Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Hal1

I've 2 40 year old conifer tree stumps at the back, but would need a mini digger to get at them. That jack looked handy enough for that stump tho .

eringobragh

Hal1 wrote: »

I've 2 40 year old conifer tree stumps at the back, but would need a mini digger to get at them. That jack looked handy enough for that stump tho .

Off-ish topic but my advice to anyone attempting to remove a tree leave a good bit of the trunk so you can use it as a lever when removing it

Life lessons

On topic - I changed the alternator on the MR2 last week, original one still in her, rotor and stator had rusted shut together and ate the belt.

Planned a rebuild but case was cracked so swapped it out. What a cnut of a job few pics will throw up later

Wibbs

lafors wrote: »

Eventually got the correct brake discs for my car. Last ones they sent were 4mm too tall, turns out they were for a 745i not 645. The site I ordered from had and still has the wrong set selected for the 6 series.

Great minds think alike and such. Got a set of new disks for my own.


Ignore ratty rims in need of a clean.

Some more bits.



The new camber and toe arms already in and alligned. Even though the originals were remarkably solid after 150,000 Kms the new have tightened things up nicely. The whole back end is now all new on the bush front.

Next up will be the timing belt, tensioner and water pump(and new coolant). Then it'll be the clutch next.


Original clutch is ok, well I think it may be on it's way out. This full Honda kit(clutch plate, pressure plate and bearing) came up on the ebay for a price I couldn't refuse kinda thing(130 quid), so thought I'd grab it.

Hal1

In the middle of changing my power steering pump. Just a question on it though.
How do I slacken the belt? I've removed the lower cover and I'm greeted with 4 pulleys. Crank, alt, water, p/steering. Is the tensioner under the top cover?

I've a pic attached.

shietpilot

The tensioner could be under the cover but on some cars you have to loosen the alternator to slacken the belt. What car, model, year and engine is it? I can check it out..

Hal1

It's a mk1 focus 2003 thanks. I've been reading about some of them use stretch belts so would need a tool to remove. I was hoping to do it myself .

shietpilot

Hal1 wrote: »

It's a mk1 focus 2003 thanks. I've been reading about some of them use stretch belts so would need a tool to remove. I was hoping to do it myself .

What engine is in it?

Toyotafanboi

I remember doing the alt belt on my mk1 1.8tddi and there was a tensioner buried between the back corner of the block and the firewall.

I think it's safe to assume we can see the whole belt route in that pic and I can't see a tensioner. I'd be saying slacker the alternator.

Hal1

shietpilot wrote: »

What engine is in it?

Zetec se 1.6 petrol.

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I remember doing the alt belt on my mk1 1.8tddi and there was a tensioner buried between the back corner of the block and the firewall.

I think it's safe to assume we can see the whole belt route in that pic and I can't see a tensioner. I'd be saying slacker the alternator.

Yap, I think that's my next choice. Will see how it goes.

Hal1

I got the alternator removed which was ofcourse the way to go, but now there is a new problem. There is big union nut on the underneath side of the pump, that pipe goes to the rack, it doesn't want to come off easy. I've soaked it in wd40 for now, so have to use an adjustable as I've no 16mm spanner, leverage is the new problem now.

Hal1

Right, anyone got a loan of a 16mm flare nut wrench please? or know anywhere that would stock them. I don't want to risk rounding this nut as I've to reuse it. You'd be helping out a lot .

Edit: I'll be making a trip out to bradshaws in newbridge tomorrow, they might be able to help out.

fancy pigeon

Hal1 wrote: »

Right, anyone got a loan of a 16mm flare nut wrench please? or know anywhere that would stock them. I don't want to risk rounding this nut as I've to reuse it. You'd be helping out a lot .

Edit: I'll be making a trip out to bradshaws in newbridge tomorrow, they might be able to help out.

I have a brake spanner set that includes the 16mm spanner, got it in Fairyhouse market.

