Vlad: The Zinno '87 535is

[Seeker]

Please join me in wishing Vlad a happy birthday.

If Vlad were a lad I’d say to him that “time is nothing... timing is everything”
Happy B-day Vlad!

[tig]

I noticed both mirrors were jiggling a while back. The passenger side stopped moving. Both mirror's glass was failing badly around the edges.

I ordered new mirrors and (E34) mechanisms from Blunt and put them in this morning.

It turns out the driver's mechanism was fine. It looks like I (or Ken, I don't remember) failed to tighten the screws when we assembled the mirrors after paint! All 4 screws on both sides were barely screwed in.


The driver's side mechanism is in great shape. I will now keep it as a spare. One of the pins on the mirror for heat had broken off.




The passenger-side mechanism broke into 42 pieces when I attempted to remove it.

I made sure I ordered heated glass.

[stuartinmn]

I ordered new mirrors and (E34) mechanisms from Blunt and put them in this morning.

Is there an advantage to using the e34 mechanisms, or is that all that's available these days?

[tig]

I ordered new mirrors and (E34) mechanisms from Blunt and put them in this morning.

Is there an advantage to using the e34 mechanisms, or is that all that's available these days?

RealOEM doesn't show part numbers for the innards of the mirrors:


While for E34:


FWIW, the euro driver's side mirror with the blind-spot section is 51161926853. I chose to do the US version because I didn't want to wait for the Euro version. But you can get that part if you want (I have on Minerva).

[kcin]

Beautiful Car, love the red color!

[tig]

duplicate post

[tig]

Drove Vlad from Salt Lake City to Seattle yesterday. 872 miles in 12h 31m including 60 minute lunch in Pendelton, OR. Averaged 77mph.

Calculated fuel mileage 21.4mpg. OBC shows 18.8mpg which means I need to adjust the Seattle Circuit OBC fuel signal correction gizmo a bit.



Eats up the miles!




Stopped at my buddy's restaurant/distillery in Pendelton for a late lunch. It was his birthday so he gave me a preview bottle of his next batch of Whiskey.


100 miles from Seattle and this happened.


I think I can put a repair kit on it and keep it from spreading. If not, then I'll likely use this as an excuse to re-do the headliner (and replace the dash if I can find another crack free one).

Back in Bellevue after 2+ years.


Noticed this this morning. Uh-oh.


Up on the lift for my first undercarrage inspection in 2 years. The only thing amiss was an exhaust hanger, of course (which was replaced last december; sigh. I have a spare on hand because these are now made out of paper).


Now to give him a proper bath so we can take some family photos...

[tig]

I always have one of these kits on hand. I've used them in the past to great effect to keep chips from spreading. $7 bucks on Amazon.



Blue-Star Windshield Repair Kit







In Utah, I don't yet have any great place to hand wash cars. So Vlad's been going through a brushless drive-through carwash. Felt good to get my mitts on him again!


Next up is my janky coolant temperature gauge. First, this car NEVER runs hot. Even in the blistering Utah heat driving hard, I've never seen the gauge go past 12pm. Second, when driving back from Utah Saturday I hit some ~30 degree F weather. I noted the gauge was barely out of the blue. Recall this helpful pic:
from viewtopic.php?t=34159

Third, when the temp is down there, the gauge needle gets janky and dances frantically.

The M30B35 / Motronic 1.3 swap means I have a single-wire sender:


I discovered I have a brand new single-wire sensor in my stash. It is brown and longer than the black one that was in the car. Interesting.


So I swapped it in and measured temps. When cool I no longer had jank (although the engine was already somewhat warm, so I'll test cold again asap). I then warmed it up and verified it was tracking correctly.


Seems about right


Remember this? Who wants it? I no longer have any use for old-school USB power since I've found small USB-C adapters that fit in the cig lighter flush.

[Dale3783]

I'd love to buy if from you. I was JUST about to make one of these for my car.

