5 speeds, 4 cylinders, 3 doors, 2 wheel drive, and 1 loose nut behind the wheel

[wasnt m3]

Need an obd2 scanner

[Earl]

^ditto lol

[m42b32]

I have an ultra-gauge for my M3 and its been an awesome purchase. Gives you a live readout of a lot of the sensor data used by the ECU including engine coolant temp, intake temp, throttle position, O2 sensor voltages, etc. You can set audible alarms for things as well which is super useful for keeping an eye on your coolant temps. More improtantly, it can also read and clear check engine lights! 

http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/

[Bassboy3313]

You can even go to any auto store and have them scan it for free

[Jdesign]

m42b32 said:

I have an ultra-gauge for my M3 and its been an awesome purchase. Gives you a live readout of a lot of the sensor data used by the ECU including engine coolant temp, intake temp, throttle position, O2 sensor voltages, etc. You can set audible alarms for things as well which is super useful for keeping an eye on your coolant temps. More improtantly, it can also read and clear check engine lights! 

http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/

This is really sweet for the price!

[m42b32]

Jdesign said:

This is really sweet for the price!

Yeah! Its not the most quality construction (housing is a little flimsy and the buttons on the back arent great) but it works really well and you definitely can't complain at that price. I would 11/10 buy another without thinking twice.

They occasionally have sales (at least they did when I got mine two-ish years ago, not sure now) for 5-10 off too

[HipMF]

Finally got the car registered and did some driving. It did pretty well, but the chassis isn't exactly confidence-inspiring with bad subframe bushings. Also had some shimmy through the steering wheel and vibration that feels like a wheel out of balance.

Got the car up in the air at the shop and was still really impressed with how clean the undercarriage is. No rust surprises at all. Giubo looked great. Fuel filter has definitely been changed and looked relatively new. Exhaust is solid, although seems to be missing a hanger somewhere (no support at all between the header and the rear subframe). Trans-mount bushings are super soft and need to be replaced.  Insulation in the front of the tunnel is drooping and wore the paint off the driveshaft. All-in-all, not bad at all.

Also did a quick alignment using the string method. Had almost 3/8" of toe-in on the front. Dialed it back to about 1/3rd that amount. That took care of about 80% of the shimmy and the car feels less dart-y now. There's still definitely something amiss in the rear. So far, I like the car and am hoping to have it far a few years, so I'm currently planing on dropping the subframe and doing all-of-the-things "while I'm in there".

[HipMF]

Car was overdue for a wash, so I spent a couple hours getting it clean up today.

It's official now, she's one of the fold.

[HipMF]

Picked up a nicer set of seats from Earl. Not my first choice in terms of comfort or support, but I do like the fabric pattern, and mechanical adjustment. Regardless, it's a big improvement over what was in there...

Also picked up and UltraGauge to check out the codes. I had a catalyst efficiency code, and a camshaft position sensor "pending" code, After clearing them, they stayed off for a couple days, but both have come back now. Unfortunately, M42 and M44 camshaft sensors are different, so I can't just swap it out with one I already have. I'm a bit concerned that it might be worn timing components, and not the sensor itself...

After driving around with the UltraGauge plugged in waiting for the codes to come back, I also discovered that the engine was running cold. It seemed to take a long time to heat up, and never seemed to get over 175 degrees. I put new thermostat in yesterday, and it's now running steady at about 208. The old thermostat looked to be relatively new and in good shape, so I think it may have just been a lower temperature unit. I seem to recall that being a thing that's recommended for high-mileage engines, but can't remember and haven't bothered to look it up yet...

Found some janky car-audio guy stuff going on with the rear speakers (gotta love the "twist and tape" soldering technique). Got that semi-fixed up. Also did the most glamorous and exciting car mod out there... cabin air filter replacement. Boom!

[Earl]

Those look much better in there=) That is also about usual for the cabin filters. Yuk

[Jdesign]

Those filters are gross. Sadly I think about 80% of the cars I have bought all look just like that. 

What I really want to know is how did you fix up the tears in those seats? Just thread and needle, or did you have a magic wand and have not shared your magic touch with us?

They look great!

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

Those filters are gross. Sadly I think about 80% of the cars I have bought all look just like that. 