We got a cheap set as the set isn't used much outside of pipes and hoses

Hal1

Well, just back from my travels now after my treasure hunt for the magic spanner . I went to 6 motor factors and as a last resort went to halfords. They had a 15/17mm closed spanner which is dam close to what I need.

I think the size is somewhere between them or a non metric size . The halfords spanner has 6 sides and the ones I used were 8 sided. So I'm thinking it may fit. Thanks for the offer Mr Pigeon, I will see how I get on and let you know.

Wibbs

Timing belt, tensioner and valve cover gaskets now done. Water pump was like new and smooth of bearing(only 6000 kms on it) so left well alone. Air con idler pulley sorted. 80 quid plus from Honda, 5 quid if you get the product number from the bearing and buy that on eBay. Frosty. Not so much for what laughingly passes for "summer" in Ireland, but a major boon in clearing windscreens come winter. Mucho kudos and thanks to my mechanic and mate who helped sort things where I was lacking(often and hilariously so. I'm his comic relief )

All this has been my single biggest yearly spend on maintenance for my car in over a decade and still well under a grand, including labour and time. And that includes a genuine Honda clutch kit for 130 squids and a water pump and coolant, that I have ready should I need them. Result. If only I wasn't being taken roughly from behind without even a reach around by the insurance **** it would make Scrooge look recklessly extravagant. To be fair drivers of Toyota Corolla's of the same vintage would likely consider this crazy money to be spending. They get ornery if they have to replace a brake light.

Whoda thunk it, bangernomics with a VTEC just kicked in(on the relatively regular) Integra Type R.

Hal1

New vs old, pump is done...

shietpilot

Managed to get an onboard computer for my E36 for a measly €15 along with other stuff like an owners manual, kidney grilles, MAF and air box so I tackled the installation today.

The problem with buying used OBCs for E36s is that according to the Interwebz, the OBC is useless without a wiring harness. Well mine didn't come with one

I went down to Kilcock Car Dismantlers and cut off a few connectors from the E36 there that were similar to the ones used on the OBC.

There are a lot more pins on the connector than there are on the OBC itself


I removed the outer casing on the connectors and dremeled the connector to the correct length so it has 18 pins for each connector.

Test fitting connectors:


Next I began filling the connector with the pins I will need for the OBC using a wiring diagram. The pins are the ones I removed previously from the random connectors I cut off in the scrap yard:


Connectors with all the required pins set up:


I quickly bench tested the OBC before I began stripping the car:


Interior stripped down. Removed the plastics surrounding the steering column, the instrument cluster, analog clock, 12V socket etc.


Again using wiring diagrams I tapped into all the required wiring in the car. Ground, 12V and illumination from the old analog clock harness. Switched 12V from under the steering column. Various speed/distance inputs from the instrument cluster harnesses. The connectors on the instrument cluster were missing pins that I needed so I had to take the connectors apart and install some connectors.

Finally the wiring was (almost) complete:


Now I have a working OBC. Tomorrow I plan to tidy up the wiring, run another wire to the immobiliser and put it back together. I am still missing an outside air temperature sensor that I need to find and wire up.

All in all happy out with the progress for one night after work

vintagevrs

You defo need to have an interest in these things, as there is no rationale reason for ever spending all that time and effort to put an OBC into a car from the 90s! Well done in getting it going, looks like there was a fair bit of figuring out. Nice one.

shietpilot

vintagevrs wrote: »

You defo need to have an interest in these things, as there is no rationale reason for ever spending all that time and effort to put an OBC into a car from the 90s! Well done in getting it going, looks like there was a fair bit of figuring out. Nice one.

Just an extra feature that is rare in E36s I didn't have an interest in getting an OBC but it came up for so cheap that I picked it up 10 mins after the ad was placed and installed it

As they say you learn by doing so it's a good little project for one night

Cheensbo

Heard there were a few boardsies heading to mondello this monday so decided to pull the tangoed toyota out and get it ready to join the fun.

