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I think before you worry about just replacing the carpet, you pull that back and have a look at what the floor of the car looks like around the corner there.

wkohler wrote:I think before you worry about just replacing the carpet, you pull that back and have a look at what the floor of the car looks like around the corner there.

Yea, I know what you mean. But I gotta get carpet regardless.

True, but you better have a look under there. Like now.

wkohler wrote:True, but you better have a look under there. Like now.

I think we're ok. Without pulling the console & seat (no time today) things look good under there:

Victory.

I finally felt good enough, and had some time to poke around in the garage some yesterday. My goal was to determine where the water was getting into the footwell. I didn't want to 'fix' the two likely culprits (windshield trim and grommets in air intake on firewall) without more certainty about what was the real cause.

I started by double checking that everything was bone dry and then laying out blue paper towels.

I then poured water into the air intake areas on the firewall. I could see no evidence of any moisture in the cockpit.

Next I pulled the windshield trim back a little and used a spray bottle to spray water in under it, where the gap is in the corners.

Within seconds I saw water appear from the speaker location (I had previously removed the speakers) and my blue paper towels highlighted it.



Yay. I used 3M Auto Bedding and Glazing Compound as a temporary fix. Eventually I'll R&R the trim and lock strip.

Next I got to work on my stereo install, replacing the odo gears, and putting new lights in for the heater controls (which I didn't noticed were out until AFTER I had the console apart last time).



I bought the same JVC KD-AHD75BT receiver that the PO had installed in Vlad. I've been very happy with it. It has adjustable color that matches the BMW red, Bluetooth works very well, and wasn't terribly expensive.


I'm leaving the stock speakers in place (they seem fine) and will use the wiring trick described in this post for using the existing wiring: http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?p=856683



This car has had multiple stereo installs in it's lifetime. The OE radio that was in it when I bought it has a failed volume knob. The OE radio from Vlad (which the PO gave me) has completely different wiring. As you can see there is a mishmash of OE stuff and some pretty brutal 'snips':







Today I hope to get the install done, and also to install the $17 keyless/remote lock kit I bought:





I've read all the threads on installing these and it sounds like the trunk install is super simple.

Progress has been made. Got tons of help from my son which made me extra happy.

First, HUGE props to shagrath for his stereo install FAQ. His instructions worked flawlessly for us! His FAQ is here:

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?p=856683

Here's the boy doing the wire splicing in the trunk.


This is what the splicing in the trunk ends up looking like. We originally were just going to jumper the connector that originally plugged into the amp, but couldn't find pins that would fit. So we decided to just snip it. Highly doubt anyone's going to want to take the radio in this car back to stock... And if they do, tough shit.



I normally use naked barrel crimps with heat shrink, but ran out, so we just used cheapo barrel crimps. They'll work fine. The white/white-red wires go to the front speakers. The white/white-black wires go to the rears (via the leads that used to come out of the amp in the trunk).





I had previously run leads from the aux fuse box so it was easy to tie into those for always on and switched power. I didn't want to use the original radio leads for this because I know from Vlad those circuits are just plain trouble.

Looks and sounds great.



Now to finish re-assembling everything... I did already fix the lamp for the heater fan controls by stealing the bulb from the cig lighter (i thought I had some spare bulbs around but couldn't find them). I also verified all the other bulbs work.

Oh yea, we also replaced the odometer gears. From the clicking I could tell the original was about to go, and I was right...it fell apart as I pulled it off.

Just got back from the shakedown drive.

It's awfully nice having the interior be dry.

It's also very nice having a stereo that works and sounds great. It like that the colors match too.



Just as I did in Vlad, I located the bluetooth mic up by the sun visor. I find that this is the best location to pick up my voice. It's not bad with the sunroof open, surprisingly.



Sadly, as I was putting stuff back together I tried removing the driver's side sill cover and it shattered. I needed to do so to get the carpet back under it. I'll have to source one...



I'm gonna put the keyless entry system in tomorrow.

It's pretty interesting how many parts on this car seem to have come from a junkyard. Here's another example: The antenna.



Others include most of the center console pieces.

You'll recall that when I bought this car the trunk had mold in it. There wasn't a lot of water, and there's no rust, but clearly moisture had gotten in at some point.

I decided to ensure that would no longer be a problem.

First, I pulled the C pillar covers. The grommets looked ok, but the original foam piece was missing and the strip-caulk a PO had installed had hardened and cracked. I installed new grommets and reapplied strip-caulk after cleaning everything nicely.



This stuff is awesome.



Next, I went after the tail lights. I actually bought new gaskets from Blunt, but after looking at those in the car I decided the gaskets in place, while somewhat cracked were still very servicable. I'll save those new gaskets for a future project or sell them.



Instead I used strip-caulk to bolster the old gaskets. I put it on both sides of the old gasket.



I also have a new trunk seal. That'll have to wait until it's not snowing out...just too damn cold to install right now.

Whew. Got a lot done today.

First, Maytag now has a keyless remote lock/unlock unit. It was $17 on Amazon. This thread helped me install it.
http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=31037&highlight=



In the process I had to lube my front door lock mechanisms. I've never taken door cards off before, so, as usual, I was a little nervous. Now I'm a pro. I used contact paper to replace the vapor barrier. Seemed to stick nicely.

The left rear window on Vlad is real slow and the only reason I haven't fixed it was not knowing how to R&R the door cards. I guess that's an added bene of having a beater E28 (although Maytag's not really a beater).

