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My fav is the Harry's Redwood body wash - it smells exactly like Le Labo's Hinoki but has a really nice/soft/thicc lather compared to the very lightweight feeling gel from Le Labo.
Oh good rec i'll look into the Redwood. I use Aesop and Byredo myself. Considering the Diptyque exfoliating soap next
Onto car stuff:
I went to connect my M3 to the trickle charger and found out the new owner of the apartment who has the two stalls to my right like to hug the pillar between our two cars and their passenger seems to enjoy kicking their door open as i noticed about 3 new door dings. Now that a trickle is on im considering hard wiring my dashcam but aiming it to the right
Oh good rec i'll look into the Redwood. I use Aesop and Byredo myself. Considering the Diptyque exfoliating soap next
Onto car stuff:
I went to connect my M3 to the trickle charger and found out the new owner of the apartment who has the two stalls to my right like to hug the pillar between our two cars and their passenger seems to enjoy kicking their door open as i noticed about 3 new door dings. Now that a trickle is on im considering hard wiring my dashcam but aiming it to the right
Idk why but the Aesop exfoliaters just feel better
Huge fan of byredo scents tho
Does anyone know electronics or stereo wiring well? I have my E30 BMW 325 back and the previous owner put this gigantic subwoofer in the trunk with thick gauge cabling. I am pretty sure it's the cause of the battery draining every 3-4 days, so I want to rip it out but this sort of electronics is not exactly my forte... never installed an amp or sub in any car I've owned lol
Does anyone know electronics or stereo wiring well? I have my E30 BMW 325 back and the previous owner put this gigantic subwoofer in the trunk with thick gauge cabling. I am pretty sure it's the cause of the battery draining every 3-4 days, so I want to rip it out but this sort of electronics is not exactly my forte... never installed an amp or sub in any car I've owned lol
Best way to test if it's draining you can always remove the power fuse to the amp. They SHOULD have put a fuse near the battery. Maybe also remove the remote wire from the amp, it's just a signal wire from the headhunt to the amp to turn on.
Remove the big fuse or the positive cable from the battery terminal, then unhook the cables from the amp. There should be a small wire, blue if they did it right, cut the end off and then wrap it with heat shrink/tape/something so it doesn't short to ground. Then remove the cables later at your leisure.
__________________ 1991 Toyota Celica GTFour RC // 2007 Toyota Rav4 V6 // 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee
1992 Toyota Celica GT-S ["sold"] \\ 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD [sold] \\ 2000 Jeep Cherokee [sold] \\ 1997 Honda Prelude [sold] \\ 1992 Jeep YJ [sold/crashed] \\ 1987 Mazda RX-7 [sold] \\ 1987 Toyota Celica GT-S [crushed]
Quote:
Originally Posted by maksimizer
half those dudes are hotter than ,my GF.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RevYouUp
reading this thread is like waiting for goku to charge up a spirit bomb in dragon ball z
Quote:
Originally Posted by Good_KarMa
OH thank god. I thought u had sex with my wife. :cry:
Big fat red one goes to positive on battery
There is gonna be ground/brown in my case from your amp to somewhere close grounded to chassis
There is a thin blue one that's the remote/trigger that goes to your head unit.
Just do what under said and remove the positive form battery. If there was a drain it's not even getting power anymore.
I just need a place to vent, so if you don't want to read somebody bitch and moan, please skip.
Spoiler!
I had a Miata that I enjoyed a lot, and then my family size grew by one. My criteria for a replacement car was that it had to be manual, RWD, convertible, and seat at least 3. I ended up with a BMW N52 E88. I've never owned euro before because of its reputation for being unreliable and costly to fix. Nevertheless, my choices were extremely limited and here I am. I also like to work on my own cars. It keeps the costs down, and since I work a desk job, working with my hands and taking care of my own car is something that I enjoy, or at least so I thought.
When I bought the car, there were some normal maintenance items due, and everything on this car has just been more frustrating or annoying than I'd like. Oil pan gasket requires dropping the subframe, and I didn't have an engine brace, so I paid somebody to do that. Might as well throw in some new M3 control arms since the bushings were going on them anyways. Of course, this means needing an alignment. I take it to the shop - sorry buddy, your tie rods are seized and we don't carry any in stock. Fine, I'll limp home and replace them myself first before I bring it back.
