davintosh wrote:Finally finished the cooling system rebuild/alternator replacement job on the Ti. That is the job from hell.
Let it idle in the driveway for a good 40 minutes while cleaning up, and the temp gauge never went past 12 o'clock.
To make the job even more difficult, my son's small GearWrench ratchet and a 7mm socket dropped down behind the engine and didn't fall out. Can't reach it, can't see it with mirrors, can't get a magnet on it... Gonzo. Blew at least an hour looking for the dadgum thing.
Oops; let the dancing banana out too soon on this one. After writing that last bit, I went out and caught a whiff of raw gasoline. Put a finger under where the fuel line attaches to the fuel rail... wet.davintosh wrote:Finally finished the cooling system rebuild/alternator replacement job on the Ti. That is the job from hell.
Let it idle in the driveway for a good 40 minutes while cleaning up, and the temp gauge never went past 12 o'clock.
Off with the upper intake mani, tighten, check, tighten, check, tighten, check, tighten, check, remove... Guess what? Missing o-ring. Damn. Howtheheckdidimissthat? Another hour. 
After giving batteries plus 3x to rebuild my DeWalt battery and them failing 3x, I won't go there anymore.davintosh wrote:I hope this is the end of the 318Ti saga... I decided yesterday that the car should stay here for a few days, just to make sure no other little problems cropped, and if they did, so I could take care of them. Went out to drive it to the doc's office (weekly PICC line dressing change) and it wouldn't start; battery was dead. I had wondered whether the dying alternator might have damaged the battery...
After my appointment I checked the battery voltage, and it was down to about 10 volts. Jump started the car and when running showed about 14.5 volts at the terminals. Drove the car to Batteries Plus, and the battery tested bad, so $118 later, it's all better.
Tonight I broke down and took the winter tires off and put the summer treads on. If it snows in the next few days, I'll accept full responsibility.
The overheating problem appears to be an improper cooling system purge; the owner has had a joe-blow shop working on the car, and the mechanic admits to knowing nothing about BMWs. There's no oil in the coolant or vice-versa, and no weird crankcase pressure problems. Car runs & pulls decently (for an auto) and drives well. New tie rods are on it, and it was just aligned. The wheels are butt-ugly and would definitely be swapped out with a set of Style 2s, and these things sold separately. The body is in decent shape; one ding with surface rust near the right rear tail light, and the usual door-bottom rust, but not bad. I couldn't get the shifter to go down any lower than S3(? don't know the slushboxes) but also noticed about $5 in change rattling around below the console, probably gumming things up. The big appeal is the leather; it's nearly perfect, if heavily coated with ghetto shine. I've learned that the e34 front seats will bolt up in an e32 (which is where I'd like to put them), but the wiring may differ slightly between the two. My car has a parchment interior, and this one has schwartz, which is ultimately what I'd love to have in my car. The rear seat won't fit -- at least without leaving some ugly gaps -- but I figure a decent schwartz rear seat will be easier to find than fronts.1995 BMW 525i - $700 (SIOUX FALLS SD)
THIS BMW RUNS GOOD BUT IT GETS HOT SOMETIMES.IT HAS OVER 350.00 WORTH OF NEW PARTS ON IT.IT HAS POWER LEATHER SEATS- SUN ROOF-MIRRORS-WINDOWS.COME TAKE IT FOR A DRIVE AND AND MAKE AN OFFER.PLEASE CALL BILL (do not text). @ 605-xxx-xxxx
Not sure why he didn't wait for me or check the diagrams or look at the assembly to figure it out, but... Unfortunately, without some seriously specialized equipment it's not possible to get the bearing off the hub without destroying it. $60 lesson. In the meantime I think I'll clean up the bearing, have it engraved with something funny about lessons learned, and frame it for him.
Yah , I haven't even had to pull a head . I yanked a few engines, mostly for practice.djazz wrote:Picked up a '99 328is yesterday. It was "drifted" into a tree, well at least one tree. It has a lot of really nice pieces but I'm not too sure about those wheels. lol
I've removed a few engines over the years, parting out E28s, but I didn't have to put everything back in the right place! I have J!m's Guide and a ton of info on the ti website so I think I'm prepared for the fun ahead.
328ti? Sweet.djazz wrote:Picked up a '99 328is yesterday. It was "drifted" into a tree, well at least one tree. It has a lot of really nice pieces but I'm not too sure about those wheels. lol
I've removed a few engines over the years, parting out E28s, but I didn't have to put everything back in the right place! I have J!m's Guide and a ton of info on the ti website so I think I'm prepared for the fun ahead.
