The "Today I did something to my car" thread

bmstuff

vectra wrote: »

It was not meant as an insult.
Just more like some friendly advice.
For the love of God put a fuse as close to the battery as possible.

Otherwise you are playing with fire ( no pun intended )

*EDIT*
Typed into google there and this is one of the first topics I looked at.

http://www.caraudiohelp.com/how_to_install_a_car_amp/how_to_install_a_car_amp.htm

Lo and behold ::

As I said you are right in principals, but this is just the theory without taking in consideration the specs of the components. But you are right this is a basic rule. But this is far from being good enough.

As I said, the equipment I use is high spec and a 4awg wire would simply not burn from even a short just like that. The 80 amps fuse on it will cut off the link way before. A 4awg cable can handle 125 amps for info. The cable won't have time to burn. Always use a smaller fuse than the cable can handle on those high power amplifiers/sound systems set ups.

If I were to use a smaller wire such as 12awg, yes I would connect it very close to the battery with an even smaller fuse. But 4AWG is just fine with a 80 amps fuse. Because there is such difference with the power rating between the 2 components, the fuse would blow instantly.

Having a wire power rating and fuse power rating matching would be a very dangerous situation, even when placed 2" from the battery.

And you know why?

Because most fuses can handle a bit more power than their current rating, so basically you could have a 50 amps fuse taking 60 amps fine for 10mn before it blows, but then the 50 amps rated cable would be on fire after 1mn already (Give or take).

So the closest location to the battery is only one part of the equation and is in no way a good enough consideration on its own.

Alanstrainor

bmstuff, vectra, take it to PM if you wish. But can we leave this one out of here please?

You can PM me if you wish, just don't respond to this post.

Bpmull

Gave my car a quick wash this evening considering it was a lovely evening. At least it's reasonably clean now. Want to give it a full proper clean in the next few weeks. Does anyone know is the 3 for 2 still on in halfords?

Edwardius

Got me an NCT for another 14 months. Emissions were waaay lower than last year, possibly due to the "italian tuneup" I performed on the way to the centre :P

Gary ITR

Got the Integra down to DI Motorsport, won't be long now before she roars into life

CianRyan

Any pictures of the S15?
Nomming.

Gary ITR

CianRyan wrote: »

Any pictures of the S15?
Nomming.

How did I know you'd ask that!? No pictures of it, it's one of DI's customers cars, was in for a new engine, looks a lovely car but I know bugger all about it

CianRyan

Unfortunately, I am that predictable.
Looks really clean, pity about the Uras arse on it though, I prefer them like this.

:cool:

Of course I'd take it anyway it came if I could own one.

colm_mcm

On a less interesting note,

I got the front seats out of the mazda, washing machine is working away on them now. Plenty detergent in there

Top Dog

I did a dgt when changing a bulb :pac:



Not really just changing a bulb, but I thought it was funny

Bpmull

colm_mcm wrote: »

On a less interesting note,

I got the front seats out of the mazda, washing machine is working away on them now. Plenty detergent in

Would you find the seat cover still come out perfect they dont shrink or anything like that I thought they would have. What temperature do you put the washing machine onto.

colm_mcm

Always have it at 30 degrees. I did these particular ones 5 years ago so I know they'll come out ok.
Done loads of cars like this and never had them shrink.

I wet the covers, then pour on a mixture of fairy liquid and liquid detergent, then scrub the crap out of them with a brush then into the machine.

Ronnie Beck

Top Dog wrote: »

Got the new trackrods fitted this morning along with getting the tracking done.

Took her for the DOE retest then this afternoon ... and she passed!

Passed mine this evening . 200kg of lead and water into the back of the van 'fixed' my brake equalizer failure which was my main worry.

Only got my tracking set about a month but changing the TRE doesn't seem to have changed it.




A perished brake hose.




Parts are due in for one more job tomorrow and it should be back on the road.

bmstuff

Top Dog wrote: »

I did a dgt when changing a bulb :pac:



Not really just changing a bulb, but I thought it was funny

Excuse my ignorance but what car is that?

Gary ITR

Engine all in and plumbed up. Fluids to go in tomorrow and a base map onto the ECU and she'll be ready to fire up. The lads will be breaking it in gently enough running it on mineral oil. It might get a bit of dyno time with the mineral oil too but that call will be made later. It'll be running on 10w60 Millers Nanodrive oil to cope with the massive temps when it's on track

Top Dog

bmstuff wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance but what car is that?

'05 3.2 Shogun

Top Dog

Since I had the front end in pieces I figured it was as good a time as any to clean up the muddy greasy mess under my bonnet



Will have an after photo tomorrow - tried this evening but sun is now directly behind so its blowing out the image.

YouTookMyName

Got wheel alignment/tracking done, laser job, proper job.

