My "brake circuit failure," warning keeps coming up on the obc. I had to first check if the brake light switch is a 4 pin or 2 pin. I followed this DIY. I guess it's a 4 pin.
http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/E36-Brake_Switch/E36-Brake_Switch.htm
Monday, February 22, 2010
Oil leak getting out of hand...
My car is now leaking what looks like 10-15cc over night. I can't seem to track it down. I put my finger underneath the vanos oil connector to the filter housing and it was pretty wet. I did an emergency washer replacement yesterday. Hope that fixes some of that. I'm going to recondition the oil filter housing and valve cover, but it just seems to be pouring out right now, not a slow leak.
update 2/24/10
Looks like the new washers stopped most of the leaking for now.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
ABS Light, Cluster Removal and Information
While at the track, during my instructor driven hot lap, it was brought to my attention that my car's ABS system was out. A few hard braking points here and there would cause the brakes to totally lock up. I was a little puzzled since there was no ABS light on the dash. Had to PO removed it? What's going on here?
Well today I decided to take a look. I removed the under panel beneath the glove box to make sure the ABS unit existed and was plugged in. It was.
Next I pulled the cluster out to take a look at the bulbs. It's pretty simple. All you have to do is remove the torx bolts at the top and pull it forward. I used a small torx set combined with a small socket wrench to get in there.
Use a plastic trim removal tool to get behind the cluster to bust it free. I got a set from ECS Tuning for under $10. They probably have them on ebay as well. There were three connectors on the back of my cluster. They came off without much trouble. There is no catch like on e30 clusters. Well at least not on mine, it's possible some clips were broken. You can get the cluster out without removing the steering wheel, it is cramped but doable.
Aha! There were plenty of bulbs missing. Mainly the ABS light and airbag light. It doesn't make me feel all too warm and fuzzy inside knowing that at some point the ABS system failed and the PO just took the light out. I know some people don't like ABS, but I doubt he disabled it. Probably more of a, "I'm lazy and cheap and don't need to fix my car," mentality which has shown up a couple times during some routine maintenance. But hey, can't complain about overall cosmetic condition, at least the PO's cared enough to keep that up.
There were a bunch of bulbs missing on the back. I took some off my spare e30 cluster to replace the ones which were missing. They had a little bigger housing, but they were the same wattage. I held the cluster up to the light and replaced the missing bulbs anywhere I saw an icon. I think I put them in "automatic trans warning" and "convertible roll-over" on accident. There was an icon on there and I didn't know what it was so a bulb went in. I guess they used the same cluster for autos and verts.
Here is a picture of the back of the motometer cluster and numbers of what goes where. I pulled the info from the forum. It's somewhat close to the VDO cluster. It seems to be different from mine as there are about three icons not really accounted for in this breakdown.
1: Temperature warning. 2: Right turn signal. 3: Left turn signal. 4: Oil pressure warning. 5: High-beam indicator. 6: Battery-charging indicator. 7: Low-fuel-level warning. 8/9/10: Gauge cluster illumination. 11: AST warning. 12/13: LCD/odometer illumination. 14: Air bag warning. 15: Catalytic converter warning. 16: Parking brake indicator. 17: Brake fluid warning. 18: Brake pad wear warning. 19: ABS warning. 20: Seatbelt warning. 21: System check control. 22: Automatic transmission warning. 23: Not enabled. 24: Check-engine warning. 25: Convertible anti-roll warning. 26: Not enabled. 27: Rear fog lamp. 28: Front fog lamp.
23. Says it is not enabled, but there are two arrows that look like the blinkers opposing each other. I could see an icon through there so I put a bulb in. It doesn't come up when you press the hazard, I don't know what it is? The other icons which I had no idea about and were possibly for euro cars.
Now my airbag light is nice and bright! ABS shows on at all times..... :( This is the first time I've done something to create more lights!
Well today I decided to take a look. I removed the under panel beneath the glove box to make sure the ABS unit existed and was plugged in. It was.
Next I pulled the cluster out to take a look at the bulbs. It's pretty simple. All you have to do is remove the torx bolts at the top and pull it forward. I used a small torx set combined with a small socket wrench to get in there.
