service reveals some issues - FIXED :-) no further issue.

[Beedub]

the cam cover has an edge that you can't get to on the fuel rail side, with the cover off, i wired brushed it off and got a lovely finish !! this side had a pitted finish that looked grubby ( to my eyes at least) looks lovely now. I do however need to take the under tray off as i lost one of the decorative plastic cover nuts on their, i can hear it rolling around !!! The only disaster of the day!!

 

[Mangozac]

Awesome work, Beedub! Nothing like the feeling of satisfaction of doing you own engine work like that!

Your car probably will sell for less if you service it yourself but look at the money you will be saving on garage bills!
Also gives you a good chance of bonding with your car, the impact on resale value wil diminish as the car ages imho.
Regards

My friend has an E36 M3 and the local dealer gives you the option of having the valve clearances done or not at inspection time. They suss out the condition of the car (and how it's been driven) and advise whether they think it should be done. So the solution is to have them do the inspection and stamp the book, and then do the shims yourself! Same for any other items they pick up that need attention to - order the parts and DIY. The only parts the dealer ever needs to touch are the oil filter and drain plug

 

[Nictrix]

Awesome work, Beedub! Nothing like the feeling of satisfaction of doing you own engine work like that!

Your car probably will sell for less if you service it yourself but look at the money you will be saving on garage bills!
Also gives you a good chance of bonding with your car, the impact on resale value wil diminish as the car ages imho.
Regards

My friend has an E36 M3 and the local dealer gives you the option of having the valve clearances done or not at inspection time. They suss out the condition of the car (and how it's been driven) and advise whether they think it should be done. So the solution is to have them do the inspection and stamp the book, and then do the shims yourself! Same for any other items they pick up that need attention to - order the parts and DIY. The only parts the dealer ever needs to touch are the oil filter and drain plug

This is another issue completely. How many cars with full service history actually have full service history?
There are probably quite a lot of people who know someone in a garage who will stamp their service book without the service being carried out.
I was offered this before by a bike shop as I was doing my own servicing.

 

[Redish]

This is just excellent news!

Big respect to you for taking this on yourself and learning more about your car/engine.
Love this.

Glad it was relatively straight forward, and I think it's safe to say you've now completed such an unusual job that ourselves and probably 80% of independents and dealers haven't ever come across, or had to do.
So big respect to you.

Thanks for the update.

Best regards,
James

 

[Beedub]

This is just excellent news!

Big respect to you for taking this on yourself and learning more about your car/engine.
Love this.

Glad it was relatively straight forward, and I think it's safe to say you've now completed such an unusual job that ourselves and probably 80% of independents and dealers haven't ever come across, or had to do.
So big respect to you.

Thanks for the update.

Best regards,
James

thank you thanks looking after my vehicle in the way you did. maybe we can talk about the underside restoration now

 

[Redish]

Glad its sorted & even more satisfying that it's been with your own hands but can't help thinking if a first time novice sorted it in 4 hours ( & that's from scratch opening it up & putting it all back ) how come Redish couldn't fettle it who are supposedly at the top of the game :?
Were they hoping to milk some ££ for what they knew was a relatively simple fix :wink:

Hi mr wilks,

As we previously mentioned, finding this issue whilst the customer was on the way to collect his car played a decent part of our decision making process.
We (and probably many others) havent come across this unusual issue before and therefore a fix to this nature could not be guaranteed in the time scales we had.
We decided to suggest the OEM route for safe working procedures.
It's certainly nothing to do with milking more £ as we simply do not work like that.

We really don't want to thread-hijack and take away from the fact Beedub has achieved an excellent repair and thankfully in such a straight forward and cost effective way.
I know all of us here are very pleased to see this end result.
Back on topic.

James

 

[Beedub]

Glad its sorted & even more satisfying that it's been with your own hands but can't help thinking if a first time novice sorted it in 4 hours ( & that's from scratch opening it up & putting it all back ) how come Redish couldn't fettle it who are supposedly at the top of the game :?
Were they hoping to milk some ££ for what they knew was a relatively simple fix :wink:

Hi mr wilks,

As we previously mentioned, finding this issue whilst the customer was on the way to collect his car played a decent part of our decision making process.
We (and probably many others) havent come across this unusual issue before and therefore a fix to this nature could not be guaranteed in the time scales we had.
We decided to suggest the OEM route for safe working procedures.
It's certainly nothing to do with milking more £ as we simply do not work like that.

We really don't want to thread-hijack and take away from the fact Beedub has achieved an excellent repair and thankfully in such a straight forward and cost effective way.
I know all of us here are very pleased to see this end result.
Back on topic.

James

we are kind opening a can of worms here really... but ill bite.... it took me 3 mins to remove the shim, literally 3 mins.... the difference between the correct tolerance shim and the tight one in the car was slithers of paper, microns , i was able to take any tension off and move that follower with ridiculous ease, on my own having never even shimmed an s54 before. It took ZERO effort to remove this shim, then proceed as normal...

imo you guys should have just done some exploration work and TRIED something, instead I'd come home after spending 700 odd quid for a shim service , purchased a home shim kit/tools / new gaskets and done it myself when my car was already with the professionals and in pieces. something doesn't quite seem right about that in my heart tbh and again to remove the cam, vanos etc would have been criminal, I'm actually pretty certain i could have done it with my fingers.

the valve wasn't held open so their was barely zero tension on it ( compression nice and equal and high across the board, before and after shim changes and after seeing the difference between the old and new shim now- no WAY in a million years could it be held open)

I've had to pay for all new gaskets and waste 200 odd mile old sets , take a day off work for something you guys could have done so so easily had you tried and you was actually IN their AT the shim in question, it wouldnt have even caused a brain-cell to break a sweat for people like you guys.... so if I'm completely honest i do feel slightly short changed , i did consider ringing and asking for a contribution towards my ( small) costs but if it hasn't come offered i won't ask, at the end of the day... your service has been great on 98% of this and hind site is a wonderful thing on both site, I've learned some valuable lessons about my car.

so I'm sure wilks view is harsh but i can see why people would draw that conclusion..... however i don't believe that to be valid, but i do believe you could have solved this their and then for me without even adding 5 mins to the job sheet, you just didn't try which is bizarre to me, the tolerances tighten and loosen , this one was just little tighter!! the principles were exactly the same, and i Should not have had to do what I've done. Imo of course. but I'm glad i did

 

[DPG]

Great work Beedub.

 

[Smartbear]

Great work, I thought I saw a speck of dust on your engine but realised it was just the light glinting off the clean alloy
Regards

 

[Beedub]

Great work, I thought I saw a speck of dust on your engine but realised it was just the light glinting off the clean alloy
Regards

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

[DPG]

Great work, I thought I saw a speck of dust on your engine but realised it was just the light glinting off the clean alloy
Regards

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Suffering from JE syndrome

 

[Babw]

Good job mate, nothing better than DIY success on your own car.

 

[LostBoy_84]

Glad it turned out to be a nice easy fix for you.
I'm jealous of how clean your engine is, internally and externally!

 

[Beedub]

Glad it turned out to be a nice easy fix for you.
I'm jealous of how clean your engine is, internally and externally!

to actually open it up and see myself how it looks internally is quite a treat tbh.... clean is not the word, the surfaces actually shine!! The plugs were in perfect fettle and looked to be firing perfectly nice colour shade, suggesting my AFRs are as good as my logs show. Its running beautifully, however I'm now saving towards some preventative work, i may have got out of this one, but bills are just around the corner with these cars! matter of time. Next year i just want to run the car as much as possible and use enjoy it!

 

[MrPT]

Great job, mate. And big balls.

 

[Beedub]

thanks guys!!

 

[Beedub]

for anyone thats interested, heres a close up of the weisco VSK4 8.9 shim set for the S54/bmw bikes too i believe.... whats really nice about these is the printed thickness on the top, the bmw ones don't have this.. this setup makes future changes a breeze. Ive also now ordered the shim in-between sizes so i will be able to get the tolerances even closer to ideal. Also you can see the official BMW shim removal tool which makes things so so so simple, you still have to be very careful but really is simple.

 

[Nictrix]

Yamaha shims are all marked with the shim size on them too and are also installed so that the side with the size on it is not the side that wears.
This makes shim changes in the future a bit easier as you can still read the size of the one thats installed and then order the sizes you need to replace them with.

 

[Beedub]

yeah tbh i can't remember if i did the numbers up or down ... was too engrossed in what i was doing, i like to think the number isn't under the follower because it would be nice for that to be left in place for future reference , they are however a round puck and installable on any side....