What did you do for your ZHP/ BMW / MINI today? #2

[cakM3]

I took my M3 out for a quick run this morning and then gave her a good wash. I then filled her gas tank before putting her away again...next is applying more Pinnacle Sovereign wax to keep that wet gloss shine she has...

[t.er]

Replaced my passenger's door seal which never had the felt liner. I got a steal on the used one, and it really satisfied my OCD.

[t.er]

Currently in the middle of replacing my handbrake cables, jesus christ I hate northern cars. Getting the cable sleeve out of the subframe was damn near impossible, I ended up pulling most of the cable through (mangling it in the process) and ended up cutting it in half, getting it out both ends. Then used a vice grip to extract the plastic sleeve.







Sigh, still gotta do the right side, which is the side with less space too.

[Galapolis]

Was something wrong with the cable?

I got some cheap ebay black grills. This must be like my 4th set because they keep breaking. Hopefully this one will last longer, it has a different mounting design than the previous ones I had.

[t.er]

Yeah, when the Redish plates were done by the shop 3 years ago I think they may have crossthreaded one of the cable studs or nuts at the lever. As a result when I went to remove the nut, the cable twisted along with it. I'm also rebuilding all of the handbrake hardware (there's basically no shoe material at this point and everything is rusty), and swapping on my Zimmerman rotors, HPS pads, and ATE fluid. Honestly I think if I didn't have to do the cables I'd be nearly done at this point - slightly dropping my exhaust and removing the heatshield, then replacement of the cables (which I'm still not done) has taken me 5 hours so far.

Where did you get those brake cooling ducts? One of my fogs has a small crack and I don't use them anyways, so I'm thinking of deleting them.

[Galapolis]

Love the HPS pads, been running them for 1.5 years now. They haven't faded on me once, even during extreme tofu delivery I mean mountain carving.

The foglight delete plates are these here: https://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-3er-E46-...-/292387227511

They don't ship internationally so I had a friend of mine ship them over. I never contacted the seller though, maybe you can arrange something.

[Vas]

Currently in the middle of replacing my handbrake cables, jesus christ I hate northern cars. Getting the cable sleeve out of the subframe was damn near impossible, I ended up pulling most of the cable through (mangling it in the process) and ended up cutting it in half, getting it out both ends. Then used a vice grip to extract the plastic sleeve.







Sigh, still gotta do the right side, which is the side with less space too.

I'm in the same situation with the parking brake and all the hardware.

Northern cars are the worst.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[704sw]

Currently in the middle of replacing my handbrake cables, jesus christ I hate northern cars. Getting the cable sleeve out of the subframe was damn near impossible, I ended up pulling most of the cable through (mangling it in the process) and ended up cutting it in half, getting it out both ends. Then used a vice grip to extract the plastic sleeve.

I, too, endured the agony of handbrake cables and Canadian cars. I replaced them when I had the subframe lowered. I can’t imagine doing it with the carrier still attached to the car...

[t.er]

I'm starting to think that had I dropped the subframe, it would've been much faster (seriously). The handbrake cables seem like such a simple DIY, but there were so many issues I ran into and I'm still not done.

Took me 1.5 hours to remove the driver's cable, then 2.5 hours for the passenger's. That one was significantly more seized, I ended up flush cutting the cable at the entry to the subframe, then hammered in a pick between the subframe and the plastic sleeve at multiple points to collapse it and twisted it out with pliers.

Then when I went to install the new driver's cable, the metal fitting on the end that butts up to the hole in the body for the lever was too big to fit in the rusty subframe, so I had to sand that before it could go in. Then I had to do the same with the passenger's side, but it still does not go in even with significantly more sanding. I'm to the point where I don't want to take more material off, or it'll slip into the hole on the body. I want to sand the hole in the subframe, but there is no space for my dremel, and going by hand will take forever. I think I may pick up a set of small files tomorrow morning, and try using that on the subframe, otherwise I'm not quite sure how to get that fitting in.

Passenger's cable finally out, I think by that point it was in 4-5 pieces:



Passenger's plastic sleeve (really surprising how stuck it was in there):





Sanded fitting (it initially had a faint hex shape on it, I've taken off so much material that it's now round). You can see how close the 2 diameters are, so I have no choice but to sand the subframe. The fitting also separated from the sheathing so I'll have to repair that once it's past the subframe:



Alas, I'm just really looking forward to getting that last cable in. After that it should be smooth sailing from there *knock on wood*

[ZHPizza]

I'll hold my Florida car a little closer tonight