Hello Everyone,

My name is Christian

Some details about the car: 74k miles, LSD, Chrono package, heated seats, OBC, Xenon's, all stock except RSB.

I've been doing a lot of research and am planning on buying the following parts, if you can let me know what other "while I'm in there" things I should do I would greatly appreciate it.

Also, I have the tensioner tool and supercharger pulley remover already. I haven't done enough research to determine if I should replace the harmonic balancer while I am in there.



And finally, here are a few pictures my second day of ownership after giving the car a good cleaning after the drive home.







As I said, updates probably won't come for a while but I am very excited to finally get my R53 and really happy this forum exists!

 

I've been working on quieting down the interior the last couple of weekends. I pulled my door panels to do some sound deadening the other weekend and found quite the surprise. The driver's side door has been replaced at some point.

*Edit* Spoke to the PO and apparently the owner before him had a parking lot accident. The damage was minor (just the door) and thus not reported to police or insurance. Here's hoping that's it.



There is no mention of accident history in the carfax and autocheck, so I'm hoping this was due to some small mishap early in the car's life. I can't find any other signs of accident damage in the door jams, there is no over spray or tape lines, no visible damage in the floor etc. so who knows. I'm not going to let it ruin the experience though.

Of course the replacement door didn't have the HK woofer so I replaced that with a new one this last weekend.

Old


New


And threw a stubby antenna on.

 

How much you pay for it? Gorgeous.

 

Probably too much considering the door issue, but I'm having fun and understand all of the R53 hype now.

 

After seeing your li$t, I do not want to add mine up. All of the above plus struts, pads, rotors, calipers, lines exhaust, LCA bushings, motor mounts, balancer and I'm sure I'm leaving out a dozen other things.
Main thing, take your time and enjoy the process.

I paid $500 for mine, your's looks MUCH nicer.

robj

 

nah, I’ve gone through your whole build thread and it looks great. Very very cool build, excited to see it back on the ground. I’m sure you have a a small fortune in new parts!

Ordered the valve cover gasket and an omp under brace today. The Strut tower I want is back ordered it seems. Contemplating if I should do the plugs or just wait until I do the pulley. And still have some more sound deadening/rattles to try and kill.

 

If you're contemplating the valve cover gasket, check out the shots of the bolts on mine. They were a bit of a challenge as on a few the heads were pretty much gone.

I bought all new ones ahead of time. Money well spent.
rob

 

This weekend I installed an OMP lower brace and thanks to a member on the forum I installed the R52 cabrio braces, Thank you Marc for hooking them up!



Installed:


Changed the power steering fluid. The fluid is pretty dark anyway but was definitely due for a change.I was by myself so I used a fluid extractor at the reservoir and cycled the fluid until it started coming clean.



I also finished the sound deadening in the doors:


I could hear the passenger side door panel still rattling, so I filled the silver tubing with expanding foam. They are dead quiet now and the door feels very nice and solid, and makes a pretty satisfying "cachunk" sound.





Finally I installed the cabrio braces, super easy ten minute install:




The extra bracing has made a big difference in the front interior, and I could tell the chassis was stiffer as soon as I pulled it out of my steep driveway. There are almost no more creeks in the front of the interior at all, and it feels much more solid.

Update:
I drove the car to work this morning and there are some rough patches and speed bumps and it feels noticeably more solid, very happy with the extra bracing.

 

This is a great idea with the foam. I hope you dont mind I am going to use it.

 

Of course, hope it helps! You really don't even need to remove the panels to do it. There is a small area on the back side where some foam got out, so just be careful.

 

Hey, awesome R53! Are you the same cblock from Bimmerforums? If so, I really enjoyed reading your thread about your E36 a few years ago It seems like quite a few R53 owners here used to/still have E36s/E46s!

 

Hey! Yep, same Cblock, not surprising to see some BFC overlap over here! Sold one of my BMW's last year but still have my 328, mostly just takes up space in my garage..

 

Haha awesome, small world! I sold my old E46 daily to try out the R53 and love it so far. I probably won't sell the R53 but I still really want a '98 M3/4/5. Hopefully I'll be able to pick one up in a few years after college

 

I installed a M7 intake this weekend. Wow, it really wakes up the sound of the supercharger and definitely increases the fun factor by a good bit. The fitment of everything was great and very easy install.



I had some free time yesterday so I broke out my camera and tried to get a few decent pics but the sun was way too harsh. I'll post a couple anyway.

 

I’ve got the same intake, I love it! If you need to change the filter in the future a K&N cone filter will fit. My original foam filter was completely ripped when I bought the car.

 

How do M7 differ from DDM?

 

Nice, I'm pretty sure I caught that in your thread. Good to know!

I think they are basically identical.

 

New valve cover gasket and spark plug tube seals today. Everything looked good underneath. Might try and put the overflow tank in tomorrow if I have time.



Got a few decent pics yesterday as well, timed the sun just right.

 

The car looks great and the top of the engine looks super clean under the valve cover. I'm not sure if you are planning to do this or not but some cheap preventive maintenance could be the timing chain tensioner. It's pretty easy to change out (about an hour for me since it was my first time).

As these cars are getting older it seems more and more of them are getting stuck and that causes the timing chain guides to break off. Unfortunately the previous owner of mine was running around with a sticking tensioner which led to a small piece of guide breaking. I changed the tensioner almost as soon as I bought it but the damage is done.

I figure it's easier to change the tensioner than the guides

 

Thanks for the head's up, I saw that on your build thread. Definitely adding to the list of preventative maintenance I'm planning later this year.

 

Replacing the crank position sensor o-ring is super cheap, and extremely easy if you're ever in front end service mode. Supposedly can start leaking oil as early as 30k miles. Mine had clearly been leaking for quite a while and the o-ring was flat and fell apart when I pulled on it with a pick.

Axle boots are something you should look at. I started getting clicks when nearly at full turn. Looked under my car and it looked like someone took the car mudding, except with grease and oil. The driver side boots were completely shot, and the passenger side was just starting to suck air and leak. Working on changing those (did the passenger side, but noticed the ball joints needed replacing too, so waiting on parts). The passenger ball joint feels frozen to the wheel hub, and even with loads of 4 lb persuasion, didnt seem to get anywhere. Bought a ball joint separator and went the 18mm nut route which did allow me to at least replace the axle.

Would recommend ModMINI's youtube channel for nearly ANYTHING you are doing on your car. He'll show you how easy something can be done, and you will try to emulate it and it will take hours and hours more time, especially if you have to go drive and buy yet another tool you dont have...

 

Yep, the mod mini videos are great and plan to do the sensor O-ring when I get the front end off.

Installed the aluminum overflow tank today, the old one was looking pretty rough. Also wanted to post a couple before and after pics of the engine bay, have been doing a lot of cleanup. Now if the strut bars would come out of backorder...

 

really looks like you are coming along well. I really like the Checkmate cars and surprised we don't see more of them still around. Our cover photo on Facebook this month was actually a Checkmate that looked as clean as yours.
Also thank you for the orders we always appreciate them.

 

That one would be mine Following cblock406’s build thread as well. Fun to see what others are doing with their R53s.

 

Engine bay looks much better!!