Shortly after the last post I started prepping the car to take the wife and kids to the Outer Banks in early October. Unfortunately, the driveshaft developed an intermittent ticking noise.. The center shaft support bearing was new, guibo (driveshaft coupling) was low mile, and CV tight. I came across a few posts suggesting all those items and a couple that mentioned lose the e-brake cables. I tested it by pulling up on the e-brake handle when the noise was present and sure enough it went away. A free.99 adjustment later and it was gone. I did find a YT vid of the exact noise I had but nothing confirming it was the cables.
On the way down to Outer Banks we hit up a sit-down Pizza Hut for nostalgia's sake.
Traveling to OBX during hurricane season is a gamble. There was a hurricane that hit pretty hard before we went down and distant one or two that bought rain after we got there. Our house in Avon was just over the double dune from the beach, had great views and was well equipped for inclement weather. We were able to get the kids on the beach a couple times, ate good, and were out in ponchos when it was raining. Not ideal but we weren't going to drive 7+ hours and not have fun. At one point we were technically trapped since NC-12, the main road, was washed out north of us and the ferry to the south of us was OOS due to the weather. The road opened back up the day before we left so no issue there.
We visited a bakery in Buxton and checked out one of the areas that was losing houses to the beach erosion. It was a sad sight to see. We rented a bungalow nearby in 2024 and there were definitely houses missing at the end of the street where we stayed.
I'm fairly certain the two houses in the water are now gone now too..
On the way back, I got denied entry to the 13 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel due to high winds and my car having the roof box. I've been over/under that route dozens of times in all kinds of weather but never with a roof box. Re-routing added about an hour and a half but we made it back in one piece.
My newly sprayed front bumper was PPF'd before the trip but there were issues with delamination so it got re-done when I got back.. then it got re-done again.. and there were a couple minor issues on the third try that I more or less corrected with a heat gun. I guess I was spoiled with my Cali PPF experience where the mobile installer came to my house and nailed the front bumper first try.
I've been trying to figure out an EVAP leak the past couple months in a separate post without luck. I'm hoping to get more than a few hours together and spend some more time diaging that.
I was able to knock out one of my winter maintenance items at the end of November - replacing the 23 year old/140k soft brake lines. I used an alignment brake pedal depressor during the line swap, sucked out the reservoir, 2-person bled all 4 corners, then the clutch. I was kind of rushing the bleed due to time constraints and didn't do the ABS bleed. I made it a point to activate the ABS on the test drive and the pedal feel went from better than before to slightly softer then before. I'll have to do a proper ABS bleed but it's not bad for now.
The calipers could use some paint but that quickly turns into rebuilds and why not upgrade so I'll leave them as-is for now.
When the weather started getting cooler in November I noticed my thermostat was opening around 75C and temps would dip to 76C on the highway. Since the BMW thermostat only lasted 4 years and 25k, I decided to not pay BMW mark up and try the 79C Mahle/Behr replacement. I opted to replace the 25k thermostat housing sealing ring again too.
Along with this job, I also swapped in my original 130k EVAP purge valve to continue trying to diagnose B5/4 codes.The used BMW branded valve that worked when pulled does not leak when attempting to blow through, The 10k BMW boxed valve that didn't come BMW branded I had installed leaks inlet to outlet as well as at the electrical pins. The replacement BMW boxed/not branded valve I got as a lifetime part replacement actually leaks air at the electrical pins too..
Everything went about as smooth as I expected. The EVAP purge valve took the longest to disconnect. Needle nose pliers helps on the tank side connector and working dielectric grease under the hose helped on the engine side. Having the plenum off for the purge valve makes the thermostat a little easier since you can eyeball the coolant pipe alignment better. For the thermostat housing ring removal, I put a nut in the housing for leverage and used knipex channel locks to pull up on the seal lip. It mangled the seal but worked. I tapped the new one into place with a 46mm socket I have for my Ducati's rear axle nut.
I got this knocked out in the December. Generally it'll maintain 78C on the highway once warmed up, occasionally hitting 77C for a second or two but never 76C. 78C indicated is what you want to see for the 79C thermostat. It's hard to compare performance from when I did the thermostat last time since that was in Cali but it's better that what it was. I cleared the codes and I'm still waiting to see if the EVAP codes come back.
(I cleaned up the thermostat sealing surfaces a bit after this pic)
I can't wait for the salt to get washed away so I can take this for a spin. Usually snow melts quickly and the salt is gone shortly after. It's been a few weeks now, probably the longest outside of when I did the timing chain/rod bearing job that I haven't driven the car.
Just don't forget they're up there before you go tooling into the garage...