The mechanic that replaced my oil pan gasket says the starter is probably the top of the list next. I get through this, but not before dealing with a dozen+ different kind of connects and terrible placement of brackets holding a spaghetti of hoses and wires throughout. That back PCV hose clip was the worst.
Next, I'm thinking I'll take care of the valve cover next, but discover the PITA process to remove the valvetronic motor. What the fuck BMW. Okay I'll put this on pause to do more homework and learn about it. Nope. CEL light time. I pull the code, and it's now complaining about the downstream O2 sensor. Fine, I'll order all 4 cuz the others are probably not far behind anyways. Then, after a few days, the light goes away by itself. God damn it, I'll do the downstream ones anyways. I get to spraying the sensors with penetrating fluid, and while I'm down there, I get greeted with a new control arm with some fluid on it. I look up, and the front left strut is leaking. Of course that's not the only leak, one area of the valve cover is leaking more than I thought and I've lost some new oil already because why not.
After ordering around $500 of O2 sensors, I placed another order for a Bilstein B12 Pro Kit and a bunch of other smaller related items. My wallet hurts, but I guess a suspension overhaul is what's next. I can't wait until I sell this thing and get back into a Miata one day. Or maybe I would've been better off with an older E46, or fun car-less for a while.
Since the last vent seemed to engage some folks, I'll share more since this last post.
Spoiler!
After watching some videos on the downstream O2 sensor replacements, i figured since I'm close enough to the transmission, I'll do a drain and fill since I don't know the state of the oil inside. After some research, I decided to go with Redline MT-LV. With all the parts that I ordered now having arrived and taking up precious floor space in boxes at home, I set out to get to work. First was to take care of the O2 sensors that briefly gave me a code. A friend of mine has a quickjack, and I shared a short review of that in a different post somewhere. That thing is great. Changing the downstream O2 sensors was actually not too bad. It probably helped that I blasted penetrating fluid on them a couple days before doing the actual work. Because of the tight quarters, sensor sockets didn't end up working super well. Good thing I managed to get it cracked using an adjustable wrench and a deadblow mallet. On to the MT fluid.
Crack loose the fill plug first, just in case the oil is dumped from the drain plug and the fill plug can't be removed. No problem. Drained all the oil, and now it's time to reinstall the drain plug. What's the spec? 35Nm. No problem, set the digital torque wrench to 35Nm and away we go. 15...20... 25... 30... crack. The fuck?
This little bitch decided to nope out of the job, and it's a Saturday. Great. I call BJ BMW and of course it's not in stock. And in typical fashion, it's aluminum, so the parts guy recommends I replace both drain and fill plugs on service. I ask him how much the plugs are... $30 a plug? This car is death by a thousand cuts. And stupid BMW has a dealer price and online price, so if I want it for $25 a plug, I have to place the order online even if it's a pick-up order at BJ BMW. Thankfully the parts guy took pity on me, saved me the hassle, and gave me the online price over the phone. I guess I'm going to hog my friend's garage space for the next few days while it's got no oil in the transmission. The rest of the job goes fine - plugs go back in, and most DIY videos just hand tight the plugs, and I wasn't going to play chicken with these plugs anymore, so hand tighten and we're back in business.
While I was under the car, I noticed more oil from what I suspect is likely the VCG. I already ordered a replacement valve cover because it's plastic and everyone says you have to replace the whole thing and not just the gasket. Now I have to decide which to do first. VCG or suspension. I elected to ask for help for my suspension replacement from a friend, and we knocked out all 4 corners in a day. A very long day. The first strut was so hard to remove because it was stuck on that I had to make a run to Princess Auto to pick up a small bottle jack to separate it. Bavarian Motor Works ain't got nothing on redneck engineering. The first strut took the most time, then the rest was just getting through it. Not much to write about.
