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

[djazz]

A little bling for the M5 highlighted by new euro headlight lenses. Plus a new clutch switch.






Ongoing study into which throwout bearing is really the right TO bearing. I've seen five different designs/lengths with the same pn so far.

[davintosh]

I still have the e32 on jack stands in the garage; not that there's that much left to do to it to get it back on the road, it's just that there's so little time the last couple of weeks. And with several other projects lined up behind it, waiting for the garage to open up, I need to get rolling.

Sunday was encouraging; the M20B25 that's been lurking in my shed, waiting to go into the 528e, finally went away. The guy what took it left behind a nice wad of cash in exchange though; an amount that covered the acquisition cost for the Zinno 535is that wandered into my stable a while back. He also took the transmission I had for it, and paid very nearly what I was asking for it all without much dickering. Patience paid off. I had to laugh at how he came prepared to take it home with him. I told him up front that I didn't have a lift, and he said, "That's why I brought these guys along." The four of them grabbed onto whatever they could, lifted the thing up off the cart and into the back of the pickup. SD farm boys.

Last Saturday we drove to the in-laws' house for the day; five of us in the X5. My eldest son drove home, and I took the back seat; that back seat is like a torture device.

[Mike W.]

I had to laugh at how he came prepared to take it home with him. I told him up front that I didn't have a lift, and he said, "That's why I brought these guys along." The four of them grabbed onto whatever they could, lifted the thing up off the cart and into the back of the pickup. SD farm boys.

Reminds me of when I bought my first BMW, a Bav. It was apart with the engine and tranny bolted together. The friend who was giving me a hand, along with his pickup/tow vehicle, and the guy who I was buying it from picked up the M30, mit tranny and put it in the back of the pickup. Neither was 6' or weighed over 180 or so. I'm not a big guy either and while more than willing to help, I felt the safest for all involved was if I just stayed out of the way. Which I did.

[MicahO]

Digging through the Touring has been fun, and the car has been very responsive to the half-baseline it's gotten so far. Generally speaking it's in great shape, with ~110K on the motor, 230K on the rest of the bits, and a lot of great care taken on the cosmetic side of the house.

To start, I replaced the dead brake light switch and put in some matched, working bulbs so the car was ready for a state inspection. New subframe bushings (split), dogbones (shredded) and two new front tires; now the car tracks nicely and goes in the direction it is driven. With the MAF clean and new spark plugs it feels even more responsive and smooth. VCG and valve adjustment was about 3K miles ago, so no need for that right away. Fresh transmission (perilously low) and diff oil and it's many whirrings are a lot quieter. The support struts at the hatch and tailgate glass are now new (the glass struts were dated 06/92 - original! no wonder the glass would bonk the back of the head!). Re-adjust the clutch switch and now the cruise works again.

There has been a lot of minor tweakery and cleaning and replacement of proper fittings and connectors and trim. I do miss having DPP to fill my long orders of worn/missing plastic bits and every nut and washer I expect to touch, though the guys at Tischer have been quite good at filling my orders.

At this point I've put a few hundred miles on the car and it's in a good spot until the over-winter when I can hit a bunch of minor engine gaskets and the cooling system and more replacements at the rear end. At some point I have to stop and take some pictures.

[Mike W.]

To start, I replaced the dead brake light switch...

Funny, I just did the same thing to the E36. That one was kind of funny, I bought a switch long ago due to the warning light sometimes coming on, but later found out it was a bad contact in the brake light assy. Figured I was having the same problem again and it looked flaky so I reworked it only to still have the warning light usually come on. New switch was a PITA just for a brake light switch, but it's in now.

Also a new fuel pump for the E39 to replace the junkyard one I put in when the original failed. A year older junkyard one. Hopefully the made in China one will give at least half the life of the original.

[1st 5er]

1st 5er now has working odometer and trip meter.

[TSMacNeil]

Replaced the water pump, thermostat, viscous clutch, upper radiator hose and radiator on the Suburban.
* I also performed an upgrade in the flimsy upper hose support design so that the upper hose doesn't get cut again.

