The Barbara Chronicles

[Vass 830]

Had a big scare on Friday morning. Was going about my business, got to a couple of km's from home and the car just died at an intersection. It would then start up, idle for just a second and die again.

Video

Got a mate to tow me home, fearing the worst. First time the tow hook's come out in my 4 years of BMW ownership. Feel like I've done pretty well.

Only code I pulled was 44 Activation, Solenoid Valve, Tank Ventilation, which I didn't feel would be enough to stall the engine altogether but went ahead and switched out the EVAP valve, as well as the fuel pump, both of which had come from the 330i donor car, dated 2001. I put back the EVAP valve and fuel pump original to the car, dated 2003 and looks like the issue's gone away. So far so good anyway.
Have now put roughly 200km on the the clock since the engine rebuild, looks like most of the niggly issues have been ironed out, bar one. When slowly coasting up to an intersection in 1st gear and not adding any throttle, when I press down the clutch, there's a weird rattle/thump coming somewhere from the drivetrain, seemingly from the rear.

Video

Only seems to happen when depressing clutch in 1st gear with no throttle input. Doesn't seem to happen at higher revs when accelerating to switch into second so a bit of a weird one. I suspect it could be the diff or the driveshaft. Not particularly enjoying the 3.38 ratio altogether, 1st gear seems very short for regular driving so could be a contributing factor. Was going to tidy up the factory manual 5-speed 2.93 diff and drop it in along with the refurbished subframe after I've gotten reinforcement plates welded in but might do it on its own before doing the whole refurb to eliminate the diff as the culprit.

With the car up and running otherwise, I ticked off a few secondary little missions. Chucked on the front Whiteline strut brace I'd ordered a while ago. Quite well priced and contrary to the product photos, the bar itself is black so fits in pretty well with the rest of the engine bay. Really like the minimal design and lack of any sort of logos or writing, keeps it nice and clean.

Also went ahead and switched out the cluster strip / automatic screen block out plate I'd received from some fellas over on the e46fanatics forum. Didn't notice it previously but looks like the US-version has BRAKE and ABS written out in words instead of using symbols. Funny little detail but not too bothered about it.

The cluster will have to come out again at some point. Seems like when I was switching out the main big backing plate I slightly misaligned the tachometer needle. Was getting a bit concerned as the idle revs looked to be sitting at just 500 RPM. Hooked up the scanner and they're actually at a healthy 700 RPM so will need to bump the needle up a bit.

Just clearing out the garage of all the accumulated spare parts / clutter and will jump onto refurbing the rear subframe and brake calipers.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Vass

[Vass 830]

Now with a fresh WoF. Flew through, only comments being the tread on the front tires getting close to borderline and probably needing an alignment, both issues soon to be addressed. The guys were impressed with the amount of work done and how clean everything was. Always nice to hear.

[Eagle 1662]

9 hours ago, Vass said:

Chucked on the front Whiteline strut brace I'd ordered a while ago. Quite well priced and contrary to the product photos, the bar itself is black so fits in pretty well with the rest of the engine bay. Really like the minimal design and lack of any sort of logos or writing, keeps it nice and clean

Wonder why they didnt paint it all black.

9 hours ago, Vass said:

Also went ahead and switched out the cluster strip / automatic screen block out plate I'd received from some fellas over on the e46fanatics forum. Didn't notice it previously but looks like the US-version has BRAKE and ABS written out in words instead of using symbols. Funny little detail but not too bothered about it.

I can tell you why but you already know. 

3 hours ago, Vass said:

Now with a fresh WoF. Flew through, only comments being the tread on the front tires getting close to borderline and probably needing an alignment, both issues soon to be addressed. The guys were impressed with the amount of work done and how clean everything was. Always nice to hear

Yeah they always appreciate tidy vehicles in a sea of sh*t

[Vass 830]

Starting to think ol' Barbara has it out for me. That and a dose of me being a bit of a numpty. Had a few weird adventures lately.

Both the alternator ducts were missing when I got the car so I found an upper one on one of my parts cars, ordered a new lower one and fitted them on once I got the car up and running. Fast forward about a week and found the lower one rattling around on the undertray. The fittings on it are a bit flimsy so it must have vibrated itself loose, jammed itself against the belt and chewed through it. Luckily doesn't look to have done any damage to the belts or pulleys.

