B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Discuss all aspects of Car Care / Detailling etc.
James_G
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by James_G » Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:06 pm

hap wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:15 pm
Yes it was close to the boot lid trim
You could get them for 40 but I’ve seen then up to 80
Bob wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:38 pm
James_G wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:03 pm
[How much is a new badge if I break it in the process I wonder??
Kev (Lossieboy) bought new badges for his B3 3.0 over the summer ... I'm sure the [ALPINA] & [B3 3.0 Switch-tronic] were in the region of £150 each. Not sure you'd be able to get a B2.5 badge though

Positioning them on a line with the bottom of the roundel sounds good. Not that I've actually done it yet, but the technique for removal is usually something along the lines of: warm the badge/adhesive as much as possible and use something like fishing wire to cut through, then clean with your preferred thinners or such.
Thanks both. The boot lid needs some repair due to rust on the bottom lip so I'll fix the badge position as part of that job, which is unlikely to be soon as there's still much to attend on the mechanical side, as you will see below.
Currently:
1992 Alpina B2.5 #026, Lagoon Green with Parchment Cloth

Previously:
2013 BMW M135i 3dr, Mineral Grey with Red Leather
2001 Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe #170, Orient Blue with Grey Leather
2006 Z4MC, Silver Grey with Red Leather
2001 E46 330i Sport, Silver with Red Leather
1997 E36 323i SE Touring, Calypso Red with Grey Cloth

James_G
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by James_G » Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:13 pm

In a previous post I'd mentioned that my clutch slave was showing signs of failure and indeed, a few days later I went to move it and couldn't engage drive.

I ordered a replacement unit and after the usual process of getting it on axle stands the old one was out and it's definitely shot as it was leaking fluid out of the front seal, all of which had ended up in the bell housing and was leaking from there.

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I then got the new one in and prepped things for bleeding. The fluid that came out of the old one is in that jug on the right and it looks like milky coffee, which clearly isn't right. Oddly up until point of failure the clutch felt fine and also it's interesting to note that despite sharing the reservoir with the brakes, it doesn't appear to have ever been flushed through.

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I used my bleeder to get the air out of the system and it took a few goes to even get the pedal back. It still wasn't great but it's now settled down after a hundred miles or so.

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Since I had the bleeder attached and plenty of fluid I thought I might as well bleed the brakes too. They seemed fine before and I can't tell any difference, but at least it's done. Sadly though I couldn't do the rears as the bleed nipples rounded off. I see BMW has upgraded the part and they are now beefier (9mm vs 7mm) but I still have to get the old ones out somehow.

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Then I put it back down on its wheels and for the first time in a week was able to move it, so shuffled it over in the garage.

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Later that evening I decided that I should take it for a drive so I headed over to Bell & Colvill Lotus to have a look.

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That last photo reminded me that I had a foglight out (I don't drive with them, I'd just put them on for the shot) so that needed a fix, which was nice and simple (but unlikely to ever be used)

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Since I was at ECP buying bulbs I also got one for the interior light, which hasn't ever worked. When I popped the cover off I could see why - no bulb.

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But easily solved. I am not sure why the previous owner didn't attend to this simple fix, but I'm sure there's an explanation.

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Finally, while I had the wheels off I looked again at the centre caps as one as a broken key still in it.

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So I pulled all of them off to clean and grease the existing locks.

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It turns out though that the one with the broken key is different to all the others and annoyingly Alpina are unable/refuse to sell you a lock to match. I could have just bought a new key for the mismatched lock (and probably should have, even though they cost £36 each!) but I've ended up ordering four new locks instead.