£50 though.

okane1

Cleaned the MAF sensor a few days ago and got a nice result of an extra 2mpg

Cheensbo

Put new front brake pads on the Xantia this evening, old ones were so bad, the steel hadn't even any meat left :pac: (may be exaggeration)


Strange feeling pain in the hole, having to wind back front caliper pistons, easy as cake to change the pads though,

The car pretty much jacks itself up for you too

Also topped up the lhm as it was a little on the low side.

Ill probably book an nct for the craic and see how she goes,


Does the rev counter need to work for the test?

kilianmanning

Cheensbo wrote: »

Put new front brake pads on the Xantia this evening, old ones were so bad, the steel hadn't even any meat left :pac: (may be exaggeration)


Strange feeling pain in the hole, having to wind back front caliper pistons, easy as cake to change the pads though,

The car pretty much jacks itself up for you too

Also topped up the lhm as it was a little on the low side.

Ill probably book an nct for the craic and see how she goes,


Does the rev counter need to work for the test?

Nope rev counter doesn't have to work

Gary ITR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsg95DlVS00&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Dyno tomorrow

Top Dog

So the Shogun passed the DOE on the retest on Wednesday :cool: which meant I could relax a little over it all.

When we first bought it there was an A-bar on the front, complete with a pair of spots. Almost a year ago now I took the bar off while it was still straight and worth something, but I held on to the spots. I'd been knocking ideas round in my head since about how I could possibly mount them without the help of an A-bar, so Thursday I dusted off the spots and took them outside to investigate.

First I took off the grille to see if there was any support metal under it (which there was). Being me I had to dig deeper, so off came the headlights and the bumper. It was also the chance I'd been waiting for to figure out exactly how the bumper fitted, and also address the slight damage/rubbing on the front drivers corner. So an hour after I went outside to simply size up the bumper, I was left with this mess ...



I had put masking tape on the leading edge of the bumper to have an idea where spots would mount and not foul on the lower edge of the grille, and once I had it removed I discovered that those handy Japanese designers had thought of everything. There were 2 holes in the metal support bar which were spaced far enough apart that they'd be perfect for fitting spots - no need for messing around with measuring tape and rulers!



So I drilled a pilot hole, enlarged it out to 10mm so that the bolts for the spots would just fit, and bolted them on. It was getting kinda cold at that stage, so since I had no plans to go anywhere the next day I just lobbed everything back on unbolted (hence the huge gaps under the headlights) and left it like this for the night ...



To try keep things neater I was going to have to run the cables through the mesh on the grille. Since a friend was breaking a Vitara I gave him a shout to see if he might have some connectors left on it that I could use. Since I took the lazy way about it (messaged him on facebook :pac: ) I knew I had time to kill. What better then, but to break out the degreaser and clean up the mess thats been under the bonnet since the green-laning over Christmas



A bit of scrubbing and powerhosing later and it was looking a whole lot better





Bumped into the buddy then down the town and made plans to go over to the Vitara today. While it was all apart I was better able to figure out how the front body cladding fit, along with the lower sections of the bumper. I've managed to kinda get the arch re-attached where there was damage to one of the mounting points so that its tighter fitting. Also got the lower mounting points moved forward a bit which should help with the arch rubbing Bumper and headlights were re-attached last night and called it a day.

Finally got out to the Vitara today and cut a plug & socket off one of the front headlamp circuits. The idea is that I'll have a plug in the circuit on the Shogun so if I ever have to take the grille/bumper off then the lights will disconnect easily and I won't need to be pulling wires off the relay. Bit of crimping, soldering & heat-shrink later and the whole lot is fitted up and working.



So at an extremely lazy pace over 3 days I've;

Figured out how the front bumper attaches to the truck
Got the drivers arch sitting back more flush with the wing
Re-positioned the front lower corner of the bumper to fix the rubbing issue
Tightened up the drivers headlamp washer from underneath (a nut had gone walkabout)
Re-fitted the spotlights to the front and got them working on the high-beam (didn't bother connecting the 4 led's in each lamp to the park lights since 1 of the 8 was broken and I haven't the materials to fix it)

weekaizer

Fitted blackline taillights to the beemer

weekaizer

Fitted blackline taillights to the Beemer!

rocky

^^ next, remove the M badge.

weekaizer

rocky wrote: »

^^ next, remove the M badge.

Why??. It's an "m" sport... It's not like its an m3 badge.

Top Dog

weekaizer wrote: »

Fitted blackline taillights to the Beemer!

Whats the story with the 12k number? Recent import?

weekaizer

Top Dog wrote: »

Whats the story with the 12k number? Recent import?

Yeah imported about a month ago. I asked if I could have a lower number in the office to no avail!

rocky

weekaizer wrote: »

Why??. It's an "m" sport... It's not like its an m3 badge.

• it looks cleaner without
• did it come from the factory with it?
• it's a 2l diesel
• http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=181&t=805555&mid=380695&nmt=Why+do+people+put+%22M%22+badges+on+non%2DM+cars%3F

tossy

rocky wrote: »

^^ next, remove the M badge.

And the 'felt plates

mooman

rocky wrote: »

• it looks cleaner without
• did it come from the factory with it?
• it's a 2l diesel
• http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=181&t=805555&mid=380695&nmt=Why+do+people+put+%22M%22+badges+on+non%2DM+cars%3F

It came from the factory like that, its a trim level not an M3 badge.....which oddly enough says "M3".

weekaizer

rocky wrote: »

• it looks cleaner without
• did it come from the factory with it?
• it's a 2l diesel
• http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=181&t=805555&mid=380695&nmt=Why+do+people+put+%22M%22+badges+on+non%2DM+cars%3F

What about the (factory fitted) m badges on the gear knob, door sills and steering wheel. Will I remove those as well?!...
It is 2l turbo diesel with 177 bhp, more than a civic vti, mondeo st, glanza. Plenty of petigree in these machines not just an economy wagon!

Toyotafanboi

weekaizer wrote: »

Plenty of petigree in these machines not just an economy wagon!

Shlow down there tommy!

would like to see what a 2.0t petrol would produce plenty of modern 2.0td's offering 150bhp+ i'd not be too hasty to call it pedigree.

that said i can't put your car down, it does look lovely and i fully understand your arguement about the "m" badges. unlike rocky.

weekaizer

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Shlow down there tommy!

would like to see what a 2.0t petrol would produce plenty of modern 2.0td's offering 150bhp+ i'd not be too hasty to call it pedigree.

that said i can't put your car down, it does look lovely and i fully understand your arguement about the "m" badges. unlike rocky.

The 320i petrol of 2008 has a puny 168bhp!:):) Ive driven an auto one, Nowhere near as lively as the diesel I have to say. Thanks about the first compliment I've had on here though!

rocky

mooman wrote: »

It came from the factory like that, its a trim level not an M3 badge.....which oddly enough says "M3".

No it didn't come from the factory like that. Show me where the options list for the E90 had '///M badges'

I was of the same opinion as you, until I found out they are aftermarket badges only

weekaizer wrote: »

What about the (factory fitted) m badges on the gear knob, door sills and steering wheel. Will I remove those as well?!...
It is 2l turbo diesel with 177 bhp, more than a civic vti, mondeo st, glanza. Plenty of petigree in these machines not just an economy wagon!

Leave them, it's not an add-on like the boot badge.

Toyotafanboi

weekaizer wrote: »

The 320i petrol of 2008 has a puny 168bhp!:):) Ive driven an auto one, Nowhere near as lively as the diesel I have to say. Thanks about the first compliment I've had on here though!

the 320i is N/A though. (i think)

Put a few more pictures up of the car we're not usually this bitchy :pac:

CianRyan

Well most of us anyway.

Toyotafanboi

CianRyan wrote: »

Well most of us anyway.

who just got burnt there :P

CianRyan

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

who just got burnt there :P

They'll know themselves.

vectra

rocky wrote: »

No it didn't come from the factory like that. Show me where the options list for the E90 had '///M badges'

I was of the same opinion as you, until I found out they are aftermarket badges only



Leave them, it's not an add-on like the boot badge.

So what?

It has nothing to do with you.
It is your preference not to have it there.

It is his choice to have it their as he is the owner.


Lovely car bud.
Just lose the plates :P

rocky

It was only a suggestion - like yours of changing the plates - so what

vectra

rocky wrote: »

It was only a suggestion - like yours of changing the plates - so what

I was suggesting taking off illegal plates.
Your suggestion was because of?

dgt

tossy wrote: »

And the 'felt plates

Mmmmmm felt plates.... Must invest in a set.... :pac:

tossy

dgt wrote: »

Mmmmmm felt plates.... Must invest in a set.... :pac:

Having seen you in action yesterday and seen your 'fred in a shed" remapping i can deem you the king of 'felt

Eric Cartman

Various things ive done over the last week to the e38

Removing the ABS module to be sent to BBA




The oil filter mounts definitely need a change


Tried to change the pcv valve but the bolts were stripped so off with the intake manifold that had obviously been put back badly before as there were leaves and dirt stuck in the gaskets.





the valley pan gasket is leaking so ill need to do that too, also clean off all the oil


the lower OSV must be clogged if all this gunk is sitting up here

weekaizer

Thanks all for your opinions anyway!. Maybe the plates cud do with changing alright, was thinking bout German style plates with BMW Motorsport surrounds (as it would match the m badge!:D) don't have many more pics but here's 2.

Toyotafanboi

you sure keep it clean anyway!

Eric Cartman

That definitely needs german plates, the font on those current ones looks terrible on the bm

weekaizer

Yeah and they probably won't drag as much attention from the Feds as the current ones!.
Yeah too bad the carbon black doesn't stay that clean for very long!