Good to hear I'm not a sissy. That tool was totally worth it as I needed it for both removal and installation.
Swung by Harbor Freight today and picked up some cheap stuff. I'm eyeing the 20 ton press but they didn't have a kit that included dowels etc so you can actually press stuff in/out with it...
Ok, time to get all the codes out. I finally got my passenger occupancy mat emulator. USPS messed up delivery big time, it bounced around the East Coast for weeks.
First up, where the heck is the sensor box? It's supposed to be under the passenger seat but isn't on my car. Head down to the basement to see if it's still stuck to the bottom of my stock "Vader" seat. Nope. Ugh.
Start digging through the boxes of stuff that came with the car and lo and behold I found it! Along with an old spare passenger mat, some spring loaded hardware for my Motion Motorsports front splitter and a set of 15mm Turner Motorsports wheel spacers. Score!
Figure I'm not sure of the health of the old mat I found, so I'll use the emulator, plus its a much cleaner look. Plug it in, ignition on, plug in my SRS code reader. Read and clear the code. Key off, read codes again, no codes!
All I have to do is pull the instrument cluster and put the airbag warning bulb back in and make sure it cycles on/off with the key.
Next up, oil change, then a race alignment (I haven't had one done since I bought the car, oops) and finally replacing the broken center HVAC vent. Then the car should be solid.
Alrighty then. Pulled the cluster today to replace the airbag bulb and really see if I'd fixed all the airbag codes.
Two T20 screws hold the cluster in place. Use a plastic credit card type of thing, put it in the top of edge of the cluster and pull down. Out pops the cluster.
The airbag bulb is the far right bulb. Undo the three instrument cluster harnesses, pop in a new bulb, reinstall.
Quick key cycle and Yes! Bulb works properly, pops on, then goes off. All SRS codes are taken care of.
Next up, oil change, then race alignment. I did get in a used, undamaged center hvac vent to replace my broken one. When I'm bored I'll install it...
Ok, working done the punch list for spring track season. Let's start with an oil change. I was going to use M1 15w50 until I found an almost full 5qt bottle of Castrol 5w30. Waste not, want not. So I picked up some more of it and went to town.
Next up, let's finally get those brake duct hoses installed. One per side, hopefully have them ziptied out of the way...
Ok, let's put the Turner 15mm wheel spacers I found earlier in my basement on. I need these to run 245 Hoosiers. This year I'm running 235 Toyo RR's, not sure if I'll need the extra clearance or not, but I figure it can't hurt and hopefully it'll push the wheel further away from my recently installed brake duct hoses...
Last thing today, install some harness guides on my rollbar to keep the harness tails in place. Found these on eBay for pretty cheap, split collar 1.75" ID.
Next up is a race alignment from BimmerHaus. I never got that done last year, so I have no idea where the car is set alignment wise.
I've also picked up the parts to install a larger "803" Porsche 3.5" MAF, silicone interconnects, larger 24lb injectors and the matching Epic Motorsports Map. I'm debating having Riot Racing bore out my throttle body at the same time...
Ok, I got impatient. Ended up installing the 24lb injectors, larger MAF etc tonite, much to my wife's dismay. 
Ok, first you have to take off the strut bar and beauty cover to get to the fuel rail...
Then I pulled the old MAF, throttle body boot and boot from my Dinan intake to the stock MAF. The plug on the stock MAF just unscrews, so now you're left with this.
Big difference between the MAF's, larger one is the Porsche "803" MAF. The wiring isn't quite plug n play. You need to splice two ground wires on the stock harness, or Turner Motorsports makes a really nice plug n play adapter. That's the way I went as others have had issues with weird running behavior when they spliced the stock MAF harness.
Ok, now it's time to play with fiddly injectors clips, woohoo! There are little C clips that hold the injectors to the rail, then even more fiddly little clips that lock the wiring harness plug into the injectors. Take your time to remove these and don't drop them!
No pictures of me swapping the injectors. Getting the injectors seated and all the clips back on properly took me forever, especially the injector up against the fire wall. I dropped my screwdriver down between the clutch fan and radiator, plus dropped a few of those clips. Luckily I found them all. Finally got everything back together and seated the fuel rail by hand at first, then a few light taps with my rubber mallet to get everything completely seated.
OK, lets get the new Mishimoto throttle body boot on, with the new 803 MAF and the new interconnect from the Dinan intake to the MAF. Um, hmm. Ok, my old hose clamps are too small and won't go around the larger MAF. Damn, too late to run to the hardware store.
