1999 M3 daily driver running log
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Where did you buy the led's?
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2025442
I found them here, but bought them through the eBay link in post #4.
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Replaced the fuel filter and changed my trans fluid to Redline D4 ATF and my diff fluid to Redline 75w90. Fuel filter was definitely original and was all plugged up with junk, trans fluid was pretty nasty too so I'm glad I got all that done, diff fluid actually looked pretty clean. Shifts are so much smoother now and I have no problems getting into any gears, I wish I would've done this sooner!
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Power steering pump was whining so I rebuilt it with the seal kit from BMW on Thursday after work. Also replaced all of the lines as they were pretty rusted, the reservoir, and refilled the system with new ATF. Pump rebuild was pretty easy except for the circlip holding the shaft in which was a huge pain. Works great and the pump noise is much quieter now!
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Just finished an 800 mile round trip in the M3 between Friday and Sunday, car ran great. Averaged 29mpg for the entire trip and was holding steady at 31 on the freeway according to the OBC, though that number is usually optimistic by 1 or 2. I will be prepping it for a road trip to NC in about a month, that one will be close to 2300mi for the round trip, so I am trying to tackle as much as I can before then.
What I noticed on my trip was that I was getting what sounded like a failed accessory component bearing (worn out skateboard wheel for reference) around 3k rpm, the only bearing left in the system that isn't new is the AC compressor so I pulled the belt and it is still there. I am thinking it is either the alternator bearings (only 5k on them) as I have heard of the reman'd Bosch bearings failing early because they are cheap, or possibly the lower timing chain tensioner.
Any other possibilities as to where a noise like this could come from? Not audible when the car is cold or at idle from what I could tell, noticeable from the drivers seat with the window open above 2.5k RPM's. All idler pulleys and accessories are new or freshly rebuilt, vanos is freshly rebuilt with seals and rattle repair kit, belt tensioners are strong and I have had no slipping. Possibly a cracked header?
I am inclined to replace the tensioner regardless of it being the problem or not, they're just expensive. Cheapest I could find is $215 shipped from ECS, anyone have a cheaper option??
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I think your outta luck looking for a cheaper option. That may be an OEM part only. I don't think that would cause your noise though, i'm thinking that may be more of a rattle as opposed to a bad bearing noise.
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Yeah I have yet to see any non-oem brands, not necessarily cheap insurance but I'd like to replace it just in case. My reason for thinking the chain tensioner could be the noise source is that the car basically sat for 2 years before I bought it so it may be sticking. I just can't seem to find anything that would be obviously rattling or loose, the sound doesn't seem to hit a resonance anywhere like a loose part it just gets louder and quieter with RPM's. I'll have to poke through the engine bay again tonight
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Do you have a stethoscope? That comes in handy when trying to pin point a noise like this. Or a long handled screwdriver can accomplish a similar result just not as effective. You can get a stethoscope for less than $15. Highly recommend it.
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Got my stethoscope last night and poked around in the engine bay, what an awesome tool. Alternator, water pump, idler pulley, and timing chain tensioner all sounded normal. Also poked around on the block, timing cover, intake manifold, and everywhere else I could reach and didn't hear anything abnormal. I was getting a lot of noise from the serpentine belt tensioner assembly and it was the loudest when I touched the hydraulic tensioner piston itself (couldn't reach the pulley). I ordered a new tensioner assembly and will be borrowing the pulley from the AC system since they are the same. All of the pulleys are new INA brand parts that I installed within the last 10,000 miles (the AC pulley still spins like new), it will be interesting to see if the other one failed prematurely.
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Did some more work on the car over the last week. I installed a new tensioner and pulley as well as a new serpentine belt (one size larger as the old one was too tight and a huge pain to install). The pulley wasn't in terrible shape and once all this was done the noise was still there. While I had the belt off I noticed that the alternator was making a hissing sound when you spun it by hand. I pulled it today to inspect the bearings and they were ok, it's just the brushes making a bit of a noise. I cleaned up the slip rings and quieted them down a bit. I am really stumped on this noise.