Use a plastic trim removal tool to get behind the cluster to bust it free. I got a set from ECS Tuning for under $10. They probably have them on ebay as well. There were three connectors on the back of my cluster. They came off without much trouble. There is no catch like on e30 clusters. Well at least not on mine, it's possible some clips were broken. You can get the cluster out without removing the steering wheel, it is cramped but doable.
Aha! There were plenty of bulbs missing. Mainly the ABS light and airbag light. It doesn't make me feel all too warm and fuzzy inside knowing that at some point the ABS system failed and the PO just took the light out. I know some people don't like ABS, but I doubt he disabled it. Probably more of a, "I'm lazy and cheap and don't need to fix my car," mentality which has shown up a couple times during some routine maintenance. But hey, can't complain about overall cosmetic condition, at least the PO's cared enough to keep that up.
There were a bunch of bulbs missing on the back. I took some off my spare e30 cluster to replace the ones which were missing. They had a little bigger housing, but they were the same wattage. I held the cluster up to the light and replaced the missing bulbs anywhere I saw an icon. I think I put them in "automatic trans warning" and "convertible roll-over" on accident. There was an icon on there and I didn't know what it was so a bulb went in. I guess they used the same cluster for autos and verts.
Here is a picture of the back of the motometer cluster and numbers of what goes where. I pulled the info from the forum. It's somewhat close to the VDO cluster. It seems to be different from mine as there are about three icons not really accounted for in this breakdown.
1: Temperature warning. 2: Right turn signal. 3: Left turn signal. 4: Oil pressure warning. 5: High-beam indicator. 6: Battery-charging indicator. 7: Low-fuel-level warning. 8/9/10: Gauge cluster illumination. 11: AST warning. 12/13: LCD/odometer illumination. 14: Air bag warning. 15: Catalytic converter warning. 16: Parking brake indicator. 17: Brake fluid warning. 18: Brake pad wear warning. 19: ABS warning. 20: Seatbelt warning. 21: System check control. 22: Automatic transmission warning. 23: Not enabled. 24: Check-engine warning. 25: Convertible anti-roll warning. 26: Not enabled. 27: Rear fog lamp. 28: Front fog lamp.
23. Says it is not enabled, but there are two arrows that look like the blinkers opposing each other. I could see an icon through there so I put a bulb in. It doesn't come up when you press the hazard, I don't know what it is? The other icons which I had no idea about and were possibly for euro cars.
Now my airbag light is nice and bright! ABS shows on at all times..... :( This is the first time I've done something to create more lights!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Much needed alignment @ Perfect Auto in Glendale
Mileage: 137,900
So after putting on the two new INVOs on the rear my alignment has been pretty bad. I have to hold the wheel at an angle to go straight. If I move the wheel into neutral position the car will veer off the road. I decided to take it in to Perfect Auto in Glendale. My buddy who has an e92 just took his car there after a recommendation of Avus BMW. Steve from Perfect Auto quoted me $75, but ended up charging me $70.
I'm not an expert on toe, camber or caster. I just simply know what they mean. The values that were in the machine were for a generic BMW e36 non-convertible. That being said, the comparison of my numbers was in relation to that machine. I don't know if more or less toe, caster, or camber is good or bad or how to set my car up for the track. I do know that these numbers will be good for the street. I am wondering though, how my offset control arm bushing played into the caster if at all...hmmm.
Caster for my car was 6.3° for the left and 5.7° for the right. This was not adjusted. Acceptable values were between 6.1° - 7.1°. The difference from side to side could be a lot of things, I'm not going to guess why it's different.
My front left tire had a toe of -0.17° and the front right had a toe of 0.25°. So basically the wheels were pointing to the right. He centered the toe out at 0.8° for the front on both sides. Toe for the rear was 0.01° on the left and 0.21° on the right. Perfect for the rear right but off on the left. Acceptable range was 0.21° - 0.29° and was adjusted to 0.23° on both sides.
