[The_Fixer]

Could have used the skin off an old washer or dryer. Cut the shape you need out of it.

That or buy a piece of tin to cut to shape.

Or to be even cheaper. Thick card board coated with flex seal on both sides.

Or even more red neck. Cover it with gorilla tape. No one's going to see it.

 

[Galiciae46]

The video is up! It took 6 hours to produce this one... yikes.

Nice technique on the diff seals!

 

[M.Blacktree]

Could have used the skin off an old washer or dryer. Cut the shape you need out of it.

That or buy a piece of tin to cut to shape.

Or to be even cheaper. Thick card board coated with flex seal on both sides.

Or even more red neck. Cover it with gorilla tape. No one's going to see it.

Yeah, it doesn't even need to be heat resistant. Because it's not the firewall. Although if you delete the cabin filter housing, the delete plate will become the firewall. Because engine bay heat will get in there. The cabin filter housing is pretty heavy, so I can understand someone wanting to delete it.

Side note: I'll try to get the video ready for tomorrow, but no guarantees. The wiring work took longer than expected. Plus I'm "brain drained" from the tedious work. And video editing is also tedious.

 

[The_Fixer]

Yeah, it doesn't even need to be heat resistant. Because it's not the firewall. Although if you delete the cabin filter housing, the delete plate will become the firewall. Because engine bay heat will get in there. The cabin filter housing is pretty heavy, so I can understand someone wanting to delete it.

Side note: I'll try to get the video ready for tomorrow, but no guarantees. The wiring work took longer than expected. Plus I'm "brain drained" from the tedious work. And video editing is also tedious.

It looks good. It's nice seeing the transformation.


I toyed with the idea of making videos on all the stuff I tinker with. But, I don't know where to start to try to edit videos. Plus I barely have time to get any projects done as it is. I'm glad there's other that do! Lol

 

[M.Blacktree]

I don't blame you. When you're filming, everything takes twice as long. You're basically doing two jobs at once. And after all that's done, you have to edit the video and do the voice narration. That can take half a day.

In related news, I weighed the HVAC box. According to the bathroom scale, it's about 19 pounds. And the wiring I removed is another 3 pounds. That's not a huge weight savings. But it's still an improvement.

Also, I checked the transmission oil. What a pain in the butt! Anyway, it was about 1/2 quart low. I'm not sure if that's enough to make the transmission act up. But I guess we'll find out.

 

[M.Blacktree]

The racing seat brackets have arrived! Some assembly required.

But seriously, this is some aluminum stock I bought from McMaster-Carr. The L-brackets are 1 x 2". The square tube is 3/4" wide. The material thickness is 1/8".

I decided to make seat brackets, because I couldn't find anything that will fit without modification. And most of the aftermarket seat brackets are heavy gauge steel. I understand people wanting strong seat mounting brackets, but the sliders on the seats are made of sheet metal. Something-something weakest link...

The L-brackets will be butted up against each other. I'll cut slots in them, for adjustment. And the square tubes will be the crossbeams. The seat is bottom mount, and will be bolted to the crossbeams. The photo below is a mock-up of what I'm talking about. The piece of wood is just a placeholder.

If I did the math right, the seat height should be similar to stock.

 

[M.Blacktree]

And here is the seat bracket, test-fitted into the car. As a side note, the seat has to be offset to one side, to put the seat inline with the steering wheel. The stock seat is offset, as well. The arrows in the photo point to where the seat mounting holes are going to be.

When I test-fitted the brackets on the seat, I noticed the front crossbeam was touching the slider release handle. So I shimmed it with some washers.

After that was handled, I mounted the bracket to the seat. Here are a couple photos.

And last but not least, the seat and bracket test-fitted in the car.

Now I need to take it back apart, and round off all the sharp edges.

After that, I'll start on the harness bar and the 5-point harness. Crossing stuff off the to-do list feels good. 😎

 

[M.Blacktree]

Here I'm test-fitting the harness bar. It needs some adjustments. It's actually made for the E36, but some people say it fits the E46. Well... sort of. But it's not optimal. The bar itself is a couple inches too short. And the supporting legs are a little too long. But I think I can fix it. More on that later.

 

[M.Blacktree]

Just a quick shot of the 5-point harness. I had a few minutes to spare, so I figured out how I want to mount it. Of course, the shoulder belts will attach to the harness bar. I think the lap belts and crotch belt will attach to the seat frame. I have a bunch of mounting hardware left over from other projects. So that gives me some mounting options.

 

[M.Blacktree]

The HVAC delete video is up! Here's the link.

 

[M.Blacktree]

Today I got another clue about the transmission problems. If you remember, the car had trouble shifting during the last few trips to the track. I tried messing with tuning, reinstalling the idle control valve, etc but nothing has worked. Meanwhile, I've also been getting intermittent "cog of death" warning light, on the dash. Usually, it comes and goes too quickly for me to hook up a diagnostic tool.

But today, I was flashing an updated tune, and the "cog of death" popped up when I turned the key. So I immediately fired up INPA and scanned for faults. Here's what I got.

And this started an internet search rabbit hole...

Apparently, "getriebeschalter" means "gear switch" in English. But I don't see a P-code for the error. I'm assuming the "60" is the error code. So I searched for that. And apparently, this trouble code points to the gear selector switch / sensor. The symptoms of a faulty gear selector sensor seem to be similar to the ones I'm experiencing.

