E90 M3 - V8 saloon
Discussion
Nope, it wasn't me! I've still got the plates you see in the pictures.
By way of an update, I went for a bit of a drive around the lanes the other day and had a nice hour or so of V8 soundtrack. I've got a vibration on acelleration that I need to investigate, it's probably the prop or driveshafts showing some wear. Not surprising at almost 150k miles now
By way of an update, I went for a bit of a drive around the lanes the other day and had a nice hour or so of V8 soundtrack. I've got a vibration on acelleration that I need to investigate, it's probably the prop or driveshafts showing some wear. Not surprising at almost 150k miles now
Thanks for the tip! I had all the wheels balanced when I had the four wheel alignment done earlier this year, but it could well be the tyres themselves as the alignment was off beforehand. I can't say I've noticed the vibration particularly until recently so I'm wondering if a CV joint has gone, or maybe the centre bearing on the prop. I'll have to have a poke around under there.
Nothing particularly going on with the M at the moment. I've decided I'm going to refurb the prop anyway as we're at 150k miles, so here's what £122 looks like in exhaust parts:
That's 4x manifold to centre sections bolts and copper nuts, 2x gaskets between manifold and centre section and 2x clamps for centre section to backbox. The manifold to centre section bolts are random ones at the moment, and I know at least one of the clamps at the other end has seen better days, so I'll make my life easy and replace everything while I'm there.
I've got a new flex disc and centre bearing but went with decent aftermarket parts for those. No idea when I'll be able to get the prop off the car with all this snow hanging around, but when things get better and I have some free time, I'll be under the car!
That's 4x manifold to centre sections bolts and copper nuts, 2x gaskets between manifold and centre section and 2x clamps for centre section to backbox. The manifold to centre section bolts are random ones at the moment, and I know at least one of the clamps at the other end has seen better days, so I'll make my life easy and replace everything while I'm there.
I've got a new flex disc and centre bearing but went with decent aftermarket parts for those. No idea when I'll be able to get the prop off the car with all this snow hanging around, but when things get better and I have some free time, I'll be under the car!
Ouch. Road tax renewal this month, and I've just had my bank account drained of £580 for another year's driving pleasure. My friend's E46 M3 is cheap to tax in comparison, but mine's in the annoying 'post 2006' tax band. The tax band and the fact there's no manual dip stick are the only things that frustrate me slightly about this car. And both of them I can live with.
One thing I can't live with is the sticky rear brake caliper. I've already got rebuild kits and two litres of ATE Typ200 ready to go. The brake fluid is due a refresh this year anyway, so it'll be done slightly early.
That's a couple of nice jobs I've got lined up to do now, and the weather's improving. Now I just need some free time
One thing I can't live with is the sticky rear brake caliper. I've already got rebuild kits and two litres of ATE Typ200 ready to go. The brake fluid is due a refresh this year anyway, so it'll be done slightly early.
That's a couple of nice jobs I've got lined up to do now, and the weather's improving. Now I just need some free time
Yep I suppose I get good cc per £, and the induction noise is excellent cerb4.5lee said:
Great thanks. I'll know for next time. 
I got confused because you don't get any back anymore now when you sell a car.
Yes you do when you sell a car too as far as I'm aware. Again, full months remaining only. Check the Gov site for car tax but I'm sure you do get the refunded for any tax remaining if selling as well as SORNing. I got confused because you don't get any back anymore now when you sell a car.
cerb4.5lee said:
I'll have a check then thanks. I thought they'd changed it when you sell on now though. They always used to refund what was left on your tax when you changed your car years ago if I remember correctly. I lose track to be fair!
Apologies for derailing your thread into a VED discussion.
No worries! It's all interesting stuff, and it's disguising the fact I've not done a lot on this car for a little while Apologies for derailing your thread into a VED discussion.
As soon as I have some free time I'll get some work done and do an update on here.
Time for an actual update, with some proper spannering! I noticed the other week that one of my rear calipers had started to bind. The driver's rear disc was noticeably quite hot compared to the passenger's rear disc... Luckily I already had a couple of rebuild kits that I'd not got around to fitting, so I got on with the job at hand as soon as I had some free time.
