good work, salty. i've got a lightly sticking FR caliper... i'm going to replace both fronts with reman'd units.
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good work, salty. i've got a lightly sticking FR caliper... i'm going to replace both fronts with reman'd units.
Nice! I went with gloss black on my calipers too. I did it on the car, though, and my results matched my effort. Excited to see this thing come together and drive straight for once!
Good stuff
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They were only $54 each (but do require a $70 refundable core charge), and even though Bavauto says calipers are excluded from free shipping, they shipped mine for free. Two calipers and two cans of brake fluid weighs 34 lbs! Ouch. That was probably close to a buy one get one free deal when free shipping is factored into it. Of course, now I have to pay to ship the old ones back. 2 thumbs up for Bavauto. They shipped them fast. I didn't have any vacuum caps handy, so to seal off my brake lines while I worked, I cut the fingertips off a mean kid in the neighborhood and stuck them...oh wait, wait, that's not right. :) I cut the fingertips off a nitrile glove and put a tight fitting o-ring around it. That did the trick. A vacuum line cap assortment would be a lot easier.Quote:
Originally Posted by slater
Salty
Thanks for the kind words, fellas. I chuckled when I read ZHPizza's drive straight for once comment. I knew the tie rods needed to be adjusted away from the original setting, so I matched their length when replacing them, and added a little on one side and shortened the other side, and truly just fudged it to see how close I could get without getting out some mason line, etc (I'm going to have a proper alignment -- this is just temporary). So, the steering wheel used to be like this ( \ ) and now it's like this ( / ). So much for eyeballing it. :blushing
BTW, this is a really cool video explaining how to straighten steering using tie rod adjustments. However, this has to be reversed for our cars, because our tie rods mount to the front of the wheel rather than the back as in this training rig. Still, this video kicks butt for clarity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-44Hrfdgn8
It looks like we're in for monsoon season here in NC. Have you seen the forecast, ZHPizza??? We have no sun literally until Feb 24. Whaaa? So, I had to git while the gittin' was good, and get my other tie rod installed this afternoon.
Man, that tie rod looks worse than my granny's wrinkled pantyhose. :) Maybe the work of a pipe wrench? I had to make liberal use of PB Blaster for these last couple of projects, so you'll probably see areas of wetness here and there. After these projects, I need to wash it and get it out of the weather. It's a muddy, nasty mess right now.
Attachment 31969
Tie rods are actually a fairly easy job with the right tools, but the tools make all the difference. A 34mm crows foot is nice for the inner tie rod, so it can be torqued properly, and a ball joint puller makes removing the old tie rod a snap. I stuck with those single use Oetiker crimp style band clamps. Having a set of offset Oetiker crimpers is nice when working on the tie rod boots.
Attachment 31968
I went with Lemförder tie rods. As far as I know, they are identical to OE right down to the same yellow and red seals.
Attachment 31967
Tomorrow, I'll put on a rain jacket and get out the string and do a hillbilly alignment to get the wheels and steering wheel pointing straight , and then it will be off to the alignment shop.
Salty
Check the USPS flat rate box deal. I shipped some E28 calipers cross-country for a great rate (at the time) in them.Quote:
Originally Posted by SaltyNC
Great idea, John. I didn't think about that. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by John in VA
Salty
It's not uncommon for the tie rod adjuster sleeves to seize. That's probably why they are so beat up. I little antiseize compound should take care of that
The forecast for today is rain, but it's actually more misty than anything, so I took the opportunity to do the temp alignment. ZHPizza, I have a straight steering wheel, and my tires are pointing in the right direction. :) Woot!
While I had the front lifted, I installed the new stainless lines on the front and did a quick bleed. If the rains holds, I may do the rear lines and a complete flush, today.
By cranking the car and pressing the brake pedal, then wedging the brake pedal down with a cloth-wrapped pipe against the seat, not a single drop was spilled from the hard brake lines, and I didn't need the vacuum caps. I placed a Motive bleeder bottle on the nipple and loosened it to remove the fluid from the old brake line before removing it. It made for a quick and clean brake line swap. While I was under the car, I replaced the quick-lock screws in the belly pan and replaced some of the clips that had rusted, and replaced the oil drain plug cover that was missing when I bought the car. And finally, I replaced the screw cover in the passenger side door pull. How people lose things like that is beyond me.
