gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330 
Club RR Member Number: 157
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Apr 23, 2021 14:23:19 GMT
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I wasn't sure whether to do a thread for this one or not... Although this one is a bit newer, I was 4 when the E39s started rolling off the line in 1995 so they feel pretty retro to me, albeit with more electronic gizmos than any modern car I've owned. If nothing else maybe it will make gte86 feel a little better about his recent purchase! I've had an itch for an E39 for a long time - I love the design, and everybody who's owned one seems to regret selling them, so it feels worth experiencing one! They're also all getting rustier and more expensive by the month, so sooner rather than later felt a good idea. A while ago I replaced my ageing Mazda 3 daily which was a brilliant car with a Mazda 6 estate which is very pretty but also pretty underwhelming... so time for a more interesting daily? A few months ago I started watching the usual websites with some loose requirements - a Touring with a 6 cylinder engine, probably diesel for daily economy reasons, and preferably a manual. While I'm great at looking at lots of cars online, I'm learning I don't have a lot of patience for actually viewing cars. Partially down to covid I stuck to pretty local viewings. The first car I saw was a 530d Sport Touring with "minimal rust"... it had sills that looked like a finger could pass through, rear arches the same, tailgate the same and the bottom seams of the front doors were starting to go. That car sold for over £3k on an ebay auction and to my astonishment was never relisted. This puts the second car I looked at in a slightly better light! It was a 530D SE. The ends of the sills were starting to bubble but not to nearly the same extent as the last one, and may online going for more money, but it has been pretty neglected. It clonked a bit through a low speed test drive in the city, but I'd already found two wheels that had noticeable play so that was expected. It went well and was really quiet if you looked past the clonks and rattles! It needed a lot of TLC and there were lots of reasons not to buy it, but it was a relatively cheap, Manual, well specced, 2 owner car (who appeared to live in the same village from the service history) and the kicker - which wasn't advertised - was that it was double glazed... That novelty swung me, when am I ever going to own a double glazed car again... and how often does a double glazed manual 530d touring pop up. I bought it. Yep, I'm and idiot. I should have learnt this lesson by now.  Naturally it was out of fuel, so first fill shot was courtesy of a BP about half a mile down the road. By this point I'd already picked up on more odd behaviors and knocks that I hadn't noticed on the test drive, and the rear would skate sideways on larger bumps in a way that I really didn't like. Maybe I shouldn't have bought this. 10 minutes later I got onto a dual carriageway and finally broke 50mph - at which point the car starts trying to rattle my teeth out. Maybe I shouldn't have bought this. Half an hour down the M40 later I'm sticking to lorry speeds and trying to come up with some positives... the expensive comfort seats really are very comfortable... Isolation from road, wind and traffic noise is very impressive... There are no dead pixels on the high line OBC display in the instrument cluster... I get home very annoyed with myself, the car, life, and seriously tempted to chuck it straight on ebay. Once I'd cheered up a bit I started having a better look around the car and getting some 'quick win' jobs out the way. It really is a well put together car, and full of little touches and extras that look like they add a lot of cost for not much reason, other than making it that bit nicer. One of my colleauges who worked for BMW/Rover in the past (and did some development work on the E39) is fond of saying that the E39 was the last of the BMWs that were designed to a quality by engineers, then costed up by the accountants. After the E39, BMWs were set cost targets by the accountants and engineered to that cost. Looking around this car that feels quite believable. The first of these 'extra cost' items that would be a nice quick fix was the boot floor latch. To get into your spare wheel you have to unlock the boot floor with the key, then lift the handle to release the door-style latch holding it down. Seems high security for a spare wheel, but there you go. The boot floor itslef appears to be solid ~18mm ply. Nice. Anyway, the lever in my floor didn't open the latch... it just made a loud click and left my spare wheel (and locking wheel nut key) safely locked away. The reason was a bent pin in the hinge:  Straightening that out and a little filing to reprofile the worn lever on the inside that activated the latch, then cleaned and greased it all, and it's working perfectly again. Nice quick win. Next up, the biggest