09May2011
E90 325i Oil Change
Knocked this car out tonight. Simple oil change and inspection was due. Mmmm pretty. After removing the oil filter housing, there are 2 o-rings to replace along with the filter. When you pull the filter, you will want to suck out the remaining dirty oil. And to drain the oil, underneath a trap door, is the 17mm oil drain plug. Drain the oil, replace the copper drain ring, and fill with some fresh BMW longlife 5w-30 🙂 Weeeeeeeeee!
07May2011
997 C4S Seat Issue
Went over to help a friend with a seat problem that they were having in their new to them 997C4S. The seat all of a sudden would not slide forward on the right slider. The left moved forward and back, but the right was stuck, causing the seat to twist. Not good since the seat was all the way forward when it failed. Looks to be a broken cable on the motor that drives the right side, so we will …
07May2011
944 Turbo Maintenance
Since summer is headed our way in Kansas, it is awfully nice to have a good working A/C system. Unfortunately, this car’s system stopped functioning last fall, so it was time to get it repaired before the season gets too hot. While I had the car, the owner wanted me to slap the a new rear M030 968 sway bar on to improve the handling. He had already installed the front, but hadn’t gotten to the rear yet, so I …
07May2011
Boxster S 60k Service
Had this Boxster S come in for it’s 60k service this week. Got it knocked out and back to the owner, ready for another 60k 🙂 Driver’s side bank was covered in oil, pretty typical with the spark plug tube seals. Removing the coilpacks to replace the plugs and tube seals. Not horrible, but ready for a change. Cabin filter was about 10x heavier with buildup than the replacement new filter, lol. New one install Then it was on to …
😀 Now we will just drop the car ontop of everything, and it should work right? We will let the hoses hang for a few weeks to uncurl 🙂 Stay tuned.
02May2011
Clifford Comes For A Visit
Clifford’s new owner came by to have an exhaust leak fixed that has been nagging the car for awhile now. It was obvious there was leakage around 3 of the exhaust ports, but we weren’t really sure why. The previous owner had done a recent head gasket, so I suspected a possible stud issue. He brought me new headers to install along with a new set of gaskets. The oem headers after 25 years are prone to cracking and leaking. …
27Apr2011
Power Probe 3
What can I say, I’m a guy….I like tools. Errrr I love tools. I love cool tools that most people don’t know about. One of those tools is a little guy called a Power Probe (3). This is a fantastic, versatile, circuit tester that makes diagnosing electrical systems a much easier process. As you might guess, there has been a PP1, PP2, and now a third generation PP3. What is neat about the tool is that you can plug it …
27Apr2011
996 Oil Leaks
A buddy of mine brought by his 996 that is having trouble containing it’s oil, lol. Every time he drives the car, he gets out and smells that familiar smell of oil burning off the engine. It was time to get it taken care of. One of the most common sources of oil leaks in the M96 motors are the spark plug tube seals. There is an inner and outer o ring on the tube that will leak over time. …
25Apr2011
A little wrenching weekend.
Saturday I headed over and hung out with some very good friends of mine to do a little “KCWS wrenching.” We had 3 people that wanted to do their brakes, and Scott needed some help working on his 951 replacing the entire exhaust, motor mounts, a Lindsey oil cooler, and Vitesse wasted spark system. Jim and Aaron started knocking out brakes. First they did a black 964 that needed front rotors. Then Mark came by with his G-wagon and they …
21Apr2011
Power Tools: Ridgid….thumbs down.
I thought I’d throw this out there after a recent customer service issue I had. The nice thing about the blog, is that I can see where people visit from, if they google the site and what keywords they used to find it, if other sites pick up or link to one of my articles etc. My tool articles get picked up by quite a few tool review websites etc, which is neat to see. The bendpak lift review is …