E46 Rear Shock Replacement Michigan Car

So I had the pleasure of helping my buddy replace his blown out rear shocks on his e46 323ci. Having come out from Michigan I knew we were in for a couple surprises, luckily nothing that couldn't be remedied.

The lower shock bolt was slightly rusty but nothing too terrible that I hadn't already been through with my own experience on Michigan cars. It came free with a blast from the impact wrench. The area I was more worried about where the shock towers and they were clean as a whistle. The same could not be said about the factory shocks.

This is what a happy Indian man looks like knowing his car will soon handle again.

Ohhh yeah, how I don't miss that. Here's a nice side by side of the replacement Bilstein Sports.

We ran into a little snafu with the shock plates that hold everything together. They had take a beating as well. We figured it would be pretty stupid to put the old rusty plates on the new shocks so we headed off to the only BMW dealership that was open which had the plates in stock. After a $38 ass rape later for some little metal washers, essentially, we were back to finish the install.

If you're reading this wondering how to install your shocks, it's simple. Pull back the carpet in the trunk. Release the lower bolt but put something under the tire so the suspension doesn't completely fly around. Take the two lock collar bolts off the top that mount to the body and you're done. Put the new shock mounts on shock by holding the shock with some pliers and tightening the nut down to 10ftlbs. Which is just slightly tight.

Don't forget the reinforcement plates which can be ordered from just about anywhere including BMA Parts where Mathew bought these. We had to put the rear shock mounts in first then the shock, but however way works for you just use a new locking nut on the top. Torque the body mount nuts down to 17 ftlbs and the bottom bolt to 57 ftlbs. 

We went with the Meyle HD shock mounts which I'm running on my e36 and have been happy so far. The JT Design or after market rubber bushing styles clunk from what I've seen. Here's a picture of the factory shock about the shear off at the top.

Not only were they rusty blown out and destroyed but they were leaking too.

Phew, just happy to see those out of there, as well as help another fellow enthusiast out. I guess it's on to the fronts next!

E28 New Windshield Safelite Auto Glass

Date: 8/05/11

So it was time to fix the multiple cracks in the windshield. I have had good luck in the past with Safelite and chose to use them again.

I think the original cost is somewhere around $450, but I used my comprehensive claim to take care of it which was much less. The only difference between the OG glass and the Safelite glass is that the replacement glass has a green strip on the top. It didn't seem to be much different and kind of fit the 80s 'ness of the car.

Yippe! All done. No more staring through bullet holes. One piece at a time, one piece at a time.

Track Day: Speed Trials Streets at Willow Night Session 7/23/2011

Date: 7/23/11

So with the new wheels mounted it was way overdue for a track day. The was the first one of the year for me. I had signed up for Buttonwillow next week with Speed Ventures but I caught wind of a night event with Speed Trials from a friend. I figured, when was the next chance to run at night ever going to come around again? I jumped on the last minute opportunity and signed up the day before. I took the pic above from a collection of photos off Speed Trials website. My car is the one with the missing fog light on the driver's side. :P

Check out these awesome photos taken from the event website. SpeedTrialUSA 7/23/11 Streets of Willow Night Event

The track the event was being held at was the smaller course at Willow Springs called Streets of Willow. It was about 95 degrees outside. I got there around 2pm to setup shop. I was one of the only guys with a pop-up tent. Lucky me.

Because of my shade I met quite a few people trying to stay cool. One of them being a nice guy who owned 5 Ferrari's and was tracking his 550 Maranello. Yeah....he was super cool though. Really friendly and helped me out a few times. A few of the other guys I met were a pair of s2000s down from San Jose. We ran neck and neck with each other throughout the day.

So a little information about the track. It is the smaller track that is at Willow Springs. I'm a huge fan of Big Willow and wasn't too thrilled about streets, but the opportunity to run at night was too much to pass up. I also figured since I had never ran there, I might as well check it out.

It's basically a large autocross course. Here is the layout.

