MyE28.com

Changed the oil, was overdue. Good old Castrol 20W50. Consumption has increased now that it's puffing a little blue on startup.

Need to look at doing a cam side valve adjustment, one valve has gotten pretty noisy, (0.008" for cam side M20 correct?)

New rear brakes...bigguns. This after painting the hats with zinc paint.

e38 calipers, e34 fat hollow rotors. Flush and bleed.
Dayummm, can I stop fast now.

Old brakes worked, but something was wonky with the pads and rotors. Only sweeping/squeezing about half the area of the stock rotors. They stopped and they released but I had big crusty unpolished areas of rotor next to the brightly polished bands.

Don't know why, but it's all good now.

Doing work.

Changed my spark plugs from Bosch platinums to Autolite 66's. Cylinders 3 and 5 were firing from inside the insulator and had burned away part of the ground side. The other cylinders looked ok.

The Autolites idle much smoother so far, but I haven't had a chance to take it out on the road yet.

Discussed the 87's demise, and the 85's rebirth with kohler.

Good to meet and yak about cars with someone as crazy as I am about them.

The Beast got a new alternator and wash.

Unplugged the driver side rear sun roof drain ...Then sopped up the 1/2 inch of water in drivers side rear foot well.

Propped up the carpets and the pad, aimed a fan at it and left it running overnight at least. Hoping not to have to rip out that pad.

FINALLY got around to swapping the wipers to their proper sides. I bought it with the passenger wiper on the driver's side (& vice-versa), and even remounted them the same way after I painted it. Still took a while to figure out I had them on wrong, and then just never got around to getting the job done until now.

got some new wheels and tires on the 535i yesterday.


IMAG0036 by konfusionwthak, on Flickr

Greased up my poly UCABs and tightened my adjustable sway bar links. Still trying to diagnose a problem of a pop feeling in the steering...

shagrath wrote:Still trying to diagnose a problem of a pop feeling in the steering...

More details please. I might not puke up a solution but another genius here may come up with something. Truth be told sounds unique already.

rmiddendorf wrote:

shagrath wrote:Still trying to diagnose a problem of a pop feeling in the steering...

More details please. I might not puke up a solution but another genius here may come up with something. Truth be told sounds unique already.

Ever know the feeling in the wheel you get from going over the ruts or separations in an otherwise smooth road? That's what it feels like. Except it happens on completely smooth roads too. Feels like something is bumping around under the floor and felt through the wheel. Not felt on the interstate or bumps. Just smooth roads. I have a new front sway bar bushing that is new but is torn... not sure if that is the issue or not. Other than that all other components seem to be intact and ok. New motor mounts, struts, springs, mount bearings (greased too).

shagrath wrote:Greased up my poly UCABs and tightened my adjustable sway bar links. Still trying to diagnose a problem of a pop feeling in the steering...

Does this occur either when entering/leaving parking spaces with the wheel substantially turned, or in slow speed turns such as leaving a traffic control device and turning onto another roadway?

briansmith wrote:

shagrath wrote:Greased up my poly UCABs and tightened my adjustable sway bar links. Still trying to diagnose a problem of a pop feeling in the steering...

Does this occur either when entering/leaving parking spaces with the wheel substantially turned, or in slow speed turns such as leaving a traffic control device and turning onto another roadway?

Mostly parking spaces and slow turns such as into my apt complex... but also occurs when cruising on main roads that are smooth as well.

shagrath wrote:

briansmith wrote:

shagrath wrote:Greased up my poly UCABs and tightened my adjustable sway bar links. Still trying to diagnose a problem of a pop feeling in the steering...

Does this occur either when entering/leaving parking spaces with the wheel substantially turned, or in slow speed turns such as leaving a traffic control device and turning onto another roadway?

Mostly parking spaces and slow turns such as into my apt complex... but also occurs when cruising on main roads that are smooth as well.

Have you checked the steering box mount's weld to the subframe? Sounds like the same thing that happened in my E24.

I took it off and replaced it with a better 750 metal bushing in place of the weld mount. Did it while doing the tranny swap and a 750 parts car available. I even checked the bolt and nut. All is tight.

I should mention that the sway bar link was hard to reinstall after replacing a lca. Also now there's a binding noise coming from the passenger side. Def related.

Took a look under it last night again. When I got home earlier I could hear the spring binding when it was on the ground, running and being turned lock to lock. I observed all the other components and the noise is definately not coming from anywhere else.

After about 20 minutes of driving this morning again I heard the sound again. I am pretty sure I need a new upper mount bearing. Again. (It's only been 6 months on these! )

Got frustrated with the engine knock. Put it back together.

put new hood emblem on. i think i found the easiest part on the car to change.

In the process of sealing the purchase. I'm also changing the oil, oil filter and valve cover gasket. The mechanic I'm getting it from changed the fuel filter earlier.

I replaced the water pump, t-stat and housing, upper, lower and shorty hose along with all new hose clamps. I'm still waiting to poor the new mixture in since I've been working too late to want to mess with it once I get home. Hopefully I can drive it again soon.

Swapped wheels from staggered Hartges running Toyo Proxes T1's to stock E28 M5 BBS rims w/ Yoko AVS100's.

Spherical ucab, powerflex lcab.

My "favorite" job; replaced the expansion valve

Have to make a mess to pull the evaporator box!


Open the box to see what we have:


Here's the sucker; replace it and reassemble


Back together; deep vacuum, recharge with r12 and cold once again!


I really HATE this job...

Nearly finished installing the upper half of rear seat.

New tie rods, center link and alignment to go with the moosehead spherical uca bushings and powerflex lca bushings.
New front 750 brembo rotors.
S3.46 with new "to me" half shafts.
And after a spin around the block and a little throttle I blow out to pieces. So I'll pull the very nice boots and rebuild that original one.

Oil change tomorrow along with new power steering lines.

Over the last couple days I've replaced the grommets in my alternator (just in time for the alternator bearing to go bad) and some severely cracked vacuum hoses. The engine is at about 90% or so. I think a new fuel regulator should get it to 100%... other than the alternator.

Over the last couple days I've replaced the grommets in my alternator (just in time for the alternator bearing to go bad) and some severely cracked vacuum hoses. The engine is at about 90% or so. I think a new fuel regulator should get it to 100%... other than the alternator.

Installed a new to me hirschman antenna. Works awesome! Also checked out the exhaust, that's a whole 'nother world of issues....