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gilber33

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The last month was pretty crazy figuring out this whole lighting biz. But I got caught up on the first wave of orders and had a night to just work on the car. 

It's back on the ground. What I've completed up to this point: 

  • ABS Delete using the Chase Bays brake line kit. 
  • Chase Bays power steering reservoir and hoses.
  • Patch some rust in the engine bay and paint it. 
  • New water pump, timing belt kit, transmission input shaft seal. 
  • Ditched the Garagistic DSSR in favor for the IE Motorsports DSSR and oem shift selector joint.
  • Rebuilt the HVAC box with all new foam on the flaps and the joints and fixed one of the recirc flaps.
  • Redid the body harness going into the engine bay (lights, fan, etc.) with new loom.

What's left: 

  • Finish putting interior back together and redo the gauge wire harnesses. 
  • Paint a couple pieces.
  • Fluids. 
  • Odds and ends. 

E762308D-6871-41CD-94E4-114D8E9C9E30.jpeg

0FAED464-0100-47E7-B06A-C67AE4CC7EFF.jpeg

My printers hard at work. 

C1CF7FE9-5524-4670-A360-1D7E1C4FB120.jpeg

These lighting adapters have been a lot of fun and really cool to see all of the reactions to them. I'm trying really hard to make them look and feel just as good as they do function.

E283AB9E-A361-4EB9-AC48-BC5A3F291273.jpeg

A8D94723-8FC5-47DF-941D-50CBFA053F14.jpeg

ECEA074A-5793-4512-9B5B-5E04A7AE5391.jpeg

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On 3/7/2022 at 9:08 AM, gilber33 said:

The last month was pretty crazy figuring out this whole lighting biz. But I got caught up on the first wave of orders and had a night to just work on the car. 

It's back on the ground. What I've completed up to this point: 

  • ABS Delete using the Chase Bays brake line kit. 
  • Chase Bays power steering reservoir and hoses.
  • Patch some rust in the engine bay and paint it. 
  • New water pump, timing belt kit, transmission input shaft seal. 
  • Ditched the Garagistic DSSR in favor for the IE Motorsports DSSR and oem shift selector joint.
  • Rebuilt the HVAC box with all new foam on the flaps and the joints and fixed one of the recirc flaps.
  • Redid the body harness going into the engine bay (lights, fan, etc.) with new loom.

What's left: 

  • Finish putting interior back together and redo the gauge wire harnesses. 
  • Paint a couple pieces.
  • Fluids. 
  • Odds and ends. 

E762308D-6871-41CD-94E4-114D8E9C9E30.jpeg

0FAED464-0100-47E7-B06A-C67AE4CC7EFF.jpeg

My printers hard at work. 

C1CF7FE9-5524-4670-A360-1D7E1C4FB120.jpeg

These lighting adapters have been a lot of fun and really cool to see all of the reactions to them. I'm trying really hard to make them look and feel just as good as they do function.

E283AB9E-A361-4EB9-AC48-BC5A3F291273.jpeg

A8D94723-8FC5-47DF-941D-50CBFA053F14.jpeg

ECEA074A-5793-4512-9B5B-5E04A7AE5391.jpeg

Dang you went all in on the print farm! That light output/cutoff looks super nice. 

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1 hour ago, m42b32 said:

Dang you went all in on the print farm! That light output/cutoff looks super nice. 

As I started making them I realized that a complete kit takes 24 hours of non stop printing to make with one printer. Since I really only have the ability to start a print on the morning and after work, it wouldn’t have been good business to do that. Plus, if the printer went down, then I’d be screwed. So yeah, I dove right in. 

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14 hours ago, KaiserRolls said:

I keep seeing your posts in r3v, I really hope this takes off! 
that plug and play option is super tempting

Me too!

Its harder than I anticipated. I knew forums didn’t work like they did years ago for selling car stuff and that’s it’s all moved to Facebook and Instagram, but I never got deep into instagram. So it’s been a huge learning curve to try and get the name out there. 
 

But those who have received and installed the adapters really like them! 
 

