2007 E63 Wagon

[davej]

Inspection Day!
I took it to my new favorite ESL shop here in town and they got a big kick out of the sounds it makes. The inspector was telling me thru broken english and a smile from multiple revs that it was too loud for inspection, thought I was done right then and there, but then he continued. I got to sit and watch, along with Bob, the shop cat, and after several non-English speaking conferences with the owner, they call me over and say the front tires are getting low on tread and I'll need to replace them to pass inspection. I knew the insides were worn, so it wasn't a total surprise, but ok. Tell them I'll go take care of that and come back for a re-inspection.
He goes 'No, no. I have tire for you. We put on, car pass ok."
Ohhhhhhh....I getcha now. Ok fine, lets do this.
He climbs up to a loft and throws down two of the finest 8 year old Chinese tires he has, one with a screw in it, and mounts/balances them right there.

$115 later I have my sticker and am heading to Costco for new tires. 11/10, will go back every year.




Big brakes are big.


Bob is the best 

[rherold9]

quality content

[Sijray21]

why not just tell them to not put on the cheap chinese tire since you're about to replace all four anyway? unless the inspection place is pretty far out of the way. i'm assuming a standard inspection is $20 and retest is $1 like it usually is. Spending $115 seems like it's not worth it.

[BLINGMW]

Cool cool! The jump seat doesn't get old, kids are still enjoying the one in our Volvo after 2 yrs and it's great to have an option when they aren't wanting to sit together. Now, replacing 02 sensors every 5k miles.... that *might* get old.

[JPolen01]

This thread delivers per usual.

[.RJ]

those brakes give me a boner

[davej]

why not just tell them to not put on the cheap chinese tire since you're about to replace all four anyway? unless the inspection place is pretty far out of the way. i'm assuming a standard inspection is $20 and retest is $1 like it usually is. Spending $115 seems like it's not worth it.

Without cats on the car, I'm pretty limited for shop options. I think we had an unspoken understanding and mutual backs were scratched.

Rear tires are newish, so I would just be doing fronts anyway. Hoping to find a second set of wheels and put all seasons on them. I need to see what will fit, these are staggered right now but maybe I can find a square winter setup that works.

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Cool cool! The jump seat doesn't get old, kids are still enjoying the one in our Volvo after 2 yrs and it's great to have an option when they aren't wanting to sit together. Now, replacing 02 sensors every 5k miles.... that *might* get old.

Haha nice! Bringing them all up in it for turducken? Or is Channing Unleashed [emoji769] Weekend?

[BLINGMW]

Haha nice! Bringing them all up in it for turducken? Or is Channing Unleashed [emoji769] Weekend?

I mean, if we need to do a wagon comparison, sure, but I have the sneaking suspicion mine might win only on price, consumables costs, and 02 sensor life.

[Eco_Boi_Stephen]

10/10 Wago makes sexy hot noises

[Sijray21]

Without cats on the car, I'm pretty limited for shop options. I think we had an unspoken understanding and mutual back were scratched.

Ah, that makes sense now. I'd gladly take that.

[ScottyB]

guy puts a punctured tire on your car to pass inspection...i did not see that plot twist coming

[*insertusernamehere*]

I love the tire story hahaha

[Tyler.M]

I have never been in something that pulls as hard as this with a baby seat in the back.

11/10 would ride along with someone willing to mash it at WOT again.

[davej]

Despite the following tales, man I still love this car. I really haven't driven too much since April with both myself and the kids doing work/school from home, but it was enough to catch a couple of expected service items.
1. The original front passenger air bag finally went, I put an Arnott in to match the other corners and hopefully that'll be the end of those for a while.
2. Burned up one O2 sensor so far.
3. Shredded my drive belt one day. That was a weird one, driving through town and all of the sudden a big red battery symbol blows up my dash, ac stopped being cold, and the power steering was gone. Figured I lost the belt, but was trying to calculate if my batter could run the 16 sparkalators long enough to limp me into maap so at least I'd have some tools and wouldn't need to call the Mrs. for yet another broken car rescue. Without the water pump, the aux fans were running full tilt and temps stayed fine getting there. What a pucker moment though. We pulled all the bits of belt out and burnt the crap out of our arms trying to reach down from the top. With out a lift or proper stands there wasn't any real good way to under and check the components. I was afraid something seized up and that caused the belt to fail, so even if I put the new one on it might happen again. Defeat admitted, I called in a tow. Turned out that nothing was wrong/locked up, so Hank at Mountain Valley Motors finished cleaning up the front end, put the new belt on, and that was that.

4. I did the first oil change on it, nothing exciting but after getting it all angled in the correct driveway slope on the ramps to feed the driver side drain plug, I see that the oil cooler plug is on the passenger side and angled wrong...after I drained the pan. Wasn't going to move the car and do the cooler so it got 7.5 quarts of new and kept about 2 of the old. Also forgot to get my blackstone sample but maybe I'll remember next time. Catch can had whatever this is, 3 or 4oz?


5. Transmission - I had been getting hard shifts when slowing at a 3-2 or 2-1 downshift and was starting to dread the 150k mile 7 speed was showing its age. Turns out resetting the TCU/adaptive shifting whatever cleared it right up. It also fixed the inability for the car to coast downhill, for a while it would deaccelerate when you would take your foot off the gas down a hill, it would make all kinds of wonderful snap, crackles and farts like it had a burble tune on, but it was kind of annoying. I don't know how much of a grandpa I was driving going to school and work to make the TCU map the transmission like this, but I promised the car at least 1 WOT for each 5 miles driven in the future.
I'd still love to pick up a second transmission and matching TCU to send off to Weistec to bulletproof with their kit. https://www.weistec.com/722-9-bulletproo...erter.html
And might as well go for the TC, who doesn't want to launch at 4k from a stop sign? https://www.weistec.com/722-9-torque-converter.html

A few random photos of it doing wagon stuff. The bike racks have come in super handy this year, and the balance bike cracks people up when they see it.







Oh, and that one time the kids wanted to bring their GT3 to Cars & Coffee. I should have taken a better photo myself before we left the house. 

[Senor_Taylor]

Amazing! Thanks again for sacrificing your belt for me!

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[*insertusernamehere*]

I need one of these

[JPolen01]

I fucking love this car


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[.RJ]

you are my hero

[Jake]

Dammit I want this when you're done with it.

[davej]

you are my hero

never meet your heroes. (but thank you!) 

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Dammit I want this when you're done with it.

And you haven't even had the chance to hear it yet, have you? 
Come grab the key sometime if you ever need Out Motorsport content. I hear 33 west is nice this time of year.