ZHPizza's red car

[ZHPizza]

Got u fam. I’ll drop one in the box of stuff to bring to you.

It was actually one of the longer bolts for the 10mm ECS spacer. Now I'm thinking that's the real culprit as I would never leave a wheel untorqued...buuut I would also go several months without checking the torque on wheels with aluminum spacers between them and the hub.

My guess is that the hundreds of heat cycles from driving caused enough expansion/contraction of the spacers to slowly loosen the wheel bolts.

And then one broke...

And I didn't notice...

[slater]

It was actually one of the longer bolts for the 10mm ECS spacer. Now I'm thinking that's the real culprit as I would never leave a wheel untorqued...buuut I would also go several months without checking the torque on wheels with aluminum spacers between them and the hub.

My guess is that the hundreds of heat cycles from driving caused enough expansion/contraction of the spacers to slowly loosen the wheel bolts.

And then one broke...

And I didn't notice...

ha. well... you DID notice.

glad you got that sorted out. did you pull the spacers in the meantime?

[ZHPizza]

ha. well... you DID notice.

glad you got that sorted out. did you pull the spacers in the meantime?

Yep! Spacers are off since I'm now a bolt short.

The main reason that I wanted to get the car on the rack and rotate the tires was to check the rotors as I was getting a "wub wub wub" noise from rear when braking to a stop. It wasn't causing vibration, so I wasn't thinking warped rotor, but maybe some cooked on pad material in a spot on a rotor.

Turns out it was a loose wheel...

Glad it let me know before it fell off!

[slater]

Yep! Spacers are off since I'm now a bolt short.

The main reason that I wanted to get the car on the rack and rotate the tires was to check the rotors as I was getting a "wub wub wub" noise from rear when braking to a stop. It wasn't causing vibration, so I wasn't thinking warped rotor, but maybe some cooked on pad material in a spot on a rotor.

Turns out it was a loose wheel...

Glad it let me know before it fell off!

yeah!! somebody is looking out for ya...

[ZHPizza]

Time for an update!

So I had about two hours to spare one night and decided to do a big fluid change, starting with the engine oil and moving my way back as time allowed.

For several weeks, I was getting the yellow oil level warning light on the dash after shutting off the car, then it started coming on while driving. It was erratic, though, and the dipstick always read dead in the middle, so I assumed failing level sensor like any good e46. I went ahead and changed that ass out for the Hella branded sensor (see: BMW part with BMW emblems milled off).



It was only after changing the sensor that I noticed that I had drained <6 quarts from the engine...hm...might not have been a bad sensor after all?

Whatever, I got shit to do. Let's change that tranny fluid:

***NO PICS OF THE TRANSMISSION SERVICE BECAUSE EVERYTHING WENT WELL AND WE'RE ON A TIME CRUNCH HERE LET'S GO FOR THE TRIFECTA AND GET THE DIFF DONE TOO***

Y'all know what's about to happen, right? It's getting late. I've got to hit the road early the next morning. I just had two smooth, successful DIY's go perfectly to plan. Recipe for disaster.

>Broke the differential fill and drain plugs free. They didn't even put up a fight. Too easy.

>Got my catch setup in place: funnel in the oil jug, elevated on a box, just like I did for the transmission without spilling a drop.

>Started to unscrew the drain plug. Stinky gear oil is running right into the funnel. Damn, I'm good.

>Dropped the plug into the funnel. No problem, happens all the time. I'll just get it after it's done draining.

>Nope. Somethings not right. Problem.

>During its fall [more like perfectly executed olympic dive], the drain plug rotated to the perfect angle to land straight down in the funnel, thereby doing its only known job of, well, being a plug.

So here I am, my face going from :-) to :-( in real time as I hold a plugged funnel, which is now effectively a cup, as stinky old diff oil fills over the edge and dumps allover my arm/my garage/the local floodplains.

The aftermath:



It doesn't look that bad in the pic because you can't smell it.

It's been one month since the spill.

My garage still smells like rotten trash.

I flew too close to the sun.

[704sw]

You did hear me when I told you the exact same thing happened to me, right? Except I didn’t have cardboard under the tray...just newspaper. The foulest of odors.

[holyc0w]

You did hear me when I told you the exact same thing happened to me, right? Except I didn’t have cardboard under the tray...just newspaper. The foulest of odors.

I knew this sounded familiar.

[Sockethead]

Ugh... old nasty gear oil nothing worse.... well maybe burnt automatic transmission fluid...
My garage smells like burnt mineral oil from smoke testing the crap out of my car... that's pretty nasty too. I need a smelly cigar to even it up

[slater]

The foulest of odors.

it is. truly.

and nate, at least it landed on your arm.... i somehow got it IN MY MUSTACHE. and i had a full beard at the time. no amount of washing/degreasing/rinsing with acid would make the smell go away... my wife wouldn't kiss me anymore.

gear oil:1
beard: 0

nasty stuff.

[ZHPizza]

You did hear me when I told you the exact same thing happened to me, right? Except I didn’t have cardboard under the tray...just newspaper. The foulest of odors.

Yeah...I meant to warn you about that when you borrowed the tools for the diff...but.....ya know.....I didn't.

Ugh... old nasty gear oil nothing worse.... well maybe burnt automatic transmission fluid...
My garage smells like burnt mineral oil from smoke testing the crap out of my car... that's pretty nasty too. I need a smelly cigar to even it up

My garage is on the bottom of my townhome, so the smell followed me up two floors to the kitchen and the wife thought I walked in there and shit myself.

it is. truly.

and nate, at least it landed on your arm.... i somehow got it IN MY MUSTACHE. and i had a full beard at the time. no amount of washing/degreasing/rinsing with acid would make the smell go away... my wife wouldn't kiss me anymore.

gear oil:1
beard: 0

nasty stuff.

dude.

no.