What did you do to your other car(s) today?

[BDKawey]

233k original mile turbo subaru.

honest question. "original miles" as opposed to what exactly? I've never understood what that phrase is supposed to mean.

In this context im referring to the chassis original motor/trans. I would assume most people would use it like that.

[gadget73]

OK. Was never entirely clear because I've seen people say it has X original miles, trans rebuilt at this, engine replaced at that. I have a car like that, about the only thing "original" at this point is the odometer.

[Mike W.]

OK. Was never entirely clear because I've seen people say it has X original miles, trans rebuilt at this, engine replaced at that. I have a car like that, about the only thing "original" at this point is the odometer.

My 535 was like that by the time I sold it. My comment was the roof was original.

[gadget73]

Part of the roof on mine is not original The only exterior sheet metal on the thing that has no new material added or just outright replaced is the trunk lid. Oh and the header panel, for whatever reason despite the massive abuse that car has suffered over the years the header is in perfect shape.

[gadget73]

New belts on the truck. Found the tensioner was noisy so that got a new wheel too. New battery in the Towncar so it actually left the garage for the first time in over a year. Unfortunately the mice got to it so there was a lot of time spent cleaning that mess up. Found nests under the back seat, in both front kick panels, and in the headliner. Car still smells, not sure if there is some more stuff behind the rear seat or if its just residual that got soaked into something. Damn mice. Car runs well at least. Needs tires though. At least one has gotten lumpy. They're from 2016 so its not the end of the world.

[Karl Grau]

Replaced the auxiliary water pump on the e39. when i first looked at it, I thought it had just come unplugged. On closer inspection, it was still plugged in but the back part of the pump housing had separated from the main portion.

















On an interesting side note, I replaced the air cleaner element since I had to remove the housing anyway. The replacement one came with a foam piece over the pleats. Same brand and part number as the old one. Not sure if this is a 'new' thing or what.

[Mike W.]

Replaced the auxiliary water pump on the e39. when i first looked at it, I thought it had just come unplugged. On closer inspection, it was still plugged in but the back part of the pump housing had separated from the main portion.

Ooo. Looks like it got toasty in there I see a nice burned spot. I also see enough circuitry to run a handheld video game. I think the one on the touring is bad, 2 wires I didn't think it was a smart pump, but looking at that thing I guess it's not a simple device. Ah, the engineers matra, if it still works, it's not complicated enough yet.

[gadget73]

Wonder if its an ECM motor or just a standard type with a variable speed. At least I'm guessing thats whats happening. Not much other reason to have this much going on in a pump.

[Karl Grau]

I have no idea why the pump has so much circuitry other than it's tied into the HVAC system somehow. And yes, this thing was fried.

[gadget73]

Fixed the window switch in my truck. Passenger window didn't want to roll down unless I messed with the switch considerably. Pulled it apart and it showed evidence of having been wet before. Cleaned the crust off with a pencil eraser and it works perfectly again.

[gadget73]

More work on the mouse piss mobile. Back seats out, nothing there, verified no stink. Pulled the dash pad out, no nests in there. The trunk had some smell going on, so the carpet was pulled, pressure washed, and hung out to dry for a few days. While that was out I deep cleaned the trunk, got any dust and dirt out, then scrubbed everything down with some Fabuloso cleaner. Didn't put it back together yet but I stuck my head in the trunk with the carpet laying in there and no more smell.

While I was at it I verified the phasing on all the speakers. One of the rears was backwards so I fixed that. Need to work on a mount for the sub amp too, and do some measurements on that box to see if it actually makes sense for the driver in it. Not sure if I need to port it or change the driver. The box was made to fit a specific place, I think the driver was just something I had on hand so its probably not the right combo.

[gadget73]

Started to pull the rack on the Continental. Got as far as removing the input coupler bolt when I found the fluid was still full and it hadn't leaked. Put the bolt back in and set the car on the ground. It leaked the entire system contents over the winter when it got really cold, but it hasn't leaked since. If its just one seal that wants to be cranky when it gets very cold I'm inclined to just leave it be. Maybe dump some mechanic in a bottle in there and see if that holds. I'm not all that motivated to pull and re-seal the rack unless its an active problem. I rinsed the dust off the windshield so I can see through it instead. Will give it a proper bath soon. Only outstanding thing on the repair list is to fix the door pull and I want to get a quote for re-skinning the seats.

[bronziti]

Drove the E91 on the freeway, stretched her legs a bit

[gadget73]

removed the factory-installed rust promoters on the truck. They put what looks like carpet jute in the door sills, a piece cut around the lower door hinge. It seems to just sit in the space between the pillar and the fender and trap moisture down in the bottom. Yanked those out, they were soaked, and blew out the big pile of wet leaf debris trapped in the space between the padding and the body.

