Old faithful.. my UK daily

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MVX11V
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Location: East Anglia, UK

Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by MVX11V »

Hello, finally joined this model specific forum as I'm finding the need to use others experiences in living with the 635 as parts die out and problems become more...er... unusual and the general knowledge on these seems to be thinning out!

Here it is >

Image

'That's a guy on a bike, the car doesn't have a head poking out of the roof'.

Pulled off from a driveway in cultural hell and a future of certain death, this car had seen it's fair share of bodgery and abuse over the years. I bought it instantly in the dark and the rain after exchanging conversation with the then owner down the cafe in the deep, murky depths of London town... and drove it 40 miles home where I would embark on a 3 month, outdoor weldathon under a rickety plastic cover in the middle of nowhere with virtually no internetings.

3 grand, 2 thunderstorms, moving house, numerous taxi journeys and 4 bouts of welding related personal injuries later I got it through the MOT with a couple of advisories and that day drove it 65 miles to it's new home. That was five and a half years ago and it's been used pretty much every day in that time, bar a few months for it's 'annual catastrophic breakdown'.
This has become the norm where once in a given year this car will in fact end up on the hard shoulder or in a pub car park... dead and it'll be dead with the worlds most strangest problem, unheard of by the motoring masses. Like the time it kept cutting out after not working out what gear to be in. I could replicate this cutting out by slamming the passenger door... it done it like clockwork. Turns out that me, some hobo, a passer by and the recovery guy all missed the loose battery earth connection which I found within 10 seconds of looking the very next day.

This car has a soul, so much so that this car has been classified as being 'haunted'... by me. That's the only word I can use to describe it's antics. It gets angry if I don't use it very much, it gets angry if I fix something and it gets very upset when I try and subject it to any form of care.
Therefore life is a battle of principles between what I think the car needs to keep on the road and the death wish the car has to try and terminate itself. Think of it as an evil Herbie... but with corners.

It is worn, the paint removes itself, it is tired and it also carries the battles scars of 31 years worth of supermarket car parks and no matter what my plans are to beautify it, someone will always come up to me and say "wow, you don't see those anymore". I tell them my plans for it and they say "you should leave it like that".

Why? Because it looks honest, it looks like it's done it's time and has come out the other end... and when it has a good day... it is a good day!

It's sitting on 220,000 UK miles, had a head gasket, an auto box rebuild, a fan, cooling stuff, most of the suspension, countless tyres and service stuff, most of the Motronic and a set of wipers and it's still hanging on in there and despite the fact that I can only sum it up as having another kid in the family (shower it with cash = get no reward) It has become part of the family.

In saying that, after it's recent display of the 'MOTRONICGATE' scandal, I've threatened it more times than I should have with Ebay. It does respond to those threats and it is behaving right now, just, but there is still much work to do.

I am currently lining up another BMW, only a 3 series thing to hack about in and I can then set this away and start improving it rather than maintaining it but in the meantime and until that is actually in place, this car is on parole.
'HAUNTED :evil: ' and playworn 1986 635 Daily.
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Soperman
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Location: London, UK

Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by Soperman »

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your trials and tribulations, so thanks for posting. You'll know already that you've located the best source of enthusiasm, knowledge, data and experience for all things E24 related.

Welcome.
E24 M635CSi
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MVX11V
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Joined: Tue May 30, 2017 11:53 am
Location: East Anglia, UK

Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by MVX11V »

Cheers. This is a rare car as it's one of two that I've fell asleep in the boot ( trunk) in, doing work on it. Except the one I fell asleep under... That was weird waking up to. Currently rebuilding the afm on the kitchen table, thought I'd lost it for a minute after accidentally bending the track contact a little over enthusiastically. The afm has had previous open heart surgery by others... Never a good sign and I adjusted it to suit the car when (as I've just discovered ) the fuel regulator is shot... Might end up in the bin if it has had it. I'm all up for giving things a... Well, a fourth chance!
'HAUNTED :evil: ' and playworn 1986 635 Daily.
baders
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Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by baders »

Nice story. I, (and previous owner Vinnie) thought my car (LOCUTUS) was haunted too as it would very intermittently not start. It turned out to be the anti theft module :oops:
1986 635csi LOCUTUS / Arktis Blau Metallic / Pearl Beige / S38B36/ Close ratio dogleg 5sp
2002 E46 M3 / Topaz Blau Metallic / Black Nappa / 6 speed SMG software tuned / Bilstein PSS10 Coilovers / CMP RACP reinforcement
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olympia57
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Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by olympia57 »

