[Chappers 71]

[QUOTE=Chappers 71;28149390]Had the suspension & reluctor rings checked out & apparently everything's good, my guy says it may have been down to road surface/conditions & the rear tyres are around 3/4 worn, haven't had the same issue since...so

As there seems to be nothing wrong with the suspension i doubt I'll bother with a refresh & suspension kit now, will just save the money for the next time something breaks





So it appears there is an issue after all. Whilst driving today the Abs, tps & drive train error warnings came up on the I drive, drove over to my tame mechanic who read the codes & I have a rear right abs sensor issue.
Called my local stealers who wanted £114 & wouldn't have one until Wednesday, looked on ecp & have reserved an ate sensor for £67, will drive over tomorrow & pick it up.

Whilst the car was plugged in the low battery light came on & it wouldn't start so we had to jump start it. I hadn't driven the car for a week & temps have dropped this last week but I had driven for 30 minutes before the battery died, which I would have thought would have charged the battery up & there were no issues starting it this morning. New battery was fitted January 2017 @ 102,000 miles, old one was the original from 2006. Will get the battery tested tomorow, I suspect that as I now only occasionally use the 35i & have only done 22,000 miles since Jan 2017 has shortened the life of the battery.

[Chappers 71]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

surely tax and fuel doesn't count in this reckoning,

Yeah...why not, is still expenses

[Chappers 71]

£67 for abs sensor, fitted it this afternoon.
Whilst the wheel was off I noticed the rear pads were getting very low so I put in a new set of Red Stuff pads & new sensor that I had in my garage.

I noticed the right rear tyre starting to wear on the inner edge whilst the wheel was off, will have to get an alignment tomorrow or Monday

Had the battery checked at my local battery shop this morning, their scanner said its all good & in the green @12.2 volts, although the scanner did say the battery needs to be charged, no new battery needed
Guy in the battery shop said to let it charge for three days as just driving it won't charge a flat battery, learn something new everyday. Will leave it hooked up to a charger when not being used from now on.

[therealdb1]

Always put mine on trickle charge when not driving as it has only done 37,500 miles since May 2007! Original battery though

Problem with these cars is there is so much electrickery going on unnoticed behind the scenes that unless you drive for several hours at a time you are probably not charging the battery very much at all.

[Chappers 71]

Bit of an expensive few days. £67 for rear abs sensor, £70 for a geo, front & rear were a fair bit out but all in the green now
Also decided to buy some new front pads as I haven't really been happy with the way the 35i stops after ditching the Red Stuff front pads & switching back to non ceramic pads. Set of Brembo HP2000 £150 & £10 for a pad wear sensor. Most likely fit them next weekend, will put up a post about them once they're on.
£70 for a replacement K&N panel filter, was surprised when updating my service book that it was 2013 & 61,000 miles ago when I changed to a K&N filter, so I thought it was time for a new one
I make that £367

On a positive note the 35i feels very nice to drive now, can get the power down nicely & it's now handling sharper than it was, all in all £367 well spent

[Saif2018]

Silver Starter button, couple of quid lol, hasn't cost me anything this month except fuel. Running fine with no issues on Custom JSR tune at the moment.

Saving for RB OEM Billets including Inlets. Hope to replace these wheels and do PE mod in the next month.

[Chapperss]

I went for it this month. Hopefully the car is sorted now, although the MOT is on Tuesday

£320 on VRSF DPs - worth every penny imo
£12 on Silicon vacuum hose to replace all my lines
£34 on some oil as needed to top up
£19 on a new climate control fascia that has the heated seats on it as I`m putting a tablet down where the buttons are right now.
£4 on brass inserts to fix my stripped cowl/filter issues
£82 on 4 coils - 1 needed 3 spares as yet to replace them and got a great deal imo
£145 on 2 boost solenoids
£52 for a RB PCV valve
£20 on 2 new vband clamps
£30 for various bits to hard wire and install the tablet
£35 for the MOT

Been putting off adding this all up £753 for the month but the car is (given any surprises at the MOT) where I want it to be and hopefully good for a while.

[748adam]

Rather expensive month for me I’m afraid, looks like I have cracked no.6 piston, so have ordered a set of Carrillo pistons, manly rods, vac head gasket, vac valve guides, and pretty much every bolt and seal for inside the motor from bmw, also just before this happened managed to score a m3 carbon roof so all in all just shy of £6500 and that’s me building the motor 😢😢

[Chapperss]

Originally Posted by 748adam

Rather expensive month for me I’m afraid, looks like I have cracked no.6 piston, so have ordered a set of Carrillo pistons, manly rods, vac head gasket, vac valve guides, and pretty much every bolt and seal for inside the motor from bmw, also just before this happened managed to score a m3 carbon roof so all in all just shy of £6500 and that’s me building the motor 😢😢

Yikes. You for sure win this month!

On a positive note, mine passed it`s MOT with zero advisories.

[Chappers 71]

Originally Posted by 748adam

Rather expensive month for me I’m afraid, looks like I have cracked no.6 piston, so have ordered a set of Carrillo pistons, manly rods, vac head gasket, vac valve guides, and pretty much every bolt and seal for inside the motor from bmw, also just before this happened managed to score a m3 carbon roof so all in all just shy of £6500 and that’s me building the motor 😢😢

That's a big hit, do you know what caused it?

