gjm

Fitted new window regulator sliders in the driver's door of the E36, and adjusted the regulator so the window closes properly. It's amazing the difference the new bits of plastic make! Removed the front seats to hoover the carpets in the E36. Found $1.50. Result. It's nice getting into a car with clean-looking carpets.

Not so late that we've bought something! We're going to look at a house on Sunday. If we decide to buy, a 4wd car will be a sensible choice. As might something with a winch if we slip off the road leading to the drive...

5/8" slogging spanner and a lump hammer. Sounds harsh, but it is effective.

The 16mm bolts used for holding calipers on? A 5/8" ring spanner typically fits better than a 16mm one.

Replaced the stock solid discs (and associated calipers) on the E36 with some from a 328i. Bolt on upgrade - vented discs and bigger calipers. Usual assortment of tools required - 16mm for the caliper bolts, 14mm for the flexible hose, 7mm(!) for the bleed nipple... Anyone noticed how 16mm is a spanner size not normally included in a set? Whoever changed the pads last time (not me!) belonged to the 'lean on it' school of bolt tightening. The caliper bolts should be tight, sure, but these took some real work to get them undone.

Fixed the door mechanism and central locking on the E36. It now locks and unlocks on the remote. Never did that before.

That's nearly 2cm different in rolling diameter (when compared to the metric size). It will do in a pinch but a 205/60-15 is much closer if one can be found. 205/65-15 was a standard size on the E34. That's 0.6cm different in diameter to the metric 240/45 x 415. Of course, this relates to new tyres manufactured to a tolerance. A worn tyre could have a diameter of 1.2cm less.

Nice car. I really enjoyed my E24, despite only owning it for a short time. What can I say? I was young, impetuous and went through a lot of lovely cars (looking after them as I went!) in a fairly short period of time. I had a quick look on eBay - I've heard some people made significant cost savings by importing tyres. It may have been viable, if looking for one or two (I'd recommend a pair), but no luck. At least, not within budget - they run to (equivalent) $150-200 per tyre. I suspect your hope is that someone has a metric rim and tyre lurking in a shed, but checking the quality and age of that tyre would be very important. OK. Do you have a M635CSi? I think they were the only E24 that came with the 240/45-415 (TRX) tyres on (IIRC) a 175TR415 CH TRX rim. The Motorsport (Series 2) cars had 220/55-390 tyres, but (and this may be useful) the non-Motorsport cars had 195/70-14 tyres on a 14x6.5" et22 rim. I entirely understand your view on this. Buying a set of rims and tyres really doesn't make sense if you're only looking for one tyre, but in this case it appears that a secondhand, decent set of rims (with good tyres) will cost less than just one metric tyre. This would keep you on the road, and give a little time to find that elusive correct-fitment tyre. (I had a similar issue with a Porsche 928: 245/45-16 tyres were completely unavailable for a time, and owners were forced to wait until a manufacturer produced a run of them.) There is an additional issue in that it leaves you with a set of rims to store, of course. The E34 had 7x15 et20 rims which are similar in appearance to teh stock E24 rim, and would fit easily. They're not expensive, although I don't know of any currently for sale, but would bolt straight on and not significantly change the appearance of your car. They should be easy to resell once you have the correct tyre for your metric rim, too. My apologies - i appreciate I'm only really reiterating what others have said. I think we'd all like to see your car and if there was an easy answer to finding a good metric tyre, that wold be the choice.

As Gabriel says - the complete crap peddled by manufacturers about 'lifetime fills' is just that - complete crap. Utter rubbish. I'm astonished there hasn't been a class action suit against manufacturers for this. The biggest issue with changing the fluid on one of our cars is getting the fluid into the gearbox. BMW (and other manufacturers) chose to back up their incredulous 'lifetime' fluid claim by removing the dipstick/filler tube from the gearbox. Draining is easy, but first check you can remove the filler plug which is on the side of the gearbox - the car needs to be a little int he air to check this as you can only do it from underneath. Once you have confirmed this, undo the sump plug and drain the fluid. Once empty, remove the sump, and check for metal and other solid matter particulate. If you have swarf in the sump then the gearbox may well be toast. If not, remove the gearbox filter, clean everything thoroughly with a lint free cloth, install a new filter, replace the sump (using a new gasket), and refill with appropriate ATF by pumping it up and into the fill plug hole. This is a slightly tortuous process and to be honest I don't recall exactly what is involved. The last time I did it, I referred to instructions from *Glenn*.

