Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe no 88

simon13 · Post by **simon13** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:40 pm

Not great that is it, i remember taking my sill covers off 4 years ago on my touring and having a good clean, and the arch liners which had the same amount od mud build up as yours.

Whats the spec on the meaty brakes? As 345mm front discs is m3 CSL/ e34 M5 6 speed size discs

Do you not like the BMW floating disc design then with the ali bells and floating the discs on steel pins instead of the bolt on design?

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 11:23 pm

Hey simon, maybe the sills can be rescued! Makes me worry what else underneath is rotting, and whether the car was maybe leftvon a beach overnight at some point. Would you say they look worth repairing or just do the full job and replace them?

On the brakes, I've gone for Porsche Brembos refurbished with New seals and bleed nipples and painted in Alpina blue (not the Alpvpaint colour but Alpina brake colour) with white alpina logos and yes, ECS 345mm discs. The Ali bells save a bit of weight so that the brakes should weigh less than the originals- part of that is the lightweight calipers but the discs help.

My reinforced subframe is ready tomorrow and then off for powder coating... Alpina green. I've been a bit carried away with it all.

simon13 · Post by **simon13** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 11:51 pm

i like the brake talk! I'm going to be getting my e46 touring out of storage soon and better brakes is on the list

What porka are they off?

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:43 pm

It's repair and upgrade time! I'm excited about this work.

Tomorrow, the car goes in for Eibach springs (standard Eibachs for a diesel, the nice part is they don't have snapped coils like the Alpina spec ones). Also these lovely items will be fitted:

2 piece 345mm discs:

Brembo calipers from 996/986s Porsche, fully refurbished and painted, with alpina decals:

Clearly not strictly necessary, but they even lose a bit of unsprung weight over the standard setup. Stainless braided lines will be fitted (in alpina green) and I've sourced the Brembo anti squeal shims, which were a steal at Â£65 😧

So new brakes as a treat for hitting 160,000 miles, and then in December it's booked into ETA for a lot more work- an alpina green powder coated front subframe that has reinforcement tabs welded on, purple tag steering rack, track rod ends, new steering jointy thingy, an eibach front AR bar (alpina green...), AR bar links, new full CCV pipes and fuel purge valve, new engine mounts. The plan is to keep it so tiptop that I'm obliged to fix the sills 😂.

I then just need A and B pillar covers which are looking scruffy and the velour type door seals which are droopy again. I won't be buying those from BMW (something like Â£300 each...)

simon13 · Post by **simon13** » Thu Nov 09, 2017 12:42 am

is this a bolt on brake setup? Any more details, as i'd like some more hefty stoppers on my e46

ali · Post by **ali** » Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:18 am

Genuine question but is there really an advantage to having a bigger brake set up?
If the factory brakes are enough to lock up the wheels with decent rubber fitted then surely bigger brakes and physics dictate the limit of adhesion will expire regardless of set up unless you are talking about tracking the car and brake fade then I can see the benefit of the larger setup?

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:33 am

simon13 wrote:is this a bolt on brake setup? Any more details, as i'd like some more hefty stoppers on my e46

Hi simon, I've got calipers mounts from creation motorsport, the discs are CSL size, it all bolts straight on- provided you use conversion hoses which are readily available and have a 90deg end to suit the different calipers. I'll let you know how it goes. It's ended up being more expensive than I expected (my fault mainly with silly 2 piece discs, and the anti rattle shims, which was not my fault). But everything is new or as new and I'll maybe recoup 50p on my 5000 mile old refurbed 325mm brakes.

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:38 am

ali-bumble wrote:Genuine question but is there really an advantage to having a bigger brake set up?
If the factory brakes are enough to lock up the wheels with decent rubber fitted then surely bigger brakes and physics dictate the limit of adhesion will expire regardless of set up unless you are talking about tracking the car and brake fade then I can see the benefit of the larger setup?

Well put. If it was a track car it would make 100% sense, but then the car would be an M3 not a B3 I guess.

For me, it's more that I doubt I'll ever sell the car, who knows what I might do with the engine/ power output in future, I love the looks, which connect to more recent Alpinas and to the B10 v8s, and a bit less unsprung weight is always good and very Alpina. Let's be honest, it's that they look lovely (to my eye) as much as performance. I will track the car a bit, but you'd be killing all sorts of components and consumables if you were getting these brakes to fade.

I think we're very good at rationalising our behaviour and decisions, but they are nearly always emotional or informed by emotion. I'm ok with that, and not too fussed about trying to make it sound rational, it's not a rational car really!

simon13 · Post by **simon13** » Thu Nov 09, 2017 9:30 pm

your brakes can never be too good. The stock setup is ok but could be improved

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Fri Nov 10, 2017 6:19 pm

Agreed, Simon, good brakes are reassuring. I say that as someone who had a TSR golf mk1 gti- quick but not very capable at stopping...

