What did you do to your other car(s) today?

[Karl Grau]

Flushed the brake fluid in the Honda. I do it every 11 years whether it needs it or not. This is the first time I used the vacuum method and it was pretty painless. Also topped up the tires and addressed a dent from a hit and run incident at St Paddy's.

[e28Sean]

I'm in the midst of a coolant service on the Green Monster. The coolant drain hose could not possibly be smaller.

[offroadkarter]

(burnt bowls = about as much light output as a plastic flashlight. Thanks BMW).

ZKW made those projectors, blame them. IIRC the Hella projectors were fine.

[1st 5er]

I've been missing my old e32, so I decided it was time to add to the fleet.

....
Those are the photos from the dealer's CL ad. It's been on his lot for way too long; originally advertised as a 325i. Not sure where he got that from. His story is that he bought it at auction, and has a photocopy of a title from the people who owned it before, from Bloomington, MN. Owners since 1993. They obviously took pretty good care of it; zero rust (a real feat for a MN car) and the interior is near perfect. It's got a slight miss that comes & goes; the dealer said his mechanic did a "full tune-up" on it, including $200 worth of distributor cap & rotor, and I'm thinking it's probably got some irridium plugs or some damned thing in it; I picked up a good set tonight and will put them in tomorrow. The driver's door doesn't want to lock, and the side mirrors don't work (that probably has something to do with the former), and the radio says CODE, but there's no code in the glovebox. Matching spare in the boot, and a perfect toolkit (minus the rag.) Drives straight, transmission does its thing pretty well, and M30B35. All for $1400. I think I did alright. Except for the bronzit.

Wasn't George recently reselling your old Bronzit?

[jca]

Fixed the heater control in my E21; bowden cable had come loose. While things were apart I located a dangling wire on the radio's pig tail which illuminates the dials when the head lights are switched on. Hooked the wire up to constant power...no more fumbling for radio buttons at night (actually a safety issue like texting).

[funfunfer]

Dragged the '93 Roadmonster Wagon out of the front yard where it had sat for 10 days since puking out a ball joint.
I hate working on the front end of this car and now I'll have to replace the LCA in the driveway.

Not a single E28 at O'Fest in New Orleans last week. Sad.

2018 O'Fest in Pittsburgh during PVGP Race Week, July 9-13. Maybe I'll have the M5 on the road by then, or I'll happen across an E23.... Time for something else

[a]

shopped for oil and filter,plus special Toyota tool. Shoulda bought a drain plug washer too.

[vinceg101]

Replaced the A/C & Engine Auxiliary Fan in the '02 530i this morning.
Traveled down to Doug Parks' house a few hours to the south and had him help me (more like I sort of helped him since he knew what he was doing versus me).
Replacing the Aux Fan in an E39 is...involved:
First the whole nose (Valance, Bumper, and trim pieces) has to come off, it gives you chance to remove all the debris from the Radiator compartment (leaves, sticks, plastic wrappers, dead animals, etc):



Then you loosen/detach the Headlights to get at the shroud cover bolts:



Once that is removed, it exposes the Aux Fan,four bolts hold it onto the frame:


Aux Fan removed and new one test fitted ready for system test:


Of course it didn't work the first time, so we had to go digging under the passenger side dash behind the Glove Box to find Fuse #75, a very large 50A sucker. When the old Aux Fan seized and burnt out (a big chunk of white styrofoam got sucked into the fan and jammed the blades ) it tripped this fuse as well as threw an error code that effectively shut down the A/C System.
One of these will ruin your day every time. Good thing Doug had one buried in a box of E39 electrical on his shelf:


A little under two hours and I was back on the road with working A/C , it took longer driving to and fro than the actual work.
Of course it is now approaching the cooler part of Autumn for us so there is not this pressing need for it as much. Oh well.

Time now for a complete Suspension System & remaining Cooling System overhaul; oh fun, oh joy.

[Karl Grau]

Vince,
How many of the 300 plastic rivets did you have to replace?

I changed out the FSU/FSR in the e39. The bad unit was the original from the factory circa 2000. The new design is supposed to be better. Took it for a test drive and it looks like I can move the fire extinguisher off of the front passenger seat.

[Greg E34]

Flushed the brake fluid in the Honda. I do it every 11 years whether it needs it or not. This is the first time I used the vacuum method and it was pretty painless. Also topped up the tires and addressed a dent from a hit and run incident at St Paddy's.

Kyle should never have fixed that shift linkage.

[Ricky535]

Replaced the A/C & Engine Auxiliary Fan in the '02 530i this morning.
Traveled down to Doug Parks' house a few hours to the south and had him help me (more like I sort of helped him since he knew what he was doing versus me).
Time now for a complete Suspension System & remaining Cooling System overhaul; oh fun, oh joy.

Yeah that'll be fun. Just did it on my e39

[vinceg101]

Vince,
How many of the 300 plastic rivets did you have to replace?

