Cuda's Cars, v2.0

[dodint]

Looks great, perfect color for that treatment.

[CudaMan]

Cyber Monday Binge at FCP Euro:

- OEM water pump replacement kit (my 100k-mile pump is overdue for replacement, but remarkably is till ticking along just fine when the internet says it should have left the car stranded years ago).

- Bilstein B4 dampers, plus all the associated OEM mounts and bump stops. If this doesn't fix the occasional slop/wallow of the suspension, it's bushings for sure. Forum reports tend to agree the stock dampers are well past their prime by 100k.

Merry Christmas to my BMW.

[dodint]

Nice. BimmerWorld had a big sale too. Wish I was ready to purchase go fast parts parts but that's not happening until it gets sent to the cage fabricator.

[CudaMan]

I was this close to throwing an Eibach front sway bar into my cart, too, since it's so cheap. I wonder if the "pull the alignment pin" trick for more negative camber works on these cars like it does some other BMWs...

Speaking of water pumps, I was thumbing through old receipts from prior owners of my MR2T today and started getting all nostalgic for the old days. In 2001 a water pump direct from TRD was $47. Today it's triple that at the discount online dealers.

[CudaMan]

The oil that was put in by the BMW specialist shop in PA...

IMG_20200114_134522.jpg

...it's fiery red. Crazy.

Also crazy that I had to buy a special tool to change the oil filter. I guess anyone who knows German cars wouldn't be surprised.

[dodint]

36mm socket?

[CudaMan]

I think it's 86mm and 16 sides.

[dodint]

Ah, okay. Our (E36/E46/E85) casing is the same size, but there is a 36mm plastic hex on the top that spins the cover off. I might have one of those 86mm for the MINI, though. I own one but I can't recall why.

[dodint]

Have you autocrossed or tracked the E90 at all?

[CudaMan]

I haven't. I think if it had LSD I might consider autox with it just for kicks. For track use it'd need an oil cooler, and maybe some uprated pads on top of hi-temp fluid. I'm going through a lean income time right now so I'm being really frugal. It stinks not having an autox/track car around! I keep wanting a Spyder but they just never get cheap enough, other than for a brief time a year ago. Tried to jump then but the seller never got back to me on a car I wanted.