Camber was off on the rear based on the specs of the machine. Rear camber was specified between -1.9° - -1.6°. The tech was able to adjust the left side but said the right was maxed out. I ended up with -1.7° on the left rear and -0.9° on the right rear.
Same went for the front of the car where the specified range for camber was -1.4° - -0.4°. The front left was at -0.9° and the front right at -0.4°. The front camber was not adjustable on the stock configuration. I wasn't too concerned about these values as I have stock suspension and would like it to be at the stock settings for the street.
Overall I was pretty happy with Steve and Perfect Auto. He has a really nice building and a clean shop. His prices are reasonable and you can tell he was not rough with the cars. He didn't do the actual alignment. Avus told my buddy to ask for Steve to do it. I don't know if he really needs to do it as it is done by the computer. I wouldn't hesitate to tell other BMW owners to go here for an alignment.
Perfect Auto
364 W. Colorado Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91204
818.246.0949
So after putting on the two new INVOs on the rear my alignment has been pretty bad. I have to hold the wheel at an angle to go straight. If I move the wheel into neutral position the car will veer off the road. I decided to take it in to Perfect Auto in Glendale. My buddy who has an e92 just took his car there after a recommendation of Avus BMW. Steve from Perfect Auto quoted me $75, but ended up charging me $70.
I'm not an expert on toe, camber or caster. I just simply know what they mean. The values that were in the machine were for a generic BMW e36 non-convertible. That being said, the comparison of my numbers was in relation to that machine. I don't know if more or less toe, caster, or camber is good or bad or how to set my car up for the track. I do know that these numbers will be good for the street. I am wondering though, how my offset control arm bushing played into the caster if at all...hmmm.
Caster for my car was 6.3° for the left and 5.7° for the right. This was not adjusted. Acceptable values were between 6.1° - 7.1°. The difference from side to side could be a lot of things, I'm not going to guess why it's different.
My front left tire had a toe of -0.17° and the front right had a toe of 0.25°. So basically the wheels were pointing to the right. He centered the toe out at 0.8° for the front on both sides. Toe for the rear was 0.01° on the left and 0.21° on the right. Perfect for the rear right but off on the left. Acceptable range was 0.21° - 0.29° and was adjusted to 0.23° on both sides.
Camber was off on the rear based on the specs of the machine. Rear camber was specified between -1.9° - -1.6°. The tech was able to adjust the left side but said the right was maxed out. I ended up with -1.7° on the left rear and -0.9° on the right rear.
Same went for the front of the car where the specified range for camber was -1.4° - -0.4°. The front left was at -0.9° and the front right at -0.4°. The front camber was not adjustable on the stock configuration. I wasn't too concerned about these values as I have stock suspension and would like it to be at the stock settings for the street.
Overall I was pretty happy with Steve and Perfect Auto. He has a really nice building and a clean shop. His prices are reasonable and you can tell he was not rough with the cars. He didn't do the actual alignment. Avus told my buddy to ask for Steve to do it. I don't know if he really needs to do it as it is done by the computer. I wouldn't hesitate to tell other BMW owners to go here for an alignment.
Perfect Auto
364 W. Colorado Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91204
818.246.0949
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
2/7/2010 Track Day Big Willow @ Willow Springs!
Well Sunday the 7th was the first track day for this car. Having only owned the car for 2 months, I wanted to get it on the track to see where its limits were. I signed up for NASA's HPDE (high performance driving event). This was their first event of the season with clear skies projected for Sunday.
I originally singed up for Saturday, but with rain in the forecast I moved my spot to Sunday. I got the car teched, went to the driver's meeting and got ready for the first run. My instructor was pretty laid back, maybe a little too laid back. First time around I just got used to the car and listened to the instructors input on what lines to take. He was pretty quit, and I found myself asking him more questions than he was correcting me. Overall I was pretty slow first run out.
Second time out my instructor forgot to put down the bong and didn't show up until I had already gone out on the track. It was a beautiful day with just about 6 people in my class and no one on the track. After all, it was Superbowl Sunday. I began to remember how to drive a car fast.