Last Friday was going about my business, filled the tank on my way to Supercheap to pick up some oil. Pull up to the parking lot and felt a strong whiff of petrol. Looked down to find a massive puddle of fuel spewing out from the bottom of the car. Either I didn't seat the seal properly / didn't tighten the fuel pump lock ring enough or just because I overfilled the tank but the fuel was overflowing through the seal on the pump side. Quickly got the staff to help, grabbed the spill kit to clean it up as it looked a fire hazard.

Video 1

Video 2

Undid the fuel pump to find the tank up to the brim and overflowing. Luckily I was already at the store so bought a siphon and a fuel cannister and pumped a few litres out. Seated the seal properly this time and tightened down the lock ring as far as it wanted to go. Looks fine now but will take a wee while to air out the smell of fuel from the cabin.

Still have a persistent rattle from the engine for the first second or two on a cold start. At that point I'd done 500km on the special 15W-40 running in oil so figured it must be time to switch to the usual Castrol Edge 5W-30. Way less metallic sludge stuck to the magnetic drain plug than after the first 100km, the oil looked nice and clear still but the fresh 5W-30 didn't fix the ticking either. Not quite sure what it might be still or whether to be too worried about it. Probably worth getting a set of new lifters at some point as the old ones did look a bit tired.

After the oil change, took the car out for its first proper drive today, a small club run to Arthur's Pass. Very nice drive with some nice hilly and twisty bits. Just 8 cars in total with an E46 M3 vert, F30 335i and an X5 outside the picture.

Mine was the only "project car" in the group and of course decided to be the problem child. Just before Sheffield heard a slight thump and the HVAC screen went blank. The fella behind me told me it also blew a black puff of smoke out the exhaust around the same time. Made it to the parking lot to discover the AC compressor had spat the dummy and spewed out some sort of sticky gunk all over.

Out of everything under the hood, the AC was the only thing I hadn't touched so naturally it got jealous and started acting up. The compressor was due a replacement to be fair but didn't want to touch it until the engine was all sorted. Will have to expedite it a bit. Luckily had my toolbox with me (as is a must at this stage) so just took the AC belt off and carried on.

Apart from that, no major dramas. The car ran really well, temperatures kept steady, pulls nice and solid, especially with the auto diff, although taking off from a stand still is still an absolute pain so will switch it out for the manual diff shortly. The alignment is all over the place but holds the road steady enough. Will leave it until I get onto the rear subframe and suspension work. Still keeping it under 4k RPM for a few thousand km's so didn't go too crazy, although did try to keep pace with the E92 M3 to enjoy those V8 noises.

The drive back was a bit of a pain with no AC as the outside temperatures hit 30 degrees. Might look into getting some of those wind deflector things that fit onto the tops of the door frames as the turbulence was unbearable with the windows open. Was absolutely drenched by the time I got home. Getting back into town I nearly got T-boned by an SUV that obliviously started pulling out from a side road right into the side of me which didn't help with the sweating. Luckily managed to swerve out of the way just in time. NZ driving culture man...

But yeah, a few gremlins still but not totally unexpected. Will just keep chipping away.

[Eagle 1662]

Damn. Wasnt it 30 degrees down there today or something?. 

Keep up the gentrification 

[Vass 830]

On 2/19/2023 at 9:33 PM, Eagle said:

Damn. Wasnt it 30 degrees down there today or something?

Yeah was a bit toasty that. Had to dry the seat out when I got home...

[Vass 830]

Not an awful lot to report on of late, spent a few weekends fixing up my Swift Sport daily and the missus' Outback so have only tinkered with a few cosmetic bits here and there.

Got the AC system degassed, removed the tensioner and cleaned up the mess from the blown up compressor clutch. The AC belt and tensioner didn't look great at first but luckily all the gunk came off by just scraping away at it with a fingernail, the rest just came away mostly in bigger chunks. Will do a refresh on the whole AC system at some point down the line, not before sorting out the subframe and suspension though. 

Got myself a 3D printed roof rail delete kit from Huggins Racing. Don't see myself putting on a roof box any time soon and just wanted to see what it'd look like without the rails. Does make the car look that wee bit sleeker so will stick with it. Have a spare set of inserts as well that I'm happy to let go if anyone's after one.

