E90 M3 - V8 saloon
Discussion
alec.e said:
Looks amazing, considering it has done 5 times the miles of my M6.
Very nice!
Thanks! Yes it does scrub up quite well, doesn't it Very nice!
cerb4.5lee said:
Great photos. 
The exhaust tips look mint too.
It is so clean for the mileage.
Cheers! Yep, it seems to have been looked after so I didn't worry about the mileage when I bought it. The exhaust tips need a tiny bit more polishing but they'll come up almost as new, probably using the drill technique posted above The exhaust tips look mint too.
It is so clean for the mileage.
bolidemichael said:
It's a great car and I'm enjoying this thread. A couple of observations, if I may:
- I would recommend using Finish Kare 1000P Hi Temp wax on the exhaust tips now that you've gone to the effort of polishing.
- I've spotted 'phasing' on the driver door and o/s/r bumper, presumably there's more - someone's been visiting one too many car washes and the Romanians with their 'scratchy sponges' or it's been attacked by a rotary polisher with zeal in the past. Considering that you've just waxed it and wax fills in the scratches in lacquer, it may need some rectification work with a DA.
Thanks for the tips, I'll investigate that wax. The stuff I used above still seems to be on there as water beaded when I washed them and the dirt just wiped off. Which was nice!- I would recommend using Finish Kare 1000P Hi Temp wax on the exhaust tips now that you've gone to the effort of polishing.
- I've spotted 'phasing' on the driver door and o/s/r bumper, presumably there's more - someone's been visiting one too many car washes and the Romanians with their 'scratchy sponges' or it's been attacked by a rotary polisher with zeal in the past. Considering that you've just waxed it and wax fills in the scratches in lacquer, it may need some rectification work with a DA.
EDIT: Just realised you made a link straight to the wax. It does sound good - might be worth trying that all over the car too.
You've obviously got the same eye for detail as me
The car's had quite a bit of paint over the years, presumably to keep things tidy as there's no accident damage. I think there may have been a small scrape on the driver's side at some point as the rear door on that side has the tiniest of ripples still visible in certain lights at a certain angle.There are also a few blemishes in the lacquer on the driver's rear quarter and other bits and pieces I've noticed as I've gone around the car in detail. I'll have a go at correcting some of this myself, which should improve things quite well, but as with any car that's been used this much, a full respray would be the only way to get things perfect.Any recommendations for car shampoo? I've just run out. I was using Meguiars Gold Class as it seemed pretty good for the money.
bolidemichael said:
It's nice to have not offended someone with honest comments in this era of the easily offended!
The stuff that you put on the exhaust tips will bead - but likely perish in time due to the high temperatures of the exhaust emissions... hence the FK1000P. It can be used for the entire car and it's apparently excellent.
For a wash, I would most definitely recommend Bilt Hamber' Auto Wash. Just a teaspoon in twenty litres creates a noticeable lather! Whilst on the website, I would have a browse around and amaze yourself at the competency and credibility of their other products. They're an incredible British company.
No worries. Maybe you should take offence by me not being offended? The stuff that you put on the exhaust tips will bead - but likely perish in time due to the high temperatures of the exhaust emissions... hence the FK1000P. It can be used for the entire car and it's apparently excellent.
For a wash, I would most definitely recommend Bilt Hamber' Auto Wash. Just a teaspoon in twenty litres creates a noticeable lather! Whilst on the website, I would have a browse around and amaze yourself at the competency and credibility of their other products. They're an incredible British company.
Ahh, Bilt Hamber. I use their Dynax S50 stuff and it's brilliant. I'm sure their car shampoo will be too!
Sailorbaz said:
Stuff
Thanks very much! Your car looked lovely. They look great in black, and I think I'd prefer the colour of your interior too! My little girl is still facing the rear of the car so I've not got seat backs to worry about yet. It won't be long though...
Yes, they do like a drink. That and the cost of tax are my only gripes, but I knew about those before I bought the car and it didn't put me off enough. As the roads are so empty I actually tried to be economical on my last run to work and back - I saw 26mpg on the computer by using cruise control almost the entire way. No idea what the actual calculation would have been, but an MPG or two off would still be brilliant as far as I'm concerned!