Then this weekend I took it for 150 mile round trip which will probably be the last of the year as I've got engine bay stuff to sort including a service, solving some oil leaks and investigating a noisy pulley.
Currently:
1992 Alpina B2.5 #026, Lagoon Green with Parchment Cloth

Previously:
2013 BMW M135i 3dr, Mineral Grey with Red Leather
2001 Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe #170, Orient Blue with Grey Leather
2006 Z4MC, Silver Grey with Red Leather
2001 E46 330i Sport, Silver with Red Leather
1997 E36 323i SE Touring, Calypso Red with Grey Cloth

Bob
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by Bob » Tue Dec 07, 2021 5:31 pm

B3 3.2 TOURING #062

richb10touring
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by richb10touring » Tue Dec 07, 2021 9:25 pm

Great job on all that TLC James well done! I love that old school look of slightly yellow foglight - looks just the ticket :)
2000 Alpina B10 3.3 Touring 26 - Sold 2008 and scrapped :cry:
2002 Alpina B3 3.3 Touring 113 - Sold 2011 and still going strong I believe :D
1999 Alpina B3 3.2 Convertible 77

BetterCallJimmy
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Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 1:09 pm
Location: Chislehurst, Kent

Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by BetterCallJimmy » Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:12 am

Gorgeous car and thank you for giving it some TLC. Keeping these iconic cars on the road is so important.
--------

E46 - B3S #004
E90 - D3 BiTurbo #99
G30 - B5 Biturbo

Previous F87 M2C (Yes, it was orange )

James_G
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by James_G » Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:23 pm

Thanks for posting this Bob. Did you arrange for it to be updated or does the chap who runs the archive pull the photos?
richb10touring wrote:
Tue Dec 07, 2021 9:25 pm
Great job on all that TLC James well done! I love that old school look of slightly yellow foglight - looks just the ticket :)
Thanks Rich and yes that yellow foglight look on the E36 seems to be quite a popular mod. This one is just yellow due to age though!
BetterCallJimmy wrote:
Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:12 am
Gorgeous car and thank you for giving it some TLC. Keeping these iconic cars on the road is so important.
Thanks Jimmy, I agree and hopefully the E36 is now in place where people want to look after them. It's one of the reasons I was able to buy this as the previous owner was adamant it wasn't going to go to the drift brigade.
Currently:
1992 Alpina B2.5 #026, Lagoon Green with Parchment Cloth

Previously:
2013 BMW M135i 3dr, Mineral Grey with Red Leather
2001 Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe #170, Orient Blue with Grey Leather
2006 Z4MC, Silver Grey with Red Leather
2001 E46 330i Sport, Silver with Red Leather
1997 E36 323i SE Touring, Calypso Red with Grey Cloth

James_G
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by James_G » Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:03 pm

Working on cars at this time of year is a bit miserable. Cold, grey and wet but push on we must so I attended to some easy jobs to warm me up (both metaphorically and actually). First up was to remove the very old and faded Dick Lovett dealership sticker, which had cracked and was something of a nightmare to remove. I ended up using both a plastic scraper and a metal spoon and being careful not to damage the heating element. An hour (!) later and it's gone.

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Then to the alarm stickers. There's a receipt in the paperwork showing that the original BMW alarm was removed in the 1st 6 months for a Scorpion unit (Dick Lovett gave the original owner a trade-in for that BMW unit, surprisingly) but these days the alarm on the car is a totally different brand altogether so they had to go. Again not easy as they kept cracking during the job so wouldn't peel off easily but looks great now they've gone.

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Then it was time for a service. As a reminder, the last time this was done was 23rd November 2016, but that was only 1,500 miles ago. I'd amassed some parts over the previous weeks, including an oil filter that wasn't in stock in BMW's UK parts inventory and had to come from Germany, which seemed odd as it's a generic 325i one rather than anything Alpina specific.

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Like all old BMWs this one leaks a little but I am addressing some of those in this work.

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One day I'll get to do an oil change without some carnage but it wasn't to be this time.

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While that was draining, I investigated the oil filter and its housing. Oil looks clean, as you'd expect for the lack of use since the last change.

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The old filter is a genuine BMW unit which again is surprising as it was last serviced at an Independent garage and normally that means non-dealer parts. Dated 2010 though which made me a bit suspicious until...

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...I saw that the new one I was fitting was dated from 2016. Is the M50B25 engine that rare that an oil filter would sit on a shelf for 5 years?

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As well as the filter there's a little O-ring replacement to carry out. I recall reading somewhere that this step is often forgotten during a service, so made sure this was done correctly.

