The Barbara Chronicles

[Vass 859]

Have been chipping away at it every evening after work with longer shifts over the weekend. The boot floor panel ended up coming out without much trouble. Got to the final spot weld under the bracket with a file belt sander and it separated pretty easily. Not the prettiest of cuts on the front edge but will tidy it up afterwards.

T-shaped bumps cut along and flattened out.

Had a bunch of trouble getting the welder to work properly. Not a high-end machine, without a digital display and not a lot of adjustment options so was hard to get it dialed in just right and struggled to get any sort of consistency going. One weld would come out textbook-worthy, next one would randomly start spitting and bubbling up. Wheel arches were the worst ones with bits of underseal being stuck between the two layers of sheet metal that were impossible to scrape out. Ended up switching from 0.8mm to 0.6mm wire which made the task a bit more manageable. Some of the welds definitely came out looking better than others but they all work and will get tidied up prior to paint.

Underside welding taken care of, moved over to the topside but only got as far as getting one of the side panels mostly welded in when we ran out of wire, sure enough just 15 minutes after Bunnings' early Sunday night closing time. Also ran out of flappy grinding discs so called it a night. Great to have made some serious progress though, starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Whilst the welding was going on, I kept myself busy by cleaning up the fuel tank and installing a new fuel pump and filter. Pump was still chugging along but at 20 years old was worth replacing, and a OE Continental/VDO one was reasonably cheap from Spareto. Annoying that it didn't come with an O-ring/seal which I had to get separately and stupidly cost about a quarter of the price of the pump... Also got a pair of new lock rings that were by contrast stupidly cheap. Managed to break off a couple of teeth on the old one when tightening it down the previous time with a screwdriver so used it as an excuse to get a pair of shiny ones. Also got a cheap tightening tool from Aliexpress that works well enough and makes the process a bit less crude.

Also chipped away at assembling the new shocks and other new bits to go on. Should be an exciting week ahead, will try and get most of the welding sown up early on and get onto paint & finishing. Can't wait for reassembly.

[Cement 891]

I just looked at my spare tank seal / oring on the weekend and contemplated throwing it out 😬 Let me know if you need another hah.

Make sure you get the 'long ass wand' set for the 3M cavity wax ... I went ham on mine in the end of the frame rails to get where the plates are welded in. Pretty sure this is the one I used: https://www.hardypackaging.co.nz/products/3m-cavity-wax-plus-applicator-wand-kit-08851?variant=14181165498429

When welding was there a breeze blowing perhaps ? Doesn't take too much sometimes to blow away the shielding gas at times which can create a mess.

[Vass 859]

2 hours ago, Cement said:

I just looked at my spare tank seal / oring on the weekend and contemplated throwing it out 😬 Let me know if you need another hah.

Make sure you get the 'long ass wand' set for the 3M cavity wax ... I went ham on mine in the end of the frame rails to get where the plates are welded in. Pretty sure this is the one I used: https://www.hardypackaging.co.nz/products/3m-cavity-wax-plus-applicator-wand-kit-08851?variant=14181165498429

When welding was there a breeze blowing perhaps ? Doesn't take too much sometimes to blow away the shielding gas at times which can create a mess.

Hahah thanks, I should be fine. Got a pair and also fitted the sender unit (or whatever the second device is the other side of the fuel pump) with a new seal and lock ring so they're both nice and fresh.

I did get that wand kit to go with the cavity wax. It is a right long schlong.

The garage door was open at times but don't remember it being particularly windy. Seem to have gotten a better hang of it as the job's progressed and the latest welds are looking pretty decent.

Made some more progress. Other side chassis rail plate got welded in along with the bottom beam plate and cylindrical bits, all primed and ready for the final plate to go on.

I've been conveniently ignoring the rear seat floor area so far. Not too keen on tearing up more seam sealer and cutting up the floor but should really just get it done with, although the touring already has sort of a front beam by default so should be less prone to failures in that area.

Also started assembling the front Bilstein B4 shocks with Eibach springs. Got done with the first one, then as I was tightening the top nut I realised I hadn't done the priming by compressing it 3 times... Silly goat. Not sure how much it matters but will take apart again and redo just to be safe. 

[Eagle 1672]

Ive got some genuine BMW sound deadening pad spare if you ever want some to fill in gaps. Guessing tourings have more of it after that pictured front beam?

