Put a dent on the Discover Card. I finally had the airbag recall taken care of about a month ago and dealer pointed out the exhaust Vanos solenoid is leaking as is my thermostat housing. So last night I finally ordered a Dr. Vanos unit, thermostat housing, Stewart high flow water pump, hose kit, belt & pully kit and a host of other odds and ends. This is going to be interesting. I've done old fashioned Chevy water pumps, brakes and other miscellaneous repairs but this will be my first time tearing this far into a car. Wish me luck.
Well, I finally wrapped up what seemed to be the never ending project. When all is said and done, I gave my E46 some 200,000 mile loving. The project list included: Replaced the Vanos with a Dr. Vanos unit from Pelican Auto Which of course resulted in replacing the valve cover gasket New thermostat and housing Replaced the original (don't know how I got 200k miles out of it) water pump with a Stewart High Performance water pump New radiator hoses and sensor (the radiator was replaced just 30,000 miles ago so I left it alone) New pulleys New belt tensioners New belts New heater hoses and Pipes. Boy was removing the intake manifold for this part of the project ever a treat. Same goes for fishing the cracked pipes out of the head. Fresh BMW anti-freeze New cold weather CCV system and vacuum line Cleaned up the intake manifold as best I could and cleaned the throttle body New Vanos oil pipe New power steering reservoir One new power steering hose (the less expensive one that is harder to get to) New intake manifold gasket Fresh Red Line MTL in the transmission Fresh Red Line in the differential Hit it with a can of intake valve cleaner (boy was this scary on the clean out drive an hour later) New spark plugs New upstream O2 sensors Cleaned the mass airflow sensor Oil change with Mobile One Euro Blend and Mann oil filter New passenger side turn signal During this whole process, I cleaned the 200,000 mile of gunk off the engine block, components, etc. This is a large part of what took me so long. I'll tell you what, WD40 is a great engine degreaser. This is biggest project I've ever undertaken. Pelican's write up had the coolant pipes etc. as a 4 out of 5 wrenches on the complexity. Wasn't so much complex as it was utterly time consuming. I hit 203,000 on my way in to work today and it's running smooth as a well aged Scotch. Boy is it ever nice to be driving it again after sitting for a month and a half.
Replaced the headlight lenses and gaskets. Can't wait to drive it at night to experience real lights again. Before: After: I found the two part brake duct separated and one 1/2 was laying on top of the splash shield. So a bit of mission creep as I put it back together and reattached it before I put the lights back in.
^^^ Now that is an upgrade! My E36 headlights are worthless! Anyways, I'll be replacing my window regulator. AGAIN.
Over the past couple months I replaced most of the suspension. What started simply as all wheel bearings, rotors, pads and braided steel brake & clutch lines morphed into: Wheel Bearings (FAG brand) Slotted UUC rotors Hawk street performance pads New parking brake components UUC braided steel brake and clutch line CDV delete (why oh why did I just learn of this vs. 17 years ago when I bought it) GKN Axles Differential output shaft seals King pin (steering knuckle) - Genuine BMW Bilstein shocks & struts (The H&R springs still looked good) ECS Tuning rear shock mount support Strut mount (Lemforder) Front control arms, inner & outer tie rods and stabilizer bar links (Lemforder) Coolant expansion tank, bracket and upper radiator hose (all genuine BMW) Lower air intake scoop (don't know how long it's been missing) BF Goodrich G-Force Comp 2 tires and of course and alignment Replaced windshield cowl that's been taking up space in my garage for a couple years. Still have a bit of a clunk at low speeds, especially when turning. I guess I'll need to check bushings to figure out where it's coming from but for now I'm just going to drive it. It's been way, Way, WAY to long since I drove it.
Installed BAVSOUND Stage One speakers. Oh my gosh, what a difference. I probably should have replaced my 18 year old factory speakers 5 years ago or longer. I went for a half hour drive just to crank the tunes. I can hear the bass, I can hear the tweeters, I can hear it with the windows down without the incessant popping I've had for the past year or two. Here's a picture to show just how bad of shape the factory speakers were in.
In the last couple of months, I replaced these components on my 2004 E46 330i: both Lower Ctrl Arms tie-rods low beam Xenon bulbs Cowl Cover rear-view mirror rear light clusters to RCR Euro-style added strut tower brace Upper & lower intake boots F-connector intake line O-ring on MAF Hood emblem AC belt Serpentine belt Attached is a pic of my current job ... replacing the infamous Valve Cover Gasket...
Had mine towed to the shop Thursday night when my rear end blew out. I knew it was coming - was just hoping it would get me to the winter before it blew. Hate that I took it in vs. trying myself but my garage is a disaster right now. Having a 3.46 LSD installed which had been my plan all along. Just wish I was in a better place to do it myself to save some coin and lay hands on my car.
Yeah. I did all the wheel bearings, axles, etc. last year. When I removed the passenger side axle, the input shaft popped right out which led me to replace the seals. From what I understand, the c-clip can eventually create a groove in the housing that prevents it from seating properly. This was evident by leaking gear oil and a shaft. It began chattering when cold a month or two ago and a couple weeks ago I heard what sounded like bolt snapping and falling off. I couldn't find anything other than the input shaft slid out a bit when I raised the car. Ironically, the chattering went away. Driving home from work last Thursday the RPMs suddenly shot up. I let off the gas, hit the gas and nothing - differential shot. I figured during last year's repairs I'd move on up to an LSD this year but issues with our other rides precluded me from tackling it this summer as I intended. It's just killing me that I'm paying the extra money to have it done vs. doing it myself but I need to force myself to be OK with it. I am OK with needing to replace the differential. My only grouse with BMW at the time is that an LSD was not an option. I am so looking forward to it.