I changed out the FSU/FSR in the e39. The bad unit was the original from the factory circa 2000. The new design is supposed to be better. Took it for a test drive and it looks like I can move the fire extinguisher off of the front passenger seat.

Haha, at least most all the top ones holding the fan shroud cover onto the radiator frame. Good thing Doug had a few extra. BMW made these things for single use only, so I should buy them by the bag full.
I changed the FSU out last August. Was your fan mysteriously running all day also?

[Karl Grau]

Kyle should never have fixed that shift linkage.

[knunger]

Kyle should never have fixed that shift linkage.

[davintosh]

I almost bought a new clutch slave cylinder for the F150. Slave is leaking, but I discovered that the he throw out bearing and slave are ingeniously combined into one part that conveniently wraps around the transmission input shaft. So to change the slave, one must first drop the trans.

Who comes up with this crap?

[e28Sean]

Who comes up with this crap?

Engineers.

[a]

Not only does trans come out but, the while you're in there list begins at the crank hub. 2WD is a drive shaft less to re-place U Joints on.

Changed oil and filter on a Camry. My moves will get better. First time I had to deal with a filter that came directions in picto-grams.

[davintosh]

Would I be crazy to put some of this in the clutch hydraulic circuit?

https://www.amazon.com/Lucas-Oil-10019- ... B0002JMLW4
https://lucasoil.com/products/hydraulic ... -stop-leak

If it works (big if I think) it'd be a bandaid until I have time to do the job right, which I don't have at the moment. The brake and clutch circuits are separate, so no, this stuff wouldn't make it into the brake lines. And no, I haven't added it yet; just asking. A 32oz bottle is the smallest they offer; a bit of overkill considering the clutch circuit contains maybe 6 ounces of fluid, and this stuff is supposed to be mixed with brake fluid at 10-20%.

Flak jacket on.

[Kyle in NO]

If the system actually used hydraulic oil that might help. Since it uses brake fluid it won't actually mix.

[davintosh]

If the system actually used hydraulic oil that might help. Since it uses brake fluid it won't actually mix.

Excellent point that I obviously didn't consider.

See? This is why I ask questions here. You guys know stuff. Thanks, Kyle!

[a]

After wrenching on BMWs for 20 yrs, working on the Rat was infuriating. Whether by accident or design, E 28s are easy to work on. Fords are 100% engineered toward assembly . Absolutely no regard is given toward service. On the Ranger, the angle that the clutch master mounts to the firewall, makes it impossible to bleed in situ. Un bolt it from the firewall. Beware the nuts barely spot welded. Use PB Blaster and finesse. They tore loose. Owing to their position up under the dash, I used a 30" long 1/4 flexi bit to drill them out. Major PITA. And it didn't get better until I had the trans out on the ground. All the of this worked great on the Rat, the disk was fried. The slave was new. The guy who replaced it used air tools. Aaarg! Any way, detach the MC, then detach hose connection at the slave, It is a check valve. IT seals when un plugged from the slave. Stick it open with a tweaker and let the fluid run until it is clear. Plug into slave, open its bleeder. Remount MC. the Rat's MC mounted with shiny 1/4" hardware. Anyway, sometimes, all you need to do is to purge the accumulated air out of the system. My Datsun pickup needed bleeding every 6 months or so, I never did anything else to the clutch in 5 yrs. I suppose a pressure bleed would work, maybe..

[davintosh]

Your Ranger must use very different hardware than my F150; bleeding was pretty easy. In fact, I spent more time trying to figure out what size wrench to use on the bleeder valve than actually doing the job. The bleeder valve is on the side of the trans. I used a plastic syringe full of DOT 3 with a bit of rubber fuel hose to connect it to the bleeder valve. Pushed a few ounces into the circuit, tightened it up, put the cap back on the reservoir, and I had clutch again. Love it when a plan works out.



As long as I had the front end jacked up for bleeding the clutch yesterday, I changed the oil & filter on it too; That was the first time for me since buying the truck a couple of months ago, and looked to have been in there a while. Next, I wired up trailer towing lights on the Lexus. It had a hitch on it when we bought it, but no wiring; I suppose they only used it for a bike rack. Then my youngest & I topped off the afternoon by putting snow tires on the e34. That gave me a chance to look over the tires, and I found some unusual wear on the inside of the left rear tire. And today I noticed that wheel is at a funny angle, kinda like my old e32 before rebuilding the rear end. I'm thinking it's the trailing arm bushings.

[Mr.3-5-7]

Topped up fluids in the Avalanche, Cleaned battery acid out of the tray in my Colorado only to discover small cracks around the negative terminal on the battery. Diagnosed my brother Escape as a bad alternator and replaced it. No pictures.

[e28Sean]

Decorated for the holidays:

[foamy]

towed it to my uncles house after the engine committed suicide tomorrow engines coming out.