Junkyard Score and Overall Clean Up.

Date: 06/18/11

So it was half off day at the Octopus Pick-Your-Part in Sun Valley. I decided to see what I could find. There were actually 3 Super ETA's there and this 535i.

This beauty was sitting on Bilsteins and H&R's but I didn't have the tools to get them off. I came back 15 minutes later and they were gone. My main objective was to find a few interior bits that were better shape than my car and find some 325i parts for the 1.3 motoronic swap. At the end of the day I found a 173 DME, and i intake manifold with TB, an automatic antenna, radiator plastic, a tail light, black speaker grilles, and a plethera of little interior lights and other switches that I helped myself too. ;)

Being half off day the manifold and TB were $15 with a $3 core! Generally about $60 on the forum. Same for the DME, $20 down from $40. The rest of the stuff was still kind of steep for half off. But $12 for a tail light I guess is decent.

My left tail was cracked so I replaced it with this bad boy which came from the brown doner above.

Found this in one of the Super ETA glove boxes. Might as well add that to the collection. Unfortunately my car didn't come with the original manual or service booklet.

Decided I would replace the cracked shroud that goes above the radiator. It was a $1.50. Can't go wrong.

I put the "official" R-134a stickers under the hood.

Moving onto the interior I decided to remove the fader switch and put in a blank since that does nothing anymore and I thought it would look cleaner. As clean as it can look next to that beautiful Clarion deck.

While I was in there I made all two of the lights behind the HVAC work! Oh 80s lighting!

Here's the completed new look with the blank.

The passenger rear window would not go up, but it would go down from the master switches. A simple replacement switch fixed that problem.

There was also a ton of left over wiring and accessories for some 80s cell phone. There was the hook up at the center console. A mic on the head panel and an antenna on the back window with an Apple logo over it.

I took the liberty of removing all of that while I was in there. I had to get under the dash and pull wires through. There was a ton of junk left over. It was very well wired though. Almost looked factory. I had to check 10 times before I cut a wire just to make sure it wasn't anything important.

Most of it ended up here under the back seat.

Free CD!

Weight reduction! That's gotta be at least 5 lbs! I also removed that lovely logo on the back window. I'm a Mac guy, but I don't need the sticker letting everyone know.

I turned to the other dash lights and the cluster. For the Autos there is a light bar that lights up the PRND123 lights.

They are not singularly removable. I took one out of another cluster I found that had all the lights working except 'D'. My cluster only had P and 3 working. So going from 2/7 to 6/7 isn't bad. I'm going to figure out how to solder new bulbs and get all 7 working.

I also got the headlight and fog light switch illumination to work as well. The fog light illumination is a little brighter. You can't really see the headlight switch illumination, but hey it works the way it was supposed to 25 years ago now and that makes me happy.

I picked up a black e34 leather e-brake handle and boot. I'm not sure if I like the look over the plastic but it feel better when you pull on it. Maybe I need to remove the brushes. Brushes and leather don't really make sense together.

The next project for the interior is going to be the rear speakers.

They actually don't sound that bad. lol. But obviously look  awful, are house speakers, and will be a terrible liability in the event of sudden hard braking. I plan to put the original speaker grilles back there with some 6x9s in a box or something. Haven't decided yet, not much of a stereo guy. Stay tuned!

Welcome the New Daily. BMW 1988 528e Super Eta!

Date: 06/12/11

Mileage: 296,101

So here it is, the new Grandpa status. 1988 528e Auto. White on Black. I had been looking for this car for the past 3 months and finally the right one came along. I was looking for a car that wouldn't break my back or the bank, have style, possibly get good MPG and something my fiance Jin could drive. Answer? SUPER ETA.

These shots were taken on the drive down outside a rest area on the 5 about 2 hours from SF in the middle of no where in central California. Let me back up. I had been looking for this particular model for quite awhile. It needed to be from 1988 and couldn't be black (schwarz) or beige (bronzit).

I emailed the owner and he promptly replied. He explained that is was a norcal car. Had never left the east bay area. He was the third owner from 2004-2011 after his friend owned it for a year. Before 2003  it was grandpa and grandma from Walnut Creek. He had already gotten the smog certificate and it was a clean title. He had also garaged it through his ownership as well did the owner's previously.

CA car, check. Smog, check. Clean title, check. Already three out of three. Not black or bronzit, Check. Auto, Check. 1988 Super eta, Check. 6 for 6. Great, let's do this!

