I’ve put a couple foam earplugs around the inlet of the front two drains, and stuck the tip of my air compressor nozzle in the mix to blow out the drains, has worked well for me so far. Haven’t had to clear any rear drains yet 😬
My new Touring
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February's E46 Ride of the Month Is Now Open For Entries!
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Vinegar will soften the adhesive right up, then you can use those plastic razors to scrape it off without damaging anything like defroster traces.
Heat and a vinegar based glass cleaner did the trick. Heat was definitely the key. I left the rear window, for now, as the inspection shop said that would be OK. Barely any scraping required and no damage to the radio antenna.
It has passed its enhanced inspection! Now to submit the paperwork to the DMV and get the title reissued and it registered. Unfortunately that will have to wait until next week as we're headed out of town for Thanksgiving. Last Friday was 6 years to the day that I flew to St Louis to pick this car up. Fitting it should be deemed fit to return to the road so close to this anniversary.
There is a thumping sound in the RR suspension, though. I recall it was doing that a bit when I was running the Konis with the coilovers, but it seems worse, now. I'll be pulling that shock and investigating.
I also mounted up a new (to me) set of snow tires today. Grabbed a set of 225/45r17 Pirelli Sotto Zero 3 winters with about 5/32" tread depth left from the disposal pile at work. Can't argue with free, and one of the old ones got damaged in the accident. They were shot, anyways. When I buy a set I'll go back to my preferred 205/50r17 size.
There is a thumping sound in the RR suspension, though. I recall it was doing that a bit when I was running the Konis with the coilovers, but it seems worse, now. I'll be pulling that shock and investigating.
I also mounted up a new (to me) set of snow tires today. Grabbed a set of 225/45r17 Pirelli Sotto Zero 3 winters with about 5/32" tread depth left from the disposal pile at work. Can't argue with free, and one of the old ones got damaged in the accident. They were shot, anyways. When I buy a set I'll go back to my preferred 205/50r17 size.
And it's officially back! I got back from my holiday travels early enough to go to the notary and submit all the paperwork and get a fresh registration!
We weren't wagon-less on our holiday travels, however, as we borrowed my mom's 2014 Volvo V60 for our ~500 mile round-trip journey to upstate NY. It seemed a bit twitchy at certain steering inputs, so they're going to have the alignment checked when it goes in for service. The ride quality is a bit harsh, and it is not equipped with run flat tires. Hopefully an alignment will help sort the twitchy, unbalanced feeling. Otherwise the suspension tuning on it is simply awful. They have owned the car since new and it currently sits just shy of 40k miles on the clock, so it shouldn't be used up.
We weren't wagon-less on our holiday travels, however, as we borrowed my mom's 2014 Volvo V60 for our ~500 mile round-trip journey to upstate NY. It seemed a bit twitchy at certain steering inputs, so they're going to have the alignment checked when it goes in for service. The ride quality is a bit harsh, and it is not equipped with run flat tires. Hopefully an alignment will help sort the twitchy, unbalanced feeling. Otherwise the suspension tuning on it is simply awful. They have owned the car since new and it currently sits just shy of 40k miles on the clock, so it shouldn't be used up.
Congrats man 👍🏻
Too bad to hear about the drive of the v60. Hopefully they sort it out. And if not, hopefully Volvo sorted it out on the new gen. I do have a thing for those super long and low V60’s and V90’s.
It is so nice to be back in this car! I'm remembering why this is my third one, it is such a joy to drive.
Yesterday I took care of the inspection and checked into a couple of minor issues. The RR suspension had a thumping over small bumps at lower speeds. I remember hearing this before, and was pretty sure I'd narrowed it down to the shock, especially since the mounts only have a few hundred miles on them. I pulled the left rear, double checked the mount and how tight it was to the shock, and all was well. Cycling the shock out of the car around ride height I could feel a little dead spot as the piston changed direction. Since they are Koni Yellows, I removed the mount a dialed up the damping about 1 full turn. So far the noise is less, but it's still there a little bit. I guess it's time to reach out to Koni about a warranty claim.
Today I took care of the alignment. I was reminded, again, what a pain the inner jam nuts on the ebay camber arms are to access. I think a 27mm crows foot would do the trick. Fortunately the camber wasn't really out of spec, and I was able to tweak the one side a little without releasing the inner nut. The rear overall wasn't far out, but a little less toe isn't a bad thing. I think the camber, despite being in spec, may still be a little too aggressive. The inner edges of the tires were wearing excessively, previously.
Yesterday I took care of the inspection and checked into a couple of minor issues. The RR suspension had a thumping over small bumps at lower speeds. I remember hearing this before, and was pretty sure I'd narrowed it down to the shock, especially since the mounts only have a few hundred miles on them. I pulled the left rear, double checked the mount and how tight it was to the shock, and all was well. Cycling the shock out of the car around ride height I could feel a little dead spot as the piston changed direction. Since they are Koni Yellows, I removed the mount a dialed up the damping about 1 full turn. So far the noise is less, but it's still there a little bit. I guess it's time to reach out to Koni about a warranty claim.
Today I took care of the alignment. I was reminded, again, what a pain the inner jam nuts on the ebay camber arms are to access. I think a 27mm crows foot would do the trick. Fortunately the camber wasn't really out of spec, and I was able to tweak the one side a little without releasing the inner nut. The rear overall wasn't far out, but a little less toe isn't a bad thing. I think the camber, despite being in spec, may still be a little too aggressive. The inner edges of the tires were wearing excessively, previously.
How much mileage do you have on your koni's?
I'm honestly not sure.
So I did a lot of reading on here about tire wear and alignment specs before doing this last alignment. Didn't find any exact specs, but a general acceptance that the factory settings, especially for the sport suspension, are far more tuned towards handling than tire wear. Since I've consistently had inner edge wear issue with the factory specs, it's time for a change. -2.0 degrees of rear camber seems excessive for a car that is primarily a commuter, so I think that's where I'll start. First I need to get my hands on a 27mm crows foot for those inner camber arm nuts.
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The last time around when I had my car aligned they used the non-sport factory settings for camber and toe. It has seemed to help reduce inner edge wear that I was also seeing. I'd have to dig out the spec sheet to see what the numbers are.
I don't have the print out of my final settings handy, but from TIS it looks like the toe settings are actually the same vs sport / non sport,
For camber the non-sport settings just have a fuzz less up front, and about a half a degree less at the rear.
Thanks, Mark. That was kinda my plan, go about half a degree less. We share an alignment rack with the Chevy dealership, so we have to have it in 'Murican readings. Even what our machine says is in spec for rear toe doesn't match TIS specs. 0*16' in the rear would be close to 0.3*, not the 0.13* our Hunter machine is saying.
I don't disagree. But, I also don't disagree that my toe numbers don't look excessive. On that note, I will say the RTABs are original, AFAIK. But I also checked them over thoroughly and they appear to be in good condition, despite that age. The outer metal "sleeves" don't show any major corrosion, the trailing arms don't move excessively when manipulated with a good sized prybar, and I don't see any major cracking or separation when pushing them side to side.
Since doing my RTABs I've been seeing much improved inner tire wear.
How did yours look when you replaced them?
Not terrible, but they did have a few small visible cracks and almost 200k on them.
The monoball RTABs have been a nice improvement.
Yeah, my next suggestion was going to be suspension bushings. Something that allows good alignment while static, yet allows too many degrees of freedom while moving.
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