Uh oh: Time to carry a code reader

[WAKman]

I feel as if I've crossed the Rubicon. My M3, at a mere 112K miles, has twice been felled this year by mechanical failure. Back in February, the alternator winked out, and then last month an aftermarket TBA gear failed.

The first three years and 40K miles have been dead reliable up til now, but clearly we are entering a new phase. The dream is to sweep through the more vulnerable systems--alternator, radiator hoses, water pump and thermostat, TBAs--and, once these are refreshed, the car will be as new again. Unfortunately, it never seems to work out that way--old cars seem to have a way of figuring out new and different things to fail.

I've moved the code reader from the tool box to the glove compartment as we enter this new phase of life.

Terry

[br2wdc]

Sorry to hear that but I had to do the same thing with my 2005 Lexus GX470 with 210k miles about a year ago; pretty good run though!

What code reader do you have?

[amrazM]

When I installed My supercharger I did Both throttle actuators, idle control valve, vent valve, water pump and thermostat at the same time to avoid taking the car apart again.

[shimmy23]

You're at the mileage that more will come. Better get AAA too. Haha

[Scrippy]

Pretty typical failures and one of them could have been avoided possibly. The alternator may have been stressed by an old thirsty battery. The TA's can be done yourself and the old ones can be fixed and rebuilt for 2-3 years later when you'll need them. Now you can cycle them as needed. The other things you mentioned are typical wear and tear items for ANY car. Maybe do them yourself to save huge amounts of money? I'm at 220,000 and this thing is reliable as heck because I do things before they fail as all cars typically have the same wear items. Don't stress just get a lil dirty and fix things.

[zipper228]

At the same point, just by chance threw the code reader in when prepping for 2000 mile road trip in the e93 (car is at 65k currently). 3 years of ownership w/ zero issues, of course throws a CEL following startup one morning during the trip. Luckily was just a thermostat low reading (first cold morning the car has been started in years), cleared it and no reoccurrence. But I will be keeping it in the car from this point forward - nothing more anxiety-inducing than an undiagnosed CEL!

[WAKman]

Originally Posted by Scrippy

Pretty typical failures and one of them could have been avoided possibly. The alternator may have been stressed by an old thirsty battery. The TA's can be done yourself and the old ones can be fixed and rebuilt for 2-3 years later when you'll need them. Now you can cycle them as needed. The other things you mentioned are typical wear and tear items for ANY car. Maybe do them yourself to save huge amounts of money? I'm at 220,000 and this thing is reliable as heck because I do things before they fail as all cars typically have the same wear items. Don't stress just get a lil dirty and fix things.

I actually did a lot of preventative stuff when I got the car--including re-doing the gears on the TBAs. As you say, now I'll cycle through the systems as needed. I bought a spare engine, complete with a set of TBAs, so I now have four of them.

Great to hear you are 220K and going strong.

Terry

[akkando]

Originally Posted by WAKman

I actually did a lot of preventative stuff when I got the car--including re-doing the gears on the TBAs. As you say, now I'll cycle through the systems as needed. I bought a spare engine, complete with a set of TBAs, so I now have four of them.

Great to hear you are 220K and going strong.

Terry

Did you use the aftermarket brass gears?

[Route 16]

what's the go to code reader for our cars? not iCarly but handheld device that isn't linked via bluetooth, reasonably priced and can read ALL the codes, not just ECU but transmission codes as well

[WAKman]

Originally Posted by akkando

Did you use the aftermarket brass gears?

The smaller gear was brass, and the larger one that broke was some sort of fibrous stuff. The brass teeth felt a bit rough--the brass gear broke the fibrous gear teeth off.

[SYT_Shadow]

Even though you've had a string of bad luck I don't think you should be too worried.

The car will continue to go to 200k without major issues.


Alternators are pretty rare failures and the TAs have to be replaced with the M Motorsport ones or the FCP OEM ones. The gear rebuilding has been proven to do pretty much nothing.

[WAKman]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Even though you've had a string of bad luck I don't think you should be too worried.

The car will continue to go to 200k without major issues.


Alternators are pretty rare failures and the TAs have to be replaced with the M Motorsport ones or the FCP OEM ones. The gear rebuilding has been proven to do pretty much nothing.

Yeah, I'm not too worried--just figure it's time to move the car from my "always ready" mental file to my "usually ready" file. I'm not working outside home these days (or for the foreseeable future), so I don't use the car for mission critical things like commuting.

And I'm not the type to freak out when things break. My 99 Chevy truck has 241,000 miles, my 1985 Porsche 911 has 112,000, and my M3 has 113,000, so things are gonna happen. As I get older, keeping things as long as possible holds more attraction to me than churning through vehicles as I did in my dissipated youth (I've owned over 60 cars and trucks, many of which were poor decisions).