Salty's 2005 330Ci ZHP Jet Black Coupe Restore

Sockethead, I found the thread you were talking about. Thanks for the heads-up. It was kind of funny, because earlier in this thread you mentioned being at work, and in the original thread, you mentioned being at work. I think you're spending too much time at work. :)

I didn't get a chance to take out the floor of the trunk this weekend. Too busy doing other things under the car. I'll check it out this week and keep my fingers crossed.

Salty

Yea.... I repeat myself a lot lol...

I am a bit late for this party. Your maintenance list is quite extensive and you have a great progress.
Good looking coupe Salty!

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Thanks, Rus!

Salty

I took care of the DISA valve this evening by upgrading it to the German Auto Solutions (GAS) aluminum and titanium version with the fluorosilicone o-ring. The DISA valve wasn't listed in the previous maintenance, but this had to be a nearly brand new DISA valve. It was in near pristine condition, and the molded o-ring was a pain to get off. Oh well, for less than $100 and an hour or so of time, it is worth the peace of mind that the pin won't be coming out and detonating the engine sometime in the future.

There isn't a lot to the process. It is a nice kit with everything you need except a couple of common tools. The process is very well documented on the GAS site, so I won't do a blow by blow, but here are a few shots of the process:

This is how it all starts. You remove the retainer, pop out the top pin, and take out the existing flapper.
Attachment 31776

It is nice they include a little tube of grease and a little tube of Loctite. Ooow, titanium. :)
Attachment 31777

This is what transforms the DISA upgrade from a 10 minute job to an hour job. My "o-ring" was not deteriorated at all. The entire unit looked brand new. It took forever to scrape away all of the existing silicone from the channel. It isn't really an o-ring, but rather the silicone is molded directly on the unit. I used some Harbor Freight picks I had purchased earlier from working on an aquarium CO2 regulator. I also had an old 66-block telecom pick. I use that thing all the time to remove o-rings. It worked great to wrap the plastic end with some Scotchbrite pad and scrub out the channel. Still, it was a very tedious job and took a long time to completely clean up.
Attachment 31778

I didn't take a final picture of the new blue o-ring in place. It was late when I finished, and I was ready to get it back in the car before midnight. GAS recommends letting the Loctite cure 12 hours before use. That may be overkill, but it'll get the 12 hours. And I get to check another thing off the list. Woot!

Salty

I found the window sticker for the car in some paperwork.

Attachment 31779

Salty

Always nice finding that!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SaltyNC

This is what transforms the DISA upgrade from a 10 minute job to an hour job. My "o-ring" was not deteriorated at all. The entire unit looked brand new. It took forever to scrape away all of the existing silicone from the channel. It isn't really an o-ring, but rather the silicone is molded directly on the unit. I used some Harbor Freight picks I had purchased earlier from working on an aquarium CO2 regulator. I also had an old 66-block telecom pick. I use that thing all the time to remove o-rings. It worked great to wrap the plastic end with some Scotchbrite pad and scrub out the channel. Still, it was a very tedious job and took a long time to completely clean up.
Salty

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Oh yes...my fingers got a bit tired. I didn't remove the o-ring 100%, but I used a brush on it and whatever was still left seemed to be there for good.

I was able to get the channel completely clean. I hit it with a little 3M adhesive remover. I don't know if that did anything other than wet the silicone, but it seemed to roll up like pencil eraser shavings when scraping it with the Scotchbrite pad after that. When I first started, I questioned whether it was even possible, but it will eventually come up with enough elbow grease. The nice thing about a project like this is that it should be a once and done kind of deal, at least with the mileage on the car (155K).

Salty

Good news. The weather in NC finally got above freezing, today. It felt practically like summer with temps in the mid 50's after so much cold. So, I took out the trunk liner and had a look to see if my 09/01/2004 build date on the 2005 BMW 330Ci Coupe had the factory reinforcement. It did. Woot!

This is with the carpet/felt and trunk floor removed. The highlighted area is at the back of the tire well on the driver's side. I removed the rubber plug sitting on the felt above the hole.
Attachment 31801

And this is looking down into that hole. It is somewhat difficult to get one's eyes and light angled properly, but here you can see in this out-of-focus image that down in the hole is the black plastic reinforcement block and the blue epoxy. So, it looks like at least in my case, BMW was doing this reinforcement procedure as early as 09/01/2004.
Attachment 31802

Here is the original thread discussing the factory reinforcement that Sockethead referenced earlier:
http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showt...tion-technical

I hope that helps someone.

Salty