What unkel got next

unkel · 04-07-2022 10:34pm #1

And now for something completely different. Damien Maguire's "Red Arrow", a '96 BMW E36 318tds - formerly diesel!!!

I've been following this car for years and now it's mine. Got it late Saturday night, in a very sorry state, not charging, not driving. But I managed to fix it today, the hardest part was actually finding some obscure software that I needed to re-program the charger.

Plan is to tidy it up, get it taxed and tested and use as a local car. I expect summer range to be around 60-70km. System can handle 500A easily, so with a fully charged battery of nearly 200V, I should have about 100kW of power. The car is fairly light so I'm expecting pretty decent acceleration. Can't test yet as I have to score myself a 12V battery first. Currently working with a tiny 12V lead acid battery from an ancient electric scooter 😂

Bioscaller · 04-07-2022 10:37pm

Wow nice, had a similar 318 converted for testing in Arklow many moons ago.

unkel · 04-07-2022 10:42pm

An E36 compact? If so that was Damien Maguire's car too. His first conversion done 12 years ago.

Bioscaller · 04-07-2022 10:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119291157#Comment_119291157

Yes it was a compact. Defo Silver and in Arklow. Currently looking as I made a picture of it. Is the car still alive?

Bioscaller · 04-07-2022 10:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119291157#Comment_119291157

Found the picture on Facebook. That was taken 10 years ago in the Arklow test centre. My first EV I have ever encountered and all the lads were like, wtf is that thing. I remember the fella saying max speed is like 50mph or something?

HorseSea · 04-07-2022 11:08pm

Unkel, did you have any problems getting insurance on it?

unkel · 04-07-2022 11:21pm

@Bioscaller - I believe it is alive and well and living in Northern Ireland

@HorseSea - will find out soon, I'm not expecting any problems. The car was insured by Damien Maguire, his insurance disk is still in the holder. Also the car is officially registered as an EV (motor tax €120) and it passed the NCT 60 miles ago (but has been sitting up since, so it has expired now)

slave1 · 05-07-2022 7:38am

What is the battery size and technology? If they are not already LFP is that what you are thinking??

unkel · 05-07-2022 9:03am

They are Valence LiFePO4 batteries, 9 of them, 6 cells each, 69Ah capacity

Sabre Man · 05-07-2022 12:14pm

Very cool. Definitely one to bring to the next local cars & coffee!

05-07-2022 12:26pm

It's definitely a solidly left field choice for an EV. Hope it will turn out to be usable in real life. And if you choose to keep it you'll be able to reduce your running costs even further from 120 yoyo tax to 28 (just did the same on my '92 motorcycle).

Are you planning any upgrades? Use it as a mobile solar energy store?

unkel · 05-07-2022 4:39pm

@sh81722 - I already have a 20kWh power wall. And other EVs totaling nearly 100kWh, but yeah if I have excess PV and I won't get paid for it, for sure I will store it in the cars!

Doing some more fixes to the car this morning. Got a lead acid 12V battery almost brand new (Damien, please look away - I know you said no lead acid 😁). Found out that the (lithium) 12V charger isn't working so I have temporarily replaced it with my bench variable voltage power supply. System is working now, only charging the 12V battery when the HV battery is being charged. Interesting setup and I guess good enough if you regularly charge the car for a few hours. Reset the service indicator too. Still have airbag light and ABS light on. I had a BMW old style diagnostics cable until recently but I think I threw it out when doing a clearout :\(

unkel · 05-07-2022 6:34pm

So the windscreen washer pump was missing 😂 ordered one on Amazon for £8 including shipping

eddhorse · 05-07-2022 7:10pm

Very nice, well wear....or no wear.

Should be an equivalent EV phrase for that.

eagerv · 05-07-2022 10:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058253084/what-unkel-got-next

unkel you ate mad. I’m telling you, you are mad. But I am still jealous🤣🤣

zg3409 · 06-07-2022 4:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119294218#Comment_119294218

Typically abs light will come on after 12 volt replacement but it might go off after driving and sometimes after driving and a turn off and on cycle. There may be a minimum speed required before it will reset.

Airbag might be a bigger challenge, but they can come on if battery voltage is low, so check voltage first before assuming airbag system is at fault. They give an error when battery is low as the energy required to deploy the airbag might not be there. Often there is passenger present sensors on seats which if seats have been removed can trigger airbag error that needs to be reset.

