Atacama Yellow 35is build thread
- Thread starter B21
- Start date
Scottish Borders
My MOT chap, very thorough, picked up a small amount of noise from left hand front wheel bearing at 70k miles.
In some ways hardly surprising given the number of potholes this car has gone into, especially the big one this year that bent front and back alloys.
Went with SKF, along with FAG probably the world’s best bearing manufacturers.
£150 from Autodoc..ordered late Monday arrived late Thursday..
BMW OE price around £500.
Getting my local garage to fit them today..
In some ways hardly surprising given the number of potholes this car has gone into, especially the big one this year that bent front and back alloys.
Went with SKF, along with FAG probably the world’s best bearing manufacturers.
£150 from Autodoc..ordered late Monday arrived late Thursday..
BMW OE price around £500.
Getting my local garage to fit them today..
Attachments
B21 said:
That's relatively quick for Autodoc.
B21 said:
That's a fact the water pump went on my Golf with the car at the mechanics opened up and taking up space no time to wait for Autodoc, cost me 600€ in parts from VW and 100€ in labour! Would have cost a fraction on Autodoc!
ronk said:
They sell genuine OEM name brands, I think they also do cheaper unknown brands too.
ronk said:
They typically offer a range of options for each part…Ridex is their own brand….it’s not clear and consistent as to which offerings are the same as OE as BMW often changes its suppliers for the same part.
Due to the markup BMW insists on often you see what are BMW OE products but with the BMW markings obliterated.
A sweeping generalisation is they don’t sell crap…
On eBay and Amazon you do get crap that’s labelled crap and you get crap under a false label.
Autodoc are pretty honest with assured supply chains so this side of BMW you aren’t going to get a better supplier.
Of course if you want assurance then buy BMW OE typically at 2 to 4 times the mark up..
The plus side is if you know what you are doing is you can buy better versions of BMW parts for much less..eg the Meyle HD brand offers uprated versions of standard BMW parts ..
I was just about to pull the trigger on the SKF front wheel hub with bearings too yesterday and noticed there are 2 similar products with slightly different serial production numbers and slightly different price but which both supposedly fit. Which of them did you go with? Price you mention suggests VKBA 3681?
I went with the FAG versions when I went down a new mine that opened up on the M3
Managed to bend a 437M forged wheel
The bearing was definitely damaged with a clicking sound
Managed to bend a 437M forged wheel
The bearing was definitely damaged with a clicking sound
Hejnfelt said:
I bought this for my Indy to fit…
https://www.jxbperformance.com/products/bmw-e85/e86/e89-z4/z4-m-driveshaft-center-support-bearing-carrier-upgrade
along with a Meyle HD GUIBO..
For whatever reason they said they couldn’t fit it (along with many other things..but that’s another story)
So they fitted a new stock BMW support carrier..
I’ll relook at it in due course…
Attachments
Hejnfelt said:
The problem seems to be that the rear carrier rubber around the bearing flexes disproportionately and causes the rear propshaft to flex inappropriately…so this chunky support with custom rubber bits is designed to offer more support whilst not restricting necessary movement..it has the bonus that you can cut the old bearing carrier off in situ and clamp this one without dropping the propshaft..
Another day on the dyno…
This time we tested the impact of DCIs vs the other things already tried.
Two charts..
The one with 5 lines shows a circa 500 BHP tune with various airbox / filter / DCI options ..
The one with 3 lines shows our latest tune V17 (iteration 19)..with Mr.5 mod and DCI..the other line is an earlier tune V13+ which unfortunately had a few too many ignition timing corrections for my tuners approval.
Net result DCIs consistently show an increase in peak torque probably due to the removal of interfering effects of pulses in the air intakes..these merge destructively in the airbox but dissipate in the open engine bay..
Peak power not significantly affected especially on 500 BHP and under levels
This time we tested the impact of DCIs vs the other things already tried.
Two charts..
The one with 5 lines shows a circa 500 BHP tune with various airbox / filter / DCI options ..
The one with 3 lines shows our latest tune V17 (iteration 19)..with Mr.5 mod and DCI..the other line is an earlier tune V13+ which unfortunately had a few too many ignition timing corrections for my tuners approval.
Net result DCIs consistently show an increase in peak torque probably due to the removal of interfering effects of pulses in the air intakes..these merge destructively in the airbox but dissipate in the open engine bay..
Peak power not significantly affected especially on 500 BHP and under levels
Attachments
This is my personal struggle with my DCT box…
All was well until I decided to change the fluid and at the same time use a trendy alloy pan to look cool and carry a bit more capacity..
After my local low tech garage had fitted it, there was some very light oil seepage from the pan..maybe a drop or two of fluid if that per night.
I tried two or three times to subsequently get a garage to see to the leak without anybody taking me up on it..I wonder why..
I then got a ‘BMW service centre’ to change the o ring and refill it..after much drama with torque settings and having to get a fresh o ring airlifted in from the states.
However I noticed when driving along the odd puff of a burnt oil smell occasionally..when I got home the next day I could see a good patch of fluid on the ground.
I thought with 7 litres of fluid no big deal..
A couple of weeks later when trying to fo a full power 3rd gear test run for a new ECU tune it firstly prematurely shifted into 4th..on another run I then got ‘the bong’ with car going into limp mode.