[Vass 859]

On 10/12/2023 at 6:40 PM, Eagle said:

Ive got some genuine BMW sound deadening pad spare if you ever want some to fill in gaps. Guessing tourings have more of it after that pictured front beam?

Aye cheers, might hit you up about it later on. I only ended up stripping back the 5cm for where the beam plate welded in, there's none after the front beam, it dips straight into the rear seat area. All of that sound deadening has long since deteriorated but I don't think it's the same type stuff as in that boot area.

 

Late nights, paint fumes and bonus missions.

Rear beam top plate welded in and my mate worked some magic to butcher the old cover plate and weld it in well enough that it doesn't look too much of a disaster. Had to trim the boot plastic trays to fit around the new beam, and the old panel had to be carefully aligned so that the two studs fit correctly with the holes in the plastic bits. Don't have those issues on coupes... Small frustrating thing is that the central trunk cover won't align properly now. Had the top beam have been just 5mm shorter it would have fit perfectly, but as it stands, the inside face of the cover hits the back of the beam and won't sit properly over the studs. Will see if I can trim the holes a bit bigger and make it work or will have to cut off those flanges altogether and screw the front of it into the plastic somehow.

Primed, seam sealed, primed again and painted with some gloss black I had from fixing up a small rust patch on the rear door sill. Looking back, should have just kept it primer grey as the gloss black sticks out like dog's balls back there. Luckily, it won't be too visible and the main thing is that it's protected.

Onto the underside, test-fitted the subframe to check alignment, all looked fairly good. Ground down any remaining high spots, primed, seam sealed and enamel coated. The colour match turned out to be miles off but will be mostly covered and should provide good enough protection from the elements.

Pretty satisfied with how the wheel arches came out. Managed to lay on the seam sealer thick enough to almost match the surrounding rubbery underseal texture. After some primer and enamel top coat, the whole thing looked horridly out of place and with this area being more visually exposed, I popped over to Supercheap for a couple of cans of black underseal and gave it a few coats. It went on well to the rest of the arch but wouldn't stick to the enamel properly, even after some rough scuffing effort. Took a few times of going over it to get a decent finish but ended up with tidy black arches that I'm quite pleased about. Forgot to take a photo of it though.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Vass
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[Vass 859]

Whilst the paint was drying, I took a small detour and... ended up here:

Oops.

Figured that with the control arms and suspension out and the AC degassed, there won't come a better time to drop the subframe and finally get to that stupid gallery plug at the front of the block, similar to the one that was causing the massive oil leak from the rear of the engine right after the rebuild. Turned out that getting the timing cover off requires you to dig much deeper than I'd anticipated. First, off came the whole font end with the radiator and AC condenser, front subframe with the steering rack and old control arms, then the oil pan, crank bolt to finally get to the timing cover. Prior to that and before the engine support bar could go on, the intake had to come off to get to the hard coolant pipe that runs into the back of the timing cover. I was under the impression that the timing cover was only held by the two bolts from the top of the head, under the valve cover and could be gotten to without much issues, but of course it turns out that there's also a third bolt straight down the middle, a bolt that also holds down the topmost chain guide so... the timing gear had to also come off to get to it. Brilliant.

Was at least good to feel a little vindicated to have taken on such a bastard of a task when a steady stream of oil started running out through the plug as soon as the timing cover got removed.

All that effort because of this little bastard. Still don't understand how 50'sKid clams to not have any leaks or issues even years later. I specifically ordered in the PTFE based sealant he'd used, even ordering it in from Aussie as I couldn't find the specific one in NZ. Anyway, thread locked the hell out of it and seated it back in. Please hold...

Pretty expensive exercise with new seals, gaskets, new crank pulley bolt, oil & coolant that all had a fair bit of life in them still but well worth it if that means the engine won't grenade itself prematurely due to suboptimal oil pressure. Time will tell if this was the culprit behind the rattling at cold start. Fingers crossed.

With the oil pan off, I took it as a chance to freshen things up a bit and took the spare oil pan from the old B25 engine to my mate's for vapour blasting. Almost regret doing that now as it puts the rest of the engine to shame. Came out looking unreal.

