Convertiblau! My 1996 BMW 328iC

[Jake]

Mileage: 108,700

I'm taking Blau to the Outer Banks on Thursday morning, so I wanted to make sure she was ready for some highway driving. My trip to JMU and back didn't prove any issues aside from the tonneau cover flying up repeatedly on the way home.

So, I fixed that. The top computer is most likely dead - or one of the 8 microswitches is busted. I have very little interest right now in troubleshooting given the top can be operated manually with very little fuss, but I needed a way to lock the tonneau cover down. The good news is, this electric roof is very simple in operation and only uses two motors - one for the top movement and one for the tonneau. No hydraulics involved (the E46 does have hydraulic assist and is allegedly more of a pain to diagnose).

I bought a double-pole, double-throw switch from Amazon - at "rest" the switch is centered and you can momentarily (hold it down) engage it in two directions. Went in the trunk and peeled back the carpeting on the driver's side, which revealed both motors. I had disengaged them by pulling the strap under the back seat, so I re-engaged just the motor for the tonneau - a quick push and it slots back onto the gears.

Next, I snipped the wires off of the tonneau motor's connector. There are five wires - two are a thicker gauge and colored red/black, three are thinner and various colors. The thicker two are the +12V and Ground for the motor power, and my guess is the other three are for the top computer to talk to the motor.

I got +12V from the battery, conveniently located in the trunk. Ran an inline fuse (15 Amp) and routed that wire through the trunk into the cabin on the driver's side. Ground was sourced from the airbag computer that sits under the back seat. The switch basically routes power to the motor, but is set up to reverse the polarity based on which way you press the switch - thus running the motor in "forward" or "reverse."

And hooray, it worked!

Also did an oil change (Rotella 15W-40, Bosch filter) and topped up the coolant as it was down a teeny bit from the "Cold" line. PO replaced the cooling system and mentioned how much of a pain it was to bleed. I ran the heat on the way to work yesterday and my guess is that it had a little air bubble that worked its way out. No big.

[Jake]

Mileage: 110,250

Well, we're home from a weekend of fun at JMU!

Celebrated this milestone on the drive down on Saturday morning:



Ended up on a cruise, first to Reddish Knob and then on 33 West up to the top of the mountain. The weather and time of year were both spot on for a drive on back roads in a convertible. Leaves changing color, a bit cold so you have to blast the heat but you're still comfortable with the roof down... so perfect.







We had a good group on the cruise:



I crashed at Chateau d'Julie on Saturday night - after a proper amount of reminiscing and shit-talking with other MMers at Pale Fire and then at Taylor's place - and woke up around 7:15 for the BRR "college challenge" autocross. Great day with a lot of good people, both new and old.

So, how'd the convertiblau do?

Well...... it was fine, I guess.

It's kind of floopity-floppity even on the better H&R/Koni setup. The open diff is full of fail. It's everything the M3 is not, which means it is perfect for what we did on Saturday and less perfect for Sunday's activities.

I guess at some point the front left tire smacked the fender hard enough that it cracked the paint:



Also, I think when the repairs were done on the driver's side of the car (remember, it was "totalled" in 2010 and the whole driver's side was re-done), the rear quarter panel was replaced and perhaps welded in slightly off compared to the other side. The left rear tire rubs under cornering and the right rear does not.

I'm contemplating putting the stock rear springs back on it, just to raise the ride height a tad in the back. Would that be awful to do given I'm on better shocks and H&R Sport springs up front?

[rherold9]

I just say get stiffer rear springs. The amount of times I used to rub on my old soft suspension set up I'd have several hundred dollars.

The stock rear springs would be fine to use but it would probably feel weird. You may be even to get away with over damping the rear shocks so it doesn't rub as much but idk.

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[Jake]

So the idea here is to not spend any money on it... which means my choices are between the H&R rear springs or the OEM rear springs.

I was fine with the rear ride height on stock springs.

[rherold9]

Are they yellows? If so maybe try stiffening the rears another half turn

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[.RJ]

Are they yellows? If so maybe try stiffening the rears another half turn

That would make the problem worse.

[JPolen01]

Is the rubbing really that much of an issue? I mean how often are you canyon carving or taking it to an autox? Seems like you have been driving it for some time with no problems. Plus, the ride height really looks nice without being to slammed. I would hate to see that go away.

[Jake]

It's enough of an issue that putting 4 people in the car makes me pretty uncomfortable.

I may throw the rear springs on it and see how it looks/rides. It takes about 20 minutes to do both sides.

[Beej]

Ah, didn't know it was a peg-leg. That blows.