[Chappers 71]

Just the £367 as previously posted for November, although I have had a missfire on cylinder 4. Had code read & cleared then had an eml a few days after, going to pop over to see my tame mechanic & have codes read again. If it's cylinder 4 again will change out the coil. Hasn't done it since though & was running fine when I took it out for a little scud about yesterday

[Smokey33]

Originally Posted by 748adam

Rather expensive month for me I’m afraid, looks like I have cracked no.6 piston, so have ordered a set of Carrillo pistons, manly rods, vac head gasket, vac valve guides, and pretty much every bolt and seal for inside the motor from bmw, also just before this happened managed to score a m3 carbon roof so all in all just shy of £6500 and that’s me building the motor 😢😢

Ah that sucks Adam! Good to hear you're keeping it.

[748adam]

Considering breaking it and cutting my losses, has a lot of desirable bits on (diff, m3 wheels, etc) so would break really well, but it would be a shame.
Got super knock on cyl 6 which is odd as wasn’t doing a pull, just a steady 70mph drive.
I’ve got the head off now and it has cracked the top of cyl 6 piston, and has also damaged the bore. Luckily I have 2 spare engines that have spun bearings (bought them like that) so hoping to strip one of them down and use that block with my crank. Ordered some standard size King main bearings that I’ll plasti gauge to make sure correct clearance.

[Chappers 71]

Originally Posted by 748adam

Considering breaking it and cutting my losses, has a lot of desirable bits on (diff, m3 wheels, etc) so would break really well, but it would be a shame.
Got super knock on cyl 6 which is odd as wasn’t doing a pull, just a steady 70mph drive.
I’ve got the head off now and it has cracked the top of cyl 6 piston, and has also damaged the bore. Luckily I have 2 spare engines that have spun bearings (bought them like that) so hoping to strip one of them down and use that block with my crank. Ordered some standard size King main bearings that I’ll plasti gauge to make sure correct clearance.

Yeah it'd be a shame to part it as you've invested in nicely modding it to get it how you want it. Fortunately it seems you're capable of fixing it yourself so that's a big saving & I suspect the parts would be pretty much on par with our 'usual ' long term running costs of 35i ownership

Dependant on what my tame mechanic & the parts would cost if same thing happened to me I'd most likely give it a lightish nudge with the work disco & have it written off, buy it back & then either repair or part it....hypothetically obviously.

[748adam]

Yeah I’m hoping to do it all myself. Finished stripping the block down today and damage to piston 6 was far worse than initially thought. I’d post pictures but seen as Photobucket took its bat and ball home it seems quite laborious now. Cracked a chunk off the bottom of the piston near the oil scraper ring, bit above the scraper ring and then top of the piston, no wonder it wasn’t running on 6 and smoked very badly!
Now got to strip another block so I can use that one for my build.
I’ll have lots of spares if anyone needs anything, will have 2 heads, 2 sets of cam ledges, 2 hpfp etc etc

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by 748adam

Yeah I’m hoping to do it all myself. Finished stripping the block down today and damage to piston 6 was far worse than initially thought. I’d post pictures but seen as Photobucket took its bat and ball home it seems quite laborious now. Cracked a chunk off the bottom of the piston near the oil scraper ring, bit above the scraper ring and then top of the piston, no wonder it wasn’t running on 6 and smoked very badly!
Now got to strip another block so I can use that one for my build.
I’ll have lots of spares if anyone needs anything, will have 2 heads, 2 sets of cam ledges, 2 hpfp etc etc

interesting read Adam, it would be good to see some pictures of the rebuild.


I don't suppose you have a spare diversity module do you? I think mine is going awol.

[Arch Stanton]

In keeping with the thread title, mine has just set me back £231 for a service, I was expecting spark plugs (and a £500 bill) but they are some way off so a nice surprise.

Still running sweet but defo selling it this time next year as I will be retiring so after (what will be) 13 years of ownership, I will be having a change.

[Smokey33]

I had M3 control arms, toe arms, powerflex subframe bushes and Bilstien B12 pro kit all fitted on Monday so quite costly month again. All done modding now so just enjoy it, hopefully.

Traction is massively improved, but want to test it properly in the dry and warm which will be a few months away i think lol.

[748adam]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

interesting read Adam, it would be good to see some pictures of the rebuild.


I don't suppose you have a spare diversity module do you? I think mine is going awol.

I’ve got loads of pictures so far, just no way of uploading them.
Sorry I don’t have the module. I just have 2 spare engines that I’m breaking

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by 748adam

I’ve got loads of pictures so far, just no way of uploading them.
Sorry I don’t have the module. I just have 2 spare engines that I’m breaking

no dramas, there's always a few on the bay of berks.

[tcphoto]

This month, it’s only been insurance and gas but it’s averaged $80 a month to maintain since buying in August of ‘16.

[Chapperss]

Originally Posted by therealdb1

So that's £1050 then!

Highways departments are not obliged to provide billiard tables for us to drive on. If you drive down a pot hole it is your action that caused the damage and not the pot hole which didn't move so you are at fault.
We cannot even get the grass cut at the entry to roundabouts making them blind on the approach or line markings repainted around here never mind the holy grail of an in tact road surface!

Originally Posted by Chapperss

I will be sure to keep you updated

They`ve agreed to pay, apart from £24 quids worth of petrol

Initially turned it down, but I asked them to reconsider before I took it to small claims. Only been 7 months....