Spark Plug Replacement 101

Spark Plug Replacement 101
BMW 330i 2006 E90

I've heard a Car Tech say that one should change out the spark plugs on a car every 100K miles, if not before.  Most people don't change them at their recommended lifespan, unfortunately I am one of those people.  Not because it's expensive or a hassle, mainly it's because the car runs fine, and so I ask myself, do i really need to...

At the end you lose if you don't, let me tell you why:

First: Old spark plugs decrease the engine power, and because you get less power you tend to be heavy footed when you... let's just say, drive spiritedly, right?  Not to mention you get terrible gas mileage, as if the car didn't get bad gas mileage already, right... but that is beside the point.  The point I am trying to make is that, the car will feel heavy, when you have old spark plugs.

Second:  Because you are not getting full spark inside the engine or "poor" spark inside the cylinder of the engine you can get "build" up or Zut, inside the cylinder, which eventually will require service.  This can rob you engine of power, there is a solution, if you already have zut build up.  It's called Walnut Spray Wand.

Here is a link to Bavarian Autosport for the part if you need it: Walnut Spray Wand Blaster, it's a pretty cool idea, and it's something that should be done to all BMW's if you ask me.  To be very honest I am a little scared to do it myself because it's so involved, but I thought I would mention it, in case you didn't know about this.  Plenty of Videos on Youtube, if you are interested in more information.

Third:  You can ruin other parts of the car, that wouldn't otherwise go bad, like the Catalytic converter, or even the injectors.  Why???  Because the car doesn't run smooth, you tend the push the car to get more power and thus, ruining other parts that wouldn't other wise go bad.

When to change the Spark Plugs:
The I-drive will remind you to change the spark plugs, if your car is equipped with an I-drive.  I am replacing my spark plugs every 100K, with zero issues.  But ultimately it's up to you when to do it.

New Spark Plugs:
I got my spark plugs from Amazon, my car is a 2006 BMW 330i,

Amazon link at the bottom of the article...

Thin Wall Socket:
You will also need a "thin wall" socket:  Amazon link below... trust me you will need one, get one if you don't own one, you will thank me later.

I replaced my spark plugs by myself before, it was not difficult.  I used NGK's, and that was 100K miles ago, I think the ones in the engine are still good, but I rather replace them, just to get peak performance, among other benefits.

My car currently has over 200K, and still going strong.



Thanks for Bavauto.com for the pictures.  I've bought many things from then, they are always fast to ship, and they have good prices.  I am not getting any money for saying this, I just like their service.

Amazon links below to products in article:

E90 Fuel Rail Line Gasoline Leak, and Hose Replacement

E90 Fuel Rail Line Hose Gasoline Leak

For about a week, I've noticed a subtle smell of Gasoline, it came through the Air Vents, and for a while I thought it was not my car... perhaps the car next to me I thought and during those few days, day by day, I started to get worried that I may have a gasoline leak.  The Smell of Gasoline wasn't extremely intense but worrisome.

I haven't noticed any stains or leaks in my driveway, but I knew I would have to get to the bottom of this problem, because if left unattended it could be very dangerous.

Finally a couple days ago, as I am getting out of my car I notice a very strong smell of gasoline, unusually strong, and I knew I had to do something about it.  I didn't see any gasoline, but boy could I smell it.

Video shows the fuel coming out...

Fuel Line Video

To my surprise the problem was very obvious, also extremely dangerous.  Because I had just come back from a trip and my engine bay was "very" hot.  I was afraid that a fire could start if left unattended, so I set off trying to unplug and clean the gasoline that was still leaking out.

Oddly enough, I could hear the problem, I heard a hissing, I think it was air escaping from the gas tank, I could hear it bubbling too, later confirmed when I removed the cover off the engine bay.

The Quest to Fix the gas hose

In my quest to get a replacement hose, I realized that this does tend to happen, and unfortunately I could only find it on Ebay, other than BMW.  I could find No part number or where to get it.  So here it is: Ebay Link,

I found it cheaper at ECS tuning, here is the new link. Updated 3/5/2019
ECS tuning Website link to Gas hose

I recommend getting the hose from the dealer but it's $60 dollars cheaper at ECS tuning, so I'll leave it up to you.

The price on Ebay is reasonable, compared to New from BMW, I decided to buy a new one, because it's such an important part, I didn't want any issues with a used part, this is the part number printed on the out side of the "new" Hose:

From BMW South County, San Diego CA:
Part # 13 53 7 560 586
Price $157.21

How to Disconnect the Fuel Rail Line: Push the hose back into the connector, and push in on the Blue plastic, push in the blue plastic evenly, and the line slides off.  It takes a little bit of practice, it took me about 6 tries to get it.

Push <--- back on the hose towards the spigot, and then Push ---> forward on the "blue" plastic, only, evenly.  Then quickly pull out the hose.

 How to Connect the Fuel Rail Line: Push the Fuel Line hose back into the spigot, and it snaps back in.


Be very careful, a hot engine bay and Gasoline could set off a fire.
When you remove the Fuel Line, Fuel will come out.  I waited until my car engine was cold to start working on the car.

Tip: If there is NO pressure on the line, the hose can move freely back and forth freely, which would mean there is a leak in the line, BUT... if the fuel line is pressurize the hose will NOT move back and forth, and it feel solidly connected to the spigot, in the rail line.

Metal cover, protecting the Other end of the hose, below
the Car

To remove the hose, there was only one part that really gave me a hard time, because I didn't know what to expect.  It was a shield cover that is covering the other end of the hose.  After removing all the Obvious nuts I believe it was 3, the metal shield would not come out.  After a little bit of investigation I noticed that there is a 10mm nut on the other side of the shield, that you can't see easily.  After I removed that last nut, it came out and I could get "full" access to the hose.

I have to say that I struggled to disconnect the other side of the hose, because the spigot on the other end is made of plastic, but this is the trick...

Other End,
Below the car

This is what I did to disconnect it:

I know you can find a tool to disconnect the hose, but I am no professional so I don't have it, so this is what I did:

Find yourself a wrench that is the same size as the blue part on the Hose,
Note: your hose may have a "Green" quick disconnect not blue like mine.

Now using a wrench, use the "U" part, put it on the end of the Fuel line hose, and while holding the hose, put pressure on the "Blue" quick connect, "Press IN" on the Hose, while you apply pressure inward for a second or two, then quickly pull the hose out.

It took me half an hour to do this, so don't get discouraged, because if you rush this part you will need to buy more than just the hose to fix this.  It's going to feel like it's not working, but keep working it.

Take your time... note that when you remove the fuel line, FUEL will come out, so be prepared with a rag or "Pig mat" to absorb the fuel.

Support Jack

This is where I put the support for the car, I had to remove a cover by the wheel well to get access to it.  I left both the jack and the support stand on the car as an extra safety precaution, I think you should too if you are doing this.  I ended up removing the wheel too, to get better access to the bottom of the car.  I removed the Left side Driver side wheel.


I hope this helps you remove and replace the hose, it was a learning experience for me.  But well worth it, because taking it to the dealer would have cost me easily $500 dollars.

If you have the time, I recommend replacing this part too, specially if you've never had it replaced before: OIL Filter Housing "Gasket".  It's about $5 dollars, so well worth it in my opinion:

OIL FILTER HOUSING GASKET:  I noticed a lot of oil coming from the Oil Filter Housing while looking for the fuel line, and I figured while I am here might as well do it too, you do need specialty tools to reach some of the bolts, plenty of video's online showing you how...
 


Part number for the is:
 11 42 7 537 293

from BMW South County.


Good Luck with all your car work, and thank you for reading this far.  Until next time.

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Blower Motor Replacement

Blower Motor Replacement

After months of procrastination I finally got around to replacing the AC blower motor in my car.  It was not that difficult.  But it was an experience to get it replaced.  I think the most difficult part was figuring out that I have to remove the cup holders before I can remove the glove box.  After that it was downhill to replace the motor.  I didn't get the resistor controller, I only got the motor, although later I regretted not getting the resistor controller too, I'll tell you later in story why, pictures below.

My motor was making a strange sound at low speed, it was getting in my nerves, I run my fan ON all the time, and at time it was unbearable, sample fan noise below.

If you are interested this is where I got my motor: Amazon Link at the bottom of the page

My car: BMW 330i 2006 E90

Instructions:

1.  Remove the trim around the cup holders,

2.  Remove the cup holders, (both cup holders).
3.  Remove screws around glove box, and remove glove box.  (If you don't remove the cup holders you won't be able to remove the glove box.  Disconnect all lights and switches from glove box.

4.  Remove lower trim at the bottom of the globe box, a few screws there too.

5.  Remove the duct, to get to the fan.  (note that you have 2 parts to the duct, they go to the back seat/cup holder in the middle compartment), they are only pressed in, no screws for these.

