What have you done to your car today?

Akagi said:
I would phone him, but phoning people is insane behaviour in 2024, and he's Welsh so I wouldn't understand a word he says anyway. :p
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Stop being soft and get him called! Life's too short to be left on read. Shoot your shot and get it sorted. Far less aggro in my opinion.


My 15 year old Mondeo passed its MOT. 183k miles. I was ready for some big bills and an excuse to buy a new car but here we are.

I thought I'd got away with the annual car bank drain however the Daughters Fiat 500 has it's MOT 2 days later and failed on rear axle corrosion. Trying to get a quote to get it fixed is excruciating, especially as I can get a new axle for £150 but places are moaning they won't fit customer supplied parts.

We're currently on day 3 of waiting for a quote. I'm tempted to just do it myself but it's just that little bit more involved than I'm comfortable with. I'd need some new and better tools which is fine, but I imagine I'd ended up needing to replace brake pipes, handbrake cables, springs etc along the way and have a car on stands on the drive for 3 weeks. I want the convenience of someone else doing it but I don't want to pay more than the cars value for it.
 
Over the last week:
Replaced all the active cornering pipework on the rangie. Rear subframe needed dropped … bit of a pain without a lift.
New rear heater pipes over the subframe.
Rebuilt the rear calipers with pistons and seals
New pads all round
Transfer case oil changed.
Rear diff oil changed ( had to use an extractor on the fill plug )
 
Dup said:
I thought I'd got away with the annual car bank drain however the Daughters Fiat 500 has it's MOT 2 days later and failed on rear axle corrosion. Trying to get a quote to get it fixed is excruciating, especially as I can get a new axle for £150 but places are moaning they won't fit customer supplied parts.

We're currently on day 3 of waiting for a quote. I'm tempted to just do it myself but it's just that little bit more involved than I'm comfortable with. I'd need some new and better tools which is fine, but I imagine I'd ended up needing to replace brake pipes, handbrake cables, springs etc along the way and have a car on stands on the drive for 3 weeks. I want the convenience of someone else doing it but I don't want to pay more than the cars value for it.
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It’d be a lot easier and cheaper if you can get a good used one complete with the brake lines and drums all still on it.
You may get away with springs if they haven’t corroded badly where they sit in the cups, and cables should be fine.
A decent garage shouldn’t charge more than 3-4 hours to replace it if you’re not comfortable doing it.
 
Little Suzuki Carry turbo is finally about here, should arrive in 2 days at Newcastle. Quite excited, more so than the STI (paperwork for that posted last week)

Also today, heading to Head Office in Stoke so on my way past Carlisle dropping into the Lexus dealer to look at a ISF. Always missed my old one, just fits me well, one of those things that for the money I could get various other options, but I just like it.
 
Took my Clubman in for its interim Oil change. While there I tackled the blocked filter on the screenwash pump. PITA.

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Not my pic below but the same story...

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Nice having the jets working properly again.
 
Fitted some wind deflectors to the front windows, no idea if they'll stay.

Nevermind how much force I used the metal clips don't seem to be particularly secure.
 
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tried to resolve 3er bmw ABS light, stuck on, problem - on abs pump relay I had initially checked there was 87-30 continuity, with relay energized
then laboriously inspected all the abs wheel sensors which don't seem dirty.

But returning to relay it seems the diode might have failed (relay energized)
87A +ve 30 -ve continuity
e: 87A +ve 30 -ve 100 ohms resistance
87A -ve 30 +ve 100 ohms resistance
which suggests the diode is not working, it shouldn't be conducting current when 87A is positive
If the diode has blown closed wouldn't you expect a fuse to have gone, in the fuse bank ?

I opened the orange box and there was nothing obviously burned - any experts on these ?
 
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JonRGV250 said:
It’d be a lot easier and cheaper if you can get a good used one complete with the brake lines and drums all still on it.
You may get away with springs if they haven’t corroded badly where they sit in the cups, and cables should be fine.
A decent garage shouldn’t charge more than 3-4 hours to replace it if you’re not comfortable doing it.
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Thanks for that. He's got me a new one coming and all in with fitting will be ~£600. I'm happy with that, although I expect there may be some creep if they hit any snags. I was expecting worse.

With it being an 18 year old girls car and not mine, new parts with someone else to blame sits better with me for such a job! I doubt she'd recognise any new noises or weird feelings until a wheel fall off or the axle falls off. I never get away with MOT time, it's always someone else's car if not mine :D
 
Inspection 2 done today, no valve adjustments needed once again, all within BMW spec.

Did however need a new injector due to number 3 failing (12.9 ohms resistance vs the 0.x ohms of the others). Phoned up BMW to enquire as that injector was bought from them back in 2022, turns out it's a few months out of warranty so nothing they can do, and new injectors are on back order across the country until December, and the price is over £300 inc VAT..........................

Found a refurbished one by a UK company on eBay for £90, got it in, all good. Will send failed one to Hack Engineering to be refurbed and then keep spare incase another decide it's had enough.

All in the total for this adventure was £1.2k :eek:, half of which is labour due to the valve clearance checks.

For the diff and gearbox oils I opted for Red Line kits now as they're tried and tested for M3s at this age, it's 50/50 mix of MTL and D4 ATF for the gearbox, and the 75/140+ friction modifier for the diff. The oil that came out was clean, which was good to hear.