Switching off and repeating the attempted run resulted in same situation.
My Protool code reader said..
5A44 clutch 1 incorrect pressure
5A41 Pressure sensor, clutch 1, total failure.
I pooed myself
Slowly drive home, rechecked the box..no errors.
Booked an appointment with same said garage..they then cancelled my appointment saying they were busy and they’d get back to me the next morning.
I went through the ‘if you need to get it done sometimes you just have to do it yourself.’
It looked like after cleaning everything thoroughly around the gearbox that the leak (when stationary ..no engine running ) iwas just from my after market alloy oil pan seal..
Side seal seems dry..couldn’t see the top seals / wire seal but was hoping it was just the bottom seal
Here’s are some photos plus the amount dripped out in 15 hours onto my wooden platform I usedfor crawling under the car..
I’ve bought a pressure filler and decided to fit my back up Polish alloy pan to see if the leaks stop..
Fair amount of damage to under tray plastics so got some alloy and pop rivets to repair some of the cracks ..
I dropped the ‘seems leggit’ alloy pan…
The sealing o ring had popped out from its groove so it wasn’t possible to see if it was seated properly..
However the fitter had used some grease to try and retain it prior to fitting..
When I inspected the o ring it came apart indicating that maybe it had been pinched..
More worrying was damage to the mating face in the same area..was he poking the o ring back in ?
You can see compared to the new Polish version that the Polish version has a thicker more positively located o ring..
3 litres of fluid came out…I think it should be at least 5 litres ..
Frustratingly the Polish pan uses the OE pan drain plug which was thrown away when the US pan was fitted..
My £16 new plastic drain plug arrived so I could start the reassembly can begin..
After loading 4.5 litres up then I had to use Bimmergeeks Protool as my ISTA for reasons I’ve yet to work out wouldn’t talk to the DCT as well as a couple of other ECUs..
Followed the same procedure with a couple of commanded shifts into 1st and 2nd for good measure..another 2 litres went in…
So 3.5 litres came out and 6.5 litres of Fuchs finest went in..
The dribbling out of fluid on the two fills felt like I was swimming in a sea of fluid.
I’ll take the car out for a 100 mile run on Sunday and see what gives.
All was well until I decided to change the fluid and at the same time use a trendy alloy pan to look cool and carry a bit more capacity..
After my local low tech garage had fitted it, there was some very light oil seepage from the pan..maybe a drop or two of fluid if that per night.
I tried two or three times to subsequently get a garage to see to the leak without anybody taking me up on it..I wonder why..
I then got a ‘BMW service centre’ to change the o ring and refill it..after much drama with torque settings and having to get a fresh o ring airlifted in from the states.
However I noticed when driving along the odd puff of a burnt oil smell occasionally..when I got home the next day I could see a good patch of fluid on the ground.
I thought with 7 litres of fluid no big deal..
A couple of weeks later when trying to fo a full power 3rd gear test run for a new ECU tune it firstly prematurely shifted into 4th..on another run I then got ‘the bong’ with car going into limp mode.
Switching off and repeating the attempted run resulted in same situation.
My Protool code reader said..
5A44 clutch 1 incorrect pressure
5A41 Pressure sensor, clutch 1, total failure.
I pooed myself
Slowly drive home, rechecked the box..no errors.
Booked an appointment with same said garage..they then cancelled my appointment saying they were busy and they’d get back to me the next morning.
I went through the ‘if you need to get it done sometimes you just have to do it yourself.’
It looked like after cleaning everything thoroughly around the gearbox that the leak (when stationary ..no engine running ) iwas just from my after market alloy oil pan seal..
Side seal seems dry..couldn’t see the top seals / wire seal but was hoping it was just the bottom seal
Here’s are some photos plus the amount dripped out in 15 hours onto my wooden platform I usedfor crawling under the car..
I’ve bought a pressure filler and decided to fit my back up Polish alloy pan to see if the leaks stop..
Fair amount of damage to under tray plastics so got some alloy and pop rivets to repair some of the cracks ..
I dropped the ‘seems leggit’ alloy pan…
The sealing o ring had popped out from its groove so it wasn’t possible to see if it was seated properly..
However the fitter had used some grease to try and retain it prior to fitting..
When I inspected the o ring it came apart indicating that maybe it had been pinched..
More worrying was damage to the mating face in the same area..was he poking the o ring back in ?
You can see compared to the new Polish version that the Polish version has a thicker more positively located o ring..
3 litres of fluid came out…I think it should be at least 5 litres ..
Frustratingly the Polish pan uses the OE pan drain plug which was thrown away when the US pan was fitted..
My £16 new plastic drain plug arrived so I could start the reassembly can begin..
After loading 4.5 litres up then I had to use Bimmergeeks Protool as my ISTA for reasons I’ve yet to work out wouldn’t talk to the DCT as well as a couple of other ECUs..
Followed the same procedure with a couple of commanded shifts into 1st and 2nd for good measure..another 2 litres went in…
So 3.5 litres came out and 6.5 litres of Fuchs finest went in..
The dribbling out of fluid on the two fills felt like I was swimming in a sea of fluid.
I’ll take the car out for a 100 mile run on Sunday and see what gives.
