What'd you do to your BMW today?

[Vass 830]

I found the Karcher snow foam bottle thing a bit faff. Doesn't make the foam nearly thick enough to do its job, way too watery and the foam runs straight off. A proper foam lance would definitely make a difference but a good one is something like $150+ compared to $40-50 for the Karcher...

[Sammo 2544]

1 hour ago, Vass said:

I found the Karcher snow foam bottle thing a bit faff. Doesn't make the foam nearly thick enough to do its job, way too watery and the foam runs straight off. A proper foam lance would definitely make a difference but a good one is something like $150+ compared to $40-50 for the Karcher...

Possibly, I thought it seemed thick enough.

Just an extra step at end of the day I don’t need - E30 is washed probably 2-3 times a month and is covered in Carpro Hydro2 at all times.

[KwS 2425]

I believe when done correctly the foam should be thick and almost kinda globby, not runny, and should look white, not like you sprayed some soap on the paint. Either way, i concur, never found it that useful and just adds a step I cant be bothered doing. My fancy foam cannon and foam reside at the very back of my cabinet now.

@Sammo would it be worth looking at a proper ceramic coating for your E30? 

Edited August 5, 2022 by KwS

[Sammo 2544]

@KwS might look at that if I respray (most or all of it) it next year 

[Jacko 2154]

Im the same, snow foam seems to be mostly hype... I only do it now if caked in sh*t.. and even then I dont think it does much other than make the drain all soapy...

 

[Eagle 1662]

I find it helps soften dirt to some degree if you follow up with the water blaster. Works well to spray diluted cleaning products on houses, caravans etc.

[balancerider 757]

Halo ring bulb replacement on (my former) E91 that I'm titivating - this job is an absolute PIA, with thanks to Jon @Spinner99.

Wheel off / liner off / light cover off then dremeling a hole in the bulb housing as they'd made it one time use from the factory.

Great to get rid of the dreaded exclamation mark of doom from the dash though...useful PDF guide attached if anyone else needs to tackle this one.

E90 Halo Change 3.pdf

[Spinner99 55]

Question of the day - how long does it take to change a lightbulb on a BMW?  

[M3AN 4016]

2 hours ago, Spinner99 said:

Question of the day - how long does it take to change a lightbulb on a BMW?  

If it's at an authorised BMW workshop then you may need to pay for a full hour of labour, but with that you'll get a description of the fault readout (no you can't get a copy), and a list of remedial parts that may or may not need replacing.

Edited August 8, 2022 by M3AN

[euroriffic 607]

Spent the weekend on the 530 replacing ccv and it’s associated hoses, smoke test and reset the fault codes, and now only have a misfire in cylinder 6. Plug and coil were good, but did a compression test and is zero. God damn it!

[Eagle 1662]

Stuck ring maybe

[euroriffic 607]

1 hour ago, Eagle said:

Stuck ring maybe

Possibly. Was weird when I first fired it up after 7 years it was running fine, went for a few small drives then went for one about 15-20kms then all of a sudden it dropped it. 
I would of thought it would of been like that from the start.

was very oily on top of the piston 

Edited August 14, 2022 by euroriffic

[Eagle 1662]

Right. A leakdown test should answer the question anyway. Hopefully you get lucky and its not a valve problem but sounds like its been neglected.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

Bit of a mixed day of it today. Morning spent wrestling with the wife’s mighty 116d for a service. Went pretty bad, more oil on driveway and me than in the drain pan 🤦‍♂️ and oil filter housing is in a prick of a place.

Afternoon cruise out to the beach in the ‘vert, top down enjoying the sun. Can’t decide if it’s the last cruise of last summer or first cruise of the new one? Now up on axle stands for a bit more TLC before going in for a new warrant.

[Navin 180]

Took the 320d for a longer drive today, just noticed it's dipped into the 4's so far and I wasn't even trying. It seems to get better economy with age🤣

Edited September 19, 2022 by Navin

[Braydon 40]

Black slim plates and black roof rack/bike carrier have all gone on the M135i in the last couple weeks. 
So much nicer not having to disassemble the bike and have the back seats down all the time.