My car was just a little too big or just not setup correctly for this course. A lot of lower speed technical corners that I just under-steered through. Turns 1 and 10 ended up being my favorite corners when you could actually carry some speed and feel the car grip. My best time of the day was a 1:34:xx.

We ran three sessions during the day to get us used to the track. The fourth session was really beautiful right at sunset. I don't have any on track shots but here are some more of the paddock.

As nightfall fell things got a little scary. You couldn't see shit. You had to just rely on what you remembered from the day sessions. I pulled it back for the 5th session and just enjoyed the fact that I was running at night.

For the 6th and final session I did what I always say not to. That was to run full 10/10ths on the last session of the day when you're all super tired and not making the best decisions. The s2000 boys and myself were really pushing it. I was carrying maybe 90 or so into turn 1 like I had been doing all day. Unfortunately this time I wasn't straight when I started braking and the rear flew around on me. I tried to save it to no avail and spun off. Here's an idea of the lighting on the track.

The car didn't like that too much, kind of shut down giving me check engine lights and what not. I limped it back to the pits and that was that for the night. 

My overall impressions of streets is that I got whopped by Honda's. FWD Honda's. It's a course that requires you set your car up completely different from the higher speed courses. It's technical with the majority of corners being more low speed. I wasn't really prepared for it but had a great time anyway. I think it is "less dangerous" type of course and great for those who have never been out on track before.

After a long day my tires were thrashed, and my car a little shaken up. I got it home and it was leaking coolant from the radiator and a little P/S fluid. Just Battle wounds. Time to clean her up.

New Wheels D-Force LTW5 17x9

Date: July

So I FINALLY got my 17x9 LTW5s mounted after a long wait from UUC. Back story is that I ordered these on 11/24/2010 for 15% and free shipping from UUC. They didn't show up until 5 months later 04/24/2011. Long story short Rob from UUC didn't take any responsibility for selling something that was delayed so horribly. I ended up calling D-Force directly and they drop shipped me the first set that they had come in stock. UUC sucks but D-Force is a good company. I will never order from UUC again.

A little information about these wheels. They come in a good variety of sizes with a bolt pattern and offset specific to BMW. These 17x9 have a +41mm offset great for a square setup on the e36. The weight alone of one rim is 16.6lbs! I didn't have a chance to weigh the rim alone by itself but here is an image from Vorshlag.

I couldn't find a lighter 17x9 on the market that looked decent for less than $250. Some say they look like the 5zigen FN01RC. And well, they do. Here is a comparison of them side by side, again, stolen from Vorshlag. The 5zigen are 3 lbs heavier though.

Anyway, I was able to weigh the wheels I was running against the mounted LTW5. I was running the Style 197 18x8,18x8.5 OEM BMW e92 wheels with Bridgestone run flat tires. Which means about double the rubber and a huge 18. The overall weight of the tire and rim of the Style 197 came out to a whopping 51lbs 9oz!

Style 197 18x8 Bridgestone RFT  225/40/18

I put the LTW5 with 245/40/17 Nitto INVOs I had from my DSI's on the scale and the weight was about 9 pounds less.

D-Force LTW5 17x9 Nitto INVO 245/40/17

That's 9 lbs per side x4 = 45lbs all taken out from rotational mass. HUGE difference. I also weighed the lugs against the spacer and studs.

Stock OEM Lugs

Stock lugs were about 12oz.

BBS Lugs TMS Nuts UUC 12mm Spacer

5 BBS 92mm studs, 5 Turner lug nuts and 1 12mm UUC spacer came out to almost 2 lbs. About 1lb 2 oz difference from the OE Studs. So add 1 lb to the mix. 

First things first was to install the studs on the front hubs. To run the 17x9 in the front you need a 12mm to clear the strut housing. Having a 12mm spacer mean you need longer studs. I picked up BBS brand long 92mm studs used from a dude in Arcadia. I put some red Loctite on the ends and torqued them down to around 18-22ft-lbs. Various sources quoted the torque value was anyway from 15-25 so I just went with something in the middle. Anything above 18 felt like a little much.