With that all buttoned up, I moved on to the AC system. Revamp included new compressor, condenser, drier, expansion valve and pressure switch, basically everything bar the evaporator. Was pleased with the quality of the radiator I'd gotten from them so went with all Nissens components. Everything fit perfectly apart from the drier. The original one had a divot in the side of it that locked it in place in the plastic bracket attaching to the chassis rail. The Nissens one was solid all the way around so I had to grind down a pin on the plastic bracket that now had nowhere to slot into. Another small issue was that one of the bolts bottomed out before it could clamp down one of the pipes properly, leaving it loose and wobbly. Had to grind off a few mm from the end of it to get it to seal. Weird little oversights on their part but should still work fine.

Word of advice to anyone thinking of replacing the expansion valve - DON'T. Not worth it. I probably lost a few years to stress on that little thing alone. Once the old expansion valve is off, there's nothing holding the little S-shaped backing plate in place, so when you go to thread the new valve on, it just moves around all over the place and is near on impossible to keep still. The passage is way to narrow to get your fingers in there to hold it from the back and too narrow for most tools as well. I don't even know how much time I lost on the damned thing and was lucky there wasn't anyone around to hear me yell expletives at an inanimate object. In the end, having all but given up, I somehow managed to get one bolt started whilst holding the backing plate in place with a little hooked pick tool on the umpteenth try. Never again.

Before the new AC compressor went on, I switched out the old timing chain tensioner for an upgraded M3 one. Because why the f**k not at this point. I had put a brand new spring in the old one during the rebuild but did notice the cylinder being a bit scored so... That's my justification and I'm sticking to it.

But, I wasn't done falling down rabbit holes just yet, so naturally... out came the transmission.

Why?

Funny that you ask, hypothetical person that gives a sh*t.

Long after the gearbox had last been out, I stumbled upon the fact that the throwout bearing guide tube is also a wear item that's recommended to be replaced with every clutch job. Not knowing when the next time I'd have use of a hoist might be, off I went on another side quest. Sure enough, the old guide tube was quite worn, so was well worth the effort. Will that fix my clunking issue when disengaging 1st gear? Unlikely, but at least I'll feel a little bit better about myself. Also threw on a new throwout bearing just to be safe, as well as a new input shaft seal. Then I replaced the clutch pressure plate bolts with brand new ones with pre-applied thread locker, I'd completely forgotten to use any threadlocker the last time I'd put it together. Cleaned everything up and applied some proper clutch grease I managed to get my hands on in the meantime instead of some generic stuff I'd used the first time around.

As a silly little cherry on the cake, put in this manual bell housing backing plate. Impossible to get new anymore so had to find a used one. Meaningless little thing but helps me sleep better at night.

Finally, swapped out the stock selector rod for a DSSR I'd gotten from BMspeedShop. Pretty cool having a local fella make these, ended up going by his place to pick it up instead of messing around with shipping. Looks a solid piece of kit. Unfortunately, had to cut off the inbuilt washers off the sides of the beautiful E60 shift lever, and even grind it down a bit to make fit. Will make for a nice and tight connection though. Can always put back some of those yellow washers if I ever wanted to revert to stock again I guess. Don't know why I would want to though.

Back into it again tomorrow. Finally over the hump and at the point where it's all about throwing on shiny new parts. Fun times.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Vass
Spelling

[Harper 558]

9 hours ago, Vass said:

I was under the impression that the timing cover was only held by the two bolts from the top of the head, under the valve cover and could be gotten to without much issues, but of course it turns out that there's also a third bolt straight down the middle, a bolt that also holds down the topmost chain guide so... the timing gear had to also come off to get to it. Brilliant.

Can the timing cover come off without disturbing cam timing? If so I'll definitely replace my chain guides and the same screw plug on the front and rear of the block (or maybe best left alone if not leaking?) while I have my engine out.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Harper

[adro 1084]

Wow, huge effort. Epic stuff! Always looking forward to the next update. Love that you are taking the extra miles on the small details. 

[Vass 859]

2 minutes ago, Harper said:

Can the timing cover come off without disturbing cam timing? If so I'll definitely replace my chain guides and the same screw plug on the front of the block while I have my engine out.

Unfortunately no, I don't think it's possible without disturbing the timing. The bit that needs to come out is one of the bolts that holts the chain guide just under the tensioner there. To get to it, you'll need to remove the two sprockets with the front most timing chain and the tensioner. The guide itself can stay in place, you just need to remove the longest bolt that goes all the way through into the middle of the timing cover. I can post/send you a photo of the top of the spare timing cover I have to give you a better idea of where exactly the bolts are placed. There are also two pins that you'll need to knock out for the timing cover to come out vertically downwards in order to disturb the head gasket as little as possible. Some of the rubber sealing will still get somewhat damaged so I smeared a bead of RTV all around the sealing surfaces when reinstalling.

