1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Post your results over here.

@KNABORES' Moog TRE experience was apparently good enough to talk it up in the first post or two.

 

We’ve been driving BMW 3 series for over 20 years (e36 and e46) with minimal issues outside of regular maintenance, and averaging upper 20mpg on the highway (I typically got 19mpg in my e36, but redlined it constantly and frequently went 130-150mph on the highway).
My dad had a ‘93 325i, light mods, sold it at 225k miles, no problems, original clutch even.
Outside maintenance work the only serious issues we experienced were with auto transmissions in a couple, just get a manual
They can be cheap and fun, are abundant and all their problems are well documented and usually easy to fix, I always found them to be easy to work on. That being said, those models are getting older, more NLA parts and aged plastics, and newer models don’t seem to have the same reputation.

 

Bastards laid the carpet out and then built the walls on top. Making my life harder than it needs to be

 

Alright fellers need y'all's hive mind knowledge. I'm working on my 2008 Troy-Bilt Bronco. Been having issues with the battery dying between mowing.

Battery shows 12V when tested after charging it.

Yesterday mower wouldn't even click the solenoid even with my jump starter connected to the battery.

I found a blown 20A fuse near the battery. Replaced, still no go even with booster connected. Nothing, no solenoid click. I suspects maybe ignition switch or solenoid gone bad.

Today, battery is dead. I took it off and put it on a charger and will leave it overnight.

Decide to check wiring going to ignition switch behind gas tank. Find chafed wire near steering shaft. Not broken but chafed as wiring loom had pulled away from retaining clip hole. Tape up wire reattach loom to chassis hole to keep it in place.

Attach booster to battery leads making sure leads aren't touching each other or other metal. Push down seat, press brake, turn ignition switch, pop goes the fuse again.

Dammit.

Find video showing dude with similar model mower same fuse popped. He unplugged the connector coming from the voltage regulator. Give it a try figure what the hell? Replace fuse, disconnect wire connector coming from regulator, attach my booster to the leads, remember the battery is over yonder charging, hold down the seat and press the brake, turn the key, and I'll be doggone it fired up.

This tells me that the ignition switch, the solenoid, and the seat and brake safety switches are all good. Excellent.

Now clearly I have no battery and the regulator is disconnected so I take it for a spin and mow a bit. Come back to shop and before I kill it I check voltage coming from regulator at the connector. Like less than 3 volts so clearly the Chinesium regulator is kaput, I bought it in 2018 from scAmazon, but would it being kaput keep blowing the fuse? Anyway I connect the plug back together while the mower is still running and sure enough it kills the mower.

I'll order a replacement regulator but is something else going on or does a bad regulator can blow the fuse like that? I checked all the wiring no cuts or abrasions anywhere else except that chaffed wire near the steering shaft which I taped up.

 

Have you owned anything newer than 2000-2005? I went thru hell with my 2010 535i, and I've watched my friends next door go thru similary painfull hell with two different early 2000s & early 2010 x5s and an an earlier 2000s era V8 540, which they've since dropped after spending twice what the car is worth on misc repairs, some of which needed to be repeated due to stupid design choices on BMW's part.

I'll never do it again.

 

This is what I’ve heard; no, nothing newer than ‘05, makes me unsure what to move to next. All I’ve ever heard/read regarding BMW V8 is to avoid them, the inline 6 (and older NA 4s) is where they seem to have really nailed it.

I am tempted by the 2010 era X5 diesel, with an emissions delete and tune they can apparently be quite reliable, tons of power/torque and good mileage, better than stock, but they’re a different beast and have their issues which kinda scares me off, plus it’s no longer a sports car which is part of what I like about driving them.

 

I used to own a 2005 545i. Luckily for the 3 years i owned it i never had any mechanical issues with it. The v8 was pretty fun. The fastest i ever drove the car was about 80mph...and that was on gravel roads. I cruised around in the highway at 55mph everywhere. I could squeak out 28mpg at that speed. I didn’t treat the exterior of that car very nice. I was commuting to work on gravel roads every day to work. I would haul building materials around in it as well. It would drive all of the eastern europeans absolutely crazy when i would show up at the jobsite with lumber hanging out of the back of the trunk! Eventually some gal saved the day by crashing into me, which caused my BMW to ricochet into a telephone pole. I retained the car from the insurance company and promptly resold it to a Russian a few days later.

 

Yes. They literally build those from the ground up. And the one we had in Rock Hill, they cut a floor joist just to make room for the dryer vent. . Had to call Ram Jack out to fix the foundation and repair the floor after it sunk 3 inches. You could lay in the kitchen and look under the wall through the laundry room and see the master bathroom.

 

Heard what sounded like a cummins with exhaust setup at my daughters softball practice the other day. Ended up being an X5. Crazy.

 

Mine was inline 6, TT. Blast to drive. But after the 3rd time I was in for electrical meltdowns, somehow avoiding a fire on three separate occasions, I gave up.

 

I'm not opposed to that, would just want to find a legitimate denso coil, that or just buy some used denso off ebay and swap the plastics. I tried to pull it off another one and it seemed like it was removable.

Problem is that the boot is perfect, it's just the middle plastic section, I don't see that as any sort of a wear item and I have no idea how it could just fall off.
Leaning towards the used coil on ebay and swap parts over. I don't have a lot of motivation to spend money on these as they see very little use. Only got out 3 times this year.