Full check-up showed I have a few more bits to be done so that will be seen to before the winter:

- All rear bushes
- Outer engine mounts
- Rear brake main copper lines
- Rear brake pads and discs (already bought, sticking with PFC Z Rated pads, and changing the rear discs to StopTech black series like on the fronts, they're excellent and half the price of ATE uncoated OEM discs
- Tiny issue with lower power steering hose clamp, then flush and fill PS fluid with D4 too
- Front anti roll bar d bushes due to very slight play
- Both aux belts could do with replacing due to age related wear
 
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mrk said:
Inspection 2 done today, no valve adjustments needed once again, all within BMW spec.

Did however need a new injector due to number 3 failing (12.9 ohms resistance vs the 0.x ohms of the others). Phoned up BMW to enquire as that injector was bought from them back in 2022, turns out it's a few months out of warranty so nothing they can do, and new injectors are on back order across the country until December, and the price is over £300 inc VAT..........................

Found a refurbished one by a UK company on eBay for £90, got it in, all good. Will send failed one to Hack Engineering to be refurbed and then keep spare incase another decide it's had enough.

All in the total for this adventure was £1.2k :eek:, half of which is labour due to the valve clearance checks.

For the diff and gearbox oils I opted for Red Line kits now as they're tried and tested for M3s at this age, it's 50/50 mix of MTL and D4 ATF for the gearbox, and the 75/140+ friction modifier for the diff. The oil that came out was clean, which was good to hear.

Full check-up showed I have a few more bits to be done so that will be seen to before the winter:

- All rear bushes
- Outer engine mounts
- Rear brake main copper lines
- Rear brake pads and discs (already bought, sticking with PFC Z Rated pads, and changing the rear discs to StopTech black series like on the fronts, they're excellent and half the price of ATE uncoated OEM discs
- Tiny issue with lower power steering hose clamp, then flush and fill PS fluid with D4 too
- Front anti roll bar d bushes due to very slight play
- Both aux belts could do with replacing due to age related wear
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That doesn’t sound right at all. S54 uses a Bosch EV6 injector. They’re a pretty typical high impedance injector where 12Ohm is spec.

0.XOhm would be well out of spec for a Low Impedance injector too which are normally 4-6Ohm
 
It's possible I mixed that around, only going off memory from conversation with the garage before collecting the car and eyes watering at the month's bills :o
 
all bushes - including subframe ? that's not cheap.

jpaul said:
which suggests the diode is not working, it shouldn't be conducting current when 87A is positive
If the diode has blown closed wouldn't you expect a fuse to have gone, in the fuse bank ?
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looked at Bentley 3er manual last night ... and don't see why fuse/f38 wouldn't have blown, if broken diode has continuity.

unless abs pump relay is not being switched on as a result of another problem, or some kind of dealer reset on abs module is needed
(if chatgpt could usefully/correctly synthesise all forum comments that would be useful)
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Took it for a random drive last night. Hated how much it rattles, realised I don't like driving the car that much (or just need to spend some time figuring out how to fix the rattles).
 
Didnt want to start a thread, but anyone got an opinion on the 370z?

Since cancelling my Nomad Ive been looking at a daft variety of cheaper stuff. My eye is mainly on a very good ISF or an RCF.

Seems £15k can get a pretty decent example. Anyone had experience?
 
Made a thing! Drew up a design for a heavier gear knob, big counterbore on the underside so it can sit much lower (also then height adjustable) should shorten the throw and feel weighier. It's just over half a kg, maybe too much :D machined from stainless bar

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Axeboy said:
Didnt want to start a thread, but anyone got an opinion on the 370z?

Since cancelling my Nomad Ive been looking at a daft variety of cheaper stuff. My eye is mainly on a very good ISF or an RCF.

Seems £15k can get a pretty decent example. Anyone had experience?
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I'd start a thread on it - I've seen 2-3 posters here mentioning having one in the past.

The 370Z is an interesting mix of "digital" and "analogue" - JayEmm did a video on it which largely matches my opinion
I'm on and off the notion of getting one as it matches up well with what I enjoy in a car but then I remember it would keep reminding me that I'd rather have a GT-R.

Dunno much about the Lexus less the ISF but I know a couple of people who looked at the RCF and both commented along the lines of it not driving how it looks and pretty much hating it, one went with a Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio instead which from what they've said seems to have spent more time back with the dealer than on the road.

EDIT: As an aside my pickup shares a lot of DNA with the 370Z which makes for a "different" experience, if you've driven both you see glimpses of the 370Z (the transmission and electronics are the same, the engine despite being a diesel was designed to many of the same ideals as the VQ37) but it is fundementally a different vehicle so sort of odd.
 
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I looked at the GTR in detail, its on my list. I have a good friend though who runs a JDM garage and after a long chat with him, I decided against it. Not sure Id appreciate some of the risk/bills.

I loved the ISF, but think Ive discounted it now. The RCF was cheap at £25k, any more expensive and Id discount it I think. My current focus is the BMW i8 - made an offer last night on a good approved used but as usual it came down to £500 either way, which is nothing really, but I just like to at leas feel I got some kind of good deal :)
 
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