The screw plug I wouldn't even touch, I don't believe they ever leak unless disturbed. I only had mine out when I took the block to the machine shop to get worked on and washed through, there's no real reason to replace it unless you're fully rebuilding the engine.

I'd still do the chain guides if I were you, they're sure to be well brittle by now, if not already broken. The timing does get disturbed but it's not too daunting a task resetting it, plenty of detailed guides and videos on the full process out there. I've done it a few times now and experienced enough to race through it pretty quickly.

More than happy to lend you my timing kit if you pay for return shipping, or order one in if you don't mind spending a few hundy, could be worth having around. This is the one I got, works well enough with one small caveat of the chain sprocket alignment tool being incorrectly spaced out, but that's easily mitigated by zip-tie'ing the chain to the sprockets when removing them to keep them aligned properly.

[Harper 558]

51 minutes ago, Vass said:

The screw plug I wouldn't even touch, I don't believe they ever leak unless disturbed. I only had mine out when I took the block to the machine shop to get worked on and washed through, there's no real reason to replace it unless you're fully rebuilding the engine.

Ah yep, I'll leave well alone in that case. Only planning to do a budget rebuild/refresh, rod bearings, oil pump stuff, seals and gaskets etc

51 minutes ago, Vass said:

I'd still do the chain guides if I were you, they're sure to be well brittle by now, if not already broken. The timing does get disturbed but it's not too daunting a task resetting it, plenty of detailed guides and videos on the full process out there. I've done it a few times now and experienced enough to race through it pretty quickly.

Yep I had hoped to do the chain guides assuming they could be done without disturbing the timing to save on money for the tools and complexity. But like you say probably worth replacing them either way, the chain guides in my M3 were broken when I did that engine rebuild I'm guessing the M54 ones will be similar even though the motor has only done 140k. I have seen E46fanatics threads of how to time the engine without the toolkit but I'd rather have the tools on hand. If I commit to disturbing the timing is there anything else worth replacing - valve seals? I'm guessing they're tricky to do without removing the head.

51 minutes ago, Vass said:

More than happy to lend you my timing kit if you pay for return shipping

Legend, might take you up on that.

Edited October 17, 2023 by Harper

[Vass 859]

3 hours ago, Harper said:

If I commit to disturbing the timing is there anything else worth replacing - valve seals? I'm guessing they're tricky to do without removing the head.

Should be doable but would be quite a tedious job, I think 50sKid had a video on how to replace stem seals with the engine still in the car. The seals themselves are ridiculously cheap but up to you whether it's worth the effort. Not too common an issue on M54's I don't think, nowhere near as common as on N42/N46's anyway.

Other stuff, depends on how far you want to take it really.

I'd probably replace the chain sprocket that sits behind the crank pulley - has rubber bits built in that I'm assuming act as dampeners of sorts, were all cracked and deteriorated on mine so swapped it out for a new one.

Chain tensioner for the topmost timing chain, the one that sits on top of the central bolt going down into the timing cover, and the topmost chain guide as well.

The other chain tensioner that goes into the side of the head, or at least the spring that lives inside of it.

Other potential items - crank pulley, hydraulic lifters, reseal the oil pump?

I ran a separate thread specifically for my engine rebuild that could have some useful tidbits in it. There's a picture of the top of the timing cover at this post, lifter cleaning, chain tensioner spring and a bit of a rundown on the use of the timing tools.

[Eagle 1672]

18 hours ago, Vass said:

I stumbled upon the fact that the throwout bearing guide tube is also a wear item that's recommended to be replaced with every clutch job.

Never come across that, where was that stated? Ive seen them all sort of condition on lots of different makes and models, they would have to be extremely worn to cause any obvious clutch issue. Ive replaced them on a few BMW's because OCD\feel good factor, but we lucky we can still buy new parts like these for old cars unlike many other brands.

I think i said it before but im certain you got the best mechanical condition E46 in the country. 

[Vass 859]

17 hours ago, Eagle said:

Never come across that, where was that stated? I've seen them all sort of condition on lots of different makes and models, they would have to be extremely worn to cause any obvious clutch issue. I've replaced them on a few BMW's because OCD\feel good factor, but we lucky we can still buy new parts like these for old cars unlike many other brands.

I think I said it before but I'm certain you got the best mechanical condition E46 in the country. 

Thanks mate, I'll wait until she's back up and running without any clunks or rattles before I pass judgement on that

I think this video is where I heard that bit about the guide tube, from about 5 minutes in. Made sense, and I'm glad I did it looking at the condition of the old one. Cost $80+GST from the dealership. I did have a bit of a squeaking noise when pressing down the clutch previously, pretty faint and nothing to be overly concerned about but now with the new tube in it's perfectly smooth and quiet. The DSSR also seems to have gotten rid of some slop in the linkage, the shifter used to have more side to side movement when in gear, noticeably reduced now.

Bit more progress from last night. Engine bay and front end all put back together and buttoned up. New oil filler cap - was cheap as chips, and not repping Castrol anymore.

Also, finally replaced the front air duct that had been missing ever since I got the car, although it "didn't need one" according to the PO...

Impossible to find these in good condition second hand or at wreckers nowadays so got a brand new one through the dealership. Having that extra bit of access did come in handy at times but does make the front end look more complete without a gaping hole right behind the bumper.

Front subframe also got a bit of rust treatment and a few coats of paint whilst being dismantled, tidying up the underside quite nicely.

Suspension reassembly next, finally.

[Eagle 1672]

I like the feel of my M3 oil cap but don't think i would of bought one myself. Not sure id trust a Febi one to hold up over the long term, but suppose its cheap enough and you keeping you old one no doubt

6 hours ago, Vass said:

Impossible to find these in good condition second hand or at wreckers nowadays so got a brand new one through the dealership. 

What do they cost?

[Vass 859]

52 minutes ago, Eagle said:

What do they cost?

Uhhh, I wish you hadn't asked... $210.88 + GST 😬

[Eagle 1672]

With the total amount you have spend on this i dont think that figure really matters 

[Vass 859]

Sad but true.

Let rip the can of cavity wax, got it in wherever I could. Don't get much out of a single can though. Might get another one next time I have the bumpers off for whatever reason and pump the chassis rails all the way through.

Fuel tank, plumbing and all the plastic covers reattached. Now it's onto the real fun bit with a bunch of brand new and refurbished parts getting thrown on. Made a start at the front end with new control arms and tie rods going on. Another long night tonight and hopefully will have her back down on her wheels tomorrow.

Also, made an extended socket (BMW Special Tool #24193531) for installing the front subframe mount studs out of the otherwise useless imperial sockets that came in the toolkit, although not sure if there's a torque spec given for these at all.

[Vass 859]

Another long weekend of wrenching and she's back in one piece. So satisfying leaving all the dirty jobs behind and just throwing on fresh new parts one after another.

Bilstein B4 shocks, Eibach springs, E36 M3 bump stops and E90xi top hats to replace the old combination of Bilstein B6's, Msport springs, all but crumbled bump stops and what looked like original top hats. New setup looks taller but that's because the B6's sit all the way in the steering knuckle whereas the B4's have a narrower bottom end that sticks down past it.

Painted steering knuckle, new dust shields, wheel bearings and refurbished 330i brakes with Akebono pads. The rotors I inherited with the engine donor car looked near new so I just wire wheeled them down from all the rust they'd accumulated from sitting in the shed for a year and a bit and painted the non-contact surfaces to tidy them up.

Brand new Lemforder control arms, LCA bushes and tie rods bolted on, and also replaced the Xenon light level sensor that I managed to snap when first removing the engine - forgot to disconnect it when dropping the subframe. Normally I stick with OE for all electronic components, but this being such a trivial and easy to access component that I was happy enough to put some trust in Topran. Better than my bootleg ziptie fix anyway.

Rear end got similar treatment. New dust shields, refurbished 330i brakes, brand new parking break hardware etc. Bilstein B4's with whatever the recommended bump stops were according to this thread.

Had a bunch of trouble getting the axles to go in properly. Thought I'd cleaned them up quite well way back when so just gave a quick wipe down and went to town. After a whole lot of bashing, only managed to poke them through by a few mm, just short of being able to thread the nuts on. With it getting late, and having managed to bash my thumb blue and bloody with a dead blow hammer, I called it a night on Saturday. Picked up refreshed the next morning, bashed the axles back out, went over each and every spline with a set of fine finger files and a set of wire wheels, both on the axle and in the hubs, greased them up with copper grease and slid them back in. Just a few whacks and through they went, then pulled them all the way through by tightening the nuts. Took a whole heap of time but worked out in the end.

Finally bolted the wheels on, dropped the car down on the ground, had a mate jump in the boot (literally, more on that later) to settle the suspension somewhat, then crawled under and torque up the inner ends of the camber arms and spring perches. From there on it was just a matter of throwing the diff, driveshaft and exhaust back on. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned that I was a bit surprised by is that the rear left reinforcement plate covered up one of the holes that the heat shield used to attach to so had to use a self-tapper to fasten it down.

After an unsuccessful attempt at a first drive late at night, I gathered up my ideas on Monday morning, went over everything I had touched, double checked everything, tweaked the alignment to be somewhat pointing straight, topped up the fluids and went for a first drive. With the interior still being apart, there was a lot of noise coming through to the cabin but overall, even with the alignment probably being way out of whack, she drove really well. Already noticing the harshness from the rear end from the ball bearing trailing arms when going over potholes but other than that, even the rougher roads seemed way smoother on the new setup.

Gave the car a quick rinse at a self-serve and made my way home after a long few weeks away. The suspension seems to have settled quite a bit already, looking that tad more aggressive whilst still being drivable over speed bumps and up driveways. Love it.

Will need to quickly throw the interior back together and chuck on the new wheels tonight as I'm booked in for a wheel alignment at BMW tomorrow morning. Can't wait to hear what they think of my solid subframe bushes and camber arms...

[Vass 859]

On 6/12/2023 at 9:12 AM, balancerider said:

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

Ohh, and thanks for pulling me up on it! Since you pointed it out it actually started bothering me to the point where I felt motivated enough to do something about it

Took the panel off the bumper, moved the license plate further up to line up with the protruding edge in the plastic, chucked in some rivnuts, went with 4 instead of the original pair just to be safe. Then took some hardcore pick tool and scraped away along the bottom of the numberplate creating a deep groove, then just cut my way through the plastic with a box cutter knife, filed the edges smooth and voila!

I'd have probably never even given it any thought, but it does look so much cleaner this way. Thanks! Just need to find 4 matching bolts to tidy it up further.

[balancerider 770]

2 hours ago, Vass said:

Ohh, and thanks for pulling me up on it! Since you pointed it out it actually started bothering me to the point where I felt motivated enough to do something about it

Took the panel off the bumper, moved the license plate further up to line up with the protruding edge in the plastic, chucked in some rivnuts, went with 4 instead of the original pair just to be safe. Then took some hardcore pick tool and scraped away along the bottom of the numberplate creating a deep groove, then just cut my way through the plastic with a box cutter knife, filed the edges smooth and voila!

I'd have probably never even given it any thought, but it does look so much cleaner this way. Thanks! Just need to find 4 matching bolts to tidy it up further.

Love this - looks OEM for the standard NZ plate (which always looks odd mounted on the euro plinth) and no extra spend required. 

[Eagle 1672]

2 hours ago, Vass said:

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned that I was a bit surprised by is that the rear left reinforcement plate covered up one of the holes that the heat shield used to attach to so had to use a self-tapper to fasten it down

Reddish ones dont so id say its a CMP thing or maybe the touring is a little different

2 hours ago, Vass said:

Bilstein B6's, Msport springs, all but crumbled bump stops and what looked like original top hats

B6's have internal bump stops so shouldnt any on there. I can't remember your reasoning behind getting rid of them? not that im a fan of them either for ride quality reasons, but B4's are overpriced if they only last 25,000km like my ones. 

2 hours ago, Vass said:

Can't wait to hear what they think of my solid subframe bushes and camber arms...

Easier to do an alignment with monoball RTAB's and those camber arms compared to stock.

[Vass 859]

5 minutes ago, Eagle said:

I can't remember your reasoning behind getting rid of them? not that im a fan of them either for ride quality reasons, but B4's are overpriced if they only last 25,000km like my ones.

Wasn't aware of the B4's reliability issues up until your post a few days ago.

I looked at just getting a set of B6's for the rear to match the fronts but price wise I pretty much got a whole set of B4's just for the price of rear B6's at the time. Plus from what I've read the B6's can be a bit too harsh for daily driving, which I've sort of experienced on less smooth roads, although might have had more to do with worn out bushes and control arms. Decided to opt for a more comfort-oriented setup.