The ends of the studs are built to accept a 5.5mm allen hex key. A 5mm hex key will not really work and will round them out. I learned that quickly as I tried to torque them down. To be able to use a torque wrench I invoked the double nut method.

Here we are with the spacer installed. (I'm not a huge fan of the UUC spacer, but it'll work for the mean time.)

And here are some of the finished product.

Impressions are that the car feels actually drivable again! So much freed up power, braking, turn-in. Everything feels better. It's nice to have my car back. The 18s were nice baller street rims, but did nothing for the performance of the car. I can say, style wise, they are definitely track wheels and not exactly the most original thing out there, but I am more concerned with function and the best look I can get after first satisfying that function at the moment. 

Easier said = form follows function.

E36 Cooling System Overhaul Part I, TMS Power Pulley Kit, Rebuilt Alternator, FPR Test

Date: Mid July

Mileage: 148,569

So the M3 had been going through a few little issues recently. First it was the CPS and most recently it was a coolant leak in one of those hoses.

After a spirited drive I noticed the temp gauge has risen a notch past center so I pulled it over to the side of the road. With the engine still running I popped the hood and noticed coolant spraying from underneath the intake manifold. I wasn't able to figure out which hose it was while it was due to the overwhelming mist of hot coolant steaming and spraying everywhere on the intake side of the engine.

I pulled it in the garage to take a look. I tried a little make-shift pressure tester with a bike pump that didn't work out too well. I decided I was just going to replace the old stock hoses. There were 3 that I needed in addition to the upper and lower radiator hose. I knew that to replace any of the hoses deep within I was going to have to remove the intake manifold again. I decided to test the fuel pressure and make sure I didn't need a new FPR while I was in there since the FPR is way in the back and impossible to get to. I picked up the cheaper FPR tester from Harbor Freight that works great as long as you use thread sealing Teflon tape around the threads.

I just used some fittings to run it through the feed line at the front of the intake manifold. Iturned it over and it read right at 3.0 Bar which is exactly the pressure it's supposed to be reading while running. I don't know much more than that about testing the FPR but it looked like it was doing it's job so I could save on not replacing that. 

So like I was saying, with this being a multi purpose track car I figured it would be wise to just order all the coolant hoses brand new. It's a little over $100 for all the hoses for a 95 M3. Upper and Lower Radiator hose, little hose on top, Long hose coming from expansion tank and the spider hose, which I believe was the culprit. There are a few more but I bypassed them as they're for the throttle body and not necessary.

I also decided to put a couple more parts on that I was stock piling like the EMP High Performance Stewart water pump and a set of Turner Power Pulleys. 

Other replacement parts besides the hoses and those just mentioned was a new thermostat, gaskets all around, 2 new temp sensors and of course BMW coolant.  

So I set off by first removing fan clutch the radiator and all the bits up on the front of the car. The fan clutch removal was not too terrible. 

I could have replaced the clutch as well but "part II," which was shortly realized after this maintenance might include an aluminum radiator, shroud and SPAL puller fan. So I left the radiator and clutch alone. It looks like the radiator was replaced 7-8 years ago. At least it wasn't original. 

After that I pulled off the intake bits and the intake manifold to get at the spider hose and the sensors.

I again tried some pressure tests to figure out which hose was bad after finding no visible cracks in any of the hoses. With the pressure tests not giving me anything, I said oh well to my inquisitive side, and continued on with the overhaul removing the old hoses.

I went back to the front. Here you can see the aftermarket aluminum t-stat housing that the PO had installed leaking coolant all over the water pump below it. This was something I wanted to address. 

I pulled out the water pump and t-stat housing. Looks like he didn't use the old style gasket or any RTV causing the leak. There is a paper gasket that goes around the outside that BMW doesn't really sell anymore, that you can still purchase if you want, but I later referenced Pelican which showed the use of RTV gasket maker instead. 

