My BMW 335i

[PranK]

Yeah, watched some of my over-funded Youtubers doing their own alignments with all sorts of crazy equipment and corner scales. Was cool but shit loads of work, I'm happy with somebody else doing it so long as I can get there without eating my own tyres.

That said, I do have a garage and once I clear some space from moving in (we've been here 3 years this week) I'll have the car in there on a level ground and may even invest in some quick jacks.

[niZmO_Man]

Congrats on the new garage! Do you have a hoist by any chance? And fancy me parking my R32 for a day to chase some electrical gremlins? (I'm kidding I wouldn't be bothered to do that to anyone)

[PranK]

I was thinking about a hoist, the ceiling is very high, but half the garage has a half-height loft for storage and I dont think I'll even be able to jack the X5 up under it as it almost hits me in my 6'5" elevated head when i walk in there.

And, yeah nah, maybe if I can convince Bec to let me get another car she'd be open to having as many as we can fit (cough @Duncan) but until that time you better steer clear! 🤣

[niZmO_Man]

Sounds like, to me, if you do some geometry calculations, you can fit a hoist in there

[PranK]

Some small fixes made over the weekend.

I've been trying to get the car sitting right on the 275's as well as reducing the rubbing as much as possible. I bought a guard roller but the lip within the guard is obviously made of high tensile steel because it took so much work and heat to get the smallest of movements that I totally flared my rear arches. It looks kinda cool.  

I also got inside the arches with a dremel to cut down the bumper and the bumper mounts. The first one (pictured) got a bit ugly but the next one was much nicer as I just cut slots and hammered them upwards. I gave it all a spray of primer too.

I'm still scrubbing a little bit on passenger side but it has less camber than the drivers, so once that is sorted it *should* be ok.

I drop a single corner down on the ramp to simulate that mismatch and see where it is scrubbing.

     

 

Here's my flares. The car is lower than this now. Excuse the bush fire ash on the car. 

 

I also haven't had windscreen washer jets for weeks so thought I'd tackle that. It looks like a leak is coming from under the headlight.

Just in there. See it? 

This would have been clearer and easier if I'd taken the front bar off, but basically the plastic hose connector has broken off the headlight sprayer. And because I couldn't be arsed taking the bar off and fixing what is already a gimmick, I just disconnected the feed hose and with some aquarium hose, circlamps and a drive shaft bolt I fixed it good. The hex piece I tried first did not seal too well (2nd pic) - not sure why I thought it would! 🤦‍♂️.

 

Because I hate things being broken, I will fix this, but until I could be bothered to take my bar off, this will suffice.

Note the BMW push-in hose connector. Because standardised fittings are too passé.

I now have an issue with my adaptive headlights always pointing too low and sometimes shaking back and forth when I'm driving. I'm keen to have these working properly.

On another note, I bought a set of EBC BlueStuff for the front. I looked at so many reviews; DBA Xtreme (not enough reviews), Ferodo DS2500 (Super expensive and hard to find), Hawk HP+ (hard to find, not many track/street combo reviews) and some others. Was able to get the Blues pretty cheap (~$250 delivered).

Also there's a motorsport joint in Hornsby that will supply and install a RacingDiffs LSD conversion for $850 which is pretty good. I know its not a proper LSD but I'm just not keen right now to spend $3500+ on a proper one. I figure I'll give this a go and see what its like, if nothing breaks I can sell the diff with this in and upgrade later if I want. There are some streets near me I cannot get up in the wet at all and just spin a lot in the dry, it would be nice to have traction on these. (I live on a big hill).

My first ever skid pan is coming up on the 8th of Nov. Can't believe I've never done one. Really looking forward to it.

[GTSBoy]

Never mind the ash - the massive witness mark on the leading edge of the rear arch make little baby jesus cry.

[PranK]

22 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Never mind the ash - the massive witness mark on the leading edge of the rear arch make little baby jesus cry.

I know. It was there when I bought it, I don't know if I hate the scrape or the totally wrong coloured "touch up" paint more.

I do plan to fix that when I can build up enough confidence 🤣

[niZmO_Man]

It's just drift damage haha.

On 09/10/2024 at 10:56 AM, PranK said:

I bought a guard roller but the lip within the guard is obviously made of high tensile steel because it took so much work and heat to get the smallest of movements that I totally flared my rear arches

Haha yeah, the guards on my R32 were easy to roll. 1980s Japanese steel woo

[PranK]

Ok, so I got myself some X1 wheels really cheap to try out, they're a bit different and I like them but they're really narrow (18x8) they are available in staggered 18x8/9 also but really hard to find. 

I kinda dig them, but not as much as the F10 19's I usually run, so these go into the wheel pile.  

 

 

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I got a new exhaust. It's an off-the-shelf stainless one that fits OH-KAY. I don't love the tips size and how far they come out the back, I think I might cut the tips off and replace with some smaller (~3") ones that don't extend as far. It sounds really good though, I'm not sure if its just in my head but the car feels a little quicker, more responsive. 

