[nsjames]

Originally Posted by eljay

The killer here in Canada are duties and taxes and shipping.
That US$791 becomes CAD$1552 for me.
$791 + $125 (shipping to Canada) x 1.39 (exchange rate) x 1.06 (6% duty) x 1.15 (15% tax) = CAD$1552 (US$1120)

That's quite the chunk of change on what started as a maintenance item.

So, I started the hard search for E91 xi Sport springs since the B4 shock set would cost me only CAD$554 delivered (taxes and shipping in) form RockAuto.

However, given what I've learned, I realized that the shocks I was looking at are either for sedan or for E91 non-xD with Sport suspension.
So, now I doubt that even those would work for me. It sounds like there realyl is not anything OEM that can be pieced together for my scenario and I will have to look to aftermarket where the ST X is a good value, but as you can see above, it's a CAD$1000 difference between standard shock refresh and ST X for me.

right proper hosed by your own government there.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

The length is the only thing that's peculiar to Xd though; they all use the same spring perches and rubbers (someone correct me if I'm wrong there?). Eg non-X non-sport front springs are quoted as 152dia and sport non-x springs as 142dia, but both will fit the same struts and perches...I assume that also transfers over to Xd, except that the struts are shorter..

You're correct on parts exchangeability to my knowledge. People have swapped both ways without issues.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by nsjames

right proper hosed by your own government there.

I lol'd.

If I'm not mistaken Canadians got what 6 months of a much larger financial assistance w.r.t. COVID19? def got us there!

[Tambohamilton]

Taxation is great, when it is used properly. The rest of the time, tax sucks. Western European countries - particularly Scandinavian ones - have really high taxes, but all public services run beautifully.

/OT

[nsjames]

Originally Posted by tlow98

I lol'd.

If I'm not mistaken Canadians got what 6 months of a much larger financial assistance w.r.t. COVID19? def got us there!

yeah, but coilovers are a thousand more canadian copeks.

so did they really win?

[eljay]

OK, back to our regularly scheduled eljay's dumb question thread....

I was getting long cranks at startup over winter, so it was time for a battery change.
I went from OEM BMW 90AH AGM battery to flooded 80AH.
After getting my bearings around the BMW software, I finally managed to register and code it. Yay!
Now, when I went to INPA to register it, it looks like the battery was never changed OR if it was changed, it was never registered as mine is the first battery change there at 137,900 kms. And the battery showed the correct 90ah_agm in NCS Expert.
Looking at the battery, I can see x4 15 (x is illegible) stamped on the negative terminal, so I assume that means it's from 2015. The stamp on the bottom plastic housing shows 7 / 15, so that confirms it, I believe.
I'd expect OEM battery to last more than 5 years, but perhaps that's par for course in winter climates.
The new battery helped with starts, but I'd still say I'd expect it quicker, but have no other E90 to compare against. I'm just mentioning this to see whether I should add a starter to my maintenance list. How can I check starter health?

[oVeRdOsE.]

Originally Posted by eljay

The killer here in Canada are duties and taxes and shipping.
That US$791 becomes CAD$1552 for me.
$791 + $125 (shipping to Canada) x 1.39 (exchange rate) x 1.06 (6% duty) x 1.15 (15% tax) = CAD$1552 (US$1120)

That's quite the chunk of change on what started as a maintenance item.

So, I started the hard search for E91 xi Sport springs since the B4 shock set would cost me only CAD$554 delivered (taxes and shipping in) form RockAuto.

However, given what I've learned, I realized that the shocks I was looking at are either for sedan or for E91 non-xD with Sport suspension.
So, now I doubt that even those would work for me. It sounds like there realyl is not anything OEM that can be pieced together for my scenario and I will have to look to aftermarket where the ST X is a good value, but as you can see above, it's a CAD$1000 difference between standard shock refresh and ST X for me.

also the $ value for a item is about the same as US for a same wage.

i.e. a soda can is 1$ in US, will be also 1$ in canada.

so yeah we pay wayyy more at the end.

ecs tuning are the worst. You want a catch can? No problem, its 200$ free shipping. Oh wait, you're canadian eh? So it will be 200$us + 389$shipping + customs + taxes. Do you need some kind of finance?

[eljay]

oVeRdOsE. Thanks to your links and encouragement, I no longer fear INPA/NCS Expert and coded my battery easily!

