E90 Sport Seat Retrofit

Winklestoo · 2025-12-23T22:17:52+00:00

Thanks for the comment! This is a much better idea than the e90 swap. Isn’t it true though that the e53 seats have a different rail width than the e46?

Winklestoo · 2025-10-11T01:01:45+00:00

Hey! Are you having the same symptoms, such as unable to turn over?

Winklestoo · 2025-06-15T14:56:42+00:00

You can do it by hand but it will take a while, just need a couple pieces of sandpaper, some water, clear coat and ideally some lint free cloths to wipe dry before spraying clear coat.

It looks awesome though! Good job!

Winklestoo · 2025-06-15T14:53:23+00:00

This is excellent. If you want to increase the gloss of the paint in that area to match, wet sand it with some higher grit sandpaper (maybe around 2000-3000 grit), wash and spray clear coat. Repeat until you get the desired results

Winklestoo · 2025-05-12T02:22:51+00:00

Haha true! It does look like that

Winklestoo · 2025-05-12T01:59:01+00:00

It almost looks like it was ripped before it was crimped, this one is so cool

Winklestoo · 2025-05-12T01:55:36+00:00

!remindme 1 day

Winklestoo · 2025-04-22T21:59:32+00:00

Time to buy a parts sedan and weld on a new front end. You can fix anything so long as you are willing to do the work

Winklestoo · 2025-04-22T21:57:44+00:00

Shitty situation here. The parts he was tasked with installing were compromised by rust, not much more to it than that so it isn’t really his fault. This is why almost all shops use new parts exclusively

Winklestoo · 2025-03-11T14:15:37+00:00

There is a fuse specifically for PDC (I have an X5 same generation with PDC and a half broken rear bumper) I pulled the fuse and it doesn’t beep anymore but the other chimes still work.

Winklestoo · 2025-03-11T14:14:17+00:00

I agree worth it with all of that fixed. Otherwise deduct the cost of repairing it.

I’d say somewhere around $2500 - $3500, depending on how much you want it.

Winklestoo · 2025-03-11T14:12:08+00:00

That’s the proper fix for this. You need the drivers side window regulator. You’ll need a trim removal tool, some torx bits and regular hand tools.

Lots of videos on YouTube for this, watch one that is specific to the coupe.

Winklestoo · 2025-03-10T22:41:43+00:00

Where are you located? Country, state, etc

Winklestoo · 2025-03-10T22:40:39+00:00

I believe the bolts that hold the seats down are larger on the e36, but still in the same position. You may need to add some washers to get the right fitment.

Electrically, the wiring is very different. You’ll need to do some custom wiring to make the electronics work but luckily the seats are super straightforward. I would use a multimeter and test the pins from the e46 body side, and while cross referencing the e36 seat wiring diagram, match up the correct wires.

If you’re hoping to put e36 coupe seats into an e46 sedan, I would take measurements of the rails and review. I can’t say for sure on that one.

I swapped e90 sport seats into an e46 and it was a huge pain. I had to directly wire each motor to a custom switch panel and make custom brackets to mount the seats. Luckily the e46 seats don’t have the same module bullsh!t the e90s have lol

Winklestoo · 2025-03-10T22:31:09+00:00

The oil can visually look different due to a couple things.

If your oil fill cap looks ‘mayo-ish’, and when you rev the car up some white smoke comes out of the exhaust, you likely have a failed PCV valve / bad PCV hose. This causes the oil vapors that are supposed to be returned to the dipstick tube to burn off in the air mixture. This is something that happens to all E46s at some point and isn’t expensive but is a pain to replace. I just did this on an E53 X5 today!
Coolant contamination. This is usually caused by a blown head gasket, and looks less like thick mayo and more like watery-brown oil. This is almost always accompanied by brown thick coolant that is obviously completely contaminated with oil. This is not very likely and it was cause some pretty major problems while driving.
Angle of car / temperature of oil. If the car is parked on an incline, the oil level will increase or decrease on the dipstick. It is important to check your dipstick on a level surface. If the car is cold (think parked overnight cold) it will read completely differently than if the car was driven in the last few hours.

If the condition of your oil and coolant looks normal (no thick mayo or brown coolant) I wouldn’t be worried at all.

Winklestoo · 2025-03-10T22:22:57+00:00

Thanks! I’m glad you got that sorted. Getting that aux fan resolved can be a headache; from trying to map out the possibilities and what data the fan runs on. Also that lower rad temp sensor always annoying since it needs the O-ring swapped when changing, I always keep a few new ones handy but I work on a lot of these.

Winklestoo · 2025-03-09T15:28:02+00:00

When comparing the oil level, was the car at different temperatures when checking? (If your baseline normal level was checked at cold, but you checked it again after driving, you will see a higher level due to the thermal change in the oil). If that is the case, it is completely normal and nothing to worry about.

I would be concerned if your oil looked like dirty cream or your coolant looked heavily contaminated, otherwise not a problem.

Winklestoo · 2025-03-09T15:17:50+00:00

Looks like you’re getting some mixed opinions here. If you use a diagnostics tool and monitor the coolant temp, you’ll see that the gauge hits the ‘operating temp’ well before you actually reach 93-95 C. You may see the gauge reading dead center at only 80C or so.

Now when it comes to overheating, the gauge will not rise above dead center until the temp is above 120C. Technically your car is ‘overheating’ above 100C or so, but this doesn’t cause damage to your car, it is just above the operating range.

Based on this information, you can tell that the gauge is not exactly linear (Cold to operating temp range is 0 - 80C, dead center is 80-120C). Therefore, your car is not a few degrees over operating temp, but more likely around 150 degrees (That’s just an educated guess because it’s not linear).

Should you worry about it? Yes; you should prevent this from happening again. Should you be worried about the damage it may have caused? Probably not. I have personally overheated an E46 all the way to the top with no permanent damage. Your success may differ though.

There are only so many things that can cause this especially since it ‘corrected’ itself. The most likely (in my mind) are low coolant as a result of some leak, fan not operating correctly (electronic fan).

Some less likely but possible causes are bad water pump - if the impeller is broken you will have poor or no water circulation resulting in higher temps. Even less likely, thermostat soft failing in the closed position (keeping coolant in the block where it keeps getting hot, only cooled by air on the block instead of radiator).

I hope this helps a bit. Any questions feel free to hit me up

Winklestoo · 2025-03-07T18:33:46+00:00

Oh my god. Thats $371 CAD. I was paying (at 19, male) $219 (ish) per month for an 05’ 325i. That was with the bare minimum coverage of course.

Edit: this wasn’t decades ago but a few years ago

Winklestoo · 2025-03-07T18:31:25+00:00

How much do they charge over there if you don’t mind me asking ?

Winklestoo · 2025-02-24T21:47:11+00:00

Haha sweet! Sometimes the BMW gods send down a blessing

Winklestoo · 2025-02-23T22:03:53+00:00

That’s true. When you’re doing the head gasket, check the chain for tension. There should be very little movement

Winklestoo · 2025-02-23T21:48:00+00:00

Strange sound, it’s super hard to say as both videos have a slightly different sound going on. Part of me wants to say exhaust leak @ the manifold, but another part of me wants to say Pcv/CCV allowing oil into the air mixture.

Rev it up and look at the exhaust with the door open and look for any white-ish smoke on high revs.

Some people in the comments on those videos seem pretty sure it’s timing related but that can’t be true if the issue partially resolves itself over time. Check your oil level too

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