6.  Disconnect Blower Fan
7.  Pinch the release tab in the front of the Blower motor Housing,  (tab is facing front of car), then blower motor just drops off.

8.  To re-install everything follow reverse order.

The Blower Motor Resistor / Controller Concern:

Blower Motor resistor on Amazon: Link to Resistor / Regulator.

Being that my motor was only making noises, and that it was not broken, I assumed that the Resistor was okay, but to my surprise it was not, it had signs of overheating, which apparently is a common thing on this model year car.  I ended up using the same "overheating" resistor, and it is still working, but I ended up taking it apart, to see what the problem was, everything "ohmed" out good, so I ended up reusing it again.  I did end up scraping the "crud" off one of the Terminals because it very discolored, like it had overheated, the Connector "plastic" also, looked like it overheated, and melted the plastic around it, which I have to say I am very surprised there hasn't been a Recall for this type of issue.  In my case the wires on the terminal fused together, which could cause a Fire.  I cleaned/scraped both terminal and I crimped the connector to make sure they were making a solid connection, because I suspect it was a loose connection that caused the overheating.  I also separed the wires that had fused together and I re-wrapped them.  I suspect these wires were draining my battery too.

Resistor BMW part number: 64 11 9 265 892

Blower Motor BMW Part number: 64 11 9 227 670

The Melted Connector:

Melted Resistor Controller Connector

Both Wires fused together, not sure if it's Battery Power and Ground on the connector but I assume it is.

A few other interesting picture of the Resistor controller:

The final results:

Before I replaced the Blower Fan

Noisy Blower Fan

After I replaced the Blower Fan

Replaced Blower Motor (No weird noise)

I am very interested in knowing how many people have replaced their motor, only to find that the connector had been overheating, let me know in the comments below.  Thank you for reading this far.

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Please note that the blower listed below doesn't come with a resistor regulator, which is why I also included it, both links below:  

Until next time...

Passenger Side Sensor, Too Sensitive

Passenger Side Sensor, Too Sensitive
BMW 330i 2006 E90

You've been there, you are driving along, minding your own business, Then...  and all of sudden, the passenger side "Seatbelt Warning" starts blaring, now... you know there is nobody sitting in the passenger side, what gives...

Then I remember that today I didn't drink my Orange Juice and as a result my lunch bag is just heavy enough to trigger the seat belt warning.  Usually my lunch bag is empty, thus no problem, but not today.

Now I ask you why is the system set so sensitive, why is it that there is no sensor to tell if there really is a person instead of a lunch bag in the passenger side seat.  My lunch bag is "rectangular" bag, It's not moving, and it's set way back on the seat.  Yet, the "Seatbelt Warning" is still blaring.

Seat belt warning, passenger side.

So...  I do what I usually do, with my left hand on the steering wheel, I lift my lunch bag with my right hand, about 1 inch off the seat, and Voila... the seatbelt warning goes away, now you know that is not the end of it.

5 minutes later, the same thing again...  Then I do what I always do, I place it in the bottom foot well.  This issue doesn't happen every time, only in those rare instances when my lunch bag is just heavy enough to trigger the warning.  So instead of putting my lunch bag in the passenger side footwell, I placed it where I usually do, next to me, in the passenger side.

Now, is the sensor broken: I don't believe so.   Does it need calibration: probably.   But I tell you what, I have Zero plans to fix it.  So for the foreseeable future, this will have to do...  If you read my blog, you know I have bigger fish to fry...

In case you didn't know my car is a BMW 300i 2006, and yes, I deal with this problem often enough to write a post about it.  Let me know if this happens to you too.

Until next time...

Oil Leaks and Driveway Stains

Oil Leaks and Driveway Stains
Hi Guys, just wanted to do a quick post on Oil Leaks and Stains in General, because I haven't see a lot of people talking about this.

First of all let me start by saying that I know almost all or possibly all cars leak oil of some kind at some point, be it motor oil or transmission fluid, steering fluid, etc... I also know that most of the oil doesn't leak out, some actually burns off, but we won't focus on that for today.

The point of this post is to document from where my car leaks oil/fluid from.

My car: BMW 330i 2006, seems to leak oil from a few different places:

1.  Oil Pan (not fixed yet),
2.  Transmission oil pan (replaced oil pan),
3.  Valve cover (new gasket),
4.  Oil Filter assembly (new gasket),
5.  Power Steering reservoir (not fixed yet)
6.  Radiator (new hose)
7.  AC compressor (new compressor)

*note the picture on top and you will see the different oil or fluid leaks, which is a constant reminder of what I need to fix, my future weekend work if you will...