The state of the paintwork is really starting to eat away at me, the front end being especially horrific. Can't wait to get all the mechanics sorted and start putting money aside for a respray.

Noticed a bit of a rarity browsing the interwebs one day - a manual coupe at Pick-A-Part. Not as exciting as it could have been as it came in with the majority of the important bits already stripped off but figured I'd go for a wander anyway, if nothing else then just to see how much more wiring I can cull to get closer to a factory manual. Only manual bits that were left was the hard clutch line running behind the heater core and the pedals - the car had sustained major front end impact and the shell had folded in so much that it basically pinched the pedal box in place. Neither were really worth the hassle of digging them out. What was left behind though was the cluster so I was happy to come away with that.

Back when I switched over from a coupe, I did notice the cluster on the sedans and wagons looking a bit dull but took me a while to figure out what the difference was exactly, can really see it side by side. I needed to take the cluster apart again anyway to adjust the needles as mentioned in a previous post so used it as an excuse to switch out the backing plate once again. Meaningless little details but pretty pleased with the new look.

Then finally got back to tackling something substantial this week. Ever since the rebuild I've been getting an annoying tick for the first second of a cold start that I couldn't quite pinpoint. Recruited a more knowledgeable mate to have a listen who figured it sounded like lifter tick - likely just a couple not sealing properly, draining out overnight and causing a tick until the oil pressure pumps them back up again. That's one theory anyway. New lifters were already on my to-do list so just bumped it up on the priority list. Actually came out cheaper than what I thought they'd be - a set of 24 OE INA ones came out to under $300 from Spareto. I only remembered them being US$11 on FCP so thought it'd be closer to $600 all up, which put me off at the time. Hoping these fix the issue, otherwise I'll be left with more gremlins to chase.

Took the cover off earlier in preparation and it's quite a nice sight to be greeted with.

[Eagle 1662]

From the photos it looks the the bumper is the worst offender. I dont miss black paint.

[Vass 830]

On 4/12/2023 at 5:44 PM, Eagle said:

From the photos it looks the the bumper is the worst offender. I dont miss black paint.

Nah there's very obvious defects on near enough every panel, most well beyond what a cut & polish would come close to fixing. It is what it is.

Got the new lifters in. Used the magnet trick from the 50sKid's videos when installing. Worked perfectly.

The old ones looked really horrid, the tops of all of the exhaust ones were all badly pitted. Pretty silly of me to not have replaced them the first time around but got there in the end.

With it all apart, also took apart the VANOS assembly to check over. Having watched M539's latest project series I realised I hadn't checked them over properly, just bolted everything together and slapped it on. And sure enough, both the pistons weren't spinning freely at all and one being near enough completely seized up. Disassembled, filed down the spacer washer a few hundreds of a mm and loosened them up a bit. Still not spinning as freely as I'd like them too but not completely seized up either. Had a check of the spare VANOS unit I had laying around and whilst those pistons were spinning freely, the surfaces on them weren't in the greatest of shape with marks and scratches in places so didn't feel like using those would have been much of an upgrade. Will hunt for another unmolested unit, chuck on a spare set of O-rings I have laying around and not bother with an anti-rattle rings if they don't need it as it just seems far too easy to mess up the piston internals.

With all that, got everything bolted together and did a bit of driving around today. Might be imagining it but the engine seems to be running more smoothly and don't have any signs of a niggly patch of a rough idle when standing at a red light.

But...

The little second-long rattle at cold-start is still there and not really sure what else it might be at this stage. That and the clunk from the driveline just keep annoying the hell out of me and really running out of ideas as to what it might be. Will investigate further and probably drop the gearbox again at some point. Want to recheck the flywheel, wonder if the starter being misaligned for a period managed to knock it out of alignment or something, or if the starter itself got any damage to it. Also realised that the pressure plate bolts were meant to have Loctite on them, which I completely missed at the time. Got a brand new set of flywheel and pressure plate bolts when ordering the lifters so will see if those help with anything. It just never ends.

[Eagle 1662]

9 hours ago, Vass said:

I have laying around and not bother with an anti-rattle rings if they don't need it as it just seems far too easy to mess up the piston internals.

Yeah i dont bother with them anymore, the tolerances are small that its too much much guess work to me to get the correct spec without the right tools. Even with wear the vanos rattle is rarely heard most of the time in my experience.

9 hours ago, Vass said:

. That and the clunk from the driveline just keep annoying the hell out of me and really running out of ideas as to what it might be

Did you try running it up on stands to see if you could locate the source? 

[Vass 830]

Finally got onto cleaning up the manual diff. Disassembled the thing, gave it a good clean with a bunch of wire brushes, hit it with rust converter/primer and a few coats of paint, then resealed and put back together. Made for some pleasing before and afters.

Then went on a hunt for the culprit of the clunk but still couldn't pinpoint it with any certainty. Jacked the car up and had a mate operate the clutch. Clunks like a bastard every time the clutch is engaged to go into gear.

Video

Found a few videos on YouTube as well with exactly the same issue, combed through all the comments but doesn't seem like anyone's found a definitive answer either. Some are blaming the dual mass flywheel, some say it's driveline slop and their mechanics are claiming it's perfectly normal. I somehow doubt it. 

Regardless, got onto swapping out the diff. Tried reproduce the clunking with the driveshaft disconnected but all seemed fine with no load on the gearbox. Had another try once the shaft was connected to the diff and still all good. But then with the axles hooked up to the diff the noise came straight back. The search continues.

Bit disheartened, bolted everything back up to go test out the manual diff and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the clunk had became much harder to reproduce. Definitely still there if you're looking for it but nowhere near as prominent under normal driving circumstances. Going from a 3.38 diff to a 2.93 fixed the gear ratios right up, 1st gear actually became usable and overall the car was now more pleasant to operate. Properly enjoyed driving it for the first time since the swap... 

... just in time to park her up for the next 3 months as I'm off to Europe to catch up with family after 4 long years. Will pick up where I left off in September ✌️

[M3AN 4016]

wow, that looks gorgeous! Both the diff (how satisfying), and the wagon, so shiny... 😍

[KwS 2425]

Love how the E46 looks on those E90 Msport wheels. Great looking car

[balancerider 757]

Roof rail delete is 🔥 @Vass! That JDM front plate plinth is making my teeth itch though

[Vass 830]

On 6/12/2023 at 12:12 AM, balancerider said:

Roof rail delete is 🔥 @Vass! That JDM front plate plinth is making my teeth itch though

Yeah it ain't great but not sure if it'd look much better on a Euro plate trim bit either. Will figure something out eventually, still have plenty of mechanicals to address before I get onto that though.

[balancerider 757]

For sure @Vass - reckon cleanest option could be to bolt plate directly onto front plate delete trim that the US cars have

[KwS 2425]

I reckon they need a plinth or the plate curves and looks all gross. Sounds like you need a euro plinth and relevant sized plate. 

[Vass 830]

Not something that's going to happen in the very near future but eventually I'm thinking about respraying the whole car, and at that point I'll probably source a replacement bumper as the current one is all sorts of shagged and is held together with zip ties in a few places. Possibly leaning towards an M3-style one a fella sells down here that comes with a euro plate holder in the kit. Euro plates wouldn't be far off at that point either. Might be a questionable style choice but I reckon it looks quite sharp on facelift cars.

[Vass 830]

Speaking of... parked next to this slammed beauty the other day over here in Esto land, complete with that bumper I like so much. Seems to line up pretty well. A bit too low for my liking but did look pretty sharp, possibly on air suspension even. Would have been keen to chat to the owner but didn't feel like waiting around like a complete creep.

I'm also reminded every day why I'd never consider having a nice car over on these shores... Couldn't bear putting any significant amount of care and effort into something only to watch it be eaten away by rust.

 

Anyhow, whilst I'm over here, quietly exploring the possibility of putting together a few pallets of manual swap bits and shipping them over. Manual gearbox prices over here are veeery tempting, just need to figure out if the import costs would make the endeavor not worth the hassle. Got a very reasonable quote on shipping and handling on this end for a partial container load, now need to figure out what the import costs, duties and port handling stuff might run me back on the NZ side.

If anyone's been through the process or has any contacts in the imports / customs broker fields, I'd be very keen to hear about it.

Cheers

[Vass 830]

Back from overseas, dug straight into sorting a few issues before even waking the car up from its 3 month slumber.

When replacing the diff, I noticed some oil dripping out from the bottom of the CCV valve, running down the return tube and onto the oil pan. Was making enough of a mess to be worth addressing.

