The Long Awaited: The Myth, The Legend, The Douchebaggery

[V1GiLaNtE]

Fuck me, all that for a door handle. You sir, are a goddamn zen master to maintain the calm and composure for the job.

[Kaan]

zen master? joey should be the next pope.

[SlimKlim]

You guys only see the end result, I regress to a hurling-wrenches-across-the-garage state at least once per project with shit like this.




I'd still make a badass pope though.

[JPolen01]

I'd still make a badass pope though.

BMW would have to commission a one-off e36 m3 sedan Pope-Mobile.

[SlimKlim]

I could just take the E34 M5 'vert prototype out of their little secret skunkworks collection in the basement.

I'm not sure how much work I'd have to do as Pope after the first speech though. "Everyone should do whatever the fuck they like provided it does not infringe on the ability of others around you to do whatever the fuck they like. Ohm. Amen." *chest cross thingy* "Pope out." *mic drop*

[*insertusernamehere*]

:lol: :lol:

[SlimKlim]

Alright I spent some time on Friday night investigating the oil leaks. There is a little bit pooling near the top of the motor behind the water pump, not coming from any of the easy to see fittings in that area but it can't be too hard to find if I dig a bit deeper.

I snugged the drain plug down as much as I dare and it's just going to have to wait until I change the oil next year to deal with it. Hopefully I just left the old crush washer on the plug like a dumdum and its nothing more serious.

I pulled the shifter apart and of course the issue isn't being caused by the part I ordered, and it looks like I need to refresh all of the bushings for the shifter and carrier. Again. I have officially come full circle.

After verifying that it wasn't just dumping oil at an unsustainable rate while cruising around we used it for all of our errand running and NOVA brunching this weekend and it finally decided to be well behaved for once in it's life. Nothing important fell apart, AND we finally rolled over 188,000 miles.

Good weekend. :thumbup:

[SlimKlim]

Lemme tell y'all motherfuckers bout my day.

I took a mental health day from work because a friend of mine that moved to Colorado was back in town for a couple weeks. He's a tech that used to work for Funktion Auto, then Wisko when they bought them out, Wisko will occasionally fly him back to the east coast to work when they take the Radicals to VIR or wherever. The guy that bought the shop that Wisko used to be in kept him around for another week to get some of their stuff done. So in short, I was heading to visit an old friend in the same shop he used to work in but it's not that shop anymore, got it?

Halfway there, on a big empty 4-lane road I decide to give the brakes a little stress test and strip off any lingering rotor rust from washing it last weekend. The pedal feels normal initially then I hear a POP, and the pedal hits the floor. I had maybe 5% braking capability left, with the pedal on the floor it felt like you were maybe dragging a few cinderblocks or something behind you.

I coasted down and pulled over to check it and found fluid all over the left rear wheel. I was close enough to the shop that I figured I could coast it the rest of the way. And by the grace of the cruel yet merciful NOVA traffic gods I managed to get there without catching any lights.

I get there and inform my friend I'm no longer a visitor but a customer, and agree to pay full shop time so I'm not stealing him away from what he's supposed to be doing. (In the old days he'd usually hook me up on the side.)

We take a look at it and find this bullshit:



I don't know if it was rubbing against the hub or if it just failed suddenly. The RRT guy I talked to said he had seen this happen with the BimmerWorld lines, and they don't use them there. Wonderful.

However, this time by the grace of the cruel yet merciful BMW gods, they happened to have a set of Goodrich lines they had broken apart for a track guy that had the same sort of failure with his front lines. So I borrowed a car and went to retrieve it.



Then up in the air she goes.



We installed the new line and looked over everything for any more signs of rubbing. Just to be safe we sleeved both lines in some spare fuel hose to give it a little extra protection. We bled it with $baller$status$ Motul 600 cause that's what the shop had.

I coasted home appreciating the nice firm pedal feel from brand new fluid, but for some reason not really in the mood to do a full stomp test on them like I normally would. $187 for labor and fluid, $32 for the replacement line, approximately 20 miles driven today, so a rough cost of $10 per mile. I put it back where it can't cost more money or actively try to murder me.



Closing thoughts.

1.) Although that easy scores in my Top 5 buttpuckering incidents that have gone down in this car, it is incredibly fortunate I was doing a brake test on a quiet 4-lane road, not dive bombing an off-ramp, as I am sometimes wont to do. I easily could've been just a yellow smear on a concrete wall today.

2.) Me and this guy Corey are virtually the only two people to touch this car in the past 5 years. He's the one that helped me install and torque down my head when I did the headgasket, and did all of my welding/alignments/tire mounting and other stuff I couldn't do at home. Not only does it have the decency to wait to try and kill me when I'm already headed to a shop, it does it when it's going to see it's old friend. It's just weird is all.

[ScottyB]

:lol: damn did you ever get lucky. the way i interpret this, your car is actively looking to emotionally scar you for stuffing it away in a garage and not driving it

[SlimKlim]

If so, that wasn't exactly the best way to inspire confidence in it...

[ViPER1313]

I thought if you popped a line you would still have 1/2 your brakes and some stopping power (at least for a pump or 2) because of the dual piston master cylinder. Not the case?

[SlimKlim]

With the pedal on the floor, you still got something but it was alarmingly bad, maybe because air got into the reservoir? I dunno. Any worse and I would've called a tow truck.

[rherold9]

and.... it's time to check my brake lines.

[*insertusernamehere*]

:lol: damn did you ever get lucky. the way i interpret this, your car is actively looking to emotionally scar you for stuffing it away in a garage and not driving it

Or it's just got a love affair with the mechanic, Joey just could never touch her the right way.

[SlimKlim]

Hey you guys member when we did that drive up Skyline to Jeff's house? Yea I member then.



Facebook gleefully reminded me that was 7 years ago today. :evil:

[Senor_Taylor]

Hey you guys member when we did that drive up Skyline to Jeff's house? Yea I member then.



Facebook gleefully reminded me that was 7 years ago today. :evil:

I was a freshmen in high school 7 years ago.

[SlimKlim]

I was a freshmen in high school 7 years ago.

[ScottyB]

that's awesome. gotta say though, after seeing that shot, the new wheels are a step in the right direction, although your car never really looked bad to begin with.

[SlimKlim]

Those TRMs were chosen because they were the next lightest things to K1s, came in a 17x9, and were about as cheap as a decent wheel can get. The car is noticeably less responsive at low RPMs and on turn in with those massive, cheapo 18s, but it does look damn good.

[ScottyB]

The car is noticeably less responsive at low RPMs and on turn in with those massive, cheapo 18s, but it does look damn good.

oh i feel you completely. i put some bigass Moda 17x8.5's on my old accord and after coming from stock 16x6's it was eye opening how much rotational mass is a real thing, especially on a car that had 125whp at best. i couldn't believe it.

loved how it looked though....