What have you done to your car today?
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Spaniarduk
Member
After many weeks of thinking, more thinking and more thinking, only to end up as a big gaping hole that never got covered I came across by pure fluke somebody on Facebook that did the following after replacing the BMW stereo with the satnav screen with an after market one.
Voila! Extra storage compartment! It still needs fettling with a bit, but almost finished! I'm well chuffed! :yu:
Voila! Extra storage compartment! It still needs fettling with a bit, but almost finished! I'm well chuffed! :yu:
ErrErrminator
Active member
Driven it to work again.
I’m temporarily without my daily driver, so the poor old Zed has had to do the commute this week, in some fairly awful weather.
It’s usually a dry weather only car and resides in the garage, out of the rain, when not in use. This week though it’s been wet and dirty and I’m not too happy about it. It’s even shown up a minor leak into the boot somewhere.
On a positive note, it clocked up an amusing mileage figure today. Yes, I’ve covered the first ‘0’ for maximum effect!
I’m temporarily without my daily driver, so the poor old Zed has had to do the commute this week, in some fairly awful weather.
It’s usually a dry weather only car and resides in the garage, out of the rain, when not in use. This week though it’s been wet and dirty and I’m not too happy about it. It’s even shown up a minor leak into the boot somewhere.
On a positive note, it clocked up an amusing mileage figure today. Yes, I’ve covered the first ‘0’ for maximum effect!
Advisory for perished fuel filler cap seal on last MOT so changed that for one of the eBay Mini cap seals. Feels wrong to pay £4 for an O-ring and it's not quite the same as the original u-shaped seal but will do the trick.
Today I had some time to look at some of the dashcam footage of our leisurely trip down to Spain. It was mostly motorway driving by choice and there were two of us - so we took our time (4 dogs between us!)
Here we are boarding the train to Calais - the best way of doing the crossing if you have dogs!
[youtube]lEVj1faU6jk[/youtube]
... and here is some (speeded up!) footage through the northern part of Spain after leaving France at Bayonne:
[youtube]PMkVEp6iR_I[/youtube]
Here we are boarding the train to Calais - the best way of doing the crossing if you have dogs!
[youtube]lEVj1faU6jk[/youtube]
... and here is some (speeded up!) footage through the northern part of Spain after leaving France at Bayonne:
[youtube]PMkVEp6iR_I[/youtube]
The coupe has had a few sluggish starts recently so picked up a new Varta Silver to replace a BMW battery fitted in 2016. Rules it out if nothing else 
Gave her a rinse ready for Zedfest tomorrow. The weather is looking good now but it might be a bit soggy underfoot 
.
Brought a cheapo third brake light as mine was cracked. Total waste of money, the plug was different so I did a bit of a soldering job & fitted the plug from the cracked one. The fit was awful, sticking out a mile at each end & when I plugged it in it didn't bloody work
. So, bought a pukka BMW clear, fitted it & works perfectly 
.
So I went from this..
To this..
Looks much better against the grey imo.
Also fitted two new struts to the boot lid. Opening & closing is so much smoother now so I'm hoping I'll avoid cracking the brake light for a while .
Looking forward to seeing some of you at Zedfest tomorrow .
.Brought a cheapo third brake light as mine was cracked. Total waste of money, the plug was different so I did a bit of a soldering job & fitted the plug from the cracked one. The fit was awful, sticking out a mile at each end & when I plugged it in it didn't bloody work
. So, bought a pukka BMW clear, fitted it & works perfectly .So I went from this..
To this..
Looks much better against the grey imo.
Also fitted two new struts to the boot lid. Opening & closing is so much smoother now so I'm hoping I'll avoid cracking the brake light for a while
.Looking forward to seeing some of you at Zedfest tomorrow
.I was told a 1000 miles to bed the springs in :?saj77 said:Rattled off a hundred miles across the North Yorkshire moors to ‘bed in’ my new Eibachs and B4’s in preparation for wheel alignment.
Is 100 miles enough??
Better fill the tank and get driving some more
south yorkshire
Washed and ready for zedfest!
Thrustyjust said:I was told a 1000 miles to bed the springs in :?saj77 said:Rattled off a hundred miles across the North Yorkshire moors to ‘bed in’ my new Eibachs and B4’s in preparation for wheel alignment.
Is 100 miles enough??
Better fill the tank and get driving some more
The tyres will be buggered if you go 1000 miles before a wheel alignment :lol: I know this from experience. Absolutely ruined the inside edges of my rear tyres after installing Eibachs.
Thats why I went to see him after I fitted them. Eibach changes the camber , but it actually was mostly a weird toe in that was causing the issues. But he said 1000 miles to me, but glad I had it done quickly and will go back shortly after the 1000 to just check whats changed.
So, today was front wishbones rear bush replacements. I had some free time this afternoon, so thought , lets have a go !