As you can see, I have a long way to go before I can fix all of the problems, and to be honest with you I've considered getting rid of my car many times, because of these and other issues.  But I decided not to because in most of these cases I fixed the problem myself, as you may expect getting these issues fixed with the dealer is very expensive.  In most cases I've had the correct tools to fix my car so I opted to do it myself.

190K mile odometer

Now I have to be fair with all of you and to BMW in general, all of these leaks didn't happen at the same time, most started since I bought the car, and they started very small leaks, also my car has 190,000 miles on it, so keep that in mind when you read this post.  I like to be fair and balanced, I want to give all the information I can, not just the negative parts, or I try anyways...

Oil Pan, the oil leak was the very first leak I noticed, and the most easy to spot, because my car would run low on oil, and I would get the dreaded "low oil warning" in the dash, besides the oil stain in my driveway.  The only way I noticed where the oil leak came from was by looking under the car behind the plastic cover.  By far the longest running oil leak in my car.  I have plans to fix this, but I think I am going to have the dealer do this one.  I just don't want to mess it up.

The Transmission fluid leak was the scariest because if I didn't notice the "small leak" I would of ruined my transmission and to replace it would've been too expensive to fix.  I started to notice that when my car slowed down, most noticeable when I got off the freeway, and I came to full stop, my car would have an aggressive pull, that is the best way I can describe it.  Being that there is no way for a customer to check the Transmission oil level, because there is no dipstick, I became concerned immediately, and I had it checked at the dealer.  The repair was very expensive, but it was worth it.  It doesn't take long to ruin the transmission if there is no fluid in it.  I know somebody that ruined their transmission because they didn't address this problem soon, same car, different model year.

*  I can't stress this enough, if there one oil maintenance to address immediately it's the transmission fluid, because you can't check the level of the transmission fluid yourself, like you can with the motor oil.

The Valve Cover gasket, was the most noticeable oil leak I had, and you might ask yourself why it was the most noticeable... well because the oil landed into the exhaust pipe and it created a lot of smoke, some of which came through into the cabin of the car, yes you heard me right, it went into the cabin, and it smelled horrible. The first time it happened I thought my car was on fire.  I didn't think to record a video when this happened, now I wish I did, but... what's done is done. The solution was to replace the valve cover gasket, it was one full days work, but so worth it doing it myself.  The gasket is not very expensive, see that post here:  Valve cover story
During the process of replacing the gasket, I discovered a broken valve cover bolt, again not very expensive to replace and I was glad I did it myself because at the dealer they would've charged me an arm and a leg, if they discovered the broken bolt.

Oil Filter Assembly, now let me be honest about this leak, I have not fixed this issue yet. I have the gasket, but I think I discovered a quick fix, I ended up tightening the bolts on the housing and the oil seemed to "slow down" drastically, not completely fixed, but much better.  Definitely something I need to fix "quick" because the oil drips into hoses and wiring, and you know what that means, failure of those hoses is only a matter of time.

Power Steering Reservoir, I have to start by saying that I have not fixed this leak yet either, I know I am a procrastinator... , but not because I don't think it's important, but simply because the leak is so small that if I just add a little bit of fluid it lasts a long time, years in fact.  There is definitely a leak around the reservoir, and I definitely need to address it, it's just that this leak will probably be the last one I fix, because the leak is so small.

Radiator Hose, Now I know there is no oil to leak out of the Radiator, but I wanted to clump this story in with the rest because I've had leaks in the Radiator hoses, and some of which are plain to see in the main picture on this post, I just simply couldn't ignore some of the biggest leak stains created by the AntiFreeze.  I've had a couple of issues with hoses, some of which I've documented some of which I have not.  I posted about the expansion tank hose: Expansion tank hose story
I think this leak stained my driveway floor the most.

