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#1. any aftermarket heated seats available? - from carieanddavid@mediaone.net
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 10:25:56 -0800 From: carieanddavid@mediaone.net Subject: any aftermarket heated seats available? I have seen ads for a few different companies that provide aftermarket seat aftermarket. I think this or last months european car may have had such an ad (or maybe I saw i on the web). It was from some well know accessories company that you would not normally think of as making seat heaters, but unfortunately, I can't recall it. There is no reason you could not wire in the BMW oem heater, as BMW oem you wired in the correct relays etc. I THINK it might even be available as a kit. Dave 98 m3/4 With a power, heated, drivers seat where there was none before ----- Sent using MailStart.com ( http://MailStart.Com/welcome.html ) The FREE way to access your mailbox via any web browser, anywhere!
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#2. Re: #822 CD-R - from ENF
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 14:00:35 -0500 From: "ENF" <enf@iglou.com> Subject: Re: #822 CD-R > -------------------- 9 -------------------- > Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 10:31:30 -0700 > From: BHilton@rhythms.net > Subject: Stock CD player and CD-R discs > > > Has anyone tried playing CD-R discs in your stock CD disc changer? Does it work? > I have a '95 disc changer that I am considering hooking back up, but I'm not > going to the trouble if it doesn't play CD-R's. > > Thanks, > > Bret > Then a response from Andrej........ [snip] >>> > but I do notice that it skips more easily on some > >>>CD-R's, less on others. Particularly 80 min CD-R's like to skip. > >>> >>>> Andrej >>>> '97 M3 It has been my experience with CD-R's that skip (or, don't read well) that the speed at which they are burned has a lot to do with it. I DJ professionally and have encounter dics that are very sensitive or won't get read correctly by the laser. This is with very expensive pro-audio equipment. So I did an experiement and rerecorded a bunch of CD's I made at X2 and even X1 speed and the problem went away 100% of the time. Recording at such low speeds take forever, but that is the trade-off. Anyway thought the info might be usefull. Ed Frank 97 M3/4 (still looking at disc changers)
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#3. RE: Brakes, ABS, rear brakes etc. - from Davis, Jake A
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 13:00:22 -0600 From: "Davis, Jake A" <Jake.Davis@SW.Boeing.com> Subject: RE: Brakes, ABS, rear brakes etc. Another viewpoint on ABS as it relates to production (street) vehicles. ABS does NOT result in shorter braking distances.In fact, most production ABS systems and their calibrations result in longer stopping distances than those that can be achieved by a skilled driver on most surfaces. As stated, certain surfaces can also result in significantly greater braking distances (ice, dirt) with ABS. Dirt is a good example. Stopping with locked (near locked) wheels on dirt will result in a 'dam' of dirt building up in front of the wheel, aiding stopping. With ABS, this 'dam' is not present, thus longer stopping distances. Also, on some tire/surface interfaces, the coefficient of sliding friction is greater than that of rolling friction, in these cases, ABS will again add to minimum achievable stopping distance (if coefficent of sliding friction is greater than coefficient of rolling friction, a locked wheel will stop faster than a rolling one). You lose a tiny bit of braking ability (increase braking distance) to each ABS activation cycle as the braking of a wheel is released and reapplied. The amount lost depends upon the ABS system (speed, calibration, etc.) It's the same with pumping the brakes to release a locked wheel. You lose more braking ability with 'lock/unlock' cycling than you would sacrifice with steady braking somewhat above the traction limit. This is also why relying on ABS as the front/rear proportioning valve in a braking system is practical and may be acceptable when upgrading front brakes without upgrading the rears, but is not truly optimal. In this aspect, we are lucky that the fronts do so much of the braking work to begin with (due to weight transfer). The REAL advantage of ABS is RENTENTION OF STEERING CONTROL during hard (panic) braking without requiring high driver skill to maintain that steering control. A locked wheel cannot be steered (by the steering wheel, surface changes can affect some steering). Thus, if you lock the front wheels, the car will continue traveling on the vector established prior to wheel locking without ability to steer the car around the hazard/obstacle (the 'slam the brakes to the floor, then saw at the steering wheel" panic response so common among 'lower skilled' street drivers). Thus, ABS is a great advantage on rain-slicked streets (or other low friction tire/surface interfaces) where it is easy to lock the front wheels. Interestingly enough, some recent studies indicate that another major contributing factor to many accidents is an unwillingness of a driver to appy the brakes quick AND hard enough to even use the ABS. As Lowell pointed out, the wheels affected by the ABS system depend on the number of channels in the ABS. Systems such as GM's original ABS on trucks acted only on both rear wheels simultaneously. It was a one channel system. A two channel would normally operate on both front wheels and both rear wheels. And so one with 3 channel (each front wheel separately and rears together) and 4 channel (each wheel acted upon separately). While the basic factors of weight, coefficient of rollling friction, coefficient of sliding friction play the largest part in the pure physics of stopping, other factors can also play a part, such as the ability of the braking system to allow the driver to choose between sliding or rolling friction. The good old friction circle always applies, you have x amount of friction to use, you choose how to use it (i.e you can stop quicker in a straight line than you can while turning). Jake Davis 95 M3/2
