Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Right, so I replaced the battery. Easy peasy. But things aren't working quite right. Immediately after replacing the battery I went to the car and tried the buttons. I could open the boot and open the doors. But the lock button wasn't working. Weird. There's a key initialisation process whereby you insert the key in the ignition, turn to position 1 and back to off and out. Then press and hold the open button and press lock 3 times and release the open button. But this process isn't working.

I've tried a number of these button press combinations with now luck. The key starts the car fine, and if I put the key in the drivers door it will open all the doors. It just won't work with the buttons now. Not too sure...

I've checked the battery with a multi-meter and it is charged. I've checked the buttons on the key with the same and they all appear to work. I have been able to initialise the other working key using the above method, but it simply doesn't work with the other key with the replaced battery.

Hmmm...

I've had problems with procedures similar to this before. I suggest leaving it until tomorrow and then have a fresh read of the instructions to see if there is a possibility that you are interpreting it differently to what the writer intended. In my case I had to watch a youtube video to exactly follow the intended procedure.

Another suggestion is that it might be worth disconnecting the battery again and starting again from scratch in case something has gone "half wrong".

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Jaysis that is some mess of electrics!

Makes my DIY job for the day look like nothing. One of my keys in the e46 hasn't worked properly for years. Probably 3 years ago my main key would no longer reliably open the car remotely, and worse it began having trouble talking to the immobilizer. I swapped to the spare key and all's been good since. But the spare key is now showing its age.

After googling, a lot of people suggest that the batteries die in these keys, and need replacing. What sucks is that they are no user replaceable, BMW wants you to buy a new key at 200 quid. Feck that, so I've ordered a new battery and last night took apart the old key. It's a pain in the hole, as you have to cut the key open. A lot of swearing and trying not to injure myself and I had it open. 3v battery only reading 2.7v on the multimeter. At least that's a sign that the battery is indeed not healthy. I've ordered a kit, as the battery is soldered on, the kit allows you to de-solder the terminals and replace the whole thing. So fingers crossed it works.

Does the toothbrush charger hack work on these keys or is that just an urban legend?

October purchase installed. Rusted exhaust pipe cut, new one welded. The same time passenger's side driveshaft replaced - massive rust under vibration damper, didn't take a gamble snap or not. New gear fluid (Redline MT90).

By the way - here's old heatshield:



Planned obsolescence ffs. :mad:

A nice simple task: the 607 had it's ignition barrel replaced at some stage meaning the keys didn't match! However, all is not lost. I have a fairly expensive spares car (can't type that with a straight face!) with matching locks... So swap the lot over!

So that's the glovebox, door lock and ignition barrel. The glovebox requires 2 pins at the bottom to remove, so no pictures of it's replacement. It takes longer to type this paragraph/glorified sentence than to remove and replace!

Next, the door lock. Like a lot of stuff with this car, to remove the lock requires the outer door handle off (lovely metal handles and all) as the lock actually goes in, opposed to out (headlamps are a prime example of this. They go into the engine bay instead of going forward to remove!). Access requires some dexterity


Just to change this crappy little nub!


Don't bother trying not to remove the barrel in situ; it's so fiddly you'll waste a lot of time you could have spent

Next: ignition barrel. Simple really, remove shrouds/pickup antenna, disconnect the plugs, remove the grub screw on top of the barrel, insert key to anything but position 0, press the tab and remove. The switch and cables also come with it, so carefully feed them around other wires and through the barrel


The replacement switch had a wonky switch, so that was swapped next!


It's held with a crappy metal clip with plastic shims pry it out, move the key barrel back and the switch pulls straight up


Now do the same to the other switch. You can see the crappy clip to the left of the starter


Refit the lot, hooray! One key car :P

While I was there, I refurbished an ashtray I had spare. Yes, they are a nuisance to remove from in situ (just a lot to take off) but after cleaning this one up, lengthening the cables (the rear cigar lighter uses the same ground) and cleaning up the port, I now have a pair of working cigar lighters once again


Plenty more fun ahead with this car :cool:

fancy pigeon wrote: »

.........

