'88 Cabrio with cracked head

[clarkitect]

Well, thought I would post this in case anyone else has a severe rattle in the rear end, and decides to completely rebuild the underside of the car, only to realize the rattle still exists!

With some banging on the bumper I realized I could reproduce the sound in the garage. Figured it had something to do with the bumper shocks, but in the process of trying to figure out how to remove them, I found that this 40 pound ballast weight had broken the mountings loose from the body, and was making a horrible rattling/screetching sound.




Notice on this one that the body is pushed in from the previous owner backing in to something solid. It's definitely tweaked a bit but not super noticeable outside for the average person.






Rattle is gone! Car very solid over bumps. Drives super nice. Hilarious that I basically did this entire rebuild project last winter on the premise that I had bad rear subframe bushings.

At any rate, the car is pretty much top notch at this point, other than the 11 year old timing belt I need to address now. Good to have it in such condition that I can actually consider it a classic car now instead of a junker.

[OMGE30]

Wow, what a whirlwind. Great job! Your wife should be proud of you and your decade-long dedication. If you're on dish duty tonight, I'll write up a formal complaint on your behalf.

[Tzantushka]

Bonus on two parts.
You fixed the rattle and scored some loose change!

Will all the work you won't have to touch these things for another decade or so.

[clarkitect]

Wow, what a whirlwind. Great job! Your wife should be proud of you and your decade-long dedication. If you're on dish duty tonight, I'll write up a formal complaint on your behalf.

Yeah it's been an adventure. I did practically nothing to the car for years, the wife just drove it. Then I launched right into it. I will let her know I am off dish duty for a while!

Bonus on two parts.
You fixed the rattle and scored some loose change!

Will all the work you won't have to touch these things for another decade or so.

Every little bit counts! Yeah hopefully I am good for a while on this car, although the wife keeps mentioning a new paint job. I like to mention "patina".

[goinstrong]

One of the first things I did with my wife’s E30 convertible when I bought it was the rear subframe mounts. What a BIG job compared to the E21 subframe mounts! Definitely improved the ride though and lifted the rear at least 1/2” or more! Hoping to never have to do that again! LoL


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[clarkitect]

Yeah I’d be happy to never do that again. But I am always on the prowl for some old junker so you never know.

[goinstrong]

Yeah I’d be happy to never do that again. But I am always on the prowl for some old junker so you never know.

LoL isn’t that the truth!!


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[clarkitect]

Well, I figure that 12 years is probably long enough on the timing belt. I would guess no more than 12-15k miles on it, but 12 years seems like a long interval. Thought I could just change out the TB and leave the rest but after opening up, might as well replace the drive belts, some of the hoses, distributor cap and rotor, and TB tensioner. Tensioner feels new, but def has a sound when spinning, and at $15, cheap insurance. Water pump feels new still so that will stick around another 10 years.




This could use replacement. Was new when I did the engine swap.




I swear the cooling system holds infinite coolant.




A/C does not work. Compressor makes a racket so I took the belt off years ago. Probably should just ditch it and the condenser since they would need to be replaced anyway if I ever decide to go to R134a. I think it would make the car run a little cooler?

[clarkitect]

Trying to keep a history of the car going and providing a reference for what I have done so it can be recalled once senility sets in. Sorry to not contribute more to this section of the forum other than this silly thread. I am no expert on these things so just doing the best I can.

Finished up timing belt job. Fairly uneventful, thankfully. Found some online article that said this job should take 2-3 hours. I am no flat rate mechanic so it took the better part of three days for me. Not doing it very often (only once before, when the engine was out of the car) makes it so you put some things back together only to realize you needed to do something else first, so you have to take it apart again. This happened a few times. Also stuff like this when you try to snug up a bolt and there is no snugging. Thank goodness for helical coil thread replacement. A keen eye will also notice I put the front harmonic balancer thing on without the pulleys. I thought it was a lot easier to reach the bolts that way haha.



Ended up removing all the A/C stuff - compressor, condenser, receiver/drier, and some of the hoses. Almost no freon in there, but there was some oil. I blocked off the evaporator ends for the time when I convert to R134a. Pretty sure you can still use the same evaporator. Anyway, ripped apart the condenser and made a rudimentary bracket for the aux fan. Hopefully will do the trick.






Bolts right in like factory except no condenser. Probably should have a shroud around it though, but didn't think of that until afterwards. Oh well, we'll see how it works.




Scrubbed the thing before putting back together.






Hood went back on. Wife drove it to work today. I filled with water for testing and flushing purposes, will run that for a few days and switch to the blue BMW stuff afterwards. Thanks for looking.