bimmers*

well not today, but I am going to take advantage of the crazy weather and do a brake job tomrorow. Hopefully I can get it done before lunch. Grabbed a set of Akebono Euro Ceramics on Amazon of all places for pretty cheap. Rotors look good, and if they are not, then I will change those in the spring. My brakes are borderline. I probalby only have another month or so before I trip the sensor. Pretty stoked to be able to do this tomrrow. (someday I will have a heated garage so I can do this in the dead of winter).

If I have time, I may pull off my door panel again and see whats going on with the new door carrier I installed. I hate to take everything apart again and not change it with an OEM piece, but I dropped the ball on ordering one, so this will have to do.

I may even, GASP, pull the e36 out and install the CAI and strut bar I've been sitting on for 2 months. Doing an ASC delete too so that should be fun. I'm excited to even take the cover off, its been months.

Valve cover gaskets (yesterday - I was too tired to look for this thread when I came in). What a pain in the but. Too about 8 hours working out in my un heated shop in front off a small torpedo heater. Changed the spark plugs and oil separator hoses while I was in there, and cleaned out the oil separator as well. Also found a couple of broken vacuum lines. Finally got tired of working on it and came in at dinner time. Just need to reinstall the passenger air intake assembly and engine cover today, and I can take it for a test drive. It's 23 degrees here fit now, so I may wait until this afternoon...

Picked my X5 up from the shop (previous post I suspected the chain rails finally went). Found out the hydraulic tensioner was bad. They did do a thorough check on the rails to confirm they were ok. No plastic parts in the oil pan or in the valve covers. They also replaced the oil separator valve, thermostat, pvc valve, both serpentine belts and flushed the engine twice before a new oil. They mentioned the engine was very clean for an engine with that many kms (226,000kms).

Sounds and runs great! Parts $850, labor $650, figured I got off easy considering what I thought it was going to be. Lets hope I get at least 6 months out of it before the next major repair...!

well yesterday didnt go quite so hot. I got into the brakes but missed the part where you are going to have probems removing the rear lower caliper bolt. Just spent a lot of time fucking with it. Got the brakes on, but now I have a very spongy pedal. I didnt bother to bleed them since I just did pads. I will wait a few hundred miles (the car stops fine, the pedal just hits in a weird spot) and chalk it up to ceramic brakes and used rotors getting used to each other.

I also found this really weird gash in one of my tires. its inbetween the treads and I think I can see the belt. Sucks as these tires are supposedly new when I bought it. There is a ton of tread so I may see about swapping it out under a prorated warranty or something.

I then tried to re-route my sirius antenna to the spoiler on the roof. Snapped off one bolt holding something to the roof (inbetween the roof and the spoiler), then after I almost had the antenna into the d pillar, I pulled to hard on the end and ripped it right off! Derp.... Then I couldnt get the d pillar plastic to line back up.

so no howard stern until the amazon man comes tuesday. :(

Bed the brakes. Get up to 70, then slam the brakes without engaging abs. Slow down to about 5mph. Then repeat. Try not to stand on those hot brakes. After about 3 stops like that, park it. Drive next day with much better feel.

I installed factory sub with aftermarket amp. Not too much bass just prefect for me

I did a heli coil insert in the drain plug (PO stripped it and didn't tell me :mad: ), checked the oil pump bolts, and installed a new reman passenger front axle. Not too bad for 3.5 hours.... :)

Had the passenger door lock freeze on it yesterday; it rained most of the day Friday, then the weather turned and dropped down into single-digit temps (F°) last night. It was fine when I backed it out of the garage, but there must've been some moisture inside that froze after we got to the restaurant, and wouldn't shut when my wife got in. We got it to shut by locking the door, but then it wouldn't open from inside or outside. Finally got it thawed out after driving around with the heat on high for ~15 minutes or so, then I turned the heat on in the garage for a while to make sure it dried out too. Worked fine today, which is good because my wife didn't enjoy crawling over seats to get in. Can't say I blame her! ;)

drove to work holding the door shut. loves cold weather.