Some unscrupulous people install a circuit that turns on and off the abs and airbag light just to pass NCT when system itself is still faulty. Lately NCT have started plugging into odb port and long term they will be failing cars based on the response from the car computer.

unkel · 06-07-2022 4:16pm

The steering wheel was replaced, it feels soft in the middle where the airbag is supposed to be and the horn is not working either so that and the airbag light might be related. Hope you're right about the ABS light, that would be a nice bonus. I just tested the Rolec Wallpod that came with the car (wasn't advertised) and that's working too, so the proceeds of selling it will go nicely towards covering some of the costs 😁

ewj1978 · 07-07-2022 8:08pm

Well wear lad. Hopefully she stays going for you.

ted1 · 07-07-2022 8:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119294218#Comment_119294218

If you had if waited every VW garage will have spare 12v batteries.

ELM327 · 07-07-2022 9:40pm

So, now that you have 2 other EVs is that fluence for sale!

fricatus · 07-07-2022 10:14pm

Well wear Unkel, that is awesome!

unkel · 07-07-2022 11:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119306250#Comment_119306250

Not yet / quite. Bought the Fluence primarily for my daughters to learn to drive in, it's perfect for that. And the E36 most certainly isn't 😂

Orebro · 08-07-2022 10:12am

Didn't know there was a process to get cars re-registered as EVs here - do you know if that is difficult? Have notions of transplanting my Leaf into something classic when I'm done with it.

Edit: well wear with the E36 btw - mad stuff altogether!

unkel · 08-07-2022 10:48am

@Orebro - you will need an engineer's report. Fiachra Cooke - who converted his own Audi 80 to electric - has this helpful post about it:

https://openinverter.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1090&p=17928&hilit=ireland#p17928

It's also now in the openinverter.org wiki:

https://openinverter.org/wiki/Ireland

Your Leaf would be an excellent donor for converting another car to electric. Basically everything you need is already there! The only thing in the way is that it is already a good EV in its own right, would be a pity to butcher it up, unless it was written off or no longer economical to repair for other reasons than any issue with the electric drive train.

AndyBoBandy · 08-07-2022 10:54am

I have an e90 320d and I would absolutely love to convert it to an EV..... 50-70km range would suffice for my needs...

It's painful paying €710 to tax it when it probably does less than 500km per year!

unkel · 08-07-2022 11:05am

Tell me about it. The last time I taxed my very last ICE car for the year, it cost €1080 and I drove it maybe 6 times. Yeah right, I wasn't going to repeat that.

Orebro · 08-07-2022 11:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119307873#Comment_119307873

Outstanding - thanks for the info, you learn something new every day!

slave1 · 08-07-2022 7:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119307946#Comment_119307946

Most ununkel

unkel · 08-07-2022 8:45pm

I've just implemented a V2L / V2H system for €5. Damien Maguire style 😂 Working great, will be a help if the grid ever goes down. No need starting to connect any inverters or walking around with battery packs, just like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlmmerXOkuE

zg3409 · 13-07-2022 7:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119307688#Comment_119307688

In terms of leaf most reuse the motor and inverter, batteries and bms but run their own controller a non Nissan for regulating speed and driving clicks and displays. I don't think a full transplant is that easy as electronics would expect everything 109% correct including door locks and wheel rotation speed. While it could be done it would be a major project requiring both electronics and mechanic modifications and to get it road legal everything would need to be up to specification which might be difficult if you need to cut chassis or modify suspension set up. It can be done, has been done and in Ireland the regulations are less than some other countries, but you would need your eyes wide open and most conversions end up being a max of 7kW charging rate with nothing faster. CCS and ChaDeMo are options, just not that common and typically with chademo you need 2 "fuel caps". In order to fast charge you need at least forced air cooling or liquid cooling of batteries which adds complexity. Some dont use the Nissan batteries either due to shape, cost or lack of capacity. Some roll their own BMS. Costs soon rack up, particularly if you need to pay for help.

jackbauer · 24-07-2022 2:41pm

I am very happy to see she found a good home at last :)

paaaa · 24-07-2022 9:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058253084/what-unkel-got-next

if your on the lookout for some of those valence batteries I have a few if your stuck

unkel · 24-07-2022 11:12pm

@paaaa - PM sent!

Gumbo · 24-07-2022 11:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380404#Comment_119380404

No better home than Unkel too.

unkel · 24-07-2022 11:21pm

I got an email reply from Damien Maguire today, wishing me luck with the car and saying he's very glad the car found a good home 😃

That's very kind of him, he must be inundated with emails from all sorts of folks looking for advice / help.

Rowley Birkin QC · 25-07-2022 11:25am

Nice!

I have an E46 MSport Coupe at home in a shed....what kind of costs would I be looking at to convert it to electric?

unkel · 25-07-2022 6:10pm

How long is a piece of string?