The offending caliper. It looks pretty clean and tidy but it was definitely binding:
I used the brake pedal to push the piston out for me. There was quite a bit of resistance on the pedal to get the piston out, so something definitely wasn't right. Here you can see the remains of the seal around the piston:
Offending parts in my oily bowl:
Interestingly, the piston wasn't as corroded as I expected it to be. Only the part exposed to the elements on the outside of the seal was really corroded, with light corrosion inside. It was obviously enough to cause a problem though.
I fitted a new seal in to the caliper and lubricated it with brake fluid, then put the new outer seal on to the piston, after cleaning up the edge that the seal locates to on the caliper. The outer seal is a silly design - a meal ring inside the edge of the seal that is a friction fit, rather than no metal ring and just a lip for it to locate on to. As you saw above, the old metal ring had corroded and was stubborn to get off, no doubt letting dirt in to the caliper and causing the stickiness. I used to brake rewind tool to push the new piston in to place:
I'm not convinced the problem is totally solved as the new piston was binding about half way in and then freed up. I didn't see any obvious corrosion or dirt inside the caliper once I'd cleaned it all up in there. Hopefully all will be ok, but I may end up with a new caliper. Time will tell! Here it is all pushed home and the silly outer seal pushed in to place. It took a bit of poking carefully with a screwdriver to get the metal ring to seat properly and actually seal the caliper properly. Like I say, rubbish design when a simple lip for the rubber to locate on to would have done the job perfectly...
Now for the fun part. As I had one corner of the brake system full of air and some brand new ATE Typ200 waiting to go in, I may as well flush the whole system and do my brake fluid change a bit early. It's not due until August according to the car, but it just makes sense to do now. Cue my brand new pressure bleeding kit. This is an excellent tool that any home mechanic should own. It made changing brake fluid eleventy billion times easier and less messy than my old method, which was using a bit of tube and a measuring jug plus borrowing someone's leg to pump the pedal. It means I don't need a spare person on any given day to mess about with the brakes, so it's extremely handy.
At the other end I bought a nice collector bottle with a decent attachment so air doesn't get in to the tube while bleeding. Works a treat, no mess, extremely happy!
One test drive later, and my brakes feel absolutely spot on. They have more feel than before too so they must have bled really well. A good amount of that rear end vibration from low RPM has gone too, so it must have been that rear brake dragging a bit. There's still some minor vibration so I'll still be refurbing the prop at some point soon. I've also got to put some new front brakes on. I think the pads have stuck to the front discs where I've been only using the car sporadically and they've gone wobbly. No amount of heavy stops from speed has helped, and they're looking nice and clean now, so new discs and pads will be sourced soon.
The offending caliper. It looks pretty clean and tidy but it was definitely binding:
I used the brake pedal to push the piston out for me. There was quite a bit of resistance on the pedal to get the piston out, so something definitely wasn't right. Here you can see the remains of the seal around the piston:
Offending parts in my oily bowl:
Interestingly, the piston wasn't as corroded as I expected it to be. Only the part exposed to the elements on the outside of the seal was really corroded, with light corrosion inside. It was obviously enough to cause a problem though.
I fitted a new seal in to the caliper and lubricated it with brake fluid, then put the new outer seal on to the piston, after cleaning up the edge that the seal locates to on the caliper. The outer seal is a silly design - a meal ring inside the edge of the seal that is a friction fit, rather than no metal ring and just a lip for it to locate on to. As you saw above, the old metal ring had corroded and was stubborn to get off, no doubt letting dirt in to the caliper and causing the stickiness. I used to brake rewind tool to push the new piston in to place:
I'm not convinced the problem is totally solved as the new piston was binding about half way in and then freed up. I didn't see any obvious corrosion or dirt inside the caliper once I'd cleaned it all up in there. Hopefully all will be ok, but I may end up with a new caliper. Time will tell! Here it is all pushed home and the silly outer seal pushed in to place. It took a bit of poking carefully with a screwdriver to get the metal ring to seat properly and actually seal the caliper properly. Like I say, rubbish design when a simple lip for the rubber to locate on to would have done the job perfectly...
