Suj's Nimbus Clio 197 and E36 328i Trackcar
- Thread starter suj
- Start date
suj
Paid Member
'Hello money pit' more like
Certainly is
Stop writing in my thread and get your bloody thread up and also sign up to Snetterton on 19th August....kthxbai
suj
Paid Member
I had the lower one on my old one
Then DannyDC2 (after it went via my mate, to his mate, to Danny) then put risers on.
Yes it spent most it's time up in the air in both our ownerships haha
(Small world, we knew each other from years earlier on VDub forum, then he bought my old car lol)
Then DannyDC2 (after it went via my mate, to his mate, to Danny) then put risers on.
Yes it spent most it's time up in the air in both our ownerships haha
(Small world, we knew each other from years earlier on VDub forum, then he bought my old car lol)
suj
Paid Member
suj
Paid Member
@RSRowe Nathe I got the same problem as you when you rebuilt your alternator. "LOW BATTERY" flagging up.
It's odd as it is reading 13.8ish volts, but let's say it is triggered at 10miles (making up a distance), if I go 9.8miles and turn off the car and restart, I could keep doing this and light won't come on....it's so weird!
I am going to measure / time next time to see how long it takes to trigger. Car drives fine (just lose cruise control which is annoying), due to WFH I hardly do miles nowadays!
It's odd as it is reading 13.8ish volts, but let's say it is triggered at 10miles (making up a distance), if I go 9.8miles and turn off the car and restart, I could keep doing this and light won't come on....it's so weird!
I am going to measure / time next time to see how long it takes to trigger. Car drives fine (just lose cruise control which is annoying), due to WFH I hardly do miles nowadays!
suj
Paid Member
Yeah I thought "let's see what now doesn't work".
I am gonna contact place who did the work to rebuild it to see what they suggest, as it was using genuine parts....so can't be that you can only use a brand new genuine item, that's ridiculous (unless it needs coding in, like many other companies when you change anything).
Oh yeah, your chinese squib lol, CC works before the warning turns on.
suj
Paid Member
I just cannot understand this, how is it even possible that only a new one will sort it?
Not saying you're wrong as a few people have said same thing, I need to do more digging as it's ridiculous if that is the fix (wouldn't surprise me with some fixes being so expensive on this car lol)
LiamP
Paid Member
Completely agree, I had a ‘Lucas’ alternator which looked brand new but like others would give the warning after 10miles/20mins, haven’t had it since replacing with the OEM one. The annoying thing is that on start up it works fine (14v) it just seems to suddenly fail and drop to below 14v, can only assume it’s something to do with the regulator rather than the alternator itself.
suj
Paid Member
Yeah so this is why I was going to contact the guy who rebuilt it to see if he's had this before (he's been there for donkey years, so hopefully he has).
Yep exactly that, like circa 10miles it comes on, going gym (about 2miles) never came on at all.
Yep that's what happened at the start when I by accident had the battery clamp (to stop it sliding) was loose, then it was spot on running 14.2-14.4v consistently, now it's down to 13.8v for most driving but drops to like 13.1 (maybe a bit lower, I need to log it on a graph) at idle if I stop at traffic lights after a while driving.
But it has come on while moving and it was reading 13.8v constantly, bam it flagged up....so weird!
suj
Paid Member
Same mine was rebuilt with new bearings and a new regulator, why I'm going to speak to guy who rebuilt it, see if he can suggest anything, I'll update if I get this fixed, as I think it's made I would have to pay £270 to fix the problem (when it is charging, not to 14+v, just under), fingers crossed.
suj
Paid Member
The rack on the car has been shit, to the point of unusable when parking / slow moving (also making a noise).
I bought a 067 Purple rack, these are found on E46s, so a standard E36 rack displaces 44mm/rev, the 067 rack displaces 50mm/rev, so this is a shit tonne quicker and also because they are very common with E46s they can be bought for so cheap, I paid £50 delivered for it and it was in brilliant condition.
I also got a new powersteering pump, as it sounded like it was whining (could have been the rack, but whilst there and having to change the fluid, might as well do it all at the same time).
So my cousin is the Financial Director at a company that refurbishes racks, pumps, calipers, driveshafts etc. so when we had a family BBQ he said give me the rack and i'll get it done, so linishing on the internal parts, chemically dipped, new seals and then properly pressure tested, the rack seemed in great condition but I thought whilst it is off, I might as well. He tried to not charge me as I didn't get it blasted and painted which is more time consuming / pricier, but I threw him some money via his daughters haha.
Only thing that needs modding is, the top plastic cap is too long so needs cutting down to mimick the E36 one and you cannot use the E46 tie rods and ends (I think you can use the E46 inners, but outers you cannot) but this is fine as the track rod inners and outers are near new.
Before
After
So I got set on working on the car and as you can imagine there was many crusty banjos and nuts!
I bought this cheap extraction(penis) pump to extract as much fluid from the pump as I could, works really well actually for £15.
Off came the track rod boots.....so I know what happened, the seals were f*cked in the rack, there was fluid everywhere inside the boots, so took off the boots and cleaned them out and set about undoing the rod inners.
I love my new alignment lol.
The banjos were so crusty and stuck, but I got time to flex my Milwaukee Right Angle Impact I bought, it's got a small head so can get into tight spots and 300nm so worked a treat. Spun the pump to try and push out as much residual fluid so it doesn't end up on my face or in my eye (which it did anyway lol).
It was a pain to get it out the end that is in the engine bay, there is limited space and the rack mounting slots make it a pain, but got there after using Thor's hammer and a sore right hand (that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it lol).
Here is the old and new side-by-side.
Also another thing that is crap and can make steering feel a bit vague is the column has a rubber coupler, but you can buy a solid coupler that replaces this, which I did (I got the whole column and coupler off someone, meant I can build it up / not drill out old ones).
Old one:
Solid coupler:
So got the rack back on, boots back onto the track rods, rod inners screwed into the rack and boots put on.
Then I set about changing the pump. I had earlier taken loosened the pulley bolts on the powersteering pump, then taken off the tension and taken belt off, as I wanted to turn pump by hand to purge out the residual fluid.
So now just taking off the bolts, there is only 2x 13mm holding it in, so a doddle to remove with the Milwaukee, but then a pain in the arse to get the crud covered pipe off the pump, banjo again wasn't too bad, just crusty.
New pump on:
New rack on:
All bolts torqued up, put fluid in and turned pump by hand, then put aux belt back on.
Then the process to bleed powersteering is cap off, car on, turn wheel left and right full lock loads of times, to allow air to work it's way back up, which I did.
Then I checked fluid, cap on and car down, went for a drive....removing from the drive it sounded horrendous and I thought accelerator felt very weird, turned around and parked up.
It was like 9pm (and 30degrees on Saturday, so I was f*cked, so I called it a day, beer and food it was).
Next morning with a clear head I went out and checked if the belt was routed right, it was, checked for any leaks, none, checked fluid level and it had dropped shitloads!
So I topped it up and turned wheel left and right loads while on the ground, loads of fluid was being sucked up, so I think when in the air it has no load the pump and rack were dry, but then there was some foamy crap on top, so out came the extraction pump to suck up the top crap and new fluid back in, some more left and right turning and levels were spot on (I think the foam was assembly grease etc when refurbished, so it came back out).
Went for a drive and my god what a difference! So I think the pump being a bit dry was making a noise, the pedal feeling weird is due to how the E36 pedal is (it's like the first 10-20% does much smaller increments, i've not driven it for like 3 weeks, been in the Clio so with the noise I think it was a placebo).
Now I can park without getting an arm workout and no noise, also I feel as though there is less drag, so maybe the pump was f*cked and causing a drag on the aux system. Need to get alignment checked, but I am doing some work on it over the week (setting rear droop and ride height on the front) so I will get it done after that.
I bought a 067 Purple rack, these are found on E46s, so a standard E36 rack displaces 44mm/rev, the 067 rack displaces 50mm/rev, so this is a shit tonne quicker and also because they are very common with E46s they can be bought for so cheap, I paid £50 delivered for it and it was in brilliant condition.
I also got a new powersteering pump, as it sounded like it was whining (could have been the rack, but whilst there and having to change the fluid, might as well do it all at the same time).
