Ruby's Thread

[Levy3Poop]

Nice job on the oil filter housing gasket! Did you replace the o-ring while you were in there?

I didn't know there was an o ring until I had the bugger out. I looked at it, and didn't see any signs of weakness, and I didn't *appear* to have oil seeping from that area though. Next pelican parts order I'll include an o ring and a new gasket in case this gasket gets torn when removing the filter housing.

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[mike.bmw]

Nice job on the oil filter housing gasket! Did you replace the o-ring while you were in there?

[Levy3Poop]

Its bad now in pretty much any metropolitan area. Here they consistently sell for over asking price in a week. I've been looking for months, no luck yet. Keep plugging away at it.

At the end of the day, I just want a garage to work in so I can have many successful days of wrenching, and likely more unsuccessful days lol

Glad it was easy fixes, those little changes add up and eventually you will find yourself doing more "fun" stuff versus tedious maintenance

Dude, AGREED. I just want a garage so I don't have to leave hundreds in tools lying in the parking lot when I forget washers during oil changes, or anything else. Not to mention have a garage to detail my car in and not worry about dust coming from the shityard that's over the fence from my apartment. It's just a big gravel lot that Baylor keeps their trash trucks and other backup things like AC units and other things. You'll spend hours detailing, and the next day come out to see your car covered in this fine layer of bullshit. One of my friends (who's never owned a house) was bullshitting with me and going "Man, you offered ASKING price?? You're an idiot!". Granted, I know he was just shitposting IRL, but oh man that was hard to bite my tongue to not kill the buzz.

Hopefully this fixes the leak. If not, I DO have the upper oil pan gasket, as well as a new timing chain and all the gaskets for the timing chain case, but that's a lot more work than oil filter housing gasket swaps lol.

[2mAn]

We didn't get that house ^ :(
We even offered asking price. Unfortunately for us, it's a hard core seller's market right now in the DFW area.

Other than that, it was a successful day of wrenching!

Its bad now in pretty much any metropolitan area. Here they consistently sell for over asking price in a week. I've been looking for months, no luck yet. Keep plugging away at it.

At the end of the day, I just want a garage to work in so I can have many successful days of wrenching, and likely more unsuccessful days lol

Glad it was easy fixes, those little changes add up and eventually you will find yourself doing more "fun" stuff versus tedious maintenance

[Levy3Poop]

We didn't get that house ^ :(
We even offered asking price. Unfortunately for us, it's a hard core seller's market right now in the DFW area.

Small update for wrenching on the Rube today.
My idle has been kidna funky lately.
It would be normal, then bog down to where it almost shits out, then go up to 1000 RPM, and back down to bogging, and just go back and forth.
I figured it wouldn't hurt to blast the idle control valve in the ass with carb cleaner.
After wrapping up today and moving parking spots, it wasn't doing the bogging bounce, so hopefully it's fixed. It wasn't bogging every time I drive, so who knows?

Here's a money shot of the inside of the ICV after a few rounds of carb cleaner. It wasn't *black*, but it was definitely brown before.



NEXT! I figured "while I'm in here" I might as well finally get around to changing the oil filter housing gasket.
My oil leak has gotten pretty bad lately. As in a quart every 300 miles o.O
I previously tried to last year, but coudln't get the alternator out.
After the Christmas time breakdown, there's a different alternator in now that I can get out.




Here's the face of the oil filter house. It took ages to scrape all the old gasket off.
The old gasket felt less gasket-ey and more like a solid plastic that wouldn't seal a small leak.
Let's hope this fixes it!



And the face of the mating surface of the house. I went over both surfaces with a wire brush just to be safe.



It was a real PITA getting the alternator back in just cause bolts didn't wanna cooperate, and I lost the nut that holds the ICV in place.
Other than that, it was a successful day of wrenching!

[Levy3Poop]

Uh ohhh....I was heading home after looking at a few houses in Fort Worth with Linday and our realtor, and I saw what none of us like to see...
The temp gauge was in the red, my battery light was on, and my dash board just looked like a Christmas tree.
After shitting my pants thoroughly, I pulled over, called Lindsay (who drove up separately cause I had to go to school at the airport this morning).
She came and waited for AAA with me.
Being 90 miles from home...I took the chance to upgrade to plus membership which covers one tow of 200 miles, and 3 100 mile tows in a year.
Would have been nice to have done that...idk last week when I was think of it >.<



Of course, being a poster on this fine site, I popped the hood and began trying to trouble shoot.
Coolant splashed everywhere...but not *too* everywhere at least. Hmm..




I initially thought I had a hose with a small crack in it, but then while poking around under the car, I pulled this out from my skid plate....



Well well well, what do we have here? A broken belt? You cheeky bastard.



Yup, the alternator belt broke. Okay, well that would explain the battery voltage light, and since the M42's alternator belt also pulls the water pump, that seems to explain the skyrocketing temps.
I sent Lindsay off to O'Reilleys while I waited for the tow truck.
I know, either send your wife to the auto parts store (which she always hates), or leave her on the side of the road behind a greasy used car lot, waiting for a tow truck.
Neither are ideal, but It all worked out in the end.
Apparently the mouth breather at O'reilleys was trying to sell her some giant ass serpentine belt, even though I gave her the correct measurements.
Also, shout out to Ugosplodes/Joey for verifying the belt size.



Always the sight...