I turn my garage and basement upside down and either find clamps that are too small or too big. Hmph. The boot seats tightly, so it should be ok for me to trial start it at least. Turns out the 4" interconnect I bought is at least 1" too long, I'll have to trim it before I put on the new hose clamps I plan on buying tomorrow.
Ok, time to load the new map. Unfortunately when I try and launch the software it tells me its out of date! A quick email to the company yields the link to update it. Do that, then I have to jump pins #14 and 18 on the diagnostic port. This is a huge pita. Get that done, upload the new map.
Cross my fingers and fire it up. It fires off but runs roughly for maybe 5-10 seconds or so then smooths out. I check codes and there are some air injection codes and a check engine light on code. I clear them. Then key off, and start it again. It fires immediately and falls into a happy, smooth idle. I give it some gas and it smoothly revs up, success!
Have you had a chance to give the brake pads a good run yet? Wondered how you like them.
I went for Porterfield R4 on my E86 Z4M but haven't fitted them yet.
Well, I never overwhelmed the stock brakes on track, so I'm sure these are complete and total overkill. Right now the setup I have are Stoptech 332's on all 4 corners, with the Hard Motorsport front brake duct kit and I run Hawk DTC70's on track.
Ok,
I noticed I was getting a fault code after I loaded the new tune. It just said the check engine light was on, but it wasn't lit up on the dash. Talked with the tuner, he asked me to log the fault and email it to him.
I did that, then he got back to me asking if the CE light cycles on/off with the key. Which it doesn't. When I told him that, he said that's why the fault code was there.
Hmm, ok. I know the bulb is good as I pulled the cluster recently and checked all the bulbs and replaced any that were missing or bad.
A little google search brought me to the obvious conclusion, a bad fuse. Out comes the Bentley manual, turns out there are 4 fuses that help light up all those bulbs in the cluster.
I made a list of them and started looking at them. 3 of the 4 are 5 amp fuses and the OEM BMW fuses that small are really hard to tell if they're good or not. Well, at least for my 47 year old eyes that need glasses that I've ordered and haven't received yet. 
So I figure I'll just start replacing them one by one and testing with the key and see what happens. Did that and got lucky, first one I replaced was it! Check engine light is now on, along with the ABS light and some others. It cycles with the key too.
Plugged in my computer, checked and cleared the code, key cycled again, checked the codes and its gone. Problem solved as Edd China likes to say and it cost me nothing, as there was a spare 5 amp fuse inside the fuse box. Nice!
No pictures because I'm an idiot. Tomorrow is my first track day of the season, Woohoo!! Unfortunately its 38 degrees out and spitting snow and rain. Supposed to rain all night at the track tonight but clear off and be dry and cool tomorrow am, warming up to maybe 60 in the pm.
Ok, so I'll bring the race wheels/tires with me but load the car on the trailer with the summer wheels/tires. However I need to put the race pads in.
When I got my stoptechs they came with a nearly new set of CarboTech XR3 race pads. I bought another set to match them, then went to install them today. No issues with the new XR3's up front, but the rears were too long to really seat properly into the Stoptech caliper. I persuaded them in with a rubber mallet, then too the car off the lift, bedded in the pads, then loaded the car on the trailer.
Literally, at that point, I started to question how tight those rear XR3 pads were. Called CarboTech, explained the situation, they recommended pulling the pads and filing down the edges some. Sigh. I know better.
So take the car off the trailer, back onto the lift, into the air, wheels off, pads out, plane/file them down, make sure they're a nice passive fit, then wheels on, off lift, back onto the trailer and strapped down.
Done!
Tomorrow, the track. Next week, installing the Traqmate and Gopro setup I picked up used!
Looking good.
Did you ever get that alignment? How much rear toe in are you running?
I did. Got it about a month ago.
Specs are front -3.5 camber with 0 toe Rear is -2.2 camber with 0.10 toe
Had my first track day of the season yesterday, with the BMW club. I run on their highest group, the A group, which admittedly isn't really all that full of hot shoes.
Right after our huge spring storm, which dumped 5 FEET of snow on the foothills. Luckily just some snow and mostly rain here, but it was also cold, like 35 degrees yesterday morning.
Track was wet, so I went out on my street tires, Pilot Super Sports. It was a little slick in some of the corners, but nothing outrageous, car just drifted a little through some of the apex's.