Now that is a proper workbench, broken sh*t everywhere, greasy, and bottles, cans and tubes of random stuff lying about :D:D:pac::pac::pac:

Today I replaced the spark plugs. This isn't a trivial task on a transverse engined V6 as the rear three are very hard to access. The car is a Lexus RX400h. I studied a YouTube video before starting that showed how to do it without removing the wipers and front scuttle. No special tools needed - just my trusty Lidl socket set, some spanners and pliers and a big Allen key. Stubby spanners were useful.

Engine bay:


First remove covers:


Remove air filter housing:


Remove one of the front plugs to make sure the new ones match before we go any further:


Remove MAF and intake resonators:


Next remove throttle body but leave it connected as the hoses contain coolant. Then remove the mounting block behind throttle body. The bolts for the mounting block were very difficult to access for both removal and refitting.


Finally remove the intake plenum/manifold. This was handy enough but two studs had to be removed after their nuts were taken off to allow it to slide out. Also there are two hidden bolts on mounting brackets around the back.


At this point the coil packs and plugs were reasonably easy to access and remove. I had put a cloth over the intakes to prevent anything from falling in. I gave the throttle body a bit of a clean while I had access.

As the late great John Haines would say, reassembly is the reverse of dismantling.

When refitting the aforementioned mounting block for the throttle body, I was very worried about dropping a bolt as I was trying to reach around and align it with my fingertips so I invented this top tip using a length of nylon fishing line:


I tied a loop in the line a littler larger than the head of the bolt and looped the other end over a convenient hose. When I got the bolt started on the thread I was able to slip it over the head before tightening. As it happened I didn't drop it but I did have a scary moment when my 14mm socket came off the extension bar (I was able to reach it with a pointy pliers).

The whole job took me 4 hours (including several interruptions). I don't expect to do it again but if I did I reckon I'd do it in less than three.

I've still got pains in the backs of my knees from all the stretching over!

Great job, looks perfect on my phone screen even zoomed

breadbin wrote:

How did you do it?

Wet sanded it down and buffed it up.

Stolen from YLYL

Typical French electrical weirdness.
I still have never owned a French car, primarily because of that kind of head melting stuff.

Serviced the car Saturday evening, 5W-40 oil change with Mann filter, Mann Pollen Filters changed, new Expansion tank and cap to fix a coolant leak and coolant changed. Front discs and pads up next once I get the seized spacers off!

fancy pigeon wrote: »

Oh I don't blame you, this car requires a lot of thought and patience at times, it's certainly not for the faint hearted!

But a lot of this cars elec issues (which weren't caused by butchery by the previous ape) have been with the likes of the gearbox and abs which is all... Bosch

Same with the 406, it's ABS module packed up, Bosch system

Bosch are only fair with electrics, but their FI systems are a lot better than Delphi that much I do know.
I bought Bosch brake pads once and wondered why they were so dusty, dug the box out of the rubbish and they were Made in India, not saying all their stuff is made on the sub-continent but I'd wager a fair share of it is.

Took the back half of the exhaust off. Plan is to bodge it back together! Just to make 1 journey to somewhere i can fit a proper exhaust. Also ran a starter cable from the engine bay to the boot. Going to move the battery to the back at some stage. Not sure exactly im going to wire it up and where to sit the battery yet but the awkward job is done.



Lovely day for it.

Replaced rear shocks on Saturday, it was great fun.


https://i.imgur.com/rxh98ez.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/V1xwMh3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TBXmjE1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DKVP5ba.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XojOm6A.jpg

Tested few days ago. In one go! Happy days!

Bit of needless DIY. Car was in the main dealer for a separate issue, drivers handle needed replacing... and this is how the car was returned. Very poor form for a main dealer, but because it's 11 years old its only scrap and doesn't matter how it looks :rolleyes:

Lucky I had primer, lacquer and the exact colour in a spray can.

Did you ask them why it wasn't painted?

We have found that no matter how small an item we have to paint, painting incurs a certain minimum cost which is quite high. Painting any article smaller than a body panel costs €60+ VAT and even at that you dont really make anything on it. That's towing eye covers, door handles, headlamp washer jet covers, mirror caps, fuel filler doors etc.

I used to keep the defibrillator on standby when quoting people. 95% would decline the whole thing.