Now for the fun part. As I had one corner of the brake system full of air and some brand new ATE Typ200 waiting to go in, I may as well flush the whole system and do my brake fluid change a bit early. It's not due until August according to the car, but it just makes sense to do now. Cue my brand new pressure bleeding kit. This is an excellent tool that any home mechanic should own. It made changing brake fluid eleventy billion times easier and less messy than my old method, which was using a bit of tube and a measuring jug plus borrowing someone's leg to pump the pedal. It means I don't need a spare person on any given day to mess about with the brakes, so it's extremely handy.
At the other end I bought a nice collector bottle with a decent attachment so air doesn't get in to the tube while bleeding. Works a treat, no mess, extremely happy!
One test drive later, and my brakes feel absolutely spot on. They have more feel than before too so they must have bled really well. A good amount of that rear end vibration from low RPM has gone too, so it must have been that rear brake dragging a bit. There's still some minor vibration so I'll still be refurbing the prop at some point soon. I've also got to put some new front brakes on. I think the pads have stuck to the front discs where I've been only using the car sporadically and they've gone wobbly. No amount of heavy stops from speed has helped, and they're looking nice and clean now, so new discs and pads will be sourced soon.
bolidemichael said:
Good work and very satisfying. Why brake fluid for the calliper piston seals, rather than red grease?
I didn't want to contaminate the caliper or fluid with any grease. The seal I'm talking about sits inside the caliper around the outer diameter of the piston to keep the fluid in the right place, if you see what I mean. Therefore my logic was that it should only ever be exposed to brake fluid.helix402 said:
Good work. Those one man bleeders are quite handy. The rebuilt caliper piston should slide in by hand really.
Yep, agreed on both counts! I'm not expecting it to last either but it was worth a shot considering I already had the rebuild kit.Jakg said:
I was going to say the same - I wouldn't hold out much hope on it lasting.
I like the bottle though, it beats my bit of hose and an old 2l coke bottle. But then I saw the price!
Yes, they're a bit pricey but so worth it. I honestly can't recommend the thing enough. My brakes have never felt better and I'm pretty thorough when bleeding them the old fashioned way. Also, I wasted absolutely no fluid with top ups and pumping fluid all over the floor etc, so it's way more efficient all round. I bought 2L of fluid because I normally get through at least 1L on a full fluid change, but this time around I only needed the one can and still had some spare from that at the end. I like the bottle though, it beats my bit of hose and an old 2l coke bottle. But then I saw the price!
I took the car to work last night. First drive for a little while and I do love the induction sound at 8000rpm 
The repaired caliper survived the test drive, and when I got home at half past seven this morning I was informed by the dashboard that we need another litre of oil please. I topped up this afternoon; just over 2100 miles between top-ups which apparently is ok. I may investigate new PCV breathers and see if that helps as I'd rather use no oil if possible. Note to self: buy valve cover gaskets. At least one of them is a little bit leaky.
The repaired caliper survived the test drive, and when I got home at half past seven this morning I was informed by the dashboard that we need another litre of oil please. I topped up this afternoon; just over 2100 miles between top-ups which apparently is ok. I may investigate new PCV breathers and see if that helps as I'd rather use no oil if possible. Note to self: buy valve cover gaskets. At least one of them is a little bit leaky.
Time for another update. I've used the car occasionally to drive to work, and the last time I used it there was a strange noise coming from about the centre of the car on over run. It definitely sounded like it was coming from the prop and not the gearbox so some investigation was required. I'd already bought a new flex disc and centre bearing in anticipation of replacing them at some point, but that job went to the top of the list with the noise that developed!