[e24mpwr]

Strictly-speaking, it was yesterday, but I changed the oil in Cosmo (my M635) and put in a used-but supposed-to-be-good oil-level sensor as my oil light on the check panel has been on for some time. Light is still on. Not fun to see that light on, but I'm diligent about checking the oil and the car uses little/none with no weeps/seeps. I gave it a bit of a drive, thinking maybe it was stuck "down" and some warm oil would unstick it, but nope. Disappointed.

I also have had the ABS light on for a while, and since these are pricey I decided to remove and inspect the fronts (I didn't realize I had rear sensors until I started hunting for the fronts). They were a bit gunky, so cleaned them up. The light was out when I started the car, but as soon as I moved forward it came back on.

Still, nice to get a little wrenchy on the M635. Has been a while... (my MIni got a new suspension last year)

[1st 5er]

Strictly-speaking, it was yesterday, but I changed the oil...

I also have had the ABS light on for a while, and since these are pricey I decided to remove and inspect the fronts (I didn't realize I had rear sensors until I started hunting for the fronts). They were a bit gunky, so cleaned them up. The light was out when I started the car, but as soon as I moved forward it came back on.

Still, nice to get a little wrenchy on the M635. Has been a while... (my MIni got a new suspension last year)

Did you clean the ABS rings?
They can get gunky and produce that symptom.

[e24mpwr]

Hmmm... I haven't. Honestly, I don't even know where the hell it is - behind the brake rotor I assume? (please tell me there's a way to clean it that can be done more simply than having to remove the rotor...)

[1st 5er]

Hmmm... I haven't. Honestly, I don't even know where the hell it is - behind the brake rotor I assume? (please tell me there's a way to clean it that can be done more simply than having to remove the rotor...)

The sensor will point you to them.
Pretty sure removing the rotor is enough.
Other thing, they'll crack.
Had that happen once on a rear.
That was a pita to replace, even w/ Bentley.

[e24mpwr]

Lovely...

I have my car going over to the shop Monday anyway, I'll have my guy look at it.

Thanks!!

[1st 5er]

Lovely...

I have my car going over to the shop Monday anyway, I'll have my guy look at it.

Thanks!!

Maybe someone with more recent experience will elaborate.

[1st 5er]

In the mean time...

Delivered my spare S38B36 to Steve in DFW for stuffing into his '86 535i chassis.

[az533]

I'm replacing the leaky timing cover gasket in my brother's 2012 Chevy Cruze 1.4 turbo. It's a surprisingly easy job, considering the fact that the timing chain has to come off in order to do it. Also easy thanks to the YouTube videos. Also fabulous: for $206, I got a replacement timing cover, and it came with a new thermostat, water pump, oil pump, and crankshaft seal, all pre-installed, direct from GM. Wow.

[austin8753]

repaired the broken parking brake console in my 2002 pickup yesterday. a very common weak point on the early chassis cars. when the car belonged to my mentor still, he (self admittedly), was not quite so kind to the old girl, and had ripped the parking brake console off its spot welds. he repaired it once, but the repair wasn't well done and failed.

BKbimmer came up with a solution for my particular situation and made a new, custom platform, out of a piece of 1/8" plate steel, with custom uprights for the handle to sit in, and welded it in last night.

i hope to be as talented as him, some day. thankful to have a good friend like that. shitty picture, but you get the idea. another mark checked off, on the very long list of things it needs.

[RoyW]

Looking for more HP & torque, plus a deeper exhaust note, I had the complete OEM exhaust system on my e39 M5 replaced with a SuperSprint system, from the headers to the mufflers. The SuperSprint is beautiful, with great welds, stainless steel, and quality construction and fitment. It also weighs a whole lot less than the OEM system! Unfortunately, the exhaust note is not much different than stock ... probably have to delete the resonators to get louder and throatier! Oh well, my neighbors will appreciate it anyway

Today, she goes on the dyno for performance tuning & optimization... expecting a 40 to 50HP gain. We'll see?

-RoyW

P4131431 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P4131430 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P4131429 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P4131428 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P4131427 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P4131426 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P4131425 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr
P4131421 by Roy Wicklund, on Flickr

[e24mpwr]

That's really cool Roy - I've never seen anything quite like that transition from the headers to the exhaust (springs/etc.). Very interesting!

[davintosh]

Not today, but a week or so ago... but who's counting.

Had the driver's side headlight go dark on the wife's Lexus. And yes, it has the adaptive HIDs. I asked around and was told that, judging by the faint flickering glow remaining, the most likely culprit was the ballast, which is about $250 worth of bad news. After mulling over my options for way too long, I finally placed an order for a fresh HID bulb and ballast from Rock Auto.