Anyway, as is the way with upgrading things, it didn't go completely well yesterday. The calipers foul the alpina softlines by 1mm, so allowing the Brembo recommended 3mm, I've ordered slightly wider spacers which will be here next week- all so that any of you doing this later can avoid my slip ups. The shame of it is that the paint finish on one of the calipers was damaged trying to fit the wheel- if it had REALLY fouled the wheel it probably wouldn't have ended up damaged! Anyway, it's not the end of the world and I'll have it rectified later.

Metrics · Post by **Metrics** » Sat Nov 11, 2017 8:17 pm

Very nice brakes - sorry to hear of the fitting issue, I'm sure you will sort it with a spacer.

Could I ask who you used for the caliper repaint and refurb? How did you select the paint code for the Alpina blue brakes? And the decal?

I want to refurb my V8S calipers and itr's always good to know of good previous experiences.

PS. TSR Mk1 - you Sir have taste.

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 6:43 pm

Metrics wrote:Very nice brakes - sorry to hear of the fitting issue, I'm sure you will sort it with a spacer.

Could I ask who you used for the caliper repaint and refurb? How did you select the paint code for the Alpina blue brakes? And the decal?

I want to refurb my V8S calipers and itr's always good to know of good previous experiences.

PS. TSR Mk1 - you Sir have taste.

Thanks for the feedback- the Golf was lovely.

I was very pleased with the quality of work and comms from custom brake calipers- info@custom-brake-calipers.co.uk

He found a decal that I approved, I selected a RAL colour code- it's not quite Alpina caliper blue, but it's what I wanted! The colour is off in this pic and the 345mm disc looks a bit teeny.

Metrics · Post by **Metrics** » Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:43 pm

Thank you, much appreciated.

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:35 am

A couple of updates on the E46.

The brakes are unsurprisingly excellent. They should be, and for Alpina E46 owners, the upgrade is more involved than for standard BMW E46s...

It's not for the faint hearted. On a standard BMW, you need M3 325 or 345mm discs, calipers, brackets and conversion brake lines, Hel do braided lines that are E46 at one end, Brembo at the other. Oh, and a wear sensor- even those are offered for this conversion. That's everything you'd expect for such an upgrade. But on the Alpina, there's one more element.

I've been running hub centric 12mm spacers for 2 years, no issues with them or their impact on the drive at all. So the new brakes should certainly not have fitment issues behind the Alpina wheels? In the end, the wheels necessitated a 23mm spacer. This is a "B" type spacer, that bolts to the car and then uses the original wheel bolts to hold the wheel. I would never have considered using this width of spacer before, and they certainly reduce the unsprung weight reduction a bit.

But the worst I expect is a more frequent replacement of wheel bearings. On a car that does 3-5k miles a year and that has a thorough approach to upkeep. That's not a problem for me. So far there is no discernible effect on the way it drives. It's at ETA next week and I'll have them drive it and consider their expert opinion. Anyway, the key point is that this upgrade is lot a simple bolt on for Alpinas as it is with standard BMW E46s.

And the second update. After having my key in a bag all day, it wouldn't unlock the car. I suppose it was being activated all day by the other contents of my bag. This would be ok if I still had the second key. So after replacing the battery in the fob, which is a pretty quick and simple soldering job following a you tube video, it should have worked. Alas! It needed resynching to the car. In the end I drove the 30 minutes to the excellent bmkeys.com in East London and he cut and programmed a new key and synched my repaired one. He could easily have sold me two new keys, but saved me money, and fixed the repaired key. Very pleased. He charges Â£70 per key- cut and programmed. Obviously you either need to have the car there or send your GM5 unit by post.

Well, I can use the car again after a week languishing several streets away, and it's nearly time for its Christmas treat visit to ETA.

polynesian2 · Post by **polynesian2** » Fri Dec 08, 2017 8:04 pm

Once again I'm very happy with ETA motorsport at Brands Hatch. Like any of these places- Phil Crouch etc, they are stupidly busy. But very knowledgeable, helpful and at a reasonable cost. I just picked the car up with the refurbished purple tag rack, eibach front AR bar, all of the bushes, engine mounts and the reinforced front subframe. They also changed the CCV and pipework and the fuel purge valve.

So far I'd say that the car has been transformed- the steering is heavier and noticeably quicker, but not Alfa GTV silly- you could still autobahn it perfectly well. Yet to see if the CCV helps my mpg but the blockage had been building up in the head and the valve gasket has started leaking. So, back for that (if I can't do it first) and a full set of bushes for the diff and rear subframe, in the new year.

Would be interesting to drive the car now back to back with another B3 3.3.