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

[MicahO]

Micah: Your photos aren't showing up. Is it just me?

I tried moving them to a public album. Does that fix it?

[Mike W.]

Micah: Your photos aren't showing up. Is it just me?

I tried moving them to a public album. Does that fix it?

Nope.

[wkohler]

Weird. I saw the photos just fine the other day. Now I can't.

I drove my E12 M535i yesterday. Has about 95 miles on it now.

[1st 5er]

Putin.

[1st 5er]

PS high pressure hose on el-Jeep.

[BimmerDan]

I installed the OEM backup camera on my Ram. This was one of the worst things I have ever done on a car. How Mopar expects you to strip and solider under the dash with one had is beyond me. I ended up pulling my driver seat and extending the wire. But after many hours of cursing and repinning the radio harness
It worked

[MicahO]

Modifications to the M2 started this weekend. There is really very little that I plan on doing to the car, but there are some items that require adjustment, and some upgrades that need to be addressed. Well, not a 'need,' but a strong want.

Like many of today's cars with sporting pretensions, and like *all* BMWs today, the M2 has a little amp that pumps in fake engine noise. It's a bit ironic that they insist on doing this to the M2. The factory exhaust on the car is already quite loud and burbly, and there is actually a LOT less sound insulation in the rear end to allow that extra burble (and road noise, etc) in to the cabin. But the fake engine noise is there no matter which mode setting you use (Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Traction/MDM, or DSC off). Worse, in order to get the more twitchy throttle of Sport/+/DSC off, one must put up with a LOT of extra 'engine' noise. A LOT. To my ears it's just too loud and droning.

So yesterday I installed an ASD-delete harness from TechninPnP. $55 shipped, easy install, and no more fake noise. The fake noise may also be coded out, though there are some owners that say that the ASD module puts a bit of noise into the stereo even when coded out. Honestly, my ears likely have too many years of shooting and power tools to hear something that subtle, but I don't feel like having a dealer code something out, and don't plan on putting together my own code-your-car rig.

I had time for a short drive last night, in sport mode - poppy throttle, open exhaust flap, and no fake engine noise. It's outstanding - the way it should be! Damn kids these days!

Trunk lining stripped - notice the complete lack of sound insulation at the wheelwell. HK Amp is in the pocket behind the wheelwell, ASD module is behind that.


Harness, with 8 loopbacks. Apparently those line-in/outs went straight through the ASD mini-amp, which loaded those channels up with extra 'noise.'


I also added a spare and a jack from BimmerZone. The M2 comes with only the can-o-goo and a pump. I'd rather give up the trunk space and have a tire I can bolt-on.

[Mike W.]

Not today but over the past few weeks I've been busy on deferred maintenance. The E12 had a seized caliper, so I rebuild all 4 of them, 12 pistons. Jeez what a pain. Then I figured as long as I was in there I ought to adjust the E brake since it seemed like it was only working on one side. Well, I had the one side part right, but it's hard to adjust 2 pieces. Got those from Schneidman. New O2 sensors for the E36 since I killed one of the heaters beating the broken stud out of the exhaust manifold. Looks like those with the Vanos rebuild I did recently will bump the MPG back up to 27-28.

[John in VA]

2000 E46 328i weekend!
passenger's control arm & bushing, followed by alignment
driver's & passenger's front window regulators
A/C belt
Vanos oil pipe
both post-MAF rubber boots

Then discovered a perished rubber hose, apparently the result of a failed secondary air pump check valve at the passenger's front side of the engine = something to do later.

[MicahO]

I installed the last of the foreseeable modifications to the M2 last night, an AWRON digital information display.

The M2 has a set of instruments that is a bit lacking, certainly compared to other M-cars. The displayed temperature gauge does reflect oil temp, not just water temp, but it's still sort of a dummy light. It reaches center at 90C and then stays there no matter what happens. There is no way to access oil pressure, or boost pressure. There are neato HP and Torque gauges that can be displayed, but they are kind of toys.

