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#1. Re: Anyone replace a seatbelt latch for SRS light? - from John Hovell
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 12:52:25 -0800 (PST) From: John Hovell <jhovell@stanford.edu> Subject: Re: Anyone replace a seatbelt latch for SRS light? Yep, been there done that. It's about $75 for the latch, from Pacific BMW or similar. You need to disconnect the battery, remove the seat, and replace the latch (easy) and then string the sensor wire through the seat to its plug on the left hand side (PITA). All in all, takes an hour or two, most of which is stringing the wire through the seat. I recommend attaching a string or wire to the old sender wire before you pull it out of the seat. Then you can attach the new one and pull the other way. The plug gets caught on things, so be careful and use some electrical tape to cover its sharp edges. At least this is what worked for me. Also, if you're really anal, you may have to cut a few zip ties to get the old sender wire out, so you might want to have a few on hand if you want to replace them. There are different P/N's depending on if you have power seats or not, and I think they changed the pretentioner somewhere during the E36 run. Good luck! - John > -------------------- 6 -------------------- > Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 10:19:59 -0500 > From: "Townsend, William" <wtownsen@enterasys.com> > Subject: Anyone replace a seatbelt latch for SRS light? > > > Well, the peake SRS tool tells me that my driver side seatbelt switch is > bad. Reset the code and it came back on with in a day. Looks like the > latch has gotta go. Anyone have experience with changing this? I am > assuming the whole thing has to go to get the new switch. From the TIS, > looks like this beast is tied to a firing device in the seat that takes > up slack in the belt when a crash happens. It looks like one piece from > the pictures. > > Any help would be great! > > --Bill > 96 M3 coupe red
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#2. Re: Anyone replace a seatbelt latch for SRS light? - from Neil Maller
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 16:52:51 -0500 From: Neil Maller <neil.maller@gte.net> Subject: Re: Anyone replace a seatbelt latch for SRS light? on 11/20/03 2:13 PM, "Townsend, William" <wtownsen@enterasys.com> wrote: > Well, the peake SRS tool tells me that my driver side seatbelt switch is > bad. Reset the code and it came back on with in a day. Looks like the > latch has gotta go. Anyone have experience with changing this? I am > assuming the whole thing has to go to get the new switch. From the TIS, > looks like this beast is tied to a firing device in the seat that takes > up slack in the belt when a crash happens. It looks like one piece from > the pictures. > > Any help would be great! > > --Bill > 96 M3 coupe red Yes, it's a one piece assembly consisting of the belt pretensioner and seatbelt receptacle. Earlier cars, including my 96 M3 with manual seats, have a mechanically triggered system. There's a spring inside the assembly, and a Bowden cable which connects to the seat at the inside front. Accident force pulls on the cable and trips the pretensioner. Later cars have a pyrotechnic pretensioner that's electrically triggered. I have an old write-up for installing Schroth Rallye 4 harnesses, which also covers all the steps needed to replace the latch, and I'm sending it off-Digest. Neil 96 M3
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#3. Coolant Cap Question - from Steve Klein
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 16:13:08 -0800 From: Steve Klein <klein@robinsonad.com> Subject: Coolant Cap Question Hi, All- Are coolant expansion tank caps an item prone to failure? I just ran errands, parked and examined the cooling system that I replaced last Thursday (radiator only), got food across the street and came back to find a moderately sized puddle running away from the engine. I popped the hood again and saw that all hoses are intact, but coolant was coming out from the bottom edge of the cap. Any help is greatly appreciated, and if you could reply directly as I'm on digest, I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Steve
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#4. Re: [E36M3] Opinions on Ground Control hybrid camber plates... - from Fernando Mujica
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 21:26:05 -0600 From: Fernando Mujica <fmujica@mac.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Opinions on Ground Control hybrid camber plates... Josh, I got the GC hybrid CC plates. They look just like their regular plates but with a rubber insert between the plate and the strut. My car's ride is definitely harsher but I can't attribute that to the CC plates. The springs/shocks are probably responsible for most of the harshness. I have 400/500 7" springs on Koni's SA. Fernando '97 M3/4 '01 '330i On Thursday, November 20, 2003, at 01:13 PM, E36M3 wrote: > Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:16:32 -0800 (PST) > From: DocWyte <josh_wyte@yahoo.com> > Subject: Opinions on Ground Control hybrid camber plates... > > Hey guys, > > Getting ready to take the next step suspension wise > and that includes a set of camber plates. > > What's the word on these hybrid camber plates that GC > has now? Can you easily change from an auto-x setting > to a street setting? Harsh ride? Longevity? any > other comments? > > -josh
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#5. RE: [E36M3] Camshafts Writeup - from Mel Silva