I've been gathering some parts recently for the inevitable rod bearing swap. I decided it's probably best to just get it done and then I can be happier at 8000rpm
20L of Castrol's finest. That's two oil changes and a little spare:
Rod bearings, rod bolts and some sump bolts:
And a broken Mk4 Golf camshaft. Or an E90 M3 sump gasket
My local friendly mechanic is understandably very quiet at the moment with the C19 pandemic going on, so he's happy to take on a big job involving lots of labour. I wouldn't have minded doing it myself but to be honest it'll be a pain doing it on the drive as the front subframe needs to be dropped to get the sump off. It'll probably be next week some time for surgery
20L of Castrol's finest. That's two oil changes and a little spare:
Rod bearings, rod bolts and some sump bolts:
And a broken Mk4 Golf camshaft. Or an E90 M3 sump gasket
My local friendly mechanic is understandably very quiet at the moment with the C19 pandemic going on, so he's happy to take on a big job involving lots of labour. I wouldn't have minded doing it myself but to be honest it'll be a pain doing it on the drive as the front subframe needs to be dropped to get the sump off. It'll probably be next week some time for surgery
My friendly mechanic hasn't quite got around to sorting out the rod bearings yet, but I'm hardly in a rush with us being on CV19 'lockdown' at the mo...
I went to do some shopping and was reminded of the annoying rattle coming from the passenger front door at motorway speeds, so i decided to investigate.
First thing to do was remove the trim to reveal the screws, before popping the door card off:
It's pristine under there, looks like no-one's been here before, which means the rattle's not inside the door most likely...
ETA: I did shake the door around at this point too, to see if I could hear anything loose inside the door, but it sounded fine.
I took the tweeter off the door too and looked underneath for loose wing mirror bolts or plastic that could rattle:
All good under there, so the only thing it might be is the trim panel that covers the screws for the door card. (All door card clips were intact when I removed them). Aha! There's a clip missing for the trim piece:
The white insert grabs hold of the metal clips, but I was missing the metal part off the trim piece, so I removed the white part from the door card in case it was rattling in the hole with no insert to grip from the trim piece:
Have a fixed the rattle? No idea! I've not needed to go shopping for the last few days so therefore no legitimate reason to go for a short drive along the motorway to the large supermarket I tend to use... I might take it to work this week and find out that way instead.
I went to do some shopping and was reminded of the annoying rattle coming from the passenger front door at motorway speeds, so i decided to investigate.
First thing to do was remove the trim to reveal the screws, before popping the door card off:
It's pristine under there, looks like no-one's been here before, which means the rattle's not inside the door most likely...
ETA: I did shake the door around at this point too, to see if I could hear anything loose inside the door, but it sounded fine.
I took the tweeter off the door too and looked underneath for loose wing mirror bolts or plastic that could rattle:
All good under there, so the only thing it might be is the trim panel that covers the screws for the door card. (All door card clips were intact when I removed them). Aha! There's a clip missing for the trim piece:
The white insert grabs hold of the metal clips, but I was missing the metal part off the trim piece, so I removed the white part from the door card in case it was rattling in the hole with no insert to grip from the trim piece:
Have a fixed the rattle? No idea! I've not needed to go shopping for the last few days so therefore no legitimate reason to go for a short drive along the motorway to the large supermarket I tend to use... I might take it to work this week and find out that way instead.
Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Wednesday 29th April 21:54
Another update, this time it's heavy stuff! Lets see some pictures of my bottom end
My friendly mechanic had a free day to get my car in and replace the rod bearings. Luckily for me, I was off work for a few days at the same time, so I could see the progress being made. I'm glad I didn't bother trying this myself on the drive - the subframe and other parts to remove are light enough to do by myself easily, but apparently the steering rack was a total arse to remove and you need about 7 hands to get it lined back up with the sub frame and anti-roll bar when it's going back together afterwards! The actual changing of the rod bearings is the easy bit of the job
Observing the carnage from a socially-distanced viewpoint:
I was then allowed to have a poke about. One dirty sump. It's a lovely one-piece baffled design, with oil pick-ups at either end too:
Nice ally sub-frame. You can see how ruined my engine mounts were. They literally fell apart when removing the sub-frame!
Oil pump chain and guides are looking good:
Time to remove and replace the rod bearings:
Here's the crank surface with one of the rod caps removed. It's perfect still, all of the faces of the crank under each bearing were. Not bad for 145k miles, eh?!
