P_Roloff
-
Posts
750 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
28
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Store
Posts posted by P_Roloff
-
-
I read through the itinerary for the last year, seems like they do a road rally one day, an trip to the BMW museum in SC another, and have the “show” or gathering or whatever the third day. I’ve spent limited time down in that region and never with a fun car, so I’m most excited to experience some really good roads with what will hopefully be a really well suited car for the twisties.
- timmer and KaiserRolls
-
2
-
Just paid my registration, vintage or bust!
- YoungCR, KaiserRolls, timmer and 1 other
-
4
-
3 hours ago, YoungCR said:
I’ll challenge you, I was thinking this would be a good goal for getting the 540i back together. It needs to stretch its legs as well.
Let’s see, manual swap, new diff, subframe bushings, new fuel tank, new aux fan, a timing belt, and fixing vacuum leaks?
You might beat me, but it’ll be a hell of a good challenge. You’re on!
-
-
-
1 hour ago, YoungCR said:
Right. I can't find the post but I've seen pics of this car before and remember the previous owner causing issues at Madison C&C leaving the parking lot 🚭
Didn’t know this was one of the ones causing issues, but I do remember seeing this car once or twice there. Young guy owned it, which I’m sure surprises no one. I love the “race” passenger seat and the comfort drivers seat 😂
-
-
I’m in!
-
8 hours ago, Boris3 said:
Just wanted to bump this thread in case anyone might need this DIY tool for e30 subframe stock bushing removal/install. It's a modified Pitman puller and pipe cap (new cap included since the old one was getting a bit trashed). You provide your own 2-jaw puller. See the first post in the thread for details. Not as fun as burning out bushings but it can help especially if you don't want to drop your subframe. I found this in my basement recently and am happy to send it on to whoever needs.
Rich
I’m thinking I’ll probably use it this winter/spring on mine, so I’ll keep this in mind. Was just debating whether to buy the oem tool, this solves that!
-
Well, got under the car to do the upper control arms, and realized the lower control arm ball joint boots were toasted. I’d also been noticing fromt damping getting worse, to the point that when you combined the worn out arms and shocks, the car was getting to be frustrating to drive. Lots of steering slop, shitty tracking (if you ever needed to find microscopic changes in pavement grading though, hoo boy was this your car), clunking, and turn-in that would be best described as uninspiring.
So, after four FedEx shipments, all of which were late (not sure what’s going in the Menominee Falls FedEx hub, but I’m pretty sure it’s literally nothing, and certainly nothing with any urgency) new strut inserts, dust boots, bump stops, top mounts, 750il upper control arms, and e31 spherical lower control arms arrived and were installed on the car. Sorry, no pics, was too busy trying to not throw my old control arms through the FedEx distribution center’s windows. Did I mention I REALLY hate FedEx?
Anyways, the car handles soooo much better with the new parts. I fell back in love with it a bit again, it’s so comfy and well suited for highway driving but still is tossable enough to be fun. Turn in is much improved as is tracking with steering slop definitely improved but still not great. Might replace the steering links in the spring and see where that gets me. There’s definitely some slop in the box itself though too, and adjusting either made it too tight or left slop. Sure as shit not worth replacing the box, so I’ll leave it for now. Doing the front end also highlighted how loosey-goosey the rear is; shocks, mounts, subframe bushings and sway links will be coming in the spring. Holding off on RTABS until I absolutely have to, I’d rather not disconnect brake lines until I absolutely have to.
Oh, I forgot, mileage sits at 99,xxx or so. Getting real close to the century mark.
I finally got around to replacing the rear trailing arm links (dog bones) last night as well, no word on the difference they made because I installed them, then immediately shut the door and drove home in the e30. Side note, that job is cake on ramps. Most of the DIY’s say to use stands, but the links are in their unstressed position at normal suspension height, so save yourself the hassle. I’ll weigh in on the difference the links make next week probably when my RA plates come (updated registration came in the mail today!).
If you made it this far, you’re probably REALLY bored at work today. Tune in next time for me probably burning subframe bushings out of the car! Or an oil change note. Probably that. Shit, I should really do an oil change.
-
3 hours ago, HipMF said:
Don't?
There's no trail, so it's a combination of talus scrambling and bushwhacking. Choosing your route and navigation are key. I feel like it's faster to stay on the talus as much as possible. Avoid heavy underbrush. Any area that's not flat, but not too steep will be rocky, but covered in moss/vines/etc and will be difficult to get across and that describes about half the bluff. Poison ivy everywhere. It also seems dirtier? The sun hits it at a lower angle because of the slope, so it's probably damp/wet more often.
Other than that, it's not bad. I started on the talus field just a tad west of the south shore beach, went straight up, then turned left near the top of the bluff to get to the talus the runs along the ridge. It seemed to work out okay, but it's slow going. I was out there 4-5 hours including time for exploring around, taking pictures, etc. It's nice if you really want to get out there and be by yourself away from the tourists, but the other bluffs are nicer for scrambling/exploring IMO.
Good to know, thanks. I’ve been back in the gorge southwest of Burma road (highly recommend, I can point out the location of a couple neat little waterfalls back there if you ever want) and a few other places off trail in the park, but haven’t tried the south bluff just yet. Would be neat to get a different perspective on the park though. Maybe later this fall when things dry out a bit and the leaves have fallen…
-
17 hours ago, HipMF said:
I went outside.
Mmm, south bluff. Always wanted to try it, never knew where to start. Any tips?
-
You have any that are straight with good paint?
-
Like the title says, looking for a center cap from an e34 15” style 5, p/n 36131179828. One of mine flung itself off last night, and I’d ideally like to have a replacement by the weekend. I’m in Milwaukee but will be up in Oshkosh tonight, so lmk if you have one!
