Generally SaltyWelp, turns out the new battery fits just fine once I reseated it in the dark pit of doom in the way-back that is its home. Took the core back, got my $15.
Well after about five weeks of procrastinating due to travel and cold weather, I got the broken door handle carrier (the part INSIDE the door) replaced on the X5 and now I can open the door from the outside again! It’s a supreme pain in the ass and if I ever meet the beer-chugging Bavarian who designed that fucking thing… grrrr.
OK time to finish that door repair on the beast-wagen. #OldCarLife
Oh nothing, just another Saturday night in the life of a BMW E53 owner… #OldCarLife #OldBMWLife
Never, EVER, buy someone else's unfinished project car, esp. one with such high mileage. This thing is a black hole waiting to suck your wallet dry which is certainly why the seller is trying to unload it.
I have this same model and year but it is unmolested with very low mileage. I've been tempted by various 3rd-party mods in the past but decided that 350+hp with the official BMW upgrades is quite enough. Squeezing 6–700+hp out of the N55 engine is possible with enough money thrown at it, but not for very long before things go kablooie.
https://carsandbids.com/auctions/9AEWp0Wo/2014-bmw-335i-sedan
Oh goody the scabs formed on the many cuts and gouges I got on my hands/arms last week working on The Beast are starting to fall off.
Whee. #OldCarLife #OldBMWLife
Oh BTW the oddball E36 I snapped a pic of on Sunday with what looked like a custom hardtop? It's a factory convertible with an aftermarket hardtop. No rare thang… but looks really nice! This car is immaculate.
Damn I sure did tear up my arms and hands taking that stupid IAC valve out of the beast-wagon. It was sticking a little so a few blasts of MAF cleaner unstuck it.
If I ever find the BMW person who decided to wedge it under the intake manifold… I’m going to make him take it out and put it back fifty times and every time he drops a bolt into the belly pan he gets a shock.
It idles more smoothly now and so far no more “fuel trim high” codes that are so hard to diagnose as it could be about 49 different things. #OldCarLife #OldBMWLife
OK, off the ‘tocks, that idle air control valve thingie won’t clean itself... #OldCarLife
So, on Sunday I opened the windows on the old X5 to let the hot out as it'd been parked in the sun for hours. Once on the road, I put the right-side windows up. Heard a loud KRUNCH of old brittle plastic shattering as the rear window went up. Oh shit, yeah I know what that... BAMMGG the window glass falls into the door. At 70mph. Oh fuck me, not again (the driver's door glass did the same thing not long after I bought it).
OK, I know what's wrong and I even have the parts, I thought, buying them in case it happened again. These were less than $10. Took the door panel off and half the panel mounts that were glued on snapped off because the glue they used in 2001 had failed. Fine, I hot-glued them back on earlier tonight.
The spare parts I have are for the right FRONT door, not the right rear door. Le sigh, typical German over-engineering… why???!?!!?
Found a repair kit on ebay for $13, so there went half my Facebook privacy settlement. Now I'm driving around with a suction cup stuck to the glass to keep it from falling back down and the guts of the door are hanging out, and I'm going to Salt Lake City on Sunday for two weeks so I guess it will all have to wait until I get back.
Oh and the idle air control valve is either dying or needs cleaning. I hope it's the latter because a new OEM Bosch part is $300–500+ (Chinesium copies are like $25 but those are at best temporary if it even works at all). Obvs I will pull the old one and clean it first.
Still beats car payments. Knowing how to wrench on cars is definitely a useful skill to have in your quiver. It's not hard, at least on older ones that aren't crammed full of electronics.
Five years ago today, I was replacing a seized brake caliper on my now-crushed Volvo 240 and had a wrench slip, which caused my hand to impale itself on the sharp remains of the very rusty backing plate, and meant a trip to urgent care for a tetanus shot.
My furry little helper really didn't do all that much to help, but she sure kept me entertained. You can tell is was an unusually warm Atlanta xmas eve day by the flip-flops.
Because the goys are all into something else, Dec 24/25 are good days to get projects done, or go ripping up a mountain road like I’m planning to do tomorrow in the 3er which has been sulking in the garage for weeks, then head to R's place to binge S2 of “Silo”. #Rambling #OldCarLife
