|
Car is back together running great and throwing nary a code.
A day after completing the alphabet soup delete, two general observations.
First, what a great team we have going here, with Jess and Jarek and all the excellent folks on the board – Mik, TDI, Gunsmyth, Greek, BBCuda, moose, Hooper and many more -- several of whom, especially Mik and gunsmyth, spent hours on the phone coaching me.
The second observation is I am really glad I partnered with an experienced mechanic with a lift since I never would have gotten that torx bold out of the middle of the motor mount on my own, and he even struggled with it a bit.
Third observation (OK I added one): I am in awe of anyone who did this on jack stands.
A few specifics to add to the body of knowledge:
ECU removal and replacement: Spent some time on Youtube trying to figure out how to get the top off the box with the ECU. Basically there are black plastic clasps at the top and bottom of the lid that act as pincers and have to be released from below. Also, the cool wiring harness connectors that connect the wiring harness to the car have this neat lever that ejects them from the ECU. When reassembling, you need to make sure the lever goes all the way down before it goes all the way back up. Someone probably covered this in a post, but it took me a minute to figure out. Like most of the wiring attachment systems in the e90 this one was designed by the demented offspring of the Marquis de Sade and Franz Kafka. Wait, those are both guys, but you get my drift. Each connector is different, but they all yield to patient tinkering.
ECUs and Canada: Fedex was easier to deal with than UPS. Jarek’s assistant Justyna was a big help dealing with the customs issues.
Removing underbody panels: Straightforward but two of the screws holding up the underbody panels toward the center of the car are tamper-resistant torx with a pin at the center (see photo). Fortunately, Mik warned me about this and my boss had loaned me his fancy German torx socket set.
Motor mount: Had a real fight on my hands with this especially the sunken middle bolt. The mechanic who guided me in the process had a neat way to support the engine that allowed us to move the car up and down on the lift, see photo. Definitely made the process easier e.g., when the car is on the lift and you realize you still need to loosen the V-band, from above.
Disconnecting the sensors: Those fancy Snap-on wrenches and sockets really come in handy here. The sensor right by the exhaust flange with the red hose runs all the way back under the car to the fuel filter area (photos) but it is easy to get to with the car up on a lift. Just undo the subsystem and your fuel filter will be easier to get at next time.
DP fit: The DP came in from Albany looking pretty nice. A number of friends commented on the quality of the welds. Early issues re bung depth appear to have been resolved and the EGT and O2 sensors went in fine and seated fine. As with Mik the bracket was about a quarter inch off, so I drilled a new hole (photo). That stainless stuff is hard! Vibrant gasket was a perfect fit and replaced the swirl mixer plate thing (gasket is $6.50 on amazon, search for “Vibrant 1458 2-Bolt High Temperature Exhaust Gasket”).
Flushing the urea tanks: See photo. Very easy to get access with the car on a lift, just a bunch of 8 mm screws. Removing the caps on the drain tubes (photo) requires pushing in on the wide, skinny button while pulling downward at the same time. To replace just pop them back on. Drain times are considerable. It probably took 30 minutes to drain a couple of gallons.
|