Didn't need to do much, just a general check over of fluids etc, a pair of tyres for the front, and a set of brake pads.
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The last set of tyres - kumho ecsta xs ku36 - found them unreal for dry grip, got two hard half days at autoheroes out of them - about 280km or that so quite happy with them - certainly got everything out of them
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Threw on a pair of used toyo r888s on the front so we will see how they compare to the kumhos.
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Looking forward to hitting the track!

shietpilot

Looking forward to a bit of track time alright. Good work man

vintagevrs

I was close to going to pulling the trigger on Mondello too. I paid for a set of clutch plates for my diff a month ago and yer man still hasn't even posted them ffs.... I had in my head if they were here and fitted before Monday I would book in to it but will have to wait for another time. I see those events are semi regular now anyway so hopefully yer man pulls the finger out and sends me my stuff.

dar_cool

Done an oil filter, air filter and oil change on my missus 2007 passat, put it up on the ramp and undone the sump plug, ****in thing was over tightened by last garage that serviced it and was leaking(a well known company based in crumlin). Thought to myself it was going to be a sump off job but got a replacement bolt and it worked a treat. I have an oil suction device but find it leaves a good bit in the sump when using it so prefer to take the sump plug off. Especially with have the 2 post lift, makes every job so easy

Wibbs

dar_cool wrote: »

I have an oil suction device but find it leaves a good bit in the sump when using it so prefer to take the sump plug off.

That method seems to vary quite a bit between different engines. On mine it sucks the lot out. I've used the sucker and then took the sump plug off and maybe a couple of drops might come out. With other engines I've heard the same as your experience.

lafors

Wibbs wrote: »

That method seems to vary quite a bit between different engines. On mine it sucks the lot out. I've used the sucker and then took the sump plug off and maybe a couple of drops might come out. With other engines I've heard the same as your experience.

Any recommendations on a good one (fast)? I've 8.4l to take out each time and the one I have is way way too slow.

crasy dash

Anyone used the 12v electric one that appears in lidl from time to time?

I have a Sealey manual one and it took 35min to take out 4.5l out of my car.

I see garages using the vacuum operated ones so if you had a compressor those would be far quicker

Wibbs

lafors wrote: »

Any recommendations on a good one (fast)? I've 8.4l to take out each time and the one I have is way way too slow.

Sorry I'm no help there. The one I use is a mates, standard type one that looks like this.

joujoujou

joujoujou wrote: »

[...]

May get some better LED bulbs later. :cool:

That "later" took 6 1/2 months!

Once found a photo in the web showing LED panels specially designed to fit that light cluster. Tried to find them on ebay and few other places - no luck. But recently checked aliexpress, and surprise surprise! Ordered, got them and installed.

How these panels look like:





LEDs until now:





And LEDs now:





6 euro very well spent, especially the whole bundle consists of 2 sets of panels (6 items in total).

On the other note, Chinese smart lads made them that way there's no need to be aware (and follow) + and - thing - whatever polarisation is fine! :eek:

Dartz

New Sparkplgs. New Oil Filter. Fresh fill of 15W40

Rock and roll.

Not to bad for 30k.... ash comes off cleanly.

MetzgerMeister

That trailing plug seems to be fairly filthy!

Are you using RE7C-L and RE9B-T?

shietpilot

The release bearing started to make noise and send vibrations through the clutch pedal in my E36 during the last Trackdays.ie track day at Mondello Park.

I decided to remove the gearbox today and see what's up.

I removed the full exhaust, front section of the prop, starter, clutch slave cylinder, gearbox mount, shifter linkage and removed all the bell housing bolts.

This is what I was greeted with once the box was off:


Ball bearing balls at the bottom of the bell housing :eek:

This is all that was left of the release bearing. Only about half of the bearing balls were still in it


Factory clutch:


Finally the dual mass flywheel:


Cleaned up and left the car without a gearbox for now. I'll need to order in the parts and fit them next weekend. With the gearbox out of the way it makes it easy to change a few plastic coolant hoses that are common to go so I'll be ordering those as well. Should be all ready for the next track day soon