Another day, another pushed back MOT date… The lights were back on the dash with the new TMAP sensor… But cheap buy twice.
So I was always dubious of the cheaper than cheap parts, given the genuine item from BMW is around £172. Sure enough, although the codes cleared, but the car didn’t idle well at all, nor did it drive well. A quick run up the street and back down left me stranded at the top with a push back to the house needed. Fuck. Back to the drawing board.
So a bit of googling led me to the fine people over at https://marmotorsport.com/ who listed two sensors. One, at the front of the engine bay on the inlet manifold, and one at the side at the throttle body. So guessing that it’s probably bad as well, I replaced both a handy job that took about 20 mins. Only slowed down due to one torx bolt having been lost by one of the previous owners, and replaced with a straight head bolt from Noah’s ark. That got lashed into the bin and replaced with a more appropriate posi-drive bolt until I can find the correct ones.
Start the car and the codes were gone, it idled and ran to temp no problem. Looking good. A quick run to the top of the street and back down had it behaving well and not dying off. Result!
Next was sorting out something that’s bugged me since I pulled out the old battery. Sadie’s sad looking scabby hole.
All the bungs were rotten, and it had at one stage been ⅓ full of water. Marvelous.
That said, it was still solid enough, and not rotten through thank goodness.
I sourced 3 bungs from the shed which fitted nice and snug and rubbed the rest back with a scotch pad.
I started masking the area off to throw some fresh paint onto it.
Starting with 3 coats of primer, I let this cure and then rubbed it back down a bit to take the dust off, wiped it down with a tack cloth and then hit it with some Chili Red paint.
I was thinking it looked very red in comparison to the lick and promise it received in the Oxford factory going by the rest of the boot floor.
Ho hum, even with standing out like a sore bum, it’ll be better than the rusty scabby hole that was there before.
Yep… That stands out.
Next up was sorting out a battery strap, as it won’t pass MOT without it. The previous bolt had been snapped off in the bolt hole for it, so I needed to work around this.
I drilled out the old one before painting so any bare metal created by my drilling would be protected by the new paint, I hope.
I had thought of using a metal strap that I had laying around to secure it in but thought a nylon strap might work better.
I cut up, cut and melted some adjustable straps to allow a quick release but secure method of holding the battery in place.
It seems quite secure, yet if it’s no good for MOT I’ll get the genuine item and see if I can get it in correctly.
That’s all for now!
