmmoNYC detailing products, cleaning the wheels and paint thoroughly. I also coated the paint with a sealant, which should make future washes much easier and will hopefully help to protect the paint against the harsh Arizona sun.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52257736546_4af4c7be63_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52258226635_6063478f64_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52256771372_bc53c0296a_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52258226745_bd3ca30654_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52257736726_c6b6201a9a_b.jpg

I'm pretty happy with the way the car is sitting at the moment, especially with the ARC-8 wheels. Not sure why all the E46 people go with the high-offset flat face model, the 17x9 ET30 concave face fits great with a bit of camber, and it looks spectacular. My rear quarters have the inner lips trimmed and the bumper is trimmed a bit, so I rarely ever get any rubbing, even with people in the car and a trunk full of stuff. I'm running around -2º of camber all around, seems to handle pretty well with this setup too.

[fredo]

Cool pics. :thumbsup

[dannyzabolotny]

I'm up to 186k miles now, which means I've put 5000 miles on in a month of owning the car. I guess I really like driving it or something, eh?

Most recently I took it down of my favorite roads, and it was fun to push the car a bit. The only downside was that I cooked the already warped rotors some more, oops.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273967505_aa969f1f40_b.jpg

The next day, I ordered some brake parts and replaced the front rotors, pads, and wear sensor (Zimmerman coated rotors, ATE pads, OEM sensor). The drilled rotors might have looked cool, but they were not straight at all, and caused a fair bit of shaking upon braking (control arm bushings have been done, so definitely a brake shake). I generally don't run drilled rotors for this reason, they don't really do much for performance and have a higher chance of warping/cracking when pushed hard.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273936850_1fd55aacc2_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273936915_2c5b9dcde3_b.jpg

After that, I bled the brakes at all four corners, and to say the fluid that came out looked bad would be an understatement...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52272474252_367ae6cfda_b.jpg

I don't think the fluid has ever been flushed on this car, yikes. The bleeders were quite stuck too, which supports that theory. After 3 rounds of bleeding with my pressure bleeder, the fluid coming out still looked black, but at least now it was free of air and was marginally... better? I'll probably order some new lines and do a proper flush of the braking system in the future, but for now, this will do.

While the car was up on the lift, I also changed the oil. It was a bit early since I had receipts in the glovebox showing the oil being changed around 181k, but I wanted to put in a heavier weight since the receipts showed it being 5W30. Somehow the oil that came out looked pretty bad too, hm.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52272474187_d1a7624d38_b.jpg

I put Castrol Edge 5W40 in, that seems to work nicely in the M54's in the hot Arizona climate. The oil filter was replaced with a Hengst one, I prefer those to the Mann ones because of the plastic end caps that don't seem to fall apart.

After thoroughly bedding in the brakes, I can confirm that they work great now. I can slam the brake pedal at 100+ and the car slows down in a smooth, predictable manner. The pedal seems to feel a bit better too, so bleeding the brakes seems to have helped.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52272474127_99117feb61_b.jpg

Earlier today, my diff bushing tools came in from GST, so of course I immediately got to work.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273467738_e797b25c45_b.jpg

I've been meaning to replace my CSB and flex disc for a while, so it made sense to do it at the same time as doing diff bushings. The exhaust came off with very little drama, followed by the heat shields. Looking at the CSB, you can tell it's completely shot:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273445971_5c0df73417_b.jpg

I don't think you should be able to see through it...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52272473412_5015a25e45_b.jpg

Looking at the flex disc, it didn't look too awful, but it was starting to crack and random fibers were starting to come off of it, so I figured it would be good to take care of it before it became a problem.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52272473467_a761ddf6a8_b.jpg

With the exhaust and driveshaft removed, it was really easy to pull the diff. I also removed the rear sway bar so I wouldn't have to fight it while pulling the diff.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273446226_7ab6684a26_b.jpg

You can see the diff bushing cracking apart, this one was replaced in 2010 but was already going bad. It wasn't quite as torn up as some of the really bad ones I've replaced, but it was still enough to cause an occasional thump when shifting and going on/off throttle in certain gears.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273446296_5f15b49d09_b.jpg