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#4. Re: How important are rear brakes? - from Neil Maller
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Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 14:14:54 -0500 From: Neil Maller <neil.maller@gte.net> Subject: Re: How important are rear brakes? on 1/8/01 8:23, LoweSeaton@aol.com wrote: > As for brake bias? I don't see how that matters with ABS? ABS ultimately > controls the braking effort and hence brake bias. ABS should brake each > wheel at maximum effort given road conditions (except for '95 M3 as noted > above). Each wheel is limited by available traction, not brake size. Unfortunately the ABS only has an effect on front/rear brake proportioning after one or more wheels start to lock up and the ABS operates. Until that time, the F/R bias is determined by the system hardware. Ideally I suppose you'd like the F/R bias to have some predetermined value that remained pretty much constant regardless of how hard you brake. Before ABS, some cars had variable F/R proportioning valves that were connected to the rear suspension. This would help to avoid rear wheel lockup (equals tendency to spin) under hard braking with extreme forward weight transfer, while still permitting full effectiveness of the rear brakes when a loaded car with passengers and luggage kept more weight on the rear. It takes riding motorcycles, which usually but not always have fully independent front and rear brake systems, to really appreciate the front/rear brake differences. Neil 96 M3
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#5. FS: Wheel take offs - from Davy Chou
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Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 11:21:41 -0800 From: Davy Chou <chou.d@apple.com> Subject: FS: Wheel take offs BMW 330i original stock wheels (4) for sale. They were only used for 2 months and taken off the car. No curb dings-one wheel has slight scratches on the edge during cleaning and storage. These rims are 17"x7.0" cast alloy with BMW center caps and boxed to ship. Buyer will have to pay for shipping/handling charges if out of the area. Here are more photos of the wheels: http://members2.clubphoto.com/ebrahim216943/Dec_26_2000/
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#6. Re: [E36M3] RE: Brakes, ABS, rear brakes etc. - from Sean Hester
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Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 11:47:27 -0800 From: "Sean Hester" <seanh_race@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] RE: Brakes, ABS, rear brakes etc. >Another viewpoint on ABS as it relates to production (street) vehicles. > >ABS does NOT result in shorter braking distances. In fact, most production >ABS systems and their calibrations result in longer stopping distances than >those that can be achieved by a skilled driver on most surfaces. > >---SNIP--- > >The REAL advantage of ABS is RENTENTION OF STEERING CONTROL during hard >(panic) braking without requiring high driver skill to maintain that >steering control. i'd actually say the REAL REAL benefit of ABS is reducing the stopping distances of 99.99325433% of american drivers. even at the race track and CCA schools, not many people can beat ABS. some can, most can't. at least not all the time. i can about 2/3 the time. and the times i blow it, i blow it by alot. so i'd say i average better with ABS. but... the rest of the racers, and CRETAINLY the rest of the public, gets WAY better stopping from ABS. the retention of steering control comes in a close second. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
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#7. Re: CD-R in Changer - from Paul England
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 14:49:43 -0500 From: "Paul England" <ettsn@mindspring.com> Subject: Re: CD-R in Changer Works great in my 97, too. If you notice some skip, try burning them at a slower rate (2x instead of 4x, 4x instead of 8x, etc). The problem is tracking at various disc speeds. The difference is CAV (constant angular velocity) versus CLV (constant linear velocity). CAV keeps the distance the laser travels over the disc surface the same regardless of location, in or out, on the disc by modulating the disc speed. CLV keeps the disc spinning at the same rate, and therefore is effectively 'slower' (w.r.t. data) near the center. Hence drives that spec 48x Max and the like. A disc burned at 1x on a good burner will play on damn near anything. Media brand and composition have a bit to do with it too. Look for discs with gold or silver bottoms (aluminum, copper or brass evaporites) and avoid orange, green and blue (AlCu alloys and the like). They will consistently produce more readable results, mostly due to reflectivity. YMMV. -Paul > From: Andrej Dolenc <adolenc@erols.com> > The changer in my '97 plays CD-R's without a hitch. I haven't encountered a > CD-R that it won't play yet, but I do notice that it skips more easily on some > CD-R's, less on others. Particularly 80 min CD-R's like to skip.
