Car Enthusiast Club [Now Motorcycle friendly!] - First thread to 150k! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[PandaCopyRight]

12 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

Dont make me laugh, starting on that is childs play. Unless you were dumb enough to buy a car with electric handbrake......

Most electric handbrakes ... at least in Europe and Japan disengage automatically when you start moving.

11 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

If you service and maintain them properly age wont matter and they will work just as good as when the car was still young.

i mean those are still wear items and will degrade over time .... there is a reason why a clutch replacement is usually mentioned in service intervals

35 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

It also depends on the engine, small engines rely more on the clutch than big engines with lots of torque.

 

So what? With their steep price id say it does not worth it for just one comfort feature...... Plus electric brakes are binary, they either locked or released, not ideal for starting on a steep uphill street.

still the clutch gets used and will wear over time doesnt matter the engine.. .and if its a car used by a dumbass then the clutch will be fucked...

Just now, jagdtigger said:

What else would you call it when it disengages when you plug in the seat-belt?   IDK why its so funny, this is pretty much that is on the plus side for electric handbrake. Its just as easily gets stuck as their manual counterpart and cost quite a bit more. It just does not worth it.

 

I know that system, i drove a few audi that had it but all of them were automatic. Never seen it in a manual car though (granted aside from my golf i only drove company cars and all of them audi). Its a nice thing but manufacturers ask way too much for it IMO. Especially since it uses pre-existing parts and its only a software feature.

if your electric handbrake gets stuck then yu got a bigger issue and you need to fix your rear brake calipers usually as well m8

[arnavvr]

13 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

I guess steep hills combined with stop and go traffic would be an excellent way to destroy a clutch 

 

but that’s gotta be a pretty rare combination 

You just described the entire state of California. 

[JoaoPRSousa]

 

cAmRy eNgInE

[jagdtigger]

21 hours ago, PandaCopyRight said:

i mean those are still wear items and will degrade over time .... there is a reason why a clutch replacement is usually mentioned in service intervals

I think the "service them properly" part covers this .

 

21 hours ago, PandaCopyRight said:

still the clutch gets used and will wear over time doesnt matter the engine.

My point was that an engine that has more torque relies less heavily on the clutch vs a weak engine which needs longer "slip" period. Yes in both cases it will wear out but it will take longer with the strong engine.

[TVwazhere]

On 3/19/2021 at 12:54 PM, TVwazhere said:

The bridge will be left standing but I will need good incentive to cross it again after this. That's also means about $2600-3100 of labor is lost for my GF's car repair they quoted her; we will be taking that elsewhere (AKA my garage, but we planned on doing that anyways)

Update:

 

Spoke with the owner of the place (not just the manager) We ended up talking for over 45 minutes mostly about this, but about other things as well.

 

To clarify

1. It is standard for his garage to do test drives for NYSI and alignments for certain things like brakes and steering
2. It is NOT standard to drive 70mph (obviously, the only exception is if a customer reports an issue at that given speed)
3. It is also NOT standard to drive in the rain. A second strike I didnt even know existed for them.
4. Even though we both agreed this wasn't about money, he still gave me a credit towards my next inspection and mentioned he has much interest in knowing how my experience went after that, which I think I will likely take him up on even if that tech is still working there.

We also talked about the $2600-3100 quote for my GFs car, to which he countered (in a polite, well explained and considerate way) that some techs are paid by job, but all of his are hourly and are not incentives to find things wrong and if anything, let the cars go so they don't have to work (Thursday while I was there nearly every row was full and today there was two cars in, and no one was concerned). We went in depth as far as hiring process, how much cost it took to sink his alignment machine into the ground (a big bonus for lowered cars like mine and reminded me of @Real_PhillBert's sunken jacks he has) and we talked with another tech about things I can look at for fixing the parking brake on the Beetle. 

 

Essentially, he took my complaint very seriously. He didn't even ask to see the dash cam footage, he trusted every word I said without scrutiny or doubt and it was that relationship that's going to make me return at least one more time to see what progress was made. 

[Bitter]

Why is this so hard for people?

[vetali]

6 hours ago, Bitter said:

Why is this so hard for people?

c/s brakes are spongy

7 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Update:

 

Spoke with the owner of the place (not just the manager) We ended up talking for over 45 minutes mostly about this, but about other things as well.

 

To clarify

1. It is standard for his garage to do test drives for NYSI and alignments for certain things like brakes and steering
2. It is NOT standard to drive 70mph (obviously, the only exception is if a customer reports an issue at that given speed)
3. It is also NOT standard to drive in the rain. A second strike I didnt even know existed for them.
4. Even though we both agreed this wasn't about money, he still gave me a credit towards my next inspection and mentioned he has much interest in knowing how my experience went after that, which I think I will likely take him up on even if that tech is still working there.

We also talked about the $2600-3100 quote for my GFs car, to which he countered (in a polite, well explained and considerate way) that some techs are paid by job, but all of his are hourly and are not incentives to find things wrong and if anything, let the cars go so they don't have to work (Thursday while I was there nearly every row was full and today there was two cars in, and no one was concerned). We went in depth as far as hiring process, how much cost it took to sink his alignment machine into the ground (a big bonus for lowered cars like mine and reminded me of @Real_PhillBert's sunken jacks he has) and we talked with another tech about things I can look at for fixing the parking brake on the Beetle. 

