2001 BMW 325Ci - All the maintenance

[Adam]

You have to pull the dipstick in order to remove the electrical junction box in order to pull the throttle body in order to reach the lower mount nut to remove the intake manifold. There is a noticeable amount of surface rust. I haven't priced one out yet. It at lease needs a new o-ring.

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After removing a couple other things, the intake comes right off.

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Now you can see the plastic heater lines. I found a metal version of one of them, but not the other. Either way, I'm replacing both of them while the intake is off.

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Here is the stupid PCV system. It includes four hoses and attaches to the intake manifold in two different places. There was no evidence of clogging, so that's something. The plasic lines are very brittle, though.

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And that's where it's going to stay for a couple weeks as I am on travel for work. The rest of the parts should arrive while I'm gone so it should be reassembly time soon.

[Adam]

Back at it.

I ended up finding a nice used dipstick on eBay with no rust for ~$16 so I bought that. A new one was over $80. Some stuff for this car is priced like you would expect.

I installed most of the cooling system today. One good thing: mostly everything came apart. Bad thing: I had to fight with the coolant pipes to remove them.

Something to note, the quick-connect coolant fittings are actually pretty nice. You pull the clocking clip out, wiggle it a bit, then it comes right apart.

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They are priced accordingly, though. Also, there are 4 heater hoses because of course there are.

The internet thinks the cooling system will dramatically fail at 100k. This cooling system looks fine, other than the rubber being a little aged. The coolant itself actually came out clean. Turns out when you maintain your coolant per the manufacturer, it doesn't look like sludge when it comes out like it would when running the original coolant to 150k+.

[Adam]

New heater pipes and hoses installed. Look at how many there are!

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More terrible rubber.

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Terrible PCV system. I cut one of the lines to make it come apart easier, but this contraption connects the valve cover, the intake manifold (two places), and the oil dipstick. Removal and replacement is much easier with the intake off. I wish I read up on this a little more before buying parts, there is a TSB to replace all of these contraptions with the insulated cold weather model which is insulated. Looks like I'll just have to make sure I get the thing up to operating temperature in cold weather.

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A couple shots of the hydraulic belt tensioner contraption while I have the oil filter housing off the engine.

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The engine is mostly back together now. The only things left to do are the A/C tensioner then put the rest of the stuff back in.

[Adam]

In the mean time, I took the broken mirror off. It looks like the pot-metal frame broke in two, right where the spring is located that is supposed to help absorb minor impacts.

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The inside of the mirror looks 40 years old.

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Due to this car's lack of options (memory function specifically), it has been difficult to locate a used mirror. New one are way to pricey ($250+), but all the used ones are for the memory option which uses a different plug than mine (12-pin vs. 6-pin). The internet seems to have had some luck using screws to hold the broken pieces together so I'm going to try that. Depending on how that goes, I can always get the "wrong" used mirror and swap the harness over. Maybe.

[kevm14]

I still don't really understand that hydraulic tensioner.

Your comment about the memory mirrors made me realize that it is good that someone like Jenn may eventually be on the receiving end of this car (aside from the possibility of it just being your daily, instead). I mean the work you are doing is basically all the same work you would do if the car was instead a loaded 330i or something. But then the chances of the car being free diminish as well. So there's that.

[Adam]

The rear reverse light housings' lenses have separated from the housings. One came apart when I was originally looking at it. The other came apart while I was removing it. The quality glue seems to fail.

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The bulb is attached with this plastic housing which comes off with that one clip seen in the middle. Fun fact, the light housing has a spot for the rear fog light, but the bulb holder doesn't have a hole for the bulb.

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Once the bulb housing is out of the way, this one nut holds a plastic clip which holds the housing in.

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Much better. Fortunately the made in Taiwan housings had an incorrectly sized hold for the retainer clip of the bulb holder to snap into. A Dremel made short work of that.

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That lip above the license plate older is also broken where the attachment screws hold it down. Conveniently it houses the plate lights and the trunk release button, Perhaps I can plati-fix it. Sounds like a job for later, I'm back on travel next week.

[Adam]

I'm back. The engine is reassembled and runs. There was a minor incident with the upper radiator hose quick-connect fitting not being fully seated onto the radiator, but that was easily fixed by pushing on it. I added the rest of my (93 octane) lawnmower fuel as the tank was really empty, now it is slightly less empty. The exhaust smells less like terrible old gas, so that's a step in the right direction.

What's left for sticker:
- Battery
- Fuel filter and potentially another failed vacuum hose (FPR is vacuum fed but mounted next to the filter under the car 'cause of course it is)
- Wipers
- Headlight service
- Reassemble RH mirror with screws.
- Tires? There is some dry-rot...
- Address brake rotors

The last one will be the most work. The rotors aren't very old on this car, but have lots of surface rust. I'm going to see if they can be saved by turning. Should be OK, they are vented on the front and rear, so there's plenty of material.

Cosmetic issues:
- Cowl (previously ordered one, just need to install it)
- Headlight seals (these were fairly cheap so I got those too)
- Replace all the rusted screws on the under-engine cover. I replaced the rusted clips on the body already.
- Fabric on pillar covers
- Broken trunk thing
- All the exterior sludge

Other:
- Change the rest of the fluids (trans, diff, brake, P/S)

Let's see how much I can finish before going on travel again.

[kevm14]

The last one will be the most work. The rotors aren't very old on this car, but have lots of surface rust. I'm going to see if they can be saved by turning. Should be OK, they are vented on the front and rear, so there's plenty of material.

I really wouldn't. I would consider something like sanding them (or maybe just wire wheeling) and then something like a flex hone if that finish isn't good enough that a brake pad couldn't sort it out.

[Adam]

The last one will be the most work. The rotors aren't very old on this car, but have lots of surface rust. I'm going to see if they can be saved by turning. Should be OK, they are vented on the front and rear, so there's plenty of material.

I really wouldn't. I would consider something like sanding them (or maybe just wire wheeling) and then something like a flex hone if that finish isn't good enough that a brake pad couldn't sort it out.

Maybe, I haven't assessed how much rust is there.

[Adam]

For reference, here is the old and new 1/4 turn fasteners form the under-engine cover. Sitting outside is terrible for cars.

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Time to change the fuel filter. Now where could it be? Is it under this random metal thing?

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Yup. Also, found another vacuum leak. That thing on the end of the filter is the fuel pressure regulator. The vacuum line runs up to the intake.

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Here's the new one. The two inlet lines are actually a feed and a return line.

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I was going to move it outside to more easily take off the rotors, but it turns out the battery in the Fleetwood is too dead to start. Sigh...