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#8. Stiff suspension + Sway bars (Ron K) - from Rob
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 12:57:12 -0700 From: "Rob" <motor@cadvision.com> Subject: Stiff suspension + Sway bars (Ron K) Ron and group, >>Like unwinding the wheel in understeer, letting off the brakes when they aren't working is a learned, counterintuitive reaction. I know last year I blew an FTD run at an autocross because I got into a situation like you describe where I hit a bump in the stop garage and the ABS went a little nuts. I blamed it on my driving though. I should have breathed off, then back on the pedal, but it's hard when you're looking at that cone (or worse yet a wall) zooming up on you.<< I see where you are coming from here. I'm going back to "the" corner to try it again a few different way (at lower speeds!). Maybe I can find a way to drive around it, although that still doesn't help un unknow or unexpected situations. Yes, yes I know that is why one is never supposed to drive @ 10/10th but this same thing could have happeded on the track. >>I don't think so. In fact, if it was just a single wheel bump you're better off with the softer bars. If the bump is on both wheels, the bar shouldn't make any difference at all. I personally like softer bars with stiffer springs, YMMV.<< Ron ,can you please give a few more details on why you like softer bars. It seems to me that until recently most German tuner favored stiff springs/shock and stock bars. Now I see many of them marketing stiffer bars but I wonder if its only because the market is asking for them and not because they are really worthwhile? My quick and dirty understanding is that the stiffer bars increase the rate of weight transfer, keep the suspension (read camber) angle changes to a minimum and may add some (false?) driver confidence because the car "feels so flat and good:)". What are the downsides? With the $$ you've spent I doubt you don't have bigger bars because they were too expensive! Regards, Rob
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#9. Re: [E36M3] Re: #822 CD-R - from Andrej Dolenc
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 15:06:19 -0600 From: Andrej Dolenc <adolenc@erols.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Re: #822 CD-R Ed responds: > It has been my experience with CD-R's that skip (or, don't read well) that > the speed at which they are burned has a lot to do with it. I DJ > professionally and have encounter dics that are very sensitive or won't get > read correctly by the laser. This is with very expensive pro-audio > equipment. So I did an experiement and rerecorded a bunch of CD's I made at > X2 and even X1 speed and the problem went away 100% of the time. Recording > at such low speeds take forever, but that is the trade-off. Anyway thought > the info might be usefull. This is getting a bit WOB-ish, sorry in advance. We are talking about playing cd's in our M3's.. I have noticed some difference with CD's burned at different speeds, but I've noticed more differences with using different CD's. TDK's which are decent CD-R's skip a fair amount in my car. Mitsui's, the hot-stuff CD-R's as far as longevity, skip slightly less, but still skip in my car. The current cheap-ass generic CD's that I'm using currently ($10 for 50), manufacturer is listed as CMC Magnetics, basically never skip. This is for 74 minute CD's burned at 8x. The 80 min variety of that CD will skip some, but not as much as other CD's I've used. Play around with both burn speed and CD manufacturer to find your best results. And now back to our regularly scheduled M3 banter. Andrej '97 M3
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#10. Black door strip button thingies! - from F. Graziano
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 15:45:05 -0500 From: "F. Graziano" <fgraziano@monmouth.com> Subject: Black door strip button thingies! i need some of those little white door molding clips? my molding is flapping a little as is the the panel on the floor underneath the door. any part numbers or should i just ask for the door molding and floor molding clips? Thanks, Frank =20
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#11. RE: [E36M3] Re: #822 CD-R - from MDadgar@handspring.com
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 12:45:34 -0800 From: MDadgar@handspring.com Subject: RE: [E36M3] Re: #822 CD-R Ed wrote: > It has been my experience with CD-R's that skip (or, don't > read well) that the speed at which they are burned has a lot > to do with it. I'm not disagreeing with Ed, but I burn all my CD-R's at 8x and they play fine in my BMW changer. Note that I've got the 96+ Alpine changer even though I've got a '95 M3 (late build - newer head unit). - Mark '95 M3 '97 528i 5-spd '88 M3, Hennarot ---- Mark Dadgar - Product Manager, Peripherals (650) 230-5037 voice - (650) 230-2100 fax mdadgar@handspring.com - Handspring, Inc. Check out Visor at www.handspring.com!