The AWRON display can display boost, oil and fuel rail pressure, oil, water, intake and exhaust temperatures, HP and Torque outputs, AFR, lateral as well as fore-and-aft g-forces, 0-60 times, quarter-mile times including reaction and 60-foot, and actual GPS speed. It's a neat bit of kit that takes up one of the center vents similar to old-school Alpina boost gauges. It integrates beautifully with the car controls; when cruise control is not engaged, you use the cruise buttons and toggle on the steering wheel to control the display (when cruise is engaged the controls revert to that system).

I also sprung the extra couple-hundy for the integrated exhaust flap controller. This allows one to manage the flap independently of the car’s drive-mode programming. Between that and the previously-installed harness to remove the fake engine noise, the car now sounds like it should sound – all the time, in every drive-mode.

The install was pretty easy and took me about 90 minutes. There is some disassembly of the dash and passenger kick panels. The harness gets daisy-chained into a couple of the connectors for the car’s electrical harness. There is an airbag on the US cars that is not noted in their instructions, and the disconnect of one of the harnesses caused all of the car’s various gongs and chimes to chime and gong for a few seconds. Other than those issues, it was just a matter of disassembling and re-assembling connectors.


This is a picture of the dash last night immediately after the install:


….and one of their images from the web shop:

[1st 5er]

Named it El-Jeep-O.
Rhymes with my M O.

[Karl Grau]

Pulled the stereo out for the second time in three weeks.

[e28Sean]

Pulled the seats out to clean them and the carpets up a bit.

Pulled the stereo out for the second time in three weeks.

Why?

[MicahO]

Max values from this morning's M2 commute. Many smiles per gallon. And if I stay out of the boost I can get 30+mpg.


Dang Google Photeaux - are these pictures showing?

[1st 5er]

Nope, no picss ^^^^.

[Nesset]

Oil on the girlfriend's basemodel 06 Mini Cooper 5 speed.

Actually a really fun canyon car. Romped on it pretty hard on our way to a spot we wanted to take photos on a mountain back road. It's totally dead below 5 grand though. The S model and it's forced induction would be nice....

[e28Sean]

This past weekend, I kicked the BMW in the cold for a bit, so I could pull the Ford in and spend a couple of hours taking all the skin off my knuckles. ...err... I mean... tossing 8 new sparkplugs and new plug wires in 'er.


I have no record of them ever being changed, and am somewhat suspicious the old ones date back to the factory.


Also discovered why she was only running about 7/8ths as well as she should be.

[Adam W in MN]

Rear brakes on the E46 325xiT last night. The plan was to swap them when I put my summer tires on so I had waited and waited... one of the rear pads was grinding metal on the backing plate!! Oops, I've never pushed brakes that far before.... heck, they could be original, possibly (edit: not bloody likely, but the car had so much deferred maintenance when I got it)? The car has 135k miles but the rears don't get used much...

A big shout out to Steve at Blunt Tech for getting them to my doorstep in under 48 hours. How is that even possible? It was also nice to see that with the insane price increases from BMW, you can do some work to your BMW for a very affordable price. With shipping, two rotors, pads, and a wear sensor, the E46's rear brakes cost me $150. That's damn near Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla prices.

[SPF2006]

Picked up a very clean ZHP which will be my wife's daily driver -- she is most pleased with it so far.

Less recently, did some maintenance on the MB 240d I picked up at the beginning of the year. Cleaned the fuse box and changed out all the fuses, changed the air filter, replaced the failing water pump and thermostat, valve cover gasket, and timing chain tensioner for good measure since we had it open (thank you Roguetoaster for all the help with that). Valve adjustment and timing chain replacement -- what I was originally asking Gaelan's help with -- are a bigger pain and will have to wait for another day. Once I resuscitated the battery, the car starts, runs and drives pretty nicely now. Been test driving it through the past week. Next up: change the oil, throw some new tires on, change the coolant from green to blue, change the transmission and differential fluids, pull/switch the front seats and clean the interior, and get it in all of its 67hp glory into DD service. It is actually pretty cool, very solid, and even slower than an eta (if that is technically possible).

