Some more tweaks

Rambling from the Sage of Oxford
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Charles
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Some more tweaks

Post by Charles » Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:22 pm

As you may recall, my car had some major heart surgery earlier this year and lockdown/shielding has meant I have only done a few miles in it since.

When the car was being prepped for its MOT last month, we noticed that there was a small weep of oil coming from the back of the engine around where the head meets the block, so remedial work was planned to investigate and resolve. At the same time, we spotted the start of some play in one of the o/s wishbone bushes and we decided to deal with that at the same time - but slightly differently.

Cutting a long story short, I have decided to go down the Z4M lollipop route with two new wishbones - because I can, I guess!

Car's in with CPC at the moment - mainly because I can't drive for at least another three weeks following my knee replacement a week or so ago so it seemed like good timing - and I'm looking forward to getting it back to try this mod.
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

ali
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Re: Some more tweaks

Post by ali » Wed Sep 16, 2020 10:28 pm

Lemforder wishbones?
They claim to be the oem ones for BMW E46 but replacement ones never last as long as the original factory fitted ones.
Glad to hear the knee situation is looking so positive

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Charles
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Re: Some more tweaks

Post by Charles » Wed Sep 16, 2020 10:32 pm

ali wrote:
Wed Sep 16, 2020 10:28 pm
Lemforder wishbones?
They claim to be the oem ones for BMW E46 but replacement ones never last as long as the original factory fitted ones.
BMW parts fitted
Glad to hear the knee situation is looking so positive
Thanks - early days but everything appears to be working well so far
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Re: Some more tweaks

Post by PhillV8S » Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:15 am

Ref your new knees Charles, I found my new hips were a vast improvement on my crumbling former joints and have given me many years of happy blasting my B6 around.

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Charles
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Re: Some more tweaks

Post by Charles » Thu Sep 17, 2020 10:39 am

PhillV8S wrote:
Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:15 am
Ref your new knees Charles, I found my new hips were a vast improvement on my crumbling former joints and have given me many years of happy blasting my B6 around.
Just need to manage an emergency stop and I should be up and running 😀
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Re: Some more tweaks

Post by Adwo » Thu Sep 17, 2020 2:14 pm

The Z4 lollipops are the non-centered version right?

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Re: Some more tweaks

Post by Charles » Thu Sep 17, 2020 10:11 pm

Adwo wrote:
Thu Sep 17, 2020 2:14 pm
The Z4 lollipops are the non-centered version right?
Yes
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Charles
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Re: Some more tweaks

Post by Charles » Thu Sep 24, 2020 6:31 pm

Should be getting the car back tomorrow morning - leak free and with the tweaked front end.

I also managed a cheeky install of a working second-hand Pierburg vacuum pump (the one under the inlet manifold that fails on every car), which means I might actually have some brakes when starting from cold :shock: I've kept the original one and will be investigating whether I can get this refurbished locally in some appropriately quaint Oxfordshire shed where engineering skills are still in existence.

Just need to head out for some emergency stop practice this weekend to test the functionality of my new knee and then I might actually get to drive the damn thing!

Then it's on to sorting out the new winter set as I have acquired an original set of 18" ALPINA alloys from a B3S which I will be shodding with Pilot Alpin rubber. This will mean that my 17" BMW wheels with Alpin tyres and ALPINA centre cap roundels will be available for sale - but more of that in due course.
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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