I had previously, last week made a bush removal tool from some stuff I had at work. Weirdly, i watched a you tube vid, a few days afterwards from Bavauto, or somewhere and they showed the official BMW tool for the job and apart from being a bit more 'quality' , was identical in what I had made
So, I jacked the car up at the front and removed the under panel , which is 8X 16 mm bolts, 3 X 10 mm bolts and 3 X 8mm bolts. This then allowed access to the wishbones. I did the drivers side first and undid the 2 X 16mm bolts to drop the rear wishbone. I had left the front wheels on , as a weight to help drop it away from the rear locating point. There is an axle stand there somewhere, so dont think I did this under a trolley jack. I leave it there as a 'back up' , just incase !
Then the home made tool came into play and I removed the bushing , as a whole, from the end of the wishbone. Came off easily with the tool, which cost me nothing to make.
I then put the lollipop in the vice and after watching E46 videos on cutting the centres out and then hack sawing the outer steel bush from the lollipop, I thought it will be a faff, but a bit of patience !
Well, they werent oil filled on the E46 bushes were they
Up the walls, in the face ( I had safety glasses on, but without wiper blades) , down the back of the car and generally everywhere :?
I managed to gut the bush and slot a line in the outer steel part. Enough to drift it , to split it and then knock it out. I didnt want to cut all the way through, so I didnt cut the lollipop.
Using copious washing up liquid and the vice, the new bush went in. I then slotted the purple part onto the wishbone end, greased up and then refitted. First one went well, but the passenger side was out a bit and I took the purple inner out, turned in a few degrees and slotted on and it then went together easily.
I rebolted up and to be honest, I thought the bolts werent that tight :roll: I then torqued them up. The bolts were all good and dont need replacing. Those marks on the bush are silicon grease that oozed out, not cracks :wink:
I refitted the sump guard and ummed and arred about the CDV and didnt do it. And went for a drive instead
Time taken was about 2 hrs , all in and nothing was a struggle to undo and I did have a pair of bearing pullers ready , if my home made tool didnt work.
Happy with the job and the car does feel smoother than worn bushes and not noisy with road poly bushes in there.
I had previously, last week made a bush removal tool from some stuff I had at work. Weirdly, i watched a you tube vid, a few days afterwards from Bavauto, or somewhere and they showed the official BMW tool for the job and apart from being a bit more 'quality' , was identical in what I had made
So, I jacked the car up at the front and removed the under panel , which is 8X 16 mm bolts, 3 X 10 mm bolts and 3 X 8mm bolts. This then allowed access to the wishbones. I did the drivers side first and undid the 2 X 16mm bolts to drop the rear wishbone. I had left the front wheels on , as a weight to help drop it away from the rear locating point. There is an axle stand there somewhere, so dont think I did this under a trolley jack. I leave it there as a 'back up' , just incase !
Then the home made tool came into play and I removed the bushing , as a whole, from the end of the wishbone. Came off easily with the tool, which cost me nothing to make.
I then put the lollipop in the vice and after watching E46 videos on cutting the centres out and then hack sawing the outer steel bush from the lollipop, I thought it will be a faff, but a bit of patience !
Well, they werent oil filled on the E46 bushes were they
Up the walls, in the face ( I had safety glasses on, but without wiper blades) , down the back of the car and generally everywhere :? I managed to gut the bush and slot a line in the outer steel part. Enough to drift it , to split it and then knock it out. I didnt want to cut all the way through, so I didnt cut the lollipop.
Using copious washing up liquid and the vice, the new bush went in. I then slotted the purple part onto the wishbone end, greased up and then refitted. First one went well, but the passenger side was out a bit and I took the purple inner out, turned in a few degrees and slotted on and it then went together easily.
I rebolted up and to be honest, I thought the bolts werent that tight :roll: I then torqued them up. The bolts were all good and dont need replacing. Those marks on the bush are silicon grease that oozed out, not cracks :wink:
I refitted the sump guard and ummed and arred about the CDV and didnt do it. And went for a drive instead
Time taken was about 2 hrs , all in and nothing was a struggle to undo and I did have a pair of bearing pullers ready , if my home made tool didnt work.
Happy with the job and the car does feel smoother than worn bushes and not noisy with road poly bushes in there.
Spaniarduk
Member
[ref]Thrustyjust[/ref], very crafty! Good job
ben g said:Thrustyjust said:I was told a 1000 miles to bed the springs in :?saj77 said:Rattled off a hundred miles across the North Yorkshire moors to ‘bed in’ my new Eibachs and B4’s in preparation for wheel alignment.
Is 100 miles enough??
Better fill the tank and get driving some more
The tyres will be buggered if you go 1000 miles before a wheel alignment :lol: I know this from experience. Absolutely ruined the inside edges of my rear tyres after installing Eibachs.
So, 100 miles too few - 1000 too many, somewhere in between then?
Thanks Mr SpaniardSpaniarduk said:[ref]Thrustyjust[/ref], very crafty! Good job
Modern springs don't need time to settle like they did in the past. Just book it in and get it done as soon as you can. The longer you leave it the longer there is for potential undesirable tyre wearsaj77 said:ben g said:Thrustyjust said:I was told a 1000 miles to bed the springs in :?
Better fill the tank and get driving some more
The tyres will be buggered if you go 1000 miles before a wheel alignment :lol: I know this from experience. Absolutely ruined the inside edges of my rear tyres after installing Eibachs.
So, 100 miles too few - 1000 too many, somewhere in between then?