 

Yeah, a full ‘delete’ will do that, and still be getting 30+mpg, 350whp or so and 580wtq, depending on the tune- I’m not looking at anything that crazy personally, still very on the fence about the whole idea really.

That’s what worries me about most newer cars, tech/electronics heavy with plenty of room for problems, especially as they age.
BMW is definitely not the company they once were too, just so designed for the mass market, all branding, not the quality semi niche company they once were- like how they’ll slap an M on anything now and it’s basically just a trim package.

 

The stupid part about it is, 2 out of 3 of those cases, it wasn't even new technology that failed. The molex connector at the tail light melted down to the point the tail light only worked intermittently ... because live wires were arcing!

Wiring meltdown problems has been going on at least since the the E46 in the 90s/early 2ks, across multiple models, multiple generations, and that's only covering the tail light issues. BMW took their sweet ass time to recall on the E46es, more than a decade while they knew gd the problem existed, after plenty of cars burned to the ground.

I get the love for them, they are legitimately a blast to drive. Most fun I've ever had driving a 100% stock car, the "pairing of driver to machine" / "driving experience" concept is not a joke. It's just, well, their inability to adequately and promptly address safety issues, issue recalls as needed, and suppress their desire to engineer job security into the maintenance of their vehicles by way of absolutely ludicrous design choices (the phrase "climb over a mountain of virgins to screw an at-home mechanic" comes to mind) is unacceptable and intolerable for me.

But I'll be clear here: I'm not judging anyone except BMW on this one.

 

Crazy thing to me is, no one else’s tail lights are burning cars to the ground. Why BMW? Like the Ford coil pack issues, or the window motor issues, no one else’s are failing at that rate, why Ford? How can such a big car company not understand how to do the simple things?

 

I like to play a game with myself when i see a gm vehicle, i try to guess which lights are burned out.

 

Which Toyota dealership are you all ordering parts from lately? McGeorge is no more. It appears they got bought out.

 

GM electronics are more reliable than BMW. And if you’ve ever owned a GM, you know how hilarious that is. My 98 Blazer one time started up normally and had zero electrical power to anything in the cab. No radio, no gauges, no power windows or locks. But I could put it in gear and drive it around. It was weird. Turned it off and restarted and it never did that again. 2001 1500 would blow AC relays. And you couldn’t keep both DRL lights going for more than a month it seemed. Always riding around with one burnt out.

 

The Home Depot is having some sales again on both DeWalt and Rigid. Maybe others too.

This package is interesting. The power stack batteries supposedly offer the same power but are lighter.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-...Ah-Batteries-and-Charger-DCBP315-2C/325110380




https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-...-0Ah-and-4-0Ah-Starter-Kit-DCB246CK/313759426




This one seems like the best deal...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-...ile-_-n/a-_-n/a-_-n/a&ITC=AUC-253911-23-12035

 

McGeorge is now https://parts.ourismantoyotaofrichmond.com/?referrer=parts.mcgeorgetoyota.com
It's business as usual!

 

I'd pass on 1.7Ah batteries. They may output like a bigger battery, but it won't last as long.

I'll put a caveat on that: that's coming from a construction background where we use them all day. Should be good for general use. Just don't expect to replace an entire fence with it.

 

How do you say that name? Is the u silent? My TN accent won't allow it.

 

I find the 2ah batteries I have are perfect for my drill and impact when dexterity is needed, like being on a ladder or working overhead or with heavy materials. The lighter weight makes the tool much easier to handle, juggle, manipulate etc. and I can run the tool a long time on the 2ah since they are intermittent burst type uses. They do not output at the same level or for the same duration obviously as the 4 and 6ah batteries I have do. Those are better for the blower and saw type tools. My 5” skill saw does not like the 2ah at all.

 

oar-is-man

 

Yup, @noahrexion popped that cherry (with links to Summit Racing) over here earlier this year: https://www.tundras.com/threads/mevotech-ucas-same-as-spc.60435/page-6#post-3139865

Cost, out the door, is similar to what you'll pay for Eibach's reboxed SPCs.

 

I do believe that since I have read of those experiences, but I’ve been lucky and over 9 e36 and e46 never had a single wiring issue (knock on wood, now I will)- my friends e36 did have some issue though where he could never get one of this tail lights to work right and was probably an issue in the harness somewhere.

 

My E34 slowly lost all of its electrical accoutrements. The gauges slowly friezes themselves out. Started as temporary and sporadic inop, worked into complete failure. The dot matrix looking red back lit displays slowly lost pixels and eventually just stopped working all together. Lost amplifier channels to the admittedly very nice factory sound system one at a time until I was using a Bluetooth speaker for jams towards the end. Engine and trans never skipped a beat.

 

Samsung is the shit. No, really:

https://apple.news/A6SCH31npSYuopIVxD1vdUg

 

I think you left "the" in there by accident

Seriously though, yeah, we're either going LG, Frigidaire again, or Whirlpool.

I'd prefer LG or Frigidaire Professional, but the reality is, nobody has anything in stock. In better news, the damn fridge is still kicking days later. I wonder how long that problem had been persisting?

 

The 'newer' lg i got started to squall. A roller on each end bound up.

glad i hadnt torn down the 'older' dryer yet. (Whirlpool)