The ECS stainless brake lines are nice looking and appear to be high quality and well constructed
Attachment 31974
Happy Saturday!
Salty
Good stuff. Lol on your temp plug solution.
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Thanks.
Today was crazy weather. It was supposed to be a washout. I didn't think we would be able to do anything outdoors, but where we live, we were between two bands of rain that soaked our neighbors to the west and to the east. It rained all day on them, and here it was dry pretty much from 9 AM on. It made for some great February weather -- cloudy, breezy, 70 degrees, and no rain.
That let me get the back two stainless brake lines installed, and do a power flush on the ZHP with Ate brake fluid. Since I had everything out and an extra liter, I went ahead and did my Z4M.
The back brake line mounting clips were a bugger to get off. I wrestled with the clip for 20 minutes and got it off, thinking I was home free. Then, I tried to get the brake line out of the slot for 15 minutes until I realized the metal won't slide out the slot in the mount. The metal line protector must be pushed back through the hole in the center of the mount, and the brake line goes out the slot. Duh! The other side was done in 5 minutes since I then knew the secret handshake. :) For the flush, I used a Motive power bleeder. I was a Motive virgin, but it did great. It was very easy to use and beat the brake pumping method for sure.
Do you guys like the kindergarten method of organization? It's my preferred method, so when I got the Motive power bleeder, I ran to Harbor Freight and picked up a 15" tool bag for around $8. I put all of my brake bleeding supplies in the bag including a caliper piston pusher, flare wrenches, 9mm nipple wrench, funnel, Motive pressure bottle and two motive bleeder bottles, plus a small OTC magnetic bleeder bottle for quick bleeds, and some steel and brass brushes, a can of Brākleen and a tube of caliper grease (not used on BMWs).
Attachment 31980
and it all zips up in a nice self-contained storage bag.
Attachment 31981
While I had the jack and jackstands out, I tuned up my rough alignment a little better. Now, the car is driving right without any weirdness. I had it a little too much toe-in before. I'll get it into an alignment shop this week.
Salty
Like the brake bag
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Almost done with front suspension refresh.
This will be fun.
Attachment 31992
Salty
:like
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Today was differential oil change day. Oh man, I hate the smell of gear oil. It smells like BO, a dead animal, sweaty butthole, and chicken manure all rolled into one.
The rear diff drain and fill plugs use a 14mm hex. You can use a 14mm bolt with a couple of 14mm nuts in a pinch, but I had to run to the auto parts store anyway, so I picked up a set of large hex sockets. These diff plugs have the o-ring versus the crush washer.
Attachment 32000
It is always suggested to remove the fill plug first, so you know you can add more fluid before removing the drain plug. I used a 1/2" short extension and breaker bar. The plugs came off easily. The fill plug is toward the back of the car and the drain plug faces the passenger side.
Attachment 31999
This setup worked great. I placed an angled funnel under the diff, and let the drain plug fall into the funnel. The funnel angled down to a 2 liter bottle placed in an oil drain pan. This allowed a drain without a single drop spilling. It all went into the 2 liter bottle.
Attachment 32001
And here is the nasty oil.
Attachment 32002
You can get these Lubrimatic pumps on Amazon. They are really nice fluid pumps. This didn't fit the small lid Red Line uses on their gear oil, but the pump still works fine just placed in the top.
Attachment 32003
I put in 1 qt. and then about 3 pumps from a second bottle until the fill hole overflowed. God that smell! Uggh. I used a torque wrench to tighten the fill and drain plugs to 44 ft. lbs (used when the plugs have an o-ring), and cleaned the outside of the diff with some brake cleaner.
The test drive after the fluid change felt smoother, but it could be placebo. I always have to give it a few days, before I can say for certain if there is any improvement.
I don't know what it is about that oil, but I swear I still smell it. It literally gets in one's nose.
Salty
Yup, nasty smell. Nice write-up.
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Hahaha yesss. Stuck in the nose for a week!
Congrats on the clean job. You pulled off what I was attempting with all of the same tools and much better execution.
Salty, that funnel looks good. I was changing the transmission oil few weeks ago. I had no funnel and job wad quite messy and so in convinient.
I need to buy one of these angled funnel for sure.
