99 z3 2.8l roadster

[Senor_Taylor]

That license plate...

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Sijray21]

Out of curiosity, what do others interpret the license plate to mean? I may change it later since I mostly just wanted that vanity plate once to mount it on my wall.

[JPolen01]

Out of curiosity, what do others interpret the license plate to mean? I may change it later since I mostly just wanted that vanity plate once to mount it on my wall.

Lola's Z

[Senor_Taylor]

Out of curiosity, what do others interpret the license plate to mean? I may change it later since I mostly just wanted that vanity plate once to mount it on my wall.

Lola's Z

+1

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Apoc]

Lola's Z - you're driving your hairdresser's car.

[Sijray21]

OK, I ask because I've gotten a strange response where a guy laughed (hysterically / creepily) and said it was great. I just smiled and said yup and left quickly. Unsure of his interpretation, but left bewildered.

I'm OK with the hairdresser lyfe.

[Apoc]

What does it actually mean?

[Sijray21]

What does it actually mean?

Lola's Z

My mom liked the tribute plate since she loves being a Lola (grandmother in tagalog)

It does bother me that there's no apostrophe... I want to add one regardless of what the law says...

[Apoc]

I've seen people add periods and apostrophes with blue duct tape.

[Sijray21]

I've seen people add periods and apostrophes with blue duct tape.

You've convinced me to do this tonight.

[ScottyB]

LOL ASZ

?

That's all I can think of if you really butcher it. I always read it as Lola's Z.

Can ASZ stand for anything else?

[.RJ]

Can ASZ stand for anything else?

I think its a ZJ reference

[Sijray21]

Got it aligned. Around -3* camber up front with all proper specs except the rear pass toe is near 0*. Confirmed that the rtabs are shot with that setting... Debating when to tackle the rear bushing stuff. What's the repurcusion on driving with bad rtabs (just street, no track (yet))?

It feels much better to drive than before the work was done.

The rear subframe is fine as far as I can tell, but I've been debating letting a shop do the rear bushing stuff if I opt to get a shop to do the welding on the rear subframe reinforcement since the subframe will need to be dropped in both cases.

[Senor_Taylor]

You're largely fine with a near 0 toe on a single side as long as the total toe isn't crazy.

My advice for the RTABs is to just drop the entire rear subframe. It's just as much work to try to remove one arm as it is to remove the whole subframe. Just pray the body isn't tweaked or the subframe is never coming out.

Start penetrating oil on the parking brake sleeve coupling now.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Jake]

You can drive on bad RTABs on the street, but if they're really shot and you pin it wide open, it may want to change lanes a lil' bit on ya.

[Sijray21]

You're largely fine with a near 0 toe on a single side as long as the total toe isn't crazy.

My advice for the RTABs is to just drop the entire rear subframe. It's just as much work to try to remove one arm as it is to remove the whole subframe. Just pray the body isn't tweaked or the subframe is never coming out.

Start penetrating oil on the parking brake sleeve coupling now.

Total Toe is 0.15" and it's barely within spec (Drivers is 0.11" and Passenger is 0.04"). Derron even 

You can drive on bad RTABs on the street, but if they're really shot and you pin it wide open, it may want to change lanes a lil' bit on ya.

i think this goes in-line with my excitement of whether i'll make it to my destination or not; sounds fun.

on a serious note: driving it with the suspension set-up the way it is does make me want to track the thing. no more super-squat, no more vague steering, and not much lean anymore. i'll definitely take care of the RTABs and the rest of the rear bushings before any kind of spirited/track driving.

[Senor_Taylor]

FYI, E30/z3/318ti rear suspension doesn't really go out of alignment due to trailing arm bushings. Usually something is bent causing that.

It's not like the trailing arm design on an E36. E30 trailing arm bushings rarely need replacement unless they have turned to dust and they don't really cause the wobble under acceleration like they do on later chassis.

Are those alignment specs toe OUT for both? That will lead to some interesting driving characteristics.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Sijray21]

Are those alignment specs toe OUT for both? That will lead to some interesting driving characteristics.

No, toe in. I'd definitely be addressing it soon if it were toe out, haha.

If that inner bushing on the passenger side is worn out I can see how the play would affect the toe.

[Senor_Taylor]

You would think that but it's not usually the case. A lot of times the arms are just tweaked. If you do the bushings, consider adding some alignment tabs so you can adjust it in the future.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Sijray21]

so i noticed a drop or two of coolant near the front of the engine the other day and i figured the water pump was on its way as it appeared to be coming from there. I already anticipated this happening and had the water pump, thermostat, hoses, and hardware in the garage.

Taking apart the stuff was pretty straight forward. the water pump and thermostat came off without much issue. draining the block of coolant was a terrible mess. i had a form-a-flow set-up, but that was utterly useless; stupid purchase.



The water pump i removed had some old gasket stuff stuck in one of the fan blades and the gasket and area around there seemed to have been exposed to a coolant leak sealer thing (very crusty). The thermostat has some signs of this as well, but not nearly as bad as the water pump. Even with the metal water pump pulley being pretty dinged up i was planning on reusing it since a plastic one came in the kit i bought, but the metal one had issues fitting flush on the pump i installed. Instead of figuring that out I just used the new plastic one; i'll keep the metal one as a spare.



Refilling and burping/bleeding the system has been a shit-show. I have the Bentley and watched several videos online about refilling and bleeding the cooling system in BMWs, but the damn thing kept overflowing despite me following the instructions... The instructions basically said to keep it running at idle at operating temperature and slowly fill the reservoir with the cap and bleed screw open, however when i did this it just kept overflowing... i probably pissed away half the available coolant doing this. I finally shut the engine off when i saw the temp needle start to tick up to the red. i let it cool down a bit and saw that the reservoir was empty. I did my normal procedure when i did this on my hondas where i just ran it, let it cool, refilled, repeat. Seems to be fine now, getting heat in the cabin, and i need to pick up just a little more coolant to top it off.

The worst thing to happen during the whole ordeal was dropping the bleeder screw into the cavity under the brake booster. The hardlines for the brakes, the booster, and the fusebox prevented me from reaching down there and with the bleeder screw being plastic i couldn't use my magnetic snake... I had to look through all my tools and thankfully RJ left his hose clamp pliers (the ones with a cable and long attachment) and i was able to move the thing with a few extensions into a position where i could attempt to pinch it with the pliers... Makes me want to get a flex 3-prong grabber from somewhere...

so no leaks so far, but i need to double check after i get more coolant and top it off tomorrow.