Waiting behind you in grid yesterday...car looks really good. "Stance" of the ride height and meaty tires looked just right.

[Jake]

Ah, didn't know it was a peg-leg. That blows.

Waiting behind you in grid yesterday...car looks really good. "Stance" of the ride height and meaty tires looked just right.

Yeah, all of the non-M's were open diff once ASC was introduced. I have a friend who'd sell me a 3.23 LSD for it, but... meh. If I need to get around in the snow I have the Yukon and if I need to win any races, I have the M3.

And thanks! I think rolling the fenders may be a better solution to keeping the ride height where it is and avoiding tire mishaps. Gonna give that a shot.

[Jake]

Got the fender roller yesterday, thanks Kaan! Going to give that a shot this weekend.

Also attempted to re-align the convertible's side windows last night. The driver's side is misaligned and has a gap at the top when the windows are raised.

Step one was to lower the driver's door window via the "pivot bar" which helped a bit. That window was angled too far forward when raised.

Next, I pulled the exterior molding off of the rear quarter panel - discovered only 2 of the 4 clips are holding it on, yay shoddy repair work! - and loosened the two e-torx bolts that allow some movement in the rear quarter window. Got it closer still but the gap remains, and I still have to raise the back windows and then pull the rear one forward a bit.

Some searching indicates that I can remove the rear interior panels and adjust the entire regulator to eliminate the gap and the "pull forward" procedure. Doesn't look all bad, so I'll attempt it this weekend.

Oh, and I dropped my e-torx socket inside the quarter panel when I was all done. Knocked it just wrong against the access hole and *drop* so... maybe I can fish it out this weekend, but I'm probably buying another one. Oops.

[SlimKlim]

Oh, and I dropped my e-torx socket inside the quarter panel when I was all done. Knocked it just wrong against the access hole and *drop* so... maybe I can fish it out this weekend, but I'm probably buying another one. Oops.

:lol: :lol:

You'll find it in 4 years if you keep the car that long, I found bolts in mine that I literally dropped in 2009-2010 when I did the headgasket job. Amazing that they stayed in place for so long.

[Ken]

Oh, and I dropped my e-torx socket inside the quarter panel when I was all done. Knocked it just wrong against the access hole and *drop* so... maybe I can fish it out this weekend, but I'm probably buying another one. Oops.

:lol: :lol:

You'll find it in 4 years if you keep the car that long, I found bolts in mine that I literally dropped in 2009-2010 when I did the headgasket job. Amazing that they stayed in place for so long.

Was that the one you did in Charleston's parking lot? If so I was there for when you dropped them and the cursing that ensued. Good times.

[SlimKlim]

I don't remember when the losses occurred exactly, I found them this march when I had the head off. A couple of them were down underneath the cowl where the HVAC blower sits, one had remarkably gotten wedged into the top of the motor mount arm just right to survive 40,000miles of driving.

[Jake]

Lesson learned... when the man selling you the car says "oh yeah, I restore old Corvettes in my free time" but only has a Geo Tracker and a mostly-disassembled Mazda3 ("salvage title, fixing it for my daughter's first car!" he says) in the driveway/garage, he might actually do half-assed work using cheap parts.

He had "replaced the CCV system" with all new parts. I'm sure he spent at least $16 on Rock Auto getting the new oil separator and some hoses, but clearly it would have been worth using quality parts instead. The plastic tube that runs from the valve cover to the separator had already cracked at the valve cover, so it didn't seal right. The separator was making some noise (the internal check valve, I think). And he never actually replaced the hose that runs from the separator to the dipstick.

However, he clearly removed the hose and decided adding a layer of electrical tape would help it somehow. It was super soft and mushy underneath the tape:



Soooo. I replaced everything with a nice little kit from ECS Tuning. All genuine BMW parts, total cost was $120 shipped. They even sent me a new hose clamp and three new screws to hold the separator to the mounting bracket.

And yay, now it's not making weird goose-honking noises anymore.

Still has a touch of rough idle... may be more vacuum leaks somewhere and it's probably worth doing the spark plugs on it. Sometime. Eventually. Oh, and the lower control arm bushings are on their way out. Not a problem now but I should probably deal with 'em in the next 3-4 months.

Walked out to a picture-perfect moment in the driveway this morning, just proving that white (occasionally topless) girls love fall:

[SlimKlim]

Such art wow

[.RJ]

Verrrry fall

[Jake]

I spent entire seconds choosing the right filter for that!

[JustinG]

no PSL?

[SlimKlim]

Sprinkle this on the hood