Crappy day of wrenching - the anti-Midas touch...

[cochran]

1. In the evenings over the last week, I worked on the car after work - installed new Ate Premium One rotors (elliptically slotted) all around, with Ate pads on the rear and Satisfied ceramic pads on the front. Got under the car today to drain out all the old brake fluid, put in new synthetic fluid, bleed brakes. Now I have no rear brakes at all. Fronts bled fine and are tight, but I now have no fluid at all to the rear. I checked the lines at the calipers, no fluid. Checked the lines at the distribution block just above the differential, no fluid. Pulled the line at the master cylinder (the line closest to the firewall), and have plenty of fluid there. I disconnected each line, in turn, from the abs pump, and have fluid from all of them EXCEPT the one on the top nearest the head light (stamped number 4 on top of the pump at this outlet). Does this mean I need to pull, disassemble, and clean the abs pump, or should I not have fluid here when the pedal is pressed? This is a huge bummer. Any other ideas out there? The pedal feels right, in terms of pedal feel, pedal travel, etc.

2. Just for the record, any yahoo at a tire store that puts your wheels back on with an air gun instead of a torque wrench should have that same air wrench used on his nuts.

3. Installing a new cat back exhaust today. Struggled to get the old one off, and to get the new one hung (working solo with only my 9-yr old son to assist). Spent about an hour trying to get everything lined up, only to finally figure out I had the wrong donuts on the wrong sides of the system (one is 42 mm and one is 45 mm). Will finish this up tomorrow - too tired and frustrated just now to work on it anymore.

4. Will also be looking for a suspected vacuum leak tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Its been a crappy day under the car. Need a lift instead of jack stands. The woes of the poor E30 crowd....

[cochran]

Day two

All current work has been completed on the car. Rotors and pads done, Redline fluids in the trans and diff, Mobil 1 syn. oil change with a Fram Tough Guard filter, changed to full synthetic ATF in the power steering system, new brake fluid. Tires last Saturday (BF Goodrich Momentum on stock bottlecaps). New Ansa catback completed today as well (OEM style replacement) after I figured out which donut gasket went where.

I bought a 1/2 drive Proto 17 mm allen socket to use on the trans. Only later did I find out that only an old-style L-shaped allen wrench will work due to clearance in the trans tunnel - extra trip to NAPA. Oh well, I've got it for next time I need it.

Next up: RSMs, I think. Planning on the IE ones.

[AndrewBird]

Crappy. Here is more crap for ya; Fram filters are GARBAGE and I guarantee will leak dirty oil back into the engine and possibly explode. See here:

http://www.knizefamily.net/minimopar/oilfilters/index.html

[cochran]

That's not good at all. Thanks for the heads-up. At least the Tough Guard that I used is the best of a bad bunch. I know better for the next oil change, at least.

[DCColegrove]

Here is the hot tip on oil filters:

Mahle

[PiercedE30]

Yup, I only use Mahle filters. Same with the shop I work at.

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

Here is the hot tip on oil filters:

Mahle

[ADEN]

i use the guniune BMW oil filters i get them for 7.5$ , you can see the quality on the product i fully trust these filters.
note:there's a fake on one the market but the guniune is sealed and has a sticker above all you can smell the original mmmmmm i like the smell

[houstonh]

On the rear brakes did you have to poke into the bleeder hole to get them to bleed? that is all I had to do.

[cochran]

No, I actually had no fluid to the rear end at all. All that I had to do in the end is run the car, pump the brakes like crazy, and let it sit overnight and bleed them the next day. Wierd, but the brakes work.