The water pump that was in there appeared to be a metal impeller Graf. Not terrible, a decent replacement  the to stock plastic impeller that originally came on the car back in 1995. I would go with a newer style OEM BMW composite impeller water pump if I weren't using the Stewart pump. I went with the Stewart EMP HP water pump for better temps on the track and less parasitic drag on the accessories. 

Old Graf Pump

The thermostat that was in there was the 96-99 model 92C. I swapped that out for the lower temp 95 M3 88C. 

Old 92C Thermostat

Here you can see all the old residue from coolant and dirt and what not. I cleaned all that up with some scotch brite before installing the new pump and t-stat with housing.

Here's a shot of the difference between the Stewart and Graf pump side by side.

Stewart vs. Graf

I put in the new t-stat and threw a goop of RTV around the housing to insure no leaks, put on new o-ring on the t-stat and snugged it down the housing. 

After that in goes the new water pump.

I then turned my attention to the TMS Power Pulleys. They under dive the water pump, power steering pump and alternator. The dyno shows a gain of 7hp. Well, whatever the dyno says, I know it will feel better. I've always loved the feeling pulleys give the motor by freeing up that power you already have. 

Here's the water pump pulleys side by side.

TMS vs Stock Water Pump

I decided to pull the alternator off for more room and to replace the pulley. I got a little happy with my air tools when I couldn't remove the nut on the back accidentally twisting the terminal right out of the back of the rectifier.

I couldn't really tell how it went back together so I took it to a shop to get rebuilt. No stores sold rebuilt Valeo alternators and a new one was like $350. The alternator pulley is specific to the manufacturer either being Bosch or Valeo. I just bought the TMS pulleys for the Valeo brand I was stuck with that brand unless I paid Turner an extra $65 for the Bosch style pulley because I had already taken the Valeo one out of the box and torqued it down. So annoying.

Anyway I got the alternator rebuilt for $105 with a 4 year warranty. It was a little shop in Culver City. He replaced the brushes and showed me it was charging perfectly. They painted silver which I mean it kind of cheesy when you don't mask things off, but whatever, it's all good now, works well and has a 4 year warranty.

So with that little snafu out of the way I put the rest of the pulleys on the torquing them to about 16ftlbs or whatever it says in the Bentley. I wrapped the old belt around the pulleys to hold the tension while I torque them down.

Onto the coolant hoses. I decided to bypass the hoses coming out of the head to the throttle body connecting a secondary external thermostat. The little external thermostat is supposed to sit inside the air box and tell the coolant to run up to the TB when it is cold outside. Since it's never cold in LA and an iced up throttle body is the least of my worries I decided to get rid of it. It just kind of hangs there anyway with the Eurosport air filter heat shield.

Only problem with this bypass is that it leaves one of the 4 hoses on the spider hose open. Since it's such a unique hose I decided to leave it alone and plug it up with a bolt. So far it's held and not leaked. If there is a better way to do this, I'd love to know!

I got all the hoses routed correctly and put new sensors in the head. I figured the coolant temp sensor is important in the whole scheme of driveability. Maybe not as important as the CTS on the e30 but I decided I would replace it while I was down there. I replaced the other one as well.

Old Sensors

I plugged up the hole where the hose originally came out of with an M12 oil pan bolt. Later I'll use that hole for an actual coolant temp gauge instead of the stock gauge which basically only moves after you've blown your head gasket.

The only thing left to do was clean up the mating surface of the head to the intake manifold, put some new gaskets on and put everything else back together. If you're reading this and want me to go into any more detail on some of the specifics just leave a comment at the bottom and I'll fill you in!



Impressions so far is that the pulleys really make a difference. Engine revs up much smoother and pulls more at the top. The old water pump could have had a rough bearing so I'm not sure if it was a combination of the new pump and pulleys. Temps are in the "ON" range, no leaks and alternator runs smoothly.

UPDATE: I did all this about a month ago. I just got back from the track and now the stock plastic radiator is leaking. Argh...so now it's time to do something about that. Looks like round II is in order.