Twistee

You know things are well thought out if you can make through a dyno session with minimal issues. Great effort! I fall into the "I thought I had thought of everything" camp, until the dyno session and then it all turns to custard. Nearly burnt down one of builds when the fuel pump bulk head connector wiring melted. Lots of respect for your work here. Would love to see it in the flesh one day.

First Subaru I imported failed compliance because it had accident damage according to the inspector, he was convinced that the seam sealer in the boot was evidence that it had been in a major shunt. When I grabbed the manager and looked at it I was fuming, it was 100% factory applied, a couple of months later a car for my wife arrived for compliance and the over zealous inspector had been "moved" onto a WOF centre. The system is a joke this country. Good friend of mine built a highly modified MX5, custom everything, full metal wide body and retrofitted Subaru ABS to it - Certifier obviously wanted the ABS to be independently assessed as it was from another manufacturer, only person at the time in NZ that could do this was the owner of the car. It is part of day to day job to fix high end electronic issues, so when the OEM service agent can't diagnose things it goes to him. Obviously there is a small issue around a conflict of interest, you can't assess your own car. Certification never achieved what was it was meant to, make modified cars safe and get the boy racers off the street as they could never afford to meet the requirements or just keep adding stupid items that are illogical.

It took me a while to work out wtf I was looking at when I first looked at the images of them, all ass about face. I'll try and test them this weekend.

Having had a Google there seems to be a common failure method to these subs where the driver gets jammed due to the entry of liquid and foreign debris over time. So I guess I'll start there, apparently detailing with wet and dry vacs commonly kills these.

Cheers for all the options and the notes on the coding. First thing I'll do is pull the current subs out and see what condition they are in. They used to be really punchy and then suddenly dropped off with no changes to eq, the driver surrounds may have given up the ghost. If there is no physical damage then I'll look at a recode before doing anything else. The performance of the factory setup was fine for that wagon, just want to find all the bass again. I have lots of non audio things to burn money on with the E61, like fuel.... Thanks again for the details.

I'm probably not alone in saying I love the wiring porn! Keen to hear your thoughts of the sub upgrade, one of the issues I have with the CIC upgrade is that the sub farts outside the car. Lots of people who had the upgrade done have the same thing, it seems to be something wrong with the coding. I can't find any way around it, but wondered if upgrading the subs to something with more excursion on the woofer may resolve it.

Followed a Porsche Macan GTS into Mitre 10 this morning, absolutely flying through gaps in between parked cars. Was about to park and have a wtf were you thinking chat when grandma got out and ran into Mitre10. So don't judge a speeding Porsche driver by the cover, she was long gone by the time I parked and went into the store. Clearly she was in a hurry to get those bags of compost.

Still with Classic Cover, no issues with them in the past with other cars.

Thanks for offer, I think BMWorkshop have one as I know they have done clutch and flywheel replacements on S85's before. But you never know, tools go walking and if I recall the alignment tool is not cheap. If they are stuck I will reach out. Cheers.

Do they publish the prices online?

I have had three generations of Kicker gear pass through my cars over the years, and I'm sure some will completely disagree but I solder onto the male blade terminals of the speakers rather than using the friction fit connectors. This was after having a couple of the smaller size connectors either come loose or come off the frame entirely. Love your work, may you continue to be a beacon of the "because I can" mentality for all of us 😁

Gents thanks for the response, there are some really good points here to consider. @Allanw i completely forgot about a dryer, regarding modelling I work with 3D data for a living so that I have covered.

So I have been able to justify the purchase of a 3D printer for mocking up parts for various projects. Given the huge variety of printers and sponsored YouTuber recommendations it has been hard to narrow down a make and model. My requirements are a 400 x 400 x 400 print bed, works out of the box (does not need an extra $1000 of upgrades to be useable), under $2000 purchase price, reasonable speed, from a known brand (not AliExpress burn your house down special), ideally not a resin printer. I'm interested to here anyone's experiences both good and bad, I'm also happy to bend my requirements if there is something which is highly recommended that is out of scope. Thanks.

Where is the like everything button!

Been a long time since I've put anything in here, life / work has been the priority. Other than the ticking from the maybe clutch / flywheel driving me nuts at low speed the wagon has been great and still scares me sh*tless if I feed it all it will take (on a closed private road in Mexico). I've been polishing out the water stains on the glass, noticed that one of the black window trims is in need of replacement as it has corrosion coming through. I noticed that after the huge amount of fresh road paint that has been applied out my way over the past few months the wagon has a good number of white spots that I've had to remove, thanks AT for all your hard work resurfacing roads that don't need it while neglecting every pothole and repainting all the linework multiple times in the space of a month. I typically use Oakwood leather cream, this was recommended to me by others on here when I first got the car and the stuff has been great. That said, I don't seem to be able to find anyone who has stock and have depleted my reserves. What other hydrating leather conditioner has anyone used that they would be comfortable recommending? Here is a beauty shot of a minor engine bay clean, I don't know if you can really call a stock S85 engine beautiful though as outwardly it has a huge amount of plastic. Second question, the fire retardant hood / bonnet liner - has anyone ordered a replacement from the likes of FCP and had it arrive in one piece and not folded in a such a way that it is unusable? I'm guessing that at some point mine was washed down and has shrunk, at present the tabs that slot into the bonnet at the font and back not longer have any purchase and while functional it just bugs me and they are not very expensive to replace. This coming week I'll be contacting BMWorkshop to book in the major surgery, clutch, flywheel, bearings and sundry items replacement time.

You chose Kickers, nice. Not that the brand defines a great outcome but judging by your intense attention to detail I'm sure this will sound great. At the very least better than what you started with. I love watching your build threads, it helps me justify some of my insane decisions ( at least in my head ).

That one is great, I found this last night. An E61 and the guy really straight lines it.

Just de-badge it, no one will look twice.

When the MD gives you a wind up about not completing your security training, forgetting about the laptop that IT threw in the bin because he clicked that ransomware email link. FFS. Bean counters just love em.

@AllanwI only just realized that my cheap Maker's Mark has no e, wtf didn't even know that was a thing.

On a non car related tube channel, just got into whiskey tribe - didn't really need more of an excuse to want to collect beverages but why not.

Ice worked followed by a hot soapy carpet cleaner session to get the remaining goo out. Cheers.

How the f do I get chewing gum out of my interior carpet? FFS I'm pissed at having to waste time and money on doing this.

Seriously that inspector should be hand writing scripts for the local GP.

There are alternatives / clones, but my experience is that the adhesive lets them down. So if you do use a trademe alternative, (I'm a fan of the foam sound deadener) then possibly combo it with a reputable contact adhesive to avoid the pain of it coming free in a month.