I’m slowly getting ready for winter — not like I really have a say whether it comes or not. Winter wheels are out of the basement and on the car. The hose-mobile is in their place. The faucets are covered. So it’s time to figure out how to keep the cars clean(ish?) without running water. …
Have you ever needed to change a drain plug or a drain plug seal ring, but didn’t want to change your oil? This post shows you how by using your shop-vac to pull a vacuum on the oil fill tube which will hold the oil in your oil pan even when you remove the drain …
Read more “Use a Vacuum to Change the Oil Drain Plug without Changing the Oil”
We started carrying Griot’s Garage products in the stop this month and as part of the dealer agreement, we have to be familiar with the full line of products. So dang, now we have to stay in the garage until everything is polished. I now completely understand why one of their kits is called “weekend …
I decided to take the MINI to work this morning to see if everything was back in order after recently replacing the motor mount. The engine seemed to be running a little rough, but I just figured the new motor mount was a little more firm than the old one. I got off the highway …
Read more “Codes P1688 and P0107, WTF? Replacing Broken MINI Crank Damper”
Front Sway-bar Replacement: The R53 subframe design is a wonderful example of compact packaging. Unfortunately the tight confines of the front end makes replacing the front sway-bar a time-consuming activity. It is not particularly difficult, just time-consuming, especially if you don’t have access to a lift. The process outlined below will allow you to drop …
One small piece of trim prevented the completion of repairs to the Porsche last week. New ETA is next Tuesday. (Can’t attache the trim, can’t put in the window. Can’t put in the window, can’t attach the door panel…) Since the garage was empty, we repainted and put down a new floor. So today we …
Driving home yesterday when it was 110 degrees, the guy ahead of me swerved at the last second and served up a chunk of cast iron pipe for me to drive into. It was a broken piece with an end-cap, perhaps eight size inches in diameter and six inches tall. My car is only 4.5 …
January is a great time to turn up the space heater and hunker-down in the garage, dreaming of warmer weather and open track ahead of you. We took advantage of the warmer than usual weather in December to complete most of the prep work on the Red MINI for the upcoming autocross season, so it’s …
Unlike other DIY projects for the E30, if you do a quick search on the internet for “BMW M20 replace rocker without removing head” you won’t find much in the way of quality advice. I found one lengthy writeup which may be the single most poorly written and profane set of DIY instructions I’ve ever …
Read more “Ready to Rock the BMW M20 Engine, Rocker Replacement DIY”
The local BMW club arranged a Dyno day down at York Auto which is just down the street from GeorgeCo world headquarters. Now that the GeorgeCo E30 has a fresh coat of paint, we figured it was time to dial up some power. Since good tuning starts with a good baseline, we backed the E30 …