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Thanks! Yeah, but were you using a Sundrop bottle? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by ZHPizza
Salty
Thanks, Rus. I wish I could say I was smart enough to think ahead that the funnel would fit under the diff like that, but it was dumb luck. I just grabbed the only long neck funnel I had, and when I positioned it, it was like LIGHTBULB. :)
Salty
Last week was differential oil day. This weekend was transmission flush day. If you have a full size lift or pit, this would be an easy job. On jack stands, it isn't hard, but it is more time consuming due to the limited movement you have, and a little scary, though it's mostly psychological. After getting the car up on jack stands, I pushed it hard from side to side and front to back to make sure it wasn't going to go anywhere, and it was rock solid.
Because I wanted to do multiple flushes to get as much of the old transmission fluid out, I was not looking forward to spending $250+ for transmission fluid for D4, which I knew was a great fluid. I run it in my Z4M, and know many people use it and have good experience with it, but I was really curious about Dexron VI, because after all, the AT in the ZHP is a GM transmission. As I researched, I learned that the GM Automatic Transmission - A5S390R - also known as the GM 5L50 Hydra-Matic was used in a variety of cars and SUVs including the Cadillac XLR, STS, and SRX, as well as some models of the E46 and BMW X5's. The 5L50 is basically a heavier duty version of the A5S360R (5L40E). What I learned was that many BMW X5 owners switched to Dexron VI without issue. I learned that Cadillac dealers use Dexron VI to service the Cadillacs with this same transmission. I then turned to forums, and found many satisfied E46 owners, but one troublesome report. However, after digging more, the one troublesome report turned out to have extenuating circumstances. The owner had also reset his transmission adaptations. So, BMW superseding my transmission oil number with Dexron VI, Cadillac using Dexron VI, and many positive reports, I felt it was close to a sure thing to use it, and that it would be superior to D4 in chemistry.
I found genuine Dexron VI for $3.79 per quart from Rock Auto, and promptly bought 21 quarts. Yeah, that's a lot, but I had plans for it. I did several drain and fill cycles this weekend, and I'll now drive for several hundred miles, and do a final drain and fill.
There are other how-to's, but this is an overview of the process I used.
Here are the parts and tools I used. Even though the pan bolts are only tightened to 7 ft lbs, which is basically "snug," I broke out the small 1/4 torque wrench set to 84 in lbs. I'm using a T45 torx bit with a 10mm ratcheting box end wrench for the tight squeeze of the fill plug.
Attachment 32058
Here is the "green" label on the GM transmission. Punch in the part number on a BMW parts search, and you'll get Dexron VI as the new part number:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/partxref?q=83220024359
https://www.getbmwparts.com/oem-part...id-83220397114
Yeah, the pan was nasty. I didn't take a pic, but I cleaned up the outside before re-installing it.
Attachment 32059
Here is my ultra-short Torx 45 setup. It's just a 10mm box end ratcheting wrench over a 45 Torx bit.
Attachment 32060
The procedure I did was:
- Cold fluid drain
- Fluid Fill until overflow
- Crank engine and slowly run through PRND S1 S2
- Fluid fill until overflow
- Turn off engine
- Drain
- Drop pan
- Pull filter
- Clean Pan, clean magnet, remove and clean gasket area
- Replace filter
- Replace pan with new gasket installed
- Fill until overflow
- Crank engine and run through gears quickly
- Turn off engine
- Drain
- Fill until overflow
- Crank engine and run through gears slowly
- Fill until overflow while engine is running and AT temp is around 100-125 degrees F checking with INPA
- Seal it up. Done until a few hundred miles.
Here is the pan dropped with the filter.
A couple of helpful hints:
- Remove all bolts except the four corners. Replace the drain plug. Loosen the four corners so there is about a 1/4" of exposed thread. Now break the seal on the transmission pan. This will allow you to pull down on the pan to break the seal without fear of a big slosh. Once the seal is broken, you can remove the final bolts and ease down the pan without spilling any.
- When you pull out the filter, it will likely have one orange ring and one yellow/white ring. There should be two orange rings. Look for the second ring inside the transmission. It needs to come out.