The car was in Concord, CA about 40 minutes outside Oakland. My sister lives up in San Mateo so I did what any self respecting car guy would do and bought a one way ticket up there to see my sister and drive the car back down! I figured a clean title super eta from California with no dents, clean interior and clear coat remaining. I was already committed.

So I got to take a look at the car first thing Saturday morning after landing at the Oakland airport. It was sitting on some decent 15" Style 29s which are found on the e39.  Everything actually looked better than I expected. We went through the receipts and found a brand new factory drive shaft and muffler installed within the last year for a grand total for $1600....okay..this is good. What else. More receipts from the DEALER for front control arm bushings, oil pan gasket, head gasket, valve cover gasket, new P/S hose etc. He had also replaced the cap, rotor, plugs etc within the last couple years as well as the timing belt. Timing belt changes at 233k and 270k. Right now the car was sitting with 296,101 on the ODO.

All the maintenance records were just icing on the cake. I had pretty much already committed but this just made the decision even easier. Not too often you come across an e28, let alone a 528e, that someone took care of. I guess they exist! Just not in LA.

So you're wondering about the 296,101? Yeah I was too. I couldn't figure it out. The car drove amazing, pulled fine, no erratic idle. EVERY single button on the interior worked. All electrics fine. No crazy interior damage which is common on these cars. What gives? Was this thing just extremely lightly used? I took a closer look at the tach. It was a 7k tach out of a 535i. The super eta have a specific tach which ends in 6. So someone had switched out the original cluster. Something commonly done when BMW odometer gears stop working.

I tried to find out what the original mileage was but it looks like it's pretty consistent all the way back to 1998 according to the carfax where, unfortunately, the first recorded mileage is 190,000. So that is proof of about 110k miles at a minimum. What about the rest? That would mean on the average, gramps would've had to drive 19k miles a year from 1988. Is it possible? Sure, but at some point the cluster was changed and the mileage showing does not equal the condition. So as I'm putting this all together in my head, I estimate the car has something in 160-220k range mileage wise. Another bonus.

I looked at a couple others and they were all crap priced for much more. None of them were 1988 either. Big difference in that year as far as the 528e goes. My whole, "let the guy stew over $300" trick was starting to give me anxiety. Why didn't I just buy it? WTF is wrong with me? ARGHH. Luckily he was at work all day after I saw the car so there was no way someone else could come snatch it. The best I could do was call him first thing in the morning.

So it's Saturday night and I'm stoked to watch the 24 hours of LeMans coverage live all night. But at the same time, I can't sleep. Finally get a little sleep. Wake up, to watch the DVR of the Audi taking the checker, call the guy and thankfully of course, he still has the car. We agree on the price with an extra set of bottle caps. Which I learned later are often given away for free. :( oh well.

So I wasn't done yet apparently. As fate would have it on the way over to buy the car a coolant hose explodes in my sisters 2000 Ford Focus. WTF universe! AGAIN!! Why?? Three times now. I call AAA. I tell them to tow us 20 miles to concord and we find a shop there.

We get the repairs done at Big O Tire as I watch Jenson Button take the checkered flag over Vettel on a 13" little TV in the waiting room. Seriously I sat down for 5 mintues and that's the lap they were on. Couldn't have asked for a better car weekend. So it looked like the fans had stopped working some time ago in the Focus and the traffic caused too much heat and pressure. They replaced the hose in the Ford and we were off again without fans but with the heat on high. Good enough, where's my BMW.

When we got there the transaction went smooth. I put the spare tires in the back along with the tools I had brought with me, never can be too prepared. I followed my sis back a ways to make sure everything was all good with her car and then took off back to LA!

The drive back went really smooth. I couldn't have been happier. Man and his new car on a 72 degree sunny day in California, rolling through the hills of norcal onto the the 5 cruising with the windows open in my new daily.

My traditional thing to do, as it seems, when buying a new/used car is to drive it back from another city. It's fun and always a good way to see what all the issues are. So far the Super Eta needs a new windshield, alignment and A/C recharge and maybe a fan clutch. Also it continually blows heat on my crotch. Why is this? Because German.

E36 Fuel Pump Replacement DIY, Easy

Date: 05/04/11
Mileage:147,000

So in the pursuit of my no-start issue I replaced the fuel pump. If I wasn't in such a hurry to get moving again I would've done the tests described in the bentley to make sure my pump was working. I figured 147k miles was enough and it needed a new pump anyway. I found one for much less than the other places through BMA Parts.

So here's how it's done. Disconnect the negative terminal on the battery. Pull the back bottom seat cushion out. It just pops out. Here you can see where the fuel pump is.

Pull back the rubber flap on the passenger side.

4 screws hold the plate in.