rattle in the car:  That could probably be better attached - and have the nasty stick on reflectors removed. On the plus side it's got an almost complete tool kit still. A little poking around revealed that half the screws holding it in were missing - and all the remaining ones were on the right hand side. Redistributing these more evenly fixed the rattle for the time being, and since then I've ordered more screws and u-clips, and properly re-attached it to the car. It's now nice and solid, looking a bit cleaner without the stick on reflectors. Excuse the lack of pictures, but I seem to have been very good at taking pictures of the problems, less good at taking pictures of the fixes! There is also a little rust bubbling through on the bootlid just above the latch (standard e39 place), so while I was in the area I cleaned out the drain holes and cleaned what I could reach then cavity waxed the inside of the tailgate with Bilt Hamber S50 to hopefully slow things down a little. Staying with the back of the car - the next offensive area:  That ///M badge has no place here and came off in short order (I mean, it's just plain embarrassing driving around in an M Sport car fitted with 16" wheels and standard bumpers) and the tailgate side tail lights have fared very poorly. Straight off the car looking super rough:  Wet sanded 400-800-1200 and looking slightly better:  There are lots of small internal cracks in the lenses that I can't do anything about though. Next up a couple of coats of apparently 2k aerosol lacquer really covers up the imperfections and should offer them some good protection for a while:  And back on the car looking far smarter:  Private plate is being kept by the PO, so I'll get a new plate the moment I know the new reg, and I've already replaced the badge... After doing a few feel good things, I got it on a ramp to assess how much of a lemon I'd bought... I'll bring the thread up to speed over the next few posts! |
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Last Edit: Nov 14, 2021 17:16:52 GMT by gryphon
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gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330
Club RR Member Number: 157
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Apr 23, 2021 22:54:39 GMT
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After coming to terms with just how much of a dog I'd bought, I started on a little buying spree of bits to tidy it up - touch up kit, badges, and a slightly more important full set of tyres. I bought it fully aware it needed new tyres - the fronts were 15 year old pirellis with decent tread, but very perished, and the rears were some chinese specials with not much tread left. Given that the MOT history shows the car doing solid mileage for the last few years, my guess was that it had been running around with some nicer wheels on and these had been pulled back out of the shed to sell the car on. I did say there were a lot of reasons not to buy this car right? Hopefully a new set of balanced tyres would sort out the shaking - and I don't really mind buying a new set of tyres because despite the cost, I like having matching tyres that I know haven't been abused.
Next up, onto the ramps and front undertrays off: First surprise is pleasant - this car barely leaks any oil. Slight weeping at the front, posssibly from a pinhole in the intercooler, and a slightly larger leak at the rear above the turbo, but just enough to leave some marks, no drips. I'll be happy enough with that for the time being.
Front drivers side. This was one of the wheels that I'd found some play in before my test drive. Sure enough the bush on the forward control arm (closest arm pictured - passing over the tie rod) was totally shot. One arm to replace. Front passenger side - there was no obvious play in the wheel this side, but the bush for the front control arm felt far softer than it should - and it's good to do arms in matchin pairs anyway, so that's a second arm to replace. Moving back down the car, the next issue found was the guibo, the rubber damper in the prop shaft, just after the gearbox: Although not obviously bad at first, it's very cracked and is hopefully the cause of the lash in the powertrain. It's not so noticeable when pulling away forwards, but there's a noticeable clunk pulling away in reverse (guess who didn't reverse on the test drive), and a less noticeable jolt getting on and off throttle. In the same sort of area, one of the exhaust flexis has a small hole - I was forewared of this one from the previous MOT advisories though. Heading to the back:
The offside wheel actually felt all good, but the nearside wheel had a lot of side to side wobble - which was the other bit of movement I'd picked up pre test drive. This one was due to a dead ball joint in the upper front arm, which looks like it controls the toe. Arm number 3 to replace. I know I should do them in pairs, but I just don't like this car enough yet - I'm fixing the urgent bits and seeing how it goes!
More parts ordered: Pair of front arms, one rear arm and one guibo - all Meyle as i'd much rather buy a good part and not have to do the job again 6 months down the line... I have since realised that Lemforder is the OE manufacturer for all the suspension components - so in the future I'll probably opt for them instead.
The tyres got fitted one axle at a time in the end due to the garage being busy. Fronts were fitted, only to find one of the wheels was slightly bucked - although they managed to balance it with over 130g of weights... Driving with the new front tyres removed a lot of the vibrations at speed, but not all of them. You could no longer feel them through your feet in the front footwells, but now it was felt more through the seat. Suspecting that I might have a buckled rear too, I asked them to check when they fitted the rear tyres, and if one was buckled swap it for the spare alloy. (So nice having a proper spare wheel - the mazda 6 doesn't even have a space saver, just pump and goo)
Sure enough, the car came back wearing the spare wheel, and a slightly buckled, newly spare wheel in the boot. I guess we know why these wheels went into the shed in the first place!
All tyres swapped and balanced, the car drove far better - nearly all the vibration gone. That's a relief!
Between the front and rear tyres being done, my new rear control arm arrived so I fitted it one evening:
The recommended approach is to use a pair of needle nose mole grips to hold the balljoint still while you take the nut off - mine was far too seized though and I resoted to the junior hacksaw and a clout from a cold chisel to get it off.
The old arm was BMW marked, so either the owner at the last suspension refresh spent good money on it, or this is it's first replacement at 160k - which from the reputation of these cars I rather doubt.
The new arm reduced the vaugeness and clunking at the rear significantly, but didn't fix it by any means. It took me a few more days to work it out, but when it was on the ramps the rubber thing that looked like deteriorated boots on the lower rear arm had looked knackered, but I hadn't found any movement with a pry bar, and hadn't understood how the suspension went together at the time.
That severely deteriorated and out of line thing is actually an in line ball joint, which I had never seen before, and it's supposed to be very much inline with the bolt. Ah. Symptoms of a dead lower arm ball joint are tyre wear on the inner edge, so I guess that would explain the extreme camber on the rear, clunking, and sidways movement over bumps. Tick, tick and tick. I only realised this a few days after swapping the rear arm, so lemforder ball joints and an extactor tool are in the post to me at the moment.
The front arms arrived in time to be fitted by the garage at the same time as the rear tyres - very rare for me to not do something myself, other than tyres at least, but I've been feeling a bit pushed for time to get this car dailyable driveable.
All in all, with new tyres and the worst offending arms taken care of the car is far better to drive. It's now pretty comfortable at motorway speeds and much more composed in corners, but the back end is still unpredictable and clunky, and there is a smaller knock I can hear from the front now - my guess is droplinks or shocks... It also really needs a geo, but no point in doing that until I've at least replaced the rear ball joints.
Still, I'm happy with the improvements so far.
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I had one of these in 2009-2012 and did 135000 miles in it (took it from 125,000 to 258,000. It was an auto but otherwise identical to yours.
Mainly motorway miles I thought it was a deeply impressive car. The only notable issues I had with it other than servicing were my hedgehog (look it up) in the passenger footwell went - buy a BMW part for that in my experience - the Chinese no name failed quickly after no really working properly - causes electrical issues that are all hard to pin down) and the rear self levelling air suspension tank pipes went (not the tank thankfully
Also - check your oil breather - it should have been upgraded to a vortex breather by now. The Old 'toilet roll' ones break down and stop oil circulation to the turbo. It's why mine failed (should never have got to that point - totally my mistake). Open bonnet, back left of the engine (bit of a stretch).