What I really want to know is how did you fix up the tears in those seats? Just thread and needle, or did you have a magic wand and have not shared your magic touch with us?

They look great!

I picked up a whole new set of the exact same seats from Earl. No magic necessary other than cleaning a little rust off of the rails and touching them up with some black paint.

[Jdesign]

HipMF said:

I picked up a whole new set of the exact same seats from Earl. No magic necessary other than cleaning a little rust off of the rails and touching them up with some black paint.

Gotcha. I read that as they were both the same set of seats.

[GunMetalGrey]

Even if those seats aren't your first choice, they look so much better than the old ones!

[stealthbimmer]

m42b32 said:

I have an ultra-gauge for my M3 and its been an awesome purchase. Gives you a live readout of a lot of the sensor data used by the ECU including engine coolant temp, intake temp, throttle position, O2 sensor voltages, etc. You can set audible alarms for things as well which is super useful for keeping an eye on your coolant temps. More improtantly, it can also read and clear check engine lights! 

http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NLQAHS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thats another, cheaper option. Thats what I use. Download torque on a phone, plug it is and bam. You can set it up with all sorts of gauges to your liking.

[HipMF]

*ugh*

Took advantage of the long weekend and got started on the subframe/trailing arm bushing replacement. Everything came apart pretty decently, aside from the e-brake cables. Built a puller for the subframe bushings, which worked pretty well.

Had to modify it a little to pull the new bushings all the way in. Turns out the top and bottom of the subframe are slightly different diameters...

New rubber bushings pulled in easier than I thought they would.

After that I decided it would be a good idea to bend a trailing arm...

I was using a long threaded rod through to the other side of the arm to pull in the new bushing. Turns out the arm will bend far easier than I would have thought. So, instead of spending Saturday putting the car back together, I got to go to Gibsons and pull a trailing arm (luckily they have a couple TIs there). Broke a socket while I was there trying to remove the caliper bolts, so I had to carry the trailing arm with caliper, rotor and half of a half shaft a good quarter-mile back to my car. The axle nut on the junkyard trailing arm was seized pretty bad, so I decided to cut through the entire hub with a sawzall, right behind the nut. Should have taken a picture of that, as it was pretty comical, but worked well. Needless to say, between that and cranking on home-made bushing pullers, I was starting to feel my age by the end of the day Saturday...

Up until this point, I was kind of worried that I might be wasting my time, because none of the bushings that I pulled out really looked that bad. Then, when I was cleaning up Sunday, I found this guy:

One of the trailing arm bolts. Funny, I didn't notice that earlier. Dug through the old trailing arm bushings and found one had a larger ID than the others...

Looks like bolt was loose and inner sleeve of the bushing was rotating with the suspension instead of being clamped by the subframe. Thankfully the subframe doesn't seem to have any wear from it. So, I guess that explains the wonky feeling in the rear of the car...

The inner race came out of the wheel bearing while disassembling the salvage-yard trailing arm, so I'm replacing that. As long as I'm ordering stuff, I decided to get new CV boots, and a couple other little things. Looks like the outer boots will be take a couple weeks to get here, so I'll probably leave the half-shafts as-is for now and just put everything back together. Probably a godsend, #missioncreep is real.

[B C]

Heroic efforts and Nice work with the pullers. I had enough fun installing urethane bushings, rubber cant be very fun.

I found the same kind of bolt situation with my steering rack. Sometimes after a hard corner my alignment would be off a bit.

[HipMF]

Winter mode... engaged.

Fitment of the e34 wheels and tires is surprisingly good. For some reason this supplies me with almost limitless amusement. Part of me wants to spray the wheels bright white and put rally mudflaps on the car. Thankfully, I'm a responsible adult and would never do such a thing.....

After things started to go south, I didn't take any more pictures of the bushing swap/subframe re-installation. Safe to say everything went perfectly and there were no more problems. hahaha. Yes, no problems at all. Also, here's a picture of a broken diff cover for no reason at all.

The good news is that it's all back together now. The wonkyness is gone and the car drives much better now. I even managed to get the e-brake cable out of the old trailing arm, so I still have a functioning handbrake. Mission accomplished.

[B C]

Is the E34 still alive?

[HipMF]

Yes, but it looks a little strange with the Borbets on it. The registration is good for another month. Not sure what I'm going to do with it after that.