Axel's Coupé - 2.25 years, new chaprter!

[1536Z4]

they do not have the required memory

That will be why mine don`t do it then

[axelleveau]

The car has been faultless lately and my dad visited us which was great as I could show him and make him experience the car
As I teased a bit on the forum, I spent some time doing more minor cosmetic upgrades that once again make the car that little bit smarter and younger looking.

• I removed the front license plate holder and went with a direct to bumper tape solution. That was fairly straightforward with just some rivet drilling and a quick cleanup of the paint as the holder rubbed and left mark on the edges while protecting the paint underneath it which shows how bad the overall bumper is after 15 years.
• I refreshed the badges on the keys for OEM ones:

  

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• And last but not least, the marmite improvement: I fitted 50 years anniverdary badges on all external badges and on the steering wheel. Long story short, I got a full set for M2/M4 of ebay as well as an additional pair of 82mm ones for the side indicators (non are genuine, cannot justify the price). All of them have needed some level of tinkering but I got there in the end. IMO it looks great, clearly better than the faded original ones but I guess some might not like the use of those on an older model

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[Mr Tidy]

Your car looks so much better with the licence plate holder removed.

I think I need to add that to my list!

And I really like your wheels.

[axelleveau]

Your car looks so much better with the licence plate holder removed.

I think I need to add that to my list!

And I really like your wheels.

Thank you very much. License plate would be perfect if it had been done from the factory to avoid marks due to the holder rubbing and such but you have to get close to see it.
As for the wheels, they came with the car and I really like them too but I have to do a better job of keepign them clean

[Rldee007]

Looks great, fantastic work.
Do you have a close of the grille so I can see the finish ?

[axelleveau]

Looks great, fantastic work.
Do you have a close of the grille so I can see the finish ?

What do you want to see specifically? I did not really mess around whit the grills

[axelleveau]

Over the weekend I commited to spend a LOT on the car:

• So started taking appart the entire front suspension to replace brake calipers and hoses
• While in there I will do bushes (so ordered a full kit of Stronglfex polybushes, will do the rear later once I recover )
• Messed up and damaged the boot from a drop link so ordered a set of two (funny how you can manage to not have a 16mm spanner despite have a total of 3 sets of them...)
• Managed to get the steering links out of the uprights but not the upright off from the controls arms, seems like I need to modify my tool with the angle grinder a bit though might take out the uprights with the control arms and separate them offboard
• Realised the brake shields are pretty crusty so will try to do a fix with shims
• Removed all undertray in preparation of taking out control arms
• Removed front grills to fix my lost front badge and while in there will remove the strut to paint it with the same paint as the calipers
• As all that was not enough and I was stuck while waiting for additional tools to show up for the rest of dissassembly I took out my hood latches off to clean and grease them

I also have a new valve cover and eccentric sensor ready to go but obviously calipers replacement took priority. I cannot thank enough the trusty 1/2" air impact
I am pretty much £800 in right now including all parts and some tools and stuff scattered all across the garage

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[inkey$]

Impressive day of work there, OP. What colour are you going to do the callipers and strut in?

[axelleveau]

Impressive day of work there, OP. What colour are you going to do the callipers and strut in?

Well there still is a LOT to do, I am more like 50% into disassembly, then have to do lots of cleaning, painting and then re-install

I will paint them in Foliatec 2196 - performance blue, it is pretty close the Montego Blue or what color BMW uses on sport/M calipers. I was thinking of doing the struts in white but it saves me from buying multiple paints and the goal for me is not to have the struts or calipers clash with the bodywork but I think they will pop through the silver wheels and grills and contract with the silver/stainless brake hoses too

[inkey$]

she's going to look lovely.

[paddy wright]

Looking well and will be even better after all the work!

[axelleveau]

Good progress this weekend:

• Wire wheeled the caliper brackets and pad springs but will need more work ahead of painting: I need to order a die grinder and scuff pad wheels to do a proper job. I want the pad spings polished so I can just lacquer them.
• While angle grinder was out I modified my ball joint extractor and finally managed to get the uprights out of the car. They then got a quick blast of compressed air to remove all the loose dirt/rust (cannot be bothered to properly clean them and paint them as they are beefy), wire wheel the hubs disc face and all mounting surfaces. Made some "shims" to prolonge life of dust shields that were loose and greased all mounting surfaces and ABS sensors holes.
• Managed to replace the drop links. Had to bust one out using the angle grinder as the small flat slipped in the flat wrench. I am happy to see the Febi replacements have much beefier flats AND an HEX shapped at the tip of the screw
• Replaced ARB bushes to get familiar with poly bush install
• Replaced the LCAB/Lollipop bushing. Those took a bit of effort to remove the old bushes, some heating helps a LOT, and some figuring out as there were no instructions telling you in which way they go. I am 99% sure I put them in right but a bit curous as to why on one side the centre yellow piece rotates in the red one wen the arm goes up/down but the other side it is the arm hex shape that rotate in the yelow piece. I chatted Strongffex about this. From some online reading it seems normal but I am afraid that will "quickly" deteriorate the bushing as HEX/HEX rotation is not great.
• Overall I cleaned and greased all screws on the way

  

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• I also confirmed valve cover is due shortly after I am done with all that suspension/brake work... yes all that wetness is oil coming from the valve cover, onto the manifold, onto the steering and then the cat... that explains the bad barbecue smell

  

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[axelleveau]

And done!

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All back together. Brakes are working good, might need some more purging but I will look into it when I get around doing the rears, right now pedal feel is good enough. Obviously I have no more caliper stiction and even re-discovered the hill start assist function as the car now rolls on its own after 3-5s if I don't press the brakes at lights and stops.

Looks are exactly what I was aiming for with the calipers peeking through the wheels and the spring and hoses keeping the overall scheme in the Blue and Silver/Stainless colours. Hopefully the radiator brace will hold on over time, I am hoping the fact the paint is slightly soft/rubbery to the touch means it will not flake like the OEM black one...

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Steering feel is great with the new lollipop bushes. There is more feedback at low steering angles, the wheel does not wander around the neutral at high speeds. Only slight downside is there seems to be a touch more tramlining or at least more force from it but I guess it is the rule and I am happy this way. I should ideally get an alignment but I think I will wait a touch as that leads us to next steps:

• Valve cover: really needs done, oil is vanishing...
• Refresh rear brake calipers, check the parking brakes as I have a squeaking noise if I don't "clear" them regularly, and do the RTABs while at it (and keep the overall subframe/suspension/bushes refresh for much later) and then do an alignment
• Thinking of doing a front face refresh: Replace lower grill, fully delete the headlight washers system, replace fog lights with blanking plates (probably 3D print) and maybe add aftermarket solution to still have fog lights and an intake scoop (also 3D print)

[axelleveau]

Completed the scary job that is the valve cover as well as eccentric shaft sensor. Obviously while in there I cleaned up the coils, their connectors as well as injector connectors. All is looking good under there, no strong signs of wear on the intake cam lobs
Seems like I put everything back together correctly as the car runs great

Also did more purging on the front brakes, this time using a syringe as vacuum and ho boy was I wrong last time, the pedal feel is so much better now

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[Joycey]

Looking good. also worth cleaning the vanos filters while your in the mindset. There just tucked down the side by the exhaust manifolds if my memory serves me well they're held in with a torx50 cap. Really smooth out the engine tick over if they're dirty.