Firstly, I needed to borrow a friend's garage so I had a nice flat surface to get the car up in the air on. My driveway slopes so I wouldn't want to be under the car when it's up on four axle stands:
Perfect size single garage, just big enough for an M3 to be up in the air and still be able to walk all the way around it. I then had to get it up high enough on axle stands. Some wood cut down to size provided the appropriate spacer to get to the subframe, although I ended up only using one bit of wood as the two bits slipped and caused the car to fall off the jack first time around
Luckily no damage done at all:
With the car up in the air it was time for the centre section of the exhaust to come off. If you've been reading this thread you'll know it's already been off fairly recently, so I knew this wouldn't be too bad to do, although it was a bit tight doing it on my back rather than the ramp I had access to last time:
Exhaust off, check out my meaty manifolds That's the driver's side, I didn't bother taking another pic of the passenger side as it's the same:
Exhaust slid backwards out of the way...
... Leaving just the head shield between me and the prop:
With the heat shield out of the way, here's the prop, from front to back:
Hmm, nothing obviously broken there. Although I did see this:
Looks like the UJ lost a bit of grease at some point, or possibly it's just dirt that's been flicked off. Either way, it was very dry and stuck on, therefore old and not the source of my recent noise. I thought the centre bearing might have a broken rubber bellows that supports the shaft, but that appeared to be ok. Not bad for 151,000 miles. Nothing's ever been touched under here since it left the factory, judging by all the bolts being pristine with no ratchet marks at all.
Here's the prop off the car:
Flex disc is original with BMW stamp and looks ok for the age:
CV joint, however was clicky and had a bit of play. Bugger, didn't think to buy one of those earlier as I wasn't expecting it to be an issue!
Old flex disc and centre bearing removed from the prop. Flex disc still seemed ok, although I wasn't able to simulate 400bhp worth of flex on the garage floor! The centre bearing, however, was rumbling nicely and felt rough when I span it with my fingers. That'll be the source of the noise then! It definitely sounded a bit like a bearing, and was definitely coming from the middle of the car, so I was happy to find it feeling/sounding dead:
New bearing in place, and my high-tech way to make sure the two halves of the prop went back in the same place, just in case it affects the balance:
With the two bits replaced, and no CV joint to swap out, I put the car back together to see what difference it had made. The drive home was rather good! No noise on over run and I think the vibration under acceleration has gone too, but I'll need to drive it some more to be sure. Fingers crossed it was all the centre bearing, and maybe that CV joint doesn't need replacing after all, unless I want to quieten down the standard 'M clunk' you get from the rear of M cars...
Once home, I took the battery off to charge it. It's a bit flat where I've not used it much for a while. Poor car needs some miles under its wheels!
It's a big beast of a battery, and it's an AGM one, which I realised only after a couple of hours on charge that you can't use a standard battery charger... I turned it off immediately so hopefully I've not done any damage. The battery is back on the car now and I'll have to get a good quality charger soon.
Firstly, I needed to borrow a friend's garage so I had a nice flat surface to get the car up in the air on. My driveway slopes so I wouldn't want to be under the car when it's up on four axle stands:
Perfect size single garage, just big enough for an M3 to be up in the air and still be able to walk all the way around it. I then had to get it up high enough on axle stands. Some wood cut down to size provided the appropriate spacer to get to the subframe, although I ended up only using one bit of wood as the two bits slipped and caused the car to fall off the jack first time around
Luckily no damage done at all:With the car up in the air it was time for the centre section of the exhaust to come off. If you've been reading this thread you'll know it's already been off fairly recently, so I knew this wouldn't be too bad to do, although it was a bit tight doing it on my back rather than the ramp I had access to last time:
Exhaust off, check out my meaty manifolds
That's the driver's side, I didn't bother taking another pic of the passenger side as it's the same:Exhaust slid backwards out of the way...
... Leaving just the head shield between me and the prop:
With the heat shield out of the way, here's the prop, from front to back:
Hmm, nothing obviously broken there. Although I did see this:
Looks like the UJ lost a bit of grease at some point, or possibly it's just dirt that's been flicked off. Either way, it was very dry and stuck on, therefore old and not the source of my recent noise. I thought the centre bearing might have a broken rubber bellows that supports the shaft, but that appeared to be ok. Not bad for 151,000 miles. Nothing's ever been touched under here since it left the factory, judging by all the bolts being pristine with no ratchet marks at all.