The bulb showed up the following Tuesday, and a second box showed up by my front door on Thursday, which was a day earlier than I was originally promised, but the ballast I had ordered wasn't inside; it was a harmonic balancer for a Northstar V8. WTH??? The accompanying paperwork showed that somebody had just messed up and shipped me the wrong part. Great. So that evening I went to their website, set up a return and had them send out a replacement. And on Friday afternoon I found another box by the front door, and inside is the ballast: Woot! I didn't have time to dive into replacing it that weekend, so set the stuff aside, and in my spare time reviewed what needed to happen to get the light working again.

Step one: Remove bumper cover. Seriously. The headlight assembly has three bolts/nuts holding it in place, and one of them can only be accessed by removing the bumper, or by removing most of the fasteners holding the bumper to that side and prying the plastic far enough away to get at the hidden nut. So dumb. The rest of the process is pretty simple.

But on Monday afternoon, I get home from work and found another box from Rock Auto on my front step; it contained a second HID ballast! Seems that the package with the Northstar harmonic balancer was a total fluke; the original HID ballast was sent out on time and arrived on Friday as originally promised. The replacement that was sent out in response to my return arrived on Monday. Oh for dumb...

I finally got around to the job on Tuesday evening, and first thing I found, after getting the bumper out of the way, was that there was an obvious issue with the bulb. I popped in the new bulb before unpacking the ballast to see if I'd get lucky, and the thing lit up. Woot! Got everything buttoned up, and got on the computer to see what I needed to do to return the TWO ballasts. And of course, Rock Auto's website is designed to make it easy to deal with what their web design team imagined was possible, but for those issues that don't exactly fall within their idea of possible, there doesn't appear to be any way to actually contact a real person to get help. So, I just packed the two up with a note explaining the situation. Pretty sure that was the toughest lighting issue I've dealt with. So far...

[gadget73]

Chevy Malibus require removal of the front bumper cover to change the halogen headlamp bulbs.

and yes Rockauto is very difficult to deal with for any non-standard issues. I've had issues getting things that were just a wrong cross-reference. Their site said it fit, the box was the item I bought, but in person it was very obviously not what it was supposed to be. Convincing them I didn't want to be sent two more struts or oil filters or whatever that were clearly not the right item was a hassle.

[e28Sean]

Not strictly speaking a car, but.... Wracked up my 300th mile on my e-bike today!

[Mike W.]

Not today, but recently. Replaced the Rack and Pinion on the Datsun, AKA Infiniti QX4. I'd made the mistake of not noticing a torn boot and on vacation last year on the way back I was greeted by the grrrwoowsrrggg sound of a low P/S pump. I've done a bunch of boxes, but this was my first R and P. This R and R at least was easier than I feared. Biggest problem was the brand new Chinesium part (much cheaper than a rebuilt unit) was close, but not quite the same as original. The lack of a centering marking and oddly bent hydraulic line cost me hours. Still, not too bad. And... it doesn't leak!

Then some E36 love. The car that nothing goes wrong with is becoming needier. NBD, just front brakes because the rotors were warped, not wear, but I had a siezed caliper too I had to rebuild. The dust boot was cranky, but eventually I persevered. What was weird was the break in instructions for the pads. Ceramic, as I've come to like, but break in was 30 stops from 30-5 MPH. 30 friggin' stops? I made it to about 20 before I lost patience, so please guys, don't rat on me if I need to warranty them. I was surprised though, around stop 10 or 12 I noticed a significant difference in initial bite.

[gadget73]

bought an ozone generator and stuck in the Towncar to try to get rid of the rodent pee smell that I haven't been able to eliminate. Seems to have helped but now it has a vaguely metallic smell. Better than the ammonia stink of mouse pee though. Have to put it out in the sun and let it cook a while to see if the stink comes back.

[gwb72tii]

short story:
I wound up leasing an Audi A5 Sportback for a variety of reasons, mostly family related, and I my lease is over July 9th. The e28 I'm restoring is going to be my new DD, but it's not going to be ready until October, I hope. Between these dates I'm driving my 2002tii which I restored some years back, but haven't driven much for the past few years.
On my way to the body shop repainting Maeve, my friend was following me and let me know my brake lights were out. Checked the fuses, all were ok. So it must be the brake light switch. I took it out today and sure enough, no workie. I new one will be here Friday from Amazon. Easy fix.

My friend and I were talking about it, and we are both old enough to remember when fixing your car was common, shit like the brake light switch used to need attention all the time. Adjusting brake shoes, adjusting the timing, checking valve clearances etc. Back when my 1972 2002tii was a fairly new car.

Today if you had to do anything to your car, like my A5, you'd be disappointed (mad) with your car.

Man how times have changed.

