So I solved the oil leak. (Confirmed by the 500 miles I drove yesterday and today). Remove a lot of stuff, clean clean clean, reinstall.
Then I finally did my brakes. First stop was from 60mph (I engined braked, and used the ebrake to stop in town). I didnt really stop, because the pads were eating zinc coating. Second stop, they started to grab. Did 10 60-20mph hard braking procedures (per pad recommendation). These definitely restored the feeling of the braking system back to normal. And they grab HARD.
So the BMW learned a new trick today! How to not unlock. It was great getting to work and having to crawl out of the hatch...
So what happens is the the relays for the lock and unlock get corroded and stop working super well... and they are inside a module... and the module can also disable the interior door handles (by decoupling them from the latches, safety measure).
This morning was cold. Really cold. I leave for work at 5:30am ish for reference. Which reminded me, my blower motor resistor is dead. So only way to heat up the inside of the car efficiently is to put it in windshield defrost mode, but then I have storm winds hitting my eyeballs.
So I ordered a new resistor. That will be loads of fun to replace...
First, after the kind of flash flood we had yesterday, I determined slotted rotors are a safety item. Nailed a couple of huge puddles and my brakes never even hinted at disappearing.
Second, I fixed my heater/blower fan. In BMW land its called the Final Stage Resistor. It really wasnt that bad, remove glovebox (6 screws), remove a slide in panel, and remove one other module.
This motor just refuses to keep oil inside. Now the oil feed line to the variable valve timing is leaking. And my oil cap is massively leaking despite crank case vacuum and not being able to here any leak there...
Ok the list of things I dont want to do, but am going to do because I hate putting oil in this thing:
Maybe a oil pan gasket: Its a bitch to do without cutting the gasket in two pieces, so just cut it and RTV the seams.
Front main seal: Shouldnt be too hard, just a TTY crank bolt and what not.
Vanos rebuild:
This entails removing the valve cover, and the front of the head (vanos unit). Taking it apart and replacing the seals in it. These are known to go bad by 50k miles, and definitely bad by 100k, but the M54 motor (mine) is better tuned to cope with this. A welcome gift is supposed return of low end torque (which I dont think I am lacking...).
And finally the most stressful part.
While doing the Vanos rebuild, I might as well do valve stem seals. Probably gonna do the old rope trick (I have heard bungee cord works better). Fun part, Camshafts are hollow and are easy to break. Other fun part, 24 valves to do.
Yea, to put it into perspective, that oil filter housing gasket I did for a whopping $10 and 4 hours of time, dealer cost is minimum $500, indie cost is minimum $330.
It pays to do things yourself with this car.
And man do I love driving it.
Also, if it turns out to be the piston rings consuming oil, Im selling the car after the Datsun is running.
Camping was fun. BMW got to play in the snow. Traction control/stability control makes this car very predictable and able to actually drive in the snow. It was a struggle but the car handled it.
But now I have plans to get an SUV (read: real 4wd) after the Datsun is finished. Currently leaning towards an Infiniti... lols
