[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

If you took it out, the car probably wouldn't last a trip around the block

Someone gets it!!!

[eljay]

Originally Posted by E93Seattle (Racerbruce)

YAY strada!

please elaborate re the green ball-o-love next to your screen.

It's monitoring the tires for flatness! Can't you see?!

[E93Seattle (Racerbruce)]

Originally Posted by E93Seattle (Racerbruce)

YAY strada!

please elaborate re the green ball-o-love next to your screen.

OK, i must add to the insanity of this topic....
this Strawberry Shortcake has ridden in the last eight cars i've owned (make that nine including the red rocket - my most current ride).

she was my oldest daughter's fav when she was a toddler and when she gave it up at the ripe age of appx 5, it began riding in my car(s)....i keep her in the drivers door storage pouch area and this pic is her riding on the trunk of my 07 Z4MR....her infused and grotesque perfume smell has subsided, but she still has place in my rides

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by E93Seattle (Racerbruce)

OK, i must add to the insanity of this topic....
this Strawberry Shortcake has ridden in the last eight cars i've owned (make that nine including the red rocket - my most current ride).

she was my oldest daughter's fav when she was a toddler and when she gave it up at the ripe age of appx 5, it began riding in my car(s)....i keep her in the drivers door storage pouch area and this pic is her riding on the trunk of my 07 Z4MR....her infused and grotesque perfume smell has subsided, but she still has place in my rides

Attachment 3393237

Excellent!

Yeah, the green squishy was found in the car. I like finding something of the previous owner in cars. My 330i has some Oregon maps that were left in it that I keep. It's a nice feeling of having some connectivity with previous owners.

[StradaRedlands]

Coded in the alarm with Protool. Easy-peasy!

From this:



To this:

[Onizukachan]

Mine has the same multi hole alarm cover but I haven’t tried turning it on in ncs yet to see if it is actually there.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Onizukachan

Mine has the same multi hole alarm cover but I haven’t tried turning it on in ncs yet to see if it is actually there.

The easy check is to look and see if you have the hood switch installed. If it's there (On the cowl in front of the brake fluid reservoir), then you have it installed and are good to go! If you just see the wiring harness but no switch, then you're pre-wired and just need the components. Then you can activate in the VO.

[StradaRedlands]

Wagon-mania at the pick-a-part:



But the real news is that I got into the maintenance I needed to do. New plugs, coils, valvetronic football, and cowl.



Most of it done today, I just need to swap everything over to the new cowl (ebaby special) and reinstall tomorrow. Plugs were ready, and one of the coils went bad on me a month or so ago, so figured I would do them all. Number two there was particularly bad. That was the coil that went out on me as well:






I traced my oil leak to the valvetronic football, and was VERY upset to see that it was slathered with some sort of gasket maker:



I presume there is a bigger problem here, and that I'll need a full valve cover in the near future. I scraped all that crap off and put on the new gasket. Fingers crossed it will be fine...

FWIW I picked up a flexible silicon plug installer and am really happy with it. Takes away the fear of cross-threading a plug!



Cleared codes, ran the re-learn in Protool, and fired 'er up! Tach bounced around for 20 seconds or so, then smoothed out nicely! Tomorrow I'll install the cowl and be done. Although I didn't get one of the rubber strips, and am hoping it will be fine... hmmm....

[StradaRedlands]

From that to this:



Valvetronic motor gasket seems to be holding as designed! Added a new $85 ebay cowl that I took a chance on. It's 98% fine, maybe even 99%. Forgot to order the sealing strip so very carefully re-used the original one. All the seals are unexpectedly in good shape! While I had the wipers off I re-painted them. As I was trying to re-condition the original sealing strip I had some gummi pflege out, so slathered that on everything everywhere. Finally, I tucked in the little fabric screen on the sunroof wind deflector that had slipped out. I rarely use the sunroof, but nice to have it fixed.

Middle Child is requisitioning the car and taking it back to Santa Cruz, so trying to get every thing finished off for her. The new Rein power steering reservoir is leaking at the clamshell seam, and I'm not quite happy with the battery. I think PO put a cheap under-sized one in, and while it works, it does struggle. Something I could put off, but not sure about it being 400 miles away...

[Onizukachan]

Walmart AGM are cheap(ish) put an H8 in the r53 few months ago for $150.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Onizukachan

Walmart AGM are cheap(ish) put an H8 in the r53 few months ago for $150.

You got a good deal! They're up to $179 now... same as Costco's Interstate.