The new tools made this job an absolute breeze. For the rear bushing I went with Meyle HD as I've had good experiences with this part on customer cars over the years. For the fronts I put in Lemforder bushings.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273935965_c8135ffdc2_b.jpg

One thing I noticed as I was reinstalling the diff was the label on top— apparently this is a 3.38 diff, not the stock 3.07. That explains why the gearing feels a bit short. It's interesting finding all these little mods/changes throughout the car.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273446751_7fca52bb3d_b.jpg

Moving onto the driveshaft, the CSB bracket fell right off as soon as I split the driveshaft, so I had to get a little creative to get the remnants of the CSB off. It ain't dumb if it works!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273446591_88b7ba0a35_b.jpg

The new CSB was tapped on and the driveshaft was reassembled. I marked both halves before taking it apart, so there shouldn't be any balance issues.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273936200_9e0d962038_b.jpg

Of course I couldn't help but replace a few more things while the driveshaft was out... so I replaced the rear shifter carrier bushing, as well as the round white shifter bushing. The front carrier bushings and selector rod joint looked to be in okay shape so I left them alone. In addition, I also replaced the transmission mounts. The old ones weren't too bad, but they were starting to crack from age so might as well swap em out, especially with Corteco mounts being less than $10 each.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52272474057_35158c8652_b.jpg

Putting everything back together, I also replaced the exhaust gaskets since the old ones looked crusty. Otherwise, nothing notable to say about the reassembly process other than me being hungry as it was dinner time and I had to put the car back together to go home.

Oh and at some point in the day, I also replaced the passenger front seat control panel, as the seat back adjustment wasn't working at all. The new panel seems to have fixed it, so now my passengers can enjoy the ultimate luxury of a fully functioning seat.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52273445886_011394b947_b.jpg

That's about it for this update. It's still hot as heck in Phoenix (my shop doesn't have AC, just a swamp cooler that does nothing when it's humid like it has been lately) and I need to actually go do customer work so I can buy more parts for my car.

[dannyzabolotny]

It's been about a month since my last update, mostly because I haven't needed to do much to the ZHP. I've been driving it a whole bunch, driving all over Arizona and making a weekend trip to Las Vegas a few weeks back. It passed 188k miles a few days ago, good car.

One thing I did do was swapping the diff, as the 3.38 diff was starting to become quite noisy. I sourced a 3.07 diff that came out of a ZHP from a reputable parts company in Missouri (Importapart). Not only is the new diff quite a bit quieter, the longer gearing allows for even better fuel economy, with barely any loss in acceleration.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52337837226_aa29cd3187_b.jpg

I also installed a new valve cover along with a new valve cover gasket, as it was starting to leak and was causing a vacuum leak from a crack on the side.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52336881282_dfe7ac0870_b.jpg

The fuel filter was replaced around the same time as well; it was last replaced in 2010 according to the date code so I'd say it was due for a new one. Aside from that, here's a few pics of the car from my most recent road trip to Show Low, I explored this abandoned place (Seneca Lake) with my friend, which was neat.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52338140304_fb4f6b909d_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52338263820_8f02a09da4_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52338073563_2995549699_b.jpg

In other news, I started my new job as a technician in a high-end Euro shop so I'll finally be able to throw some more money at this car soon.

[S2Ace]

Nice to see you still have the car! I messaged you on FB back in august when I saw your for sale post but thought it sold when the post was gone.

[dannyzabolotny]

Nice to see you still have the car! I messaged you on FB back in august when I saw your for sale post but thought it sold when the post was gone.

I briefly posted it up in a moment of weakness, but at this point I'm kinda committed to keeping it around. I've got a bunch of stuff I want to do to the car, and some track days in the near future.

[S2Ace]

Cool man! Excited to see how you prep the car for track days!

[johnrando]

Nice updates.

Sent from my SM-F936U1 using Tapatalk

[jdauria]

Danny do you still have the ZHP?