I’ve pulled a couple non-m e46 drivetrains. It’s not terrible. The plastic hoses can be a pain if they haven’t been removed in a long time - or ever. PO certainly wasn’t a maintenance freak. You pretty much did it the way I pull it. I leave the bumper cover on the bumper bar tho and just undo it at the frame horns. Disco the ac compressor and p/s pump and drape over the fender like you did. Drop the steering rack to give better oil pan clearance. Excited to see the the progress. Now I’m motivated to get out there and pull the drivetrain out of the e30 parts car today.
When i did my e46 engine i was able to take the whole crash bar off with the bumper in one piece. Then after that it was just the headlights then i unbolted the whole radiator support with the rad the fans all the plastic, the condenser etc in one piece so there were only like 4 separate pieces instead of a million
Please be careful using your jack stands like that. I did them perpendicular like you on my e93 328i and one side collapsed, thankfully i was getting tools when it happened. Brand new Jack pad from FCPEuro too.
Calling E46 modern sounds too charitable because certainly it's not "modern" in a sense of being new, but instead it has modern features that have aged pretty damn well
looking forward to this new project maybe more than you are josh 😅 this is nothing you want to try working on the next generation ones they even worse 😐
Love your video's man but its funny when you say modern car but its almost 2 decades old lmao. Working on a f30 after a e46 gets me this triggered too.
I'm not a fan of E46's. I'd rather have - or work on - an E90. All the rust and stupid design. E36 radiator swap - 30 minutes. E46 - up to or over 2 hours with all that plastic header tank crap, jammed on push fit hoses. They turned what was an elegantly engineered car into something like Peugeot designed.
Admittedly the cooling system is known to be a pain on these cars, and the overuse of plastic in critical parts isn’t exclusive to this BMW model either. Apart from this, the E46 is almost in every way better than an E36 and an E90, the build quality when compared to an E36 isn’t even on the same level, and don’t get me started on the reliability and part costs for an E9x, although the US mostly sold cars with the N52, which is pretty good but the picture is very different in the EU with other drivetrains. There’s also something to also be said for this particular example, 10 min in and I can tell you why this engine failed - this thing clearly hasn’t had the maintenance it needed, and if nothing’s been touched for 20 years then understandably it will be harder to take off, but then hats off to BMW making something that lasted that long to begin with.
@@renas5371 Hmmm. E46 - corroded arches and sills (around jack pads), cracked LH rear subframe mounts, cracked headers tank, those bloody window regulators, a heater resistor that, on RHD cars, is an absolute nightmare, saloon/sedan rear bulb holders burning out, Touring tailgate hinges breaking, M54 oil leaks, N42 oil leaks and everything else. E46 driveshafts (diff to wheel) wear out faster than the E36 ones as does the differential - they went from proper machined planet gears to sintered crap. The E46 was designed to be cheaper to manufacture, and it shows. I don't like E39's either! 😂