[tig]

I'd love to buy if from you. I was JUST about to make one of these for my car.

Email me at ckindel (at) gmail.com

[1st 5er]

In Utah, I don't yet have any great place to hand wash cars. So Vlad's been going through a brushless drive-through carwash. Felt good to get my mitts on him again!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2jZsNgG]

This gets me wet.

[tig]

Earlier this fall Sam Hurly (@heyrr here, @samhurly on IG, www.samhurly.com) and I got together for a photoshoot of Vlad up Little Cottonwood Canyon just outside SLC. This is the canyon where the Alta and Snowbird ski areas are. Sam just posted the results and they are EPIC! There is no need for me to ever take another photo of Vlad.







































































Thank you Sam!!!!

[Dale3783]

Just awesome.

Can't wait to see the Minerva series.

[taavipa]

Stunning photos!

There is no need for me to ever take another photo of Vlad.

I am still looking forward for your own content. Unless Sam would be there taking photos every time you work on your cars.

[Adam W in MN]

Excellent photos, thanks for sharing.

[Bonsaibacker]

Great pics of a beautiful specimen.

[WalterH]

Do you have a desktop background size handy? (of any of those rolling shots) These are worth looking at every day.

[tig]

Do you have a desktop background size handy? (of any of those rolling shots) These are worth looking at every day.

Ask Sam. I'm sure he'll provide.

[vinceg101]

I can guess who's shots are going to end up in the 2022 calendar...

[muleskinner]

Fukin awesome!

[heyrr]

Do you have a desktop background size handy? (of any of those rolling shots) These are worth looking at every day.

Hey, here's a mye28 exclusive share of files that should be large enough for screen backgrounds. I had a few reach-outs on Insta about them and am much saltier on there from my e30 days and all the pointless accounts that ask for files, stealing photos/my currency- so sorry if any of them was you!

Eyecandy backgrounds: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/98o1j7pndccp ... 4QKGa?dl=0

[heyrr]

Just awesome.

Can't wait to see the Minerva series.

High hopes for this too, Charlie and I are still in heavy negotiations over if I'll get to shoot it. One top line item to negotiate on is opinions over who has a better shaped head (as fellow bald guys), as the winner gets to name the terms of the photo shoot. TBD TBA

[tig]

Do you have a desktop background size handy? (of any of those rolling shots) These are worth looking at every day.

Hey, here's a mye28 exclusive share of files that should be large enough for screen backgrounds. I had a few reach-outs on Insta about them and am much saltier on there from my e30 days and all the pointless accounts that ask for files, stealing photos/my currency- so sorry if any of them was you!

Eyecandy backgrounds: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/98o1j7pndccp ... 4QKGa?dl=0

Sam, you are da-bomb for this! Thank you!

[WalterH]

Do you have a desktop background size handy? (of any of those rolling shots) These are worth looking at every day.

Hey, here's a mye28 exclusive share of files that should be large enough for screen backgrounds. I had a few reach-outs on Insta about them and am much saltier on there from my e30 days and all the pointless accounts that ask for files, stealing photos/my currency- so sorry if any of them was you!

Eyecandy backgrounds: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/98o1j7pndccp ... 4QKGa?dl=0

Wow! Thank you. These are amazing.

[tig]

I'm diving into trying to fix a long-standing issue on Vlad: The symptom:

The fuel pump runs/pumps all the time (when the ignition is in RUN or START, even when the engine is not running).

Likely related: The fuel pump relay buzzes whenever the car is in RUN or START, even if the engine is not running.

Maybe related: The car starts and runs without a main relay (I'm not joking).

I do not believe it's always been like this, but I could be wrong. I'm not overly worried about it, but I do want to fix it. The biggest risk is an accident because even if the car stops, the fuel pump will continue to run which might turn out Bad.