Ahhh... Rude's daily .
I used to follow your thread on BMW Forums, I wondered if you still had it.
Welcome .
Don
1981 635 series 1
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MVX11V
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Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by MVX11V »

olympia57 wrote:Ahhh... Rude's daily .
I used to follow your thread on BMW Forums, I wondered if you still had it.
Welcome .
Don
Ha! Yeah, it's still here, rolling around... much to the annoyance of the missis. The other forum will be blessed with my E36 and it's hissy fits. The thread will go something like this: strange noise from the front suspension, rust, strange noise from the front suspension, rust, strange noise from the front suspension, rust, replaced front suspension, welded car, replaced rotted brake lines, rust, strange noise from the front suspension...etc...
'HAUNTED :evil: ' and playworn 1986 635 Daily.
wattsmonkey
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Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by wattsmonkey »

Thank you for sharing that - and thanks for joining up!

It's the ghost in the machine, you know!
"Most of it necessary; all of it enjoyable." LJKS
'84 635CSi, dogleg...itbs and supercharger????? Eaton Mess
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MVX11V
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Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by MVX11V »

Put it back together tonight... The afm is toast, the car is flat taking off. I could only get a resistance reading of 1000 before it dropped off and there is quite a bit of lateral movement in the shaft which noticeably alters the readings when in operation.
At least, that's what I'm concluding. Any opinions are appreciated.
Something's smelly with the throttle set up, it would appear that it has been messed about with. I tried it in different positions and finally got the revs to pick up, then adjusting the air bypass on the afm actually made a difference... For the first time ever. It now will idle at about 850 but slowly drops to settle at 600 which is annoying. At one point on test drive the revs dropped to 450 idle but it hasn't done it again. With a suspect iffy afm though I'm not achieving much.
You have no idea though what a breakthrough this is, simply making an adjustment and the engine responds to it... I could be so close to making this thing run right for the first time in, well, who knows?! :mrgreen:
'HAUNTED :evil: ' and playworn 1986 635 Daily.
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Desert635
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Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by Desert635 »

MVX11V wrote:Put it back together tonight... The afm is toast, the car is flat taking off. I could only get a resistance reading of 1000 before it dropped off and there is quite a bit of lateral movement in the shaft which noticeably alters the readings when in operation.
At least, that's what I'm concluding. Any opinions are appreciated.
Something's smelly with the throttle set up, it would appear that it has been messed about with. I tried it in different positions and finally got the revs to pick up, then adjusting the air bypass on the afm actually made a difference... For the first time ever. It now will idle at about 850 but slowly drops to settle at 600 which is annoying. At one point on test drive the revs dropped to 450 idle but it hasn't done it again. With a suspect iffy afm though I'm not achieving much.
You have no idea though what a breakthrough this is, simply making an adjustment and the engine responds to it... I could be so close to making this thing run right for the first time in, well, who knows?! :mrgreen:
I used this afm repair and had a professional help me out, the needle on mine was out the track when the door was fully shut also with the door shut there was a lot of free play for the first few millimetres before getting some resistance from the spring. We turned the clock spring over by one tooth and to make sure there was consistent physical resistance from closed to fully open, also did the fix for the wire shown at the end of the pdf. This was done 2 years ago and the car responded better but I didn't really get much time to drive it before fixing a few things turned into a full restoration I now have a Miller performance maf to replace the afm but still have a couple of months until everything's done so have no idea how the Miller unit works.

Good luck
Attachments
AFM Repair.pdf
(635.93 KiB) Downloaded 316 times
1987 635CSI Japan Spec
Was: R̶o̶y̶a̶l̶b̶l̶a̶u̶ ̶M̶e̶t̶a̶l̶l̶i̶c̶ ̶(̶1̶8̶9̶)̶
Now: Tiefseeblau Metallic (A76)

VIN: 0766354
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MVX11V
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue May 30, 2017 11:53 am
Location: East Anglia, UK

Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by MVX11V »

Cheers. I got hold of an unmolested AFM (includes the top plastic cover which I've never had too) and at long last I can stop using the car and sort it out properly. Rolling diagnostics aren't much fun :mrgreen:
'HAUNTED :evil: ' and playworn 1986 635 Daily.
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Spasso
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Re: Old faithful.. my UK daily

Post by Spasso »

MVX11V wrote:
This car has a soul, so much so that this car has been classified as being 'haunted'... by me. That's the only word I can use to describe it's antics. It gets angry if I don't use it very much, it gets angry if I fix something and it gets very upset when I try and subject it to any form of care.
... I've threatened it more times than I should have with Ebay. It does respond to those threats and it is behaving right now, just, but there is still much work to do.
HILARIOUS, AND SO TRUE.
My turbo car fits this category hence the nickname, " Scheiß-Haufen" (S**tpile).
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