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

[e28Sean]

It's soooooo preeeetty!

[Mike W.]

It's soooooo preeeetty!

And why am I not surprised given what his other cars are like.

[Mike W.]

E39:
Last Thursday: New Tires (Dunlop Signature HP's) after this happened the previous weekend:

These were the two rear tires; one came apart at speed on the freeway and the other was on its' way to doing the same thing.

I think it's something about E39 suspensions. I had a wear pattern very much like that, but not quite so extreme on one tire. The inside edge was trashed but the rest of the tire looked ok. Asked the tire store to give me their opinion as to if an alignment was needed, but that request, along with some other things, got lost in transit. I just did one tire since the rest were in excellent shape. Fast forward a year later and another tire looked like that. This time it was 4 tires and an alignment. With over 200K on E39s before that I'd never run into that before, although many speak of poor tire wear on the chassis. A coworker couldn't keep tires on his and had the shop take as much of the negative camber out of it as they could. Looked odd afterwards. I tried to explain it was toe causing the problem, not camber, but couldn't get him to understand.

[gadget73]

Figured out my AC problem. Condenser had crap in it, plugged the orifice tube. Must have blown the pressure relief valve while I wasn't watching the gauge and I just didn't hear it. Pulled the tube, was working on flushing the condenser last night. I don't think a compressor blew up, it looked like mostly sludgey oil, possibly from mixing types or trying to fill it up with stop leak. No evidence of metal.

[vinceg101]

I think it's something about E39 suspensions. I had a wear pattern very much like that, but not quite so extreme on one tire. The inside edge was trashed but the rest of the tire looked ok. Asked the tire store to give me their opinion as to if an alignment was needed, but that request, along with some other things, got lost in transit. I just did one tire since the rest were in excellent shape. Fast forward a year later and another tire looked like that. This time it was 4 tires and an alignment. With over 200K on E39s before that I'd never run into that before, although many speak of poor tire wear on the chassis. A coworker couldn't keep tires on his and had the shop take as much of the negative camber out of it as they could. Looked odd afterwards. I tried to explain it was toe causing the problem, not camber, but couldn't get him to understand.

Specifically it's the E39 factory Sport Suspension that is guilty of massive tire consumption; it's a well documented and BMW admitted issue. One preventive measure is dial out the rear negative camber (as well as making sure the toe is correct also) by a few degrees; it helps but doesn't solve the problem. There is a point at which if you dial it out too much, you defeat the ride performance; I have to research that before next week when I have to re-align everything.
My former mechanic (he just retired last week ) used to un-mount his tires and reverse them every 15K miles or so to even the tread wear out since the inside lines would be worn unevenly by then.

[1st 5er]

Nuthin'.

[SPF2006]

Hauled in the X3, along with spouse and two-year-old, in one trip:

- 15 cubic feet of topsoil
- 7.5 cubic feet of river rocks
- 18x18" slab of slate
- (2) 30"-diameter planters
- 20 lettuce plants
- 3 tomato plants
- 4 Italian herb plants
- 2 ornamental grasses
- 1 butterfly bush

Used pretty much every square inch of the hatch and back seats, but got it done, raised bed construction now underway.

[russellrh72]

Hauled in the X3, along with spouse and two-year-old, in one trip:

- 15 cubic feet of topsoil
- 7.5 cubic feet of river rocks
- 18x18" slab of slate
- (2) 30"-diameter planters
- 20 lettuce plants
- 3 tomato plants
- 4 Italian herb plants
- 2 ornamental grasses
- 1 butterfly bush

Used pretty much every square inch of the hatch and back seats, but got it done, raised bed construction now underway.

And the 2 year old took an Uber home?

[amagansa]

Worked on my e23 today. Finally gave it some love it deserved. I had left it sitting long enough for the battery to die, so I swapped in the e28's battery for a move to the driveway. Replaced the hydraulic accumulator and removed the PS pump. Great help from this link http://home.insightbb.com/~todd.kenyon/bomb.htm Also finally got to replacing the hood struts. The PO had installed e28 hood struts and i finally got sick of banging my shoulder on the hood.

[Karl Grau]

It's already been two years and the e30 is due for smog. I changed the oil and then made sure that the charcoal canister hoses and the oxygen sensor wires appear to be hooked up to something.
I also drained out the old gas and put in fresh.

[John in VA]

Took off the Style 42s with winter tires & bolted on the Style 66 summer setup. 235/45-17s on wheels are heavy!

[funfunfer]

It's already been two years and the e30 is due for smog. I changed the oil and then made sure that the charcoal canister hoses and the oxygen sensor wires appear to be hooked up to something.
I also drained out the old gas and put in fresh.

