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.