Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Special Circumstances

Would you give me parts if I said I was going to use them to bait an animal excrement smeared punji stake trap for people who deliberately rust parts of their cars? ;-) Oh look half your leg has gangrene, matches your partly rotting car.


Joking!!! This post sounds a lot more "call the authorities " than I meant it to.... I don't think smilies are gonna offset that are they.

Stallingrad

Very impressive BMstuff. Makes an old E39 even more appealing.

Interslice

Stallingrad wrote: »

Very immersive BMstuff. Makes an old E39 even more appealing.

I prefer a clean dash. If you could fit them in the vents it would be sweet. Just not a fan of boost guages or the like on top of the dash.

bmstuff

Interslice wrote: »

I prefer a clean dash. If you could fit them in the vents it would be sweet. Just not a fan of boost guages or the like on top of the dash.

Got your point alright. All new cars are like this though. They all have the screen sitting on the dash or very high.
All new BMW, Audi, Merc etc have it this way. It is actually safer to look at instead of looking down when following navigation instructions.

It is unusual alright, we are not used to have screens sitting on the top of the dash, but that is the new trend since the last 2-3 years now.

GvidoR

The interiors in new cars have far too many gadgety things, buttons, displays, etc for my taste.

joujoujou

GvidoR wrote: »

The interiors in new cars have far too many gadgety things, buttons, displays, etc for my taste.

...said the one who recently put a tablet into his car.

Noccy_Mondy

GvidoR wrote:

The interiors in new cars have far too many gadgety things, buttons, displays, etc for my taste.

Really? I'm a sucker for all those buttons, touch screens etc.

Noccy_Mondy

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Really? I'm a sucker for all those buttons, touch screens etc.

Same here. Although I nearly wrote off my brothers new car when he got it with all the gadgets, buttons and displays. Can be a bit distracting when you're not used to it

CianRyan

I lil bs dash with no distractions.
Think Lotus Elise.

Interslice

Done a long but fairly productive afternoons work on the alfa today.



New air filter in, cleaned the MAF and the throttle body. Fixed the top of the filter housing with some genuine angle brackets flattened with a hammer and self tappered. Probably more durable than a new one!!

before . Was trying to lash through the work so not man pics.

Pulled out the drivers door with a suction cup. Much better now. Took off the swans neck. Cleaned the boot and cleaned the alloys. Pulled off the busted up number plate surround on the front.

Stuck new pads and discs on the rear. The old discs were good enough for the nct but not for me or one of the brake pads that hit the eject button on the dunkettle roundabout. Piston took a disc in the face for near 200 miles but it's still good. The silence now is lovely.

Before



during

Interslice

The dog wasn't a bit happy with the cut of the boot and either was I. Previous owner had a pointer so the hairs a sort and wiry and inter weve into the fabric. A pig to hoover out. Going to try a sticky roller job to get the last of it. I'll never complain about my lads hair again. It's long and soft so just hoovers straight up.

Not impressed!


I wouldn't blame him


A fair bit of time later...


hit it then with the foam. I'll hoover it again tomorrow. Should clean up well enough.


Cleaner looking and nicer to drive now. Definitey alot more pick up from low down around 2k rpm. Engine note is nicer too with the airbox fixed up. Used to have a sort of dump valve sound when it was cold. Hopefully that's gone now too.

punisher5112

Interslice wrote: »

The dog wasn't a bit happy with the cut of the boot and either was I. Previous owner had a pointer so the hairs a sort and wiry and inter weve into the fabric. A pig to hoover out. Going to try a sticky roller job to get the last of it. I'll never complain about my lads hair again. It's long and soft so just hoovers straight up.

Cleaner looking and nicer to drive now. Definitey alot more pick up from low down around 2k rpm. Engine note is nicer too with the airbox fixed up. Used to have a sort of dump valve sound when it was cold. Hopefully that's gone now too.

Scrub with a brisel brush medium hardness and vacuum should help with hair removal.

lafors

That's Savage Bmstuff!

So decided to do a few bits on the 645 yesterday.
First up was removing, cleaning the 4 vanos solonoids and replacing the orings.
Did the passenger side first. Furthest right was easy to do next in was a pox to get out with all the lines running in front of it.

First one out...


Small amount of grit on the mesh...



Soaked them in petrol to clean them out and then cleaned them up and put in the new orings and fitted back in, a nice piece of soft wood helps get them in that last few mm.

Other side was easy as I was replacing the two orings on the brake booster vacuum pump as I found a source for them. Had to pick the tiger seal out from the oring channels but no problem.

While it was out I did the two vanos solonoids on the driver side.
Went to change the oil pressure sensor under the vacuum pump, it can leak so decided to do it now while access was easy. Well I couldn't get it. Hadn't a long socket head of that size to remove it and couldn't get a spanner or any other to into the space to do it so leave it for another days work.

Now all that's left to do is to sort the rough idle when cold. Just ordered up the 2 crankcase valve sets to sort that. Very easy job to do.

bmstuff

That's why my 540i does not have Vanos :-)
One less thing to worry about

Alanstrainor

Fitted a clutch stop to my e46 about a week ago, it's simply an extended stopper placed behind the clutch pedal to reduce the amount of travel. This means that when you put your foot on the clutch it doesn't go all the way to the floor. Initially it was very weird starting off and shifting, but it's amazing after covering a few miles. Really sweet cheap mod.