After lunch I had John Matthew? I don't know, I forgot his last name, take my M3 on the track. He tracks an e36 as well and I figured he would know best how to race it. He asked me if I wanted a medium or fast run. I told him to go all out.
Seeing how John took the corners changed everything. He was in much higher gears than what I was doing. I had down shifted to 3rd on run 1. Totally unnecessary. 4th all the way. Also turns 3 through 6 were done all in 3rd. Made sense to me....shifting down to 2nd just screwed everything up for me. Seeing John first hand made it much easier than figuring it out myself.
He was in 5th gear going into turn 8, which....well, I left that up to him. No way I needed to be in 5th at turn 8. I was topping out at 4th getting up past 100-105 mph range. Turn 8 was probably my favorite corner of the track. So much speed but just holding on felt good.
Turn 9 was confusing and everyone had a different approach to taking this corner. My first instructor let the car die out and then dove in near the apex. John, the more experienced in my opinion, took the corner all at once. He described it as a decreasing radius. Slowly turning in at the correct speed throughout the corner yielded the fastest way around. The braking point was blind, the exit was blind, the turn was a little to advanced/technical for me to really worry about it. I didn't really try to gain seconds here, but learned nonetheless.
Turn 1 kept throwing me off. It's a classic banked corner. I couldn't seem to get it right. I really wanted to stay and just do corner 1 over and over again. Being a simple corner I couldn't understand why I wasn't hitting it faster. But then again I think I just knew I could go flat out through there. There was a lot of room for gaining speed. Turn 1 has more speed than I and others were giving it credit for.
Well that's about it for Big Willow. My instructor was a little bit of a stoner and didn't fill out my passport. I asked him to just move me up to HPDE2 and he was like, "well do another weekend."
I like the instruction but I went without him twice which is the same as HPDE2 so not a big deal. I drove home trying to stay awake, next is California Speedway.
Well that's about it for Big Willow. My instructor was a little bit of a stoner and didn't fill out my passport. I asked him to just move me up to HPDE2 and he was like, "well do another weekend."
I like the instruction but I went without him twice which is the same as HPDE2 so not a big deal. I drove home trying to stay awake, next is California Speedway.
Here's a few pics from the race.
My setup
Rune Gliffberg, the skater, Rune Gliffberg's e46. I thought, "wow, that dude has the same rare name as that skater. Then when I got home I realized it was him.
Fastest Road in the West
Gnarly e36
skies
Really dope 996/997 GT3 ish car running HPDE3 right now
Living the dream.
2/6/2010 Power Steering Round #2 and E46 Rear Shock Mount Replacement
So as I found out in the last post, the rubber for the power steering lines were hardened and no longer doing their job. I decided to replace the intake hose and return line. I ordered the replacement part with cooling pipe just for insurance. I also replaced the clunking rear shock mounts with E46 Mounts.
You can see in this picture the factory hose clamp around the center of the return hose. There is a little reducer in there. This helps in reducing the pressure and therefore leaks. Everything in this picture went on my car today except for the brake fluid.
There's not much to add on the power steering swap. I bled the system as I did before and just replaced the two lines. The only difference this time is that I had to remove the banjo bolt from the end of the cooling line to the rack. It is the same M16 22mm bolt. One kind of silly issue was that the center 10mm bolt holding the cooling pipe on was hard to get off. It was too close to the hard lines to get a 10mm socket around. A spanner does the trick, but was still hard to get in there. The replacement from Codan had the hole drilled a little lower.
I didn't take many more pictures down there, but as you can see the rack is filthy. I'm starting to think there is a combination of oil leaks collecting on this thing. My plan is to remove it and rebuild it when I get around to some suspension work.
I buttoned up the P/S system and crossed my fingers that the rack would stop it's perfuse leaking.
The other task at hand before I hit the track was fixing that loud clunking coming from the rear of the car! As anyone knows, the rear shock mounts are a problem area for the e36. I didn't look up any DIYs as this seemed pretty straight forward in the Bentley. Honestly the hardest part was realizing that I needed to take the rear speaker grills off to remove two screws to drop the rear speakers. Here is your first step in the rear shock mount removal. The grills come off best by lifting from the rear. I popped off about all the plastic tabs figuring this out.