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Did you ask them why it wasn't painted?

We have found that no matter how small an item we have to paint, painting incurs a certain minimum cost which is quite high. Painting any article smaller than a body panel costs €60+ VAT and even at that you dont really make anything on it. That's towing eye covers, door handles, headlamp washer jet covers, mirror caps, fuel filler doors etc.

I used to keep the defibrillator on standby when quoting people. 95% would decline the whole thing.

I had a door handle replaced a few years back after a break in. Main Toyota dealer did the job. I came out and found a chrome effect handle on the driver's door.. the rest are matte black... I simply and calmly went back in and said that's not good enough. Next day it was replaced with the the right one. Couldn't believe they tried it on. Doesn't matter how old the car.

Made a little mod on my Golf, even though I promised myself I wouldn't waste money on this sort of thing, but this was mega cheap.

I acquired a switch with the auto function for free so that helped, then I got one of these little light sensors, they are on Ebay, Amazon etc for like €20.

Pop the old switch out, the light sensor connects between the back of the switch and the loom plug for the switch, plug and play. Ran the cable behind the dash and up beside the A-Pillar. The sensor isn't stuck down in the photos (nor is the switch fully seated in the dash) but I stuck it in right to the pillar with the excess cable hidden. These were just a few quick pics while I done it during a stolen ten minutes I had.

Not only does this enable auto lights but the switch also allows you to activate guide me home lights and welcome lights that activate with the central locking without having to use ODIS etc to activate the function, just a sequence of switch selections to activate it.

Also didn't need a single tool to do this, which is always nice.

https://m.ebay.ie/itm/202078437639?ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%2Frover%2F1%2F5282-53468-19255-0%2F1%3Ftype%3D2%26pub%3D5575403537%26toolid%3D10001%26campid%3D5338343602%26item%3D202078437639%26customid%3Dvms%253Aeb%253Ap%253A202078437639%253BEAIaIQobChMI46SWurOC4QIVS7ftCh1QJAFmEAQYAiABEgKlhvD_BwE%26gclid%3DEAIaIQobChMI46SWurOC4QIVS7ftCh1QJAFmEAQYAiABEgKlhvD_BwE%26srcrot%3D5282-53468-19255-0%26rvr_id%3D1895573927647%26rvr_ts%3D7dc06a951690aa18c4e41390ffe991e2&_mwBanner=1&_rdt=1&ul_noapp=true











Also got these genuine rubber mats a while back. A real bogger spec item but necessary at the moment as despite my best efforts I'm dragging a lot of muck into the car on the weekends. I have fitted carpet mats to switch back to later on anyway.

Two days on the A4, two front wheel bearings and a drive shaft. Whore of a job. Runs like butter now.

Had same task in 'rolla months ago. I was able to free up one pin just using vise-grip, but another one was just p.i.t.a. - had to catch pin's end with table vice and use 1 metre long steel bar to sort things. Never had seized pins in older one - planned obsolescence ffs. :mad:

joujoujou wrote: »

Had same task in 'rolla months ago. I was able to free up one pin just using vise-grip, but another one was just p.i.t.a. - had to catch pin's end with table vice and use 1 metre long steel bar to sort things. Never had seized pins in older one - planned obsolescence ffs. :mad:

To be fair its only lack of proper maintenance that makes then seize. Using silicone paste to lube them (as per the factory) and they will stay nice and free, grease (even red rubber) will dry out and make then seize up

joujoujou wrote: »

With all due respect, I have to disagree. As I mentioned, never had that very problem with my old corolla, despite almost half a million kilometres driven and aforementioned pins were never ever looked after!

Older cars were made to last. Newer ones are made to last... warranty period. :P

They were probably lubed properly with silicone and hadnt been messed with by some fella 'greasing them up'

The design of slide pins hasn't changed really in 50 years and while I do agree some modern vehicles arent build like the good old days, slide pins dont fall into that category.....

Replaced parking bulbs on the headlights today, absolute bîtch to get at them.

The plastic cover fell off the wing mirror indicator so I picked up a new indicator unit. Three different Allen key sizes, unfortunately I only have two of them. I'll need to pick up a full set before going any further. Could be worse I suppose!