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Continuing the parts assessment, here's the old air filter vs new. Doesn't look too bad...

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...but is dated from 2004. That's a long time for any filter, despite the lack of use.

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With that done and the old oil drained, it's time for a refill. This is 5w40 which is probably a bit too thin for this era of engine (plus it has 132k on it) but I had quite a lot left over from servicing another of my cars so it made sense to use it here, at least for now.

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Next up it was time to change the coolant. I "think" it's ok to use the longlife pink coolant in BMW engines, but I needed to drain some of it to change the coolant level sensor.

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The reason being that it would often flag up a level issue on check control, but the sensor was fine, although my check control module only seems to function about 50% of the time.

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So armed with 4.5l of BMW's finest coolant I drained the pink stuff out of the radiator.

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That's owner half the coolant though as the rest is sat in the block. There's a 19m drain plug on the block below cylinder 4 and so I undid that and got the rest out.

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Sadly, despite having a bucket under there it comes out straight over the steering UJ and goes everywhere leaving me with this

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The old coolant sensor came out and the new one went in fine and I filled the system up. I didn't have any trouble bleeding the system (many people report an issue) and everything went well. Here's the two sensors together, new one on the left, £9 for a Febi Bilstein unit via Amazon.

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As part of the bleeding I got the car up to temp but I could quickly smell burning oil which was leaking from the rocker cover gasket and probably not helped by the oil I'd put in. So a few days later I had a new gasket and again went with a Febi Bilstein one from Amazon for a little over £10. The rocker cover came off nice and easily (more easily than my R56 Mini which I had done just the day before by pure coincidence) and I was amazed how clean the engine was for its 132k miles.

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The new one went on easily with a little bit of RTV sealant on the corners to ensure it was leak proof and then everything was back together and started up fine.

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I still need to fit the fan clutch (the Meyle box in the above photos) but I am waiting to do that until I have identified if I have a noisy pulley or whether it's the alternator bearings as I have what sounds like a supercharger whine when the engine is running. Until then though it's great to have done a few more jobs on it. It will never be perfect visually but at least doing these job means that mechanically it should be on the button.
Currently:
1992 Alpina B2.5 #026, Lagoon Green with Parchment Cloth

Previously:
2013 BMW M135i 3dr, Mineral Grey with Red Leather
2001 Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe #170, Orient Blue with Grey Leather
2006 Z4MC, Silver Grey with Red Leather
2001 E46 330i Sport, Silver with Red Leather
1997 E36 323i SE Touring, Calypso Red with Grey Cloth

Bob
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by Bob » Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:36 pm

James_G wrote:
Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:23 pm
Thanks for posting this Bob. Did you arrange for it to be updated or does the chap who runs the archive pull the photos?
I save the sales ad photos for Kees as he doesn’t have time to do it all himself. He’s a bit of a stickler when it comes to adding Sytner built cars, as they’re so tricky to authenticate. Having build sheets makes that much easier.
B3 3.2 TOURING #062

hap
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by hap » Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:00 pm

Great work James will you be looking at retro plates, tax holder sticker and replacement for rear that you removed

BetterCallJimmy
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by BetterCallJimmy » Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:30 am

Fantastic work James. This is becoming one of my favourite threads here.

I look forward to seeing this one out and about soon at an event perhaps. Maybe Goodwood FoS? 8) :)
--------

E46 - B3S #004
E90 - D3 BiTurbo #99
G30 - B5 Biturbo

Previous F87 M2C (Yes, it was orange )

Rav
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Location: Marlborough

Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by Rav » Fri Jan 21, 2022 4:19 pm

Brilliant write up and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to get this uploaded.
You are literally polishing and spannering value back into that car and it thanks you for it. It is looking very sharp now and I am sure you will continue to get it looking and driving nicely.