Laser 2?

[Karl Grau]

Laser 2?

Capri 13 made by Catalina. I jokingly refer to it as a Laser for old farts.

Pretty much all the parts are interchangeable with a Laser and they have almost an identical racing handicap. The main difference is the Capri has a larger cockpit and it isn't quite as tender as the Laser.








Simple rigging like the Laser.




Although I re-rigged mine to make it ten times more complicated than it needs to be.

[funfunfer]

Nice looking boat! I long ago aged and bulked my way out of small boats. Bought a Force 5 at a flea market. Crewed a Laser 2 until the 125lb skipper couldn't keep my fat ass out of the water.

[tig]

Three steering wheels in as many days. They finally found one without fabric pulling up. And, as a bonus, they installed straight, unlike the second which was crooked.

How could a tech live withhim/herself leaving a wheel like this?

[Karl Grau]

Nice looking boat! I long ago aged and bulked my way out of small boats. Crewed a Laser 2 until the 125lb skipper couldn't keep my fat ass out of the water.

lol. I aged and bulked my way out of racing on small boats too but I still enjoy a leisurely solo cruise around the bay on a nice day.


All this boat talk made me forget the YUGE news from yesterday. The e30 passed smog with flying colors!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh7Hicy6R1g

Three steering wheels in as many days. They finally found one without fabric pulling up. And, as a bonus, they installed straight, unlike the second which was crooked.

How could a tech live withhim/herself leaving a wheel like this?

In your pic, is that B.A.D. playing or the Village People?

[tig]

Three steering wheels in as many days. They finally found one without fabric pulling up. And, as a bonus, they installed straight, unlike the second which was crooked.

How could a tech live withhim/herself leaving a wheel like this?

In your pic, is that B.A.D. playing or the Village People?

I figured if anyone would notice, it would be you . B.A.D.

[davintosh]

Bought another "other car".

Following the demise of the '96 Fjord, I needed to replace it with another daily driver. After some shopping around, I found this one for a surprisingly low price. It's a former city street truck; minimally equipped, relatively high mileage, but overall decent shape, and came with a good maintenance record. Manual locks & windows, cloth seats, rubber mats instead of carpet on the floors, Super Cab with suicide rear doors for decent access, 6' bed, 4.6L V8, autotragic trans, 2WD, steel wheels, decent rubber, cold AC, AM/FM radio... Runs & drives great, but rides like a truck. I'm much happier with it after spending about three hours cleaning 13 years worth of dirt & grime from the interior of it this week, but I think this one will last longer than its predecessor.

[Mike W.]

O2 sensors on the Datsun. On the best forum I can find for it the prevailing wisdom is don't change them unless they set a code. And then only use exact replacement parts, no universals. Hmmm, my experience is they seem to be past optimum around 80-90K, with a changeout schedule of 100K. Mine were at 135K. But what a F*********'ing job. Drivers side of the V6 was only around 3 hours. Passenger side was over double that. It took an impact U joint, a wobble adapter and about 18" of extensions on the O2 sensor socket which only went over it with much persuasion. I bent it while torquing it to get it out. Install was much easier, an hour or less with far less loss of blood and skin.

And it's not like it was rusted or seized, once broken loose I used the ultimate wobble adapter on the U joint, a long screwdriver. I wonder what book time on it is and how often mechanics make or beat it.

[gadget73]

I finally found a direct fit cheap Mustang part for one of my cars. The windshield wiper linkage bushings are worn out in the Continental, and they are identical to Mustang parts. $11 for the set shipped to my door and I'll have a good as new wiper mechanism.

[Karl Grau]

Did the first oil change on the 996. Even though Porsches are water cooled now, they still use ~5000 liters of oil so it isn't cheap. The PO changed the oil right before I bought the car and it's only been a 1000 miles, but it's a year later and I wanted to get a baseline started for the car with Blackstone Labs. The magnetic drain plug looked good but when I cut open the filter...









I was seeing some stuff in the pleats that looked like white plastic bits.









Of course, I'm thinking water pump impeller, chain guides or worse.
I picked out as much of the stuff as I could and was noticing that it was all very soft.








In between freaking out, I remembered that the PO had the left valve cover resealed right before my purchase. I checked back underneath the car and saw that a white sealant had been used. I scraped off a sample and it was the same color and consistency as what I pulled from the oil filter.

I'm considering it a bullet dodged for now.



[/QUOTE]







Oil to Blackstone.











I also changed the oil in the e39. I was happy to see that my new Race Ramps cleared the front bumper no problemo.







