The Blue Phoenix - E46 325i

[Jake]

You can also rent the Bimmerworld tool, it's $115 but you get $60 of that back when you return it, so end cost is not all bad, cheaper than labor at a shop IMO.

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I used their tool and it made very, very easy work of the job.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I have one, but the tendency of my tools to get broken while on loan to people has been shocking. Probably cheaper to make your own then to even ship it.

[Senor_Taylor]

I'll just make one from Harbor Freight stuff.

Also, the noise is back. It didn't have any problems yesterday driving to work and back. I tried to drive to class this morning and I could hear a metallic whirring noise, like a bad bearing or something. Very loud through the shift boot. I drove a little farther and got to the end of my road and could hear what sounded like rocks hitting the bottom of my car.

My only guess is either the diff is dry, or the CSB or Guibo was put in incorrectly, which I doubt. Otherwise, I have no clue what's going on.

[rherold9]

Just burn it to the ground?

[Jake]

So... is the diff leaking? Can't think why it would be dry otherwise, nor would that cause a "rocks hitting the floor pan" type of noise.

[Senor_Taylor]

I feel like a diff on its way out could make a rocks in a tin can noise, but probably not. I haven't seen any diff leakage but with this car, you never know. Any idea would else it could be? I just wonder why it wasn't present yesterday. Maybe because it was warmer? I just want it to be a simple fix.

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[Senor_Taylor]

I also think it has something to do with the e-brake adjustment I did. I'll test when I get home, but all of these problems happened as soon as I worked on the e-brake. I found this on an M3 forum.

"What the OP is describing sounds similar to what happened with my e46 m3. It turned out it was the ebrake. What happened was the ebrake was fried where the springs are broken causing the brake to "rattle" creating that tin can sound. "

That would also explain the "metallic whir" if the brakes were dragging, right?

Also,

Just wanted to give my recent experience on a dragging right rear parking brake.

I've heard an intermittant scraping/grinding sound from the right rear wheel that has worsened over the last month. Sometimes came and went (which is why I didn't tear apart earlier). Came back continuously, not affected by braking, but slighly worse with cornering.

I was worried it was the wheel bearing- so started taking stuff apart to check.

Turns out there was a fine layer of rust that had made a lip on the outer edge of the parking brake drum (inside the rear rotor). The edge of the parking brake shoes would rub on this and make sound. I took steel wool and ground down all the rust till smooth, and slightly radiused the edge of parking brake shoes as well. Parking brake was not too tight at the time and worked fine. Is now completely silent.

I'll check when I get home.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I would die laughing if you just moved the brake backing plate so its screeching on the rear rotors.

[Senor_Taylor]

It comes and goes, so I doubt it's that.

Drove my car home last night. Parked. Pulled E-brake and put in first gear. Lock doors. Went inside. No noise.

This morning, unlock doors, put bookbag in back seat, pop hood, check coolant, get in, start car with brake in and in neutral, connect phone to blue tooth, release parking brake, shift into first and drive away. Noise

Out of all of those things, the only thing that could have affected anything is either the temperature (Was in 60s driving home last night, 54 degrees this morning) and the fact that I pulled the e-brake in between. Maybe I should stop ripping the e-brake handle so hard. As noted by Jake from my Reddish Knob Cruise video.

[Jake]

It could "come and go" based on hitting bumps in the road or something.

I don't think your CSB or guibo install is the source of the noise (although, given your "I don't even care if I did this right, fuck BMW, I hate the world" posts, I guess it could be) as that is a rhythmic thump sort of noise when one or both fail.

Look at the e-brake stuff, since you say everything started when you worked on that, and your Googlefu seems to support that, at least as a theory.

[Senor_Taylor]

Well, I got out of class yesterday and got Sam to look at it with me. He got in and we drove around the block and even down 33 and the noise wasn't present. It was there a little bit at the beginning and quickly went away. I could not reproduce it.

We fiddled with his E46 and I left my e-brake up while we did. Then we put the rear of mine on jack stands and he took it up to about 20 mph. Sure enough, a very solid dragging, grinding, whirring sound. I'm very confident it's the E-brake that has fallen apart. I had to go to the MM meeting so I didn't have any time to get the wheels off.

I left the parking brake only half way up (Where it doesn't even hold the car) over night and this morning it made the noise very quietly on the way to class. Then I heard the "rocks in a tin can" sound once I got on campus. The whirring got a little louder when that happened. It was below 60 this morning.

I'll see when I leave this class how it sounds if it's over 70 degrees. I think the springs are still kind of in there, but the cold weather makes them not strong enough to pull the shoes off of the "Drum". I should have some time today possibly to get the wheels off and look.

[ViPER1313]

Just pull on the ebrake a bit while driving and see if the noise goes away.

[SlimKlim]

Also just park on level ground without the brake? Changing parking brake shoes is a shitty job, if you've narrowed it down to there I'd probably just ignore it.

[Senor_Taylor]

It made no noise coming home. I'll keep leaving the handbrake down and I'll see if it comes back. If it doesn't, I might just unadjust it. When I bought it from Chan, the e-brake didn't work unless you pulled it so far up that the armrest would raise up. That should have been suspicious when the service history said "parking brake adjusted" haha. The parking brake was usable and didn't make noise then.

It blows my mind that a noise like this could come from a parking brake. My miata's was completely FUBAR and didn't make as much noise as this. In other news, this car is such a wonderful ride when it isn't being a POS.

[Jake]

Just remember to park in gear.

[Senor_Taylor]

Just remember to park in gear.

10-4. The Miata's parking brake only worked for about 3 weeks of ownership so it's a habit.

[RawrImAMonster]

Doesn't everyone always park in gear with a manual? Seems like asking for trouble not to.

[Jake]

Doesn't everyone always park in gear with a manual? Seems like asking for trouble not to.

My roommate doesn't, but he does a lot of other little things that make me go "huh" so... if I came home to a 318ti in the middle of the street, I wouldn't be very surprised.

[SlimKlim]

Doesn't everyone always park in gear with a manual? Seems like asking for trouble not to.

A freakish number of performance oriented vehicles I see in NOVA are always backed into their spots, in neutral, with the brake on. :dunno:

I don't see a reason to loosen the adjustment cable again, just leave it how it is and don't use it, if you find yourself in a situation where you NEED to park on a steep grade you can still use the brake and just deal with the resulting noise until it goes away.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Doesn't everyone always park in gear with a manual? Seems like asking for trouble not to.

My roommate doesn't, but he does a lot of other little things that make me go "huh" so... if I came home to a 318ti in the middle of the street, I wouldn't be very surprised.

I once pulled into my parents driveway to a Honda Accord opposite where its normally parked with the bumper against a tree

*goes inside*

"Hey Dad why did you park against the tree?"

"....What?!"

"The car rolled into the tree"

The fright on his face was so god damn entertaining :lol: :lol: