Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum

[gilber33]

GunMetalGrey said:

What have you guys been doing for proper fluid level? The BMW procedure is quite... intensive
Though at least you have a lift!

The TC and front diff both have fill plugs that are also for the fluid level and the transmission is the same way but you have to do the final fill when the transmission is between 40-50°c.

[gilber33]

Visited a friend in Minneapolis this past weekend and one of the days we drove the course of the 2020 OC Rally down to Suncrest Gardens pizza farm through western WI. All in about 1k miles over the weekend. I’ve done about 3500 miles on the car this summer with really no issues. 
 

On the X5 I replaced spark plugs, coil packs, air filter, intake duct, and fuel vent tube. Running awesome. 🤌

[pynacl]

gilber33 said:

Visited a friend in Minneapolis this past weekend

Dang @Rekpoint came to visit me in Minneapolis this weekend too! It's a beautiful drive if you take highway 10 / highway 35 southeast and just cruise along the Mississippi River. We usually go from St. Paul down to Pepin and back, such a scenic route. Not sure if you took a similar route, but looks like it was a blast!

[gilber33]

pynacl said:

Dang @Rekpoint came to visit me in Minneapolis this weekend too! It's a beautiful drive if you take highway 10 / highway 35 southeast and just cruise along the Mississippi River. We usually go from St. Paul down to Pepin and back, such a scenic route. Not sure if you took a similar route, but looks like it was a blast!

We took that for a bit! But most of the time was spent on backroads. It was about a 5 hour drive from Minneapolis to the pizza place north of Winona. 

[gilber33]

Houndstooth Recaros are gone. Euroweaves are gone. 
 

Replacement No. 1 here is here. 

[YoungCR]

Love it already! Excited to see the rest

[gilber33]

The euroweaves replacements got here.

I took out the rear subframe. I don’t know if you guys remember how much trouble I had fitting the RevShit RTA bushings, but I swapped those out for Condor and I’m really annoyed I didn’t use Condor originally. Fitment was 10/10. 

Also did the rear sway bar link reinforcements and rear sway bar mount reinforcements. Another great excuse to get the welder out. Not pretty but I’m happy with my twice a year welds.

 

And the X5 looking dapper as always.

I finally realized why I like this car so much and I can summarize like this: I don’t miss driving the e30 when I’m driving this.

[m42b32]

Excellent choice on wheels! I love gold centers on RS's.

[gilber33]

m42b32 said:

Excellent choice on wheels! I love gold centers on RS's. 

Thank you! I ultimately decided that I had gone too safe with the car and was kind of bored with how it looked. These wheels and seats should fix that!

[gilber33]

The upholstery project has been going better than I anticipated and is a lot of fun. The rear bench is almost done. 
 

[gilber33]

Near spring update. 

Interior almost done: 

New wheels on after being circle jerked by a "racing shop" that fucked up the seals multiple while mounting them. Eventually took them to Big Bear Tire in Oconomowoc to have them dismounted. I did the seals myself, and now all is good. They're awesome BTW. The guy who did the tires has an e30 touring. 

The shop's attempt at fixing damaged seals and the seal that was about ready to start leaking. 

My job at cleaning all the sealant and resealing them. Pretty damn good if I say so myself. 

After removing the transmission to replace the input shaft seal, I was having issues the starting pinion gear not engaging the ring gear. It was hitting the side of the ring gear instead of engaging it. Dropped the engine and it ended up being the metal plate must have gotten slightly bent that it wasn't allowing the starter bolts to line up with the holes in the transmission. That's all fixed. Bench tested the starter on the engine before putting it back in. 

Revised my retrofit adapters and now have them for Morimoto's MLED 2.0 and the Micro D2S. 

That's all. Hopefully getting close to this winter's projects and I can get the car out and start driving it.

[m42b32]

That upholstery work looks fantastic!! Also, is it just the lighting or are those purple BBS center caps??

[gilber33]

m42b32 said:

That upholstery work looks fantastic!! Also, is it just the lighting or are those purple BBS center caps??

Caps are indeed purple. Had some made to match the interior. 

[Jdesign]

That interior is sex! Nice work!

[SteelBlue]

Interior is killer. What are the specs on the RS’s? They are the wheels I would love to have on the car, but they are very difficult to find 16” variations.

[gilber33]

SteelBlue said:

Interior is killer. What are the specs on the RS’s? They are the wheels I would love to have on the car, but they are very difficult to find 16” variations.

They are 15x7 in front and 15x7.5 in the rear. The 16" RS definitely come with a premium. But I've always like 15s on the car better. 

Had the car out for its first test drive and it was pissing transmission fluid. Engine and transmission had to come back out. It ended up being my fault - I put the input shaft seal cover on about 90* off which just so happened to line up the fluid return hole on the transmission to be lined up with an open hole on the cover. So it literally was pouring out. Fixed that. Drove it around this weekend some. Realized I forgot to tighten up the nut on the driveshaft where it splits. Sooooooo one more fucking time on the lift to do that, but then it should be all set!

Other notes: 

This winter I also made rear speaker boxes and front door tweeter pods and fitted in Focal component speakers in the front and rear. I installed an Infiniti Basslink Mini under the front seat. The sound system is now fantastic and sounds like what I've always been chasing. 

Interior is exceeding my expectations. I love them. The seats are so comfortable. Also finished the e-brake handle boot. 

Also able to test my H1 LED high beam kits. Since the caps on the euro smilies can't really accommodate the larger LED bulbs or the wiring, I wanted to make these since I don't have my US Ellipsoids anymore. I am not disappointed with the performances of the MLED projector and LED high beams. 

Made a stop at Fermentorium in Cedarburg with our youngest while the older two and my wife were at a birthday part. After Fermentorium, I used the e30 to pick them up and continue on to Sahale in Grafton. What a family car. 

[KaiserRolls]

I should really just buy headlights from you lol. 
 

interior looks awesome

[gilber33]

Well, the saga comes to an end. A family put a deposit down on it yesterday and they're coming to pick it up today. One day I'll share the full story of what is going on, but that's not today. 

I realize my posts in here were pretty infrequent but I sold my X5 to my brother. And bought a 2013 XC90 R-Design. I just sold that to my parents last weekend.

They drove me in my old car to Milwaukee and I took a train down to Chicago and picked up a 2013 Allroad. Higher miles, but the PO gave me a stack of maintenance done in the last year with the anticipation of keeping it for a long time before finding a good deal on a 5 series. 

This car fits the girls great after ditching the Graco Tranzitions car seats for Diono Radian 3's. Other than doing coilovers and maybe carplay, the car will remain as-is for a while.

Thank you everyone for the constant help with the e30 while I diagnosed goofy things, ranted, etc. It was a really fun car to own and was my first project where I was thoughtful in what and why I did things to it. The girls will miss it, but are OK  with it as long as it's replaced with a "red race car" one day.

[m42b32]

I'm sad to see it go but hopefully it's headed to a good home! 

gilber33 said:

The girls will miss it, but are OK  with it as long as it's replaced with a "red race car" one day.

That is a fair compromise on their end

[Jdesign]

Is the E30 staying local? 

I hope the red racecar is in the near future.