What have you done to your car today?

Used some Plasticare Trim Dye stuff bought from the bay to make the honeycomb grille black again. It looks okay for maybe a week if you use the sprays but wanted something to last longer. I used pricey C4 on the rear bumper and side skirts a few weeks ago but it didn't go far - this seems good as well. Quick before/after below.

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And yesterday i waxed my bonnet first time after polishing my spraying

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I am well happy how it looks for outside 20f job. Its not perfect i should have went iith whole bonnet respray but i was not expecting good results like this :)
 
Righty, service time today. Was under 10k since the last one but roughly a tad under 12 months. MOT is on Thursday so I thought it would be good to get fresh oil in the old girl.

Then I had the clever idea to do the oil pick-up pipe at the same time. I'm going to the Nurburgring in 2nd week of September so I wants to rule out any issues with blockages.

So, not particularly exciting pictures but here they are;

Pollen filter first, good job I did it as the air coming into the car was beginning to smell.

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Spark plugs, old ones all looked pretty evenly worn so happy days there;

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The fuel filter was done last year as well but thought it best to change it, new one will now only have V-Power etc run through it.

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Then it was time to get the sump off. Pickup pipe was actually not too bad, couple of little bits in the mesh but not as bad as some. Car is on 71k for reference.

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The sump was pretty minging so I gave that a good scrub up too;

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Pickup pipes side by side, and new one fitted:

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Filled it up with fresh oil and started her up. Went for a quick drive and parked back up to check the sump and disaster, a leak!

Tightened up the bolts a touch to see if that would work and it didn't. Luckily the leak was coming from a small gap so I squirted some more sealer in there, looks ok at the moment but ill keep watch over the next couple of days.

Job done for today, got fresh gearbox oil to go in but no 17mm hex bit so i need to get one.

Finally another daylight picture of the wrapped grill;

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Lord_ZED said:
And yesterday i waxed my bonnet first time after polishing my spraying

1082532_719343758081481_1853509908_o.jpg



I am well happy how it looks for outside 20f job. Its not perfect i should have went iith whole bonnet respray but i was not expecting good results like this :)
Click to expand...

Shame the number plate is illegal ;), lovely finish nonetheless.

Back on topic, I have just changed the track rod ends as, after giving the brakes a look over, noticed that one was knocking quite badly and the other was starting to go.

£16.78 and half an hour later all was well with the world. I still have to find where a rather annoying rattle is coming from at around 2k RPM but other than that and an overdue oil change, everything is working OK.
 
Since owning this car it's had squeaky front wheel brakes and I finally got around to changing the pads which have thankfully solved the problem! I decided to paint my calipers and clean it all up a bit. Quite impressed with the look now. Was really temped to go for either yellow or red paint. Still unsure now but decided to go with black for the time being.

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Now I just have to do the rear ones tomorrow to match :) Even if I decide to go for a more extravagant colour in the near future.
 
Gave it a quick clean. Already has lots of sealants on it, so super quick...and even quicker with aquawax :D

Spotted a problem bit of rust though. Going to become a problem, so need to save for my future SLK 55 a little quicker :D
 
New pipework for breather setup today, new oil filter and oil.

Saturday did a free suspension mod to increase the castor on a rented lift. Used rampandwrech in Coventry. £15 for the hour, plenty of time to get what I needed done :)
 
Had to drop some of my new oil last night even after trying to get the car level when topping up, must have been sitting on a slight incline when filling even though it was level left->right.....made a bit of a mess in the process as it was still a bit hot when I pulled the sump plug...quick removal of hands, not so quick adjusting of catch can

I hate the dipstick on the e46, it's so unbelievably sensitive to level (or not quite) ground.
 
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Replaced the Diff input shaft seal and the front diff bush on the M3, it was an absolute charlie uniform of a job... took no photos as I was that fuming with it :D
 
Phil W said:
Get a smoke test? Checked the PCV system (Y pipe etc)?
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A friend has a DIY Boost leak tester he made up using a compressor, but the Creation MS TIP couldnt hold onto the turbo so could never find the leak. With the original TIP on now, I'll give it another go later. I think it could be down around the intercooler area.

A lot of the PCV/SAI/n249 has been removed so there's not much to go wrong there. Has a catch can installed too.
 
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