Sometimes the rear glass panel (if you've got the openable glass panel on yours - you should do) keeps on popping open. It can drive you crazy (as it pops open when you're driving and then you've got to pull over and try to shut it.... Only for it to open again 3 secs after you've set off and belted up etc etc). The pin needs lining up exactly with its catch and it needs to be kept clean and very well oiled. Same goes for the rear wiper mechanism that sits at the same location.
The pixels go on the dash and radio but there are well known fixes. I found the se seats looked good, wore well but weren't amazingly comfortable.
You've already tackled the suspension so that's good.
You'll be able to chip yours (manual g/box) - the limiting factor on the autos for chipping was the g/box - its right at its limit, not so for the manual.
I got 43mpg over the 130k. And I used to driver alot quicker than I do now (times have changed I've found - people don't like you doing 90 all the time - I used to do epic motorway miles in it mostly.
I remember that car with v fond memories. If you decide to sell do let me know.
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Love these! Have never had one but have had a strong hankering for one for some time now. The threads on here are not helping with that at all! Please keep posting  |
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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I'll sit down later and have a proper read through this. Looking good tho
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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How you feeling about the car now?
I shared the initial feeling of dread about buying a lemon. Looks like its all heading in the right direction.
Please keep the updates coming
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gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330
Club RR Member Number: 157
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Apr 24, 2021 10:19:45 GMT
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How you feeling about the car now? I shared the initial feeling of dread about buying a lemon. Looks like its all heading in the right direction. Please keep the updates coming The fear of buying a modern(ish) lemon is so much worse than the fear of buying a proper retro lemon - there's just so much complexity and scope to go wrong in things you can't see or poke with a screwdriver!
In my 944 or the one MX5 with posh windows, I know there is a switch, a couple of wires and a motor that drives the window up and down. A pain when it breaks, but pretty understandable. In the E39 my button press goes into an ECU and is braodcast on the K-Bus (actually one of two K-Busses I think - standing for comfort bus). The command is picked up in the relevent door module and that ecu drives the window. All in 18 year old ECUs and wires. What fun. The whole car is like that!
Thankfully my issues so far are things I can poke with a screwdriver
How am I feeling now... Like this was still probably a mistake to give up my nice modern daily. The Mazda I'm about to list for sale is a good spec '13 Mazda 6 Sport Estate. To be honest I can pick lots of faults in it, but it's reliable, just about fast enough, actually quite fun to throw through corners... and I'm really really going to miss the Bose sound system - while not as good as the sound Bose system in the Mazda 3, as it has no dedicated subwoofer, I really like having good sound and easy phone integration in a daily. It's main failure points are lots and lots of road noise - In the e39 you can whisper to your passenger at 70mph pretty comfortably, in the Mazda I can't even hear myself whisper at 40mph. The ride is also pretty pants on anything other than really smooth road, and it's returning under 45mpg, which is disappointing.
The e39 by comparison feels like I have a lot of work yet to do to bring it back to the car it can be. It is lovely and quiet, but there are little squeaks and rattles everywhere, the ride is really smooth, but there is a fair bit of harshness and chop coming though the suspension still - it's not got the plushness that I think it should have.
I'm working through things slowly to see what difference each change makes, but getting ahead of myslef a bit I suspect the jobs I have coming up are: > Droplinks and ARB bushes front and rear - inner ARB bushes looked a little soft, and droplinks are cheap enough to just do the whole lot. Hopefully that will remove some rattle and remove some of the 'jelly' feeling
> New dampers all round. Not sure on these, but initial impressions over a couple of speed bumps is that the clonk is more than droplinks, and the front left took far longer to settle than it should. > Turbo - this is quite vocal currently, which could just be that I have a hole in the flexi right after it, but it also feels a bit slow to pick up, which could be a seized VNT system.
And if I get the car to a decent point, I'm going to have to start looking at all the preventitive maintenance jobs that you are! I'm going to think about those for the time being though. On the plus side, being a diesel I have no VANOS to worry about, and being a manual, I have no swirl flaps
Thanks for the pointers oioisavaloy! It's that kind of feeling from previous owners about them that made me want one in the first place.
I've already tried to have a look at the crank case ventialtion, got most of the way there to find that my trusty halfords socket set has sockets down to E6, and not the E5 needed to move the injector harness out the way. From the p/n on the CCV housing it looks to be a vortex type, but I've now bought the right sockets and I'll check properly at some point.
While I was in the area... check out that air filter! It's bigger than my thigh!
As I'm coming to expect from this car, engine covers were over the top designed, very securely bolted in, and in 2 parts. I'm used to ones that pop off on 4 clips....
My tailgate glass works fine and hasn't popped open if it's own accord yet - I'd not heard of that one before though so thanks for the tip.
Pixel wise, my instrument cluster is perfect thankfully, but the radio is completley illegible - I've bought a new ribbon cable for it so that can be a rainy day job.
I'm hoping that I'll get well into the 40s mpg wise when driving sensibly, helped along by the manual. Currently the average MPG counter is ticking it's way up from 0mpg for some reason - it's currently in the low 20s and climbing every outing. I'll have a tank to tank calculation next fillup. A remap is a potential down the line - I want to be happy with the car first though |
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Apr 24, 2021 11:58:16 GMT
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I had a brand new E39 530d SE saloon as a company motor. Stonking car, was really sad to hand it back.
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Apr 24, 2021 14:54:32 GMT
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Another E39, fantastic,
These threads are really causing me to scan the Ebay ads!!
Nice to see one getting sensible work done on it,
Looking forward to seeing future updates on this thread,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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Apr 24, 2021 17:13:17 GMT
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Another E39, fantastic, These threads are really causing me to scan the Ebay ads!! Nice to see one getting sensible work done on it, Looking forward to seeing future updates on this thread, Nigel The price of saloons is ridiculous right now. They are borderline investment/money pits. I imagine the ulez has ended up causing a few owners to move the diesels on too |
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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Apr 24, 2021 23:11:05 GMT
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I'm looking forward to doing my vanos.
How are the diesels to work on? I went petrol as I've had a diesel audi a4 for the last 8 years, to be fair its been perfect but I need a touring estate avant for the dogs
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gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330
Club RR Member Number: 157
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Apr 25, 2021 16:54:52 GMT
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I've always had 4 cylinder diesels as dailys... the extra two cylinders add a lot of refinement! I'd have been happy with a 525d really, but it was the 530d that came up...
Since I'm more or less waiting on parts for things, I took a shot at improving the ugliest bit of the car:
Ok, maybe it's the second ugliest bit after the scuffed paintwork... but that headlight needs some attention! Thankfully the other side isn't nearly as bad.
The first challenge was getting it out, which is super easy - 4 bolts and it slides out forwards! Unplugging everything was more difficult, and as I was fighting with the main beam connector there was an ominous crack and the main and dipped beams got rather wobbly. Looks like I just snapped the headlight adjusters.
Yep, that is definitely broken, and the headlight now rattles. Took ages to get the shards of plastic out! Replacements ordered for a couple of quid, and I'll crack on with the sanding in the mean time.
I'm not sure anyone really wants a step by step headlamp restoration - but I took a load of pictures, so here they are!
Strip the trim from the headlight - rubber is quite crunchy, but looks like a clean up should rescue it.
Two passes of 400 grit later. It's only once it's dry that you can see I haven't got through all the old lacquer yet.
Dropped down to 320 grit to take off the remaining lacquer:
Each time I change grits I sand at 90 degrees to the previous grit - that way if there are any lines still going the 'wrong' way I know that area needs more attention.
800 grit now. At this point, when the lens is wet it starts looking pretty transparent. I might have got away with lacquering over the 800, but better safe than sorry.