The tow truck driver was cool as shit and we talked about the greasy titty bar in Waco that has pregnant dancers apparently all the time lol.
Linday helped me with "I need a 10mm!" and "Gimme the red and black ratchet!" in the parking lot of the AAA recommended garage.
While working I noted that no more coolant leaked out, so I think the coolant that was everywhere was just the system blowing it's load to relieve pressure via some sort of pressure relief valve.
We let it idle for a good 25 minutes and it never went a half needle width above half.
Horay! I didn't need some overpriced stranger to fix anything! :D



Also, just for shits n' gigs, here's the house we looked at last that Lindsay just fell in love with. 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage, good size back yard, plenty of neighbors with "back the blue" yard signs, and about half neighbors have toys like boats and RVs. We looked on google maps, and the street view took a picture with some sort of classic american car in the garage. That's probably what left that oil stain which makes me feel right at home already :)



But holy crap what a longass day.

[Levy3Poop]

Yeah I've read that theyre made unnecessarily long, the teeth are unnecessarily small and they're a pain in the ass to adjust but they wont move at all. idk. I'm probably being paranoid about the eccentric washers moving around.

I kind if imagine all the little teeth in those plates wearing down over time, becoming easier to move as each tooth is made more dull. Of course, I'm just talking out my ass here and imagining the friction caused by vibration doing that. Who's to say that same friction won't affect the eccentric washers?

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[wworm]

Dang. That looks like it gives you a lot more correction because the slots are a lot wider than the garagistic kit. I wonder how well that holds alignment though. It looks different because that kit doesn't use the eccentric washers like garagistic.

Edit: I wonder how much of a pain it is to align with that kit since you have to loosen it and move the plates 1/16" at a time, or if they have some handy calculation to know how much you need to move it for an amount of degrees sought to be changed. Interesting kit.

Yeah I've read that theyre made unnecessarily long, the teeth are unnecessarily small and they're a pain in the ass to adjust but they wont move at all. idk. I'm probably being paranoid about the eccentric washers moving around.

[Levy3Poop]

http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/item...bkit-lock.html

Dang. That looks like it gives you a lot more correction because the slots are a lot wider than the garagistic kit. I wonder how well that holds alignment though. It looks different because that kit doesn't use the eccentric washers like garagistic.

Edit: I wonder how much of a pain it is to align with that kit since you have to loosen it and move the plates 1/16" at a time, or if they have some handy calculation to know how much you need to move it for an amount of degrees sought to be changed. Interesting kit.

[wworm]

I haven't heard anything about the garagistic kits coming loose, but on Garagistic's product page the say that kits from other companies come loose. Do you have a link to the posi lock thing? That sounds interesting.

http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/item/adjcmbkit-lock.html

[Levy3Poop]

great effort mate !
it looks good .

Thanks for the kind words, bud!

[Levy3Poop]

fuck possums those fuckers are crazy.

Are people still having issues with this style of camber/toe correction kits loosening up over time? I personally want to opt for the IE posi-lock style but they're so much more expensive than garagistic's kit.

I was baffled that the little bastard survived getting hit going ~55mph. Those are some durable ass animals!

I haven't heard anything about the garagistic kits coming loose, but on Garagistic's product page the say that kits from other companies come loose. Do you have a link to the posi lock thing? That sounds interesting.

[brutus]

great effort mate !
it looks good .

[wworm]

fuck possums those fuckers are crazy.

Are people still having issues with this style of camber/toe correction kits loosening up over time? I personally want to opt for the IE posi-lock style but they're so much more expensive than garagistic's kit.

[Levy3Poop]

I decided that I'm not done fighting my electrical system yet, and busted out the bentley again.
It says that the license plate lights are tied to fuse 23 along with the marker lights.
Funnily enough, i just so happen to have a license plate light that hasn't worked for a looong time.



I removed the plastic trim that goes on the edge of the trunk and looked in the area to examine my license plate light connectors and wires.
When I found it, the problem was so glaringly simple: the negative/ground connector had come off from the terminal and was touching the body, thus causing a short and blowing my fuse!
I removed the license plate bulb housing, put the connector on more snugly, and BAM!



The lights work again!



I even have BOTH license plate lights now!



I let the music blast at driving volume for a few minutes (sorry neighbors!) because both the previous times I thought I had fixed the issue, fuse 23 popped after a few minutes of driving, which I suspected was due to the power draw coming from the subwoofer's amplifier.
After about 10 minutes I felt bad for my neighbors and called it fixed.
Here's all the fuses I blew after realizing "I should save those to make something out of in the future".
Maybe I'll make a sigh that says "Old cars need love" and spell it out of the fuses when I have enough lol.



I had a few beers at the hot tub and met up with my neighbor that night and told him about the headache fuse 23 was causing.
I told him that the fuse blew after 10 minutes of driving or so, and asked him to take me for a ride in my car to make sure it was actually fixed.
Good news is that the fuse didn't pop, my instrument lights never went out, and everything still works as it should, so it's fixed!
Bad news is he hit a possum and it broke my IS lip and splitter. He wasn't even speeding, we were just going around a curve and the possum was right in the middle of the lane.
He felt so bad, and even offered to pay me for a new lip, but I told him not to worry because it could have happened to anyone.
We went back to pick up all the pieces and move the new road kill.
Well...the possum just GOT UP AND WALKED IT OFF.
Crazy bastard.