[Onizukachan]

Interstate amd walmart… same “ brand”,ie Johnson Controls. They make about 75-80% of automotive batteries no matter what brand sticker they have, personally I prefer Deka AGM ( Bosch used to be Deka, might not be anymore) but as always YMMV.

If you think it is flaky, better to change it before she takes it off to school. I actually swapped the h8 into the red mini because it’s battery that was fine all winter long, amd for the last two years of sitting around etc etc, suddenly decided it couldn’t hold a charge more than 1-2 days. And the white one is down for probably a clutch job for the foreseeable future so why not, lol.

[lordnikon]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Wagon-mania at the pick-a-part:

Smoked side lights?!

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by lordnikon

Smoked side lights?!

Yes, cheap LED ones, but work great.

[POBEP]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Wagon-mania at the pick-a-part:

this makes me miss my former W203 - the only 6MT german I had.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by POBEP

this makes me miss my former W203 - the only 6MT german I had.

One of the last ones to have a proper hood ornament!

[StradaRedlands]

New H8 battery installed. I was expecting an H6, but pulled out an H7, so better than expected. It unfortunately wasn't registered/coded when installed in June 22. Maybe that's why it went bad so fast? Kind of a bummer. But at least now I know what I've got!





Also did a quick R&R of the power steering reservoir. Here's a photo showing the middle seam not even close to connected. It's a Rein from FCP, but not really even worth sending back. I bought a Dorman from Amazon as I needed it fast. Hopefully it's made a little better:

[POBEP]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

New H8 battery installed. I was expecting an H6, but pulled out an H7, so better than expected. It unfortunately wasn't registered/coded when installed in June 22. Maybe that's why it went bad so fast? Kind of a bummer.

What was H7 brand and type (AGM or FLA)?

My E90 (335d) previous (3rd) owner mentioned that he had to replace battery every 2-3 years.
He put new one shortly before selling it to me in 2020.
Battery log showed that 4 registration events.
Fast forward, the E90's battery was almost dead early last year.
I was not able to find any form of power drain.
It was Napa H6/FLA, I replaced it with Odyssey H8/AGM in November.

My E91 factory option was H7/FLA, I replaced with H7/AGM.
I got good use out of my factory batteries:
- E91 80Ah/FLA - 10y
- E70 105Ah/AGM - 12y and going
- F25 105Ah/AGM - 8y and going

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Yum, chicharron spark plug!



Interesting deal with the power steering reservoir. I've purchased a handful of Rein parts that looked to be OE quality, but this is disappointing.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by POBEP

What was H7 brand and type (AGM or FLA)?

My E90 (335d) previous (3rd) owner mentioned that he had to replace battery every 2-3 years.
He put new one shortly before selling it to me in 2020.
Battery log showed that 4 registration events.
Fast forward, the E90's battery was almost dead early last year.
I was not able to find any form of power drain.
It was Napa H6/FLA, I replaced it with Odyssey H8/AGM in November.

My E91 factory option was H7/FLA, I replaced with H7/AGM.
I got good use out of my factory batteries:
- E91 80Ah/FLA - 10y
- E70 105Ah/AGM - 12y and going
- F25 105Ah/AGM - 8y and going

Energy Power!!! Not sure if AGM or FLA... maybe AGM based on the top, but just don't know as there's very little info on it. Hoping it's just a bad battery or something related to the lack of registration. H8 was a pain to install but I did it!

Originally Posted by lowrydr310

Yum, chicharron spark plug!



Interesting deal with the power steering reservoir. I've purchased a handful of Rein parts that looked to be OE quality, but this is disappointing.

There's a small chance I over-tightened the clamp when installing, but I don't think that was it. I would have sent it back to FCP for a new one, but MC left this morning and I couldn't wait for delivery next week. Plus shipping would have eaten up most of the savings!

And I wish my plugs were that delicious!

MC just rolled into Paso Robles, two hours to Santa Cruz!

[StradaRedlands]

A split arm rest showed up on ebaby for a reasonable price so I bought it last week and installed it today!



Super easy install when you know what to do the second time.



The updated Dorman PS reservoir is holding up fine after 1,000 miles! I don't even know if the $16 Rein one is worth sending back to FCP.

I might be at the point where I need to find some sport seats. Those, tinted windows, and clear-coat repair are all on my list. Suspension is pretty solid, so I can put that off for a bit.

[Tambohamilton]

Sports seats FTW. Bonus points if you can find the ones which are half real leather (not sensatec).