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 21:56:24 -0600 From: "Mel Silva" <melsilva@mindspring.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] Camshafts Writeup Hey Steve, I want to echo Josh's words about your write up. I done the whole banana from camshafts, heads, and bottom end stuff on small block Fords and L series Nissan motors, but until I read your write up, the S52 seemed like arcane wizard magic to me and I didn't want to put a wrench on it. Now you've made it look fairly straightforward and I have no doubt that I could get in there and fix it if it breaks. I also empathize with the budget crunch on my go-fast goodies. It seems that baby car-seat that I put in the back of the M3 has been the most expensive upgrade I have made, and it has yielded poorer performance to boot. ;-0 A slow market and a six month old do terrible things to a 'car' budget. Mel 97 M3/4 Houston On Thursday, November 20, 2003, at 06:06 AM, DocWyte wrote: > Nice writeup Steve! I was able to get this done > (well, not the lifters as they were fine) by the > dealer under my extended warranty. Nothing like > getting free parts and labor! They replaced the cam > gears, timing chain and tensioners as well as the > vanos unit. No more marbles in a can for me either. > :-) > > Did you think about installing a set of schrick cams > while you were in there? > > -josh
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#6. Brake Questions - from Ed Yee
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 23:34:03 -0500 From: "Ed Yee" <edyee@comcast.net> Subject: Brake Questions I have what appears to be a sticking caliper. I was on the interstate and felt a stange vibration in the steering wheel. The car did not seem to pull to the left at all. The vibration was getting pretty bad so I pulled off the interstate. The vibration seemed to go away. Driving home, the vibration would come and go. When I got home, I noticed a great deal of heat and a burning smell by the drivers front wheel. I got my DVM with temp probe and found my drivers caliper was over 260F whereas the passenger side was about 170F. So my conclusion is my caliper is sticking (not releasing fully), but not enough to cause any noticeable pulling. Now my questions. Since I think my left rotor is somewhat warped, are my pads (stock Pagids) fried? They look to have plenty of thickness left. Can I just replace the left rotor (all discs were replaced less than 20K miles ago). I'm going to replace the caliper with a rebuilt. What is the recommended brake fluid - DOT3 or DOT4, silicone, non silicone? My brakes were flushed by the dealer at my last Insp 2. Does anybody know what type of brake fluid the dealer uses? I was looking at a bottle of Silicone brake fluid and it said on the label -- NOT FOR ABS. Anyone know why? Thanks.. Ed 97M3/2
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#7. Help diagnose "whirring" noise after hard braking - from John Hovell
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 21:43:43 -0800 (PST) From: John Hovell <jhovell@stanford.edu> Subject: Help diagnose "whirring" noise after hard braking E36'ers -- After hard braking in my '95 M3, I hear a low-pitched whirring/groaning noise coming from under the hood. The vibrations of the noise can be "felt" through the steering wheel (my initial thought was it was the P/S pump dying, though I had my mechanic look at it and he found nothing), and the noise varies pitch with the speed of the engine. It goes away after a minute or two of civilized driving, and would then start again *as* I start braking heavily (although maybe it's just the whirring of the Axxis ultimate pads when cold that is fooling me, but the noise sticks around after I'm done braking and varies with the speed of the engine). Any thoughts what this might be? One more tidbit of info, the engine is an S50B32 (Euro) motor, but everything else (e.g. braking system) is '95 US Spec. The engine was just tuned up by Bill Arnold in Marin County, CA. I'm headed to the track Saturday, and would hate to have to cancel. But obviously that's what I'll have to do if I can't figure out what's wrong, unless I'm reasonably confident the problem is not safety related or urgent. The car stops fine. Any thoughts appreciated... I'm most likely going to be spending most of the afternoon tomorrow tinkering around in the engine bay to see if I can find anything. Best, John
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#8. RE: [E36M3] Brake Questions - from Jamie Howton
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Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 06:56:17 -0600 From: "Jamie Howton" <jhowton@fotofab.com> Subject: RE: [E36M3] Brake Questions I just replaced my front calipers (95 M3) with Beck Arnley rebuilt ones from NAPA. They are almost identical to stock, the castings are ATE and look brand new. The only issue is that the rubber boot that the guide pin fits through was a smaller diameter than stock so the plastic dust cover from the stock calipers won't fit. http://www.howton.net/napa.JPG http://www.howton.net/stock.JPG http://www.howton.net/boot.JPG Pricing was $82 each with a $40 core charge. I think I am going to re-build my old set myself so that I have a spare set "on the shelf" and at next rebuild time, I'll just swap them out. I think that some people have reported "issues" with non-M rebuilt units, although only time will tell in my case. Beck Arnley part numbers are: 076-0814 076-0813 Regards Jamie Howton 2002 330i 1995 M3
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#9. Photos of Thermostat, Housing, and Water Pump - from Newman, Christopher
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Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 10:20:19 -0500 From: "Newman, Christopher" <CNewman@LSAC.org> Subject: Photos of Thermostat, Housing, and Water Pump Good morning, Does anyone have a link to a site showing photos of where the thermostat, thermostat housing, and water pump are located on an E36 M3 ? I think someone did a technical write-up on these repairs and took photos during the process, but it's somehow eluding me. My search mainly found photos of the individual parts for sale, not photos of the parts in the actual engine bay. Thanks for any help.
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#10. Re: [E36M3] Photos of Thermostat, Housing, and Water Pump - from Steve Tymoszuk
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Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 10:26:00 -0500 From: Steve Tymoszuk <steve.tymoszuk@tds.net> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Photos of Thermostat, Housing, and Water Pump here you go... http://www.logun.org/therm.htm -steve Newman, Christopher wrote: >Does anyone have a link to a site showing photos of where the thermostat, >thermostat housing, and water pump are located on an E36 M3 ? > >