Shit on fiddle sticks.

I drove last night in the rain a bit.

This morning I decided it would be wise to verify there was no moisture in the drivers footwell.

There is.

Stumped.

After driving in the torrential downpour we had in Seattle this morning, I expected to find tons of water under the carpet when I checked after getting home tonight.

There's really not much moisture down there.

Maybe I didn't actually get it dry the first time, and what I felt this morning was a result of water being held in the sponge like foam pad.

To test/verify this I've placed blue paper towels along the front & side of the footwell, under the carpet but away from the foam pad...basically just along the edges, where the carpet & floor are dry. Tomorrow, after driving in the rain (it's Seattle so I'm assuming it's going to rain) I'll check to see if the towels are wet. If they are I'll know both that I still have a leak and generally where the water is coming from. If they are not wet then I'm just an idiot, which we already knew.

One word for your work sir:

Thorough.

Keep it up!

unt0uchable wrote:One word for your work sir:

Thorough.

Keep it up!

Anal works too.

Thanks.

cek wrote:

unt0uchable wrote:One word for your work sir:

Thorough.

Keep it up!

Anal works too.

Thanks.

Hey, that's your own personal business there. I'll stick with thorough.

I've been looking to relocate my Bluetooth Mic as well, it doesn't work very well from the dash where I had it.

Briefly had considered putting it in the plate that covers the manual sunroof crank, but I like your location too and seems easier.

My M535i used to have a phone. I'm going to try to find it again - its a Panasonic something. Anyway, the remote mic for that was in that same spot. The sunroof motor cover works great on the E24, but not so much on the E28 sadly.

cek wrote:

unt0uchable wrote:One word for your work sir:

Thorough.

Keep it up!

Anal works too.

Thanks.

Aren't you married?

leadphut wrote:

cek wrote:

unt0uchable wrote:One word for your work sir:

Thorough.

Keep it up!

Anal works too.

Thanks.

Aren't you married?

Irrelevant question of the day.

cek wrote:

leadphut wrote:

cek wrote:

unt0uchable wrote:One word for your work sir:

Thorough.

Keep it up!

Anal works too.

Thanks.

Aren't you married?

Irrelevant question of the day.

Sorry. My immaturity gets the best of me often.

leadphut wrote:

cek wrote:

leadphut wrote:

cek wrote:

unt0uchable wrote:One word for your work sir:

Thorough.

Keep it up!

Anal works too.

Thanks.

Aren't you married?

Irrelevant question of the day.

Sorry. My immaturity gets the best of me often.

Re-read my response and you might notice I was being intentionally vague.

Hmm. I thought you were playing coy.

cek wrote:

leadphut wrote:

cek wrote:

leadphut wrote:

cek wrote: Anal works too.

Thanks.

Aren't you married?

Irrelevant question of the day.

Sorry. My immaturity gets the best of me often.

Re-read my response and you might notice I was being intentionally vague.

Oops. Didn't put any grease on the new odometer gears. They were quite noisy. Just pulled the instrument panel again and fixed that.

While in there I took the gear selector light bar that Kohler had sent me in my Priority Box Exchange box and tested it. The D is burned out in it too. I decided I didn't feel like walking down to the main house to do soldering and will just live with no D. I actually prefer that anyway...less lights to distract. Someday I'll fix the bar Chris sent me and be ready to swap it in.

Also checked my paper towels in the driver's footwell: Dry.

So it appears I *did* fix the leak.

Also cleaned the new trunk carpet pieces I got...in the pouring rain. Waiting for them to dry.

Trunk carpet all cleaned and dried out. Still waiting on the rear piece which should be here this week. For now, I'm using a few of the floor mats that came with the car in lieu of the foam padding that I had to rip out. I still don't know where to source that type of foam padding.



While organizing things by the jack I found this piece. Any idea where it goes?





And since I had my son with me I got him to take the cluster out again to fix the mis-calibrated speedometer (I had bumped it so it was about 4 mph slow) and put more grease on the odometer gears to quiet them down. Nice having someone else do work .





While our shakedown drive showed that we'd adjusted the speedometer correctly, sadly, the odometer is still ticking. It is quite annoying. In Vlad it was like this when I got it, and grease fixed it. I'm wondering now if the ticking might be coming from somewhere other than the replacement gears?!?!

Anyone have experience diagnosing ticking odo gears (brand new)?

Well, this is interesting...

Another member just sent me a PM asking about the under-hood cover on Maytag. It didn't look like a 528e cover to him. He suggested I check the VIN sticker on the hood.

Sure enough, it's from another car. This likely explains why it doesn't quite close right.
However, THAT car was a 528e as well. The hood padding may have come from yet another car. Might it have been a td?



(I've now gone over all VIN stickers on the car and all the rest match, except the front-right fender where there is no sticker, but I already knew it had been re painted).

That is a 528e hood panel.

My 87 had the ticking. I never dug into it to confirm, but it definitely was not the odo gears. Check out this thread, if the link works.

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=73 ... ge+counter

cek wrote: While organizing things by the jack I found this piece. Any idea where it goes?

I found out what this piece is. It goes above the left-rear fender, in front of the jack. I was poking around in Vlad's trunk and looked up in there and saw it.

It's #8 (with a #9 clamp) in this pic:

Yep. That's what it is.