My new Touring

122283 Views 876 Replies 71 Participants Last post by Geo31, 4 d ago

yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · Nov 23, 2016 (Edited)

So last weekend a buddy and I flew out to St Louis to pick up my latest Touring. After having 2 pre-facelift titanium silver cars taken away from me by other drivers, I searched for weeks to find my next one and tried to stack the deck as much in my favor as possible. I located it through the Tourings for sale thread here on Fanatics, and couldn't be happier! Grey Green metallic over sand leatherette, 2003, rwd, 5 speed with sport, preium, and cold weather packages. It has 114,000 miles after the 1100 mile trip back home, and came with a binder full of maintenance history including the original window sticker, customer order sheet, and European delivery paperwork. It also came equipped with an H&R touring cup kit, 18" ASA wheels, and a Racing Dynamics rear muffler section. It needs a few little things addressed, but gave us an uneventful trip home. I'll update as I add a few things to make it mine, but here's a pic of it as I recieved it.

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tbouchard991

· #721 · 6 mo ago

VpointVick said:
Not terrible, but they did have a few small visible cracks and almost 200k on them.
The monoball RTABs have been a nice improvement.

Im planning to ditch my M3 RTAB's w/ limiters for Monoball. Looking forward to it!

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yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #722 · 6 mo ago (Edited)

Since the monoballs have become available that's been my plan. I do have some M3 RTABs on a shelf somewhere. During my research I found a lot of interesting info about the evolution of the design of the RTABs and how much better the split are supposed to be. Polyurethane was never going to be a viable option, IMO, for a daily driver car.

The 2nd gen TMS monoballs just seem to be a sleeve with standard rear outer "balljoint" pressed into them. They don't have any ribbing on the outer body, and just seem a little overpriced for what they are. Some of them certainly aren't worth the premium over other brands, as well. The Synchro Design Works and the Condor Speed Shop ones look identical, other than color. Just noticed the Garagistic ones are on a massive sale down to $150, only 3 sets left. I've been intrigued by the use of the Camry Moog monoballs, and being a cheap bastard might give them a try.

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yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #723 · 6 mo ago

So after a little ribbing I actually handed the wife the key to the Touring today because it was the last car in the driveway. When she got home she said not again for a while. She was nervous driving it because of what happened last time.

While she was gone I thought I'd start on something that only requires time, then realized I had other things that needed doing. Update coming soon.

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yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #724 · 6 mo ago (Edited)

Enter the free sport steering wheel I got from a coworker about a year ago. I spent a good bit of time cleaning it and determining what was wear, and what was grunge. Finally ready.

And first a test fit. I think I have it pretty well lined up. Thanks to vtwagon for answering some questions and giving me some pointers. Having it in your hands is a whole different thing than watching videos on it. Still evaluating and forming my plan of attack. Deciding where I want to put tape, where to start stitching first, etc.

Looking forward to the end result. The Mini has a fatter wheel, and the Jeep has a cheap cover on it because of how thin it is.

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VpointVick

· #725 · 6 mo ago

I still haven't done the M Sport wheel that I've had for over a year. Lol
Need to find a time where I can really devote some attention and patience.

yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #726 · 6 mo ago

VpointVick said:
Need to find a time where I can really devote some attention and patience.

Kinda where I'm at. I pulled everything out and checked the fitment and such, but haven't had any substantial time to dedicate to it.

tbouchard991

· #727 · 6 mo ago

I did it once, and I won't do it again. Even with a ton of patience, I didn't like how it turned out.

George Hill

· #728 · 6 mo ago

YMMV and IMO and all that jazz lol but I will not install limiters on RTABs unless that is the only option as per a racing class rules.

If your RTABs are original and have 200k on them they are junk. If they have any visible cracking they are on there way out. What I like use a s a quick check is that the bushing has a couple of rubber "ears" and they will rub a clean spot onto the inside of the bracket when the bushing is moving around a bunch (hopefully that makes sense).

I agree with @Geo31 that camber is rarely the cause of inner tire wear on these car, but I also agree with you that your toe doesn't look wildly out. BUT a bad RTAB will easily kill a rear set a of tires in no time.

