I'm pretty sure it did, all the door panels were on from what I recall.

Worst case scenario I can pull it out of Swampy and can find one later on since I'm definitely not in desperate need.

yeah I could see how that lower plastic trim would get mangled. Matter of fact I'm surprised the wife hasn't mangled it since she uses Black Bastard like a pickup truck.

Most recently it was filled with hay bales :rolleyes:

Oddly enough I don't think I've seen a single X at the yards missing those pieces.

Thank you for the kind offer but don't put yourself out. I have a 4.6 project similar to swamp thing that was in a minor rear bump. Set off the BST and pretensioners. Those are easy to fix but I'm getting a recurring error in the rear passenger bag and I can't get the truck inspected to register until I solve it.

I've been to 3 yard and 7 cars and no luck :(

I'll probably be able to pop into the yard on the weekend to have a look. If I can't find one there you can have Swampy's. It's no big deal

Daylight savings...what a crock of shit

This is me at 5:30pm trying to get a "quick job" out of the way because it was a balmy 8 Celsius the other day.



https://i.imgur.com/80elYdT.jpg



Running back and forth around town for the last week has been accompanied by rhythmic percussion sounds from the front end that sound all too familiar. I'm guessing it's the end links and we'll see how good I am at guessing.

Our friends at Rockauto have the highly regarded "Ultra Power" brand for $5 a side and well...who can resist at those prices??

So end links for everyone!!!



https://i.imgur.com/JeGqUw2.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/uYFvmkL.jpg



Pro tip: e46 end links are interchangeable...e53 sort of, but not really. :doh:



https://i.imgur.com/bcWpL5d.jpg



Good news is that I made great time doing the job the second time around :rolleyes:

While I had the wheel off and was cursing myself for putting the right shoe on the left foot I happened to notice something



https://i.imgur.com/TFIM6NV.jpg



That's the dust shield making contact with the rear of the rotor. No gouges or any uneven wear but it was definitely making a sound when I spun the wheel so that should be one less random noise to track down.

Lessons learned: Look at BOTH parts to make sure they're the same...or in my case not and get some better lighting if I'm going to be working outside.

Just curious...how many of these have you gone through?

You want me to fill a box and send them over? At those prices they could fly in first class and you'd still be saving money!

Gone through 2ea #8's (need a 3rd) and 1ea of #11, #12.

Appreciate the offer but save the money for emergency shipping of me away from the wife when she finds the White Witches receipt books....[emoji28]

Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk

Unfortunately I did something I thought would never happen and I'm ashamed








I actually paid for a factory BMW speaker :(

and a used one at that! BOOO!



https://i.imgur.com/YLE4EBu.jpg




A few months back the passenger door speaker died in the wife's car (Black Bastard) so I took it out of Swampy since I had plans to redo the audio system anyway.

However I'm not going to deal with any of that until at least the spring and I've been wanting to put the door panels back on but didn't want to do so with the speaker missing.

Personally I think the factory system is pretty shitty and the last thing I wanted to do is spend $20 on a stock speaker but :dunno:

out goes the old torn driver's side vapor barrier



https://i.imgur.com/OlAnrlT.jpg



and in comes the sweet lighting upgrade and "new" vapor barrier



https://i.imgur.com/Zb1I9TV.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/JGItbkk.jpg



Once that was done and the passenger speaker was back in I replaced any broken clips and popped the door panels back on.

Speaking of sweet lighting upgrades, I've been driving around with a burnt out front turn signal bulb.

I know BMW driver's aren't supposed to be using their turn signals but it's a pet peeve of mine and I wanted to swap it out...but as it turns out that's no easy task on the facelift version which apparently requires the front bumper to be removed.

There's internet rumors that you can get the headlight forward far enough to change the bulb without removing the bumper but I'm just going to plan for the bumper to have to come off and if it doesn't then bonus.

and guess what happened...



https://i.imgur.com/jmkapwq.jpg



After removing the mounting bolts for the headlight it would only move forward maybe a couple inches before getting caught on the fender. I screwed around with it for a while and managed to get my fingers behind there to unscrew the bulb housing...only to drop the bulb into the fender which means I had to take off the bumper anyway. :doh:

However even with the bumper loose and moved forward I couldn't get the damn headlight to come out. Seemed like the turn signal part of the light was making contact with the fender somehow.

after a lot of frustration and cursing I finally noticed the flat "finger" tab on the headlight was catching on the inside bend of the fender. What a pain in the ass!!



https://i.imgur.com/lKFQGC7.jpg



Because I have a bunch of different bulbs in inventory I assumed I had a spare but I was either wrong or couldn't find it. End result being I had to go to the parts store in the middle of what I was doing and by the time I got back I lost daylight.

Finally got the turn signal bulb replaced but since the headlight was out anyway I decided it would be a good time to give it a quick restoration because it was looking mighty cloudy.

The driver's side fender is where Swampy was hit before and the light was replaced which makes the other side look even worse than if they were both yellow.



https://i.imgur.com/U6AYits.jpg



Usually I use 600/800 grit then 1200, 2000 and finish with 3000 grit before I cut and polish. This time around I didn't have any 2 or 3k sandpaper so if it doesn't turn out great I can redo it later on.

The lighting for picture taking is terrible inside and it's outside is dark so I'll take a daytime shot tomorrow of the end result.

Didn't come out bad for a quick half ass job



https://i.imgur.com/BpXnIeU.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/qVQ9Zx7.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/bFjQCZ7.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/kdRcgw7.jpg

Just when I thought I was making progress Swampy seems to have a different idea.

I think this is payback for letting her sit for a year.

I've been using Swampy pretty much daily for 3 weeks or so but it's literally 3 maybe 4 miles a day.

The first few days she was running fine. As in no check engine lights fine.

This didn't really surprise me because after addressing the original issues and clearing the codes everything was good during any of the albeit limited driving I did last year.

Well eventually the amber glow of the check engine light returned to keep me warm as the temperatures dropped. Didn't really think much of it until one evening when I was done work I hopped it and it started to run rough and sounded like a small block Chevy.

The misfiring was so bad it barely had power to move forward when I pressed the gas for a few feet and then seemed to run like a "normal" misfiring BMW.

I've had them run rough before but never anything like this.

So I limp it home, hook up the laptop and we get...



https://i.imgur.com/5TbkiWf.png



:rolleyes:


I've seen my share of misfire codes but I don't recall ever seeing a "DME activation" error. Interesting...

So I move the coils over, fire it up, runs fine for a couple minutes and then starts Chevy-ing again.

do another scan, cylinder 3 error is still there, clear the codes and swap out the coil @ cylinder 3.

Fire it up, runs good, no codes and off we go.

Also right around this time I got tired of my routine of disconnecting the battery every night after I parked it to deal with the parasitic draw.

Instead of hooking up a meter, waiting for the computer to go to sleep and then pulling fuses I decided to approach it another way.

What's the least important thing on the list of usual parasitic suspects that might be drawing amperage?

The answer to that question for me is the TCU aka fuse 74.

Parked it for the night with the fuse removed and now we wait...