Ruby's Thread

[Levy3Poop]

Lindsay and I went to Allen on the 26th to see her family and her grandparents who came in for Christmas.
While we were there, Ethan texted me and said he left my key hidden on the car so i could get it, so Gib (father in law. also helped put the new roof on), Phil (Grandfather in law), and I got a U-Haul car dolly and went to go get the Rube. We got there, and she woldn't even start, so we had to push her up the car dolly.

This pic is from when we stopped for gas on the way back to Allen.
I think SOMEONE'S got a nice bottle of bourbon coming his way soon.



I got the new (old) alternator in! This is the one from the engine that shit the bed last spring.
Dave, if you're reading this, thank you for not selling the old alternator even though it was yours to do with as you wish!



Also, here's the relay group for the late model 318i. Googling "E30 318i DME relay location" yielded no helpful results because apparently there were a couple different layouts for the relays. The boys in the Austin E30 Coalition helped me find these under the wiring harness cover, and helped identify the white one as the DME relay. You guys rock!



Old relay vs. new relay. Of course, it's impossible to tell if a relay is bad just by looking at it, but i swapped in the new one since i had it and i had the opportunity.
I did this after we got the new alternator in, and got Ruby up and running again.



Linday and I drove the RX8 back to mom's house, and then we went back to Waco. That's about 3 hours of driving, and Ruby gave no issues. I think all is well again!

[Levy3Poop]

Just ordered some Euro smileys from E30Market_ on IG. Got a pretty solid deal on them too. $195 shipped for Hella euro smileys. Also, my saving grace (AKA Dave) is meeting up with me tomorrow to give me the old alternator from the blown up engine, as well as whatever else he's sick of looking at from that time.

I haven't heard from Ethan today regarding my car aside from a text at 10:15am saying he'll get back to me in a few minutes. Hmm......

[Levy3Poop]

Well, Ruby died while driving down 35 in Ft Worth today. Right on a bridge in rush hour traffic too. Awesome!

Before she died, the radio was dying periodically, then died completely. Then my lights went out, and the blinker was blinking at an odd cadence
THEN the tach stopped working. And finally, she died. Awesome.

Oh, also it was raining and fucking cold. Bonus awesome.

I called Ethan from TrackStar in Ft Worth, and he said it sounds like the alternator shit the bed. I had Ruby towed to them, and he said he'll take a look at it tomorrow. He's literally the only shop in Ft Worth that's open tomorrow because it's the Saturday before Christmas, and all the other shops basically told me to pound sand when I said my car is a 1991.

My parents came from Granbury to pick me up, and I'm crashing with them tonight. Hopefully Ethan can look at it early and possibly get it fixed in time for me to get it and go to work back in Waco tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath for that, but hey, I can dream, right?


DOUBLE BONUS AWESOME: Earlier this week, I got a cracked headlight AGAIN. FFS.

[Levy3Poop]

Damn, that sucks. Does the stud that's spinning have any friction on it at all or does it turn easily? Maybe you could hold the blue wire's terminal with some pliers and then get a cordless impact on the nut. Just throwing that out there, its all I could come up with.

It doesn't necessarily spin freely, but it spins without taking a ton of effort. Some peeps in the help thread suggested those, but the space is too small for an impact gun, and I've tried holding the connector with needle nose pliers, but I'm super nervous it will break off all together if I try too hard.

Here's the other thread on this stupid nut if you wanna pop in and see what they were all saying: https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...d.php?t=417970

Thanks for the suggestion though. This community never ceases to amaze me at the sheer amount of people helping each other.

[Codym42]

Damn, that sucks. Does the stud that's spinning have any friction on it at all or does it turn easily? Maybe you could hold the blue wire's terminal with some pliers and then get a cordless impact on the nut. Just throwing that out there, its all I could come up with.

[Levy3Poop]

Here's the oil filter housing gasket. Hopefully replacing this will solve all the problems in my life.
Okay, maybe the problems related to buying so much damn oil at least.