Unfortunately, RealOEM.com has no info on this. The web page literally says "no parts found". Wonderful.

But luckily, another E46 Fanatics member did a writeup on this. Here's the link: DIY: 5HP19 Transmission: Selector Switch

When I get a chance, I'll pull that switch and see if I can fix it. I'm also thinking of making a video about it, in case someone else has the same problem.

 

[The_Fixer]

Today I got another clue about the transmission problems. If you remember, the car had trouble shifting during the last few trips to the track. I tried messing with tuning, reinstalling the idle control valve, etc but nothing has worked. Meanwhile, I've also been getting intermittent "cog of death" warning light, on the dash. Usually, it comes and goes too quickly for me to hook up a diagnostic tool.

But today, I was flashing an updated tune, and the "cog of death" popped up when I turned the key. So I immediately fired up INPA and scanned for faults. Here's what I got.

And this started an internet search rabbit hole...

Apparently, "getriebeschalter" means "gear switch" in English. But I don't see a P-code for the error. I'm assuming the "60" is the error code. So I searched for that. And apparently, this trouble code points to the gear selector switch / sensor. The symptoms of a faulty gear selector sensor seem to be similar to the ones I'm experiencing.

Unfortunately, RealOEM.com has no info on this. The web page literally says "no parts found". Wonderful.

But luckily, another E46 Fanatics member did a writeup on this. Here's the link: DIY: 5HP19 Transmission: Selector Switch

When I get a chance, I'll pull that switch and see if I can fix it. I'm also thinking of making a video about it, in case someone else has the same problem.

Nice.....but.....


You built a race car..... manual swap that thing and never worry about the slush box again.

 

[M.Blacktree]

Don't worry, I got a manual gearbox. And it will get installed... eventually. But for now, I wanna get my "flappy paddle" fix. So please bear with me. 😎

Edit: Plus, a fully functional auto trans will sell better than a broken one.

 

[The_Fixer]

Don't worry, I got a manual gearbox. And it will get installed... eventually. But for now, I wanna get my "flappy paddle" fix. So please bear with me. 😎

Edit: Plus, a fully functional auto trans will sell better than a broken one.

Very true! If you rebuild it I'll probably drive to FL and buy it. Got my rebuilt motor from FL.

 

[M.Blacktree]

Hey guys, I have good news and some bad news. The good news is, the seat and harness setup turned out great! I had to modify the harness bar, because it was made for an E36. But it was very inexpensive. So it was worth the trouble.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the stock seat and seatbelt was almost 60 pounds. The aftermarket seat (with mounting bracket, 5-point harness, and harness bar) was about 44 pounds. That's almost 16 pounds lighter. I was expecting the total weight to be about the same. So that's cool.

The bad news is, now the seat and harness need to come back out. I saw some rust on the chassis, under the seat. So I started grinding it off. I noticed the rust went under the sound deadening material, and started pulling it up. The more sound deadening I removed, the more rust I saw. It's just surface rust. But I'm going to address it now, before it gets worse.

So the seat comes back out, and all the sound deadening on the floorboards needs to come out as well. That should be fun. I saw the ChrisFix video where he used dry ice to make it easier. But youtubers are notorious for making things look easier than they actually are.

I'll check on local dry ice prices. And if it isn't too expensive, I'll try it out.

 

[M.Blacktree]

The racing seat video is up!

 

[M.Blacktree]

I may have to hit the pause button on the project again. We have another storm inbound.

 

[The_Fixer]

I may have to hit the pause button on the project again. We have another storm inbound.

Hope it misses u!

 

[M.Blacktree]

Doubtful it'll miss us. We're already getting some of the "feeder bands" moving across my area. Nothing major, just some rain.

My concern is flooding. This area still hasn't fully recovered from the massive flooding during Hurricane Ian. And Nicole is forecasted to dump 4-5 inches of rain on us. So I'm concerned the backyard (and my workshed) will flood again. Anything of value is being moved up at least waist high, just in case. The BMW is up on ramps. And I'll cut power to the shop.

Fingers crossed! 🤞

 

[M.Blacktree]

Hey guys, just a quick update. Hurricane Nicole wasn't very bad... at least, not in my area. The coastal areas had a lot of beach erosion, but I'm in the middle of the state. There wasn't much wind damage. We didn't have much flooding, either. So that was nice.

However, I wasn't able to play with the projects.

Anyway, I was thinking of what to do next, after I finish the interior work. Maybe it's time to finally address the non-functional ABS. It wasn't working when I got the car... the typical "trifecta" of warning lights. When I checked it with INPA, I noticed the VIN in the ABS / DSC unit was different. So I guess somebody replaced it, and didn't take the time to code it. So I changed the VIN in the ABS / DSC unit. It still didn't work.

At that point, I wasn't sure if the ABS unit was just faulty or the previous owner installed the wrong unit. So I asked a couple questions in another thread (link below). And Bali came to the rescue with some good info.

Simply swapping ASC with DSC?

So my ASC module (6759075) burned, and i accidentally purchased a DSC module (6764088)! Can I still install it? What will happen to my car, if I install this module instead of ASC? Thank you!

www.e46fanatics.com

So I cruised around ebay, and found an ABS / DSC unit from an '04 E46 sedan. Hopefully this will fix the ABS issue. Also, 50sKid has a video on replacing the ABS / DSC unit. It'll be nice to have no warning lights on the dash. Keep your fingers crossed!

BTW, here's the 50sKid video: