MyE28.com

The e46 got new front swaybar bushings so I don't have to listen to bonka-tonka-bonka all the time. Nice to have that car back to normal.

For the Touring, I had the original radio rebuilt at Dr. Don's and reinstalled it Saturday. The PO had installed a CD43 that looked reasonable, but I do like having the original bits back in their proper place. I have thought about hacking in an aux input, though for now I'm just going to use a cheap BT/FM thingee. I mostly like listening to the engine anyhow.

davintosh wrote:Took the e46 to a glass shop for an estimate to get the windscreen replaced. The kid at the counter came up with $180. I'm like, are you sure that's installed? About that time the blonde babe pops out of the office behind him to check his quote. She says she'd ordinarily price the job at $410 because there's a $50 molding and 4 hours of shop time involved on top of the glass cost. He was new at the job, but since he'd already quoted it, they'd stand by the price.

Yes, I made an appointment.

No pics of blonde babe?

Did some work on the D6D this week. First some background: bought last year and it toasted the cylinder liner seals a few months later. That filled up the oil with coolant, which is no good! Here's the beast.

Here's the bad cylinder liner.

While I had it all apart, it seemed like the best time to do a full rebuild, so that's how it went.






That's basically where it sits now. I need special tools to install the front and rear main seals since they are set to very specific depths and tolerances.

Will keep updated with progress.

I guess I can post up about my other project, too. Cars involved: 2002 Camaro z28 and 1986 4runner.
Putting my hoist to work.

A wild pushrod 5.7 has appeared!

Some adapting.... Just like Legos. Sort of... Ok, not really.

Remove.

Replace.


Next up: modify transmission mount, weld in motor mounts, all of the wiring in the world, exhaust and tune.

My 1990 Mercedes Benz 300SL-24 5 speed car has had a running issue where it starts t hesitate badly after warming up. Bosch coil is about $140 so I ordered a cheap Delphi coil on closeout from Rock Auto for $20. Coil arrived and low and behold, inside the Delphi box was a Bosch coil which appears to have fixed the problem.

Sold the old E39 touring. Relief and sadness at the same time, it was such a good solid car, and a nice car, it was sad to see it go. But a relief, selling cars is a pain, we had it's successor, limited parking and could use the few bucks it brought. Good times with it and some good vacations. At least the new owner seemed enthusiastic.

Wrapped up the refresh on the Miata last week:

-Upgraded the suspension from Tokico Illuminas w/ 400/300 springs to OEM Mazdaspeed Miata Bilstein shocks with 600/400 springs
-Revised ride height
-Yonaka 2.5" catback exhaust
-Rear main seal repair
-New clutch w/ stainless line (factory line is notoriously hard to bleed)



On my way to work Friday, I lost one of the nuts to the lower shock bolt on the front - and the other side was loose. Guess I forgot to tighten them down - it only took 250 miles to back off completely.

Changed the oil on the Saab yesterday. I'll be damned if I say to myself everytime I do it "I'm not going to overtighten this oil filter" and then it seems the next time I changed it, I'm cussing myself out trying to get the damn thing off!!! That took longer than draining the oil.

But on a good note, being a GM LS2 engine, it's only using roughly 1 qt every 4500 miles. I'm ok with that (I run 7 qts just becuase of known oil pick up problems with these engines so I end up around 6 qts by the end of the OCI anyway). We're closing the gap on 100k miles too. Now if only I could get the front end to tighten up for me....

changed the oil pan on the subaru it had 5 pinholes in it from rust.

I was out in the boonies this morning and I stopped in at a little junk yard and hit pay dirt for the Rat. The widget and spring "equalizer" for the E brake cables. NLA from Ford. 10 bucks for a good used one.

I washed it. Between the overnight rain, the ash tree raining allergens, and birds crapping, the e32 was a disgusting mess this morning. The e28 was too, but Teen Boy drove off with hardly a care. He WILL wash it tomorrow.

Last week I replaced the headlight adjusters and upper control arms on the E39 Touring. Control arms were straightforward, headlight adjusters not as much. Also put some Style 32's on for the summer. Mmmm I want a set for the E28 now.

Had a vibration around 60mph in the Disco 2. Felt like driveshaft. I just rebuilt the front one a month or so ago. So eyeballing the rear....I noticed the rotoflex was installed backwards.

Arrows go towards the flange.

Flipped it and the truck is smooth as butter.

Fresh front brakes on the e46.

Pulled the driver's door apart to check the window regulator....it's done. 165k....and 12 years....every regulator is original on that car until now.

Also M&Bd some new tires for it.

Installed auto-dim rear view mirror and heated, power, memory sport seats. OMnomomommom......

Then one of the Xenon headlamp bulbs blew. FAK.

Trying to get it back to DD status since it get's twice the MPG as the Discovery 2.

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Getting rid of a car without the title in your name is a REAL pain

white chocolate wrote:Getting rid of a car without the title in your name is a REAL pain

Agreed. I did that once and took the parts to the city dump in my van. Now I don't buy ANY car without a clear title.

dsmith wrote:

white chocolate wrote:Getting rid of a car without the title in your name is a REAL pain

Agreed. I did that once and took the parts to the city dump in my van. Now I don't buy ANY car without a clear title.