Next up in that space is INPA brake bleeding and testing DISA valves outside the car before I plan the 3SIM upgrade.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by eljay

I bled them with Motive Bleeder and went for a proper bedding run. However, I recall my pedal was firmer than it is now. The car stops very well, I must say - much better than the old brakes. But the pedal is very soft on the initial bite. It does not sink to the floor, but I wonder what I did wrong. Shall I re-bleed again? Despite changing calipers, I only collected about 700ml of old fluid after the flush. There were no bubbles left coming out and I don't see any leaks.
Any pointers?

I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but I've never had good luck bleeding the brakes on an E9x car, and I'm on my fourth. I can get them safe, but I've always needed to have a shop use the computer program to bleed them with the DSC unit to get rid of that last bit of squishyness.

I've got INPA, maybe I'll try it myself one of these days.

[dakine_surf]

Originally Posted by rothwem

I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but I've never had good luck bleeding the brakes on an E9x car, and I'm on my fourth. I can get them safe, but I've always needed to have a shop use the computer program to bleed them with the DSC unit to get rid of that last bit of squishyness.

I've got INPA, maybe I'll try it myself one of these days.

The only way to bleed them is with INPA... anything else is not going to do it... its honestly a waste of time to even try cause you will never get the squishyness out the traditional way.

I honestly can't even imagine doing anything DIY in my garage without a laptop and the tools suite... How people do DIY without it I dunno... I guess those people also just throw parts at problems and hope?

I got myself a decent i7 rugged extreme... it's mostly water and shock proof... at least enough for the garage... it has 32gb ram and a 1tb ssd. Runs the full suite like a breeze... all I use it for is car related programs for both my cars and Beemer bikes. The whole case is magnesium so it's strong enough to take a fall. It's also got a touch screen that can also use an attached stylus which is nice if you have dirty hands but need to scroll down to to the next page. Even has a wireless phone/tablet charger built in... overall very happy for a garage computer... it plugs into dual monitors when it's on the bench.

[slowcar]

Originally Posted by eljay

Finally, I finished my 335i brake upgrade.

The rear driver side caliper was giving me trouble and wasn't gliding smoothly, which completely ruined pads and rotor. They were done anyway, but this was terminal, so I had to act.
I think you'd agree:





The rotors look more dramatic than they are due the car sitting for a little bit.

Found a set of 335i caliper in good shape, so I cleaned them up, removed pistons, painted them with Dupli-Color caliper paint, installed new seals and dust boots and got new brake hoses and they were ready to go:


I couldn't safely disconnect the rear brake line at the hard line connection, so I just screwed the rear caliper onto the existing line. I'll leave those to a shop if they ever start leaking.

I installed Brembo Premium coated rotors and Ceramic pads.

The results:





I also changed the cabin filter:


And back in summer mode!


I bled them with Motive Bleeder and went for a proper bedding run. However, I recall my pedal was firmer than it is now. The car stops very well, I must say - much better than the old brakes. But the pedal is very soft on the initial bite. It does not sink to the floor, but I wonder what I did wrong. Shall I re-bleed again? Despite changing calipers, I only collected about 700ml of old fluid after the flush. There were no bubbles left coming out and I don't see any leaks.
Any pointers?

did you ever find out what caused a software pedal feel? did a rebleed fix the issue?

[eljay]

Originally Posted by slowcar

did you ever find out what caused a software pedal feel? did a rebleed fix the issue?

Not yet. I need to find some time to lift the car and take the wheels off... again.

[eljay]

I am also trying to put together a full list of everything I need before I dive into the 3SIM upgrade.
Sounds like everyone says to get a new PCV crankcase breather hose as it's guaranteed to break.

I need to get a new PS reservoir too and I am contemplating replacing the starter while in there.
I don't want the list to grow unnecessarily, but anything else to replace while I have the manifold off? I don't want to be pulling it again anytime soon.

[Tambohamilton]

Originally Posted by dakine_surf

The only way to bleed them is with INPA... anything else is not going to do it... its honestly a waste of time to even try cause you will never get the squishyness out the traditional way.

I honestly can't even imagine doing anything DIY in my garage without a laptop and the tools suite... How people do DIY without it I dunno... I guess those people also just throw parts at problems and hope?

I got myself a decent i7 rugged extreme... it's mostly water and shock proof... at least enough for the garage... it has 32gb ram and a 1tb ssd. Runs the full suite like a breeze... all I use it for is car related programs for both my cars and Beemer bikes. The whole case is magnesium so it's strong enough to take a fall. It's also got a touch screen that can also use an attached stylus which is nice if you have dirty hands but need to scroll down to to the next page. Even has a wireless phone/tablet charger built in... overall very happy for a garage computer... it plugs into dual monitors when it's on the bench.