Attachment 32061
Here I have pushed up the particles on the magnet to show how much was there. There was a little in the bottom of the pan, as well. I believe this was the first time the fluid had been changed based on what I found. The drain plug was painted like the pan, the particles on the magnet, plus the black fluid, all lead me to believe it had never been done. So, first AT fluid change at 158450.
Attachment 32062
I first cleaned the outside of the pan with Tarminator and a general degreaser. Next, I cleaned the inside of the pan with lint-free towels, then for good measure rinsed it all with denatured alcohol and allowed it to completely evaporate. Then I realized I hadn't removed the old gasket. So, I got to do it all again.
Attachment 32064
I used a level on the transmission bolts and leveled the transmission for the final fill. For the first two cycles, I had the transmission angled slightly back toward the drain plug. This shot is actually from the first fill after the cold drain. The pan is still nasty in this photo.
Attachment 32063
The transmission didn't have any issues with reverse, slow shifting, etc, and after the fluid change, it continues to operate like it did before except that shifts seem to happen a little faster. I drove it about 30 miles after the change, today, and so far, so good. I'll report back from time to time on how the transmission is doing.
Solid write up! You should add it to the DIY section
+1. This needs to be easy to find. Well done ! I sold my first e46 (1999. 323i) at around 145k miles because my Indy told me the tranny never had any service done. In my mind, it could fail at any time. But it was the water pump that failed after I sold it, less than 100 miles after the sale.
Good stuff as always!
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I was getting an intermittent DSC and Brake light in yellow / amber, and the last few weeks, the lights have remained on constantly. I ran some diagnostics, and it was coming up as Brake Pressure Sensor 1 electrical fault. If I cleared the error, it immediately returned.
I ordered a new sensor, and installed it, today. It solved the issue immediately.
https://www.getbmwparts.com/oem-part...or-34521164458
BMW's TIS recommends extracting the brake fluid from the brake fluid reservoir and removing it. I looked and found that doing that wouldn't help me access the sensor, so I used a method similar to what 50's Kid did in the first part of this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvyVCwCAx1Q
I used a bulb extractor and removed as much fluid as I could, then put the cap back on for the rest of the procedure. You do need a magnetic pickup tool, a ratcheting box end wrench, and some luck to get the bolts off that connect the master cylinder to the brake booster. For anyone wondering, the brake booster hose can be removed from the brake booster without issue. Just pull hard and it comes right out. No need to bleed brakes if you are just replacing that hose.
Once I had the master cylinder removed and the DSC module unbolted (a single bolt in a nightmare location), I was able to tilt the entire assembly over on its side, as you can see, below.
Attachment 32220
That allowed me enough access to get to the sensor. I made a little cup out of aluminum foil and lined the area with paper shop towels. I expected to get about a 1/4 cup of fluid coming out when I removed the sensor, but to my surprise, only a drop or two came out. Woot!
If your wiring was done correctly, Pressure Sensor #1 is going to be under V and Pressure Sensor #2 is going to be under H. My son is the German language expert, but I believe that V (Vorderseite = front) relates to the front brake lines, and H (Hinter = behind) relates to the back brake lines.
Attachment 32221
After the sensor was replaced, I bolted everything back up, and then refilled the reservoir with new brake fluid, then performed a complete brake flush using a Motive pressure bleeder. I just did this recently. Oh well, a fill-up costs $40. Brake fluid is less than $20, and stopping is better than going when you need to stop. :)
I then cleared the pressure sensor error, and everything is working great. No more lights.
While I had the back air filter compartment/drain off, I went ahead and installed some new NGK 3199 BKR6EQUP spark plugs. Most of them were fine, but the first one must have been torqued to 70 ft lbs. Holy cow. I was so worried it was going to pop, but it held strong. I torqued all of the new ones to 19 ft lbs, which is right down the middle of the range. I found a good deal on the spark plugs on Amazon, but since I ordered them, they have gone from $25.92 to $36.00. I wonder if they had the six pack marked the same price as a four pack.
Now I can take deadman's curve going 80 MPH now that I have DSC back (kidding kidding).
It was a beautiful day here in the Carolinas.
Salty
Thanks for the documentation - I might have this issue on our '00 328i.
:like
Nice werk. Good info.
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Great job on replacing the pressure sensor! This is one of those DIYs that I never want to attempt. Hey, maybe you could post the steps in the DIY section?