Convertiblau! My 1996 BMW 328iC

[Jake]

Well, the CEL turned itself off and stayed off the entire drive to work this morning (8ish miles). Still stumbly but I'm wondering if it's just a weird vacuum leak that closes up once some air gets sucked in (i.e. a cracked intake boot or something). Once you get it rolling, it will pull hard all the way to 6500 rpm.

And for proof that an E36 can indeed have a gauge cluster with no strange warning lights...

[ViPER1313]

Well, the CEL turned itself off and stayed off the entire drive to work this morning (8ish miles). Still stumbly but I'm wondering if it's just a weird vacuum leak that closes up once some air gets sucked in (i.e. a cracked intake boot or something). Once you get it rolling, it will pull hard all the way to 6500 rpm.

And for proof that an E36 can indeed have a gauge cluster with no strange warning lights...

Did it turn off or burn out?

[Jake]

Did it turn off or burn out?

It turned off, I took that photo and then cut the car off/back on to make sure the light would illuminate as the cluster did its self test

[rherold9]

When your BMW has less lights on the dash than my econobox. What is happening.

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[Jake]

So the CEL came back, as did the code (P0304) for the camshaft position sensor. It runs fine 90% of the time.

On a 100% cold start after sitting overnight, it idles a little funny for a few seconds and then runs great until the temp needle starts to move. Then the funk comes out. It'll stumble leaving stoplights here and there. It'll stumble if you're cruising and then boot the throttle to, say, pass someone without downshifting.

Christina told me she chased the same code a few years back and it ended up being a vacuum leak. My thoughts jive with that, given it changes based on engine temperature and is not consistent, nor are there any misfire codes. It's also had a P1188 code since I bought it, which is "fuel trim bank 1" but many people say points to a vacuum leak as my power and MPG are right where they should be.

I'm going to swap the coils from the M3 onto this car just for fun tonight, to see if that happens to change anything. Beyond that, I have an appointment with the BMW shop up the road to have a smoke test done next Monday as Hyperfest is about to get in the way of this.

[Jake]

Mileage: 115,300

Finally got the thing smoke tested and was told that there was a heavy leak from the oil dipstick tube (there is an O-ring where it mates to the oil pan) and the vacuum line that goes between the intake manifold and brake booster. Parts showed up yesterday and I spent a few minutes swapping things out. Also figured that I may have some starting-to-fail spark plugs as the two misfire codes stayed on the same two cylinders after each CEL reset, so I swapped those out.

The dipstick tube didn't even have an O-ring on it. Another gem from the previous owner(s).

It's pretty wild how well it runs now. I got used to driving it with a bucking, jerking drivetrain and still am readjusting to the "new again" normal.

Hoping that fixing the vacuum leaks will keep that CEL off for good. It usually took ~15 miles to get it to pop on, and my commute is about half that, so I'll see if it lights up on the drive home.

[Senor_Taylor]

Sweet! Gotta love simple fixes.

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[Jake]

CEL came back. Car runs great though. Will still try to diagnose but with less urgency. I'm wondering if it's a flaky O2 sensor - the PO replaced one of the two pre-cat (which is what the code is for) but knowing him and his work, it'll be a $7 Pyongyang brand from Rock Auto.

[*insertusernamehere*]

What a paaaaaiiinnnnnn. Anytime I forget what dailying one of these is like, your thread reminds me what I'm forgetting.....

Still want one back.... Soon tho :twisted:

[Jake]

What a paaaaaiiinnnnnn. Anytime I forget what dailying one of these is like, your thread reminds me what I'm forgetting.....

Still want one back.... Soon tho :twisted:

Day to day it's not been bad, really.

I can quit anytime I want. :dunno:

[davej]

I can quit anytime I want.

[ScottyB]

:lol:

[Jake]

Pretty sure the top motor is dead.

I ran a switch a loooong time ago to operate just the motor for the tonneau cover. Worked great. Now, does not work.

Spent all of my evening checking wiring, fuses, the switch itself (even bought another one) and nothing was working. I finally yanked the motor out and ran +12V and Ground to it, directly off the battery with nothing else in line. All I get is a little "click" and sparks where I'm touching the wires to the motor's leads.

Am I correct in thinking the motor is seized, now producing too much resistance, and the electricity has to go somewhere, thus the sparks? The metal motor casing also got very hot.

[Jake]

Replaced the top motor with one from a guy in western Maryland, who almost exclusively parts out E36 convertibles as a side gig. Oddly specific but Greg is the man for old 'verts, I guess.

One of the best noises I've heard this week was the gentle whirr of the motor as I clicked the switch on in the cabin. All is right again.

Next up, since I have all this free time before the July Dominion event with the M3, is re-aligning the whole top. BMW used shims to align it to the body, and I think mine is a little tweaked. The driver's side sits just a hair forward and occasionally makes it a pain to latch to the windshield. Greg said he'd walk me through it so I'll give it a go soon enough.

[Jake]

Next up, since I have all this free time before the July Dominion event with the M3, is re-aligning the whole top. BMW used shims to align it to the body, and I think mine is a little tweaked. The driver's side sits just a hair forward and occasionally makes it a pain to latch to the windshield. Greg said he'd walk me through it so I'll give it a go soon enough.

I took this morning to investigate why the top seemed a little mis-aligned. Turns out the shims are to adjust the height, which is more important for sealing the rear of the top to the tonneau/body when the roof is raised. But, you can loosen the whole top frame and move it around.

These are the two 13mm bolts that allow fore/aft movement of the top frame:



So I loosened those, then realized there is another bolt that helps control position:



To get at that bolt, I had to pull the interior trim apart. Thankfully it's mostly press-fit stuff.