When was the last time the fluid and gearbox filter were replaced? It can be fixed. A manual conversion can also be done if the gearbox is genuinely beyond saving. We have a 2002 E46 320d which has covered 500000km on the original gearbox, so <200k shouldn't be a problem.

The live searches are terrible. And the expired listings searches are all-but non-existent. Absolute rubbish. Nothing some more search filtering, or filtering of search results wouldn't cure. And the results... Search for something valued up to (say) $5k, and get results for things starting at $17k. Kinda defeats the object. Filtering older car searches by year is terrible too, with 10-year brackets to select. Looking for something between 1985 and 1995 means you have to trawl through everything from 1980 to 2000. Assuming the seller has been bothered to advertise something correctly... Right. That's enough for today. Sunday morning, the sun is shining. Wife and daughter are out for a while. I'll get something useful done, then perhaps we'll pop out and enjoy the sun for a while.

Another visit to BM World this morning to collect a replacement door handle. Despite our car being a '97 it has an earlier door handle assembly; the later assembly is different in a few small but significant ways. They both fit, but the later assembly is more ruggedly built and uses a different lock/tumbler configuration. The newer assembly is at the top, the older one below it: Back of old-style tumbler (with retaining pin alongside): Back of newer-style tumbler: Comparison of the two retaining pins. The older one is longer and is a roll-pin (spring steel); the newer one is a solid dowel. The old tumbler, with what's left of the seal that sits under the shoulder to keep water out: The key is in the tumbler to keep the pins in place. You can remove the older style tumbler from the lock without the key but the pins and springs are likely to make a break for freedom. The newer-style tumbler appears to require the key in order to withdraw the tumbler, so I'll be visiting Brent again. The two tumblers are different but the pins are the same, so I'll swap the pins from the old tumbler into the newer one, retaining one key for the whole car. More on that when I've borrowed the other key.

The other two cars are out of shot.

Removing the door handle 'officially' requires removal of the door glass. However... The glass can be released from the runner and tilted forward providing clearance for the handle to be removed. This pic is an exaggeration of what's needed but gives an idea of what is possible. To release the glass at the back, raise the window about halfway. You'll see the mechanism arm connects to a rail fitted to the bottom of the glass. There's a long-tailed clip which peaks out from behind the arm: Remove the clip by pulling to the right. Once removed, the arm can be popped out of the nylon block that slides in the rail: This shows how it fits together - the clip holds the ball on the mechanism arm in place. If the lock mechanism is still in the car (you don't need to remove the glass to remove the lock), release the rod that connects the handle to the lock. This is easiest done at the lock end. Removing the handle is a two-stage process. First slide the retaining plate towards the front of the car. This aligns the two square holes (circled) allowing a retaining peg to pass through. On the outside of the door, at the opposite end of the handle to the lock, is a flat headed dowel. This passes through the door and the handle is secured inside by a square spring clip. Remove the clip and the dowel can be withdrawn. The handle mechanism can now be withdrawn from the inside of the door. Unusually, the bush at the right hand end of the pic above is intact - typically these are worn, broken and even non-existent. This leads to more handle travel being required to operate the lock mechanism, in turn causing the broken handle parts shown at the end of the first post. The key mechanism is terrible - very stiff. I'll replace the handle and swap the locks, making sure everything is cleaned and lubed before reassembly.

The drivers door on our E36 saloon (4-door) had become deadlocked, and would not release. This meant the door was closed, could not be unlocked from outside, and could not be opened from inside or outside. Remove the door card. This can be done while the door is closed, although requires more care and persuasion than when the door is open. With the window wound up, remove the 10mm bolt securing the guide runner to the rear of the door. Once the bolt is out, the runner can drop down and be removed from inside the door. (You need to do this to gain access room to the actuator.) This pic taken using pure luck because you cannot see what is going on shows the door lock wiring (connector labelled 'A') and the lock levers (circled) with the deadlocking lever labelled 'B'. This shows another door lock with the actuator - the black plastic box - fitted. The actuator is a push fit on to the top of the door lock and is secure by a plastic locking tab. This pic shows the door lock and (circled) the deadlock lever. This shows the position of the deadlock lever in our car. Theoretically it is possible to remove the power door lock actuator from the top of the door lock while installed in the car, but the position of the deadlock lever secures the actuator to the lock mechanism. I was able (after a lot of trial and error) to insert a screwdriver under the wiring connector and push the deadlock lever back into the correct position. Sounds easy... Try it. After that it's 'just' (LOL) a case of releasing everything, removing the lock, lubricating (or replacing) it, and refitting. If you have the chance to plan this I suggest getting a new door lock gasket. While there, you'll see the other issue facing older locks and handles: This is caused by a bush wearing away, meaning the movement of the handle becomes looser so you need to lift the handle more than is normally necessary. That in turn leads to the frame breaking as shown. The bush can be replaced but this ^ really requires a new handle. I'll get pics of the offending parts later - having finally got the door open, it's started raining again! Thanks to Brent - BM World - for his advice and supply of parts.

Popped in to see Brent earlier in the week and got some pointers on what to do. Release the window guide, let it drop down, manipulate the glass out of the way, and I should have easier access to the actuator. It's a fiddle and a faff, but at least theoretically possible to manipulate things to release the deadlock. And it's not raining which means I actually have an opportunity to give this a go. Wish me luck! And - Thanks Brent. Regardless of my level of success, your advice is very gratefully received.

One that's not pouring with rain and blowing a gale? Probably not Monday, but other than that I think we're OK. Send me a PM and let me know what suits you.

I did ours. Twice. Because the first FSR I was supplied turned out to be a Chinese one. (No names, no pack drill.) That was replaced and then installed a 'real' one - no problems since. I found it an almighty PITA job, trying to squeeze myself upside down in the drivers footwell under the steering wheel, but it did give me a reason to buy a set of Torx T-bars. Maybe it gets easier with practice? Glenn (Botany MotorWorx) and Ray (HellBM) both assured e it was easy, but I suspect they've done a few before.

Heads are so easily turned by a pretty ankle...

If you'd like to head south over the weekend - weather permitting - you're welcome to come and have a look. I think I have all the wiring you'd need but it's going to take a bit of sorting.

I may be able to help - I have a M10B18 (with dizzy) and I'm planning to go distributor-less, running a crank trigger and aftermarket EMS. It'll be a couple of days before I get a real chance to check what is there - work is absolutely flat out this week until close of play on Thursday evening. And I'm pretty local - Te Kauwhata. I work in Papatoetoe so if we come to an arrangement, getting bits to you shouldn't be too much of a chore.

That's a lot of unsprung weight... According to Realoem, p/n 34106887398 (395x36) weighs in at 17.55kg.

I'll give it a go. Thanks.

E36 drivers door... I've had some problems with the lock for a week or two (the key might unlock the door, but often wouldn't; no remote locking), but unlocking from the passenger side, leaning across and unlocking the drivers door hasn't been enough of a chore to make it an urgent fix. Until yesterday when leaning across and lifting the knob didn't work. It doesn't unlock. Can't open the door from the outside, or the inside. Grip the lock knob and lift, and you can feel it lift against something; release it and feel it pulled down. Almost like there's a small elastic band on the bottom of it. So the door is locked, and cannot be opened. I have managed to get the door card off without destroying it (and the foam-type liner). The window works. However, it's impossible to see anything that might be useful - it's all hidden inside the door, behind sheet metal. I think the actuator has decided to call it a day, but I've not had quite this sort of experience. There's always been a mechanical way to unlock the door, but not this time. Lifting the locking pin knob achieves nothing - there is absolutely no sense of anything happening. So... Tips, tricks and ways to sort this? Right now I'll settle for just being able to get the door open and closed!

Just as a matter of passing interest I was looking at the specs for the new Merc S-Class. Aside form forgetting how to build a car that goes from 0-100km/h in more than 5 seconds (leaving the diesel version aside), they appear to have emptied the Mercedes factory dining room when sorting the brakes. 360mm brake discs. At the back...