Wrenchin... Adventures under the hood... Put em here.

[wooley12]

So, it's fatal without transfusions of $$$. OR put a Heli-coil in yourself for about $50 and see what happens? Or call for it to be hauled away and rent a truck.

[bodywhomper]

Helicoil, yes. But I’m going to pay my mechanic to do it. Lack of experience, pretty poor working area, and long hole to get to the helicoil spot (ie easy to be off) are my reasons/excuses. /sellout

[wooley12]

Good reasoning.

[Djongo Unchained]

Helicoil, yes. But I’m going to pay my mechanic to do it. Lack of experience, pretty poor working area, and long hole to get to the helicoil spot (ie easy to be off) are my reasons/excuses. /sellout

"Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you".

No sellout. Now's the point where your money is better spent getting someone with experience doing it. Likely easy for them and the cheapest alternative.

[bodywhomper]

Hoping its easy and there's no bigger issues from passing part of the plug.

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[highangle]

Toyota may have used a steel insert for the plug threads, whomper...It sorta looks like that in your pic.
Those plug threads may be replaceable.

[ill-advised strategy]

Fwiw I’d be paying a pro at that stage too.

Here’s hoping it goes well.

[Djongo Unchained]

Yeah, when the plug slides in, instead of threading and bottoms out, well:

A. that's pretty funny.
B. but mostly that suuuuuucks.
C. time to get an experienced hand at the remedy for this.

Be running like a top in no time.

[bodywhomper]

Looking through the mud forum, this issue doesn’t look super uncommon, except for the part where the spark plug falls apart into the cylinder. Misthreading, seems to typically be the cause. Apparently, 10-15 yrs ago when this sort of work on the uzj-fe engine was less common, some shops removed the head to install helicoil/insert.

[Norseman]

Xpost from the 10-yr-old car thread, sorry...

Considering picking up a Mk5 Golf TDI as a commuter but I don't know shit about these.

Can anyone here provide some perspective on the maintenance of these cars? Common problems, etc?

[ICantLogIn]

Fuck replacing the thermostat and water pump on my X3 335i N55 on Sunday. When I bought the car I had the dealership replace the water pump because BMW considers the electric water pumps on their turbo ed engine a wear item like pads or spark plugs. Well they never replaced the thermostat which is now stuck open. So Im just going to replace the water pump since I need to take it out anyway. Luckily my buddy own a repair shop and gave me use of his shop on Sunday, which is awesome. Should go like this (I like this guys rims).

[The Reverend Floater]

My Fj62, "Bachman", got some love this week.

Replaced the front driveline with a smaller diameter custom job to make a bit more room for the Ls3 and 4L60E. The stock one only had millimeters to spare.

Next, I installed a brake controller and 7 pin connector... That was a real cock sucker because no wires were by the book thanks to the drivetrain swap. I also replaced the tranny pan gasket as it had a small but annoying leak.

So after all of this, I took her out hunting this evening, enjoying my triumph.... Until I lost a ton of power in the low end. She was fine at speed but barely inched off the line. Dejected, I pulled her into the garage. My Google sleuthing led to about fifty possibilities, most of which were cat related (no cats on Bachman) or MAF related (it got a new one during the swap so this was unlikely).

One thing that was in the back of my mind was some weird behavior that had happened when I originally drove it back from Montana.... Twice, after stopping for gas it wouldn't start without a 3 minute breather and sounded fuel starved but would then start and run great. I got it home and after a few tanks of gas, it never happened again so I figured old gas or something fluke like.

Well, with that in my head and the new conundrum, I decided to replace the fuel pump this evening. I had purchased a spare and figured it couldnt hurt to start a new baseline but I wasn't too hopeful on the power issue.

Thanks to Toyotas trap door and the fact that the Walboro replacement was plug and play, it only took me about an hour. I fired it up and let it idle for about five minutes. Hopped in, and bam! That iron pig was faster than its ever been, low or high end. I think the fuel pump was gradually dying and I simply hadn't noticed the deterioration. Incredible difference. I'm going to buy and replace the inlet filter tomorrow.

Best of all, projects never, ever go that smoothly for me.

Now on to headlight swap, and rear airbags.

[basinbeater]

Good stuff guys. I keep making progress on my 540i project. The new transmission showed up the other day, and I got the old one out. New one is from a crashed low mile e39 M5. Crashed is good cause you know it was running. While I wait for the special tool to pull the flywheel, I decided to take a peek in the oil pan and see how many nuts and bolts were loose. Answer? All of em, and one just straight up missing. Someone half assed it in there before I got to it. So I dug around the parts bin, and found a bolt for the oil pump mount, and the 5, yep, 5 bolts that had fallen out of the oil pump were replaced. I also hammered out the impact crater from a rock or something in the pan. A new gasket, and some nice black oil resistant rtv, and back together she goes. Oh, I love simple green and a toilet brush for cleaning my stuff.
Also threw in a new oil filter. Sunday, the flywheel will come off, replace the rear main seal, replace the rear block coolant gasket, put clutch in, new pilot bearing, and get the new transmission installed. Maybe ready to drive by Tuesday or Wednesday?