   

I fitted an eBay special front lip. Surprisingly it fit perfectly and all holes lined up. Its a little rickety but I haven't put any double sided tape on yet, I want to clean the front bar up where it has scraped the road a lot and fil in the number plate holes (or, get body coloured wrap to cover them - is this a thing? 

I'm not sure if I'll leave it gloss or pain it matte. I really like it though, I don't particularly like the front bar without it, I don't really like the M-Sport and to get anything else is just too expensive. That said, I might need a new one now anyway as I dropped the car onto the jack after forgetting to put ramps under the front wheels. It bent a lot and while it did go back to normal after I got the car off the jack, I do fear I have not done it any favours.

  

Lastly, my headlights died. Different problems in each. They have gotten much dimmer over the past year or so, I put new (uber expensive) OSRAM bulbs in them but to no avail. One of them pointed at the ground and the other just kinda did its own thing with light working sometimes.

Yeah, check this 18 year old BMW headlight wire. I reckon I know why they were stuffed.

          

BTW, the yellow and black is the power to the Xenons. Yikes.

I hunted around an researched my options here. I would have loved to just get a replacement harness but not a thing. My car has adaptive headlights, that is they rotate left and right with the steering wheel. Good condition used adaptive xenons were over $700 each, non adaptive were around $400 each, but I couldn't help but think that they're all around 18 years old now, surely they'd have the same problems. So I looked at newer LCI headlights but they were even more expensive and I couldn't confirm that they'd be plug and play with lots of people having lots of opinions so not worth the risk. 

I ended up getting brand new Chinese headlights from MARS. They're very close to OEM with only the angel eyes being a bit different. I didnt want crazy turn signals or sharp DRL's or anything. Not my bag. 

They're not adaptive, I thought thats a feature I wouldn't really miss. So I coded that out. 

The lights are awesome, they look so nice and they take so many years off the car. The angel eyes look great and the headlight brightness is ridiculous. I was so used to the old ones, I didn't realise just how bad they were. The new ones use the OEM bulbs, Xenon ballast and leveller motor which I was happier with. The only issue with them is that the rear cover is held on by SEVEN screws. This will be a nightmare to get to and open when I need to change bulbs.

  

[PranK]

Oh and I lost my headlight washer jet cover!

[GTSBoy]

f**kin' yikes! That insulation is the shittest stuff I have ever seen.

You need to do an insurance job on that f**ker, pronto.

WRT to the washer cover, I would have said that there'd have to be some at a wrecker, then remembered that it's a BMW, and reasoned that every single wrecked one would have been tailgating and so the front end would be trashed.

[PranK]

48 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

f**kin' yikes! That insulation is the shittest stuff I have ever seen.

Yeah its bad eh.

48 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

You need to do an insurance job on that f**ker, pronto.

Ey! Watch your mouth.

48 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

WRT to the washer cover, I would have said that there'd have to be some at a wrecker, then remembered that it's a BMW, and reasoned that every single wrecked one would have been tailgating and so the front end would be trashed.

Yep, spot on. The rear's are always gone too though from brake checking.

I had them perilously close to a tree that we had taken down. I think the tree peeps may have taken it. Either for a trophy, or accidentally.

 

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, PranK said:

I think the tree peeps may have taken it.

Nah, you failed to pay your washer cover subscription and BMW have revoked your access.

[PranK]

4 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

Nah, you failed to pay your washer cover subscription and BMW have revoked your access.

Damn, they're good. I've been hiding the car from them for months! 

[MBS206]

If that's the wiring from the factory, I'd be inspecting the loom everywhere.

 

Any signs of that anywhere else, and seriously, I'd get rid of the car ASAP before the electrical gremlins make it worthless, or it goes up in flames on its own.

That is scary how that insulation is failing!

[PranK]

Its only inside the headlights, all other wiring I've seen has been fine (and I've seen a lot). I (and others online) are just speculating its due to the thousands of heat cycles inside the headlights. Not making excuses though, its crap.

[PranK]

The front lip and headlights are making me do more look backs when I leave the car. I totally love it.

[luke gtr]

4 hours ago, PranK said:

Its only inside the headlights, all other wiring I've seen has been fine (and I've seen a lot). I (and others online) are just speculating its due to the thousands of heat cycles inside the headlights. Not making excuses though, its crap.

The german cars I've worked on seem to have that issue(in more than just headlights). Mostly where hot, but also just the insulation hardening and cracking in various places. Not abnormal from what ive seen.

[PranK]

I noticed that I could see creatures on the moon when I turned my new headlights on. I thought I should check the alignment.

It's pretty rudimentary but I just grabbed some dry wall and put it against my tablet and made sure the beam was below the height on the headlights. Ie the beam is at 600mm on my car, I just made it lower than that 7.5m away. 

Not the best but it'll do until I can do it properly at the local shops. 

 

[GTSBoy]

Son, in this country, that is a piece of Gyprock.

f**king drywall. FFS!

I also like the autocorrect of trailer to tablet. I was reading it and thing, "what the hell drugs is he on?"

Then the photo made it clear enough.