Well, yesterday, several of my fellow club members decided we'd do some work on my e34. I'll post photos up later; once I get them transferred from the camera. Basically, we replaced the power steering reservoir, and replaced two leaky hoses going to the reservoir (plus, changed the clamps with screw hose clamps). we also had a small leak coming from the radiator, so we changed out the rad, and the long 4-way coolant hose. That hose was fun; we removed the intake manifold to get to it. Everything is nice and dry now, and the steering seems to be much smoother. The fluid that we removed from the system looked to be old, to say the least! I'll post up some photos and a better writeup when I get a chance....
Here's the update from our tech session - several posts, I apologize.... Well, a rapidly increasing power steering leak, coupled with a slow coolant leak gave us the perfect excuse to do some work on our e34, "Gretchen," as she's known by the rest of the world.... So, I gathered a bunch of random part numbers, contacted people that said they sell said parts, and ordered away. I waited and the big brown truck brought the goodies to the house.... Then, it was time to begin! What was on the agenda? Replace power steering reservoir, two leaky power steering hoses, the radiator, and the long 4-way spider hose that runs the length the engine from radiator to firewall. yay! Ok, let's get started! First, we drained the coolant and removed the radiator. This is pretty standard on most vehicles, so no need to really show any pictures. Decoupling the transmission cooler from the radiator is more tricky on the e34 than it is on the e36. Here's a shot of the radiator removed: The black, smaller radiator with the lines running from it is the transmission cooler. Fortunately, fairly early in the production run, BMW switched to a seperate transmission cooler versus the previous system - which had the cooler integral to the radiator. This meant disconnecting lines and, yes, dumping of transmission fluid. This way is much cleaner! Here's the view from the bird's eye camera.... And, the old radiator gets sent to timeout! Next, came the removal of the power steering reservoir and hoses. Power steering reservoir is at the bottom of this photo:
Another shot of the reservoir, the two hoses coming from it are the ones targeted to be replaced.... Removal of the power steering hoses has started: Ta da!! Reservoir and hoses removed.....
Partway through the project; yes, there's a mallet laying on top of the engine!! Ick.....look at the mess from the power steering leak. We cleaned up a bunch of this and also re-wrapped some of the wiring.... Now, time to tackle the party piece; the intake manifold. This is needed to remove the 4-way coolant hose. Some claim they can change this hose without removing the manifold; perhaps that's true, but this appeared to be the best route for us.... Begin by removing the plastic cover on top of the fuel rail....
Next, we removed the plastic cover on the cylinder head.....Look, it's a six! Work continues on removing the fuel rail and intake manifold....
Fuel rail is now loose and can be moved out of the way..... Here's where we are now - fuel rail is loose, cylinder head plastic cover is removed, as is the radiator, and power steering reservoir/hoses.
Now, we're gonna start on the manifold. After disconnecting all the nuts holding the manifold in; we also had to remove two bolts holding the manifold to brackets. We did this from under the car. We also removed the intake hose, airbox, and throttle body already. Here, the manifold is about to come out:
Now, we start working on removing the coolant hose. This hose has four connections - one on the firewall, one on the throttle body, one on the engine, and one on the radiator. We started at the firewall and throttle body. The hose was really baked onto the throttle body, so we had to cut it..... Everything has been disconnected and we are starting to remove the hose.... Finally - it's out!! Comparing old to new....
Installing the new hose begins; we started with the rearmost connection and path. Installation continues - don't forget, put those hose clamps on before starting!!
Installing hose clamps, also installing new intake manifold gaskets... Books, parts, tools, and plastic bag - all on the windshield; yup, it's a tech session! Replacing the gasket for the throttle body:
Look at that! The hose is installed! From there, installation, as they say, is the reverse of disassembly. Or, just run the pictures in reverse order! yeah..... Anyway, we connected everything together, tightened everything down, filled up the radiator and power steering, bled both systems, and went out for a drive....Yup, everything works again!! Pretty amazing! Thank you to all that helped - I never could have tackled this project on my own; I'm constantly amazed at what we here in the club can achieve!
Nice progress report Shadowpuck. Please update when reconstruction is complete. I would advise though, that for universal clarity, you should use correct terminology when identifying tools. The term "mallet" is a very crude reference. The appropriate tool terminology for this item is "non-damaging impact installation/removal device", aka "persuader". Good Luck...
thanks! I've learned so much on various forums and through the folks I've met in the BMW club I always try to post up with pictures, writeups, etc. when something is DIY'ed on any of my cars... I had a blast documenting the transmission swap on the 3 series; a whole website and over 500 photos from that project.... Reconstruction is mostly complete, when we bought the car a few years ago we did the rest of the cooling system, minus the spider hose and the radiator. Both, at the time, looked fine. I could have probably tolerated the coolant leak since it was very minor for awhile; but, since I had to remove so much to get into the power steering and the coolant hose really looked like it was wearing out it was the right time to attack those issues. While under the car, we did find a damaged end link, so that's on the list too. Also, the intake hose (right at the elbow) has cracked and torn due to age. I had the same problem on my 3 series and fixed it. Local dealer didn't have the part in stock when we had the car apart so I'll attack that later. It's temporarily fixed with speed tape (aka duct tape)..... Next up, some cosmetic work. We are going to redye the interior, spruce it up, and fix a few minor issues like hvac control lighting, etc. We've also got a small bit of rust down around the door sills, totally normally on this model - so we'll have our body shop look at that and go from there. Then, it's on to fixing the exterior cosmetics, touch ups on some chips, etc..... Good call on the persuader - we don't consider it a true tech session unless someone breaks out a hammer, chisel, or plasma cutter!
everything is back together. we are still fighting a small dribble from the lower coolant hose on the driver's side.... just the luck...otherwise, everything is back together and running fine.....
