The BMW battery died a couple weeks ago. Good timing that it lasted until after I got the car home, because it's not a simple job to replace. I had to watch a How-To video on YouTube to be confident in doing it, and it probably took me an hour to wrap up the replacement. Every little thing is so over-managed on this car. You even have to tell the computer that you've installed a new battery and what the Ah rating is (so the smart alternator gives it the correct charge rate/level). BMW dealers will do this for you as part of their Battery $ervice. But being a DIYer, I bought Carly instead which has already paid for itself in registering/coding the new battery and will also allow me to do other things with the car. For example I've already increased the DRL brigthness, turned off the daytime rear parking lights, and enabled a corrected digital speedometer in the dash display.
The old battery was the original, installed in Germany in fall of 2010, so nearly 9 years old and I can't complain about needing a new one by now.
For anyone who might need a battery, I'm not sure if it's nationwide but around here Pep Boys is running a special in July for 25% off batteries if you order online for in-store pickup. I used this as a good excuse to go ahead and replace the battery in the MR2 Turbo, which I've been nursing for probably a year. I did that replacement in 90 seconds in the Pep Boys parking lot.
I've been detailing the BMW in my spare time. Exterior is now paint corrected and polished, and man was that a ton of work. There were tons of scratches down the sides of the car, it sure looks like the car went through an automated car wash with some dirty/abrasive brushes. Next up for the exterior is filling in the chips, and then I can get to the interior - which is thankfully already pretty clean.
Some of the aluminum in the engine bay had light corrosion on it. I used Flitz Metal PreClean to improve on this before cleaning the rest of the engine bay:
A clean engine is a happy engine. And makes for a happy mechanic.
Lastly, the MR2 got out for some fun in the 100-degree sun:
The Yokohama A052s have tremendous longitudinal grip. On this old slippery asphalt I kept raising my launch RPM to keep from bogging down at the start. I ended up not far from the 6,000 RPM I used to use back in the days of Hoosiers on concrete. It's so much fun to launch this car on good tires and have to shift to 2nd gear in no time. The old girl still has it.
Very cool, love that shade of blue and what you've done to bring it out.
VW does something similar in my GTI, in addition to using an odd size that isn't widely available in auto parts stores. However, other closely sized batteries can be made to fit. I'll probably buy the Rosstech VAG-COM to deal with things like this and customizing things or programming in things left out for the US market (like lowering all windows from the key fob).
https://sacramento.craigslist.org/ct...944232287.html
Are the 350s good to go for track work, or do they need oil coolers and whatnot?
-R
Whoomah!
Unless you're doing really short sessions on a cold day on an easy track with minimal braking.... You're going to need an oil cooler, possibly a diff cooler, and upgraded brakes. Even the Brembos don't have enough thermal capacity for real track work, although I hear ducting helps them a fair bit.
That's a high-ish price for a DE but it does look like one of the nicer ones you'll find.
C4 Vette, I'll show you a cheap track hero
A Track Edition car has A/C?
Seems odd to me, but I’m probably behind the times.
Names don't mean much anymore to marketing departments.
Witness the dilution of the ///M brand.
"Sport" models of cars that are just graphics and spoilers and wheels.
Heck, Sport modes that do nothing more than make things louder and make the throttle response artificially sharp.