The Depo kits with the new Acme projectors is a no brainer to me. I was taking some new pictures of them last night and I’m looking at the Depos , and then my Ellipsoids, and back to the Depos. If one of those sets end up on my car I won’t be surprised. 

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i see you are reselling DEPO kits. just a fair warning - their quality is subpar. I can tell you are dedicated to selling a really great product, and the DEPOs are not up to those standards.  just have your customer service person ready to field those calls 😜

a suggestion: be willing to open a set of the DEPO lights and sell replacement parts from it if someone requests. no other vendor does this. you may actually get business from this alone, and it would also support your own product. youll have to learn to disassemble (and/or make some special tools) without breaking stuff, but it doesn't take much practice. 

what i've personally seen/experienced:

1. broken or stripped adjuster knobs (plastic is bad quality) 

2. broken glass (thinner glass than oem, cracks easier) 

3. leaking seals. (the gasket on the back bulb covers and the o-ring on the parking light are a joke) 

 

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On 3/10/2022 at 10:08 AM, straight6pwr said:

i see you are reselling DEPO kits. just a fair warning - their quality is subpar. I can tell you are dedicated to selling a really great product, and the DEPOs are not up to those standards.  just have your customer service person ready to field those calls 😜

a suggestion: be willing to open a set of the DEPO lights and sell replacement parts from it if someone requests. no other vendor does this. you may actually get business from this alone, and it would also support your own product. youll have to learn to disassemble (and/or make some special tools) without breaking stuff, but it doesn't take much practice. 

what i've personally seen/experienced:

1. broken or stripped adjuster knobs (plastic is bad quality) 

2. broken glass (thinner glass than oem, cracks easier) 

3. leaking seals. (the gasket on the back bulb covers and the o-ring on the parking light are a joke) 

 

Yeah, I hear you. I added a note to the website reiterating that they're an aftermarket headlight and not an OEM replacement. 

I would like  to think that most people know what Depo headlights are and that they are an affordable aftermarket option/alternative to OEM headlights. The ones I've taken apart though, the quality seems fine. I'll mess with the adjusters some and doulbe check any that go out.

 

 

Fun fact I recently learned with the printers and those cheap color changing LED light strips with remotes from amazon. The interference from the receivers on the light strips is enough to "push" the button on the printer's menu and make it do things by itself. I pulled those out of each one and put in LED under cabinet type lights and have had no issues. 

 

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18 hours ago, gilber33 said:

I would like  to think that most people know what Depo headlights are and that they are an affordable aftermarket option/alternative to OEM headlights. The ones I've taken apart though, the quality seems fine. I'll mess with the adjusters some and doulbe check any that go out.

think all you want, but your brain power will not transfer to the morons of the world

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tried this thing. It didn't work though due to the GAPING HOLE IN THE WATER PUMP GASKET I found after filling it up with coolant. 

Replaced the gasket and then it worked and made filling it up really easy. 

C74E250B-F9B5-418D-8436-0F954698755C.jpeg

Some interior dingle berries to wrap up. Just waiting for the classic wisconsin 30 degrees and snow to 80 degrees and humid over night transition to summer. 

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152359A8-BB0E-454D-A9C9-27D0EAC45BB2.jpeg

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Does anyone have any suggestions for making the horn button work on the aftermarket settering wheel? There's one wire that comes into the hub, and if I ground that out on the steering wheel, the horns engage their horning. The button has two spades, so obviously I need to ground one of them. Any suggestions on how to ground that within the steering wheel? 

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4 hours ago, gilber33 said:

Does anyone have any suggestions for making the horn button work on the aftermarket settering wheel? There's one wire that comes into the hub, and if I ground that out on the steering wheel, the horns engage their horning. The button has two spades, so obviously I need to ground one of them. Any suggestions on how to ground that within the steering wheel? 