It is a very long, boring story, but it was clear when I bought it. As much of a pain as it is, it is so entraining to destroy things for some reason.

In the middle of a couple little things (throttle cable, pedal bushings, speaker...), but I did manage to finally throw the staggered m systems on.

white chocolate wrote:
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/sbAx5r]



Getting rid of a car without the title in your name is a REAL pain

Ain't no party like a Sawzall party

Spent some quality time with the e32 last night; changed over to summer weight oil & changed the filter (all cars should have cartridge-style filters.) Also changed the transmission oil, again. I changed it last fall, with some Amsoil 80w90 gear oil, and that absolutely sucked over the winter. Cold-weather gear changes were difficult until a mile or so of driving warmed the trans up a little, especially that first shift from 1st to 2nd. It made me want an automatic, so I knew I needed to do something. The BMW recommended ATF went in it this time (which is what came out of it last fall.)

As long as I was making a mess in my driveway, I also drained the power steering reservoir and changed out a part -- #8 in the diagram -- that got torn up when I first changed the filter on it a while back. That whole assembly confuses me; the way it came apart didn't make sense, and none of the diagrams on RealOEM match what came out of mine (this one is close, but is missing a couple of items that were in mine.) When I first took it apart, I couldn't get #8 out because the round plate (#9) that goes over the PS filter was being held in place by a spring with a clip holding it in place. I had no idea what was holding it back, and tried about everything to get it out, but ended up tearing the rubber boot at the bottom of #8 because it had a smaller diameter than #9. When I put it back together I just left the clip off and let the combined pressure from both of the springs hold it down. Am I the only one to have this problem?

It may even be worth a thread of its own.

TMPS RANT TIME!

For only the third time in 6.5 years and 60K miles I have a leaky tire on the Tundra. And for the third time the culprit is.....

A LEAKY TMPS SENSOR!

So the sensor part of the system that's supposed to tell you when you have a problem is the part that is causing my problems. Nice!

I get it - most people that drive cars are morons and would drive around on a flat tire all day long. Ignorance truly is bliss. They need TPMS, and it's a requirement since the 2006 model year. BUT....

I'm a guy, like many of you, who can actually SEE when a tire is low, and actually checks his own tire pressures on a reasonable schedule. Before last summer I didn't even *know* that my stripped-down base-trim Tundra had TMPS. And then the light came on. What the heck is that light? Oh, well, I do have a lowish tire (they were set to trigger at 29lbs, which isn't very low visually). Those tires were basically shot anyhow, so I ordered up a new set and had them installed.

Mavis brings in my new tires and mounts them. They tell me that two of the TMPS sensors are cracked, not just the one leaky one. They glue one back together and replace the other. Unfortunately they are unable to sync the new sensor with the truck's computer, so while I no longer had a leaky tire, I do have a perpetual TPMS light on the dash. Did they mention that they were selling a part that they could not properly install and sync to the computer? Of course not. Morons. They told me that I'd have to go to the dealer for that.

Another 10 months later and I've got yet another sensor that's leaking. This time I'll go to the dealer. Time to bend over! Oh well - it's time to do the transmission fluid, and that's not a tranny I want to play with.....

Micah,
Several years ago I had a new '06 Tacoma with TPMS. I put 18" XRunner wheels on it, with the correct sensors. I wrote down all the numbers the dealer asked for prior to having the tires mounted.
They quoted me an hour to sync them.
It ended up taking most of the day, they had to dismount all the tires and get different numbers off the sensors I guess.
They only charged me the quoted hour though.

I bought this '96 Exploder to use as a 2nd car, so I can have more opportunities to skin my knuckles working on the e28. In the week since buying it, I have:
- torn out the carpets (they were beyond saving)
- removed, washed, and replaced the seat covers
- fitted new headlights, front fog lights, and front turn signals (old ones were cracked and faded)
- questioned my sanity on several occasions

This should probably be in Tech Talk, but because it's $38B36 content...

Anyway, it's all about proper tools and techniques.

http://youtu.be/1aU6lLhvHvw


P.S.
Pavel Vasilev, Technical Director.

Fixed the leaking windshield washer pump on the E46. Apparently this is a common problem with these cars. The problem was a leaking rotary seal around the motor shaft. It looks like a 5-cent rubber part, and can be replaced in about a minute without using any tools - assuming you can find a replacement seal, which you can't.

So I put some silicone in the seal's shaft hole to reduce its diameter so it would seal around the motor shaft, some more around the hole in the housing that the seal slides into, and some above the seal once it was in place so the motor would be sealed to the housing. This means that if the seal fails again, the only way for washer fluid to leak into the motor is through the shaft bushing, which I covered with grease. (I also greased the shaft itself so it wouldn't wear out the rejuvenated seal.

The weird thing is that aside from the electrical connector, the pump looks just like the E28 pump, and similar to the pump on most cars. So why does the E46 pump fail after a few years, while the pump on my 578k mile E28 may be original?