 

Essentially, he took my complaint very seriously. He didn't even ask to see the dash cam footage, he trusted every word I said without scrutiny or doubt and it was that relationship that's going to make me return at least one more time to see what progress was made. 

Thats good that he seems to care. Ground level alignment racks are big money. We were talking in discord about one of hoovies videos where there was a ground level alignment rack. Looked one up on our special tools program and it was over 20k.

[bcredeur97]

12 minutes ago, vetali said:

c/s brakes are spongy

Thats good that he seems to care. Ground level alignment racks are big money. We were talking in discord about one of hoovies videos where there was a ground level alignment rack. Looked one up on our special tools program and it was over 20k.

Holy smokes that’s expensive 

[AlwaysFSX]

7 hours ago, Bitter said:

Why is this so hard for people?

That there's for the dense air in the lines /s

[Bitter]

45 minutes ago, vetali said:

c/s brakes are spongy

Thats good that he seems to care. Ground level alignment racks are big money. We were talking in discord about one of hoovies videos where there was a ground level alignment rack. Looked one up on our special tools program and it was over 20k.

Shockingly, no. Just there for an alignment and complaint of 'you know when you turn too fast and it go skuuurrrpppp yeah it makes that sound when I'm just driving'. Yeah wonder why, both front tires toed out like 10 degrees. Inspected the suspension, all new parts but nothing greased and fittings finger tight. Eyeballed the alignment so I could drive it to check for other problems, found and wrote up stuff, customer declines, they shot their wad buying it, service writer busted their balls about actually coming back like they said they would. She's such a hardass, I love her.

 

Yeah an alignment pit would be kind of cool, we've gotten some cars on the ramps and onto the rack tho. The C6 racecar (like legit racecar) was cool. Owner pulled the front splitter off to clear onto the rack. Owner hates that I can get in and out of the race seat without pulling the steering wheel! My own car just clears the ramps and jacks and just clears the lift arms in the shop. It just clears almost everything. It's almost Celica season, one more rainy week and then the roads will be cleansed of salt and I'm good to drive.

[Hackentosher]

I've waited six years on this forum to join this thread. I finally bought my first car.

Spoiler

Ft. my slightly baked roommate

 

[Virixiss]

"featuring my slightly baked roommate"

That boy jumped in the oven before it finished preheating.

 

Congrats though! Enjoy the freedom.

[MightyMishka]

My dream car/pc lol.

[atxcyclist]

11 hours ago, Bitter said:

Why is this so hard for people?

 

I'm so anal-retentive when I bleed brakes/clutches because it's pretty important, so that level of fail is shocking.

 

Reminds me of some years ago, had a neighbor with a Suzuki Forenza (?) that he couldn't get into gear. I walked over and asked what the problem was and decided to look at the vehicle. Clutch reservoir was bone dry, nothing but return spring pressure on the pedal, and there was some fluid under the car. Stuck my head down under the hood and found the bleeder screw, saw the lines went into the bellhousing, laughed and closed his hood. Told him I'd love to fix it but the transmission has to come off, so he'll need to tow it to a shop. I gave him the number of what I believe to be the best Japanese/Korean repair shop in town, knowing they would give him a fair deal and probably get the other maintenance items up to date for a good price. That poor car sat there for months needing a $25 part with $500 of labor in front of it, finally got towed at some point and I'm sure auctioned off. On a side note I'm glad my car has an external clutch slave cylinder.

[TVwazhere]

10 hours ago, vetali said:

Thats good that he seems to care. Ground level alignment racks are big money. We were talking in discord about one of hoovies videos where there was a ground level alignment rack. Looked one up on our special tools program and it was over 20k.

10 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

Holy smokes that’s expensive 

10 hours ago, Bitter said:

Yeah an alignment pit would be kind of cool, we've gotten some cars on the ramps and onto the rack tho. The C6 racecar (like legit racecar) was cool. Owner pulled the front splitter off to clear onto the rack. Owner hates that I can get in and out of the race seat without pulling the steering wheel! My own car just clears the ramps and jacks and just clears the lift arms in the shop. It just clears almost everything. It's almost Celica season, one more rainy week and then the roads will be cleansed of salt and I'm good to drive.

For Context the lift hole alone cost them $20k (this was an establish building they had to dig out, reinforce and add a drain to to prevent rusting) The result was super cool though, the lift could take a coil over slammed 30º camber civic if it needed to. 

[JoaoPRSousa]

The moment when you realize Bentley uses DCTs on the Continentals and BMW doesn't in an M car

[Bitter]

5 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

For Context the lift hole alone cost them $20k (this was an establish building they had to dig out, reinforce and add a drain to to prevent rusting) The result was super cool though, the lift could take a coil over slammed 30º camber civic if it needed to. 

