Right! I feel like a little update is needed, not that a lot has changed in terms of how it looks! I've only got a few pics at the moment, but i'll post more up when the car has a clean this weekend...
Since I bought the car there has been a bit of a whining noise at the rear and I left it for ages and tried to ignore it, thinking it was probably just a bit of diff whine.
Eventually I got fed up and decided to see where it was actually coming from and I figured it was probably the rear bearings. (According to the guys on BabyBMW.net, cars with about 50k tend to have bearings go.). I decided to get the rear ones changed, just to be sure, and decided to just do it myself. So I bought myself a bearing puller kit and managed to get the right hand side done (was a b**ch to get off).
Unfortunately, getting help from my Dad meant that typically, something was bound to break. He managed to ruin the threads on 4 of the 5 of my wheel bolts and also the threads on the drive flange. That was another £70 from BMW.
Gotta love fresh lumps of machined material.
Anyway, got the right hand rear done in a day and then I decided to just get Audi to do the other side for me, to save me the hassle. (For those who don't know, my brother works there so I get family discount). Luckily, they were also able to provide me with a hire car whilst they worked on it, a nice new Audi A4 Avant 2.0 TFSI
This is when the problems started to happen.
They tried replacing bearing on the rear left however the driveshaft wouldn't come out of the hub. It was properly seized in there, but would still spin fine. They ended up having to heat it up and whack it for ages in order to get the driveshaft out, which of course was pretty much useless afterwards, so I needed a new one of those, and a new drive flange for this side as well!
I thought I would try and save a little money and get a driveshaft from Euro Car Parts as their computers had them listed on there. Got it, gave it to Audi and typically, it didn't fit. The end which goes into the diff was the wrong size, and the length of it was too long. I took it back to ECP and told them it didn't fit and that it's not the right one.
The 2 numbskulls working there then started laughing at what I was saying (so basically laughing at me), and asking each other "How long have you been in this business?". Fair to say I was livid, got my money and left. Cnuts.
Then to add to this, Audi ordered the drive flange for me from BMW and BMW sent them the whole hub (about £360) instead of just the flange. So had to wait another couple days to get the flange in. I had to then go to BMW and get a driveshaft direct from them to be sure that it would fit, and I couldn't find any other elsewhere. That was a bit expensive at £410...
Anyway. Once Audi got all the new parts it went back together all fine and I got the car back. Thankfully, the noise from the rear has gone, so I think that whatever was wrong with the driveshaft and bearing on the left was causing the noise.
Then, When I was checking something on the front left (can't remember what I was checking at the time) a noticed the front left wheel had some play in it. I managed to narrow it down to the front left bearing being crap. Luckily these ones are actually a lot cheaper and easier to replace, with just 4 bolts to undo! Did it in a couple hours on my drive:
I have also given it a well needed service of:
- Oil
- Oil Filter
- Micro Filter
- Air Filter
It really did need a service as it hadn't been done since last April (about 15k ago). The old oil was looking rather thick and black when I took it out
I thought I would be a bit tight and get an air filter from Euro Car Parts (a different store) but once again, the one they provided didn't actually fit. The one they supplied has a larger paper:foam ratio and so it wouldnt actually fit inside the airbox. Ended up just taking it back for a refund and going to BMW direct.
Then.... On my way down to Newquay on a lads holiday, we came across some traffic (typical) so we decided to turn off and go down some back roads. There were 3 of us in convoy, with my mate's Land Rover Discovery leading, and unfortunately what he took us down felt like a rally stage. It was stupidly narrow and to be honest, I was probably going a little faster than I should have been because of it.
I then managed to hit a rock. I missed it with my wheels but it caught on the jacking point under my car and took a nice chunk out of it. I've only just gotten around to replacing it today.
Got a couple small scrapes on the underside of the sideskirt as well, so only cosmetic damage which can't really be seen unless you're lying on the floor.
That's about it for updates now! Didn't realise I couldnt type so much! Haha! I'll try and get more pics of the car up soon!
So basically, I am never buying from Euro Car Parts again. OEM all the way.