Final boss for this year... the valve cover. I watched the FCP DIY video a bunch and paid attention to the valvetronic motor steps, and finally get to work. I figured while I was there, I'll do the upstream O2 sensors too, and spark plugs cuz they were on closeout from RockAuto. I'm getting a bit more used to working on this car, so disassembling everything was not too bad. Here's the car with the valve cover off, and O2 sensors replaced.
Installing everything back was a whole 'nother story. I'm already trying to be more careful with this car, but shit still went bad. As I'm hand tightening this back corner bolt on the VC, it gets stuck half way. I swear it looked straight from where I was on the passenger side of the car. I walk around to the driver side and I can clearly see an angle. Shit. I cross threaded this little shit.
Tap anyone? I went to the same friend that helped with the suspension replacements since he's got most of the tools as an ex-auto mechanic to borrow a tap, but no way the world was going to make it easy on me. This bolt was M7x1 and his taps goes M6 to M8 because fuck me. At this point I'm stressing because I know this head is made of soft aluminum shit and the bolts were steel. I was seeing others had similar or worse problems with this job and needing to helicoil. My mind was spiraling. Thankfully, my friend came through and helped find a M7x1 tap, came over, ran it through to fix the threads and stuck around to get all the bolts started. He's probably tired of cleaning up my shit at this point, but is just too nice to say so. We're in the clear, right?
Ya right. I followed the valvetronic motor reinstallation steps from FCP, and also tried a different video's method (of just pushing against the spring and not using the worm gear to pull in the motor), and both methods left me with a mis-aligned bolt hole for the bottom of the motor.
Fucking hell. Aluminum bracket and steel bolt again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. (or was it "you can't get fooled again" - Bush). I don't try to just power it on, take my time trying over and over and over again to get this to line up. No go. It just wouldn't line up. I even tried asking the BMW mechanic that did the oil pan gasket for me for advice, and his instructions and tips had the same result. I cannot convey the state of agony that I'm in at this point. I had no cards left in my hand, but then the universe sent me a roofer that I chatted with that happened to be a mechanic as well, and he suggested I just loosen the bolt on the bracket first to get the bolt in, before re-tightening the bracket bolts.
You mean those ones that say "DO NOT OPEN"? Fuck it, let's go. In reality, I took them off the old VC first to see what the fuss was, and didn't see anything special. It was just holding down another bracket, and I couldn't see a reason why I shouldn't. Thankfully I had the security bits to work these bolts. I asked the BMW mechanic and he says he's never had to do this, has no torque spec for me for retightening, and good luck. YOLO! It worked. So what if the sun had set already. I've now got my second wind. Let's goooo. It's 11pm now by the time the car is back together. Moment of truth - I go throught the valvetronic motor re-learn procedure of turning the ignition to the second position and waiting. Did it thrice for good measure. Started the car and the car was alive again. Thankfully the DIY videos warned me of the smoke from the engine bay as a result of the oil that drips on the exhaust manifold during this job, so I wasn't caught by surprise.
Took the car for a quick rip around the block, and these Bilsteins with the Eibachs are great. I was worried it was going to be too stiff, but because my front struts were completely toast when I replaced them, these ended up being more comfortable. Less body roll and it rides great.
I'm going to try and just enjoy the car for the rest of the summer... Enjoy it while I can before I attack the maintenance list next year. Already, I have the water pump, diff fluid, and power reservoir leak on next year's list.
I guess the alternative is that I pay for all these jobs and save myself the headache, but where's the fun in that. Even though I'm saving money by doing my own work, I'm into this car way more than I'd like. If I paid for everything at a non-dealer shop like Nixon's or something, to have all this done, I'd probably be in for nearly $30k for this 16 yr old car, which is nuts. I could be in a used ND2 or gen 2 GR86 for that money.
I just send it all the shop. I don't have time for it with two kids.
The M3 is actually at the shop right now getting a new driveshaft, because I got shafted when I ordered the car. The last 6 months production on the F80 lost the CFRP driveshaft, I got one from a guy parting out and it's going in right now.
you sound like an ideal Ferrari/Maserati/Alfa owner.
I don't know, Porsche GT fanatic sounds more like it cause I actually track it vs the Ferrari which would blow up at track. And yes I'd go for the little bits and pieces.
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