I shoved the driver's side of the top toward the rear of the car by about half an inch, maybe a little more - and it worked!

One benefit of this is that the windows all go up and should seal better now. My procedure for raising the roof before was to put the roof up, hold the front panel up from the windshield header, raise the rear windows, latch the roof, raise the front windows. Now I can just put the roof up and hit the "all four" window button, and they all go up at the right angle and seal correctly. :thumbup:

Also took a few minutes to replace my busted third brake light. They are a giant strip of LEDs (on the convertible only) and when they burn out, it's easier to replace the whole unit. I had a replacement sourced about six months ago and just never took the 10 minutes to install it. Good to have that working again.

[Senor_Taylor]

It's always nice to improve something with no consequences!

[Jake]

Mileage: 117,300

Changed the oil last night so it's on fresh juice before my Outer Banks trip tomorrow. More Rotella 15W-40, of course.

I have a new O2 sensor to throw on it once I move, which will hopefully clear the CEL for good. It's been pretty persistent with "Bank 1, Sensor 1" so I'm hoping that means it's actually the sensor.

Once I get moved and settled, I'll need to take care of the suspension a bit. I only want to pay for one alignment, which means I should do front control arms, tie rods, and rear trailing arm bushings all at once. Will be a bit spendy but the original stuff has made it 20 years, so it's hard to complain.

Got an M3 front bumper for it, which will go on once I have the money and time to get it painted (by a real painter, not "Jake with a beer and spray cans in his backyard).

I've had the car for a year at this point. Only put about 7k miles on it as a "fair weather daily." As y'all know, I've been pretty ADD with my daily drivers, but this one is just fantastic. If it can keep up the trend of costing me near nothing to drive, it'll stay around. Not worth selling for a newer something when it's so easy to own, drives well, looks great, and does well (enough) on fuel economy.

Bonus shot from my new phone, taken last night as I ran over to Cava for dinner:

[Jake]

If it can keep up the trend of costing me near nothing to drive, it'll stay around.

I shouldn't have been so chipper.

The drive to the Outer Banks was fantastic on Tuesday evening. Top down, perfect weather, great playlist cranked up. Easy drive to Corolla with no traffic. I took an S2000 exhaust to Richmond which definitely didn't get me any weird looks on 95 South:



The weather at OBX was perfect on Wednesday and Thursday, I got some great sunrises and managed to avoid getting sunburnt. We took the 'vert to Duck Donuts and otherwise she sat in front of our kickass rental house lookin' pretty.





Weather took a turn on Friday morning. We knew rain was coming and planned to spend the afternoon at Tortugas' Lie in Kitty Hawk, which we did. Cool bar. Beyond that, we came back to the house to pack up as we wanted to get out early on Saturday morning to avoid the typical holiday weekend traffic leaving OBX, as well as any delays caused by weather.

I tried leaving a few minutes before all of my friends around 5:15 AM on Saturday. I crept up NC-12 toward 158 and when I got to Duck, I ended up "following" a Suburban (maybe a quarter mile behind him) which was great, as I could see where the deep water was and avoid it. There were a few spots where it was deeper than it looked and I slowed down greatly for them.

Water never got more than oh, halfway up the wheels as I splashed my way through these spots of standing water. I was doing ~20 mph or so. There were three "puddles" I drove through. I took the first one in 4th gear and, obviously, had no power beyond cruising because 20 mph in 4th is just like that. So, I took the next one in 3rd. It felt fine, although I added a bit more throttle partway through and the motor pulled, but not very hard. It felt like wheelspin, but the ASC light never flashed.

The third "puddle" saw me use the same approach. No big deal, right? Well, halfway through it, I lost a lot of power. Nothing seemed amiss, similar wheelspin-y feeling. I put it in 2nd and gently applied more throttle - maybe 10% more. The revs held at a steady 2k and about 10 feet later, the motor quietly, calmly shut itself down.

Thankfully, there was a battered Silverado coming my way, so I flagged him down in the driving, sideways rain. He stopped and I asked to be pushed bumper-to-bumper out of the water, which he did. We tried two push-starts using his truck. Both times, when I dumped the clutch, the back wheels locked up. I tried a few more restarts with the key/starter and it wouldn't go more than a slight "bump".

So, the guy in the Silverado pushed me onto a neighborhood road and I waited for my friends, who were 15 minutes behind me. I called Geico from inside the car as I continued to get wet, because the convertible top is entirely useless in such heavy rain.

I rode home from the Outer Banks in my friends' Excursion. Geico towed the BMW to Delta V in Richmond (200 miles of tow coverage, they are 171 miles away) where my friend Zack is going to look at it today. He plans to pull the plugs and try to burp the water out of the plug holes, but given the attempted push starts and such, we are fearing the worst.

Geico is covering everything as part of comprehensive "flood damage" insurance. I'm driving the truck in the meantime. This isn't how I wanted the tale of Blau to end, but I do fear that she may be totaled based on this damage. We'll see what Zack says and what the insurance adjuster comes back with.

[WRXtranceformed]

Ahhh dude that is a bummer! Hoping for the best news for you from the mechanic.

I know how flooded those roads get, our family vacationed in OBX for the better part of 25+ years and Duck / Corolla have been our go-to for the last few years for multiple family trips. On the bright side, you got Duck Donuts and my personal favorite OBX restaurant Tortuga's Lie! That is always our first lunch stop every year...fish and black bean burrito for the win

[Mike]

sorry to hear. what's the intake setup? i do not miss always fearing puddles.