What have you done to your car today?

Gilbert89 · 4 Jul 2022 at 12:43

Doobedoo said:
I don’t even think you can change the profile from EFB to AGM at least Carista didn’t give me the option. From memory you can enter the manufacturer and that was only 3 characters, the capacity and a s/no which is literally just for warranty purposes. Ideally you should be replacing like for like but the cars BMS should self learn in the same way the ECU does for fuel ect.

Yeah I'm not sure Carista would allow.

I have seen pictures of the options available from some VAG Specialist tools online, but VW did this.

Apparently the AGM is just a better EFB - My Audi A3 had a AGM, practically the same as my Golf and it's cost saving from VW for shipping them out with an EFB.

I did do some homework prior to replacing, EFB's are cheaper so it was more a preference.

Doobedoo · 4 Jul 2022 at 13:07

There maybe other reasons the manufacturer fitted an EFB.

In the case of the AGM battery, it is essential to avoid a „build-up“ of thermal load due to (extremely) high ambient temperatures (thermal runaway).
For this reason, the ambient temperature must not exceed +55 degrees Celsius. +85 degrees Celsius, not an uncommon value in the engine compartment, especially in summer, is considered uncritical for a maximum of 3 hours per day. More than that cause the premature total failure of the AGM battery, because the separator dries out and the grids can become extremely corroded.

My battery is in the boot but most aren’t.

Phemo · 4 Jul 2022 at 15:15

Gilbert89 said:
I did ask the question's about ensuring it is coded in correctly which he said it would be, he did plug an ODB device in and do some coding but when I asked if he could ensure the car battery type is changed from EFB to AGM he said he was unable to do that but they have "Similar" charging rates and would be fine which I accepted with the intention of having this double checked, seems poor really as most people will just take there word for it.

Yeah, the guy actually told me that it was a bit of a gimmick and that's why they often didn't bother. They apparently only have a couple of scan tools between the team. Considering it says on their own website that it's something that should be done so fitting is recommended, I was less than impressed. I'm not really sure what I expect to gain by moaning to them, but I feel compelled to bring it up as it isn't right in my view.

Still, at least I know it's been done correctly now:

It does ask if it's a legit BMW battery, and if it is then you are asked to put the data matrix code in - this part is as it says in the pic, for traceability. But it does also have the option to say it's a non-genuine battery and ISTA does go on about it being for charging according to battery ageing too.

Doobedoo · 4 Jul 2022 at 15:20

So basically as I said it’s not really required beyond being able to trace when it was fitted, most likely for warranty purposes.

Phemo · 4 Jul 2022 at 15:24

Well, it did say other stuff beyond what's in that image too, about it adjusting the charge profile for batteries as they age. I know it won't exactly be a safety risk if it was just left alone, but I just like knowing things are done right

Doobedoo · 4 Jul 2022 at 16:00

The BMS will self adjust, registering will just initiate it immediately rather than taking a few days to figure it out itself.

pugheaven · 6 Jul 2022 at 15:11

Slapped the private plate on this week. Sold my two old ones, "MD05PUG" and "T40JEE" for £200 rips which basically paid for this... still got the Xedos 9 with "K6UNO" but that's staying

CaptainRAVE · 6 Jul 2022 at 15:18

Cleaned it inside and out. It’ll need a polish and wax in due course and the tyres are on their last legs. Won’t get used much over the next couple of months though.

Jester* · 7 Jul 2022 at 13:28

Changed the arm rest in my Mazda 3. Which involves stripping the centre out.

Phemo · 7 Jul 2022 at 13:30

The only thing my replacement car is missing that my old one had is front parking sensors. It's not an essential, but definitely a nice to have so I'm retrofitting it. Luckily I have a set of genuine BMW sensors hanging around anyway so my only expense is bumper mounts for the sensors to clip in to and wiring.

The wiring harness for this is in two parts - the first being a cable that goes to each of the sensors with a connector that clips on to the bumper. The second is one that connects to said bumper harness and runs all the way down the car into the rear electronics module in the boot. First harness is only £37 direct from BMW so that's fine, but the second one is over £100. It's simply a 6 pin connector with 6 cables and 6 terminals crimped on the other end, that's it. Ended up buying 6 lengths of cable and the connector for under £20 and I have a few of the terminals for the other end spare already. Total cost for retrofitting front parking sensors in this instance is about £117 including the extra PDC button and paint for the sensors so not too bad.

When I finish wrapping it up it'll be pretty much exactly the same thing that BMW sell for 5 times the cost, just with different wire colours. Now just waiting on the other part of the harness and the mounts to arrive

EddScott · 7 Jul 2022 at 15:00

Not quite me personally, but the boys fitting the turbo kit to my Evo have had a hell of a job getting it to fit.

It's a Norris Design kit so should fit easily enough but first attempt found the wastegate fouled the PS pump. Once that was rectified, the top rad inlet was too close to the manifold for comfort so the rad has had be modified.

Was hoping to have it back for Saturday for Castle Combe but the issues meant it's now delayed until next week at the earliest.

ChrisD. · 8 Jul 2022 at 10:29

Had the M Performance exhaust replaced under warranty.

Sinbad2000 · 8 Jul 2022 at 10:33

Dipped it a little too deep in the solent yesterday while launching the boat.
Sooo, now it's standing in the sun drying out, and hopefully some of the weird electrical gremlins that invaded will go away.
I don't have a good feeling about this.