I took the old rod bearings home with me and cleaned them up, so I can prove they've been done and also prove they weren't that bad if I ever sell the car. Well, apart from two that look like they've had a bit of pick-up. The top row is the upper bearing, (ie piston side) and the lower row are the cap bearings, cylinders 1 - 8 left to right. Pretty happy with that. I'm sure they're original too:
The tightening procedure is a bit mad for these cars, my mechanic friend took a picture and sent it over to me because we found it a bit daft! However that's what he did when putting the new bearings in for me, to the letter:
The sub frame, sump and under tray all got cleaned up before going back on. Not perfect, but it's a road car so who cares!
Lastly, a shiny new pair of engine mounts:
The earlier oil leak from the oil cap seems to have been going on for a while because there was oil all down the side of the head and on the A/C pump. That was all cleaned off while there was access to the area. My mechanic friend also noted that the auxilliary air pump pipe hadn't been clipped back in to place when he took the air box off to install the engine brace while the sub frame was off. That explains why it was slightly noisy on cold starts!
Total cost for rod bearings, rod bolts, sump gasket and bolts (they're a one use item!), oil, engine mounts and labour to do the job was around £1200. Not bad value methinks
My friendly mechanic had a free day to get my car in and replace the rod bearings. Luckily for me, I was off work for a few days at the same time, so I could see the progress being made. I'm glad I didn't bother trying this myself on the drive - the subframe and other parts to remove are light enough to do by myself easily, but apparently the steering rack was a total arse to remove and you need about 7 hands to get it lined back up with the sub frame and anti-roll bar when it's going back together afterwards! The actual changing of the rod bearings is the easy bit of the job
Observing the carnage from a socially-distanced viewpoint:
I was then allowed to have a poke about. One dirty sump. It's a lovely one-piece baffled design, with oil pick-ups at either end too:
Nice ally sub-frame. You can see how ruined my engine mounts were. They literally fell apart when removing the sub-frame!
Oil pump chain and guides are looking good:
Time to remove and replace the rod bearings:
Here's the crank surface with one of the rod caps removed. It's perfect still, all of the faces of the crank under each bearing were. Not bad for 145k miles, eh?!
I took the old rod bearings home with me and cleaned them up, so I can prove they've been done and also prove they weren't that bad if I ever sell the car. Well, apart from two that look like they've had a bit of pick-up. The top row is the upper bearing, (ie piston side) and the lower row are the cap bearings, cylinders 1 - 8 left to right. Pretty happy with that. I'm sure they're original too:
The tightening procedure is a bit mad for these cars, my mechanic friend took a picture and sent it over to me because we found it a bit daft! However that's what he did when putting the new bearings in for me, to the letter:
The sub frame, sump and under tray all got cleaned up before going back on. Not perfect, but it's a road car so who cares!
Lastly, a shiny new pair of engine mounts:
The earlier oil leak from the oil cap seems to have been going on for a while because there was oil all down the side of the head and on the A/C pump. That was all cleaned off while there was access to the area. My mechanic friend also noted that the auxilliary air pump pipe hadn't been clipped back in to place when he took the air box off to install the engine brace while the sub frame was off. That explains why it was slightly noisy on cold starts!
Total cost for rod bearings, rod bolts, sump gasket and bolts (they're a one use item!), oil, engine mounts and labour to do the job was around £1200. Not bad value methinks
Ryan_E81 said:
I’m in Twydall mate, gutted i’ve never seen you floating about!
I'm sure you will do at some point, either at Neil's or in the Tesco near to you. I'm always in there for Momentum!Neil_M said:
Superb car, thread and maintenance. Love it.
Many thanks, another small update to come soon Right, time for that update!
I did the 500 miles needed before I changed the oil by using the car for work for a week. Excellent way to commute My friendly mechanic, Neil, said I could borrow the ramp to do the oil change. He needed to tweak the tracking anyway; since putting the subframe back on the steering wheel sat a little down to the left. It was also apparent that I needed a new oil level sensor. My current one started acting up once the car was back together after the rod bearing change. Pretty sure some carbon in the sump got disturbed and ended up in the level sensor. It was all gummed up.
