Thanks guys - will give it a go this afternoon.
Stripping the old shed is going to take longer than I'd thought, there's a lot of bits to have! Or maybe I'm hoarding things...
Made a bit of a cock up and have removed the fusebox and enough other bits that it would be a pain to put things back now just to open the tailgate.
Is there a way of pulling the solenoid from within the car to open it? I figure remove the carpeted panel and hopefully it'll be there in front of me, but I can't remember if you can actually get to it now, or if the panel will actually be removable from the inside. Any ideas?
You can buy a tool that holds the water pump pulley to stop it from turning. If it has been on there long enough without being removed like my first one was, it just wasn't coming off with the spanner alone.
I didn't have one of these tools... so took the rather dodgy approach of putting a trolley jack under the car, and then putting a metal pole between it and one of the bolts on the pump pulley, jacking it up just a tiny bit so it all stayed in place... then tapped the fan spanner lightly. Didn't take much once the pulley couldn't move, but it probably isn't the best idea, could end up breaking the bolt the pole is against off the pump.
Working in IT for a business where we take card payments on behalf of clients... payment gateways, merchant accounts... PCI DSS... shudders...
I digress. Never thought about buying oil in bulk from eBay... I should do that.
If you can't find any trace of a leak... check the pipes where they run along the firewall. On my first P38, the larger pipe, where it was hard up against the foam and the pipe sweats when operating, had corroded enough to have pin hole leaks on the rear side. No sign of any leak until I had a nitrogen test done and covered everything with soapy water. Only found it by the tiniest amount of bubbling up - then pressed the foam back to reveal it was venting through it!
Worth checking that before assuming you have an evaporator leak and stripping the whole dash out... whoops.
The other possible hidden spot is the top left corner of the condenser under the slam panel - there is a lump of foam that is wedged between the panel and condenser, and it can hold water and corrode the corner badly.
Whenever works for me! I have the usual array of tools, though nothing too special that hasn't already been mentioned that I can remember.
I also have a GEMS P38 that I'm breaking - Marty has dibs on most electrical bits, but if there is anything anyone wants/needs, I can bring bits up. It is Epsom Green with colour coded bumpers, clear lights, later grey leather interior.
I'm happy to come up to put some faces to names and help where I can - then again I'm sure between now and then something that needs looking at will crop up!
Not sure if you're aware - but my inbox is always showing '1' in blue, as if I have a new PM - but I've read it?
Or is that intended until I move it to trash?
Could be - I haven't had the scuttle panel off yet but will at some point to fit some mesh. Does seem odd that its the entire half that isn't doing anything, where quite a lot of the driver's side does work.
May also be the fusebox, it isn't in the best shape, RL7 burnt and possibly the cause of the left blower not working etc. Got a spare, just need to swap it.
If I can be of help I'll happily pop up!
Might even have those bits together from the old car by then...
If you're not worried about superlocking or the window features from the fob, an aftermarket locking system can be fitted to eliminate the original RF receiver altogether. It does require your drivers door latch to be working properly, but is very simple and reliable otherwise.
All of the work is done in the drivers door, and you end up with a separate fob that emulates turning the key in the door lock - so the alarm/immobiliser are still activated. The key will still work in the lock as normal too. The only thing I'm not sure about is the ultrasonic sensor - if that is only activated on superlocking then presumably it wouldn't be possible to enable that with this method. I don't superlock my new P38 for the same reason I didn't the first - I don't trust the locks! :)
I did this on my first P38 after the receiver kept killing the battery and I couldn't put £200 on the mk3 version. I figured for £10-15 in parts this was worth a go and it worked very well. I had some non-remote key blades cut to lose the flip key entirely. I have pictures and could do a write up if its of any interest.
It's a 530D, common rail M57 engine. The indie isn't cheap but I'd rather they had it than anyone else around here, and I don't fancy my luck pulling those injectors out myself. It's getting two brand new injectors, plus thermostat as that's stuck open. One new injector on my parents old common rail C Class diesel came in at £450 elsewhere, so I don't think this is far off the mark.
I can't really complain too much, bar an injector loom (~£30 from a breaker) it hasn't cost me anything in repairs in the 2 years I've had it doing 300 miles a week, pretty much neglecting it otherwise and driving it like any typical BMW driver. The only thing I wish it had were lighter steering - its always so odd going between it and the P38. That said on the motorway it stays straight and true all day long.
Is it worth swapping the wheels over from one of the other two at your workshop temporarily to see if it changes?
Apologies if a minor plug post isn't wanted here, but it seemed relevant:
If anyone is after a Grom BT3 with a loom to plug into a P38 with an Alpine head unit, I have one to sell. Has the microphone and a 3.5mm auxiliary line in cable too with it. The BT3 literally just connects to the CD changer port of the Alpine head unit - no other connections necessary. Comes with a loom for an E39 BMW 5 series too.
Works well, but it turned out a metal clip had fallen into my head unit had shorted out some things and damaged it, so I've changed the lot now as the price of a second hand P38 Alpine unit wasn't worth it!
I hadn't come across filllpg.co.uk - but already that's given me a few on my commute to check out around the 53-55p mark!
The comments are very handy.
I wish it was 50p/litre here. My two usual places are 69p and 62p. The 69p place though drops its price occasionally and is currently 49p, but has run out.
Need to do some looking around for other sources.
Just a minor update, had to drive the P38 to work and back today as my daily diesel is spending some quality time with a local indie.
The fan barely tightened up at all - massive improvement. Pleased to have noticed this, given come summer (if we get one...), I'm sure it would have lead to things getting a bit toasty. Next up is finding the leak that caused it.
Now I need to find £1k for injectors for the daily... that came as a bit of a shock this morning :( arse.
Definitely counts as oily now:
Not entirely sure whether it is the gearbox cooler leaking, or a leak from the bottom of the oil cooler yet. This probably explains the fan running excessively.
And now...
Oddly satisfying cleaning it all up. I've left the A/C condenser off now to drive it a bit and hopefully see where this leak is coming from, keeping an eye on things.
Bonus pic of my other other car... this little 323F V6 is the most reliable car I've had and know... unfortunately, its a Mazda. So most of it has now been swept up and is in the bin. One problem P38s don't have at least!
Nice!
The red one will need one of these at some point...