Previous Owner put some crap "reference" speakers in the back that sound terrible. ICE is probably the last thing I'll do as most of my time is spent going to and from work listening to Claire Bolderson and Kai Ryssdal...my commute is 5 minutes.
So taking those screws out will allow you to move those big blocks out of the way. After that remove the carpet back there. Mine wasn't really held on by anything so it should come right out. You might have to take some plastic nuts off here and there, but I mean they're right there. Remove the sound deadening to reveal your RSMs.
The PO was nice enough to put in TMS rear shock mount reinforcement plates, but it looks like he used the bottom of the line JTD cheapys. I don't really go for the RSMs on the market. Maybe some people have had some good results with the aluminum ones, but I don't want that hard of a ride. The style that are two piece and can come loose and bonk all over the place. The bushings that were in there weren't even crushed! It was just installed poorly or just crap to being with. I don't know. Either way I replaced them with e46 M3 RSMs.
Next step is to jack the car up and remove some bolts. Two on the top and one on the bottom. You can support the trailing arm and take the wheel off if you want but totally unnecessary. The shock will drop right out so be ready.
After that, take your dirty shock and clean it off on the trunk of piece of shit e30 laying around. If you don't have the trunk of an e30, I suppose a work table or ground will work.
I forgot to mention one step about removing the top nut. If you don't have a vice it may be easier to bust it loose while still in the car. You have to hold the top with a hex key and break it free with a spanner. Honestly I don't know. I didn't have to do it, but I've done before with this method, either while in the car or while holding the shock in a vice, or between your legs, or with the help from a friend. Luckily I had an impact wrench..BRRUP BRRUP.
Take a good look at what order all the parts are in and replace them with your new parts. I replaced the bump stops because mine were all hard and cracked. This isn't necessary and they were $12 a piece. Here they are all put back together. The top nut torques down to 10ftlbs.
Here's a picture of the busted parts. Like I said the bushings weren't even blown out or anything, but it was clunking all over the place. I think they separated or they were just cheap.
Well that's about it. Take your shocks with new mounts and put them back in the car. Don't forget to use a new gasket as well as new collar bolts. These are replacement items. Torque to two collar bolts down to 17ftlbs and the rear bottom bolt to 37ftlbs iirc. Also tighten down the top bolt to 10ftlbs, or get close with a spanner and hex key. If you still hear a clunking noise the top bolt may need to be a little tighter. I also think the reinforcement plates are a good idea. Without those you can bust through the thin metal or just go through RSMs much faster. I, of course, kept that part.
After doing this there are no more clunks! Also the P/S has subsided most of it's leaks. Now I just have to find the oil leak... :/
1/31/2010 ICV Clean and Power Steering Round #1
Mileage 137,217
So Sunday I decided to flush the power steering system, change the reservoir and hose clamps. The reservoir should be replaced from time to time because it has a filter built inside of it. I heard the factory hose clamps can leak from the reservoir and my lines were pretty nasty. Only problem, the clamps had already been replaced. :(
There are a couple ways to flush the P/S fluid. You can simply use a turkey baster or suction gun to suck out whatever fluid is in the reservoir and then replace it with new fluid and repeat. Or you can remove the hose from the pump and turn the steering wheel from lock to lock until most of the fluid has been drained. I used the "optimal method" described below.
This was the DIY I used: http://www.dvatp.com/bmw/diy/power_steering_flush/
You can see the 22mm banjo bolt here that you have to remove. Once you bust it loose ATF should start coming out. The more you suck out of the reservoir the less is going to come out. I didn't really bother sucking any out. You can already see in this pic that fluid looks like it's dripping from behind the fitting.
You can see the system draining here. At least the PO used ATF like the system calls for instead of regular P/S fluid. The return line was held to the cooling pipe with a hose clamp. This is not the original part. There is supposed to be a hard clamp here. You would have to remove the clamp on the bottom of the reservoir to change the reservoir. I was able to pull the reservoir out with the two lines attached.