On to 1500, starting to look clear again:
Set up and sparingly masked in my makeshift spray booth (read: shed) after being wiped down, dried in the sun, cleaned with isopropanol, and then wiped over with a tack rag:
First coat is a light dusting - the rear lights reacted if I went to heavy so this seems to help it apply nicely.
15 min later, the second coat is a bit heavier:
3rd and 4th coats (it's going to have a hard life!) went on relatively wet again.
The finish isn't great - my shed was a bit dustier than ideal and a few specs got on the lens, then my last coat went on a bit too wet and ran a bit in the bottom right - judging clearcoat on a clear lens is difficult!
Between coats, and then while the lacquer was drying overnight I cleaned up the rubber trim with a scouring pad and patience:
It came out quite nicely, then spent half an hour greedily soaking up wd40 - I'm sure there are better things to feed it with, but this seemed to do the trick.
Finally all back together the next morning:
It may not be perfect, but it's probably still going to be the best looking bit of the car's exterior!
Oh yes, hell of an improvement! Now I need to do the other one because this one is showing it up rather badly.
And because I've finally taken some interior pictures... The 16 way comfort seats... I have never had an electric headrest before - or a double jointed backrest! All the leather needs a good clean and feed of course, but all in due time.
And the only actual M sport bits in the car - the steering wheel and shifter. I guess it's just me, but I think I actually prefer the 4 -spoke normal wheel aesthetically.
Must get some floor mats.
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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Apr 25, 2021 17:39:29 GMT
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Those headlights come up really well. I'm gonna do mine soon. I need some chrome indicator bulbs too after seeing yours. What dipped and main beam bulbs are you going to run in it?
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gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330
Club RR Member Number: 157
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Apr 25, 2021 19:38:53 GMT
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Those headlights come up really well. I'm gonna do mine soon. I need some chrome indicator bulbs too after seeing yours. What dipped and main beam bulbs are you going to run in it? Thanks - now I've just got to do the other one! Bulbs wise, they all work so that will do for now I have some decent quality looking aftermarket LEDs in the angel eyes, although they're not overly bright... The rest of them, I haven't even checked if they're standard or not!  |
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Last Edit: Apr 25, 2021 20:49:53 GMT by gryphon
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Apr 25, 2021 19:54:05 GMT
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Very nice work,
It's really starting to come together now,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Apr 25, 2021 20:23:29 GMT
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Did the 6 cylinder mx5 get finished?
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gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330
Club RR Member Number: 157
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Apr 25, 2021 20:43:26 GMT
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Very nice work, It's really starting to come together now, Nigel Thanks - it's satisfying ticking off the big hitters, the problem is it then leaves all the smaller faffy bits that really bring it together! I'm feeling far more positive about it, but there is still a long way to go. Rear ball joints should be arriving in the next couple of days so that will hopefully sort out the ridiculous rear camber and the worst of the ride and handling issues. Might even be worth getting it geo'd, fingers crossed!
I probably overreacted on how bad it was when I first bought it, but I had a proper 'wtf am I doing replacing a reliable modern daily with this pos' moment,
Did the 6 cylinder mx5 get finished? Finished... there's an odd concept 
It is on the road and we've been putting on some decent miles in the last month or so. It's a pretty addictive car to drive! Part of the rationale behind the BMW was that the v6 is becoming kinda semi reliable now.