Rroff · 8 Jul 2022 at 18:41

ChrisD. said:
Had the M Performance exhaust replaced under warranty.

Wish my vehicles looked as clean underneath :s especially living in the country side they do not wear well.

Phemo · 9 Jul 2022 at 18:39

Had a bit of a result today. Halfords apologised for the guy who changed my battery last week because he told me he didn't have the diags tool to register the battery and that he didn't usually bother. No big deal as I managed to do it myself but they told me it should have been done and refunded me the fitting which is good because I felt a bit cheated to have paid for something I could have quite easily done myself.

Also noticed last week that one of my brake discs looked a bit odd. I've had this car for about 2 weeks now and it'd obviously had new discs and pads fitted just before I got it. I've not really driven anywhere much lately, only done 250 miles or so and I noticed that 3 of the discs looked mostly ok but with the inner part not fully making contact yet, but 1 of them was really bad:

On top of that they were squealing quite a bit so a couple of days ago I took the calipers and pads off to clean it all out and clean off the tiny dab of copper grease that had been applied and redid it with proper brake grease. Less squealing but the contact looked no better even after a few harsher stops. The pads are made by a company called Drivetec which concerned me too, especially since after a quick search I discovered they're only £20 ish per set.

Today I replaced both front and rears with Ferodo pads. I've only driven the car about 2.5 miles at max 30mph since changing them and no squealing so far and the disc contact is already looking much better:

If it's looking that much better after only 2.5 miles then I'm sure it'll be fine in no time. The old pad in question was like this:

To be fair I did replace the caliper screw bushings and the pad retention clips too so it may not have been the pad's fault entirely, but regardless, I'm just glad to have some half decent pads on there now.

LuckyBenski · 10 Jul 2022 at 01:04

Intended to replace the broken coil spring having had parts/tools ready for 2 weeks. Spent 2 hours fighting with a rusted/seized nut on the shock absorber strut, ultimately unsuccessful. Top slot has rusted out so can't use allen key, can't get a grip on the shaft itself, fully defeated. Knackered, sweaty and dirty to boot. Proper **** day really. Having to reassemble the panels and put the wheel back on with zero progress at dusk was not a very nice activity.

JonRGV250 · 10 Jul 2022 at 06:36

Wrap some insulation tape/cloth/rubber sheet etc around the top of the shaft (before it goes through the wheel arch) and use mole grips to hold it, and use a rattle gun on the top nut if you have one.
Don’t worry about damaging the shaft, you won’t.
I’m assuming that you’ve soaked it in WD overnight?

Gaygle · 10 Jul 2022 at 10:25

Phemo said:
Had a bit of a result today. Halfords apologised for the guy who changed my battery last week because he told me he didn't have the diags tool to register the battery and that he didn't usually bother. No big deal as I managed to do it myself but they told me it should have been done and refunded me the fitting which is good because I felt a bit cheated to have paid for something I could have quite easily done myself.

Also noticed last week that one of my brake discs looked a bit odd. I've had this car for about 2 weeks now and it'd obviously had new discs and pads fitted just before I got it. I've not really driven anywhere much lately, only done 250 miles or so and I noticed that 3 of the discs looked mostly ok but with the inner part not fully making contact yet, but 1 of them was really bad:

On top of that they were squealing quite a bit so a couple of days ago I took the calipers and pads off to clean it all out and clean off the tiny dab of copper grease that had been applied and redid it with proper brake grease. Less squealing but the contact looked no better even after a few harsher stops. The pads are made by a company called Drivetec which concerned me too, especially since after a quick search I discovered they're only £20 ish per set.

Today I replaced both front and rears with Ferodo pads. I've only driven the car about 2.5 miles at max 30mph since changing them and no squealing so far and the disc contact is already looking much better:

If it's looking that much better after only 2.5 miles then I'm sure it'll be fine in no time. The old pad in question was like this:

To be fair I did replace the caliper screw bushings and the pad retention clips too so it may not have been the pad's fault entirely, but regardless, I'm just glad to have some half decent pads on there now.

What manufacture were the old pads? Bet they were something **** like Apex or similar

Phemo · 10 Jul 2022 at 10:40

They were branded Drivetec. Not a make I've heard of before but it seems to be some budget stuff that GSF sells. For my 3 Series, a set of front and rear Drivetec pads are around £21 each which seems ridiculously cheap to me. I wouldn't even put pads that cheap on a 10 year old Fiesta.

In fairness, braking performance was fine and I didn't really have any issues with that, but the uneven wear made me think that my caliper could have been shafted in some weird way. Luckily it wasn't.

LuckyBenski · 10 Jul 2022 at 11:51

JonRGV250 said:
Wrap some insulation tape/cloth/rubber sheet etc around the top of the shaft (before it goes through the wheel arch) and use mole grips to hold it, and use a rattle gun on the top nut if you have one.
Don’t worry about damaging the shaft, you won’t.
I’m assuming that you’ve soaked it in WD overnight?

Thanks, not a bad shout as I've realised the top of the strut won't go down into the shock body itself. Need to find some grips or even a stilson? Most of my tools have been moved to our new house

Not got a rattle gun (or even a battery drill/impact driver - other house). But I have been spraying some WD-40 penetrating lube on daily for a week...