The BMW club basically makes everyone take out an instructor, no matter how experienced you are. So I had an instructor in my car for the first time in 12 years, which was kinda cool. After our first session he openly questioned getting back into my car. LOL!
Second session track was dry, but it was still under 40 degrees, so I stayed on the street rubber. Started off pole position and basically lapped the field. After that he said he wasn't getting back in the car with me and signed me off solo, then asked me to be an instructor with them.
Last session it was a little warmer, so on when my used Toyo RR's that I picked up here. They worked well and I was reeling in the field again, including some really high horsepower cars like C6 Z06's.
Getting more comfortable pushing the car in corners, still have some work to do.
Unfortunately one of my sub straps poppped out of the eyelet and I have to remove my seat to get it back on and make sure I pin it in place with cotter pins this time. Not really looking forward to pulling the seat, its a bit of a PITA.
All in all, a very successful outing, car ran great!
Ok, so one of my sub strap belt buckles popped out of the eyelet because I was stupid and forgot to put a cotter pin in place.
I tried to get the buckle back on with the seat in place, but just couldn't get it. So, its easy to remove the seat, only 4 6mm allen bolts.
Three bolts come out no sweat, the fourth bolt is turning out, but very slowly. I take care not to strip it, but it does anyways. So I cut a slot in the bolt head and tried to turn it out with my 18" long screwdriver. Nope. Putting an adjustable wrench on the screwdriver I could turn it just a little bit.
I don't have a socket that's the proper size to fit over the end of the screwdriver. I tried using a hammer and my screwdriver blade to turn the bolt out. No go. I figure I have it half way out now, maybe another 5 threads to go?
Any suggestions? Unless I remove the entire seat with seat plates from the car, then remove the seat/side plates off the bottom plates there's no way for me to get heat on it....
Sweet. Why not use Poly Control arm bushings?
I suppose I could've, I just like using the OEM stuff. In my experience its durable and long lasting.
Ok, so I'm all pissed off about the seat bolt, what better time to install the Traqmate complete system I picked up used?
After some back and forth about what inputs to use and where to get them, this is my plan.
The main Traqmate box requires a switched power and ground input. The data acquisition/video feed box needs a RPM and brake signal and a ground.
I've found that the best place to grab the RPM and brake signal from is the cruise control ECU harness that's mounted behind the glove box. I haven't decided where to grab switched power from yet, but suspect I should be able to tap that same cruise control harness for that too.
Time to do this in pieces. Let's mount the GoPro Hero2 camera, GPS antenna, Traqmate display and route all the wiring.
First up, I decide where I want the GPS antenna. It's magnetized and it seems like the top of my trunk deck is a good place for it. The satellites need to be in easy view and it was either my roof or the trunk deck that would be best. Since my rear windshield gasket is too tight for me to tuck the wiring underneath it, the deck lid wins out.
Let's route the wiring now...
I removed the drivers side tail light and passed the antenna through it, then reinstalled the tail light. I then tucked all the wiring for the antenna underneath the trim panels, zip tied to some other wires on the back seat bench area, then ziptied up the excess at the input box.
I've decided to mount both boxed right on top of the transmission tunnel where I can easily access them. Right now they're just sitting there, but my plan is to get some industrial velcro and velcro them together, then to the carpet.
Picked up a cheap tripod mount from Amazon for $10, used it to mount the GoPRo Hero2 camera to my IO Port rollbar camera mount. The nice thing about the Traqmate system is it provides power to the GoPro and when I turn on data acquisition for the Traqmate, it turns on the "Record" function of the GoPro.
So I don't need to monkey with trying to turn on the GoPro and make sure its recording. The Traqmate also stiches together the lap video with the data automatically.
Figuring out where to put the Traqmate display so I could see it while on track took a little thought. I also need easy access to it so I can plug in the USB cable and do the data dump from it. I really have nowhere to mount it on my center stack without obscuring something else. I decided to try this spot to the left of the steering wheel. I can see it from my seat and easily reach it, even in harnesses.
Right now I've got it mocked up with double sided body tape, but will use the same industrial velcro to mount it more securely as the boxes. I routed the wiring nicely, tucked underneath the trim panels.
Next up is the wiring the Traqmate up (4-5 wires) and then testing it...
Let me tell you, climbing into and especially out of the trunk was a major PITA! I had a moment there where I actually thought I was going to be stuck in the trunk!
