MyE28.com

Fixed the E39's sunroof today. Thought light was good idea so I worked outside instead of pulling it into the garage. Bad thought when it got up to 100. Broken black plastic. Man I hate that stuff, not only is it cheap and short lived but there's no contrast with it, it's just a black hole.

But the wife is happy, now if only I can figure out an affordable paint job.

More like what happened to my other cars today. Well, technically yesterday but close.

The wife was headed down the freeway in traffic when the car in front of her swerved slightly, only for her to see the plastic bucket way too late with too much traffic to avoid. To say it broke the fog light is an understatement, it shattered it. And I've got a spare, for the other side.

And someone lifted part of the license plate sticker off the E12. I even had it sliced, just not small enough pieces apparently. The fine at DMV is only $19 for being the victim of a crime and spending a couple of hours dealing with it all. Grrrrrr.

A case of what happened to my other cars today here too. My daughter stopped by SF on her way to Minneapolis to see some friends today, then left about 4 or so. She called me about 5:30 with bad news; her e36 Compact had been running fine before she stopped for gas, but after filling the tank she started it up and it was running really rough and "smelled bad." She looked under the hood, and something didn't look right, so she fired up Facetime on her phone to show me what she was seeing; a spark plug boot was sticking out from the plastic cover on top of the valve cover. So I had her look down into the plug hole, and the plug wasn't there, just a hole.

Holy. Crap.

I've never heard of a car ejecting a spark plug before, but there it was. She found the plug laying on the pavement under the car. I had her dig out the spark plug tool from the kit in the back of the car to see if she could thread it back in; after a number of tries it would only go in about a full turn and she couldn't turn it any farther by hand so I had her stop. I ended up renting a dolly, and my son & I towed the 735 about 90 miles to where she was and swapped cars. Super Dad to the rescue.

I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

The sad/stupid part of all this is I was about this close to having her just take my car to MN and leave hers here so I could make a few repairs to it while she was gone. Dang. Can I have the last five hours back? No, I didn't think so.

Drove the Land Rover around Houston on errands, fired up immediately after sitting 2 months in the parking garage, I like this truck...and all the warning lights

Did it the other day but I replaced the hatch struts, hood struts and the glass struts on the touring. Hood struts held it open fine, but it didn't violently shoot forward like it does now, so... You have to watch out for the tailgate too. Wow.

Had a flat repaired at my local Firestone store. They dismounted the tire and plugged and patched it from the inside. They remounted and balanced it and performed their 20 some point check list and cost me exactly $0.00. I love old school tire and repair shops. I've been using their services since I moved to the Woodlands in '88.

This post has been edited for content

Tore into the plug problem on the 318ti today. Picked up a Heli-Coil spark plug re-thread kit at O'Reilly's and muddled my way through the job. They recommend smearing the tap thingy with grease to pick up all the shavings, then want you to put silicone sealant on the insert to seal it to the new threads in the head... What a frickin' mess. I spent more time cleaning the grease and crap from down inside that spark plug tube -- which is about six inches deep -- than cutting the new threads. I'm pretty sure I got all the shavings out, but I'd give a lot for a decent endoscope or something to peek down in the cylinder to make sure.

Speaking of endoscopes/borescopes, why the heck isn't that something I already own? There are dozens on Amazon for under $40; basically just a camera on a USB cord or flexible stalk, but it seems like something that would come in really, really handy for a lot of things, automotive and otherwise. I'm ordering one tomorrow.

$40? Interested in which one you order.

davintosh wrote:Tore into the plug problem on the 318ti today. Picked up a Heli-Coil spark plug re-thread kit at O'Reilly's and muddled my way through the job. They recommend smearing the tap thingy with grease to pick up all the shavings, then want you to put silicone sealant on the insert to seal it to the new threads in the head... What a frickin' mess. I spent more time cleaning the grease and crap from down inside that spark plug tube -- which is about six inches deep -- than cutting the new threads. I'm pretty sure I got all the shavings out, but I'd give a lot for a decent endoscope or something to peek down in the cylinder to make sure.

Speaking of endoscopes/borescopes, why the heck isn't that something I already own? There are dozens on Amazon for under $40; basically just a camera on a USB cord or flexible stalk, but it seems like something that would come in really, really handy for a lot of things, automotive and otherwise. I'm ordering one tomorrow.

