clarkson's new shed

[clarkson22]

im taking my m3 off the road for a bit im going to sort the clutch and the crank bearings and some more paint the build thread is here for my e46 m3- clicky, and with the forever nagging misses going on about fitting my little lads stuff in it and how we need a bigger car i decided to get one, it was my mate at work selling it who has had it for a while , it had a new clutch and dmf 30 thousand miles ago recent service but im going to give it a full service anyway , but ...there are a few problems with it, the rear passenger door has a big dent in it where somebody reversed and drove off , has a big oil leak from the rocker cover , the egr is'nt working properly its probably gunked up after 140,000 on the clock, might just remove it and get it mapped out , will have a look when im off work next, glow plug controller is intermittent/getting worse , abs module has internal leak, instrument cluster turns off with rev counter speedo and then comes back on again does this every few mins , bmw had a recall for the battery cable that goes to the fuse under the dash because it cause instrument clusters to die and the car to shut off while driving so ive already ripped the dash apart pulled the fuse box and checked the cable and its fine, i was hoping the cable would be black burnt leading to the fuse box but it wasnt so that means the cluster is at fault and seems common across a few bmw's , but other than that its alright ...lol , idrive, satnav , folding mirrors, and its the 320d lump not bad for 1100 , i can sort all these problems easy and should be a good runaround with baby stuff and all other crap while i fix the m3...well here it is..yes it needs cleaning...




you can see the dent in the rear door thankfully it hasnt touch the rear quarter








that means the abs module is goosed


glow plug controll unit...


had it apart to check the battery cable but all was good


going to get it all fixed up and on the road soon and desperately needs a good detail

will update soon

[OddCat]

I'd heard he was doing OK since leaving the BBC but cleary not !

[spreadsheet monkey]

Good car. I owned an E90 320d for five years and it was excellent.

Hope you're able to fix all the things that need fixing on yours, without any unwelcome surprises.

What were you using to read the error codes - was that some kind of special BMW software?

[eliot]

spreadsheet monkey said:

What were you using to read the error codes - was that some kind of special BMW software?

Google ediabas

[clarkson22]

yeh its all easy enough to sort mate , pretty handy with the spanners lol and it was bmw inpa i used to read the codes with on laptop

[clarkson22]

Managed to clean it to today and sort the headlight out , had to take bumper off to get at the headlight , looks brand new now though





I ran my clay bar all over it I'm going to get my d.a out at weekend and give it a full days worth






Found this under the dirt, can borrow my mates spray booth when ever so can hold off for a bit





Going to get a second hand door on payday in a few weeks


The st headlight had algae growing in it


Cleaned the inside and sanded the lens down with 1200 this is half way through


First coat of lacquer


This is after 3 coats


Will buff it up in a few days, I've ordered my swirl flap blanks and at 140000 it's time to get rid lol,

Will update soon

[Greendubber]

Thats a great turn around, good work!

[Barchettaman]

Cracking work, Clarkson.

I'll be interested to see how you get on with the DA polisher. The paint on my E90 (Monaco Blue, 2007) is bloody rock hard and I couldn't make any headway with it.

Oh, and what's the UV lacquer you're using for the headlights?

[JakeT]

Looks good so far. It looks to me like the rear wiper isn't parking correctly. Has the motor failed?

[clarkson22]

Cheers for the comments and the lacquer I used was just 1k hycote lacquer it had uv protection , I'm sure most lacquers do anyway and I was messing with rear wiper when cleaning it , I'm going to put the light and bumper back together today the subs just come out....

[clarkson22]

Managed to have a look at the egr and it's gunked up I'm going to get a delete kit and I have some oil around the injectors I've done a little reading and it seems like the oil breaker blocked could be the issue either way I'll just strip it down and have a look
Gunked up egr


Oil around injector


Headlight before


Now




Couldn't get my d.a off my mate so just used the rotry on the headlight.

Will update soon

[spreadsheet monkey]

clarkson22 said:

The st headlight had algae growing in it

Can't believe people let stuff get to that kind of state! Looks much better now.

[clarkson22]

Cheers mate, had a go with the rotary on the rear quarter and door I need to refine it but can't find my softer pad managed to get a scratch out the rear quarter just a couple of pics going to finish it tomorrow




Will look a lot better

[JakeT]

Good going. Looks like you've managed to change it from dark blue to black!

[clarkson22]

Lol cheers dude it does in that last pic , well got some more done this afternoon finished the drivers door and wing and refined the lot and added some wax, I'm doing a panel a day when im not at work otherwise I get moaned at , I'm going to start dimantling the inlet manifold and give it the cleaning of it life and fit the swirl blanks next week , and clean the egr , I'll probably end up blanking it off and change the engine oil breather and sort the oil leak out anyway some pics from today

Above drivers door handle


Gone


Wings both doors and rear quarter refined and waxed

[dbdb]

You are doing a good job of this. When you have finished cleaning and polishing it, the car will look fairly new.

[clarkson22]

Tackled a few things it's dripped oil onto my drive and I think it's the rocker cover gasket it's covered the front of the engine so I've cleaned all that up removed egr valve inlet manifold to do the swirl flaps but...someone's done them the cheap way and cut the flaps off, I'm still going to put the shiny blanks on and removed the egr cooler none of this is going back on its getting blanked off going to remove the rocker cover somepoint next week when I get paid fit a new gasket and clean rest of oil underneath , I hope sump ain't leaking but meh, I'll just have to do it anyway some pics

Egr valve

Manifold

The fresh oil seems to be seeping from rocker cover above


Someone's been here before

A bit cleaner








The bonnet is a state I've done half of it and couldn't be arsed to do the rest so do that tomorrow


Kids handprints




Will update soon

[clarkson22]

Right one of the faults was the glow plug controller the diys i have read all say its under the inlet manifold..could i fk find it , you have to go under car and it is bolted near the oil dipstick
...wkers ,will replace that soon so as i get new one, decided to clean the m3 and remove swirls fromt the passanger side door of the shed , anyway just a few pics




Wow buffer trails everywhere on this side


It was getting dark


Big improvment will get some more pics when im off

[helix402]

Good work, worth doIng the glow plugs with the manifold off. Beru are the ones to go for. 15Nm torque.

[clarkson22]

Yes mate glow plugs are being changed , i already have 4 beru ones waiting to go in and cheers dude just watch some videos on machine polishing that helped me out