-
12 minutes ago, patsbimmer1 said:
I'm patiently reloading the DMV site waiting for it to be available.
I think they said October 4th?
-
Soooo who else is getting one? I love the look, I was expecting just a plain white plate so this was a pleasant surprise.
- RobZR, m42b32 and patsbimmer1
-
3
-
In.
-
7 hours ago, vbhargava said:
For oil pan protection I went down the route of:
I’ve always wanted to try an X-brace to see if it would tighten up the car a little bit, maybe I’ll get one after the skidplate is installed and see if it fits. Did you notice a difference? If they won’t work together, I might try my hand a fabricating my own brace around the plate.
Right now the oil pan protection is a higher priority, with how much driving I do on broken pavement and unpredictable surfaces I need to have that peace of mind. I wince every time I drive over a large pavement heave or even a slightly protruding manhole cover now, and that sucks. I don’t want to have to care as much and just drive the damn thing. -
Recently rolled past 201,000 miles. I haven’t been driving this as much as I should, but I haven’t been keeping it at my apartment and time to drive it is not as available as I’d like.
About a month ago I installed the lowering springs and sport shocks I picked up from @timmer at the e30 picnic (thanks again!), and I’m really digging the new height and ride.
Definitely firm, but not overly harsh or bouncy and very go-kart like. It’s a blast and so responsive, but I’ve been struggling with how low the oil pan now sits (truthfully, most of the reason I haven’t driven it much) so I decided to grab a skid plate from HIKFab thru bimmerworld along with a muffler hanger kit and some fresh front wheel bearings. If anyone here is capable with a welder and would be willing to install the skidplate for me, I would happily compensate you for it.
All that stuff will go on in a few weeks, and I’ll be (hopefully) back and ready to go for peak driving season. Then, it’ll be back apart for a new fuel tank, manual trans swap, diff swap, and subframe bushing replacement this winter.
Speaking of, if anyone has a lead on garage space or a decent storage facility that is preferably in the greater MKE area, let me know. I can make Madison work too, but the closer to Pewaukee the better. Heated and with electric would be a plus, but not necessary. Would rent year round and use for storage and wrenching.
- Bassboy3313 and m42b32
-
2
-
Finally got around to an oil change and a wash this past weekend, mileage sits at 93,3xx. Changed oil with Mobil 1 15w-50 synthetic. I threw some fresh exhaust hanger rubber mount donut things on at the same time since the last ones I bought shredded themselves in about a year and a half. Fresh rear pitman arms/dog bones and front upper control arms are sitting in the garage waiting to be installed when I get the chance. So, probably October.
-
Had a wild @TehRaydarlover sighting on 94 westbound near oconomowoc in his gorgeous e39 M5, what a perfect color spec.
-
2 hours ago, MattY said:
chris and I can meet up at 8am if we're headed to qdoba— however i am still fwd for the time being. waiting on a new e46 rack for the sedan.
It sounds like we’re going to just head out at 9 and go straight to the picnic if that works for you guys. I’ll understand if you want to head early and get some gourmet burritos 😂
-
It verks! Back to ticking away the miles. The check light in the cluster along with the ABS light both work now too, which is cool. Only took a decade 🙄.
Put a little over a hundred miles on it today while heading up to Devil’s lake to hike, did about 10 miles there in a little over four hours. It was an absolutely perfect day for it too.
In other news, my brother picked up a 1970 Honda CL100 for $20 last year, and has been getting it running and back into streetable shape when he has the time for it. Tonight he got around to pulling the piston and cylinder, and figured out what the source of his oil consumption was. This is the compression ring, and he said it was all still in there thankfully. Bore isn’t scored either, I’m amazing it ran as well as it did like this.
-
Pulled the car out of storage today, it started right on the first turn of the key like always. I ordered the Garagistic odometer gear set this winter and decided to take care of that right away to get an accurate mileage tally for this year. No pics of the removal, but I snapped a few of the busted gears and various inner workings. It looks like someone fried an idiot light and soldered a jumper from the light adjacent to it at some point, but it’s the brake lining light that isn’t working so I’m not going to take the time to fix it.
Broken bulb that someone just left in there:
Broken gears:
Looks like only a few teeth were broken on each gear, but it was more than enough to jam everything up. The motor gear was by far the worst of the three.
New gears installed:
Spittin’ chiclets:
The only mildly difficult part of the job was removing the brass sleeve that was press fit onto the motor shaft. This required patience as to not wreck the motor (hopefully I didn’t, I haven’t tested yet), but it eventually came off using a side cutters and needle nose to crush the bushing at 90 degree angles until it loosened and slipped off.
I tried my best to push as little as possible when installing the new drive gear, but we’ll see if I wrecked it tomorrow.
Other than that, it’s just nice to have it back on the road. I forgot how sharp and light it feels compared to the e34, it’s a blast and still never fails to put a smile on my face. Solid FCAB’s and a manual swap are next on the project list, although the swap probably won’t happen until this fall or winter. I’ll replace the fuel tank, some brake lines and subframe bushings while I’m in there as well. I’ve been eyeing a Continental/VDO head unit as well, the current craptastic JVC is on its last legs.
See y’all at the picnic!
The One to End It All
in Members BMWs
Posted
I’ve never felt any real reason to remove it as long as it’s working. Sure, if it’s not functional anymore rip it out, but I guess I don’t see why a minimally intrusive (on the street) safety net should get canned.
I can’t comment on track or autocross use though, someone else might have more feedback on whether it can be intrusive or annoying in those situations, but for a street car, I’d keep it. Personal opinion and all that though.
Holy hell is that car clean and nice, what a find. Alpine E30’s ftw!