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.