Back from the shop

Had a shop check it out. They indicate the rattle when I turn the engine off is normal and is coming from the transmission. Seems odd, but they say it's no big deal, and that I should try to find some heavier weight tranny lube to quiet it down. They also did a full evaluation and valve adjustment. Not big items, they commented that the engine appears to be in mint condition. Worth the price for a 2nd set of eyes. Apparently I forgot to tighten the valve cover bolts too...oops.

Cost: $250

Updates

Here's a run through on the items I recently replaced:

Upper Control Arms (aluminum Lemforder)

Lower Control Arms (Lemforder w/750 bushing)

Drag Link

Tie Rods

Intake boot

Air cleaner boot

Air filter

Water Pump

Shift lever (Z3 factory)

Shifter bushing

I also got the aftermarket exhaust I bought on Craigslist installed. It's a perfect fit. A little loud for my tastes, but not too bad. MUCH better than the old one. I found 2 very big holes (you could just about put your fist through them) on the top of the stock muffler up where you can't see them when it's installed.

I also found that it was buzzing a fair amount from behind the cluster at 60mph, turned out it was the passenger side wiper rubbing on the hood, so I re-adjusted it. While I had the gauge cluster out I removed the SRS light as I plan to do a Momo wheel, and also put a small piece of electrical tape over the LED backup for the SRS light, so no more light.

After my valve adjustment check, it seems to still be ticking. Not sure if this is because I can just hear it now since the exhaust has been fixed, but I'm going to take it down to the local shop for a 2nd set of eyes on it and go over it to see if I've missed anything.

The clunk when releasing the clutch is still there. I'm guessing the clutch has some issue, but we'll see how it holds up.

With the front end fixed up she's pretty solid. I did notice that the HVAC fan isn't working, so there are still some electrical issues to work out, but should be much of a big deal.

Yay, no more car alarm

F*&king piece of s^&t car alarm is gone.

Serious hack job on the installation. They spliced some wires with no crimping or soldering, just wrapped and taped. In one case they had spliced across two wires to one connection. I'm not sure what those connections were, but that can't be good. Hopefully that will take care of the battery drain, however it's not guaranteed. For some reason fuse #26 blows as soon as I put a new one in, so something weird is going on there. That's listed as being the cigarette lighter, which is not in the socket, so I'll have to trace it down some to see what's up. There still is the wiring for the aftermarket stereo removal cassette, so I'll pull that and wire it up to a standard e36 plug. I will probably put the C33 deck from the e28 in here, but haven't made up my mind yet.

I did flush the coolant, and found a fair amount of metal bits in the coolant, so that's a pretty sure sign that the water pump is on it's way out, so I'll replace that. I did the distributor cap and rotor, and need to let the engine cool down before I can do the valve adjustment. I went ahead and pulled the valve cover to see what shape it's in. Looks good, no wear on the cam that I can detect and the cam chain is very tight on the sprocket. I also have new plugs for it.

I didn't post earlier, but I also did new front upper and lower control arms, aluminum upper and 750i bushing lower. Drag link, and tie rods. I'll eyeball the alignment until I do the shocks. I'll get a parts total later and post to keep track of expenses.

Electrical Fixes

Found the issue with the headlights. Sure enough, the high beams only came on intermittently. Fortunately this was an easy fix, just removed the Lamp Control Module and soldered a few connections, seems to work fine now.

The battery appears to be on it's way out, as I can only get about 10v across the leads. 14v when charging, so the charging system seems fine. I have yet to run into a time when the car wouldn't start, but the battery is iffy at best.

Much better

First round of real fixes. Replaced the motor mounts, transmission mounts, swaybar endlinks, and flushed the transmission lube. Much nicer, now she is smooth and no more clunk when driving over bumps. There is still a long way to go, but this is a good start. In fact it seems good enough that I can drive it some. Put some miles on it and see what shakes out. No question the suspension is shot, but that's expected. I'll address some issues on the e28 for now, and see how this one fares with a little driving.

Cost:

Motor mounts: $80

Transmission mounts: $30

Swaybar end links: $36

Cleanup

Still figuring out what the car needs. Took the front seats out, there was some twist to them so I took care of it, though it looks like the passenger seat will need more work. There were a lot of stains from spilled drinks, so I hit the carpet with the cleaner. I'm surprised more car dealers don't do this step, as there was a lot of stuff that came out very easily. Looks a lot better now.
It does seem that there are some electrical issues I'll need to take care of. I managed to kill the battery, and now the EML light is on, though a reset should take care of that. The battery still won't take a full charge, but I want to diagnose any potential drains before replacing it.

I did do a ghetto fix for the exhaust, cut a piece of metal and wedged it into the hole, then JB welded it up. If this holds for 2 weeks I'll be surprised, but it does allow me to listen for other leaks and issues.

I did manage to find a cat-back exhaust locally for $100. Stock pipes and resonator with a performance exhaust bolted on. I'll be putting that on later. If the patch job holds then I'll wait until I address the center bearing and shifter bits to do that.

Exhaust: $100

Got up under the car. Found the rattle in the front of the car, the front sway bar links are clunking. Also, I'm surprised that it tracks straight and doesn't shimmy because the front upper and rear control arms are pretty trashed. It's leaking a little from the rear seal on the transmission. Other than that, I'm really surprised how clean it is. Definitely has a small leak from a front seal on the engine. But all of the plastic bits and covers are still in place under all the fenders and the engine. It's missing the front main cover, but that's all. Not even any cracks in the covers.

Got in and did an oil change, and flushed the brake fluid. What's in there was sludge, and obviously had never been replaced. Did the fuel filter too. Next is the coolant, but I'll do that later today or tomorrow.

Cost:

Fuel Filter: $50