Oh yeah, it's expensive adding a hole to the foundation of a building! Our aligner, rack, tire mounter, and balancer were a package "deal" at "only" $60,000. Worth it but a big pill to swallow, probably could have gotten it cheaper NOT through Snap-on but it's what the boss was comfortable with.

[chaozbandit]

Jordan is a treasure

 

 

[thatrandomgeekyguy]

Currently have a BMW M235i Gran Coupe

[JoaoPRSousa]

2 hours ago, thatrandomgeekyguy said:

Currently have a BMW M235i Gran Coupe

 

How's it treating you?

[JoaoPRSousa]

35 minutes ago, DriftMan said:

The E39 is too heavy for the corners, you could compensate it with the M5 engine but... it suffers from rod bearings wearing out earlier

The E46 is a great car, a buddy of mine owns the 330Ci pre, even tho it's a funny car, the M54 engines do have lots of issues too, he just got a BMW F22 228i and is waiting for his mechanic to fix it, it's been a whole month there because it suddenly stalls and doesn't throw any warnings nor codes, they have replaced almost all of the elements and still no luck (not to mention that he's the best BMW mechanic in the entire city so, nobody knows better than him)

What about the E87 130i? I own an E91 with N52B25 (218hp) and it's awesome even with a heavier car, the N52B30 is even better (not the N53, that one has lots of issues)

 

Although I agree with the E39 being heavy on corners (my opinion comes from daily driving a stock 525tds, so, one of the slowest ones and pretty floaty), I don't think the S62 is half as bad as the S65/S85, bearings wise.

What problems has he had with the M54?

Americans didn't get the 1 series

[arnavvr]

46 minutes ago, DriftMan said:

The E39 is too heavy for the corners, you could compensate it with the M5 engine but... it suffers from rod bearings wearing out earlier

The E46 is a great car, a buddy of mine owns the 330Ci pre, even tho it's a funny car, the M54 engines do have lots of issues too, he just got a BMW F22 228i and is waiting for his mechanic to fix it, it's been a whole month there because it suddenly stalls and doesn't throw any warnings nor codes, they have replaced almost all of the elements and still no luck (not to mention that he's the best BMW mechanic in the entire city so, nobody knows better than him)

What about the E87 130i? I own an E91 with N52B25 (218hp) and it's awesome even with a heavier car, the N52B30 is even better (not the N53, that one has lots of issues)

We never got the 130i in the US, but we did get a 128i and 135i.

[JoaoPRSousa]

12 minutes ago, DriftMan said:

But still, to change them (every 100k km IIRC?) is rather expensive, but there were newer bearings (aftermarket ones) that didn't need to be replaced, they were custom made

The M54 had problems with the fuel pump, the radiator, the radiator pump, injectors I believe, heavy oil consumption (well this one is common on M50-52-54 engines, so not a M54 only thing), I love the 5 speed gearbox, the ratios are really nice and the stock sound is amazing too (better with a Remus exhaust tho)

Anyway, the M54 is an amazing engine for swaps because you are supposed to replace all wearing parts and install performance components such as aftermarket radiator (the M54 is very, very fragile if it gets hotter)

 

Woah didn't know the E87 wasn't sold there, it's a pity

 

Nice profile pic btw, with the color and the wheels I almost thought it was an E36, but with the hood that's an E30? M30B35 engine? nice nice, I was looking to get some cars from portugal but man, your cars are soooooo expensive, way more expensive than here in Spain

 

Ah okay, I see. I needed to be reminded of that, haven't looked up the S62 that much yet.

 

Well, that's a lot of problems  I am hoping to buy a 520i E34 Touring, simply because I love them and the sound of the M5Xs. I am aware of the possibility of overheating, but a new aluminum water pump *should* fix that, if that were to happen anyway. BMW and their brilliant idea of using plastic for the impeller... Oil consumption I sorta kinda knew, everything else you mentioned is new to me.

The plan would be to buy that, since 525iT's are pretty rare and expensive because of that, maybe buy an E34 525i parts car (I've been browsing recambioverde.es quite frequently, handy site that), swap the engine, put M54B30 internals in and plug it into a standalone ECU. I'm obviously overlooking a lot of things, just don't feel like typing it all out 

 

Actually, I'm wrong. They sold the 1 series on the other side of the pond, but only the coupes. Not sure if they got all the same engines as us, but yeah, they did get it.

 

It is an E34 M5. S38 engine, stock one. Not worth it getting cars from Portugal, they are expensive as fuck here. Hence why one of the biggest markets in this country is importing cars... At least I see a stealership in every fucking corner... and by the plates you can tell they're imported.

 

EDIT:

3 minutes ago, arnavvr said:

We never got the 130i in the US, but we did get a 128i and 135i.

 

This ^ only the tarbos.

[arnavvr]

4 minutes ago, JoaoPRSousa said:

.EDIT:

 

This ^ only the tarbos.

Actually the 128i was a 3.0L naturally aspirated car, the 135i was turbocharged though.

[JoaoPRSousa]

4 minutes ago, arnavvr said:

Actually the 128i was a 3.0L naturally aspirated car, the 135i was turbocharged though.

 

I thought the 28i's were the 2L turbos... Fair enough, you still got the big NA, I'd love of those