Sics Consolidated Faded Moderns Thread - 2006 Golf Mk5 GTI & 2004 BMW Z4 2.2

[Jerzy Woking]

I really liked reading your time with that 320, so much so that I started to look for one over here.

Shame there doesn't seem to be any 320 petrols, and everything Mercedes estate is twice the price of your car. Add to that, many seem to be imports from countries that put salt on the roads, judging by the rust on the arches.

[SiC]

Tbh I probably could have added 20-30% over here and it'd still have sold. Big ULEZ/CAZ compliant estates that aren't much newer are rare. Especially ones that aren't shagged out from being workhorses.

[SiC]

This evening I had a few hours to put these new rear pads in. 

Apart from the E320, pretty much every car I've bought in the last year had its rear or front end in the air soon after I've bought it.

 
This is the offending side.



There certainly isn't much meat left on this pad! (More in a moment)

 
Slider pins are covered in white grease. Now I'm never sure if you should grease these pins? I thought you did but I have read that BMW say not to.


Pulled it all off and inspected it all.

Disc looked reasonable. It's had some heat through it but no massive scoring that I could see.


Slider pins were covered in grease. The bottom one I'd already started cleaning up (then remembered to take a photo) hence why it has less on it in this picture.


Piston doesn't look too bad under the boot from what I can see?


Carrier was crusty and filthy. I cleaned this up and greased the pad touch points. 


Piston went in but did take a fair bit of force with the spreader.


Now those pads...

Bottom is the inner and top is the outer.


I don't know what the pros think but my view is that I bloody luckily got away with not damaging the disc! There is a wafer thin amount of pad material left and the top just started kissing the raised lip of the disc.



I reckon the disc will be perfectly okay to reuse and isn't damaged? Incredibly close to doing so though.

I'd rather not change it if I don't have to, as they're not that old. Doesn't feel to have any high or low spots either.

Bloody lucky though!

The other side has loads of meat on the pads still. I didn't take pictures as I wanted to get it finished. The caliper piston and carrier were actually in far worse a state than the passenger side. Yet it span more freely.


I put it all back together with new pads, cleaned up sliders and carrier. After pressing the brake pedal, the drivers side rear rubs ever so slightly but you get a tiny bit of spin after letting go. The passenger side however is really stiff and you need the wheel on for enough leverage to turn it. 

To me I definitely need a new passenger rear caliper. But tbh I think I might need both and be done with it. My thought is also that the drivers side might either be or become soon seized if the other side already has. 

I should also say while I think about it, I did try some hard braking on the way back. It didn't brake straight and true. More squirrelly and needed a fair bit of correction to keep it braking straight. Hopefully two new rear calipers will sort it all out properly.

Also noticed the passenger side has an older (rusty) Bilsten damper while the drivers side had a shinier newer looking Sachs damper. Tempting to lob a new one on that passenger side to have a matching new(ish) pair. Depends how much they are though.

[SiC]

Okay so I've been doing a bit of double checking on caliper part numbers. The caliper pair I linked earlier are not for this. Those are bigger and only fit the 2.5si and 3.0i/3.0si. This 2.2 has the same as the 2.0 and 2.5i, which are more expensive.

I think this is correct based on the part numbers on RealOEM:

https://www.partsinmotion.co.uk/car-par ... 207-detail

Unfortunately eBay doesn't have any offers on with parts in motion right now. At nearly £50 I probably will only buy that left side as I can't justify doing the right as well at that price, when it appears okay at the moment. Maybe I'll regret that decision...

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Fire some WD40 behind the caliper dust seal and exercise the piston. All the way in, out again etc a few times. That frees them up. It may be a brake hose healing up inside. If it bleeds fluid through ok then it’s alright.

[SiC]

Useful to know for next time. I've ordered a caliper this morning already.

Pipe I'm hoping is going to be okay otherwise it'll be replacing brake pipe and very rusty ferrules job. Otherwise I'd ordered a new pipe for it too.

[SiC]

Do you have any experience in reflashing BMW airbag modules or anything else like that to change the VIN?

Was going to follow this document:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... w1Mr3lUBoi

[SiC]

Slapped the new nearside caliper on. Quality is definitely not as good but it fits and seems to work fine. Drag feels the same on both sides.

Bled the rear brakes on both sides for good luck. Fluid seemed pretty clean - I think because the rear lines have been replaced at some point recently. Fluid in the brake fluid chamber is a bit manky so I might bleed the front brakes in time. 




 
Noticed someone attempted to stop a heat shield rattling with hot melt glue. Nice choice of glue on an area that gets hot

 
Air con panel arrived too, so fitted that to see if that sorted the fan issue. Reasonably easy to get to.



Stereo doesn't fit properly, looks like someone broke the screw holder that goes into the plastic. Crazy thing this plastic considering its supposed to be holding the radio in. I think someone forced this plastic piece in the wrong way around and broke it. I can't say the design of this car doesn't have the feel of durability as a priority.


Discovered that someone has fitted a Aux port for the stereo which is neat.



Also a whole load of extra wires and connectors hidden behind there. I think it might have had an ancient car phone mount at some point in it's past. The mic looks like a 2000-era Nokia hands free mic.


 
Test fitted the new panel. Fan still doesn't work properly. Damn, parts darts fail.

 
So dug into the glove box to see if I could find the hedgehog resistor pack.


Connector wiring doesn't look very promising. Screw was loose so someone has been in here before.


Single screw and connector it was out. 2014 date code suggests it's been replaced. These are NLA new and don't seem to have any aftermarket options available either.


Connectors definitely had too much heat through them.




 
So what caused that?

I think two things.

Firstly, despite being a genuine part, that terminal doesn't look like it was soldered properly. I don't think overheating has melted it as the solder hasn't flown elsewhere. 


Compounding the issue is the pollen filter is filthy and full of leaves. This will cause resistance to the airflow and make the fan work harder. (I don't know what that random yellow wire goes to yet!)

 
So what next? 

Second hand units can be had for £80 or so. More than I want to pay really. Plus I need to sort that connector. There is one with a loom snipped at the resistor which could be an option.

First thing I'll try is cleaning all the contacts up. However cleaning crimp terminals isn't easy and often doesn't really work as you can't get any mechanical cleansing tool in there. As this is a high current connection, if it's not clean then it'll just happen again.

Another option could be to drill a hole through the case and put a fly lead from that terminal directly into that dodgy melted terminal. Either soldered directly or with a bullet terminal/similar. However that said the other terminals aren't in great shape either.

So the next thing could be snipping the connector and soldering directly to the terminals. While bodge tastic, it'll work. Given that if this every needs replacing again will need a new loom connection anyway, perhaps isn't so bad thing to do? Plus lets face it, this isn't a low mileage minter. It's a scruffy high miler that is unlikely to be around for another decade. 

Or of course pay out for a second hand resistor pack and a loom connection. But that's something that could be done if the above doesn't work.  

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

The same thing happens to E46 saloon rear light plugs - the earth connection isn’t good enough. A second earth wire fixes it.

[SiC]

The same thing happens to E46 saloon rear light plugs - the earth connection isn’t good enough. A second earth wire fixes it.

It's the crimp that goes to the black with green tracer wire that is damaged. The brown, apart from the marks on the wire is fine. Iirc brown is negative/ground on standard BMW wiring colours?

I don't have any wiring diagrams so not sure what black with green tracer is. Presumably some high current path wire otherwise it wouldn't be of thick gauge.