[slammin_e28]

Learned that if your e34 wasn't equipped with heated seats, and you install heated seats, make sure there is a 30a fuse in the #16 spot before you take the seats back out and start digging in with a multimeter.....

yeah.

[TSMacNeil]

^^bummer

[ldsbeaker]

One recaro in the 1600.
Have to chase threads on other recaro, then install.

I instantly gained 4" of head room! (that's what SHE said)

[slammin_e28]

More learning!

Installed the 6 disc CD changer in the touring. The front cover was broke off, so I nabbed one from the changer from the Rover. Same exact CD changer....but the Rover one's plug has a rectangular arrangement of the terminals. BMW's is circular.

After learning that you put the CDs in upside down, it works beautifully. Just have to get the proper mounting brackets from da dealer.

Welcome to 1994. Enjoy your stay.

[Burnze]

No TexFest for me so I decided to give my interior a leatherique bath.

[sail_or_drive]

New Struts and Shocks on the wife's Odyssey.

[a]

1/2 way through patching the Rats exhaust system.

[davintosh]

Finally finished up refurbishing the suspension bits on the 318ti. New shocks & struts, replaced sway bar brackets, new sway bar links & bushings, and new PowerFlex lower control arm bushings. It rides nice & tight now. Drove it ~2 hours north to swap cars with my daughter yesterday, and it seems to have a little shimmy at about 60 mph; I'll wait until putting snow tires on it in a month or so to see if it's tire- or suspension-related.

It was really good to get my e32 back too. Driving that thing on the highway was pure pleasure after driving the e36 buzz can.

[cddallara]

Changed out the floor mats. Other than that, just enjoying it on Sundays and an occasional Saturday when I'm not working.

[nik77356]

It was really good to get my e32 back too. Driving that thing on the highway was pure pleasure after driving the e36 buzz can.

Had to drive the M3 today after leaving the E32 in Kerrville. I cannot wait to get the E32 back. Such pleasure to cruise around in.

[slack]

Installed a passenger side front window regulator and lock actuator in the E39.
Fairly straight forward job all-in-all.

[John in VA]

Installed a passenger side front window regulator and lock actuator in the E39.
Fairly straight forward job all-in-all.

Don't kill any brain cells related to the actuator R&R - I might need to do my driver's side actuator soon!
Picked up a steering wheel & proper cup holder from Adam/"Clemster" in Dayton MD for the E39.

[Karl Grau]

Every two years at smog time, I change the oil/oil filter & air filter in the grocery go getter. While underneath, I evaluated the leaking power steer rack again to see how much longer I should ignore it. I decided on 8-10 months or next smog test in two years.
I also try to do one non essential maintenance item just cause. This time it was replacing the cloudy original driver's side headlamp from 1998. None of that Chinese crap for the car I don't give a shit about, this lamp was made in TAIWAN bay-bee.
For some reason I still write the month and year on the oil filter (see above right of old headlamp). I don't know why because on this car it's always smog month & year.

[slack]

Installed a passenger side front window regulator and lock actuator in the E39.
Fairly straight forward job all-in-all.

Don't kill any brain cells related to the actuator R&R - I might need to do my driver's side actuator soon!]

I did the driver's side actuator last night. Killed many brain cells in the process. As with the passenger side and the rears, i made sure to test everything before i put the door back together completely.
It took four times of pulling the lock mechanism back out of the door to troubleshoot before i discovered that the window switch module had to be plugged in for it to work.

I really need an ETM for this car...

[unt0uchable]

My wifes daily 9-7x Aero has been having some wonky electrical gremlin pop up lately. Intermittent flasher relay problems. It would work for a while, then not work, and then sound like it was arcing and going to send the whole thing up in smoke. We can't have none of that so I investigated a little more and found that the connection is loose because of the nature of the actual metal clip that goes into the plastic connector. The metal tab that applies pressure to the pin from the relay was bent upward and not putting any pressure on the pin to make the connection. This was causing my intermittent blinker problem.