Damien Maguire converted this car on a budget of €1000. This dude from the Philippines converted his car on a budget I'd say of no more than about €100 using an existing battery and controller he had from one of his eBikes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8ftCb95ci4

But go to the likes of electric classic cars in Wales or EV West in the USA and you are talking €100k ballpark for a fancy conversion using a Tesla motor and batteries

E46 coupe is one of the all time great BMWs in my book 😎

Rowley Birkin QC · 25-07-2022 7:54pm

Thanks Unkel and yeah I suppose that's the inevitable answer! That was some idle daydreaming over coffee this morning and I thought it best to ask the question at least!

The E46 has been parked up a while now, I couldn't bring myself to sell it but notions of dropping in a 6cyl to replace the 2.0 4cyl are becoming less probable as time goes on. It'd be cool to have it as an economical classic if it was possible on a reasonable budget!

zg3409 · 25-07-2022 8:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380404#Comment_119380404

Unkel, I believe this is also Damien Maguire's message from his boards.ie account. He used to be active on boards.ie and Facebook but I think he has too many projects to reply to social media. He uses same username on open inverter forum.

In terms of converting a classic it's a major project with mechanical, electrical, electronic challenges, along with sourcing correct scrap parts and budget for parts alone could be prohibitive particular for decent speed and range, let alone the time and labor needed for such a project. It could be a multi year process and not for beginners. Damien is world class and not your typical DIY tinkerer. It's getting easier but not simple.

Gumbo · 26-07-2022 6:12pm

We have an Imola Red 2004 E46 318Ci in the family since brand new. Less than 80k miles on her now.

Lovely car, cream interior with the CF Cube trim.

That’s what I’d consider converting to EV for the fun!

Still drive everyday so maybe someday!

Thumper Long · 28-07-2022 10:19pm

may be of interest https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2022/0728/1312833-converting-cars-electric-emissions/

unkel · 28-07-2022 10:32pm

Yes I was reading it earlier. Decent, rounded, well researched article from RTE, in fairness to them. Mention of my car too. And Damien Maguire is going to be famous 😁

Thumper Long · 28-07-2022 11:05pm

Probably a first for RTÉ

Rowley Birkin QC · 29-07-2022 9:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119390611#Comment_119390611

Mine's blue. Wanna go halves on the design cost and get a pair of sleepers?! :-)

Just reading that article and seeing that Damien is based in North Cork, exactly where my E46 is kept, has to be fate!

Gumbo · 29-07-2022 9:41am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119402322#Comment_119402322

😃

would be the job!

unkel · 07-09-2022 9:24pm

Bit of an update. Several jobs done on the car to fix minor issues, new washer fluid pump fitted after I made a new connector, working now. Two punctures fixed, car properly diagnosed which showed both left wheel speed sensors were faulty and that the airbag was missing

Took the steering wheel off, clock spring was missing (so no wires into horn or airbag). Sold the fancy M-sport steering wheel with the missing clock spring for €60, bought a standard E36 steering wheel for €50. As soon as I fitted it, the horn was working. Car is booked in for next Monday to switch off the airbag light, hopefully that's the end of that issue too

Got two speed sensors and got them fitted today (nasty job on a car this age - old ones had to be drilled out). As soon as the new ones were fitted, the ABS light went off. Result!

Got extra battery modules from @paaaa and also a new charger, as the old one unfortunately died on me. Sent it to an expert of these in the USA who can hopefully fix it and re-use it

Got classic insurance on the car, not an issue at all once I declared that the car is officially converted and signed off and passed an NCT previously as an electric vehicle. From €140 for just 3rd party, but went for €210 for fully comp with free tow away service

Taxed the car

Booked the car in for the NCT

ELM327 · 08-09-2022 9:44am

I know I've said it to you multiple times at this stage but any time this thread gets bumped I can't help but admire the idea of having a fully electric e36 and it being road legally converted to an EV. That's phenomenal!

slave1 · 08-09-2022 9:58am

Nice little one for the school run and weekly shop alright, great option as a second short range car, low purchase price and low insurance

jackbauer · 08-09-2022 10:04am

Sounds like the guy I sold her to originally just used her as a parts car. So glad she ended up with you :) If you don't mind I'll link this thread over on openinverter for the "you can't insure a conversion in Ireland" brigade.

unkel · 08-09-2022 10:28am

Absolutely, @jackbauer! And all the credit of course goes to yourself for all the work you've put into the conversions and into the community over the years. I'm merely trying to keep the car on the road and your idea alive that you can convert a car to electric for relatively very little money

unkel · 08-09-2022 10:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588368#Comment_119588368

Damien Maguire has converted at least two or three E36 (including this "Red Arrow"), an E46 touring ("Grey Goose"), an E39 that he put the guts of 100k miles on post conversion ("Land Yacht"), an E65 ("Super Yacht") and an E31 ("Panzer") and a pickup truck. All officially road legal and converted and on €120 EV tax afaik. And that's just from memory, I'm sure I've missed a good few of them!

What unkel got next

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