It's MOT actually expired today and annoyingly the new cat it needs is stuck in a post office with very inconvenient opening hours! Other than that I checked it over for the MOT today, adjusted the handbrake, tweaked the low profile pop ups so that they pop up enough that a proper beam pattern is within the scope of the screw adjusters. Unfortunately I think it's just about lunched a second diff - it started whining last outing. Anyway - you're stealing my fodder for that thread now |
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gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330
Club RR Member Number: 157
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May 16, 2021 21:18:19 GMT
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I've got a bit of catching up to do with this thread now... Put almost 1k miles on the car in the last few weeks and got my first tank to tank MPG calculation - in at 38mpg. Now I guess that's not dreadful for a 3l diesel, but I was hoping for a little more. Of course it doesn't help that the wheels aren't all pointing in quite the same direction at the moment! Anyway, I left off having just snapped the headlight adjuster. Yep - definitely snapped: It's rather fiddly working in the headlights through just the little gap in that photo - long handled needle nose pliers, an array of picks, and a lump of bluetack to stick things to the picks made it not too bad. Adjuster 'ball joint' receiver removed and broken bit unclipped: Then I screwed the receiver part back in and spent a good 15min trying to get the replacement part in place, stuck on the end of a pick with bluetack: Eventually, back in place and I have a working headlight again Had a weekend of house spruce up work to do, the BMW proved useful for a BnQ run... I don't have roof racks for it yet so this was sat on the roof bars with a section of pipe insulation and a thick blanket over them... Janky but no harm done! More to the point though, check out that horrific rear camber. Every time I look at the car, the rear wheels just make it look a bit broken! Time to fix that, lets take a look at those rear ball joints. Starting on the nearside, which is the worst side, wheel off, lower arm outer bolt out, integral link out (slight movement in the bushes, they may be on the soft side) damper disconnected from the lower arm, ride height sensor disconnected and inboard ARB mount disconnected to allow the lower arm to drop below the knuckle, we have this: Unfortunately when I disconnected the ride height sensor I pushed it up out the way... Which made the car think that that wheel was suddenly really low and pumped up the air suspension to ridiculously hard. It felt like I was working next to a baloon ready to pop - although I know of course it wouldn't, more annoyingly though I was fighting the airbag to get space to work on the ball joint... I didn't make that mistake on the other side. In hindsight, loosening off the lower arm inner bushes and just letting it drop would have made my life much much easier, but I didn't consider that at the time. Bit of work with a pry bar got the upright sitting on top of the lower arm...
Yep, I think this is a little bit dead! The special £25 puller I bought on ebay was employed: It took a lot of abuse to get the ball joint out! Long breaker bar on the puller to wind up the pressure, then breaker bar off and thwack the socket with a lump hammer. Rinse and repeat for about 10min before it finally falls out. Absolutely no way I could have done this in situ without the special puller! This is by far the most knackered part I've ever pulled off a car. The ball has about 10mm play in the surround, it's actually worn half way through the ring on one side - straight through the boot mounting lip. I cleaned up the mounting hole, gave it a smear of grease and pressed in the new Lemforder ball joint with no issues That in, everything went back together painlessly enough... lets see the before and after:
So much better!! The other side went a fair bit quicker, both sides taking about 2.5 hours including a couple of dive for shelter/coffee breaks when the heavens opened. On a quick test drive I could feel the difference literally as soon as the clutch bit - the little clunk and movement from the rear when pulling off was gone. I then aimed for every drainage cover and the rear no longer stepped out of line at all over any of them. The rear also follows you nicely when you take a turn and the ride has improved massively - If I didn't know better I'd have thought the rear shocks had been replaced too.
That all being said, there is still a good clonk from the rear somewhere and the handling still feels far from tight. Part of this could be a couple of things I picked up wile I was doing the ball joints... The dampers still have gas pressure in them, but the damper body spins round on the damper shaft with no friction at all, and the ARB bushes were looking a little past their best - actually they felt like they were made of soft foam!
I'd already figured that the dampers and ARB bushes weren't in good shape and ordered them a while ago. I've been a bit hesitant about ordering parts from the EU since we regained our sovereignty after that raft of horror stories earlier in the year, but it's so much cheaper than UK sourced parts, and so far it's been totally seamless - I have a full set of OEM Sachs dampers waiting to be fitted from German eBay sellers, and a big order of top mounts, droplinks, spring isolators, spring aids (aka bump stops), damper covers and ARB bushes is on it's way from Autodoc. I will get this car's ride and handling back up to scratch!