Hard to tell what the main failure point was as 2 of the 3 hose connections were covered in oil as well as it looking like the diaphragm housing had split at the seams and oil was weeping out from there as well. Due to it being the highest up saturated area, I suspect its the latter and the oil just ran down from there, although the bottom return hose also seemed to wobble around excessively so might have been multiple failure points.

Not awfully happy about it, being a brand new part that failed after barely 2,000km but it is what it is. Had read a bit of negative feedback on that particular part from FCP Euro and it being a bit sketchy how they don't specify who their "OE SUPPLIER" is but figured I trusted them enough to give it a go. Guess the internets were right on that front. Went with a little "hack" I'd read about on E46 Fanatics - buy a genuine BMW Cold Climate Version of the CCV.  The cold climate valve is just a regular one in a foam jacket around it, you can just remove it and end up with a genuine CCV with two additional genuine hoses for around half the price of just a regular valve alone. Not sure how the pricing makes sense on that but it has held up for a number of years now so a good tip for anyone looking to do a CCV refurb.

Figured it wouldn't hurt keeping the jacket on for the occasional morning frost we still get around here, summers don't get that awfully hot here either so figured there's no real downsides to some extra insulation. A much tighter squeeze installing it with the added padding, definitely not a job I'd want to do with the intake still on the car. Will monitor how this one holds up, I do have a bit more faith in it being a genuine BMW part. Hopefully it was just a faulty batch and not an underlying issue with the engine producing excessive pressure or something like that.

Another bit that annoyed my was the way the lower intake boot sat. No matter how I tried to align it, the smaller offshoot going to the ICV just didn't want to sit right and looked like it was caving in on itself. Decided to replace the Febi hose I had with another genuine part. The quality of the rubber feels better even just looking at it and it does seem to sit straighter. For now anyway.

Did a slight mod changing the temperature buffer on the cluster to make it more accurate and informative of potential overheating situations. Basically, with default programming, the temperature arrow pointing straight up indicates quite a wide range of temperature and doesn't give you much warning of the temps going up before it being too late. With very simple coding you can change it to what it is below.

Lastly, replaced the front indicators, both the headlight side markers and the fender ones. Of the front ones, one side was cracked, the other kept getting condensation buildup inside and both the fender ones were foggy and faded. TYC brand ones looked to have good reviews and were cheap enough from Spareto so I ended up getting sets of both clears and ambers. Put the latter ones on for now to switch it up a bit, quite like how they break up the monotony up front. Will see which one I end up sticking with long term and will sell on the other set.

Boxes of new parts keep stacking up in the garage. New additions are an AC compressor, condenser, drier, expansion valve and a full set of O-rings, all ready to get the AC back up and running in time for summer.

[Eagle 1662]

Yeah FCP 'OE supplier' is suspect and why I went with genuine. Like they don't want to brand it because they bought a truck load and don't want loose sales. 

Did your leave a review so it could be deleted?

[Vass 830]

Hahah haven't yet but have had a review on another item deleted before 😄 Dodgy buggers. 

[Eagle 1662]

Just checked, November last year was the last time i used them so i dont think ill ever use them again. It's schmeidmann these days when Spareto doesnt have it. They are a bit slow to ship compared to the rest but are usually quite a bit cheaper than FCP to compensate.   

[Vass 830]

Yeah haven't been too impressed with FCP of late but went with them for a few items that other places didn't have. Their use of UPS is what pisses me off the most. Website is a pain to use, all tracking updates stop the moment the package arrives in NZ and no way to leave delivery instructions. The last package was plunked right in the middle of the front porch on a rainy day and was soaked through by the time we got to it. A Spareto package was delivered same day and left in the dry at the back door as per delivery instructions. Messaged FCP and said I'm not using them until there's no shipping options other than UPS. They replied saying the feedback came at a good time as they're currently reviewing their exclusive shipping provider contract so... here's hoping.

That alternator duct I mentioned getting destroyed a few posts back I'd gotten from FCP at the beginning of the year for $30 USD. With this latest order I thought screw it, I'll throw in a new one of them, only to discover the price had jumped to $72... Gross. 

[Eagle 1662]

Haha i forgot about UPS. Im sure some of the costs are out of their hands, but certain products seem to be vastly marked up compared to places in the EU. I feel like its the classic case of - company reaches a certain size and becomes more shareholder centric\profit driven.