[a]

Slowly, the frame repair on the Rat is progressing. Today, I begin bolting the cross members back onto the rail. I have about 20 rivets to replace. I have the patch plates in place. I have a new rivet tool that can handle 1/4" structural rivets. They are going to be used to fit the new lower flange to the left frame rail. I came across some 1/2 hardware. They will replace the rivets juss fine

[Adam W in MN]

Dropped the E93 M3 off this morning for fluid service; engine, trans, diff, coolant, brakes. Car has 54k miles.

Spent 20 minutes going through what I wanted with tech supervisor and service advisor. On the way to work, service advisor calls me and says they don't have the transmission fluid flush kit in stock. "But I scheduled the appointment a week ago, how is this possible?", and he said the person setting up the appointment didn't know to go check and ensure parts were ordered to do the service.

I wanted to hit him with full Pacino from my avatar because they're wasting my MF'ing time.

Edit: transmission has a leak and needs to be resealed, covered under the BMW extended warranty. So they'll have to change the transmission fluid anyway. Glad the $3800 warranty is starting to pay for itself.

[funfunfer]

As of 1/1/2017 in Texas, the 3rd (high) brake lite must be working to pass safety inspection (and be allowed to pay auto registration),
I spent $108 for a Dorman replacement unit for the '97 Exploder. Too much? Not compared to the Ford ballast/neon lamp set up at ~$500.
Some genius decided that consumable lights need to be held in my rivets (4 or the little darlings).

In February i hacked an e-bay LED strip into the Infiniti 3rd brake lamp for about $12.

[a]

Clamped the last bracket in the vise and wire brushed it shiny. Or at least less rusty. I was gonna hit it it with linseed oil to seal it, but ..

[Mike W.]

Clamped the last bracket in the vise and wire brushed it shiny. Or at least less rusty. I was gonna hit it it with linseed oil to seal it, but ..

I really don't need to worry about rust where I am, but if it's bare metal shiny I always throw some paint on it. Nothing fancy, just hardware store brand rustoleum, and partly for cosmetics even if I'm the only one who will ever see it, but I do. One of the many reasons I take forever to get things done.

[a]

Freaken boiled linseed oil. I found some in an olive oil jug. when we cleaned out the old homestead. I remembered Serious Johnson saying linseed oil was great for inside door bottoms because it creates an air tight layer. Sunlight will wipe it out in no time. but where the sun don't shine, it dries into natural poly. I'm thinning the first coat with methanol so it penetrates the pores. Second coat is straight and will take a month to dry hard. I did it 5 yrs ago and it is still on the inside of the rail.

[EventuallyAyrton]

Finally fixed the melting tail light after 3 fix-it tickets for no passenger rear brake light

[a]

I guess fitting the bracket was a test. Its too hard to bolt the top of the cross member back onto the frame. Should be pretty easy R+R as all hardware is clean and I have 1/4" bolts holding pieces together. I found some 1" 1/2-13 bolts in my stuff and they fit perfectly and will provide plenty of strength.

[jca]

Cut to fit new black carpet for the rear parcel tray in my '83 E-21. I got a good deal at Walmart on an "area rug" for $20. It's cheap, no doubt, but the weave is very close to the OEM stuff now over 30 years old. Cut a replacement piece also for my 84 528e, tan interior. Black and tan look good together, IMO. Learned how to wield a carpet knife.

[BuzzBomb]

I went looking for change under the seats in my new (to me) Abarth. I've been looking for one of these since they came out. Box checked.

[Mike W.]

Cleaning up the garage, and gawd, what a sisyphean task task that is and went to move the jug of magic juice ATF for the previous E39 we had. And the top popped off. Went to put it back on and it's cracked and broken. I was going to try to sell it, and I suppose I could find a 5 gallon bucket for most of the 20 liters, but nobody would want to buy that. So now I've got another 5+ gallons of waste oil to recycle. Plus my hundred and a quarter down the drain. If anyone wants it, pick it up free, but I figure the odds of that are only slightly better than winning the lottery.