You can see the intake and return line are all gunked up. I didn't take a picture but there was a date of 1.18.2000 on the intake hose. It sucks that it has already been replaced and now it's failing again. Also the previous owner used fuel injection hose for the return line instead of P/S line. Not sure what the difference is but the P/S system is rated 1,000,000 PSI. I don't know what it is but it's not 40 psi like a fuel hose. Also like I already said, there is a reducer in the return line which helps with that pressure. If you don't have that you're return lines might leak. I assessed all of this once everything was out and decided to order a new intake and return line from the P/S reservoir.
While I had the P/S reservoir and lines out I decided to dig in there and clean out the Idle Control Valve. My idle has been surging with pretty poor drivability when the car is cold. The RPMs drop and bounce between shifts. When I come to a stop the RPMs would drop low and then bounce between 500-1100. Just down right annoying. I also read that the ICV is pretty difficult to remove without first removing the intake manifold. Eh, forget that, it's not like this is the first time I've tried to get my hands into a cramped German engine bay.
I should mention that to remove and replace the P/S reservoir on the 1995 e36 m3 you'll have to remove the intake box and MAF. No big deal. It's two 10mm bolts holding the cruise control module on and some hose clamps. Don't rip the box out, there is a temp sensor attached with at 10mm bolt.
Here you can see the cradle for the P/S reservoir. Underneath the manifold is the ICV. You'll have to remove that alternator cooling snorkel thingy as well. Mine was taped up. Yay!
You still can't really see the ICV in this picture but go ahead and remove that front intake manifold bracket. It's held on by one 10mm and one 13mm. The 13mm is a little deep and tight, but just be a man and break it free.
Alright, there's ICV all nestled in there. First thing to do is unplug it. After that there is a rubber ring holding it to a clamp. The ICV has to move parallel to the ground towards the fire wall to remove it from that ring. Before doing that try to loosen the two hose clamps on the inlet and outlet of the ICV. I was able to loosen the clamps all the way but the ICV had never been removed and I was unable to pry the hoses off of it. I ended up pulling the whole ICV out with hoses attached. The hose came off the intake manifold as I was trying to remove the hoses off the ICV so I figured, what the hell, I'm pulling this bitch out. There is a good chance of ripping the vacuum hoses this way so be prepared to replace them. There is also a possibility that they are hard and cracked anyway. I would've replaced them, but I didn't have the parts and there were no rips so they were reusable.
There is a direction to the air flow. There is a fat and skinny side. Remember which way the hoses go. It's not really possible to switch it around.
I cleaned out the ICV with some STP throttle body cleaner and some blue shop towels. Mine was disgusting! I mean it was pretty dirty. I don't think the valve inside was even moving. Once I had cleaned it out a bit I could feel the valve inside breaking free from all the dirt. If you whip it with your wrist, which you might do, the valve clinks against the side. I read it was fragile so don't whip that bitch around to dry it. The TB cleaner evaporates almost immediately.
I sprayed a bunch of cleaner inside the boot and cleaned that out. I also hit up the TB plate which had some gunk in it as well.
I put everything back together reverse of the way it came out. The hoses weren't totally hardened so I was able to reuse them. I also attached the hoses back to the ICV and wrangled that thing back into place. I don't really have any advice on how to do that. It wasn't exactly easy, but wasn't harder than changing the temp sensors on a Corrado VR6 or let alone anything on an Audi TT. The claim that you can't get to it without the removal of the intake manifold is overstated. At least on the s50. There might be a whole bunch of other shit in the way on other e36's.
Once the ICV was all cleaned up and back into position I put the P/S reservoir and lines back in.
I knew the lines were leaking and hardened into shape from the old hose clamps, but I didn't have anything to replace them with at the time. I cleaned them up to see if I could notice where the leaking was occurring.
I also cleaned up the cradle since that thing was covered in gunk as well.
Don't forget the new crush washers on the banjo fitting of the intake hose. Torque the 22mm bolt down to 30ftlbs if you can get a torque wrench in there.