Ok, let's try to start to wire up the Traqmate. There are 4 wires I need to hook up, switched power and ground from the main traqmate box, then RPM and brake signal to the data box.
I can grab all 4 from behind the glove box. I'll use the glove box light harness for the switched power and ground and tap into the X22 cruise control harness for the RPM and brake signal.
First things first, time to remove the glove box. A bunch of phillips head screws and one 10mm nut hidden underneath the glove box light. I removed the vent panel also but in retrospect I don't think I needed to.
Yeah, yeah, I should've stripped the wires, soldered and heat shrunk. But I have a crappy soldering iron and kinda suck at soldering. Here's the power and ground.
Here's where I stopped for the night, for a few reasons. #1, wife wanted me inside. #2, I wasn't totally sure which module was the cruise control module. The Bentley manual said it was the bottom most one but also unhelpfully said that the modules can be in different places. So I wanted to double check. Turns out Bentley was right, so it is the bottom module.
I neatly ran the wires back to the Traqmate boxes and used velcro to affix the boxes together and to the carpet before I went inside.
Next up is to tap the two wires I need from the cruise control harness, attach them to the data box, test to make sure the Traqmate works, then put everything back together.
Earlier in the day I managed to get cotter pins in both sub strap buckles on the passenger side and on the one buckle that's still attached on the drivers side. I tried to buy a hammer strike impact driver but after striking out at three different places, I threw in the towel. My friends shop will handle it this Friday for me...
Alrighty then, back at it after work today.
First up, I did identify the cruise control module as the bottom most module. According to Bentley the brake switch wire is a blue/red one and the tach wire is the black one.
Found both in the harness and managed to tap into them. Then I tested the Traqmate for power/function before putting the glovebox back in. It worked fine, so I put the glovebox back in. Then it didn't work at all. Sigh.
Out comes the glove box again and I determine its a bad ground. Move the ground, test the Traqmate again and reassemble the glovebox.
Payday!
Next up is heading out on a drive and recording, making sure the video and data feeds are working...
Ok,
So I had to clean up a few things on my Traqmate install after I read the manual. Took care of solidly getting power, I figured out I kept blowing the fuse for the glove box light, which is where I tapped power from.
Of course I'd taken apart the glovebox to trouble shoot before I thought to check the fuse though. Doh! Anyways, its all working, the tach input is working, camera is working etc.
However, when I started the car to check the tach input I heard a loud "BOOM!" from under the hood and saw something fly out. I quickly turned the car off and went to investigate.
Here's what I found...
Yup, my BRAND NEW fan hit the radiator and exploded! Even worse, it put a hole in my BRAND NEW MZ3 S54 radiator! MF'er! It also broke the top off the radiator shroud. Dammit!
So, why did this happen? Well, turns out the nuts that secure the tops of the Vorshlag motor mounts in my car were finger tight, which let the motor move forward, letting the fan hit the radiator. Awesome.
I went to tighten the nuts and found that the through stud on the drivers side mount is broken. Even better! Apparently this is common failure with these Vorshlag mounts, they've since come out with an "updated" design.
Have I mentioned that I have a track day this Saturday? So I have to get a new fan, radiator, radiator shroud, coolant temp sensor and these updated motor mount base plate/studs. Then I need to thrash to get all this stuff installed no later than Friday afternoon.
Feeling pretty pessimistic about this....
You can do it!
Great, Vorshlag doesn't have the updated base plate/stud in stock. This sucks! I also got the soft shoe chatter when I asked them why the stud broke in the first place. That's a failure I've never had with any motor mount.
So my choices are to slam in the old base plate/stud and pray or buy another complete set of stock motor mounts or ???
I'm really getting discouraged about making this track day now...
Get these:
Slippery, I wanted to but they're back ordered until at least September.
So from Bimmerworld I ordered their electric fan conversion kit, the CSF aluminum radiator, a new fan shroud and the Stewart water pump. From AKG Motorsports I ordered their track motor mounts.
Won't have this stuff till end of next week, so I cancelled my track day. I suppose I could've installed my old fan and radiator, as well as the old base plate/stud I found for the motor mount but I have no faith in that.
Plus I don't feel like doing all this work twice. Well, I'm already doing it twice so I don't want to do it three times.
I have a brand new set of those that I would have sent you, but September might be a tad too long.
If possible please snap a picture of the bearing part number on that water pump. Its on the threaded part the fan would attach to. I machined mine off as I got a Spal fan and forgot to write it down.
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