Details on what's in the car since I barely remember:
- M30B35
- 179 ECU with Miller WAR and MAF
- E34 M1.3 harness that was extended with E28 relay holders so relays are in engine bay
- I have had 29,406 trouble-free miles on this engine swap

It is possible I modified the harness incorrectly. I'm hoping that's not the case, and I'm just missing something obvious.

Details of me modifying the harness in my M30B35 Noob thread:
viewtopic.php?p=1260604#p1260604





After the motor was in the car I noticed the main relay holder was busted, so I re-did it. Perhaps I screwed that up?
viewtopic.php?p=1308805#p1308805

Relevant ETM diagrams (88 635csi):

PIN 3 (BR/GN) on the 179 ECU is Fuel Pump Control. It feeds PIN 85 of the Fuel Pump Relay. PIN 87 (GN/VI) of the relay feeds the fuel pump. PIN 30 of relay is always hot (RD) and PIN 86 (RD/WT) when Main Relay is on.

Main Relay:


EDIT: I think I figured it out.

Hint: The E34 M1.3 harness has TWO BR/GN .5 wires in it. One for Pin 3 (Fuel Pump activation) and one for Pin 23 (o2 Sensor heater activation):



I have BR/GN tied together on pin 85 of both relays (i made a mistake when extending the harness).

[tig]

OTD in 2013 Vlad arrived home for the first time.

Wow, 8 years. It's been a great adventure. I remain extremely appreciative of this community for all the help, encouragement, and grief you've given me.

[harrypalmer]

OTD in 2013 Vlad arrived home for the first time.

Wow, 8 years. It's been a great adventure. I remain extremely appreciative of this community for all the help, encouragement, and grief you've given me.

And I particularly am grateful to you; for the mostly entertaining posts, always helpful OCD pics/suggestions, and good sense of humor.

[tig]

I have BR/GN tied together on pin 85 of both relays (i made a mistake when extending the harness).

On Saturday, after sleeping on the above statement, I dove into the various ETMs (and the two extra M1.3 harnesses I have). I turns out 1990 and before M1.3 systems had the O2 Sensor Heater (triggered by PIN 23 BR/GN on ECU), but after that, BMW realized that was stupid and just fed the O2 Sensor Heater off the Fuel Pump Relay (triggered by PIN 3, also BR/GN on ECU).

1990 E34 ETM:


1993 E34 ETM:


For refreshers: Motronic 1.3 ECU plug:



I discovered that PIN 23 of the two E34 M1.3 harnesses I have DO NOT HAVE wires connected.

Thus, a new pro-tip: A 1990 and before M1.3 harness will have a visible plug connector at PIN 23. A post-1990 Motronic 1.3 harness will NOT have a connector at PIN 23, but it will STILL have two BR/GN wires, both coming out of PIN 3.



Adding to the confusion is the fact that the Oil Pressure Sender has a BR/GN wire (to cluster via PIN 14 of the C101)!


DO NOT BLINDLY JUST THINK BR/GN is unique to fuel pump/O2 sensor heater when adapting an M1.3 harness to the E28.

Recall the issues I was seeing:

1) Fuel pump always ran (when ignition was in ON).
2) Fuel pump relay buzzed.
3) Pulling the main relay would NOT stop the car.

As i was messing around with the wiring harness, with the main relay pulled, THE ENGINE (and buzzing) STOPPED. I took a video of this:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ckindel/5 ... ed-public/

Uh, this means that I had a failure inside my harness. I was already considering that I'd have to pull the harness and redo the fact I'd screwed up the O2 Sensor Heater Relay wiring (and remove the relay all together). Now I knew it was coming out.

So I pulled back the insulation (F4 Tape, which, by the way I remain a massive fan of; it is by far the best thing I've found to wrap wires in a hostile environment like an engine bay).

Ugh. Another lesson learned (which I already knew, but ignored when I built this harness): when adding splices to a harness, do not let the splices be lined up with each other, OR ensure the splice points can't wear against each other. Also, apparently, the heat shrink tubing I used was of poor quality:


Like many things in this life, I'm extremely grateful that THE WORSE THING THAT HAPPENED with all this was my main relay was stuck on. I could have been stranded in Utah without the tools to fix this!