Also, they're f**king yellow. 

[Eagle 1672]

To be fair the equivalent aftermarket Sachs probably wouldnt last much longer. Those TRW's i put in my car are 62 euro a set from Spareto, so even if they only do 15,000km they are still a good buy.

[Vass 859]

Stayed up past midnight last night throwing on the new wheels and putting the interior together. Involved a lot of backwards & forwards, detaching and reinstalling trim bits and sound deadening as they go back in a particular order, under-overlapping in a certain way or using a single fastener to fix several pieces in place, like an intricate puzzle. Even remembered to torque down the wheels properly this time... Then filled the tank and dropped it off at BMW for the alignment.

I had asked what they charge for an alignment when I called to book in the appointment the day before - $125 including GST. So I was slightly taken aback when a few hours later I got a text telling me the car is ready for pickup and that the total comes to $322.90...

2.5 hours of labour.

Quote

Vehicle has AFTERMARKET suspension fitted therefore a lot more labour was required than a standard factory wheel allignment hence the difference in cost vs our standard alignment.

Would have assumed the adjustable camber arms and the fact that all the parts were literally brand new and not seized on would have made the task easier but... what do I know. At least I got some unsolicited tyre shine and a couple of tins of mints out of it though  

Took the car for a quick shakedown up Dyers Pass, through Lyttleton and along Sumner Road, then a detour onto the motorway on the way home to try her out at 100kph.

Honestly... I must've been driving absolute shitbuckets my whole life as I never knew a car is supposed to behave this way. I've grown so accustomed to tramlining, vague steering, rattles, clunks and an otherwise shaky ride that it's super weird not having any of it anymore. One or a few of the wheel bearings must have been cooked as I used to have a slight vibration doing close to 100kps that I had attributed to an unbalanced driveshaft but no signs of the issue anymore. Steering is sharp and tracking perfectly straight, sections of road that had previously been shaky are now perfectly smooth, ride height looks and feels a tad sportier but still gets in and out of driveways & parking lots without issues. An absolute dream. Mission accomplished.

Only small issue I've encountered is some slight rubbing going over bumps at speed seemingly only coming from the rear left so I might have to give the camber arms a few more turns.

The wheels were the one component I'd been most excited about. Great to finally throw them on after gathering dust in the corner of the garage for well over a year. Style 193's are up there with my absolute favourite BMW wheel styles and they just suit the chassis so well in my opinion. Absolutely in love with them. Even going up to 18" from the old 17" 194's, with the new shocks and fresh rubber the ride comfort is miles better than it was before.

The engine feels great, power delivery is nice and smooth and more is always there when you need it.

One downer in all of this is that my excursion behind the timing cover did not fix the startup rattle issue. My last remaining hypothesis is that the needle bearings in the VANOS units got tightened up excessively when I was putting in the anti-rattle rings and aren't able to rotate quite freely as the rattle seems to be coming from the top end of the engine.

A while ago I lifted a whole VANOS unit off a 2006 X3 that I'll reseal and throw on at some point. Went through 3 cars at Pick-A-Part until I found a unit with no visible scoring marks in the cylinder bores... I suspect if the cylinders I have in the car now have seized up then they would have done damage to the bores so best throw in a fresher looking unit. If that still doesn't fix it then I guess I'll just live with it.

Feels so good finally dragging this mission (mostly) over the line and being able to enjoy the fruits of the labour (and get some sleep at last). Will tally up the rough cost of all that's been done at some point, will make for some grim reading for sure.

Time to properly enjoy some road trips now.

[Eagle 1672]

7 hours ago, Vass said:

I had asked what they charge for an alignment when I called to book in the appointment the day before - $125 including GST. So I was slightly taken aback when a few hours later I got a text telling me the car is ready for pickup and that the total comes to $322.90...

Its just 2x simple camber arms ffs, everything else is the same. Nearly 3x the price is something id expect for adjusting coilovers. Sounds like whoever was doing it didnt know what they are doing or they wanted to extract more money out of you, probably both given my experience with dealers.

8 hours ago, Vass said:

One downer in all of this is that my excursion behind the timing cover did not fix the startup rattle issue. My last remaining hypothesis is that the needle bearings in the VANOS units got tightened up excessively when I was putting in the anti-rattle rings and aren't able to rotate quite freely as the rattle seems to be coming from the top end of the engine

Ive never done the rings because it seems like a game of guess the tolerances.