Did one additional thing on the tii. My wife and I drove to the Vintage at the Vineyards in 2010, all the way from Seattle and back. I still had the Toyo tires on my tii from that trip and they're dried out, so I bought new Pirelli Cinturato tires that look like they came with the car. baby has new shoes!

on the trip


and if anyone can tell me who is standing next to my wife you get a bonus point!

[1st 5er]

Blunt himself, Stevie boy.

[gwb72tii]

one bonus point for you!

[1st 5er]

one bonus point for you!

Was 2010 the Shelton Vineyard year,
where all the 02s were parked up on the hill?

Reason I ask, I recall, as I was taking the 02 tour through that maze on the hill, talking to a couple who had driven thru from Washington state to the event, and IIRC, w/o working a/c, as wifey and I had driven our Das Biest over from Tejas w/o working a/c, and it was rather warm.

[gwb72tii]

I don't think so. The entire 2002 fleet was parked on the grass, mostly level. We did win the prize for longest travel to and from the Vintage.

There were however 4 e30's parked on the hillside that reflected in the lake. One was a bright metallic Colorado color that, IMHO, was pretty much the perfect color.

[1st 5er]

*"long sloping flat slight rise in elevation hillside" better describes it.


It was some 02 anniversary meet, again, IIRC.
Must have been ~ 150 02s.
They covered the whole hillside.

Is that the only one you attended?

[gwb72tii]

It is in fact the only one. Just a long way to go in my tii, especially with a lowered suspension and sport shox.
I installed a 5spd tranny for the trip to cut down on noise and vibration. Even so when we were done driving for the day, we'd rock like we just got off a boat.

We were stopped entering the Badlands on the way back due to road construction, waiting for a lead truck. I was first in line talking to the flag lady when it was time to go. The lady asked how the car was running (perfect so far) and Cindy said "fine if it starts". I just looked at her and asked why would she jinx the car? Guess what, car would not start for about 30 seconds until I just floored it. You never say stuff like that about your car! I later opened up the fuel tank, with a turkey baster, and sucked some rust flakes out of where the fuel pick up resides.

Once Maeve is up and running going back is an option.

[1st 5er]

It is in fact the only one. Just a long way to go in my tii, especially with a lowered suspension and sport shox.
I installed a 5spd tranny for the trip to cut down on noise and vibration. Even so when we were done driving for the day, we'd rock like we just got off a boat.

We were stopped entering the Badlands on the way back due to road construction, waiting for a lead truck. I was first in line talking to the flag lady when it was time to go. The lady asked how the car was running (perfect so far) and Cindy said "fine if it starts". I just looked at her and asked why would she jinx the car? Guess what, car would not start for about 30 seconds until I just floored it. You never say stuff like that about your car! I later opened up the fuel tank, with a turkey baster, and sucked some rust flakes out of where the fuel pick up resides.

Once Maeve is up and running going back is an option.

Had to of been you then.
Those Vineyard settings were much preferred over the current Hot Springs venue, with the exception of our E28 Hooters who hang out in HS all weekend.

Looking forward to meeting Maeve.
TexFest might just be a bit closer, and it's in October.

[gwb72tii]

October might be a push, but looking forward to Maeve being up an running

[tseohs]

Porsche used paper-thin leather to cover 911 shift knobs. That, combined with the small size and shape of the knob means that drivers likely grip tighter which leads to them wearing. Mine was peeling and the sharp edges of the plastic knob made shifting less than a pleasure. I couldn't find a reasonable replacement or someone to recover, so I gave it go.

I sourced very thin leather, not as thin as the original, and I think it was lamb. First I was trying to do it in 2 pieces like the original which required sewing 2 seams and getting them to line up just right so the inner seams could be tucked into the 2 channels in the knob. After cutting some test pieces and trying to come up with a plan, I scrapped that approach.

Instead, I cut a single piece roughly in the shape of a curved funnel that was wide enough to span the circumference of the knob. I then mounted the knob on a long bolt through a board so it was immobile and fully accessible. Next I tucked and glued one edge of the leather into the channel. After it dried completely I clamped that glued section with ~3 small welding clamps, applied glue to about the next 5mm of the knob, stretched the leather as much as I could and clamped that section.

I really couldn't tell if it was doing what I wanted until it was like 1/2 way around when I could see that the leather was getting tight enough to follow and snug to the taper below the ball of the knob. After about 20 more rounds of stretching and gluing, the seams met and I was able to carefully cut, tuck, and glue the end into the same channel. I then laid a simple cross-stitch over the seam. Last step was to trim the top down to ~2mm so it would tuck but not be too bulky under the cap.

What you see was done with no water or heat to shrink the leather. The result is a very comfortable slightly cushioned knob that provides for a no-slip grip. It has really transformed the driving experience.