I then set about removing the harness from the car. The hardest part of this was getting to the wires on the starter.


I got to use my glow in the dark 10mm sockets (Thank you @karlgrau!):




This is embarrassing; I never really dressed all of this. Now, I'll do it right. Note blob of F4 tape on left? That's the Seattle Circuits econometer adjustment circuit that ensures my fuel economy reads correctly with bigger injectors.


Free!


Inspecting everything on the bench, revealed this (oil pressure sender):


So, I would have needed to pull this harness (or do a hack fix) sometime soon anyway (always make lemonade!).

I had used E28-style relay holders when I did this originally, instead of the M1.3 style that were on the donor harness. Don't recall why. In looking at this harness and my two spare M1.3 harnesses (one Super Eta and one E34) I realized the wiring was more robust. Since I needed to re-splice and I needed new lengths (to ensure the splices were offset from each other), I hacked the E34 harness (sorry!) and used those relay holders.



A bi-product of doing this (which is probably why I didn't do it originally) is that GR/YL wire on the E28 holder is fed by the OBC Immobilizer. By using the late-style main relay holder, and wiring the immobilizer will no longer immobilize. Which is probably a good thing.


I spent most of Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday carefully cleaning, inspecting, re-splicing, testing, and then re-wrapping the harness. I removed a bunch of extraneous wires that are not needed for a swap (weight loss!) as well.



The F4 tape I prefer does not have a blue indicator stripe on it. The stripe is there to ensure you overlap 50%. But once you use the stuff you don't need that and the blue stripe is often visible and looks ug. So I prefer this stuff:

https://www.amazon.com/X-Treme-Tape-TPE ... =ceklog-20

I got her back together with little drama (the damn wires to the starter were the hardest part, again). I found one of the ground wires to the hood hinge was failing, so I re-did all that along the way. Note I didn't clean around the fuse box, because a "Galahad E28 Fuse Box Blade Style Kit Prototype V3" should be here today and I'll clean there once the fuse box is loose.


He stared right up with no issues related to the harness (*).

Then took a long drive to a nice Easter dinner with my daughter, her FIANCE (!!!), and his family.

What a car.

[tig]

He stared right up with no issues related to the harness (*).

That (*) is because the temperature gauge wasn't working.

Initial diagnostics said that it was unrelated to the harness: I saw continuity all the way to PIN 4 of C101 from the sensor, which meant that, coincidentally, the gauge failed. I don't believe in coincidences.



So yesterday I pulled the cluster and tested for continuity from the sensor all the way to PIN 12 of the blue C1 plug for the cluster.

No continuity. Da fuq?

I retested from the sensor to the C101 plug. All good.

I tested from the plug pin on C101 to PIN 12 of C1. All good.

Then I realized that when I did all my testing, I pushed my male multimeter probe in the female parts of the C101 plug many times. Much love.

This, of course made those female connectors on the C101 plug loose. Nobody likes loose female parts.

Fixed by bending them all back tighter again with a sharpy thing.



Now the temperature gauge is fine. Another pro-tip: Don't use standard multimeter probes in female BMW connectors without also ensuring you resize said connectors.

I then set about adjusting the emergency brake because it had become pretty loose. Discovered it was more than just worn e-brake pads:


Youch.

Good thing I can weld (badly). Even though I had the welder on the right setting for 24ga steel, it immediately burned through. I had to dial it way back and then had to glob a bunch on to fill the holes. So this is ugly, but it's strong.

I also had a can of Cinnebar Red rattle can that had just a scoche of paint in it. Perfect use of that.





Then I set about (again) adjusting the brake.

I discovered something very unfortunate: Notice the issue?

[LarryM]

All this time I assumed your car has an LSD. No??