In other news, I got a set of really great condition euro ZKW headlights shipped over from Germany (Thanks to Earl's friend Kitty)! She also sent all the necessary plugs and the switch for the leveling motors. Today I got the headlights installed and I am so pleased with the result. I somewhat followed this DIY for the install: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1668757-Euro-Headlight-Harness-and-Aim-Control-DIY. I used non-adhesive backed vinyl tape to wrap all the harnesses I made for an extra OEM look. While I was in there I also wrapped the electric fan conversion harness to better hide the wiring. Here is a picture of one of the headlight harnesses once I converted it to the euro plugs:
Ignore the super dirty car, drove about 125 miles this morning and the bugs were out in force.
For the leveling motors, I made a harness and routed it through the fuse box into the interior. Instead of grounding the motors to the headlight harness I grounded them straight to the chassis as I wanted to keep that system completely separate if I ever want to remove it. I followed the DIY's advice and used the dimmer switch wiring instead of the fan box and it simplified the task significantly.
Got the switch installed in the dash, had to cut a notch out of the knee bolster as it interfered with the switch but once that was done it all fit perfectly. Put everything back together and it works great! I like the ability to either raise or lower the cutoff, not sure how often I'll use it but it was certainly a fun project. All in all took about 6 hours for the install. Didn't get a great picture of the new lights as it was dark but I really like how they look, worlds better than the cloudy plastic lights I had before and the improved light output is a huge plus.
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I need to wire in my headlight adjusters and city lights too=) How long would you say it took?
City lights were super easy, you could probably do it in under an hour for both if you've already got the rest of the wiring done. The adjusters were a pretty big pain because you have to pull apart the fuse box and run two wires (black and black/gray) through the firewall. Maybe 3.5 hours total, but I wasn't too focused and was wrapping everything for an OEM finish. Definitely wire the adjuster switch into the dimmer switch wiring instead of going to the fan distribution box, really simplifies the process.
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City lights look cool
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After weeks of trying to solve this annoying noise I think I got it! I started the engine without a serpentine belt on it a week ago and the noise was still there, eliminating any of the accessories as the source (shoud've done that a while ago...). I was getting the noise when the engine was warm and above idle but was not noticeable with the engine cold. I changed the oil to Mobile1 5w50 (previously had 5w40) and it seemed to help a tiny bit but that could also just be the fresh oil. I finally bit the bullet and bought the secondary timing chain tensioner since FCP was having a memorial day sale that made it as cheap as I'm ever going to get it. After a bit of a fiasco with incorrect parts being shipped by their warehouse I finally got the right part and popped it in last night. The noise is pretty much gone as of my commute this morning! The old tensioner didn't seem to actuate very smoothly so I'm pretty convinced that was the culprit.
Also, with regards to the metal shavings issue, the magnetic drain plug had one or two small pieces on it and a thin film of basically metal powder that you would expect for 3500 miles, glad it wasn't a huge ball of shavings. Ripped apart the oil filter and ran a magnet over the folds, got a few metal flakes but nothing excessive. I'm pretty sure these were all just knocked loose or missed when I did all my cleaning. I got an oil sample to send to Blackstone Labs to get some more information, hopefully the results are good! I'm still planning to pull the valve cover again and re-inspect everything in the next week or two, but I am getting more confident that whatever was causing this issue has slowed down or been solved.
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Got my oil analysis back from Blackstone Labs. Everything came back well within acceptable ranges and Blackstone gave it a good bill of health. Really happy to hear that.
Did more investigating related to my annoying noise. Ran the motor with the oil cap off to check for vacuum leaks, noise didn't change at all with the cap on or off so I now know it isn't vacuum related. I also have been listening to it on the road and it is purely RPM based. It doesn't get louder or quieter depending on the load placed on the engine, which leads me away from thinking it is an exhaust manifold crack/leak. Since I know it isn't related to the accessories and it is solely based on RPM, and also that the timing chain tensioner seems to have affected the noise a little, I am thinking it is related to the timing chain guides. It's entirely possible that one of them is cracked or gouged from when that random plastic cap fell into the engine (or some other time). I am going to order both lower guides and just bite the bullet (again) and pull everything apart to replace them. I didn't see anything horribly bad last time I had a look at them but I also didn't get to inspect them all that closely.
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