ilundber

So, after a few jobs, the car is back on the road again.

I have changed the oil pan gasket, the gaskets of the timing chain cover and the seal of the crankshaft at the front. BMW in France and in Sweden have made an attempt each over the last 2 years but the car has been leaking so much oil that when I drove for some time at 130Km/h or more and then stopped, the fire brigade came. There was smoke everywhere and the car looked like a shot down aircraft from the second world war.
To change the gasket I had to lift the engine from its mountings so that I could get the oil pan out. The first discovery was that one of the garages had wrenched the bolt of the rubber mounting too hard. It was broke and missing. Secondly, I had to dismantle the oil pump while it still was in the oil pan. I could not get the pan out if I did not do this. I had to mount the pump back on with the pan in "in place" but not bolted on to the engine. Interesting exercise when you are laying under the car on garage floor at home. However, the car is not leaking oil from the engine any longer.

I also changed the caster arms at the front. I had them changed by BMW in France but they put in bushings for and old 728!! Nice if you only take that Sunday afternoon ride, but for serious driving....I think not.

Just to have a bit more to do I decided to take the dash bord out of the car. It is covered with leather and looked very nice when the car was new, I'm sure. However, the sun made the leather shrink and it broke the dash board window air vent off!!! Strong material, leather. I replaced the old one with a standard dash and will try to save the leather during winter.

I also had the car checked to see if it was suffering from an old accident since it eats tyres at the rear. I have had several garages check the wheel alignment but no-one managed to get it right. Bushings are changed.
I have finally managed to find out why I had such a poor radio reception. The antenna cable's centre lead was broken. Luckily, it was at the radio side but I could not find that out unless I dismantled the interior cover of the C-pillar. Behind it I found the amplifier. It works. Then I followed the antenna cable and found a filter mounted under the rear window shelf, just behind the left hand headrest. It was a bit tricky to get out but finally I could sort this out.

So, all I have to do now is to change the front wings since they have rusted through and the covers at the bottom of the doors. This will be done next week.

Regards, Ian

Donati

Is'nt it just a nice feeling to have the "little" things fixed, that have allways been wrong?

And, my car also have a rather poor radio reception, how did you find out the centre lead was broken?
I think my "antenna" works just as good if i disconnect the cable from the amplifier, so that i only have the cable as antenna.

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Mvh. Finn Donati
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ilundber

I had to take out the filter under the rear window "dashboard". I found this out since I couldn't get a reading by checking the antenna at the amplifier in the C-pillar.
In my car the sequence is: Rear window antenna - cable - amplifier - cable - filter - two antenna cables coming in and one out - antenna cable adapter - radio.
The filter is located just over the mounting of the left hand shockabsorber. (Take seat out, take back rest out, remove the left hand speaker, lift the "dashboard" and remove the plastic cup that the speaker sits in and you will be able to remove the filter. It is one screw at the front end and a tounge at the back end that is slided into the trunk. You have to do all this work to be able to disconnect the outgoing cable that goes to the radio. At least I had to.)
Once the filter is out, you can control if there is a connection between the centre lead of the antenna by meassuring the resistance of the centre lead from one end to the other. No reading on the dail means no connection. Having found that out, I gambled on the possibility that it was broke at the radio side. It was. It was probaly broken at the original assembly since it was broke inside the contact. Poor soldering job, I guess. Please remember that there is an adapter of 20 centimeters put on the end of the antenna cable and that the connects to the radio. Make sure that it is properly connected to the antenna cable before you start taking the rear set apart.
Regards, Ian

mywong23

Ian,

great work!
I always say the best way to get to know your car is to do the work yourself. Of course, that does not take into account the TIME factor. But, satisfaction from knowing the job is well done...

hate sloppy stealership work. had to bring in another brand car back to dealer for warranty work. of course, they find something else, not covered under warranty, to charge me for. and then two weeks later something else now malfunctions on the car. I fix that and discovered dealer forgets to screw in a windshield reservoir mounting bolt and loses a bolt for a relay.

started out to congratulate you & end up venting...

ilundber

Thank you very much, Mywong23
I could not agree more! Basically, I think it is quite fun to do these odd "small" jobs myself. There are three reasons:
1. I like to work with engines and cars and boats etc.
2. I don't really feel that I can trust a garage to do a proper job.
3. Money saved on garage bills can be spent on new nice bits to the car.

Just as an example: The car was shaking at 3.000 Rpm when driving a bit up-hill. The BMW garage said the propeller shaft needed to be changed. OK, it was changed but it did not solve the problem. Next suggestion was to replace the right hand drive shaft. Ok. Still no change. Finally they demanded to have the car and work on it untill they solved the problem. They were quite embarassed and insisted in NOT charging me for the work. The problem was found. The BMW garage (another one) that did the last Inspection II had not adjusted the valves so the pressure in 3 cylinders was way too low. I could go on like this but, but as you indicate, it is not very constructive.

I now have two new front wings and the covers for the bottom of the doors in the basement and will rust protect them before they get painted next week.

One of these days the car will look quite good, I hope.

Steve Mac

STEALERSHIP

I had an interesting experiance with my local one hence the fox is with the DONS of ///M Power,,,,,Munich legends.

Collecting tomorrow and will post my views

Steve Mac