Updates on the three cars

I post a lot about the cars, so much of this information is not new. Anyway, here is an update on each car:

THE CIVIC:

Civic being used in the city to run errands

The Civic is currently at Pat Boyer's place awaiting a bit more work. There are still two oil-related issues to fix: the major leaks at the oil pan and the oil pressure-drop in left-hand corners. To solve these issues, we will install a new Ebay oil pan made for a swap like mine, which does not use a gasket to seal, but rather a sealant. This should resolve the oil leak. It is recommended to use the oil pickup from a 1998-2002 Honda Accord with this oil pan, so I started to look for one. This simple tube and pickup costs about 200$ at the dealership (about the cost of a whole used Accord engine!), so I decided to go get one at Kenny U-Pull. I got lucky in that I found a car where the lower engine mount had already been removed. I just needed to unbolt the exhaust pipe so I could remove the oil pan. I succeeded, but it took a while due to the condition of the nuts holding the exhaust together. I ended up paying less than 11$ for the part. I love that place! I also got a windshield washer bottle because mine is cracked and does not hold fluid. 

To solve the oiling issue, I bought an Accusump oil accumulator. I got lucky and found a used one for 200$, a huge savings over the cost of a new one. When the oil pan arrives, the car should be back on track fairly quickly. Unfortunately, I won't have it in time to attend our club's Mosport track day in a few days. I don't mind that much, but I really hope these repairs will make the car reliable. I am satisfied with the car's performance, I just want to be able to drive it more. 

THE SAABARU:

Saab will be around for another winter

Since the BMW has been in and out of the shop, we have been daily driving the Saab. We have made several trips to the country house and the car is performing flawlessly. Now that the BMW is fully repaired, I will put the winter wheels on the Saab and store it at the country house until it snows. It was convenient having this car around this summer (instead of leaving it parked, like we did last year). I am glad we decided to keep it for another season.

THE BMW:

Major work done on the M3

There were three issues I wanted to resolve on the M3 this summer: the annoying vibration at certain RPM, the clunk when you got on the throttle, and the oil leak. I took the car to BG, my alignment spot, and he did not have time to fix any of these issues. He did find a bad tie-rod and replaced that. I then contacted Seb Rochon, who has a small business making roll cages and fixing BMW's. He told me he doens't really fix cars anymore and recommended I go to to George at TC Automotive, which I did. George was able to fix the oil leak (Constant Pressure Valve) and diagnose the other two issues: the vibration was the exhaust, which had rotten flanges, and the clunk was probably due to a rip in the chassis, which is a common failure on these BMW's. He referred my back to Seb, who gave me an appointment to leave him the car. As Seb worked on the car, he found a couple of other issues which were easily solved with the rear end all disassembled. He welded in the reinforcement kit, added generic flanges to the exhaust and changed a bunch of bushings. The car feels great now. I replaced the auto-dimming rear-view mirror element yesterday, an easy enough job. If it doesn't rain this evening, I will meet Mazen for Mountain Drive 2020 - Part 2. We will daily drive this car until winter. 

So basically, I am close to having all three cars fully functional, and it seems I might achieve this in the next weeks. Stay tuned...