Wicks' E46 M3 Build. Hertz 3-Way Set from Tony D!

[Wicks]

very nice addition wicks! youll love it, it has so much to learn with it. Ever since I got mine ive been in love with what it can do and how it sounds, if you need any tips i may have a few from my install.

also, if you want to part with your stock DRC let me know, the display on mine went bad, and id be interested in picking it off of you.

Thanks Dude. Great to hear you like it. I haven't heard any bad reviews on them at all.

I'll for sure have to hit you up on tips. Looks like this thing can do a LOT

Perfect! I was wanting to flip the stock DRC since I don't need it and to recoop some cash from the whole purchase. PM me.

I did some quickie test fitting to see where I can put the DRC-MP and looky here:

Its gonna be a TIGHT fit but I think I can squeeze it into the same place I have the 360 remote, which I really like. Its a great spot for a remote, especially on a manual transmission where you're always shifting and adjusting the volume.

(The angle of this pic makes the remote look wider then it is, the width is almost perfect with the console).

[yurvalentine]

That spot was made for a remote lol

[Bump4life]

very nice addition wicks! youll love it, it has so much to learn with it. Ever since I got mine ive been in love with what it can do and how it sounds, if you need any tips i may have a few from my install.

also, if you want to part with your stock DRC let me know, the display on mine went bad, and id be interested in picking it off of you.

Thanks Dude. Great to hear you like it. I haven't heard any bad reviews on them at all.

I'll for sure have to hit you up on tips. Looks like this thing can do a LOT

Perfect! I was wanting to flip the stock DRC since I don't need it and to recoop some cash from the whole purchase. PM me.

I did some quickie test fitting to see where I can put the DRC-MP and looky here:

Its gonna be a TIGHT fit but I think I can squeeze it into the same place I have the 360 remote, which I really like. Its a great spot for a remote, especially on a manual transmission where you're always shifting and adjusting the volume.

(The angle of this pic makes the remote look wider then it is, the width is almost perfect with the console).

i pmd you man.

goodluck fitting that in there!!

[Wicks]

Drooling over all the posts from Slam and I'm over here like....

Look how corroded those struts are....good thing they're coming off now. Looks like the mounting posts could rust off.

That'd be fun while driving....

[Goblenator]

dBDrag season has started so I got back in the lanes finally and had some fun.

Me and a buddy, who also has a trunk setup with two 12" Nightshades , where battling head to head.

My qualifying 145.4

His qualifying 145.7

My final round 145.2

His final round 145.5

Both peaking at 42Hz

Got beat both times by just 0.3dB and at the same frequency.

Can't get much closer then that.

That was a fun battle and I was giving it everything I had.

Then I noticed this........

A DC sub failed??? Imagine that!!! (dripping with sarcasm)

[Wicks]

dBDrag season has started so I got back in the lanes finally and had some fun.

Me and a buddy, who also has a trunk setup with two 12" Nightshades , where battling head to head.

My qualifying 145.4

His qualifying 145.7

My final round 145.2

His final round 145.5

Both peaking at 42Hz

Got beat both times by just 0.3dB and at the same frequency.

Can't get much closer then that.

That was a fun battle and I was giving it everything I had.

Then I noticed this........

A DC sub failed??? Imagine that!!! (dripping with sarcasm)

I can't fault DC one bit on this one.....

Two XL12's (rated at 2200Wea)...running on a DC9K at 1/4ohm...probably clipping a bit...during a competition...

My box is fairly small too so that's going to put a ton of pressure on that poor surround.

Shits gonna happen......

[Wicks]

So I spent pretty much the whole weekend swapping out the shocks as it was a fairly large project.

First, I had to pull out half the trunk, to be able to get to the shock towers and loosen the bolts.

That means pulling the 9K, one battery, 360 and all associated wiring...which is a mess. Plus some trim panels.

Pulling an inverted ~50lb / 35" amp is no joke...

Then I had to figure out the proper method to loosen the correct bolts on the old struts and pull them out of the wheel well.

Of course I loosened the top bolt a little too soon and the whole assembly came down which needed to be reattached so I could pop off the bottom bracket first.

Then the other strut wouldn't pull out of the wheel well easily........always something getting in the way.

Then of course I had to figure out how to reassemble all the parts.

Then of course ECS Tuning sent me the wrong front bump stops.

For anyone reading this for tips on replacing the shocks on an E46 M3, then be careful ordering the bump stops.

This part has the correct P/N on it but is nothing even remotely close to the right part.

So...had to just use the originals since of course again...the local BMW shop didn't have any in stock.

But after a good amount of elbow grease, it came together.

Its started getting hot in Denver and the sun can be BRUTAL here (elevation and all) so I'm extremely glad I bought this pop-up canopy last year.

That little bit of shade made all the difference. Couldn't have done it without. A very well spent $60.

Also part of the process was swapping my winter wheels for my summer ones....finally

...and here we go.

The ride is SOOOOOOOOO much better.

I was almost used to the bumpy and clunky ride before so its great getting the stiff ride back again.

And with that finally done...its time to dress up the trunk and get that bitOne processing!

[scooter99]

Nice progress. I'm excited to see more.

[Wicks]

So a while ago my iPad Mini stopped charging in my dash. The charging icon would just blink...along with an annoying faint chirping sound.

I finally had a chance to open up my dash and have a look.

I had an idea of what was failing so I focused directly on it.

I bought one of these cheap cigarette lighter chargers and modified it, if you remember from the original post.

I opened up the enclosure I made for it and had a look.

[

See that taller electrolytic capacitor, right next to the USB connector, it looks slightly bulged. Just what I figured.

Here's an o-scope plot of the 5V from the power supply as it is.

Notice how choppy it is, with peaks of almost 10V. This should show a flat 5V line.

Looks like the filtering cap is not doing its job.

I removed it from circuit and did a quick capacitance test on my multi-meter, not highly accurate but gives a good ballpark view of the cap.

As expected, the cap is rated at 470uF and is measuring about 174uF which is a decrease of 63%.

Most electrolytics are rated to decrease about 40% through its life so this cap is definitely out of spec, and well before a typical rating of 2000 hours (at max operating conditions).

The cap shows the vendor marking "Chongx", a quick online search indicates that this is your usual cheap Chinese cap that is not very reliable.

I had a 470uF 25V Chemi-Con cap sitting around which I installed instead. Chemi-Con is a top tier cap vendor and much more reliable.

New cap installed.

...and we're clean

If you have a failing piece of electronics, there's a really good chance that its nothing more then a failing $0.10 capacitor.

[bsneon98]

WIcks I just read the whole log for probably the second time now lol

Everytime I need a good place to get ideas for trunk builds I head here or to scooters civic. Great minds think alike!

I love your approach to finding out whats wrong with electronics, Most people nowadays dont even know what an o scope is let alone how to use one.

x2 on that capacitor saying; every lcd monitor ive found in the garbage had a blown cap on the inverter board. .20 cent fix later and they work like new lmao!