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[gravitylover]

^^ Dude you take on some burly jobs. I'm impressed.

[basinbeater]

It's not so bad. I'm stoked to have some light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully this thing will be pretty sorted mechanically when. I finish up this week. Someone pulled out the auto climate control valves, and replaced with a manual valve. So if you want heat, you gotta pop the hood and turn the valve. I got a good used one, so need to replumb the hvac pipes and get that back to auto climate control goodness too. Trying to get everything sorted in one go.

[basinbeater]

I don't want to buy a new flywheel, #cheapbastard so I'm gonna pull the flywheel and sand the surface with some 180 on the da and see how it turns out.

[basinbeater]

Trying to fix this one up on a budget, (but do it right) as the car itself was only $2k. Once I unload the 7 series wheel, I should be into the car for ~$1700 or so, and parts wise, I've only spend about $400 so far, and about $600 on paint. Want to have it all sorted ready for daily duty for under $4k.
Went biking today, so little off topic stoke.

[basinbeater]

Back at it. Pulled the flywheel. Love the big air impact. Busts those flywheel bolts off in 2 seconds. Replaced the rear main seal and pilot bearing.





Should be able to get the transmission in tomorrow.

[east or bust]

so back in April I drove over a freshly, and very poorly, constructed tar & chip road and got tar all over the rockers and flares. for some reason this morning in a hungover daze i found the motivation to break out the WD and a whole lot of elbow grease. pretty pleased with end result, should have taken a before and after pic.

next going to need to tackle the rust spreading through the rockers.. don't even know if it's worth it at this point, but with the rest of the vehicle mechanically sound I'd hate to part with it due to a failed inspection

[4matic]

540i will be awesome daily driver

[basinbeater]

Clutch and transmission are in, and everything bolted back up. Runs great. My pic taking slacked off, but it just looks like the underside of a car. I did find a cheap nearly new remanufactured bosch starter, so I put that in as well, as the old one was struggling to do the task.
I drove it to work today, and it is the first time I have seen the paint in the outdoors, and I am pretty satisfied. Still have to clean up a few clear coat runs, and finish up some cosmetic trim bits.

I did have a near disaster yesterday though. Total bonehead rookie move, and I got really lucky.
I was installing a new slave cylinder in the bellhousing, and I bolted it up, and then set to checking operation, and when I pushed the clutch pedal down, I felt a pop, and clutch brake fluid began leaking out of the bellhousing. I nearly sh*t my pants. I unbolted the cylinder, and quickly reached my fingers in the hole, and was able to retrieve the pushrod, and barbed washer that holds it together, and the spring was still in the cylinder. But looking at it, I thought, man there must be a piston or something from the slave still missing in the bellhousing somewhere. I cursed a whole bunch, and hunted around for my copper flexy magnet recovery tool, and after about 15 minutes of looking for it and cursing how stupid I am, I finally found it, and on the first try, was able to snag the steel slave cylinder piston, and pulled it out. Installed the old gnarly lookin slave cylinder (which was working fine before) and decided what the hell, and fired it up, no rattling, no sounds from the bellhousing. Transmission shifted well. All good. Phew. Man I got so lucky, and I am so dumb. I was rushing, and didn't have the pushrod of the slave lined up in the clutch fork. SO DUMB. Sometimes you get lucky after you are dumb. I love my copper magnet picker upper thingy.
Anyway, car ran great on the way to work this morning. Yay.

oh, the buggers at LUK included the wrong clutch alignment tool, not even close, luckily, my old Porsche 944 uses about the same size internal diameter on the pilot bearing. A bit of tape to make the friction disc part of the tool larger, and went for it. All good.

[Harry]

My goal in life is to own a former basinbeater car.

[basinbeater]

Obstruction, a beat up junker in the driveway drives the wife nuts, and a non functioning v8 rwd manual gives me no joy.

Harry, it is important to have goals in life. If you want, special for you, you can buy my 1995 land cruiser. Maggot special pricing. $6500. 168k miles.
Ready to drive to wherever you want.

[lifelinksplit]

Obstruction, a beat up junker in the driveway drives the wife nuts, and a non functioning v8 rwd manual gives me no joy.

Harry, it is important to have goals in life. If you want, special for you, you can buy my 1995 land cruiser. Maggot special pricing. $6500. 168k miles.
Ready to drive to wherever you want.

Dooo it! That's a solid deal.(lockers?)

[basinbeater]

no factory lockers or it would be more. But... I do have a lunch box locker (I think it's an Aussie, but they are all the same) I could toss in the rear end for ya if you like it that way. They work great in the 80s, because they are awd all the time.