My Daily Driven 318is

[sonomabimmers]

just read this all very inspiring to a fellow m42 owner great job

[gespinal0301]

just read this all very inspiring to a fellow m42 owner great job

Thank you!

[gespinal0301]

March, 20 2016

Got the car in the garage to start off with my project for the day.



So I decided to tackle my clutch master and slave as well as putting on the new power steering bracket so I could get rid of my belt squeak.

I started by taking off my splash guard and loosening the tensioner. However, ECS sent me the wrong bracket so I need to email them to get a new replacement. So that was about 20 minutes wasted



From there I emptied out my reservoir so that I wouldn't have brake fluid leaking all over the place, well at least not as much brake fluid leaking all over the place

I took my chair out so I wouldn't be performing yoga poses the whole day which was actually pretty comfortable



it's more annoying than hard to get it out, but having patience is definitely the key to get it out



I started trying to take the master out, which was proving to be a bit of bitch before I checked out this diy guide

http://e30performance.info/viewtopic.php?t=2125

I couldn't get to the hardline from here so I followed this guide and pulled it straight through the firewall





I disconnected the flex line from the slave and took it off



the slave I took out was a FAG that I replaced with an FTE. The slave cylinder was probably the reason my clutch grab was super weird. I also threw in a stainless steel line just for the hell of it



I was finally able to get this out and it was a FEBI so somebody had definitely done this job before, I replaced it with a FTE cylinder. The parts were definitely of a different quality than the ones I have now, which is a good thing

This job was more annoying than anything else, it took me about 5 hour to get it done just because the hardline that attaches to the master was a pain in the ass to get in the right position. Then tightening it in that cramped spot took forever, I think i was only doing quarter turns for about 30 minutes haha

I threw in some ATE brake fluid to make sure everything was good to go



I bought this tool off of ebay to reverse bleed the system which saved me a whole other headache since I read that air always gets trapped if you don't bench bleed. The tool is pretty straight forward, but if you do end up using it and you only have a box end wrench like I did here's a tip: Break the initial tension on the bleeder and loosen the bleeder screw as much as you can. If you start pumping and a lot of fluid starts coming out try loosening the bleeder some more. Keep pumping until all the air from the system is out and there's only fluid coming out. Now hand tighten the bleeder as much you can and take the hose off. Then use the box end to tighten the bleeder and you're good to go!



My pedal travel is a lot shorter than before, but the grab is a lot smoother from before. Well from what I can tell from going around the block. My girlfriend helped me bleed out the rest of the system so that I wouldn't have two different brake fluids in the system.

I had a big o shit moment though, when I was under the dash my wrench slipped once, which happens to me every now and then. What I didn't notice was that I pulled my constant 12V off of my alarm which caused the ignition not to turn over. So after my initial o shit moment I started to diagnose the problem and just used a wirenut to reconnect the two wires.

I still need to put the splash guard back on, but I'll save it for tomorrow. So far everything is working so I'm happy :):):)

[gespinal0301]

May 11, 2016

Finally time to work on the car! First popped open the hood just to make sure that everything goes back together the right way



Tools out to start the mission



First thing I did after getting the car on jack stands was to flush the coolant system and unfortunately I found out that someone put in green coolant which is a no-no for the m42.

In order to start flushing the system I let the car run for about 20 min to get the coolant circulating. After that give the car another 20 min to cool down so you don't burn yourself.

Take off the radiator cap and loosen the drain plug, have something ready to catch all the coolant. Once the coolant is barely coming out throw the drain plug back in and fill the system with distilled water.

Once the system is full it's time to bleed the coolant system in order to move water throughout the heater core and all the other nooks and crannies throughout the system.

Let the car run for about 2 min then put the heat on and turn your fan to 2 or 3 so you can feel when the heat is coming out.

Once you feel a little hot air come out or none at all, it's time to open up the bleeder screw to allow the air in the system to come out.

Fill with more distilled water as needed the system won't be too pressurized so it's safe to remove the radiator cap or just to leave it off completely.

Repeat the bleeding process until all the air is out and the car holds a steady temperature with hot air coming out of the vents.

I used this procedure for every flush and when I put the coolant in.

This took me about the whole day since I had to wait to drain the coolant every time I wanted to do a flush since it was still hot. It was definitely worth it though since I got the majority of things out of the system

1st Flush


2nd Flush


3rd Flush


4th Flush


After the 4th flush I let the coolant drain and proceeded to take the fan off. I used a 32mm wrench I got from home depot. To take the fan off just throw the wrench on and either try to use channel lock pliers to hold the fan or put pressure on the belt and loosen the fan. It's reverse threaded so go clockwise to loosen it.

May 12, 2016

Removed the airbox, afm sensor and intake



From there I removed the throttle body and upper manifold



I had trouble removing the lower intake manifold, but thanks to the guys on r3v I was able to figure out how to remove it. There was some nuts that I couldn't see that I was able to remove on the left bracket



Once I removed that I just left it hanging in the bay since I was too lazy to remove the soft fuel lines.

Everything removed just chilling



May 14, 2016

With the lower intake out of the way I basically ripped out this medusa of vacuum hoses and there were cracks in about every single one of them



From here I replaced the water cylinder that connects to the block since I was already there.

I moved onto the oil filter housing and removing the alternator which was a major pita. For some reason the bolt that goes through the bushing wouldn't come out, so I just removed the bracket that connects to the block itself and pulled everything out



I was finally able to remove the housing and pulled it out



From there I cleaned and replaced the gasket as well as the o-ring and threw everything back together

With that out of the way I removed the water pump and thermostat which happened to be the original ones I believe



With that out of the way I replaced the parts and started putting everything together replacing all the gaskets and o-rings I could find

Everything all buttoned up, looking pretty and clean



I did one more flush with distilled water just to make sure everything was clean

Made a 50/50 blend of bmw blue coolant and filled up the system and bled the system one more time



Now it holds perfect temperature with no bouncing needle ;D;D;D



I replaced all the belts as well as the power steering tensioner so now I have now more belt squeak when I fully lock the steering wheel.

For the vacuum hoses I did the mess under the intake and used silicone vacuum hoses for everything so I wouldn't have to do this again until my next lifetime

May 25, 2016

Today my clutch felt really weird on the way home. A lot of pressure left my pedal. I was still able to shift, but there was no spring back in the pedal itself. I jacked up the car to check for any leaks and there aren't any, but when I opened up my brake fluid reservoir I found this



Have no idea what it is if someone can let me know what it is and how to get rid of it please do!

Once I figure out the clutch situation I'm taking the car on a 3 hour trip to Orlando for Formula D

The trunk is full of tools and fluid in case something goes wrong which I doubt, but you never know

[gespinal0301]

October 17,2016

After months of back and forth with a company that had defective parts with long return times, I finally got the car up and running again. I still need to bleed the system one more time to be safe, but for now the car is running!!!

Also my brother moved back down from Chicago so we went on a little cruise with his vert

[Chrisbike]

Ecs sent you a iX ps bracket which is a $40 part opposed to the $16 rwd Bracket.. Haha

[stonea]

Nice thread, I love daily builds

[gespinal0301]

Ecs sent you a iX ps bracket which is a $40 part opposed to the $16 rwd Bracket.. Haha

I know I had to go check to see what I got when it first came haha, at least they let me keep it

Nice thread, I love daily builds

Thank you! Next projects are fuel pump, front and rear wheel bearing (which I'm not really looking forward too), and finding a new diff because I'm going partially deaf with all the whining & droning mine is making