Here's the new sensor I put in while I was waiting for the last of the oil to drain:
Car filled up with roughly the right amount of oil and back on the floor. You need to take it for a short drive for the sensor to detect the amount of oil in the sump and give you a reading on the dash. Without doubt this is the worst thing about owning this car. Just give me a manual dipstick!! Of course, It needed a bit more oil, and then I over-filled it slightly and had to drain some out. It's doubly annoying as it doesn't tell you how much it's over-filled by. The dash just says "Oil level too high"
After draining out nearly 1L I then had to go for another short drive just to get a level. Phew, it's now showing half way on the digital dipstick. That'll do for now, I'll top up with 1L when it asks me to!
Another small problem reared its head when I was shunting it off the drive one day to turn it around and fix my A-pillar rattle at motorway speeds. Remember that? Taking the door card off and putting it back on again did nothing to solve the problem. I did a bit of digging around the internet and found that it's a common problem caused by the fact the car has plastic front wings. The bolts/clips that hold them on along the A post allow for some movement, except this movement can be too much and cause the wing to rattle at speed. I needed to take out the arch liners and tighten the bolts slightly as the heads for the bolts were on the inside of the wing.
Back on track - I got this message on the dash so promptly plugged the laptop in and had a look at the error codes. After a bit of translation because of course it was all in German, the car was moaning about a vacuum pump that gives extra vacuum to the brake servo. Possibly a vac leak then - the car is sometimes a bit lumpy on first cold start of the morning.
Neil did say there was a vac pipe at the back of the air box with a broken clip so it's possible it's that, but having taken the air box off I'm not sure it would cause a vac leak at all, it's conencted to the air box and not between the throttle plates and inlet where the air needs to be metered. I'll see what happens now the codes are reset but either way, it's not a major issue.
Looks cool with no air box!
A quick pic of the throttle actuators too. One of them looks to be newer than the other, which is nice. Not that you can tell from this pic though! At some point I'll probably have those apart and future proof them with cogs that don't wear out, but for now they're both working perfectly.
The Jubilee clips holding the air box on are 'fun' to get to, but like everything else on this car, someone seems to have thought about it - there are notches in the fuel rail at the correct angle to allow access to the Jubilees, and there is a rubber stop on the inlet mounting part the airbox fits in to so that the Jubilee can't run away while you try to tighten it. Good stuff!
Must do better with some more pictures next time
I did the 500 miles needed before I changed the oil by using the car for work for a week. Excellent way to commute
My friendly mechanic, Neil, said I could borrow the ramp to do the oil change. He needed to tweak the tracking anyway; since putting the subframe back on the steering wheel sat a little down to the left. It was also apparent that I needed a new oil level sensor. My current one started acting up once the car was back together after the rod bearing change. Pretty sure some carbon in the sump got disturbed and ended up in the level sensor. It was all gummed up.Here's the new sensor I put in while I was waiting for the last of the oil to drain:
Car filled up with roughly the right amount of oil and back on the floor. You need to take it for a short drive for the sensor to detect the amount of oil in the sump and give you a reading on the dash. Without doubt this is the worst thing about owning this car. Just give me a manual dipstick!! Of course, It needed a bit more oil, and then I over-filled it slightly and had to drain some out. It's doubly annoying as it doesn't tell you how much it's over-filled by. The dash just says "Oil level too high"
After draining out nearly 1L I then had to go for another short drive just to get a level. Phew, it's now showing half way on the digital dipstick. That'll do for now, I'll top up with 1L when it asks me to!Another small problem reared its head when I was shunting it off the drive one day to turn it around and fix my A-pillar rattle at motorway speeds. Remember that? Taking the door card off and putting it back on again did nothing to solve the problem. I did a bit of digging around the internet and found that it's a common problem caused by the fact the car has plastic front wings. The bolts/clips that hold them on along the A post allow for some movement, except this movement can be too much and cause the wing to rattle at speed. I needed to take out the arch liners and tighten the bolts slightly as the heads for the bolts were on the inside of the wing.
Back on track - I got this message on the dash so promptly plugged the laptop in and had a look at the error codes. After a bit of translation because of course it was all in German, the car was moaning about a vacuum pump that gives extra vacuum to the brake servo. Possibly a vac leak then - the car is sometimes a bit lumpy on first cold start of the morning.
Neil did say there was a vac pipe at the back of the air box with a broken clip so it's possible it's that, but having taken the air box off I'm not sure it would cause a vac leak at all, it's conencted to the air box and not between the throttle plates and inlet where the air needs to be metered. I'll see what happens now the codes are reset but either way, it's not a major issue.