So I dismantled the connector. The purple piece slides to one side with some pressure from a small screwdriver:



And then I put the screwdriver in the other side of the connector and pulled the orange wire out:




Andddd that's where I stopped taking pictures. I inspected the wire and connector end. I know it looks a little banged up but it was still a solid connection so I put a piece of shrink wrap over it to strengthen it up some and to keep it from contacting anything it should and then I pried on the opening a little to bend the piece back where it needed to be in order to make a solid connection. I put everything back together and it works! All the time, too. So far I've not have any more intermittent issues. Only time will tell, but at least now I know where to go if it happens again.

Also, changed the oil and filter last weekend. 7 quarts and I decided to try the Fram Xtra Guard filter to compare with my last results with the WIX. I love oil analysis tests. But I feel like such a nerd, lol!

Oh, and I'm changing the belt tensioner, idler, and the serpentine belt this weekend. Fun times!

[davintosh]

Ordered a $25 scope; a little extra for a mirror that threads onto the business end -- lets you see around corners -- and a 5M cable on it. I've wanted to get a view of my driveshaft at different points to see where the driveline shudder on acceleration is coming from. The cable length ought to get me there. Maybe getting video evidence will convince the CFO that spending $400 for a rebuilt driveshaft isn't a bad idea.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L8O ... d_asin_lnk



Looks like it ships from China though, so no Prime 2-day shipping. Rats.

Just a followup from the sub-thread from a few weeks back... I got the camera and tried it out while working on my daughter's car, and it works pretty slick. Here's a sampling of what I saw peering down into #3 cylinder in her 318ti:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOQua3l0v4s

That's with the 45 degree angle mirror attached. I started the video with the camera just below the spark plug threads; you can see all four valves, then the crosshatching on the cylinder walls (I mostly wanted to see if there was any gunk left inside the cylinder after installing a Heli-Coil thread repair insert, but it was cool to see what else could be seen through it.) The mirror position isn't the greatest -- you can almost see more past the mirror than through it -- but its passable.

All in all, I think it was a decent investment, and I'll be getting some more mileage out of it soon. Not bad for $25.

[1st 5er]

Mowed around them.

[w0014170]

Threw away the Bilstein Sports on the E430, replaced them with Bilstein Comfort/Touring now I can sleep and wake up when I get there. Next ditch is the Goodyear F1's, replaced with new Michelin 245/45/17's on new 5 spoke alloys. ROAD TRIP! GULF COAST AND ON TO TYBEE ISLAND!

[BonitaBeast]

Drove home in the E39 and got an SES light. About to check codes now

[WildKarrde]

On my 325e, I'm changing my accessory belts and auxiliary radiator fan. Nothing has gone right so far, lol.

[w0014170]

Last night, cool breeze, no noise, I swear I heard the MGB rusting...just like the old days with the XJ12L...moved it under the boat shed. Won't help though, rust never sleeps

[carnutdallas]

Worked on a slow battery drain on the Suburban. It sits a week at a time and I think the alarm is draining the battery. Also I think the back-up camera circuit was staying energized. Camera only comes on in reverse, but I also wired up the ability to have it stay on while towing. I just put a fuse inline and pulled it while parked. We will see if that was it. Will work on a better wiring/switch combo if that solved the battery kill.

Installed a replacement Sat antenna in my brand new Dynavin N6 head unit in the Touring. I also ran hardwire to my Valentine in Touring and add some hidden 12v sockets under passenger dash area. I made my own glovebox flashlight tap in out of the dead flashlight. Going to buy a new flashlight anyway, but this is simple, no wire splicing, tapping or circuit overload. Easy to unplug and go back to stock. Will order all new hatch and glass shocks for touring this week. I may buy the BMW tool and see if I can avoid headliner partial drop access.

Have a great week!

[1st 5er]

Saturday, but...
Stopped at a retail shop and picked this up.



Then after test fitting, dropped it off at a friend's for a refinish to match this.



I really do like my current Luisi, that was a gift from a fellow E12er, so I'm a bit torn...