Sorry for OT, but jeez! That is some garage calculator! Mine is an old Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 with a 1.2ghz Core 2 Duo, 4gb of ram, and a 500GB SSD (SSD cost more than the rest of the laptop, charger, and ram upgrade!)

[dakine_surf]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Sorry for OT, but jeez! That is some garage calculator! Mine is an old Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 with a 1.2ghz Core 2 Duo, 4gb of ram, and a 500GB SSD (SSD cost more than the rest of the laptop, charger, and ram upgrade!)

Lol I had a Panasonic tough book before... this replaced it... craigslist score... wanna say I paid something like $500 plus new memory and SSD... into it for way less than $800 and I use it for BMW's/mini (bikes and cars) my ford f-150 and fusion which are both ecoboost, my sprinter van, tigé boat and my two Mitsubishi 4g63t toys...

A good laptop, interface and suite of software is invaluable in a modern DIY garage. Having one that can take the occasional fall or spill in the garage is gold...

A little OT yes but the OP was asking why his brake pedal is squishy... software is the key here and a huge part of the successful DIYers toolbox... invest if you want to do it right the first time

[Thorin]

If you are upgrading the 328i brakes to 335i, you will need to code the brakes for that as well. I had to do the same when I did the BMW BBK upgrade; without the coding, the pedal was squishy, like soft-and-to-the-floor squishy. A coding update firmed that right up.

FWIW I did mine with ProTool using an Android tablet (connected with the USB-OBD-II cable, using a USB-C to USB adapter).

[eljay]

OK guys, I tried the INPA bleeding and apparently failed miserably.

I started a post here in the Brakes section:
https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1726936

Help please!

[eljay]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Sorry for OT, but jeez! That is some garage calculator! Mine is an old Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 with a 1.2ghz Core 2 Duo, 4gb of ram, and a 500GB SSD (SSD cost more than the rest of the laptop, charger, and ram upgrade!)

Those are nice setups.
Mine is an old Gateway laptop with SSD drive, and a nearly broken screen hinge, so I have to be careful with it.
I'd love to have a touchscreen Windows tablet with rugged case like Surface Pro. But I only paid $100 for mine, so I'm not complaining.

On the subject of tools, it's clear that I need to get myself an E-torx socket set to work on BMWs. Any input on what range of sizes are needed for our cars? And should I get impact grade for my impact wrench or just hand tools socket set?

Some candidates:
https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...et/A-p8840761e
https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...et/A-p8842288e
https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...et/A-p8842296e

Thanks!

[nsjames]

the largest e torx bolt I've encountered was an E22(?) underhood for the strut bar.
you have to remove it for valve cover.
the smallest i've seen is like an e6 or 8.

that second link seems to get all of it.

[eljay]

Originally Posted by nsjames

the largest e torx bolt I've encountered was an E22(?) underhood for the strut bar.
you have to remove it for valve cover.
the smallest i've seen is like an e6 or 8.

that second link seems to get all of it.

Thank you!
I also found this set that has the same sizes as the one above, but is impact grade, so I can use it with my impact wrench: https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...et/A-p8638298e

The only thing that worries me is that besides E5 and E7, it has no other odd number sizes and I can already see a DIY I need to do that shows E11.
With my luck, I will come across other sizes not in the set.

[eljay]

Originally Posted by eljay

I am also trying to put together a full list of everything I need before I dive into the 3SIM upgrade.
Sounds like everyone says to get a new PCV crankcase breather hose as it's guaranteed to break.

I need to get a new PS reservoir too and I am contemplating replacing the starter while in there.
I don't want the list to grow unnecessarily, but anything else to replace while I have the manifold off? I don't want to be pulling it again anytime soon.

Well, poking around with a flashlight, I found that my high-pressure power steering hose is wet right around the transition to a hard line behind the cooling fan and also back upstream where it connects to the cooler.

I haven't seen that these hose are common issues, but I guess if it's leaking, it's leaking and must be addressed. I'll snap some pics, so others can check theirs.
It looks like they will be more accessible with intake and manifold out, so I'll add them to the list even though the high pressure hose is not cheap.

[nsjames]

Originally Posted by eljay

Thank you!
I also found this set that has the same sizes as the one above, but is impact grade, so I can use it with my impact wrench: https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...et/A-p8638298e

The only thing that worries me is that besides E5 and E7, it has no other odd number sizes and I can already see a DIY I need to do that shows E11.
With my luck, I will come across other sizes not in the set.

I bought a set at napa and got raped for $80 when I discovered midway through the job I needed a big one.

it has all the sizes though.