Looks cool with no air box!
A quick pic of the throttle actuators too. One of them looks to be newer than the other, which is nice. Not that you can tell from this pic though! At some point I'll probably have those apart and future proof them with cogs that don't wear out, but for now they're both working perfectly.
The Jubilee clips holding the air box on are 'fun' to get to, but like everything else on this car, someone seems to have thought about it - there are notches in the fuel rail at the correct angle to allow access to the Jubilees, and there is a rubber stop on the inlet mounting part the airbox fits in to so that the Jubilee can't run away while you try to tighten it. Good stuff!
Must do better with some more pictures next time
Yep, I know what you mean. I was just rushing and forgot to go for a short drive after adding the 1st 1L top up. The dash told me to put another litre in and brain didn't engage before I'd poured some more oil... Had I just gone around the block again it would've been bang on I reckon. I'm so used to checking oil the old fashioned way it just seems stupid to only rely on an electronic sensor when the old way was perfect and will never go wrong. My Pumas and other cars with Puma engines all needed the oil level checking constantly so it's just ingrained to want to open the bonnet and have a look. I've got lazy with my Golf as it never needs topping up between services, and I think that's got a sensor on the sump to tell me if it's low anyway.
I do agree that it's nice to be able to check the oil whenever you remember and while you're driving but I'd still like a manual dip stick as well. Something doesn't sit right with me that you have to start the car after a service to check the oil level!
I do agree that it's nice to be able to check the oil whenever you remember and while you're driving but I'd still like a manual dip stick as well. Something doesn't sit right with me that you have to start the car after a service to check the oil level!
TheAngryDog said:
Not strictly true. The oil system can take more than 1 litre and be happy about it. My V10 can happily take +1.5l on the gauge. Mr Vanos recommends running the V10 with more than +1l as he firmly believes that the specified oil capacity isn't enough. He also advises to not wait until the car asks you to add oil because of this.
Obviously you can do as you like, but I am happy to take the word of the man who built and warranties my engine.
It may be able to take more on your car, but by my calculations the S65 can't. I measured what I put in to the car and it was just under 10L in total, which after the second top up and when I engaged brain I realised was over the top, went for a drive and the level sensor said the same. I drained almost 1L back out, catching 99% of the oil in to the measuring tub and a small amount went over my hand, which was unavoidable. This means there was almost exactly the correct spec volume of oil in the sump (8.8L), and after a whizz around the block the car reckons that's half way on the digital dipstick. I've not actually driven it since so I need to go for a proper drive and report back if the level has settled or changed. Either way, there's no way my car would take over 1L extra oil and not moan about it!Obviously you can do as you like, but I am happy to take the word of the man who built and warranties my engine.
I'm quite happy with BMW's approach to topping up oil, I don't think a handful of problems means they got it wrong, so I'm going to carry on using the recommended 10/60 oil and rely on the level sensor to do its job as per design spec. As a side note, I bought a genuine level sensor @ £166 rather than one from eBay for £20 considering it's such a critical part!
While I'm here and for what it's worth, it does look like the tolerances on the rod bearings were a tad tight as per design spec from BMW, but I'd say mine were outside of the design window at 145k miles so probably 'lifed' of whatever the correct phrase is. So does that mean BMW got the clearances wrong? I'd say probably not given how long they've lasted in my car and that it's a 'performance' engine. I know that's only a sample size of one, but I'm sure BMW worked out a percentage that could come back on warranty claims and decided the design was fit for purpose. Same with the boot floor design on the E46 M3's. I'm now running ACL rod bearings with supposedly slightly more clearance, so to my simple head it makes sense to run the correct 10/60 oil which is slightly thicker when hot than 10/40 to allow for the slightly greater tolerance.
Any thoughts, everyone? I actually find this topic quite interesting!
TheAngryDog said:
I didn't say an extra litre, I was just advised that +1.5l (extra half litre) is fine.
Do you mean +0.5L then? I could see that being ok with my level sensor possibly.In your situation I'd definitely be doing what the man who built your engine says and don't doubt it'll be ok.
I didn't know ACL were the OEM part. I think the markings on the old ones didn't say ACL anywhere.
I'm rather looking forward to 8000 rpm again, now I'm all set to go
TheAngryDog said:
On my gauge it shows as +1.5l (all numbers show as +0.0 to +1.5l). When it's below +0.3l it asked me for oil (this was when I first bought the car).