Momo makes this horn button retainer plate thing (here is one example, have no experience with this specific part though: https://www.ebay.com/itm/121532035439) that has a grounding point on it. I believe it connects the ground through the steering column like the OEM horn buttons. This is what I did on my car with some modification to the ring as I'm using a raid steering wheel (though I am using a momo wheel hub) and it works perfectly. Wired like this:

hornButtonweb.jpg

 

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13 hours ago, m42b32 said:

Momo makes this horn button retainer plate thing (here is one example, have no experience with this specific part though: https://www.ebay.com/itm/121532035439) that has a grounding point on it. I believe it connects the ground through the steering column like the OEM horn buttons. This is what I did on my car with some modification to the ring as I'm using a raid steering wheel (though I am using a momo wheel hub) and it works perfectly. Wired like this:

 

That looks like exactly what I need! Thanks for that. I had no idea that existed. 

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Question time. Tonight I realized my cruise control is not working. It was working completely fine before everything this winter. The only thing I did to the cruise control system was replace the cable from the actuator to the throttle body. 
 

I followed this diagnosis list:

E88E6941-1679-4EAA-B3FA-E452AD57C84F.jpeg
 

1. low resistance between pin 9 and ground (both the ground on the connector and the chassis)  

2. switch the meter to volts and while I do get power, I’m getting about 11.2v between pin 9 and earth while the battery is at 12.5v  

3. connect a bulb between pin 1 and 24. This worked and the bulb turned on.

I guess I’m wondering what else I can check? I think it’s weird I’m not getting full voltage in #2.

Can somsone who's better at wiring break this down for me:

image.png

What does that mean and is there a way to test that?

 

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12 hours ago, P_Roloff said:

Might be worth checking the gauge cluster if you had it out, the speed sensor wire to the back of it can get loose/disconnected and that stops the cruise working. Mine was non-functional for years until I checked, that’s all that was keeping it from working. 

I vividly remember pluggint that in, but I plan to check continuity of all the wires going to the cruise control ecu and will double check that one. 

I ordered a new (used) steering column stalk. I didn't know that the late model cruise control system had an accel and decel feature becuase mine never did that. I also banged the lever really good a few times when taking the dash in and out. I'm hoping that is the cause of my issues. 

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Confirmed last night that the speed signal wire is plugged in behind the cluster. Confirmed the brake switch and clutch switch are good. 
 

I went to look more into why the CC connector wasn't getting 12v from the brake switch. This morning I confirmed that the brake switch on the pedal and on the accessory bank of connectors (i don't know what to call it) below are both getting 12v with key in pos2. I don't know why that circuit calls out R as ABS, because R & S get their signals from the brake switch - one is constant and one is the switched wire.

image.png

After pressing the brake pedal, the switched side on the brake switch is 11.5v, but the at the pin on the accessory connector it's almost a full volt lower around 10.8. Which lines up with the readings I was getting at the CC ecu connector. Why would there be that much of a drop?

image.png

 

I can't find any good information on what it means that for the CC to engage, Pin 9 (which is from the brake switch) need to sense ground from the tail lights. Does that mean pin 9 is grounded through the tail lights? I'm not really sure how to check that.

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Still trying to figure this out. It’s not the cruise control stalk lever. My only lead right now is a potential voltage issue. These are the voltage readings i did this morning:

63E204C4-D81E-4B1D-B7F0-EA260A616E6B.jpeg

The violet wire feeds fuses 4,5,6,12 and fuse 6 feeds the brake switch. 

Is a .5v drop through the ignition switch normal? I’m going to replace the brake switch and clean the brake circuits grounds under the rear seat, but still, is a small voltage drop like that something to expect from the ignition switch? The diagnosis from e30zone says that green/red wire should be feeding the ECU box with 12+ volts when the brake pedal is pressed.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Annual first drive to work picture. 

CE0C1E77-3427-4CEA-B3AB-7EEE2726ECFD.jpeg

Cruise control works. I took the actuator apart and did a better job adjusting the cable. I think there was too much slack inside the actuator before. 
 

850R is up on the lift for engine mounts, turbo rebuild, some coolant lines, and hopefully if all goes smoothed, pull the dash and fix the mounts and replace the evaporator.  
 

BD38E175-039C-41FC-8DF6-D0A7A7E80820.jpeg

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646ECFA3-ABF4-4714-9992-3E004406CDCF.jpeg

Not good for boost. 

0EAC13A9-FA7A-454A-8C2C-E08435ED3E75.jpeg

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  • gilber33 changed the title to Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum

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