Please keep the updates coming along. I have a E46 B3 and am doing similar.
1999 #032 Alpina B3 3.3 saloon (UK Press Car) - Buchloe Beast
2000 Porsche Boxster S - Viola
2015 Audi A4 Avant Ultra - Wife's car
2002 VW Lupo 1.4 16v - Daughter's car

James_G
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by James_G » Wed Feb 16, 2022 2:21 am

hap wrote:
Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:00 pm
Great work James will you be looking at retro plates, tax holder sticker and replacement for rear that you removed
Thanks Hap, but at this stage, I am just going to focus on the mechanics, plus the MOT soon and I suspect there's a bit of welding to be done too. There's so much to do re the cosmetics that it would sink me I am sure!
BetterCallJimmy wrote:
Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:30 am
Fantastic work James. This is becoming one of my favourite threads here.

I look forward to seeing this one out and about soon at an event perhaps. Maybe Goodwood FoS? 8) :)
Thanks Jimmy, glad you are enjoying it. I am not due at FOS but I have tickets for the Members Meeting and will be going in it, assuming an MOT pass.
Rav wrote:
Fri Jan 21, 2022 4:19 pm
Brilliant write up and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to get this uploaded.
You are literally polishing and spannering value back into that car and it thanks you for it. It is looking very sharp now and I am sure you will continue to get it looking and driving nicely.

Please keep the updates coming along. I have a E46 B3 and am doing similar.
Thanks Rav, good of you to say so. Fun fact, I grew up near Marlborough and one of my first jobs was in the Portman Building Society on the High Street, which now appears to be a branch of Holland and Barrett, according to Google Maps!
Currently:
1992 Alpina B2.5 #026, Lagoon Green with Parchment Cloth

Previously:
2013 BMW M135i 3dr, Mineral Grey with Red Leather
2001 Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe #170, Orient Blue with Grey Leather
2006 Z4MC, Silver Grey with Red Leather
2001 E46 330i Sport, Silver with Red Leather
1997 E36 323i SE Touring, Calypso Red with Grey Cloth

James_G
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Location: Guildford

Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by James_G » Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:29 pm

With the MOT looming it was time to address some of the previous advisory issues. First up the front brakes, where the previous tester had identified that the pads were low.

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On closer inspection there was probably a little bit more life left in them given I'm only 2,000 miles a year, but not to worry.

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While the wheels were off I took the chance to clean the insides of the alloys properly as they all looked like this.

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And here I am on the other side, just finishing off. I didn't replace the discs here because 1) they weren't worn and 2)I'll be upgrading them to slightly bigger ones just as soon as I can find the right caliper carriers to do the conversion. The brake pad warning sensor is off because I broke it during removal - more on that later.

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I've changed brake pads on most of my 27 cars and I have never ever had the fluid flow out of the reservoir when pushing the pistons back. Except this time! It's my fault as I must have overfilled it when I changed the fluid previously but thankfully I spotted it quickly and so it was out with the water to neutralise it. Thankfully there is no damage done and the paint in the area seems unaffected.

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With that all sorted, I moved on to replace the fan clutch. I was going to wait to do this as part of a bigger job that will see me refurbish the alternator, but it's simple enough to remove again that I just cracked on. The car now has quite a bit more fan noise than it did which I think means the other one wasn't doing anything. It was certainly very old.

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Then final job was to replace the rear dampers as they were showing "a light misting of oil" as a previous advisory. Removal is a convoluted affair because to do it you have to access there nuts on the top mount.

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To do that you need to remove the rear speakers from the bottom of the parcel shelf because they are mounted in plastic boxes, which otherwise obscure access.

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And to remove those you need to start in the cabin and carefully remove the speaker grills first! I imagine when E36 coupes were common that your regular everyday mechanic probably didn't have the finesse to do this all without breaking something and from memory it isn't anything like as involved on the E46, which is probably for the best. In the end a few clips on the grill broke as everything is so brittle, but otherwise it was fine.

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Once that was done the old dampers came out easily enough and they are the originals, which is a bit frightening given they've done 132k miles.

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Now I know dampers are a contentious subject in Alpina circles but thankfully the B2.5 runs regular BMW "Sport" springs dampers of the era, so I didn't have to worry about such things. I decided to go OEM and went for Sachs units. Back when I did the same job on my E46 there was a choice of Sachs Super Touring (Blue Label - equivalent to SE) and Sachs Sport (Red Label - equivalent to M Sport). Those options previously existed for the E36 but recently that seems to have been consolidated down to one model, which is the one I bought. I've no idea whether they are blue label, red label or something in between but interestingly the old damper that came off is a Sachs unit.