100%, I still have 13 months of warranty left so doing nothing to risk it.
Yeah I didn't know either until recently. Makes sense as it would be pointless BMW just making the bearings rather than a fully set up company who make them.
You have another 400rpm on top of that! I only have 250 rpm
lol.
Ah right, my gauge in the car doesn't show it like that. It's just a set of blobs on the nav screen or a bar that seems to move in 1/8ths on the instrument cluster.100%, I still have 13 months of warranty left so doing nothing to risk it.
Yeah I didn't know either until recently. Makes sense as it would be pointless BMW just making the bearings rather than a fully set up company who make them.
You have another 400rpm on top of that! I only have 250 rpm
lol.Yep, lots of parts are other well known makers with a BMW stamp. For example my front suspension arms are TRW parts in a TRW bag with the BMW logo literally ground off the casting! Two thirds cheaper than with the BMW logo left intact...
Haha, the extra 400rpm makes all the difference
Court_S said:
Your car is looking remarkably clean with 145k on it. It’s nuts how obsessed we the UK are about mileage. Even friends of mine into cars run away from things with 50k on the clock.
Yep, I always buy on condition. Apart from the time I bought an Audi A4 B5 shape Avant on mileage alone - it was nearly at 250k and I wanted to get it over the line! I ended up selling just short of the line after doing about 9000 miles in it, because a Puma with a broken engine for £50 turned my head 
My M3 was the best condition one I could see at the time and also happened to be the cheapest. Anything else had less miles but a much higher price tag for less spec and worse condition. I think I got pretty lucky to be honest.
helix402 said:
Hella make the oil level sensors.
Good to know, thanks for that JakeT said:
But if an engine builder says to do something, I'd just do what they say. It's their work, and they warrant it.
Exactly that. JakeT said:
That makes more sense. The E90 stuff only tells you how much to add when it's time to add oil.
I went for a drive today as I needed to do a socially distanced birthday cake and beer drop off at a friend's house. See below pictures for my oil levels in all their glory:
Excuse the dust, I only vacuumed and dusted it top to bottom last week, including putting conditioner on the seats!
Time for another small update
Remember the engine fault I had flashing up on the dash up there ^ ? Well, it came back evey time I started the car from cold just recently. I'd already plugged the laptop in and checked it wasn't anything serious; it was moaning about the vacuum pump but I didn't have heavy brakes or anything so there wasn't anything majorly adrift. I decided to see if I could do a cheap fix for this one. Rather than buy a brand new vacuum pump from BMW, I found a breaker through Ebay and bought a second hand one with a bit of warranty.
The pump's pretty easy to get to. It's located on the inner wing behind the passenger wheel arch liner. A simple 'pop the wheel off and remove the arch liner' job.
Et voilà:
And here's the new one fitted and looking happy:
I took the scuttle panel apart to track the vacuum hose and check connections etc. Nothing appears to be wrong so the new pump should solve the problem, shouldn't it?
Of course it did! I put the car back together, started the engine, and no more errors on the dash I then plugged the laptop in and reset the codes, so I can double check after several cold starts that there's nothing else going on. I'm sure it's fine though.
I'll have to take the old pump apart at some point and see if we can work out why it died. It's probably corroded in there, and hopefully the failure will be obvious.
One happy M3 again
Remember the engine fault I had flashing up on the dash up there ^ ? Well, it came back evey time I started the car from cold just recently. I'd already plugged the laptop in and checked it wasn't anything serious; it was moaning about the vacuum pump but I didn't have heavy brakes or anything so there wasn't anything majorly adrift. I decided to see if I could do a cheap fix for this one. Rather than buy a brand new vacuum pump from BMW, I found a breaker through Ebay and bought a second hand one with a bit of warranty.
The pump's pretty easy to get to. It's located on the inner wing behind the passenger wheel arch liner. A simple 'pop the wheel off and remove the arch liner' job.
Et voilà:
And here's the new one fitted and looking happy:
I took the scuttle panel apart to track the vacuum hose and check connections etc. Nothing appears to be wrong so the new pump should solve the problem, shouldn't it?
