4 Cheap And (relatively) easy mods for an E46 BMW

You don’t need a ton of cash to make some incisive modifications, so here’s my top tips for the weekend:

Give the exhaust a nice rumble at idle by removing vacuum line that controls the metal butterfly valve in the exhaust when it’s not needed. Simply plug the removed vacuum line with a screw or even a golf tee. It’s there so the exhaust makes less noise at lower RPM but… we don’t want that.

Get on your knees and have a look, it’s that easy.

Remove the Clutch Delay Valve (CDV) for a smoother gear change. The CDV “limits” clutch slip for newbie’s but it makes clutch control a little awkward for everyone else.

This is not a difficult job if you have some axle stands, know how to hold a wrench and and can Google for tutorials online.

If you’re not confident with getting your hands dirty a mechanic should be able to do it for an hour of labor or less.

The Red Needle Mod - take your instrument cluster out, then take it apart and colour the gauge needles evenly (and carefully) with several coats, and put it back together. Now it’s easier to see.

Obviously not much use if you have the orange lit cluster…

LED Interior and number plate lights - they really do make the interior feel a lot younger and the back a lot crisper at night. You can pick up kits on Ebay, but do check the reviews and make sure they are reversable polarity so you don’t end up wondering why only some work!

If you don’t want to risk the Ebay game then the specialist BMW stores online such as ECS do kits from reputable manufacturers.

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