The Bentley or that DIY calls for Dexron III on the e36. It was 1995 and I guess that's what they engineered the system to run on. I mean it's just Power Steering. You could probably get away with anything higher than Deron III, or synthetic, but who cares. The Castrol DEX/MERC was Dexron III rated and $3.99. When I flush the tranny with synthetic ATF, I might change the rack and use this to see if there is a difference. I'm not expecting any.
Fill up the reservoir and start the car. You'll have to attach the MAF and box in a way so the car doesn't stall. You can try to crank it to spin the pump and move the fluid through if that works. If the reservoir wasn't in such a tight spot you would put everything back together and just run the car with the cap off and add fluid as necessary as the P/S fluid gets into the rack. I added too much and had to draw it out. I used this suction gun that I use for tranny flushes.
Changing the clamps, washers and reservoir didn't fix the leak as the lines were bad. I decided to just order a new intake line and return line with cooling pipe as this car is more of a restoration/mod more than just a throw it together beater/track car. I don't think there is anything wrong with using a P/S hose for a return hose with a reducer and clamp in the middle. I just wanted to make absolutely sure the parts were correct and didn't want to cheap out on something that might still leak later down the road.
Cleaning out the ICV worked wonders! My idle no longer bobs up and down. Drivability on cold start-ups is much better. Overall acceleration has improved as well. It honestly feels like a mod. Sad to say that, but I really felt a difference. I didn't feel much of a difference when I changed the fuel filter, but cleaning the ICV was definitely made a noticeable overall improvement.
So Sunday I decided to flush the power steering system, change the reservoir and hose clamps. The reservoir should be replaced from time to time because it has a filter built inside of it. I heard the factory hose clamps can leak from the reservoir and my lines were pretty nasty. Only problem, the clamps had already been replaced. :(
There are a couple ways to flush the P/S fluid. You can simply use a turkey baster or suction gun to suck out whatever fluid is in the reservoir and then replace it with new fluid and repeat. Or you can remove the hose from the pump and turn the steering wheel from lock to lock until most of the fluid has been drained. I used the "optimal method" described below.
This was the DIY I used: http://www.dvatp.com/bmw/diy/power_steering_flush/
You can see the 22mm banjo bolt here that you have to remove. Once you bust it loose ATF should start coming out. The more you suck out of the reservoir the less is going to come out. I didn't really bother sucking any out. You can already see in this pic that fluid looks like it's dripping from behind the fitting.
You can see the system draining here. At least the PO used ATF like the system calls for instead of regular P/S fluid. The return line was held to the cooling pipe with a hose clamp. This is not the original part. There is supposed to be a hard clamp here. You would have to remove the clamp on the bottom of the reservoir to change the reservoir. I was able to pull the reservoir out with the two lines attached.
You can see the intake and return line are all gunked up. I didn't take a picture but there was a date of 1.18.2000 on the intake hose. It sucks that it has already been replaced and now it's failing again. Also the previous owner used fuel injection hose for the return line instead of P/S line. Not sure what the difference is but the P/S system is rated 1,000,000 PSI. I don't know what it is but it's not 40 psi like a fuel hose. Also like I already said, there is a reducer in the return line which helps with that pressure. If you don't have that you're return lines might leak. I assessed all of this once everything was out and decided to order a new intake and return line from the P/S reservoir.
While I had the P/S reservoir and lines out I decided to dig in there and clean out the Idle Control Valve. My idle has been surging with pretty poor drivability when the car is cold. The RPMs drop and bounce between shifts. When I come to a stop the RPMs would drop low and then bounce between 500-1100. Just down right annoying. I also read that the ICV is pretty difficult to remove without first removing the intake manifold. Eh, forget that, it's not like this is the first time I've tried to get my hands into a cramped German engine bay.
I should mention that to remove and replace the P/S reservoir on the 1995 e36 m3 you'll have to remove the intake box and MAF. No big deal. It's two 10mm bolts holding the cruise control module on and some hose clamps. Don't rip the box out, there is a temp sensor attached with at 10mm bolt.
Here you can see the cradle for the P/S reservoir. Underneath the manifold is the ICV. You'll have to remove that alternator cooling snorkel thingy as well. Mine was taped up. Yay!