Step 1: remove air box.
Done.
Step 2: remove alternator.
Kill me.

All the bolts holding the alternator on came out fine.
The black cable came off fine.
This blue cock sucker right here though.....oh man.
As I twisted the nut trying to get it off, the blue wire spun with it, breaking parts of the black piece that goes around it as well.
Also, the stud that the nut is on spins with the nut.
Again; kill me.
This is just so frustrating. I've removed this alternator before (when I thought my old engine just needed a new alternator and Dave offered me his), and it was nowhere NEAR this big of a PITA.
I'm considering taking Ruby to my trusted garage in town, and saying "yeah, I just need this gasket replaced. Here's the gasket!" to see if they can get it done, or if they'll come back with "Can't get the alternator out. Sorry bud."
I made a post in the E30 technical general forum about how to get this little shit off, but if anyone here has any suggestions, PLEASE let me know.
Just keep in mind that this car is my daily driver, so options like "cut that blue wire" might not be considered.



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[Levy3Poop]

I went hooning last Friday night and smelled a bit of oil when I got home and found some oil leaking from the diff.
One of you fine fellows commented on my post about this and said it was most likely just venting due to high heat from doing skids and donuts.
Looks about right, since the leak appears to be coming from the top where the vent hole is.



I know Eddie changed the diff oil at about 200k because I saw it in his posts here, but just look how BLACK that drop is on the end of my finger!
It looks pretty clear while coating my finger, but all the contaminants really show when it thickens up.



So I drained the oil and put in this new oil!
Not gonna lie, I didn't really know much about diff oil aside from it's a LOT thicker than engine oil, but I saw other people saying they use Royal Purple 75w90.
Well, this was about 60% the cost of Royal Purple, but is still synthetic.
Also, it stinks like shit.
Also also, I went with the one labeled for LSDs. Any idea what the difference between LSD and non-LSD diff oil is? What were to happen if I put non-LSD oil in?
Just curious



Now for the big kahuna...OIL GASKETS!
I've been leaking oil like a MF lately, and I've just been waiting on my shipments of gaskets from pelican, the new oil pan from Garagistic, and oil from Amazon.
I got me an upper and lower oil gasket, as well as an oil filter housing gasket.
I suspect my oil leak is from the oil filter housing, but I just wanted to be sure my gaskets aren't old, and my oil pan isn't shitty.
Now, time for the oil change/



Well...this is kinda shitty.
I'm glad I got a magnetic oil drain, because there's little shavings of metal on my magnet :|
I'm not sure how long this engine has been like this. The little shavings could have been in there for a while, and the magnet finally caught them, OR something new could be going downhill.
Either way, not great.

Also, just as an added note, I changed from 10w40 from the summer months (100+ degree heat) to 5w30 for the winter months (30-70).



Here's the old oil pan. Looks good enough to save.
The gasket looks like it was broken on the passenger side of it, but I don't think that was the source of my leak.
I still suspect the oil filter housing gasket.



Here's a shot looking up Ruby's engine.
Hopefully it'll be a long time before I'm down here going this again, so I wanted a picture.



That big bolt at the bottom of the power steering has a good drop of oil on it.
I didn't take any pictures, but I think the power steering fluid may be leaking because the hoses are pretty caked.
That could explain why the hoses are dirty....but that woudln't explain why I've been needing to add engine oil lately.



New oil pan and gasket on!
I also forgot to take pics of the oil used so just for record keeping sake, it's Valvoline 5w30 high mileage synthetic blend.
Amazon didn't have my usual Pennzoil high mileage conventional in 5w30.

[bangn]

that's a neat idea, stealing that for sure

[Levy3Poop]

I added 3 layers of paint and 3 layers of clear coat to the battery tray after getting the rust out and let it cure for 2 days.


Then, I had the idea to make a battery pad so the battery doesn't scratch through the paint again and make more rust.
I figured one of these $4 plastic cutting boards would be good. It's not too thick, it's softer on the bottom (easier on the paint), and shouldn't hold moisture that would make more rust.



