325TI - Project Mpact
Discussion
1602Mark said:
Brilliant. The OE+ styling on rear looks perfect.
It does make it look a bit different now, nice to see it out on it's wheels rather than up against the wall on the ramp! Only thing is, it seems it attract little 
in their corsa's/chavtastic wagons want to sit so close behind 
So, as some of you may remember the last deadline I wanted to reach was to have the Compact ready to leave for Nurburgring on the Friday 16th of August.
Was the car ready, yes. Did it make it, no
The week before we were meant to leave things weren't looking hopeful, But on the Saturday we got the car running as it should. A local Garage (Mildens, of Mildenhall) managed to Squeeze the car in for it's MOT first thing on the Monday morning, which it passed just needed the headlight alignment adjusting.
On the Tuesday Another local Garage (C&L, Beckrow) done the wheel Alignment/Tracking (Stock 325ti Alignment), I'm always very cautious where I take my cars for work, and these two Companies went out there way to fit me in so soon and where very careful with the car.
Which left me Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening and Thursday to get as many miles on the car as I could as a shake down, every drive I went for was in continuous rain but there were no problems, not even a rattle or squeek. Managed to get 300 miles on the car, But the exhaust does drone, a lot (soon to be fiddled with, again).
So, the last minute I remembered I needed to modify the GoPro mount to fit in the Compact Headrest as I made it for the Cooper S the previous time we went to Germany.
With the car Fully loaded, spare oils, coils, tools, clothes and the Girlfriend had bought me enough food to feed an army (and baked the others Brownies and Flapjack) the car was ready to Leave for 3.30am Friday.
There was an on going joke between the others in the group that the Compact would never be done in time, so i'd kept it quiet that the Compact was road worthy and they were expecting me to be in the Mini again.
The meeting place was Stansted Services, ready to leave for 4.15am and head to the EuroTunnel. I'd picked up a passenger, was heading down the M11, pulled off at the slip road onto the big Roundabout at the services and then the steering went heavy...... really heavy.
Pulling in to meet the others in the group, them not knowing the Car was ready.... I opened the bonnet, removed the Airbox and one of the power steering Push-Fit lines had failed and Fluid was everywhere! Everyone was on hand to help me out, all torches were on (one lad not realising he'd actually missed the torch button and was playing music into the engine bay from his phone
) .
I managed to Cable Tie the hose back on, with about 8 Cable Ties. Filled it back up with Fluid, the others stayed 45 minutes longer than they should have to help out and with Only being 45 mins from home I decided I wasn't going to carry on with the Trip. My passenger jumped into another car and we headed our separate ways
.
Disheartened, but things could have been a lot worse. At least it didn't happen going across France or worse on the Nurburgring itself. I headed straight back to the workshop, luckily the ramp was empty. And then realised I hadn't given the other's their Flapjack and Brownies
The Power steering Fluid was everywhere!
Worked its way into the N/S front Caliper,
The entire underside was covered,
All of the N/S paint work and up the back of the car,
I just got Stuck in, Stripped everything
Started to clean and degrease everything, the fluid had even worked its way up a vent tube in the Headlight. So that had to be stripped too.
In total 3 days were spent cleaning all of the Power Steering fluid from the car, not wanting to risk it happening again and one expensive trip to BMW to get some new hoses,
The push-fit hose in the above picture is what failed (on the old hose) causing the problems, I compared the old hose with the new one and it seemed as if the four clips found inside the fitting had lost their "spring" over time and were not fully engaging. So with the hoses replaced, all is back to normal.
I realised I hadn't taken any photos of the car as i'd just been continuously driving it, so here are some i'd done for the insurance,
Was the car ready, yes. Did it make it, no
The week before we were meant to leave things weren't looking hopeful, But on the Saturday we got the car running as it should. A local Garage (Mildens, of Mildenhall) managed to Squeeze the car in for it's MOT first thing on the Monday morning, which it passed just needed the headlight alignment adjusting.
On the Tuesday Another local Garage (C&L, Beckrow) done the wheel Alignment/Tracking (Stock 325ti Alignment), I'm always very cautious where I take my cars for work, and these two Companies went out there way to fit me in so soon and where very careful with the car.
Which left me Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening and Thursday to get as many miles on the car as I could as a shake down, every drive I went for was in continuous rain but there were no problems, not even a rattle or squeek. Managed to get 300 miles on the car, But the exhaust does drone, a lot (soon to be fiddled with, again).
So, the last minute I remembered I needed to modify the GoPro mount to fit in the Compact Headrest as I made it for the Cooper S the previous time we went to Germany.
With the car Fully loaded, spare oils, coils, tools, clothes and the Girlfriend had bought me enough food to feed an army (and baked the others Brownies and Flapjack) the car was ready to Leave for 3.30am Friday.
There was an on going joke between the others in the group that the Compact would never be done in time, so i'd kept it quiet that the Compact was road worthy and they were expecting me to be in the Mini again.
The meeting place was Stansted Services, ready to leave for 4.15am and head to the EuroTunnel. I'd picked up a passenger, was heading down the M11, pulled off at the slip road onto the big Roundabout at the services and then the steering went heavy...... really heavy.
Pulling in to meet the others in the group, them not knowing the Car was ready.... I opened the bonnet, removed the Airbox and one of the power steering Push-Fit lines had failed and Fluid was everywhere! Everyone was on hand to help me out, all torches were on (one lad not realising he'd actually missed the torch button and was playing music into the engine bay from his phone
) .I managed to Cable Tie the hose back on, with about 8 Cable Ties. Filled it back up with Fluid, the others stayed 45 minutes longer than they should have to help out and with Only being 45 mins from home I decided I wasn't going to carry on with the Trip. My passenger jumped into another car and we headed our separate ways
. Disheartened, but things could have been a lot worse. At least it didn't happen going across France or worse on the Nurburgring itself. I headed straight back to the workshop, luckily the ramp was empty. And then realised I hadn't given the other's their Flapjack and Brownies
The Power steering Fluid was everywhere!
Worked its way into the N/S front Caliper,
The entire underside was covered,
All of the N/S paint work and up the back of the car,
I just got Stuck in, Stripped everything
Started to clean and degrease everything, the fluid had even worked its way up a vent tube in the Headlight. So that had to be stripped too.
In total 3 days were spent cleaning all of the Power Steering fluid from the car, not wanting to risk it happening again and one expensive trip to BMW to get some new hoses,
The push-fit hose in the above picture is what failed (on the old hose) causing the problems, I compared the old hose with the new one and it seemed as if the four clips found inside the fitting had lost their "spring" over time and were not fully engaging. So with the hoses replaced, all is back to normal.
I realised I hadn't taken any photos of the car as i'd just been continuously driving it, so here are some i'd done for the insurance,
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