 

[Twistee 453]

Booked the M5 in for a WOF at East Auckland BMW next week, immediately remembered that I still hadn't sorted factory wheel lugs to replace the long ones and wheel spacers.... Silly me, only had a year to get my sh#t together. 

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

Rear end refresh on the convertible, out with old (top row of parts) and in with the new (bottom row).

Just waiting on a couple more parts but there’s plenty to be getting on with now.

Kinda contemplating putting the new bushes into the race car and the shiny bits on the ‘vert but not decided yet..

[Vass 830]

👌

[Kees 594]

Gave my 540i a much needed wash for the first time in a few months. Have barely used it since it debited my wallet $2.4K in early September. Will write about that incident at some point haha 
 

Threw on a coat of Turtle Wax Black Ceramic Wax for some extra gloss. The paint correction I did 18 months ago still looks pretty good, might give the bonnet a light buff at some point if I get bored during summer. 

 

[TermiPeteNZ 1318]

Looks fantastic!

[aja540i 1906]

11 hours ago, Kees said:

Gave my 540i a much needed wash for the first time in a few months. Have barely used it since it debited my wallet $2.4K in early September. Will write about that incident at some point haha 

Did you fill it with gas? 😀

[euroriffic 607]

On 8/14/2022 at 4:28 PM, euroriffic said:

Spent the weekend on the 530 replacing ccv and it’s associated hoses, smoke test and reset the fault codes, and now only have a misfire in cylinder 6. Plug and coil were good, but did a compression test and is zero. God damn it!

So! After finishing renovating our kitchen, O finally got the garage emptied and cleaned out this morning and got the 530i in the garage. 
Whipped the rocker cover off and made a home made leakdown tester to find it all headed out the exhaust. Had a look and found a valve spring seat sitting in there, and the spring just flapping around, as well as the other exhaust cam follower flapping around. 
How likely am I to be able to replace the springs and be good to go? My guess is the valves and seats will be toasted. 
For the cost of a head off, new bolts, threads time-Certed, valves and seats etc it’s not going to be worth fixing and will probably part it out, not that I want to, but I only got it to get it back in the road and sell it on. 

[Mad_Max 231]

1 hour ago, euroriffic said:

So! After finishing renovating our kitchen, O finally got the garage emptied and cleaned out this morning and got the 530i in the garage. 
Whipped the rocker cover off and made a home made leakdown tester to find it all headed out the exhaust. Had a look and found a valve spring seat sitting in there, and the spring just flapping around, as well as the other exhaust cam follower flapping around. 
How likely am I to be able to replace the springs and be good to go? My guess is the valves and seats will be toasted. 
For the cost of a head off, new bolts, threads time-Certed, valves and seats etc it’s not going to be worth fixing and will probably part it out, not that I want to, but I only got it to get it back in the road and sell it on. 

Yeah that sucks, depending on your time frame though may be able to help out, have got a nice running 530I sitting here that I'm pulling the motor for for a project, that'll end up having to be purpose built anyway. Would be happy to trade motors if you wanna bring yours down and give me a hand to pull this one out complete, I'll take your one and rebuild it for what I want and you can grab this good runner, drop it in and go.

[euroriffic 607]

9 hours ago, Mad_Max said:

Yeah that sucks, depending on your time frame though may be able to help out, have got a nice running 530I sitting here that I'm pulling the motor for for a project, that'll end up having to be purpose built anyway. Would be happy to trade motors if you wanna bring yours down and give me a hand to pull this one out complete, I'll take your one and rebuild it for what I want and you can grab this good runner, drop it in and go.

That’s one hell of an offer! I’m also in need of an abs pump and module, which is that reason the car went off the road, if you’ll be parting out the rest of the car. I’m in no real rush with it, so could head down when ever really to do that.