What'd you do to your BMW today?

[M3AN 4016]

Yeah, check those endlink bots @Sammo, one of mine loosened itself and clunked. If you can't see anything obvious you can always remove the bar and go for a drive to isolate (or eliminate) that as the cause.

[C-130 Hercules 571]

Got the ventilation blowing again - bad resistor. It's definitely the season it is needed most.

Came across this bi-directional damper when putting everything back. Took me a while to figure out where it belonged to! Glove box. 

 

[Sammo 2544]

7 minutes ago, M3AN said:

Yeah, check those endlink bots @Sammo, one of mine loosened itself and clunked. If you can't see anything obvious you can always remove the bar and go for a drive to isolate (or eliminate) that as the cause.

Cheers , good idea - next step is to disconnect sway bar and see if it goes away - BMW certainly makes torquing endlinks a challenge!

[gjm 3258]

Took advantage (as many have) of a TradeMe freebie day and listed the Baur (and the 500SL). Over 1000 views between the two in under 12 hours. Not one question, comment...

[andrewm 236]

15 hours ago, gjm said:

Took advantage (as many have) of a TradeMe freebie day and listed the Baur (and the 500SL). Over 1000 views between the two in under 12 hours. Not one question, comment...

I sold a mk5 cortina with 298 watchers and 9000 views - only 4 people came to view after 3 weeks listed. 
I also sold a projector that had 151 views and 6 watchers - sold in 3 days. 
 

Only need that one person. 

[Sammo 2544]

My new Mtech 2 wheel is all refurbished and looking amazing but unfortunately the horn kept sticking/ staying on (an annoying feature indeed!).

Pulling it apart I found this hot mess of semi detached solder, shagged spring plates and added copper wire, possibly to offset the lack of spring in the plates?

Anyway, managed to rebend plates so they click back.

Will also resolder everything to make it all solid for another 20 years or so.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Sammo

[Vass 830]

Just got done with the wrenching marathon that was changing the oil pan gasket and some other bits on the daily. What an absolute PITA of a job!

Kicked it off Sunday morning, finished 1am that day, continued Monday after work until finally having her back on her wheels at 3am... Even with the subframe dropped down, so little space with all the power steering and trans cooler lines in the way. Quite a few hiccups along the way. The most annoying one being getting the dipstick back in. Cleaned up the oil pan, got the new gasket on, RTV'd the joins on the underside, struggled wiggling the pan in place, started it on a few bolts and then spent half an hour trying to get the right angle for the dipstick to slide into the oil pan with no luck, just too much crap in the way on top. Ended up giving up and dropping the sump back down, cleaning everything up and starting over with the dipstick in place. Bloody frustrating game of tetris.

Also changed out the valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, engine mounts and alternator. Probably spent half the time cleaning up all the oil that had caked everything up. Not a perfect job but near impossible to get to everything without taking off the intake, which would have gone well beyond the scope of this mission.

After a good 4 hours sleep, set off for work in the morning. Car started up fine but got the ABS and brake lights go off on the dash, as they sometimes do with the wheels off the ground for a while. Drove out onto the street, parked up and tried turning the car off and on only for it not to start again... Flat battery. Ran back home to grab the spare, got her running but from the voltage saw that the alternator wasn't kicking in. Figured the new one must have been faulty. Dammit. Pulled into the driveway and started pulling the intake back apart to put the old noisy one back in, only to discover I'd forgotten to plug the alternator cable back in... Classic 3am brain fog.

Hopelessly late, finally set off for work only to hear a clunking noise coming from the front. It then hit me I'd also forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts after I'd dropped the car down from the jack stands... Bloody hell

After catching up on lost sleep, tidied up some of the loose ends today so hopefully that's the end of my oil leak dramas for a wee while at least. Thank f**k that's over and done with.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Vass

[Vass 830]

Continued tidying up the daily by making the interior somewhat habitable. Stripped out the seats and gave the carpets and floor mats a good clean with some drill brushes and a Bissell spot cleaner. Some real nasty spills and stains on both but cleaned up rather well.

Also gave the leather seats a wee refresh with a deep clean and some moisturiser cream to bring them back to life a bit, as well as ripping out the remnants of some dodgy old aftermarket alarm system that wasn't working anyway.

Will get onto destroying my fingertips through stripping the rubberised finish off all the scratched up centre console plastic bits next.

[M3AN 4016]

Nice work on the mats @Vass, and smart move to remove that aftermarket alarm crap. 👍

[euroriffic 607]

Acquired a 2001 530i a week ago that has been sitting for 7 years due to an abs fault that had never got round to being fixed. I thought old mate would of started the car every once in a while but no. Tried once about a year ago but to no avail. 

So have started down the rabbit hole into getting it going this weekend. First was to replace oil and filter. Was about half a litre of water came out first, and because the failed start a year ago, was water all through the oiling system and filter housing. 
I cleaned out all the gunk I could and put some oil into the filter housing to flush out what I could. 
After going through a few bits I tried to start it with no luck. After some digging found the fuel pump had seized. So have a new one on order and a fuel filter from fcp since it was cheap enough, and that should be here next week to give it another crack.

I really only got it for the m54 if the rest wasn’t salvageable, and to put it in either the compact or the e30, but seems a waste to scrap the car with only 110k on it, and is a pretty tidy car, and my first 5 series, so would be nice to have one for a bit. But we’ll shall see what the abs issue is going to be 

Edited June 19, 2022 by euroriffic

[KwS 2425]

if its had water all though it and then left to sit, id be pretty worried about internal corrosion throughout the engine. Things like the cams mainly but even the bores could have suffered.

[qube 3570]

Abs pump solenoids? Or check brake sensors first 

[Choo 16]

I accompanied my car on a tow truck today. What an odd experience seeing my own car in the truck's rear view.

