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Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Astra SXi


Supernaut

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1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Glad you are getting it sorted.

The Civic is also getting some love.

I'm going to the west coast for 3 nights on Saturday, then will spend 2 nights up near Thurso, but... once I get to Aberdeenshire next Thursday I'll spend a few days at the parents' farm. They have a big barn I can work in, and I have rear discs, pads, a left rear caliper and a left handbrake cable for the Civic. Plus wire brushes and copper grease.

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IMG_9139.jpg

 

The Civic has been doing admirably.

I think I drive it faster than the BMW due to being less precious about it... It's been making some impressive compressor stall the past few days on some full throttle gear changes.

 

I'm sure it's fiiiine, right...?

 

 

Our resident tame welder currently has the BMW and has been digging into the rear jacking points, finding just how borked they really are... It's still worth it though!

 

 

 

Anyway, I just spent 3 nights at a farm near Plockton, now I'm on my second night near Thurso. Tomorrow I drive down to Aberdeenshire then work on the Civic's rear brakes...

I even got to hand feed raccoons at the farm;

IMG_20220924_181406696.thumb.jpg.0aee09408eda2228522a10464e511731.jpg

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4 hours ago, cort1977 said:

Trash panda! Was it tame? Wild ones can be feisty little buggers.

Yep, totally tame. Was eating pecan nuts from my hand, and dribbling on me.

 

I got to Aberdeenshire yesterday, and today I have been mostly fighting with the retaining screws on the Civic's rear discs.

IMG_20220930_151545639.thumb.jpg.294ee6762d7f8656c72ab3ca6b1baeee.jpg

IMG_20220930_102301224.thumb.jpg.c6cfb331665b1f8355af491f6c38bb74.jpg

However, it now has new rear discs and pads, plus a left rear caliper. I even cleaned up the pad carriers with a file so that the pads now move freely.

 

The stretched left handbrake cable got removed from the old caliper with bolt cutters, and I'll need to get the car high up on some ramps to do that job.

Not today though.

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On the BMW front, then.

It's been on holiday with the resident welder in the central belt for the past week or so.

It failed the MOT when the tester poked a hole the size of my thumbnail in the offside rear jacking point.

Gingernuttz has been busy doing some digging.

IMG20220928101139.jpg.6eb4839f54bace1bcccaafb37be02bc3.thumb.jpg.3722e8cb3df2fe82a326c58bc227497a.jpg

IMG20220928101209.jpg.8780c329d844aca35982c734009280ce.thumb.jpg.9310b666afdcb90b8ebb2db80cc2bf12.jpg

1664536345626.JPEG.5454e3346b18b2108bf12faf7a559367.thumb.jpg.903133de9a797e220c475c605c9652da.jpg

Both rear jacking points weren't too happy, plus the fronts too.

1664536346484.JPEG.ac031e02cfdb1edfe0ec38050be2d093.thumb.jpg.39ad7083487c23afe869560e6ba3739d.jpg

As the rears stand now:

1664536356719.JPEG.5aa9f1e17db371bb348cb3680a3d7bba.thumb.jpg.a2aec161eaf2ccdf5774f2576b9e49de.jpgIMG20221003110731.549f652986092db20d10a5b611333ff8(1).thumb.jpg.28dbccd1d6be576f9b2574a967f25187.jpg

He still needs to tidy the fronts and repair a wee bit of the exhaust, plus spray some stonechip on. However, the jacking points are now made out of 5mm steel, so they should be fairly sturdy!

After I get it back I still need to fit both replacement front wishbones and track rods, plus check the front left caliper...

 

 

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I picked the BMW up on Thursday. It's definitely got more metal in it than when it left. That's putting it mildly.

 

Big thanks to @GingerNuttzfor his reasonably priced metal-based wizardry, and @Lacquer Peel for giving me a lift, plus an interesting adventure. Cruising along the motorway in the pissing rain in his Peugeot Expert, when he turns to me and says "The throttle seems to be sticking".

I didn't even panic. I even said "In most other cars, I'd be concerned, but in this van, on the motorway...? Eh."

It seemed the arm on the fuel pump wasn't returning quite correctly, resulting in it sticking at maybe 20% throttle, or so. This meant at every set of traffic lights everybody around us got serenaded by the dulcet tones of an XUD doing about 2 and a half grand (estimate, as it has no tachometer).

Good fun.

 

 

This morning I set to having a look at the other things it failed the MOT on:

- both outer balljoints

- front left brake binding

- right hand inner track rod

I have a kit consisting of both entire wishbones (as the balljoints are pressed into them), with all the bushings etc on them, plus inner and outer track rods, and drop links.

 

I've managed to free off the front left brake. It had plenty of meat on the pads but the slider pins were dry as a bone. They got drowned in copper grease, and I cleaned up the pad carriers with a flathead screwdriver. The piston looked brand new, and it retracted far more easily than anything else I've worked on. It just seemed the pad carriers were full of crud. A lot of loose material came off with the screwdriver.