It looks like the oil pan gasket leak has gotten worse. Now there's a job I'm looking forward to.

[Mike W.]

It looks like the oil pan gasket leak has gotten worse. Now there's a job I'm looking forward to.

If you're lucky... It might just be the oil filter housing gasket. I was convinced for a couple of years the pan was leaking on the 00 528it, even changed the front crank seal, but it turned out to be the filter housing. Still not a fun job, but not as bad as the pan.

[Karl Grau]

If you're lucky... It might just be the oil filter housing gasket.

I'm not lucky. I already did the oil filter housing gasket.
http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=7& ... =#p1317398

[Mike W.]

If you're lucky... It might just be the oil filter housing gasket.

I'm not lucky. I already did the oil filter housing gasket.
http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=7& ... =#p1317398

Oh well, I tried.

[tig]

Good thing for oil filters. Hope that shit doesn't get sucked into a passage and jam it up. Thoughts and prayers.

[gadget73]

Pulled the rack off the Mark VII. The morons that rebuilt it didn't remove the thread protectors from the ends of the inner tie rods, they just shoved the boot on and left the plastic finger trap material inside. This caused the boots to push off since they had that crap stuck between the boot and the rod end. The lock pins were missing off one of the inner tie rods and it was actually loose, my friend found that when he tried to align it and the toe wouldn't adjust. They also didn't flush the thing out so the fluid is heavily metallic despite multiple flushes and a filter, and the end seals have failed in less than 500 miles. Not impressed even a little bit, but its out of warranty time-wise and the company basically told me to go scratch. Rack is off for an attempted flush and re-seal, PS pump needs to come off for same. I have another rack to install if needed, and I'm not above replacing the pump. If not for the fact that it drives absolutely amazing with that rack I wouldn't even bother re-sealing it.

[doug]

It looks like the oil pan gasket leak has gotten worse. Now there's a job I'm looking forward to.

If you're lucky... It might just be the oil filter housing gasket. I was convinced for a couple of years the pan was leaking on the 00 528it, even changed the front crank seal, but it turned out to be the filter housing. Still not a fun job, but not as bad as the pan.

I'll have to have a look at mine. Are there any tell-tale ways to determine which it is? I was resigned to living with my oil leak, but I might be willing to have a go at the filter housing.

As an aside, when I was in getting the airbag replaced, the dealer offered to R&R the oil pan gasket for $2000. I said "no thanks".

[Mike W.]

It looks like the oil pan gasket leak has gotten worse. Now there's a job I'm looking forward to.

If you're lucky... It might just be the oil filter housing gasket. I was convinced for a couple of years the pan was leaking on the 00 528it, even changed the front crank seal, but it turned out to be the filter housing. Still not a fun job, but not as bad as the pan.

I'll have to have a look at mine. Are there any tell-tale ways to determine which it is? I was resigned to living with my oil leak, but I might be willing to have a go at the filter housing.

As an aside, when I was in getting the airbag replaced, the dealer offered to R&R the oil pan gasket for $2000. I said "no thanks".

Just the usual, clean up everything and see where it gets wet first. Of course I thought I did that but it wasn't on my radar and I guess I didn't look carefully enough. It is a well known problem, even if I was late to the party on it. I should add while it made a mess of the front/bottom of the engine and would occasionally mark it's spot on the pavement, the oil level at change time was always at full. And if you're in that far, and north of 150K and it hasn't been done, you might want to do the coolant pipes along side the block. Of all the E39 cooling system weaknesses, IMO that one's the worst.

[oldskool]

Electronics went weird after a radiator explosion on daughter’s 2004 Jeep Cherokee. Intermittent start, no fan to cool engine and AC went south. Ground wire got so hot it started a small fire touching rubber windshield washer pieces. Much suck as I hate a mutha fuckin Jeep. Got drunk and ripped battery harness out, sanded and replaced all grounds and bought a new harness. Autopsy of old harness shows the smallest of hairline crack in one of the hardness wire’s insulation. What complete bullfuckery, but it is fixed. I learned it all from you, DAD!!

[Mike W.]

Spent 4 hours today putting on a leather steering wheel cover on the Datsun. Factory on the pseudo upmarket Infiniti is faux wood and rubber. They said to get it on as tight as you can and I did. I've played guitars with strings that weren't that tight. How the few pros do it for what they charge to do it I have no idea.

I'm slowly BMW'izing it. I now have E28 door brakes up front, an E34 aux fan, a Harmann dead pedal and Mustang O2 sensors that I learned about fitting from Mye28.