I treated my baby to a new set of shoes! Michelin and Discount Tire were running a $70 rebate (I missed the $100 Discount Tire rebate last week), so I got a new set of Pilot Super Sports, 245/40ZR18 on the front and 275/35ZR18 on the rear. Fit fine, even with the H&R Sport Springs put on by the original owner, which gives it a 1" drop. They replaced the original Continentals that were over 6.5 years old but only had a few thousand miles on them. The original owner took them off 5 weeks after he bought the car, stored them on the original rims in his garage until this past June, when he put them back on and traded in the car for a new 135i. He probably put less than 1,000 miles on them and I put only 2,300 miles on them, including one autocross.
I did a full detailing job on my M3 over the weekend. It rained and now it looks like crap again... so much for all the time spent waxing and buffing!
ti Swapped my very worn brake pads for less worn pads to prevent any further scoring to my rotors. New rotors are on order. Waiting for Santa to deliver a new set of Carbotech XP10/XP8 to me. Repositioned post O2 sensor wires so they don't touch my exhaust. Looks like the last 'tech' used a paperclip to secure it. And not very well. Also repositioned the wires so there wasn't so much slack at one end. Found one pre-cat O2 sensor loose. Tightened it. Also found an exhaust header bolt loose. One bolt snapped off. Bolts are +$22.00 each! E30 Paid someone to replace water pump, belts, hoses, rotor and cap. Mini Nav now doesn't go on right away. Old cars suck!
Wooooo doggie, the one got a makeover yesterday! Six hours of restoring the exterior to a showroom finish can really Tucker our a girls arms. I opted to use clay over the top half to Remove most of the impurities then of course all the buffing jive. I can proudly say three beers, half a day and a whole lot of elbow grease has the Tard ready for the next concourse, whenever that may be. Although, taking out that "track out" sign (well, I didn't take it out, Mr bee did) really left a mark. Oh well, cars are meant to be driven.
Nice. I share your pain. I did the same. (Ok, no clay this time, but still.) Also finished the brake job I started last weekend. New pads & rotors all around. New ATE Blue fluid. The old fluid came out red at three wheels and yellow at one--very odd. All ready for Thunderhill this weekend! I replaced my stock pads with MetalMasters. After bedding them, they seem to modulate way better than stock. The stock pads had an initial hard bite if I just touched the brake pedal, then required a lot more travel to get more braking. Made driving in stop n slow traffic a touchy business. The MetalMasters just have an nice even progression all the way to ABS. Much less dust, too! Oh yeah, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I also mopped & degreased the garage floor.
Replaced stock exhaust with BMW performance exhaust on my 2008 328i sedan and am very pleased with the results: improved sound and perhaps slightly improved performance. Removal of stock exhaust was easy but installing new and trying to line up with piping was a bit of a bear but after about 4 hours resolved. Next will be a Dinan cold air intake, I think. Not much more you can do with the 328i but it's a great car and engine without turbo reliability concerns.
I replaced the stock exhaust on my Z4 M Roadster with a Strömung exhaust. It has a nice, deep, bassy sound but the best part is all the pops and burbles when I let off the gas.
Primed, spray painted, & plasti-dipped the back of my new license plates, silicone-caulked a clear plastic cover lens to the front side, and installed on the car with stainless steel screws and custom-cut black anodized aluminum license-plate frame - and black plastic screw caps to cover the screw heads. Hopefully the rusty license-plate phenom will be kept at bay for some years to come!
To which I will counter (even though I'm sure you've had your several lifetime's fill of snow...) Water restriction? What's THAT?? Living in a large river town here, even in any kind of worst drought we get, there is _never_ any water restriction... we get to wash our cars with ALL the water we want, water our lawns, whatever - not a problem, ever!!
OK, Not a BMW but... Replaced dead battery in the Mini only to hear something whirring under the car. Turns out the electric power steering pump is running non stop and overheating. Common problem. The pump probably killed the battery. Now to find a rebuilt pump. Dealer wants around $1500. Indy wants around $900. I found someone who rebuilds them for $250. Out of 3 cars not one is working right.
Hey, if you ever need a lift, I work right around the corner from your house I can't accommodate for more than one full sized adult, but I'm here if you need me!
I had the windshield replaced on the 528i due to an unknown object hitting it on my drive home from work. I went with the aftermarket model due to the crazy price on one from the dealer.
I improved the illumination in my trunk. I can't take credit for this as I saw it on a fellow Club member's Z4 M Roadster more than a year ago, long before I had mine. I finally got around to tracking down the lights and installing them. The trunk light in the Z4 M Roadster leaves a lot to be desired both in terms of location and in light output. There are LED replacement bulbs which can increase the illumination but there's still the problem of location, all the way over on the right hand side of the trunk. If you keep anything tall in the right "bin", say like a quart of oil in the BMW oil bag, it does a pretty good job of obscuring the light. I bought this WFLS-x-WHT series Weatherproof High Power LED Flexible Light Strip - White Circuit from superbrightleds.com for $26.99. It's a 100cm (39.3") strip of Cool White LEDS encased in waterproof vinyl, with a self-adhesive strip on the back. This length only comes in Cool White and Warm White, I chose the Cool White for maximum brightness. The electrical connection is a 48.26cm (19") two-wire pigtail. The voltage range is 9-14.8V. (Since then I've discovered that it also comes on a black base with Natural White light color.) This is a perfect length to attach the pigtail to the trunk light with the LEDs spanning the entire width of the top lip of the trunk. I pulled out the trunk light and there is a two-sided metal "cage" in which the bulb is secured. I unplugged the light assembly to make it easier to work with. I just wrapped the bare leads around each side of the cage and twisted each one together. It appeared to be secure enough so I put the trunk light back in place. I folded the light strip in half and marked the centerpoint. In the center of the trunk lip there is a hole so I aligned the centerpoint of the strip with the hole and then just pressed the strip into place on each side. The adhesive is quite strong although you can reposition it. Here's some pics, although the lights are so bright the pictures didn't come out the greatest on my P&S camera. I may have to take some more pictures in the daylight and also might take one after the trunk light times out and turns off: Pic taken with flash on: Pic taken with flash off. I've squatted down behind the car so that the LEDs are visible. When standing behind the car the LEDs aren't visible. The LEDs also completely illuminate the back area of the trunk but the camera doesn't show this well: Here's a pic of the pigtail going into the trunk light: Here's a pic taken with the camera pointing up under the trunk lip: This would probably work on any other BMW or even any other car for that matter.
Great idea! That something worth looking into doing. I hate trying to find stuff in the trunk in the dark.
It's pimped! I do like it. I tried to see how that might work in my coupay but it's not immediately obvious.