The wishbones... they look fun*. I reminded myself how they go in. The rear is fine, as is the part in the hub. The inner balljoint goes through the subframe and the nut on top is in the engine bay. This was not an issue on the old white 316i as the 4-cylinder engine stopped short of being in the way of them. A long extension worked fine. However, with 2 more cylinders on the front of the engine in there, access looks tight.

 

I've contacted a Glasgow-based mobile mechanic, but not heard back yet. I did only email him yesterday afternoon though.

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5 hours ago, Supernaut said:

I picked the BMW up on Thursday. It's definitely got more metal in it than when it left. That's putting it mildly.

 

Big thanks to @GingerNuttzfor his reasonably priced metal-based wizardry, and @Lacquer Peel for giving me a lift, plus an interesting adventure. Cruising along the motorway in the pissing rain in his Peugeot Expert, when he turns to me and says "The throttle seems to be sticking".

I didn't even panic. I even said "In most other cars, I'd be concerned, but in this van, on the motorway...? Eh."

It seemed the arm on the fuel pump wasn't returning quite correctly, resulting in it sticking at maybe 20% throttle, or so. This meant at every set of traffic lights everybody around us got serenaded by the dulcet tones of an XUD doing about 2 and a half grand (estimate, as it has no tachometer).

Good fun.

 

 

This morning I set to having a look at the other things it failed the MOT on:

- both outer balljoints

- front left brake binding

- right hand inner track rod

I have a kit consisting of both entire wishbones (as the balljoints are pressed into them), with all the bushings etc on them, plus inner and outer track rods, and drop links.

 

I've managed to free off the front left brake. It had plenty of meat on the pads but the slider pins were dry as a bone. They got drowned in copper grease, and I cleaned up the pad carriers with a flathead screwdriver. The piston looked brand new, and it retracted far more easily than anything else I've worked on. It just seemed the pad carriers were full of crud. A lot of loose material came off with the screwdriver.

The wishbones... they look fun*. I reminded myself how they go in. The rear is fine, as is the part in the hub. The inner balljoint goes through the subframe and the nut on top is in the engine bay. This was not an issue on the old white 316i as the 4-cylinder engine stopped short of being in the way of them. A long extension worked fine. However, with 2 more cylinders on the front of the engine in there, access looks tight.

 

I've contacted a Glasgow-based mobile mechanic, but not heard back yet. I did only email him yesterday afternoon though.

If your mechanic doesn't get back to you're welcome to use my gear to swap em in the garage, air tools and that make them a breeze to do and I'll even do a side 😂

If I had known you weren't doing them yourself I'd have threw em on for you.

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14 hours ago, GingerNuttz said:

If your mechanic doesn't get back to you're welcome to use my gear to swap em in the garage, air tools and that make them a breeze to do and I'll even do a side 😂

If I had known you weren't doing them yourself I'd have threw em on for you.

I wasn't sure if I was doing them myself or not!

The idea was there, but then I reminded myself how much of an arse they are. At least with my manual tools and in a car park.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just now, GingerNuttz said:

It's not a bad old car underneath now tbf, one jacking point will need done in a year or two but that was it.

Did you manage to get a wing ?

Not yet, I'll look into it...

Eventually.

 

Puts away duct tape.

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Good going, and a good job to GingerNuttz on the welding.

 

My E36 has always been a garaged ‘cherished’ car by the elderly, and is fortunately rot-free. Either way, I love an E36. I think they’re a perfect size and the compact cabin of the coupe is great.

 

Fingers crossed for a year of trouble free motoring. Beige interior looks great, too.

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4 minutes ago, JakeT said:

Good going, and a good job to GingerNuttz on the welding.

 

My E36 has always been a garaged ‘cherished’ car by the elderly, and is fortunately rot-free. Either way, I love an E36. I think they’re a perfect size and the compact cabin of the coupe is great.

 

Fingers crossed for a year of trouble free motoring. Beige interior looks great, too.

Aye, I'm quite partial to them myself!

Next on the list is to replace the gear linkage bushings (got the parts here) and do the gearbox oil at the same time. That will involve the use of a ramp, which I don't have! I know of people with ramps, though. I just need to ask nicely.

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The car only needs a wing and a repair to the bottlid from what I saw to get the body good enough for painting so nothing major.

5 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Aye, I'm quite partial to them myself!

Next on the list is to replace the gear linkage bushings (got the parts here) and do the gearbox oil at the same time. That will involve the use of a ramp, which I don't have! I know of people with ramps, though. I just need to ask nicely.

Doing the linkage will make driving it so much nicer. 

 

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Yesterday I replaced the rear brake pads, then put just a tiny dab of Kurust inside the rear arches:

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I also put some gummipfledge on the door seals and boot seal.

Then in the afternoon I went and had a look at Glen Finglas reservoir / dam. Had to make sure the brakes were behaving themselves, of course.

IMG_9199.jpg

IMG_9204.jpg

 

 

 

 

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