Tow Truck Guy tells me he tows more BMWs than anything else .

In the past few months, I've had both low and high pressure fuel pumps fail. I wonder what the mechanic will tell me this time.

I accepted BMWs don't have the same reliability reputation that Japanese cars do, and I generally keep every car I've owned in tiptop condition, and maybe it's just bad luck they both failed recently, but still...  bloody hell. I didn't quite think my introduction to BMW and European cars would be like this so soon.

I'm currently in the mindset of rage quitting and either buying another beemer or buying Japanese (*gasp*) again (*sigh*). What's holding me back is I've had a new set of tyres and a Stage 1 tune recently. Better calm myself down before making a silly decision 😂😭.

 

 

 

[Eagle 1662]

If you want a BMW with close to Japanese reliability then you should of bought one that was made about 3 decades ago. 

[dirtydoogle 383]

1 hour ago, Eagle said:

If you want a BMW with close to Japanese reliability then you should of bought one that was made about 3 decades ago. 

Sad, but true. 

[GorGasm 563]

Get a Lexus!

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

19 hours ago, Eagle said:

If you want a BMW with close to Japanese reliability then you should of bought one that was made about 3 decades ago. 

I take it you are referring to the BMW having been built 3 decades ago..? The same is very much true of the Japanese cars as well.

I would love to see some stats on vehicle reliability, not the JD Power rubbish which factors in customer expectation, but proper failure rates per 1000 vehicles for instance.

Having worked with, and owned, brands from UK, Europe, Japan, US and Aussie there are horror stories and problems behind the scenes for all of them. There is a class suit against Toyota in Aussie at the moment due to vehicle issues. Worst two cars for problems I have owned were a Mitsi and Subbie - both Jappers!

There is so much more equipment on modern cars, that has to be developed so quickly, that there are much higher chances of things going wrong. Doesn’t matter where in the world it’s made though, situation is the same.

[gjm 3258]

21 minutes ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

I take it you are referring to the BMW having been built 3 decades ago..? The same is very much true of the Japanese cars as well.

I would love to see some stats on vehicle reliability, not the JD Power rubbish which factors in customer expectation, but proper failure rates per 1000 vehicles for instance.

Having worked with, and owned, brands from UK, Europe, Japan, US and Aussie there are horror stories and problems behind the scenes for all of them. There is a class suit against Toyota in Aussie at the moment due to vehicle issues. Worst two cars for problems I have owned were a Mitsi and Subbie - both Jappers!

There is so much more equipment on modern cars, that has to be developed so quickly, that there are much higher chances of things going wrong. Doesn’t matter where in the world it’s made though, situation is the same.

This.

(Almost?) every manufacturer has dire stories told about them.

Early W210 Mercedes had major paint and corrosion protection issues - cars at 4 years old were seeing structural failure of suspension components. (I cite MB as while I do like them, I am well aware of issues!)
The BMW N4x engine issues are well-known. (Although I know an E46 320 owner whose car has covered 320000km with very little more than regular servicing.)
There was a website for the VW Toerag (spelling is correct!)
Toyota recalled 2.4m hybrid vehicles.
Nissan CVTs failed.
Subaru recalled 400000 vehicles in the US for engine issues.

If you listen or look, you'll find damning indictments of anything and everything.

[Choo 16]

20 hours ago, Eagle said:

If you want a BMW with close to Japanese reliability then you should of bought one that was made about 3 decades ago. 

I wasn't expecting Japanese levels of perceived reliability.  Was just lamenting my bad luck  :p  

[Choo 16]

3 hours ago, GorGasm said:

Get a Lexus!

Which one? Time to let my imagination run a bit ... 😂

[GorGasm 563]

IS, GS, or LS.

[Sammo 2544]

1 hour ago, GorGasm said:

IS, GS, or LS.

I do really like the first gen IS-F - a shame the dashboards are made from plasticine and they have that horrific infotainment / climate combo...

[Eagle 1662]

5 hours ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

I take it you are referring to the BMW having been built 3 decades ago..? The same is very much true of the Japanese cars as well.

I would love to see some stats on vehicle reliability, not the JD Power rubbish which factors in customer expectation, but proper failure rates per 1000 vehicles for instance.

Having worked with, and owned, brands from UK, Europe, Japan, US and Aussie there are horror stories and problems behind the scenes for all of them. There is a class suit against Toyota in Aussie at the moment due to vehicle issues. Worst two cars for problems I have owned were a Mitsi and Subbie - both Jappers!

There is so much more equipment on modern cars, that has to be developed so quickly, that there are much higher chances of things going wrong. Doesn’t matter where in the world it’s made though, situation is the same.

Indeed, the 90's was peak for that imo. Some brand have certainly feared far worse than others though on that front - a Toyota corolla from the 90's still resembles the 2020 version, can't say the same for the BMW 318i equivalent. 

4 hours ago, Choo said:

I wasn't expecting Japanese levels of perceived reliability.  Was just lamenting my bad luck  :p  

I think you can create you own luck to a large degree when buying a car, the rest a mechanical warranty should cover. I dont think id ever buy a used vehicle without one if i couldn't do repairs myself. The prices of parts and labor these days are crazy.

[dirtydoogle 383]

4 hours ago, GorGasm said:

IS, GS, or LS.

Our GS is about to turn in to an LS. Good cars. 

[Navin 180]

Took the G20 in for an inspection at BMW today and they ended up replacing the rear pads..car only has 20 000kms on it. I was quite suprised considering the rear pads seemed to last forever on previous cars, certainly much longer than the fronts. I'm assuming it's due to the auto hold feature which I leave on constantly, just didn't realise it'd reduce the life of them by that much