There will probably be a bunch of dirt and debris. Vacuum that bad shit out while you're down there. Remove the connecting plugs and loosen the hose clamp on the feed line. It may be under pressure so put a towel around it while you pull it off the pump. Put a stopper in the hose or prop it up so fuel doesn't keep coming out. The pump is secured with a lock ring. I used a flat head screwdriver and a mallet to loosen the lock ring. Now would be a good time to put out your cigarette if you haven't blown up already.

Old fuel pump should come right out once the lock ring is freed up. Wiggle it out to maneuver the level sender through the hole. Here's what mine looked like.

Maybe it was time for a new one. Make sure to also pull out the old rubber sealing ring. BTW I did this with about a half tank of gas.

Now it's as simple as just putting in the new one with new sealing ring.

There are a couple things to remember. Make sure the level sender is moving freely. I forgot to do this. After installing everything my gas gauge read dead on empty and would not move. I realized the fuel level sender was wedged behind that metal pole sticking down. Make sure it moves. The float will start floating as you put it in. If that doesn't happen, it's stuck.

Also I found a good way to get torque on the lock ring. Banging it shut with a screwdriver wasn't really working so I used a flat plastic trim tool to leverage against the little nubs.

This worked like a charm. I was able to get a couple full turns more from this tool.

So that's pretty much it! Put it all back together and you're done! Unless you're me and your CPS is really why your car doesn't start and not your fuel pump. Either way new fuel pump never hurt anyone.

E36 M3 Knock Sensor Replacement DIY, Not So Easy

Date: 05/03/11
Mileage: 147,000

So after I initially broke down my car was throwing the code 1226. Which is "Failed Knock Sensor #2." Instead of realizing this code was just stored in the computer for about a year now, I took it as the cause of my no-start situation. I ordered 2 knock sensors from RMEuropean for about $65 a piece. I figured I would do both while I'm in there.

I had read on BFC that you can do #2 (the rear most KS) without removing the intake manifold. Honestly this is bullshit and you have to remove it. Unless you have removed every single other thing down there already, broken factory clips and don't care about torquing things down correcting, and have tiny monkey hands, (my hands are already not big), then maybe you could do it. But honestly it just takes another 20 minutes to pull the intake manifold off. Just do it, it sucks, but makes life a lot easier.

So this is what I was dealing with. Car got dropped off in the street by the tow truck. At least it was under a tree!

So the first sensor is pretty easy. All you need to do is really remove the alternator ducting tube and intake.

It's just behind the ICV. This extension basically shows the location of the first knock sensor. You don't have to do much, you can easily use a torque wrench at this point.

I pulled the first sensor out and it looked fine. Of course my problem was the KS#2 but I thought I would replace it anyway. It looks like someone already did the easy one. Oh well, I sold it for $40.

Next up is the bitch sensor. Like I said there is no real way to get the bracket off that protects the sensor without removing the intake manifold. Next step, remove the intake manifold. To do this, remove the fuel lines from the fuel rail and every other thing that is attached to the manifold. The front 6 nuts are easy to loosen, the rear most nut is the bitch. I had to get in there with a 11mm open end wrench and get my hand under the manifold and remove it slowly. Not sure how else you can get that nut off.

To remove the entire manifold I also loosed the wiring harness cover that is under the cowl. This helped as I ripped it out and placed it out of the way.

Gratuitous shot of my baller chrome pink top injectors.

While you're down there, it would be a good time to clean the ICV if you haven't done that already. Ok, so here is the shot of the bracket that is covering the rear knock sensor.

With the manifold removed it's easy enough to remove this bracket. I think it is 2 13mm bolts. Underneath the bracket you can see the cracked up knock sensor that has been throwing faults.

Remove this guy and remember which plug it's plugged into. Last thing you want to do is plug it into the CPS or something. It can be easy to confuse when you're removing things so label your harness or be conscious of it.

So here's some shots of what were working with.

Obvious why it wasn't working. Here's a shot of the old one and new one side by side.

Funny thing is that the knock sensor #1 looked just like this new one here. There was little wear on it. This leads me to believe that KS#1 was changed with the last 20k miles or so. Makes sense because it's easy to change out. Not the same for #2. That looks about as old as the car itself.

When reinstalling everything the torque value on the knock sensors themselves is very low. Like 12ft-lbs or something. They just barely tighten to the block. If you haven't put in new intake manifold gaskets in a while, like never, I would do that too.

Impressions are that the car pulls a little more solid now. Before there would be a flat spot in the beginning but now that is all smoothed out. I recommend doing this if you are throwing the code.