AC compressor, ahhh the good old air compressor, the source of the most embarrassing day at work. Let me start by telling you a story.   Once upon a time, a very long long time ago, in a very far far away land...  Just kidding.  No but really let me tell you a story, I'll get to the leak in a bit, I just want to tell you why the AC compressor embarrassed me so much at work.  Well, let me start by saying that my parking space is right in front of my bosses office, yes, right in front of his office, I don't know why I got the space assigned to me, but I have my suspicions, anyways.  One day I got out of work and I tried to turn ON my car, and it didn't want to start, it cranked over but it didn't start.  Now, I've always been able to start my car, even when it had a bad coil, when my spark plugs were shot, when one of the Vanos stopped working, but not this time.  The reason was that the AC compressor seized, thus ripping my Belt to shreds, now when I looked under the hood, all I could see was the belt, and I could see that it was ripped to shreds, naturally my boss came out to see what was happening, and I told him that it looked like the belt broke, and he asked when was the last time I replaced the belt, I couldn't remember when, so he proceeded to tell me how often one "should" replace the belt on a car, mind you the belt was fine, the reason it ripped was because the AC compressor seized, I didn't know that at the time, getting an ear full from my boss about "Belts" was embarrassing...  Well that is my story for today, now let me tell you about the leak, to be honest with you I didn't even notice the leak at all, the first sign of trouble was when the AC didn't blow Cold Air, I am no professional, so I didn't even know which hoses were for the AC, let me just end this by saying that, I ended up taking it to a shop to replace the AC compressor, it was "very expensive", but at least I got peace of mind that everything was good for a while anyways.

Sorry for the long post, I hope it wasn't too boring, how do you talk about oil leaks and make it fun, right...

Let me know about your oil leak stories, I hope this post was informative to you.  Until next time.

Broken Breather Hose, Expansion Tank "How to Replace"

Broken Breather Hose, Expansion Tank "How to Replace"
BMW 330I 2006 E90

Hi guys, just wanted to do a quick post, I recently replaced the hose for the expansion tank.  It doesn't seem like it but this little hose is very important.  Basically this hose runs to the Expansion tank from the Radiator. 

Leak Video

I had recently taken my car to get an oil change, and right after it I started to see a little big of liquid every time I parked somewhere.  Initially I thought it was condensation from the AC, it's has been very hot here in San Diego, CA. But After a while I started to notice it more and more where I park at work.  I could see a stain, day after day, so I decided to look into it.  

Leak of Antifreeze

To my surprise it was actually not leaking very much liquid, and what I determined was that this leak only happened when the engine was very hot, under normal condition, it was okay. 

It was surprisingly easy to replace, one end just pops off when you remove the retainer, the other end just needed a screwdriver to undo the hose clamp.

What I assume happened was that when the I had the car in to get the oil changed, somebody must of leaned on this hose, and snapped it, 

See retainer

my car is 2006 (330i), and being that it's 10 years old, some of the plastic hoses have started to deteriorate, I live Southern California and it gets very hot here in the summer, and unfortunately heat and plastic don't mix, Thus: Brittle hoses.

Again just a quick post.  Thanks for reading...

I go the replacement from this company called Bavaria Auto Sport: Website
Their part number for the expansion tank is: V20-1227, if you are interested.

BMW part number: 17 12 7 565 093

Let me know if you've had this hose replaced, and how old your BMW is, I am curious to know if you replaced it around the same time period I replaced mine.

This repair was very easy to do,

Until next time...

Windshield Wiper Fluid Reservoir Nozzle "Replacement"

Windshield Wiper Fluid Reservoir Nozzle Replacement
E90, BMW 330i.

A few weeks ago I started getting the windshield wiper fluid warning, and as I usually do, I go down to my local Autozone to get a new bottle, they are usually not that expensive: Windshield wiper fluid at Autozone, no big deal.

Amazon link below...

Just like I always do I got home and I poured the liquid in, again... no big deal.  But this time it was not so, because after only a few days I got the same warning again. 

I was able to confirm I didn't have any liquid when I tried using the windshield wiper fluid and none came out.

I was scratching my head, this made no sense, what is going on here...  

Unfortunately there is no way to get to the fluid tank without removing the Right side Tire, and the shroud to get to the bottle.  I also knew it could be the motor that was going bad, but I could hear it running when I engaged the switch, so I figured that was ok.

So what was the problem, old rotted plastic hose, 

Only thing to do next... to remove the tire, and shroud, once I removed the shroud I could see the leak, and I began to unplug it. you just pull on it to disconnect, it does have a black rubber seal, the seal was old and didn't do it's job any more.  The new one worked great.  Simply disconnect the old and route the new one.

This was the problem, where the leak was.

 I have to say the most difficult part of the entire procedure was removing the plastic shroud, there are plastic rivets, that really gave a hard time, I ended up obliterating them to get the shroud off. there is plastic part in the middle of the rivet, push it in and it will help you remove it, I suggest you replace them with new ones.  This will save you a ton of time.

BMW part # 61 66 7 135 409

Side note: Make sure to remove the top lid of the old hose, because it doesn't come with it in the new hose. 

Remove cap from old hose

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