Of course it did! I put the car back together, started the engine, and no more errors on the dash
I then plugged the laptop in and reset the codes, so I can double check after several cold starts that there's nothing else going on. I'm sure it's fine though.I'll have to take the old pump apart at some point and see if we can work out why it died. It's probably corroded in there, and hopefully the failure will be obvious.
One happy M3 again
I've done a few more bits and pieces on the M3 lately, so lets have some pictures of what's been going on. Firstly, the exhaust has had a slight blow since I bought the car, which is now over a year. It needed sorting, especially as it had become worse recently and I didn't want it falling apart!
I was lucky enough to borrow my friends ramp to take the centre section off, although I did have to help moving over 300 old tyres from the back of the unit to the front, and then help load them on to the recycling lorry...
Here's the exhaust inside my shed Golf:
The problem is it's splitting around some mounting brackets, probably caused by dead engine mounts which were replaced at the same time as the rod bearings:
I was hoping it would be TIG welded back together but the welder man used MIG instead as the exhaust was a bit too rusty. Fair enough really, it probably wants replacing at some point, but we'll see how this lasts first:
I stuck the exhaust back on and it's perfect now, no blows and sounds as it should
Next thing to fix was the thermostat. The car's been running ever so slightly cool since I've owned it. I hadn't really realised but I read an article on the M3 Cutters forum, did some data logging and realised my water temps were a bit on the low side which leads to lower oil temps too. The thermostat was slightly overcooling - not drastically but enough to notice the difference on the gauge now I've changed it. Firstly, the air filter and air box need to come out of the way, and the thermostat housing is right there in front of you. I've taken it off in the picture below, being careful to only spill the minimum amount of coolant:
The thermostat housing was nice and clean, just the flange where the rubber seal sits to clean up:
The offending thermostat:
New thermostat installed along with a pair of O-rings too:
All buttoned back up:
The worst part of the job is getting the air box back on afterwards! It's awkward to push back on to the throttle bodies, but a little persuasion and all was good. I've been out for a test drive and oil temps are now exactly where they should be. Hopefully that'll see a little improvement in fuel economy. I'll report back soon!
I was lucky enough to borrow my friends ramp to take the centre section off, although I did have to help moving over 300 old tyres from the back of the unit to the front, and then help load them on to the recycling lorry...
Here's the exhaust inside my shed Golf:
The problem is it's splitting around some mounting brackets, probably caused by dead engine mounts which were replaced at the same time as the rod bearings:
I was hoping it would be TIG welded back together but the welder man used MIG instead as the exhaust was a bit too rusty. Fair enough really, it probably wants replacing at some point, but we'll see how this lasts first:
I stuck the exhaust back on and it's perfect now, no blows and sounds as it should
Next thing to fix was the thermostat. The car's been running ever so slightly cool since I've owned it. I hadn't really realised but I read an article on the M3 Cutters forum, did some data logging and realised my water temps were a bit on the low side which leads to lower oil temps too. The thermostat was slightly overcooling - not drastically but enough to notice the difference on the gauge now I've changed it. Firstly, the air filter and air box need to come out of the way, and the thermostat housing is right there in front of you. I've taken it off in the picture below, being careful to only spill the minimum amount of coolant:
The thermostat housing was nice and clean, just the flange where the rubber seal sits to clean up:
The offending thermostat:
New thermostat installed along with a pair of O-rings too:
All buttoned back up:
The worst part of the job is getting the air box back on afterwards! It's awkward to push back on to the throttle bodies, but a little persuasion and all was good. I've been out for a test drive and oil temps are now exactly where they should be. Hopefully that'll see a little improvement in fuel economy. I'll report back soon!
Court_S said:
Glad to hear thar it’s generally treating you well.
I still think these are ageing very well. Despite my earlier comments about the the replacement F80 cars I’m slowly warming to them now they look like better banter than an M2.
Thanks! I really like the look of the F80 too, and San Marino Blue... I still think these are ageing very well. Despite my earlier comments about the the replacement F80 cars I’m slowly warming to them now they look like better banter than an M2.
I'm tempted by one of those next, but the problem is I like the E90 so much I can't see me replacing it any time soon. M2's are on the list too, and the original ones are really dropping in price.I've just driven the length of the UK to see parents in Northern Scotland. The roads here are brilliant, and of course I know the local ones so don't use too much of the NC500 route. 8kRPM on twisty roads was just heaven, but Mrs GPM felt travel sick by the end
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