What have you done to your car today?

Did a quick job on the E92 M3. The rear back box has (had) two earth straps to stop some kind of electrical interference which can make the DAB radio signal choppy. Mine were both missing so looked into how much they were (part number 12427840591) - £25...each! £50 for two tiny earth straps! Absolutely mental.

So I went online and found a couple of earth straps on eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/9-Classi...ble-Flexible-Tinned-Copper-Braid/121930637020 - ask for 10mm diameter holes) which are identical to those that BMW sell - £2.99 each inc del.

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Coilovers arrived, rear strut bar came, need to make the brackets to mount it and will be painted black, wheels and tyres going on tomorrow. :)
 
Sooo as I was doing my front drop links on an E92 M3 (took about 20 minutes a side), I thought i'd do the rears as well as they were only a tenner each for TRW parts. How hard could they be?

...

fffffffffuuuuuu.

Well, if you're ever doing the rear drop/stabiliser links on an E92 M3 - don't bother. I have absolutely no idea why car manufacturers do **** like this, but they've made it so that the bolt for the bottom of the link is too long to remove and you'd have to remove the rear hub to move the driveshaft to get the extra 3mm clearance you'd need. WHY!? To make this problem even worse, I was using a rachet combination wrench which only undoes the bolt one way, and if you want to rachet the other way, you have to remove the wrench from the bolt/nut and turn it around.

Unfortunately, I undid this bolt with said rachet wrench, then realised that the bolt was too long to get out, then realised that I couldn't even do up the bolt again to get my bloody wrench out as it just clicked because of the one way rachet!! This is the situation I was left with, and you better believe that several new swear words were made ...

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So followed 2-3 hours of cutting, hammer, swearing, to cut the bolt with the 5mm of room I had. Finally got the thing out and replaced the end link with a bolt that was 5mm smaller. There is absolutely NO reason whatsoever that BMW couldn't have used a 35 or 40mm long bolt as opposed to a 45mm bolt which means you either have to cut the bolt or remove the entire rear hub and disconnect the driveshaft.

Urgh!!
 
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I did the brakes on a ford ranger recently and they have some similar things. Have to unnecessarily remove parts to remove a bolt that is pointlessly too long.
 
What should I expect to pay to get the rear spoiler and the front bumper re-sprayed on the Corolla? Spoiler is peeling and front bumper isn't colour matched properly.

Also can paint shops do anything about tidying up loads of stone chips on the front wings and bonnet or would I have to either live with them or get them sprayed too?
 
If you want it done panels off then blended (for the bumper at least) it'll be around £170-£200 for the bumper then £100ish for the spoiler.

If you're happy for them to mask up and keep it on the car probably closer to £120/130 for the bumper

For the chips unless you want the panel or part panel done then not really, they'll fill them with some spare paint for you which will take your eye off from a few yards away but will be obvious up close
 
I'd say £150 for full bumper respray and about £50-60 for the spoiler...based on quotes for the same parts on my car :p I agree with rodenal on the chip front. Can always get some matched paint from dealer, blend it with some clear and 'drip' it into the chips. You can then flat them back (wetsand) then compound + polish the area.
 
I might just ask them to touch them up as best they can with some spare paint. I'm not talking one or two stone chips, there must be at least a hundred. Stupid soft Toyota paint.
 
Fiat 500. Swapped the wheels front to rear to even out tyre wear as the fronts have about 3.5mm and the tears look more like 6mm still! Gave them a wash when they were off.

Dodged a bullet as the jacking point is on the sill according to the manual. Got one pump of pressure on it using a trolley jack and decided against it as it looked rather weak. Other cars I have had it’s double skinned here and obviously structural, this looked no different to the rest of the sill. I went for a reinforced chassis section underneath instead where you’d put it on a 4 post lift.

Googling afterwards, the sill just crumples unless you use the slotted scissor jack and every other monkey garage manages to mash them when changing the tyres... (something to watch for I guess!).

Also I couldn’t find the wheel torque in the manual. Gives me the bore sizes, stroke and firing order of the cylinders though.... Italians!
 
Those sill lips are almost always smooshed because of previous owners taking them to clueless or careless garages. On my Skoda the lip was folded totally flat about half the way along... Made jacking it up a pain. :p

And do the wheel bolts up till they feel right. I still don't get the need to torque up wheel bolts to a specific setting.
 
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Acme said:
Those sill lips are almost always smooshed because of previous owners taking them to clueless or careless garages. On my Skoda the lip was folded totally flat about half the way along... Made jacking it up a pain. :p

And do the wheel bolts up till they feel right. I still don't get the need to torque up wheel bolts to a specific setting.
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If you do one wheel bolt to 60 and one is 85 and another is 110nm but they all “felt” the same due to the threads in the hub being slightly different or dirty etc, then you risk stripping the threads, a wheel bolt working loose and it’s just not good practice.
 
Why would you lubricate the threads? Part of the specified tightening torque takes into account the friction in the threads and if you reduce this you run the risk of over tightening your nuts.
 
Berger said:
If you do one wheel bolt to 60 and one is 85 and another is 110nm but they all “felt” the same due to the threads in the hub being slightly different or dirty etc, then you risk stripping the threads, a wheel bolt working loose and it’s just not good practice.
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Whilst I appreciate the theory I've always done them up hand tight and then another 1/4 turn by jumping on the wheel brace and never had a stripped thread or loose wheel nut / bolt.
 
Alibaba99 said:
Why would you lubricate the threads? Part of the specified tightening torque takes into account the friction in the threads and if you reduce this you run the risk of over tightening your nuts.
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Copper slip. So they come undone again :p

As above, always done that, and most people I know do that too. Never heard of any issues as a result. Garages/tyre shops etc never do them to a specified torque either.
 
Alibaba99 said:
Why would you lubricate the threads? Part of the specified tightening torque takes into account the friction in the threads and if you reduce this you run the risk of over tightening your nuts.
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It should also take in to account lubrication on the threads unless specifically stated not to use a lubricant.
 
I mean my dad's a mechanical engineer and he basically said its a waste of time and to just do what I've been doing. *shrug*

He doesn't agree with my frequent cable tie usage though :D
 
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