Test fit! Damn, too long just to plop in. Oh well, time to modify it!



I set the battery on the cutting board about 3/4" away from the edge so each side has a bit of hang over, marked a line with a pencil, and cut it to the proper width.



The width was just about perfect (lucky as hell guess lol), but this corner was pushing on the valve cover. That's definitely no good.
I marked the edges of the battery tray with a pencil to cut a direct line from one to the other.




It worked! It could be better though.




There we go. I just kinda freehanded a curve, and it turned out better than I thought! Not perfect, but better than i thought.




Here's how it fit. i really couldn't have done better without busting out the measuring tape and being all precise.



Now, to make a hole for the battery block. You know, that little white plastic cube that keeps the battery from bashing on the side.



I just eyeballed it and made a mark with a pencil, then I used my Dremel to make the hole on the mark.
To my amazement, it lined up perfect, AND was the right width (which surprised me because my dremel bit was smaller than the hole).



Here it is! You can hardly even tell it's down there, which is what I was going for. I kinda like the blue.

[Levy3Poop]

did you have the ceremonial burning of the vulva lip to prevent other r3v'rs installing it?

I did the modern equivalent and made a dank boomerang on IG of me throwing that hoe in the dumpster. @Levy3Poop if you're on there. I'd imagine you post some good stuff if you're on there!

[2mAn]

did you have the ceremonial burning of the vulva lip to prevent other r3v'rs installing it?

[Levy3Poop]

I got my car back to Grave's Custom Muffler here in Waco since they're the ones who put the hangar on that failed.



I told them to take the heat shield off, remove the rubber coating, and weld the hanger right to the frame, and that's what they did!
The hanger is super solid now, and they also added a rubber hanger in the middle of the exhaust pipe to help relieve stress on the rear hanger.
Once I got it home, I sprayed some Bondo rubber undercoating spray over the spray paint the shop worker did to protect against rust.
They didn't even charge me a dime! They said "Well we were just fixing what we messed up, so no charge!"
They didn't even charge me for the middle hanger when I asked about it. I'd definitely recommend these guys to anyone in Waco or the surrounding area.



I got home and decided to tackle the rust underneath the battery. The battery tray doesn't look too great.



Here's about half of what I've done today on the rust. My dremel died almost immediate after starting. I grabbed my drill with wire bit, and it died after I got to this part.
I've done a bit more after my Dremel got charged, and I'm trying to find my rust dissolver spray gel stuff. Key work "trying". It might be up in Allen from when I was goofing around with it on my father in law's rusted out Jeep when we were working on the new roof.



IS LIP AND SPLITTER HELL YEAH



There were 2 clips that would NOT get one of these white tabs hammered in. No matter how much careful hammering I did, it just wouldn't go in. SO....



Bustin' out the Dremel with plastic grinder!



God I love having a Dremel.



And IT'S ON! WOO she's lookin' pretty now!

[Levy3Poop]

On my way to work, I heard PSSSHHK PSSHKKKKK FFFTPP and instantly knew my muffler had dropped.

Yuuuup, just as I suspected. Oh well, if I can just put that bolt on the top of the hanger back in....



Ah, cool. So the hole the bolt goes into was shredded some how. Neato.




Thank God I had zip ties in my trunk! This should last until the exhaust shop opens and I can take it in. Also, thanks to my wife for bringing my tools which I had foolishly left in my Malibu!

[Levy3Poop]

Ever since I bought the car, the passenger door card has had kind of a shitty fitment. When I pulled the card off to fix it, I found out the leather was peeling in several places, so I used some Crazy Glue and Shoe Goo to ahere the leather back to the door card, and used some binder clips to hold it in place.

[Levy3Poop]

leave it black. its going to get peppered so you're wasting paint if you do that

Good point. Have you seen the green vert on panjo for sale? That thing's front bumper is so peppered it makes me sad

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