The story of "Swamp Thing"

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by c-bass

yeah yeah fancy stuff always in the US.

Ask me how much they want to ship that to me

Why's that? Taxes? It's not like you're in Australia or New Zealand.

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by Fifty150hs

Why's that? Taxes? It's not like you're in Australia or New Zealand.

Ugh...don't get me started

Most places that offer free US shipping won't ship to Canada for any less than $20ish dollars if at all. Most are much more expensive.

For example I wanted to get the fancy water pump pulley from ECS and the shipping was $50

Then there's duties and taxes coming across the border which means you need a broker, so you pay brokerage fees.

Everyone but USPS rapes us on the brokerage fees.

FedEX, UPS and DHL charge about $40 for the brokerage service...which is a blatant cash grab.

USPS works together with Canada Post and their fees are much more reasonable.

and let's not forget about the exchange rate.

I don't know how Rockauto does it but they use FedEX and all the costs are included coming across the border so there's no surprises. 3 days and it's at my door

We both know that you can throw a gasket in an envelope and mail it here for a couple dollars but apparently "that's not the way it works sir"

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by c-bass

Ugh...don't get me started

Most places that offer free US shipping won't ship to Canada for any less than $20ish dollars if at all. Most are much more expensive.

For example I wanted to get the fancy water pump pulley from ECS and the shipping was $50

Then there's duties and taxes coming across the border which means you need a broker, so you pay brokerage fees.

Everyone but USPS rapes us on the brokerage fees.

FedEX, UPS and DHL charge about $40 for the brokerage service...which is a blatant cash grab.

USPS works together with Canada Post and their fees are much more reasonable.

and let's not forget about the exchange rate.

I don't know how Rockauto does it but they use FedEX and all the costs are included coming across the border so there's no surprises. 3 days and it's at my door

We both know that you can throw a gasket in an envelope and mail it here for a couple dollars but apparently "that's not the way it works sir"

Wow. That's a real drag. No one selling foreign parts IN Canada? Besides the Stealer?

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by Fifty150hs

Wow. That's a real drag. No one selling foreign parts IN Canada? Besides the Stealer?

Of course there is. The people I bought the gasket from the first time around

I try to support "local" business as much as possible but financially I'm not in a position to be giving away money for feel good reasons. Which I why I'm buying beat down $1000 vehicles and fixing them myself.

Here's another example for you. My last purchase from Rockauto was 2x end links for Swampy and 2x end links for my e46 wagon.

Both sets of end links, taxes, shipping, duties and shipped to my door cost me the same as a single set would here shipped to me from the other regular people I use.

Also I've had a few negative experiences with a couple other online parts sources in Canada that will keep me going back to Rockauto because they're very consistent. Most of the other DIY guys around here also use them regularly. Cheapest and best source of quality parts no questions asked.

and you even get collectible fridge magnets!!

[c-bass]

So we have a new OFHG gasket, fresh and filter time to fire up Swampy and....oh right I forgot....a while back I stole the new intake boot from Swampy for the Wife's car. However I did end up getting another one with my last order of oil filters and extra OFHGs.

Sometimes I do things out of sheer curiosity and other times because I'm cheap. This was because of both.

I present to you, reasons NOT to buy a URO intake boot






URO on the left, BMW on the right





BMW





URO





As you can see the design is a little more free flowing on the OEM boot. Will that make a drastic difference in performance? But there was quite a bit of extra rubber flashing around every opening that I trimmed (read: hacked with an xacto knife) away where you can see my tooling marks.

The REIN boot I originally had on there was just as nice as the factory BMW and the rubber was also slightly more pliable that the UROnyourown

I cleaned up the extra rubber as best I could, put everything back together and fired up the engine ready to check for oil leaks.

Let it run for a few minutes and there wasn't oil gushing from my recent gasket change so that's a good sign.

Test drive time!

Got everything up to operating temp and drove around town for a few minutes and I wasn't leaving a trail of oil behind me so I think we're in the clear.

While driving around town I was quickly reminded what a shitty brake pedal feel Swampy has compared to the Wife's car. Sort of feels like you're stepping on a wet pillow or a sleeping cat.

We'll definitely have to get back to the brake bleeding. If this was a Ford I'd say it's fine but it's not so there's much room for improvement.

[c-bass]

Since I've been using Swampy a few times daily putting around town here I figured it was time to cross a few other minor things off the list.

Next up is swapping out my pixel missing button dropping HVAC controls.






Last time I was at the pic and pull yard I found an HVAC control with no missing buttons out of a e39. I don't know what the screen looks like yet but I guess I'll find out when I throw it in Swampy...or will I??

Seems easy enough right? Slide out the existing controls, unplug a few wires and throw the other one in there right? WRONG!!

I fumbled with one of the connectors on the "new" unit for almost 5 solid minutes without being able to get it in there. Everything looked the way it should, no bent pins nothing. What am I doing wrong here???

Well guess what? It appears as though I just learned that there are at least two part numbers for something that looks exactly the same from the front





The "new" unit is on bottom and the one that was in Swampy is on the top. Can you spot the difference?





So that was a fail and we're back with the buttons that fall of.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by c-bass

... So that was a fail and we're back with the buttons that fall of.

The front panels come off easily and you can swap the buttons over.

The display can also be swapped but that is a little more involved....

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by wpoll

The front panels come off easily and you can swap the buttons over.

The display can also be swapped but that is a little more involved....

I'm hoping to find another one but they seem to be a hot item at the pic n pulls around here.

Interesting little bit of info that I happened across as I was trying to find out more about the part number on realoem






LIES!!!!!

I literally pulled this unit myself from an e39 (I don't remember the exact year) and this part number says "Found on the following vehicles: e53" with no mention of e39.

I clicked a few the superseded part numbers and no mention of the e39.

Also seeing as the black plugs are a different size I can't see how it's possible that it would work. No matter how hard I wanted it to happen...if the plug don't fit you must aquit right?

[c-bass]

Here's a few random non essential things that make me happy I poached from some fallen soldiers.


The handle for the trunk floor came broken and it's a real pain in the ass to get the floor up without it.

Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but since I'm unplugging the battery daily so it doesn't drain it's VERY nice to have this handle and not have to claw at the carpet like a wild animal.







I was also missing these













Ahhh so useless and yet so nice to have.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by c-bass

Ahhh so useless and yet so nice to have.

It's the little things c-bass. The little things. Especially when they are so easily fitted when compared to "normal" repairs on these tanks.

You guys have Ebay up in the great white north? Would think that HVAC panel would be easy (and cheap) to come by. Nevermind, before submitting the post I Google searched it and looked. Nope, not easy to come by. Or rather, not cheap to come by via Canuckian Ebay.