Hello Mafia,
I wasn’t updating my project for a very long time, but it’s better to do it sometime, then never. I am terrible on keep my thread on the forum. Sorry guys.
There is not much interested happened over the winter period. All real progress on maintenance and repairs started on late March.
At first, I started by tracking my rough idle after I got some codes about misfiring in some cylinders. I changed coils and the car is running beautifully after that.
After that I detailed an engine bay in order to remove all the salt from winter driving. I bought my car without hood insulation and hate a bare metal look on the hood. So, an OEM engine insulation was installed along with my bent and slightly jammed hood latch.
I love the look of clean engine bay
New vs. Old
Now the latch is flush with the grill.
Also in late march and changed brakes in all four corners. I was debating between OEM and Stoptech brakes and ended up buying a Stoptech.
After market crap went on the garbage bin
Some good stuff from ECS and FCP for my coming projects
Most fun began in late April – early May. Initially I was planning to change all leaky oil gaskets, cracked guibo, cracked expansion tank and some small thing in suspension department. I was sourcing most of the parts for those projects during a winter time. But my power steering pump died on me first week of May. Nice! An extra expense that I wasn’t planning for. What is the saying we have; I think it’s called Murphy’s law, right)))) Since I needed to change a pump, I decided to overhaul a complete steering system. I was pretty sure it was original. So I bought all hoses, reservoir, and pump. All parts, except the pump, I bought OEM.
I started with flex disk and center support bearing since I didn’t have all parts for a power steering system on hands. Changing guibo wasn’t hard.
Ready for flex disk job
This is my original guibo (sorry for crappy photo). It had few cracks, but considering a mileage it was ok.
Some of the exhaust mounting areas were pretty rusty on my car, but it went very smooth. Here is the one example: completely rusted mid-section support bracket. Looking great!
I also upgraded transmission mounts and went with OEM M3 units. A very easy DIY. Sorry I didn’t take pictures.
By the next weekend all of the parts for power steering system had arrived. During that time I change the following with all OEM parts:
• Complete power steering system
• Oil filter stand gasket
• Accessory belt, idler pulley, AC belt and AC drive belt tensioner
• Expansion tank kit form ECS
My old and nasty power steering reservoir. I had some fluid leak once my pump failed; I think it clogged my reservoir. This project was a time consuming, but overall it was fine, since most of the parts are located in the same area and I had very nice flow of removing and changing them. A lot of beer and some music or a car show talks is absolute plus for this type of work:-)))
Working on the filter housing gasket
Finally, a weekend after Memorial Day I’ve done the biggest project – oil pan gasket. My plan was to change oil pan gasket, engine mounts and steering guibo.
Starting on oil pan
]
Oil pan removed
This is how the bottom looked – absolutely dreadful
This is how it looked before cleaning
Almost finished cleaning
]
My biggest surprise of the day was a condition of the engine mounts. They were Completely shot! I wasn’t expecting to see that one of the mount literally disintegrated. My car had 139K at that time on original mounts. My right side, which is close to the exhaust manifold, was badly melted on one side. This is OEM quality….interesting. I installed M3 engine mounts and really skeptical about the quality.
Several people on forums had mentioned that it’s not that difficult, but for me it was challenging. I am not a very experienced “wrencher”, plus my garage is very tight and doing this job on the jack stands is not the most convenient way in my opinion. But I wasn’t alone in this job. My co-worker really helped me out and spends the most of his day of inside the lovely and humid garage. A big thanks to him!
The most challenging part for me was to put an oil deep stick back, since there is not much room under the car. Thanks to the forum advice, I bought some spare o-rings for the deep stick and it was good, because I broke two of them while I was trying to put the deep stick back. I ended up removing intake boots and DISA valve for an extra room and went that way to install a deep stick back. Thanks god I had my friend with me at that time. Placing a pan and oil deep stick gasket was the most difficult part for me.
A note about the steering guibo removal. I took me a good 30-40 minutes to remove steering guibo from the rack. Steering guibo is made out of aluminum and the steering rack is steel. I am not sure why BMW designed that assembly that way, but I think connecting aluminum with the steel is not the greatest design idea. Plus there was some plastic housing that I was afraid to break while slamming on flat screwdriver with the hammer. As always, luck of room under the car is issue for the jobs like this one.
Next morning and was so enthusiastic to drive my car with all fresh gaskets and oil, engine mounts, etc., but another surprise for me. F…k!!! I wasn’t able to start the car. I did a battery test – 6.8V. I charged it, fired up, tried to start it again and nothing. That was a sign for me that the battery needs to be changed. I went to the local Autzone to get a Duralst gold.
That was about it for the most recent projects. After I changed all leaky gaskets, I forgot what it is to top an oil every week and randomly seeing a yellow oil light warning on the dash. Mileage after those projects – 140K.
I took my car on the biggest road trip after the purchase. I went from Boston to Montreal to see a Canadian Grand Prix. Car rode exceptionally wheel. There are some stretches on I-89 in Vermont where I made multiple triple digits sprints and the car was very happy to do that.
The only really annoying project that I have to tackle is a rattling noise from differential bushings. But I don’t think I will be dealing with that any time during the summer. I just going to drive it. Especially after I installed a bike rack and started to ride my bicycle almost every weekend.
Reply With Quote