William's 330Ci ZHP Maintenance and Project Thread

[NoVAphotog]

Used UUC TSE3 arrived today back home. My father gave it a quick inspection and seems to be okay. He said:


Which was followed by this text:



I'll definitely have to clean it up a bit, but I knew that going in. Anyone know a good way to clean up stainless steel? Polish?

Congrats man! Looks great. I wouldn't worry too much about cleaning it. I used the metal/wheel polish can that Shawn gave me. Could see if he has any extra cans. Cleaned up the tips mainly and some of the connection pieces. Otherwise didn't lose sleep over it because underneath the car.

I would say based on our experience that it could be worth getting it installed. That said, had that stud not snapped I would have moved forward doing it in the garage on jackstands. But after that experience ironing out the rattles and all...that could get tedious REAL quick.

[slater]

[*]What is the lifespan, in terms of time, of a drive shaft guibo/flex disk? It is part no 26117511454 listed in RealOEM.com here: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=26_0197. If it's a part I could/should replace at its ripe old age of 12 years old, what brand should I use? Manufactuerers like Meyle are $40-60. BMW is about $120 for BMW which I'm fine with since that's a small price to pay if that's the best part available.

i replaced mine last year, it was 11 years old and had about 135K miles on it. it actually looked OK, and could have gone another 30-40K miles. but, it's a "while you're in there" kind of thing, and if you're doing the trans mounts... might as well.

don't get meyle. their rubber products aren't the best. get a lemförder unit.

[*]Any other maintenance items I should consider while I have the exhaust off?

shift linkage refresh - it's all right there. do the plastic shift lever cup, rear rubber mount (and mod it like i did - night and day difference), and front delrin bushings. ECS actually sells a kit for it, with the delrin bushings. my shifter feels amazing, tight without being notchy, and very little side-to-side play.

also - trans fluid? done recently?

And yeah, my dad is nothing short of the best. He is incredibly smart, logical and we share similar interests so those things come together often. If I grow up to be half as competent and capable as him, I'll be very pleased.

that's awesome. i share the same sentiment about my dad. just wish he lived closer, especially for my kids' sake.

[johnrando]

Glad that worked out.

[BMWCurves]

Congrats man! Looks great. I wouldn't worry too much about cleaning it. I used the metal/wheel polish can that Shawn gave me. Could see if he has any extra cans. Cleaned up the tips mainly and some of the connection pieces. Otherwise didn't lose sleep over it because underneath the car.

I would say based on our experience that it could be worth getting it installed. That said, had that stud not snapped I would have moved forward doing it in the garage on jackstands. But after that experience ironing out the rattles and all...that could get tedious REAL quick.

Thanks! And yeah, I'm not going to get overly nitpicky about the exhaust being sparkly clean, but since I have the exhaust out and apart I might as well clean it up a bit. It'll never be cleaner than when it gets installed...

As for the actual installation I'm contemplating installing it myself (assuming no removal issues) and then if I have any lingering rattling issues or the like I'd just take it to my mechanic. It's potentially cheaper and it would save me from having to put the car back up on jack stands a second time if there are issues.

i replaced mine last year, it was 11 years old and had about 135K miles on it. it actually looked OK, and could have gone another 30-40K miles. but, it's a "while you're in there" kind of thing, and if you're doing the trans mounts... might as well.

don't get meyle. their rubber products aren't the best. get a lemförder unit.

That's my sentiment. I don't plan to have the exhaust off often, so now would be a good time as any. I tried looking for Lemförder, but neither FCP nor ECS have a guibo by them. I plan to avoid Meyle, I've heard enough stories of their parts going bad prematurely.

shift linkage refresh - it's all right there. do the plastic shift lever cup, rear rubber mount (and mod it like i did - night and day difference), and front delrin bushings. ECS actually sells a kit for it, with the delrin bushings. my shifter feels amazing, tight without being notchy, and very little side-to-side play.

also - trans fluid? done recently?

What mod did you do to the rubber mount? I have the UUC SSK in there with the DSSR, but I didn't install it so I'm not sure if the delrin bushings were replaced. I assume not.

All fluids were replaced within the last 1.5 years and about 6k miles.

Glad that worked out.

Thanks! As I said, I'm very excited to hopefully get this all together while I'm home.

[slater]

What mod did you do to the rubber mount? I have the UUC SSK in there with the DSSR, but I didn't install it so I'm not sure if the delrin bushings were replaced. I assume not.

OK. the delrin bushings remove a lot of side-to-side play and just tighten up the linkage in general. worth doing, in my opinion.

for the rubber mount - insert two o-rings into the shifter-side void, then fill the remaining gap with black silicone RTV. it removes 90% of the side-to-side play but still allows axial movement. cost me about $2 and just made the hugest difference in shifter feel.

[BMWCurves]

Hmm...did you use a DIY or just sort of wing this bad boy? My shifter has little to no side-to-side slop and has some notchiness but I expected that from the SSK. I'll look into it. What's the difficulty 0-10 wise?

I'm also hoping the M3 trans mounts will solve the intermittent stiffness getting into first when the car's first cold. We'll see.

[slater]

Hmm...did you use a DIY or just sort of wing this bad boy? My shifter has little to no side-to-side slop and has some notchiness but I expected that from the SSK. I'll look into it. What's the difficulty 0-10 wise?

I'm also hoping the M3 trans mounts will solve the intermittent stiffness getting into first when the car's first cold. We'll see.

i fogot, you have the DSSR... that helps a lot.

difficulty-wise? 0 would be no effort, so i'd give it a 1.

[BMWCurves]

Less than two weeks until I can pull my car out of barn storage

I'm so excited to be behind the wheel of my car again, although its apparently threatening to snow/freezing rain and I don't have any snow tires yet, so we'll see how that goes.

Looking at my schedule, between family, friends, and the holidays, I have a sneaking suspicion I'll only have time to get to my airbag recall and install the GruppeM intake and not my UUC TSE3 (or M3 trans mounts or guibo). A bit disappointing, but family and friends come first, and at least I'll have one new toy to play with!

I am considering buying a cheap lavalier mic from Amazon and hooking it up near the intake to compare the stock airbox, BMW Performance intake, and the GruppeM at various throttle states. Might be my one other project while I'm home.

[NoVAphotog]

Less than two weeks until I can pull my car out of barn storage

I'm so excited to be behind the wheel of my car again, although its apparently threatening to snow/freezing rain and I don't have any snow tires yet, so we'll see how that goes.

Looking at my schedule, between family, friends, and the holidays, I have a sneaking suspicion I'll only have time to get to my airbag recall and install the GruppeM intake and not my UUC TSE3 (or M3 trans mounts or guibo). A bit disappointing, but family and friends come first, and at least I'll have one new toy to play with!

I am considering buying a cheap lavalier mic from Amazon and hooking it up near the intake to compare the stock airbox, BMW Performance intake, and the GruppeM at various throttle states. Might be my one other project while I'm home.

Maybe...drop it off at mechanic to get UUC installed? Opportunity cost for shop install is raised when family/friends time is weighed against monetary expenditure. E.g. Not worth blowing a whole weekend doing car stuff when you could be with family/friends unless said parties are helping with car stuff.

Also, let me know which mic you get and if it's GoPro compatible. I'd like to emulate that setup we saw on that m3 at the autox.


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[holyc0w]

Careful on those tires in the winter