1995 BMW 320i

[Guest Hooli]

That makes Supernaut Bodger right?

[Supernaut]

This car has yet to see the level of bodges some of my previous cars have.

 

Give it time though.

[Supernaut]

Looked at the price of new foglight mounts.

 

Yeeeaaah... not going down that route. I'll keep an eye out in the scrap yard, or does anybody on here have a couple of them? I'm looking for the grey plastic inserts in the front bumper that hold the foglights.

 

 

 

 

I'm also curious about the procedure for changing ATF. The gearbox isn't bad per se, but it could be better? Maybe? Not sure. I don't have a huge amount of experience with auto boxes. When changing ATF doesn't it involve getting the box up to temperature and fannying about getting exactly the right amount in at exactly the right temperature, or something like that?

[Guest Hooli]

I think you can change it cold, just measure exactly what comes out & pour the same amount in again. Repeat several times till it's clean. Or take the pipes off the cooler for the box & shove them in two bottles so it sucks in fresh ATF & pours out old stuff still clean, this version needs the car running.

[Supernaut]

Found a pair of fog light brackets for £17 BIN on ebay. Ordered them.

 

There were loads of listings asking £20+ just for one! Mainly because they said they fitted an M3.

[Supernaut]

Nope. Seller of the foglight brackets just refunded me because he noticed one of them was slightly damaged before he posted them.

 

Fair enough, at least he was honest. Anybody else got any going spare?

[Supernaut]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E36-3SERIES-91-99-PASSENGERS-LEFT-SIDE-FOG-LIGHT-SUPPORT-BRACKET-2233845/252350604356?hash=item3ac144a444:g:wT0AAOSwosFUWH~k

No, it's these I'm looking for.

 

[Schaefft]

Just check one of the BMW/E36 marketplace sites on facebook, there are probably a million of them getting broken.

[Supernaut]

Just check one of the BMW/E36 marketplace sites on facebook, there are probably a million of them getting broken.

Oh yeah. Forgot I was a member of a local one.

 

I set it on ignore on facebook because it was full of knuckle-draggers telling each other to lower their cars and weld the diffs. However, they're also the sort of people who have no need of fog lamps.

[Supernaut]

Today's episode brought to you by MAF sensor bodgery.

 

The MAF sensor is meant to have a tab like below:

 

 

on both sides. However, the other side was broken. This meant it had a bit of a whistle from the intake when using full throttle.

 

I grabbed a small Phillips head screwdriver and heated up the tip in my gas hob, then melted a pilot hole for the below screw:

 

 

Then I fitted it to the car.

 

 

As mentioned earlier in the thread when talking about badgers, maybe I am Bodger.

[320touring]

That's removed the "character"

 

Good fix:)

[Supernaut]

Recreated the photo shoot at Colliestown from earlier in the thread today.

 

 

 

 

Oh yes, today was the first drive since I bodged the MAF yesterday. For the first half a mile the throttle felt wooden and unresponsive, and I'm sure it even popped slightly from the exhaust on a gear change. Then once I stopped at a roundabout and pulled off again it loosened up and felt normal. I think it was re-adjusting to the fact it wasn't sucking in loads of air from the leak next to the MAF, I hope. I gave it a good thrashing round some back roads and it still GLFs in sport mode, so meh.

[Supernaut]

Minor fettling has occurred today.

The left rear brake had been juddering intermittently for a little while, so I had a look. The piston was fully extended and it wasn't sliding very well. I took it apart, gave the pins a good dosage of copper grease and re-assembled. Now the piston is no longer at full extension and it's sliding back and forth nicely. Not a lot of meat on the pads, but enough for a wee while yet.

Oddly, neither of the rear brakes have the rubber boots that go on the slider pins between the caliper and the carrier. Hmm.

I also adjusted up the handbrake and investigated why the heater controls aren't illuminating. The heater controls come apart really really easily. Pull off the dials, undo 2 screws, and the whole front of it comes out. A single bulb lights the whole lot through little plastic channels, and this bulb has blown. I have lots of these bulbs lying about at home, but I'm 30 miles away at the parents' farm right now, and they're about to cook some steak, so... I'll put a bulb in there when I get home later.

[Guest Hooli]

 

As mentioned earlier in the thread when talking about badgers, maybe I am Bodger.

 

Depends, did you seal it with mashed potato?

[Supernaut]

Representin' up in the 'deen!

 

 

[Supernaut]

Instead of fannying about trying to get fog light brackets, these are actually cheaper.

 

 

Fit them in the fog light holes, angled downwards? Silly idea, or hilarious? Would be good on the country roads at night...

[Split_Pin]

No doubt they would be effective but it would look pretty shit.

[Supernaut]

it would look pretty shit.

You have seen the photos of this car, yes?

[Split_Pin]

I think its a lot better than you think it is!

[Supernaut]

Yeah, knowing my luck if I wired up those LEDs something would go wrong anyway. Me and electricity don't mix very well at times.

 

I once managed to make a radio release its magic smoke when putting it into a Punto. That could have been due to the Punto, though.

 

 

 

The most irritating part of all this is that I have two functioning fog lamps for this, but the plastic mounts seem to be made of unobtanium, or when you do find them they're ludicrously priced. I'm not spending north of £40 for two bits of plastic so I can have a couple of lights I may only use very occasionally.

[Split_Pin]

How much are blanking plates? Or just cut a section from a grey wheely bin and trim to fit? Either option will look better than those led things surely?

[Supernaut]

Oh, don't even get me started on trying to find E36 blanking plates!

 

The 316i is missing its passenger side one and they're like rainbow-coloured, gold-plated hens' teeth!

[Split_Pin]

Can you cut your own?

[Supernaut]

I've been thinking about getting a dashcam for a while, and it was Prime day on Amazon earlier in the week, thus:

 

 

 

They were also doing fire extinguishers for not a lot. I mounted it on the passenger seat, under the thigh rest thing.

 

Here it is with the thigh rest all the way back:

 

 

Then forward:

 

 

 

 

Now for a musical interlude.

 

[vulgalour]

You can dance.  You can dance.  Everybody look at your pants.

[Supernaut]

Dashcam seems alright. The G meter on it thought this bit included a crash, though, as it had saved it to the CRASH folder on its SD card.

 

Have a bit of Frightened Rabbit as I hoon down a nice bit of road.

 

[Guest Hooli]

IT fail, upgrade user & try again.

 

 

[rantingYoof]

I think he mentioned in a Faceache chat last night that Youtube was playing silly buggars and wanting two hours for a very short video or something.

 

I hope he gets it working, because watching a tatty six cylinder 3 Series blat along awesome roads to crazy music has a certain appeal.

[Supernaut]

The video shows fine for me...

 

Wait, did I set it to private when I meant to set it to unlisted? Hmm. Yes. Yes, I did. Now changed.

 

DERP.

[Guest Hooli]

Aye works now.