Here's the prop off the car:
Flex disc is original with BMW stamp and looks ok for the age:
CV joint, however was clicky and had a bit of play. Bugger, didn't think to buy one of those earlier as I wasn't expecting it to be an issue!
Old flex disc and centre bearing removed from the prop. Flex disc still seemed ok, although I wasn't able to simulate 400bhp worth of flex on the garage floor! The centre bearing, however, was rumbling nicely and felt rough when I span it with my fingers. That'll be the source of the noise then! It definitely sounded a bit like a bearing, and was definitely coming from the middle of the car, so I was happy to find it feeling/sounding dead:
New bearing in place, and my high-tech way to make sure the two halves of the prop went back in the same place, just in case it affects the balance:
With the two bits replaced, and no CV joint to swap out, I put the car back together to see what difference it had made. The drive home was rather good! No noise on over run and I think the vibration under acceleration has gone too, but I'll need to drive it some more to be sure. Fingers crossed it was all the centre bearing, and maybe that CV joint doesn't need replacing after all, unless I want to quieten down the standard 'M clunk' you get from the rear of M cars...
Once home, I took the battery off to charge it. It's a bit flat where I've not used it much for a while. Poor car needs some miles under its wheels!
It's a big beast of a battery, and it's an AGM one, which I realised only after a couple of hours on charge that you can't use a standard battery charger... I turned it off immediately so hopefully I've not done any damage. The battery is back on the car now and I'll have to get a good quality charger soon.
Well, the Puma was my daily driver for all of a week (and several hundred miles), but it's impractical to put Mini GPM in the back as it's a tight fit with her car seat, plus the buggy won't go in the boot. That means another car is required. Damn 
I could use the M3 as a daily driver but I want to keep it a bit more special than that, and it would more than double my fuel bill compared to the Diesel Machine!
I could use the M3 as a daily driver but I want to keep it a bit more special than that, and it would more than double my fuel bill compared to the Diesel Machine!
Small update on this. Definitely some vibration still and I knew that rear CV needed replacing so I've just emailed my favourite BMW dealer for a quote on that and several other parts.
I noticed today three out of four doors weren't locked, and clicking the remote doesn't lock them either. The only one that locked the last time I used the car was the driver's door, which now won't unlock on the remote either. I can only unlock it manually with the key. Bugger! A small amount of research points to the driver's lock actuator so that's being quoted for too.
I feel some more 'prop shaft on the floor' and 'drivers door in pieces' pictures are going to follow soon
I noticed today three out of four doors weren't locked, and clicking the remote doesn't lock them either. The only one that locked the last time I used the car was the driver's door, which now won't unlock on the remote either. I can only unlock it manually with the key. Bugger! A small amount of research points to the driver's lock actuator so that's being quoted for too.
I feel some more 'prop shaft on the floor' and 'drivers door in pieces' pictures are going to follow soon
Haha, thanks! It's all just bits and pieces that need doing with age It would seem. It's good fun doing all the spannering too, so I can't complain. I've just been out for a run in it to help Mini GPM have a mid-afternoon nap. It needed filing up with petrol and the car reckons I've done over 25mpg on the last tank. It seems to like Esso Supreme!
The quote is in, so naturally I've just sent over £500 to my favourite BMW dealer for a while host of parts , the main two being the the prop shaft CV and the door actuator. It only broke a couple of days ago and it's really annoying me so it needs sorting ASAP. I had to pull the emergency piece of plastic to unlock the fuel flap yesterday when I got to the petrol station and realised it was locked... It seems if the driver's door lock goes south, the whole locking system won't do anything.
, the main two being the the prop shaft CV and the door actuator. It only broke a couple of days ago and it's really annoying me so it needs sorting ASAP. I had to pull the emergency piece of plastic to unlock the fuel flap yesterday when I got to the petrol station and realised it was locked... It seems if the driver's door lock goes south, the whole locking system won't do anything.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff