Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum
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What's the time frame to make that drive?
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What's the time frame to make that drive?
Driving out Wednesday and Thursday. Rally is Friday and Saturday (also Sunday but I'm not staying for that portion). Drive home Sunday and Monday. Google Maps says 3500 miles but will be more because of the rally portion.
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Took the e30 out for a test run today. Everything seemed to be working great. I bed in the brakes and they are fantastic and then it died. The dead fuel pump issue again. Called my wife, while she was getting ready to leave the driveway, the car miraculously started up like nothing was wrong and I drove it home. This is the same issue when I first tried starting it this year. I put in a new DEM relay and fuel pump relay. I thought that cured it but apparently not. The other thing I did was a new Delphi fuel pump. I have heard very mixed reviews on them, so I wonder if the pump is just a piece of shit. I'm going to get a Bosch fuel pump to swap out the pump on the old assembly that was in there before.
Then while parked I noticed a little puddle under the car. Got home and the RMS is dripping really bad. Parked in the garage for 30 minutes had left a few inch spot with visible drips out the weep hole. I'm taking it somewhere to replace the RMS. I'm not doing it again. I have to get to the 850 which needs suspensions desperately.
That's where I'm at.
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I tossed in my old pump and took the car for another drive and I didn't have any issues. So I'm assuming it was the Delphi pump that was bad and working intermittently. I ordered a Bosch replacement pump and fitting it to the factory assembly took way more modification than I would have liked. It required cutting off the bottom tray, soldering on new power/ground wires to the assembly to accommodate the plug for the Bosch pump. I could not get worm clamp to fit through the opening in the tank so I used zip ties. The fuel level sender is such a snug fit that I didn't notice the placement of one of the zip tie ends was in its path and had to take everything back out just to rotate the zip tie. Then the sheer thickness of the zip tie made it difficult to the level sender in.
I'm going to remove it and use some stainless steel zip ties to clean it up, but I ended up ordering an OEM pump assembly last night.
Then I went to install the UUC skid plate I got. Turns out they don't fit if you have an e36/e46 steering rack. So I had to notch out the skid plate to clear that. Then the whole way they install in the front didn't make any sense or fit anywhere. Ended up tack welding the mounting bracket to the bottom side of the frame on the front of the car and will get shorter bolts with lock washers.
I remember when June 1 was my goal to start driving it. Then it became July 1. And now it's August.
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skid plate on an m20 car? that's a terrifying thought hitting something so tall you'd need a plate for that.
Dan
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skid plate on an m20 car? that's a terrifying thought hitting something so tall you'd need a plate for that.
I'd rather toss on a skid plate than risk breaking an oil pan on gravel roads in Utah.
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I've been driving it. And so far the Bosch fuel pump has been working. I returned the Delphi and OEM pump to FCP. I ended up using stainless steel "hobby wire" to secure the pump to the housing by wrapping the pump and the housing then tightly twisting the ends and folding that over. I felt the most confident in that.
After driving the car some it was getting hot with the AC on when in slow traffic and even then still running a bit warm. The aux fan was not turning on with the AC and traced it back to the fan to body harness connector not staying secure. Replaced that with a new connector.
Also swapped in a new engine fan clutch with an Behr clutch rather than the Uro one I put in there originally and realized that the fan that came with the car is from an early model. So I got the correct fan.
And then keeping with tradition of recycling parts between @The Full Banana and myself, I bought his MaxJax from him since he has decided he no longer wants a garage. I have that set up, waiting on some DeWalt Anchor Epoxy from Grainger to finish installing the anchors. And the only good place to put the lift was centered with the overhead door. But that meant the garage door opener robbed me of about 12" of lift. Out with that and in with a wall-mount unit.
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Nice! I've got a MaxJax on my wish list. Eventually I need to just bite the bullet and buy one. Was it difficult to convert from the ceiling mount to wall mount?
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Nice! I've got a MaxJax on my wish list. Eventually I need to just bite the bullet and buy one. Was it difficult to convert from the ceiling mount to wall mount?
Not at all. There are some spacing requirements that you need to have but I think it’s all pretty standard for most of the garage doors. If you look up the opener they have a little checklist. The only fitment issue I had was a cable tension sensor. If you have a lower clearance door like mine, you’ll have a hard time fitting it because it goes between the top of the door and under the spring bar. But I’ve read they can be tricked with a 1k ohm resistor - which I just got tonight.
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Must be nice having a garage. Wonder what that’s like.
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Must be nice having a garage. Wonder what that’s like.
It’s super nice. You should try it sometime.
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Good lord this is 41 pages long. Sorry for posting so much. BUT I got the MaxJax all set up and the garage cleaned up to do the suspension on the 850.
The anchor epoxy that came with them was expired by several months. After a ton of needless research I ended up ordering this from Grainger:
The manufacturer specs rate it at 46k lbs with allowable load of 11k lbs. Each post has 5 bolts. I'm pretty confident in it. It was also reviewed and recognized for short and long term loading. The epoxies I could find off the shelf were pretty clear they weren't for long term loading.
With that said, I have an extra one of these and the fancy $120 double caulk gun for dispensing it if anyone is interested. lol.
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Just discovered this thread! I will also be making the trek to the OC rally this year! Maybe we can coordinate the drive.
Oh nice! Where are you driving from?
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Oh nice! Where are you driving from?
South Milwaukee, WI - then through IA and NE to meet up with an Estoril Blue M Coupe coming down from MN, then on to Denver, CO to stay for the night Wednesday night.
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Good lord this is 41 pages long. Sorry for posting so much.
No need to apologise, that's what the forum is for! Take plenty of OC rally pics again. I hope to do that someday as well.
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Need some help here. The temp gauge started jumping around, lost power, and the car died. Started up and got it to a safe spot just as it died again. Tried starting it and nothing. Just clicking of the starter. Waited for a bit and then it started up, ran fine for a second and then started idling rough and died. I’m afraid to try to drive it home. What’s stranger is that the aftermarket temp gauge is twitching too. It’s not just the temp gauge on the cluster. Please see the video. When I’m idling it’s not as bad but then once I give it gas it twitches more. If I try driving it I lose all power. Barely any response from the throttle.
The two temp gauges are completely separate from each other I should add they get their power directly from the battery lead in the engine bay on the firewall and it has its own temp sensor. So the flickering of the two temp gauges are related but one isn’t causing the other.
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Need some help here. The temp gauge started jumping around, lost power, and the car died. Started up and got it to a safe spot just as it died again. Tried starting it and nothing. Just clicking of the starter. Waited for a bit and then it started up, ran fine for a second and then started idling rough and died. I’m afraid to try to drive it home. What’s stranger is that the aftermarket temp gauge is twitching too. It’s not just the temp gauge on the cluster. Please see the video. When I’m idling it’s not as bad but then once I give it gas it twitches more. If I try driving it I lose all power. Barely any response from the throttle.
The two temp gauges are completely separate from each other I should add they get their power directly from the battery lead in the engine bay on the firewall and it has its own temp sensor. So the flickering of the two temp gauges are related but one isn’t causing the other.
Possibly a grounding issue? I have a bad ground on my temp gauges at the moment and they bounce around quite a bit. I'd take a look at the engine ground strap. Not sure if that would cause it to die, but with the gauges bouncing around that is my first thought.
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Possibly a grounding issue? I have a bad ground on my temp gauges at the moment and they bounce around quite a bit. I'd take a look at the engine ground strap. Not sure if that would cause it to die, but with the gauges bouncing around that is my first thought.
Since the aftermarket and cluster gauges were reacting the same way my first thought was either a grounding or battery issue. The battery is old and has died flat several times from me leaving doors open and whatnot when working on it. So maybe the heat just did it in and any draw is taking it out? Idk, I’ve had bad batteries do some weird stuff before.
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Car is home. It appears to have been the battery.
Another thing it was doing this morning is the temp gauge would twitch when I pressed the brake pedal. And since this was happening to both sets of gauges which are on separate circuits with their own sensors, it made me assume that there were interruptions in the power draw.
The battery was 2015 and like I said the battery had drained to zero several times. So it must have decided today was the day and it sent out all sorts of fucked up voltage into the car.
On the way home the gauge was steady the whole way and the car actually ran cooler. I’m not saying the car is physically running cooler, but perhaps the gauge is now reading accurately.
We’ll see tomorrow. This is the period where I don’t want any issues as I’m driving to make sure it’s good for the rally.
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