I have one you could have borrowed Dave. You could have just stopped by for a beer or coffee and taken it home with you.

Oh, mine was $100 at Home Despot.

I bought a $15.00 version and thought it worked pretty well for the price. If I thought I'd use one more often, I would splurge on the $40.00 one.

http://www.amazon.com/Endoscope-Waterpr ... ewpoints=1

Cleaned the interior of my eff-150. Used my new Dupray steam cleaner. This was always a clean truck and I keep up on detailing, but holy cow did it make a difference. Light gray interior so you could see the grunge drip off the door panels that I thought weren't dirty. Very handy around the house, too.

Ordered a $25 scope; a little extra for a mirror that threads onto the business end -- lets you see around corners -- and a 5M cable on it. I've wanted to get a view of my driveshaft at different points to see where the driveline shudder on acceleration is coming from. The cable length ought to get me there. Maybe getting video evidence will convince the CFO that spending $400 for a rebuilt driveshaft isn't a bad idea.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L8O ... d_asin_lnk



Looks like it ships from China though, so no Prime 2-day shipping. Rats.

Last year for my birthday (Sept) my son bought me a new Rennline pedal set for the 911. I quickly got the throttle, brake, and clutch pedals in, but not the dead pedal. I also had left off the carpet piece and some other trim pieces in the meantime. Today, with my son's help, we got the dead pedal fitted and installed. We had to drill holes in the fender for this, so needed to be extra careful.

Got it all back together and all the trim back in place. The best thing about this upgrade is that the only place my carpet has any stain on it is now under the dead pedal . It looks a crooked in this picture, but it's not.



The old head unit in the 911 was dated. It didn't have bluetooth and I hated the way it works. When I upgrade Vlad's head unit earlier this year, I was able to get his old one replaced with a brand new unit under warranty. We also swapped that in today.

So what happened to that cable you had sticking out awkwardly in the last head unit install?

wkohler wrote:Did it the other day but I replaced the hatch struts, hood struts and the glass struts on the touring. Hood struts held it open fine, but it didn't violently shoot forward like it does now, so... You have to watch out for the tailgate too. Wow.

:like:
Scared the bejeebes outta me the first time it happened (hood with new shocks).

Thanks for your help btw, the ews brain on my car is up under the dash, behind what is now the driver side glovebox.

Clay bared the gt40 and vacuumed the e350 it only took 9 beers

Lined 2 of 'em up for some mowtown tunes.

I didn't do much but screw stuff up, but Johnny Guest, Cody Guest, and Jay Oliver swapped the entire drivetrain in my pos in 11 hours. If I had bought new clutch parts instead of using the parts from the donor car, I'd have my car home.
Instead I got to take Johnny's s52/5 speed wagon home. What a beast! And a total sleeper on 15" wheels.

I can't thank everyone enough who helped out this weekend, from Johnny, Cody, and Stacy Guest, to Jay Oliver, Paul Muskopf, Kyle in No, Chris Kohler, there's more, I know.

You guys fully rock!!!

wkohler wrote:So what happened to that cable you had sticking out awkwardly in the last head unit install?

Don't remember what you're talking about.

I think that was a roach clip.

It was your Bluetooth adapter. For some reason I thought it was something to do with the radio. Sorry.

A few under the hood and under the bumper repairs for the E39. It would have been fine without the repairs but they've been bothering me for a few years now.


Broken Hood alarm sensor and fastening clip for microfilter carrier:

Replacement hood alarm sensor

Replacement microfilter carrier


Cracked under fender under bumper piece:

Old piece

Replacement piece


Now I can sleep at night....

Wow, looks like I can tie in with a couple of previous posts.

I was planning some quality time with the E39:



Mostly just some little bling pieces, new headlight lenses, and the ever critical clutch switch(can be defeated with a strong magnet).

Sadly this has to wait a bit longer so I can put a new auto trans in my daughter's E36 328i.

BonitaBeast wrote:A few under the hood and under the bumper repairs for the E39. It would have been fine without the repairs but they've been bothering me for a few years now.

Broken Hood alarm sensor and fastening clip for microfilter carrier:

I thought that was just mine, or do they all do that. The switch or the mount for the switch? I've tried epoxying it together but no luck. So far nobodys stolen the hood yet though. It does bug me, but not that much...