You still can't really see the ICV in this picture but go ahead and remove that front intake manifold bracket. It's held on by one 10mm and one 13mm. The 13mm is a little deep and tight, but just be a man and break it free.
Alright, there's ICV all nestled in there. First thing to do is unplug it. After that there is a rubber ring holding it to a clamp. The ICV has to move parallel to the ground towards the fire wall to remove it from that ring. Before doing that try to loosen the two hose clamps on the inlet and outlet of the ICV. I was able to loosen the clamps all the way but the ICV had never been removed and I was unable to pry the hoses off of it. I ended up pulling the whole ICV out with hoses attached. The hose came off the intake manifold as I was trying to remove the hoses off the ICV so I figured, what the hell, I'm pulling this bitch out. There is a good chance of ripping the vacuum hoses this way so be prepared to replace them. There is also a possibility that they are hard and cracked anyway. I would've replaced them, but I didn't have the parts and there were no rips so they were reusable.
There is a direction to the air flow. There is a fat and skinny side. Remember which way the hoses go. It's not really possible to switch it around.
I cleaned out the ICV with some STP throttle body cleaner and some blue shop towels. Mine was disgusting! I mean it was pretty dirty. I don't think the valve inside was even moving. Once I had cleaned it out a bit I could feel the valve inside breaking free from all the dirt. If you whip it with your wrist, which you might do, the valve clinks against the side. I read it was fragile so don't whip that bitch around to dry it. The TB cleaner evaporates almost immediately.
I sprayed a bunch of cleaner inside the boot and cleaned that out. I also hit up the TB plate which had some gunk in it as well.
I put everything back together reverse of the way it came out. The hoses weren't totally hardened so I was able to reuse them. I also attached the hoses back to the ICV and wrangled that thing back into place. I don't really have any advice on how to do that. It wasn't exactly easy, but wasn't harder than changing the temp sensors on a Corrado VR6 or let alone anything on an Audi TT. The claim that you can't get to it without the removal of the intake manifold is overstated. At least on the s50. There might be a whole bunch of other shit in the way on other e36's.
Once the ICV was all cleaned up and back into position I put the P/S reservoir and lines back in.
I knew the lines were leaking and hardened into shape from the old hose clamps, but I didn't have anything to replace them with at the time. I cleaned them up to see if I could notice where the leaking was occurring.
I also cleaned up the cradle since that thing was covered in gunk as well.
Don't forget the new crush washers on the banjo fitting of the intake hose. Torque the 22mm bolt down to 30ftlbs if you can get a torque wrench in there.
The Bentley or that DIY calls for Dexron III on the e36. It was 1995 and I guess that's what they engineered the system to run on. I mean it's just Power Steering. You could probably get away with anything higher than Deron III, or synthetic, but who cares. The Castrol DEX/MERC was Dexron III rated and $3.99. When I flush the tranny with synthetic ATF, I might change the rack and use this to see if there is a difference. I'm not expecting any.
Fill up the reservoir and start the car. You'll have to attach the MAF and box in a way so the car doesn't stall. You can try to crank it to spin the pump and move the fluid through if that works. If the reservoir wasn't in such a tight spot you would put everything back together and just run the car with the cap off and add fluid as necessary as the P/S fluid gets into the rack. I added too much and had to draw it out. I used this suction gun that I use for tranny flushes.
Changing the clamps, washers and reservoir didn't fix the leak as the lines were bad. I decided to just order a new intake line and return line with cooling pipe as this car is more of a restoration/mod more than just a throw it together beater/track car. I don't think there is anything wrong with using a P/S hose for a return hose with a reducer and clamp in the middle. I just wanted to make absolutely sure the parts were correct and didn't want to cheap out on something that might still leak later down the road.
Cleaning out the ICV worked wonders! My idle no longer bobs up and down. Drivability on cold start-ups is much better. Overall acceleration has improved as well. It honestly feels like a mod. Sad to say that, but I really felt a difference. I didn't feel much of a difference when I changed the fuel filter, but cleaning the ICV was definitely made a noticeable overall improvement.