For street cars I generally look to Dinan for alignment specs as a good baseline. And for your car their stage 1/2 is what I would set yours too.

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yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #729 · 6 mo ago

Thanks for the input and specs, George.

tbouchard991

· #730 · 6 mo ago

George Hill said:
YMMV and IMO and all that jazz lol but I will not install limiters on RTABs unless that is the only option as per a racing class rules.

I hate my limiters, they squeak in the cold.

Someone recommended them to me, when I was doing my bushing refresh on my wagon.

My vert and wagon have identical suspension setup (Vert doesn't have the limiters). Doing some spirited driving in Upstate NY, I didn't notice much difference between the Vert and the Wagon. The only difference was how much I hated the Getrag compared to the ZF.

George Hill

· #731 · 6 mo ago

tbouchard991 said:
Someone recommended them to me, when I was doing my bushing refresh on my wagon.

I do not recommend limiters for the reason that when the trailing arm articulates it moves in 2 different planes. The limiters "eliminate" side to side movement (toe change), but it also doesn't allow the trailing arm to rotate in one of its planes of travel, thus it then transfers that energy into the RTAB pocket. A fresh RTAB is likely just as good as an old one with limiters. OTOH I don't think I've had anyone complain of an increase in NVH with ball joints and thats why we put them into everything performance oriented.

*I've only seen one RTAB pocket completely fail (the famous video from VIR years ago), BUT I have seen seam sealer cracking at the pocket which is why my RACP reinforcement jobs always get the pockets stitch welded to the chassis.

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tbouchard991

· #732 · 6 mo ago

George Hill said:
I do not recommend limiters for the reason that when the trailing arm articulates it moves in 2 different planes. The limiters "eliminate" side to side movement (toe change), but it also doesn't allow the trailing arm to rotate in one of its planes of travel, thus it then transfers that energy into the RTAB pocket. A fresh RTAB is likely just as good as an old one with limiters. OTOH I don't think I've had anyone complain of an increase in NVH with ball joints and thats why we put them into everything performance oriented.

*I've only seen one RTAB pocket completely fail (the famous video from VIR years ago), BUT I have seen seam sealer cracking at the pocket which is why my RACP reinforcement jobs always get the pockets stitch welded to the chassis.

This is some great information! Thanks for sharing it.

I am definitely planning to take those limiters out and go for some monoball once I deal with the subframe.

yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #733 · 6 mo ago

New battery today. Despite my best efforts to revive the one that was in the car after it sat it said no more in the first real cold we had. What really sucks is it was 2.5 years old and warranty on BMW batteries is 2 years, no prorated period after.

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///Mark_D

· #734 · 6 mo ago

yjsaabman said:
New battery today. Despite my best efforts to revive the one that was in the car after it sat it said no more in the first real cold we had. What really sucks is it was 2.5 years old and warranty on BMW batteries is 2 years, no prorated period after.

Well that's a bummer. 2.5 years seems like a short period for it to die, but they definitely don't like to sit and get fully discharged. That reminds me I should pull the battery out of mine for the winter.

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tbouchard991

· #735 · 6 mo ago

///Mark_D said:
Well that's a bummer. 2.5 years seems like a short period for it to die, but they definitely don't like to sit and get fully discharged. That reminds me I should pull the battery out of mine for the winter.

I am possibly looking into getting a trickle charger for my wagon this winter.

I might snag this CTEK MXS 5.0.

///Mark_D

· #736 · 6 mo ago

tbouchard991 said:
I am possibly looking into getting a trickle charger for my wagon this winter.

I might snag this CTEK MXS 5.0.

That looks like a really nice one that has some useful features.

yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #737 · 6 mo ago

And it's fully official. No issues with the paperwork at the state level.

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VpointVick

· #738 · 6 mo ago

It's a brave or foolhardy man who posts his full name and address on the internet!

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///Mark_D

· #739 · 6 mo ago

VpointVick said:
It's a brave or foolhardy man who posts his full name and address on the internet!

Granny porn magazine subscription incoming!

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yjsaabman

Discussion Starter · #740 · 6 mo ago (Edited)

VpointVick said:
It's a brave or foolhardy man who posts his full name and address on the internet!

Like it's not out there already?

And I've been called worse!

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