CianRyan

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Fitted a clutch stop to my e46 about a week ago, it's simply an extended stopper placed behind the clutch pedal to reduce the amount of travel. This means that when you put your foot on the clutch it doesn't go all the way to the floor. Initially it was very weird starting off and shifting, but it's amazing after covering a few miles. Really sweet cheap mod.

I'm confused, are you now half clutching or is it constantly half clutch and then you fully press it?

Alanstrainor

CianRyan wrote: »

I'm confused, are you now half clutching or is it constantly half clutch and then you fully press it?

Badly explained

The clutch on the e46 had a lot of dead space. So if you have it fully on the floor, the distance to the biting point is quite high. All this mod does is reduce the dead space. So you end up going from clutch fully depressed to biting point very quickly. Makes shifting quicker easier, and is just a nice feeling! The clutch is self adjusting, so the biting point remains the same no matter what the wear on the clutch.

lafors

So now onto the rough idle when cold.
Got 2 crankcase valve kits (11127547058), very easy to fit.
Unscrew 4 torx holding engine cover, pull off the 2 side covers then gently unclip the circular covers for the crankcase valves on either side and remove the orange diaphragm and spring.

Everything looked ok, i.e. no rips or tears.


Then noticed one of the springs had a small overlap...

Maybe the cause but maybe not.

Checked under the valve and inside the tubes. Washers might be slightly loose so they'll be replaced next if this doesn't fix it.





Will have to wait until later or in the morning to test it out, engine stays hot for ages

Voodoomelon

You may well get to the bottom of the rough idle, but don't hold your breath. The N62 is inherently a rough idler across the board, not sure there's any real solution to it.

I remember reading on one of the US forums that someone had inside knowledge from BMW regarding the N62 and that there was a fundamental balancing/machining flaw with the engine. Can't remember the exact details, but made for interesting reading.

After harping on about how great Maxol fuel is for years, I recently changed to my local Esso station have found any rough idle is massively reduced. Funny enough, my mate in a 525i says the same thing.

lafors

Voodoomelon wrote: »

You may well get to the bottom of the rough idle, but don't hold your breath. The N62 is inherently a rough idler across the board, not sure there's any real solution to it.

I remember reading on one of the US forums that someone had inside knowledge from BMW regarding the N62 and that there was a fundamental balancing/machining flaw with the engine. Can't remember the exact details, but made for interesting reading.

After harping on about how great Maxol fuel is for years, I recently changed to my local Esso station have found any rough idle is massively reduced. Funny enough, my mate in a 525i says the same thing.

Interesting, I'm a maxol man too. Might try switch just to see.

GvidoR

Just a little thing today.

This pocket thing on the passenger seat had broken plastic on the front and side, so it was flapping about. It was still held on around the area where you adjust the angle of the back of the seat.

That's it just after being removed.


And with all the covers and back on.


Yes, I know it needs to be hoovered.

Also I'm considering putting the seats from the Vento in it. Might as well since these are Joker seats (I'm assuming), not proper Harlekins and I'm still a little sad that the Vento is just being broken for parts. :P

colm_mcm

Wouldn't the back seats be different though?

GvidoR

I'm sure the back seats will bolt straight on.

colm_mcm

Google says they do anyway.

GvidoR

I'm not surprised. :P

Bpmull

Today I went into halfords bought an RCA to 3.5mm aux in jack converter cable for 9 quid which I thought was very reasonable. Just a matter of plugging it in and now I can listen to music from iPods etc. You can also wirelessly stream music via Bluetooth which I use when listening to music on my phone.



Just a matter of selecting the aux in option on the radio.

Special Circumstances

New plates to replace old shabby ones.
New rear wiper. Polished exhaust.

Filtered oil from last oil change since someone misplaced important part of oil housing leading to possible low oil pressure and or bypass of the filter. Little bit of metallic stubble. Alloy and brass/bronze? Not magnetic.
Alloy could be from sump after oversized bolt was threaded in there.

GvidoR

Why no pics, SC?

Special Circumstances

GvidoR wrote: »

Why no pics, SC?

Yeah ill take a pic of the speckles when the kitchen paper I used to filter it drys out.

Never use kitchen paper for this.... very very slow.

Plates just micks garage standard plates. Nothing worth snapping and uploading.


Edit - only a few speckles. More pissed off about the situation than looking for drama. No idea if there is an "acceptable/expected" amount of speckles. Never bothered filtering old oil before.

Interslice

9.50 wasn't bad bp. Paid 8.50 for this in maplin today to fix the girl on girl action in the back of the radio. Just need to figure out how to get it to power off with the ignition now :cool:. Cowboys.





On the rare occasion I but something in maplin i always leave the shop feeling they made about 2000% profit off me. Radio is handy for the short trips when your not bothered plugging in an mp3 player.


Anyone know what the little grid type thing is between the hazards switch and the temp control? It's like a speaker or something. Thermostat maybe?