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Blog Archives for August 04
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29 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
After the relatively extensive job recently involving radiator change and some preventive
parts replacement, I was happy with the car and thought
that I wouldn't be visiting the workshop
for a while. Unexpectedly, the car started acting
up again - the air-conditioner specifically. It took
quite a while to reach a reasonably cool level and sometimes the air is no different from a
blowing fan - not hot but not cool either.
This is a real problem for me especially when
I'm stuck in
traffic. The compressor and the drier have
already been replaced last year when I did a full
air-cond service. As such, I wasn't expecting
any major fault with the air-conditioning system.
It turned out that the culprit was a dirty
micro-filter. I was quite surprised that a simple part replacement can yield such results. The
air-conditioning's great now. But it sure wasn't an easy job with the
micro-filter buried somewhere underneath the
footwell!
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26 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I have realized that dealers don't maintain as many parts/spares for the e34 compared to e36 and e30.
Certainly the popularity of e34s and the number of cars still running on the road does not
come close to that of the older 3 Series.
I tried at a few different places but all of them
do have ready stock for e34 Bilstein absorbers and Eibach springs. They'll need to be
ordered and that means waiting unless I settle for something else... Guess I'll wait!
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23 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I sat in a friend's car last weekend and realized
deficiency of my ice setup particularly
in the area of sound-staging. His setup was similar to mine but in a smaller car - surprisingly
the soundstage was much wider and the music sounded more 'open' with more 'air' around
singers! The primary difference was in speakers placing and he had the alpine 9815 that
comes with time alignment feature. Unfortunately
I want all speakers to be in stock
position and currently do not have the budget for a new
head-unit. I played around with the
tweeter angling and ended pointing them at the centre of the front windscreen instead of
the middle of the car (initial position).
This managed to extract slight but, still, obvious
improvement!
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18 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
A couple of days ago, whilst stuck in traffic, the
temperature gauge on my car went beyond the
12 o'clock position. I was alarmed because
I had suspected a problem with the
radiator - I have been
regularly topping up water in the tank (every other week).
However, I have never encountered a situation
where the temperature gauge went beyond the middle position.
I later discovered that the
reservoir tank was dry. I took the car into workshop the next days to have the problem checked out.
It turned out that the radiator was leaking badly and had to be replaced.
Given that the car is already 12 years old
with about 280,000 Km on it, I decided to do some preventive parts replacement. Besides the
radiator and its hoses, I also replaced the water pump, thermostat, fan belt
tensioner and tensioner
bearing amongst others. It was quite a hefty bill for what
I initially expect would just involve
servicing the radiator and changing the coolant!
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17 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
When I upgraded my car stereo a couple of weeks back, I bought a used Profile 10-inch
subwoofer fitted in a customized smallish ported enclosure as a temporary arrangement for
the bass needs. I didn't have the budget to get the Image Dynamics ID Max sub I wanted.
Anyway, it produces decent amount of punchy bass but not particularly low. I didn't attach
the sub enclosure to any part of the boot coz I needed the flexibility to move box around
or detach/remove it. I've since discovered the box moves around quite a fair bit given my
driving style. Wouldn't have been an issue if not for it bumping into the xtant amp...
think I'm going to have to get my free-air woofers sooner rather than later!
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15 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I went out on a spirited drive the other evening with the auto trans on sports mode
(5 speed gearbox on e34). After about 10 minutes with gear changes well into the redline,
felt a big jerk on the downshift. I
continued driving but realized the car had lost all
lower gears. It felt like it was running on safe mode of sort. At the back of my mind very
worried that the gearbox was busted and would need replacement - that means big bucks!
Shut down and restarted the engine hoping that it was an electronics problem and a reset
would bring it back to normal. Seemed OK for a minute but when I accelerated, big jerk
again and problem was back. Darn, had difficulty sleeping that night thinking about the
amount I needed to spend. I took the car into the workshop the first thing the next morning.
The mechanic ran a modic check and said hopefully it was just the gear selector switch.
He changed the part (a simple few minutes job) and thank goodness that was it! Since
I was already prepared for a big cash outflow decided to change auto trans fluid and
filter. Smooth...
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10 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I'd almost forgotten about the 318is if not for DinanM3's comment about his
previous ride. The 318is is a fantastic car! In fact, I wouldn't mind the 318is
over the 325i. The 318is can't match the 325i for power and smoothness but it is no
ordinary 318i. It comes with a rev-willing DOHC 16 valve engine, upgraded chassis (I
think should be equal that of the 325is) and m-tech suspension. Although it does
not have outright speed due to lack of power, it shouldn't be an issue for those
who buy it as a car to hone their driving skills. It'll take quite a while before
most of us can find the car's limits!
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6 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I just put some in-car-entertainment (ice) stuff on my ride.
I figured it's about time to have
decent quality music in the car because I spent quite a fair bit of time on the road (stuck in
traffic) and the stock BMW system that came with the e34 was really basic.
I got an xtant
amp, CDT speakers and an alpine head-unit. Wow! What a huge difference they make (more next
time on the sound system...). I realized late last night there's a downside to upgrading the
sound system. I play the stereo much louder than what I used to (was more like background
music previously) so much so that I don't hear the engine sound or exhaust note. Perfectly
fine when cruising or stuck in traffic but I find it an issue when I do spirited driving.
There's this odd feeling of being a little detached from what the car is doing, probably
due to lost of aural input, interference from the bass thump or perhaps just simply
enjoying the music. Whatever it was, caused some lost of confidence when taking corners!
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2 August 2004. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
Coming back to my interest in the e30 3-series... Any e30 e-series is a cool machine but, for me,
the car to get in the range is the 325i. Of course
I have not forgotten the M3. As much as
I want an M3 (who doesn't!) is not exactly a practical daily commute given it's hard ride
and there aren't that many M3 going around to begin with. And you only get e30 M3 in
left-hand drives (darn!). The 325i looks pretty much the same as any other e30 but it's
got that smooth BMW six-cylinder engine under the hood. With the 325i, you get the best
of both worlds, i.e. refinement and power. It's no match for the power of an M3 for sure
but 171bhp is still plenty for the car its size. It'll do 0-100km/h in a little more than
7 seconds which is fast enough to take on many of today's hot hatches. It's got good
handling and you'll enjoy great build quality typical of German engineering.
Some say the styling looks dated but I think the design has aged well and they still look
the business today. My sister-in-law drives one and told me she was pleasantly surprised
to get a thumbs up from another BMW driver whilst cruising along the esplanade the other day!
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