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I also bought new protective tubes and bump stops and again Sachs seem to have stopped making the latter for the Sport setup so I went for the SE ones which are, at a guess, 20mm taller. It'll be interesting to see if it makes a difference.

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And then a short while later they are installed in the car and everything was buttoned up. I had ordered new Sachs top mounts both despite a few places showing stock, once I placed my order I was notified they were on back order so I was forced to reuse the old ones, which isn't ideal.

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Once that evening's activities were done I then headed out for shakedown drive and fill up with petrol. Since there are warning signs all over the car insisting that it runs on Super Unleaded only that was a £95 trip!

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That drive highlighted that everything was fine except for the now missing pad warning sensor. My Check Control module isn't working currently so I assumed it would flag a message there (and neither I nor the MOT tester would see it) but there's a dedicated light on the E36 for brake pad warnings and that was now brightly illuminated. I'd say 20 of my cars have had this "feature" and never once have I worn down a set of pads such that it has ever come on as intended. So rather than spend money on functionality I don't need I thought I'd re-use what I had. So it was out with the soldering iron and I soldered together the two wires from the original pad sensor, having shortened the tails first.

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I put heatshrink on and then taped it up and once installed in the car (it's hidden in a black box) the light went out. Job done.

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I always like to present a clean car for an MOT so the next morning I got on with it, giving me this:

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And since it's an old school kind of car I figured I'd top up the paint with some old school product, Zymol Carbon wax in this case (normally I tend to use sealants)

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The next morning I dropped it off for the MOT whereupon it was immediately driven on to the ramp, where it seems to have attracted a bit of attention from one of the other mechanics.

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Sadly a little while later I got the call to say that it had failed on headlamp aim, which I hadn't expected, and rust at the rear jacking points which I figured was probably 50/50 at best. So I left it with them to fix, which has resulted in three areas being welded, the two jacking points and one area inboard near the fuel tank strap mounting area. They then adjusted the headlights and did the retest and I was back on the road.

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Other than looking under the car while kneeling on this gravel I haven't had a proper look at the welding work, but given what I've seen of other rusty E36s I suspect their plating will only hold so long before more major rust removal work is required. But until then it's good to have another 12 months of MOT and with relatively little drama.
Currently:
1992 Alpina B2.5 #026, Lagoon Green with Parchment Cloth

Previously:
2013 BMW M135i 3dr, Mineral Grey with Red Leather
2001 Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe #170, Orient Blue with Grey Leather
2006 Z4MC, Silver Grey with Red Leather
2001 E46 330i Sport, Silver with Red Leather
1997 E36 323i SE Touring, Calypso Red with Grey Cloth

richb10touring
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by richb10touring » Mon Apr 18, 2022 9:47 pm

Fantastic! Great work James. I am scared for you about those jacking points though, having done mine a year or so ago...
2000 Alpina B10 3.3 Touring 26 - Sold 2008 and scrapped :cry:
2002 Alpina B3 3.3 Touring 113 - Sold 2011 and still going strong I believe :D
1999 Alpina B3 3.2 Convertible 77

James_G
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Re: B2.5 Coupe - A little TLC

Post by James_G » Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:53 am

richb10touring wrote:
Mon Apr 18, 2022 9:47 pm
Fantastic! Great work James. I am scared for you about those jacking points though, having done mine a year or so ago...
Thanks Rich. Regarding the jacking points, I'm sure they'll need doing again at some point and properly but that will probably be when I get all the paintwork issues rectified too.
Currently:
1992 Alpina B2.5 #026, Lagoon Green with Parchment Cloth

Previously:
2013 BMW M135i 3dr, Mineral Grey with Red Leather
2001 Alpina B3 3.3 Coupe #170, Orient Blue with Grey Leather
2006 Z4MC, Silver Grey with Red Leather
2001 E46 330i Sport, Silver with Red Leather
1997 E36 323i SE Touring, Calypso Red with Grey Cloth

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