So my cousin is the Financial Director at a company that refurbishes racks, pumps, calipers, driveshafts etc. so when we had a family BBQ he said give me the rack and i'll get it done, so linishing on the internal parts, chemically dipped, new seals and then properly pressure tested, the rack seemed in great condition but I thought whilst it is off, I might as well. He tried to not charge me as I didn't get it blasted and painted which is more time consuming / pricier, but I threw him some money via his daughters haha.
Only thing that needs modding is, the top plastic cap is too long so needs cutting down to mimick the E36 one and you cannot use the E46 tie rods and ends (I think you can use the E46 inners, but outers you cannot) but this is fine as the track rod inners and outers are near new.
Before
After
So I got set on working on the car and as you can imagine there was many crusty banjos and nuts!
I bought this cheap extraction
Off came the track rod boots.....so I know what happened, the seals were f*cked in the rack, there was fluid everywhere inside the boots, so took off the boots and cleaned them out and set about undoing the rod inners.
I love my new alignment lol.
The banjos were so crusty and stuck, but I got time to flex my Milwaukee Right Angle Impact I bought, it's got a small head so can get into tight spots and 300nm so worked a treat. Spun the pump to try and push out as much residual fluid so it doesn't end up on my face or in my eye (which it did anyway lol).
It was a pain to get it out the end that is in the engine bay, there is limited space and the rack mounting slots make it a pain, but got there after using Thor's hammer and a sore right hand (that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it lol).
Here is the old and new side-by-side.
Also another thing that is crap and can make steering feel a bit vague is the column has a rubber coupler, but you can buy a solid coupler that replaces this, which I did (I got the whole column and coupler off someone, meant I can build it up / not drill out old ones).
Old one:
Solid coupler:
So got the rack back on, boots back onto the track rods, rod inners screwed into the rack and boots put on.
Then I set about changing the pump. I had earlier taken loosened the pulley bolts on the powersteering pump, then taken off the tension and taken belt off, as I wanted to turn pump by hand to purge out the residual fluid.
So now just taking off the bolts, there is only 2x 13mm holding it in, so a doddle to remove with the Milwaukee, but then a pain in the arse to get the crud covered pipe off the pump, banjo again wasn't too bad, just crusty.
New pump on:
New rack on:
All bolts torqued up, put fluid in and turned pump by hand, then put aux belt back on.
Then the process to bleed powersteering is cap off, car on, turn wheel left and right full lock loads of times, to allow air to work it's way back up, which I did.
Then I checked fluid, cap on and car down, went for a drive....removing from the drive it sounded horrendous and I thought accelerator felt very weird, turned around and parked up.
It was like 9pm (and 30degrees on Saturday, so I was f*cked, so I called it a day, beer and food it was).
Next morning with a clear head I went out and checked if the belt was routed right, it was, checked for any leaks, none, checked fluid level and it had dropped shitloads!
So I topped it up and turned wheel left and right loads while on the ground, loads of fluid was being sucked up, so I think when in the air it has no load the pump and rack were dry, but then there was some foamy crap on top, so out came the extraction pump to suck up the top crap and new fluid back in, some more left and right turning and levels were spot on (I think the foam was assembly grease etc when refurbished, so it came back out).
Went for a drive and my god what a difference! So I think the pump being a bit dry was making a noise, the pedal feeling weird is due to how the E36 pedal is (it's like the first 10-20% does much smaller increments, i've not driven it for like 3 weeks, been in the Clio so with the noise I think it was a placebo).
Now I can park without getting an arm workout and no noise, also I feel as though there is less drag, so maybe the pump was f*cked and causing a drag on the aux system. Need to get alignment checked, but I am doing some work on it over the week (setting rear droop and ride height on the front) so I will get it done after that.
Last edited:
suj
Paid Member
RSRowe
Paid Member
Definitely will!
A part of me really regrets not getting on the hype with the rwd stuff early on. Remember when 36’s were basically worthless…. Times have changed!
A part of me really regrets not getting on the hype with the rwd stuff early on. Remember when 36’s were basically worthless…. Times have changed!
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