So hey again everyone,

Since we last spoke i have fixed all the electrical problems in my car for very cheap (under 100 dollars.). And my e46 was still shutting off when I drive it down the rode. I decided it could just be the fact that the previous owner put in regular unleaded all the time, so i ran that gas out and put some premium with techron, to clean things out a bit.

So it got better even more, and the car would only turn off electronically every once in awhile but that was still too much so I finally took it to an actual BMW dealership here in Houston.

Verdict:
The car needs a new valve. (1k) Soon it will need a new catalytic converter (3.5K OUCH) and soon it will need new brake light sensors(2.5k).

Im getting the valve replaced right now, by them. I knew i would need to put some money into a used m3 that was under 22k, so no biggie there.


But I do believe for 3.5k for a new catalytic converter i might be able to do something performance wise to fix it and not just get stock parts.

Any ideas?

Bent valve... sounds like the previous owner overrevved it.

As for the cats... are you in an emissions state? If you are not, get some european headers and some race cats ... it'll cost less. If you want to run without cats, you can do that too, but you'll need some aftermarket software to ignore the post-cat O2 sensors.

Places to look for those parts...

www.evosports.com (http://www.evosports.com)
www.aatuning.com (http://www.aatuning.com)
www.turnermotorsport.com (http://www.turnermotorsport.com)

Just to name a few...