Took the longest trip yet in the car today for a bit of biking up at cannock chase. The car swallowed two mountain bikes with ease - the boot is HUGE - and did the trip faultlessly. The computer is now reading consistent low 40s for the MPG as well which is a step in he right direction. As we were nearing the forest we smelt something a bit diesely, then something getting rather hot - but after parking and checking the car over I think it must have all been from the VW T4 van we were following!
Quite a good looking car really, even the wheels and non-sport bumpers are starting to grow on me.
I've been getting to know the car a bit more too... The centre console display is still very pixelated, but I worked out that once you set the time it gives you access to all the onboard computer menus on the display, as well as options to settings. Resetting the MPG average fixed the issue of it counting very slowly up from 0mpg and it's now working. I've also worked out that I have the optional 12v cabin heater... you can set it on a timer to come on and warm up the cabin up from the battery for you. Quite nice, although it must be rather punishing on the battery to heat the car up on an icy morning, then crank the big, cold engine!
I've also worked out that the strange plastic box branded 'Nokia' above the battery in the boot is actually a factory subwoofer and not something to do with an in car phone system as I first presumed. The factory audio in the car really isn't great... From the drivers seat it sounds like the engineers forgot that frequencies below around 400Hz exist! If I stick my head in the boot I can tell that the sub is doing something, very quietly though. Longer term I definitely need to do something about the sound system - whether that's a new headunit (I loose the onboard computer unless I get a dubious quality android unit with slow boot up times and a pricey k-bus adapter for it) or just get a bluetooth connection to the OEM unit and upgrade the speakers... Either way, I might need to add an amp to the sub and probably update the driver in it.
I'm also going to have to spend some time dedicated to fixing rattles and squeaks... It has a few! One of them is the sunroof, which doesn't seem to be the normal 'tighten the screws' rattle, another is from the map pocket behind the drivers seat which is broken, another from the plastic trim holding the drivers seat electric controls, one from the drivers b-pillar... and these are just the ones that I can pinpoint from the drivers seat! I'm probably being a bit picky, but would be nice to fix them.
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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May 16, 2021 21:30:44 GMT
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Fantastic work. I'll have to grab a link to the rear bush tool when I'm ready.
Are you starting to enjoy the car? Now mine is actually in use I'm feeling better about it.
The headlight adjusters take some patience don't they!
How are the lights in the dark? I've not driven mine at night yet, but the image seems weak on the beam tester. I'll do a night drive this week and find out.
Is that you looking at the style 66s on the 5 forum?
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gryphon
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 330
Club RR Member Number: 157
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May 16, 2021 22:06:03 GMT
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Fantastic work. I'll have to grab a link to the rear bush tool when I'm ready. Are you starting to enjoy the car? Now mine is actually in use I'm feeling better about it. The headlight adjusters take some patience don't they! How are the lights in the dark? I've not driven mine at night yet, but the image seems weak on the beam tester. I'll do a night drive this week and find out. Is that you looking at the style 66s on the 5 forum? Thanks - hopefully yours aren't as bad as mine were! The tool I bought was this one - www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274709779236 (It's gone up a few quid...) The seller messaged and posted it immediately - I think he makes them himself rather than just being a reseller. Alternatively if you're anywhere near the midlands you are welcome to borrow mine... I can't see me needing it again.
I am enjoying the car as it's improving, although it's more how I enjoy a project - looking forward to improving it - rather than just as a comfortable daily.
The headlight adjusters were fiddly! Headlights seem pretty good from the little dusk driving I've done - but they're factory xenons.
I'd like a set of style 66s, but I'm not looking yet... I've only just bought a new set of tyres for the wheels I have (16" Style 50s). The 17" Style 49's look really good too, without the need to be paired with M-Sport bumpers...
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Last Edit: May 16, 2021 22:08:35 GMT by gryphon
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