Two Sundays ago I was driving home from the final club DIY event of the year. I had done a simple oil and filter change on my 2002 E39 M5 (at 118,100 miles) and inspected the car while on a lift to research future projects. There were a couple of things that needed attending to, […]
Last weekend I did an E46 M3 brake fluid change on my 2006 M3. Craftsman Auto Care, a long-time friend of the CCA National Chapter, invited us into their Ashburn location. It was the first DIY event in a while, mainly because the club organizers were traveling a lot in the summer. Changing the brake […]
It’s been a while since I talked about the planning and research that goes into a BMW DIY project. Right now I’m in the midst of deciding how to tackle replacing the radiator on my 2002 BMW E39 M5. To the best of my knowledge the current radiator is original to the car. It now […]
Last month I attended a National Capital Chapter DIY event held at Scandanavian Import Service Center in Rockville, MD. It was time to replace the differential fluid in my E39 M5, as well as swap out the air filters and the fog light halogen bulbs. I hadn’t changed the differential fluid since 2013. That sounds […]
This weekend I completed a front-end refresh on my E46 M3 that I started thinking about last year. Last March I sent my headlights to Lightwerkz and had more modern projectors retrofitted into the stock assemblies. That got me thinking about what else up front should be refreshed. So this weekend I replaced the plastic […]
This past weekend I tackled some minor paint issues, one on each car. I also changed the oil in my E46 M3, doing it in my driveway since a club DIY got canceled. Neither paint issue was major. My E39 M5 came to me in 2011 with two long scratches on the driver side rear […]
Another National Capital Chapter (NCC) BMY DIY event, more maintenance for my 2006 E46 M3. We were graciously hosted again by BMW of Annapolis. On my agenda was fuel filter replacement, refreshing the passenger side muffler hanger, and a cosmetic repair to my steering wheel. The fuel filter I replaced was not original to the […]
I’ve just completed what became a long saga improving my E46 M3 headlight performance. Regular visitors might remember it started about a year ago when I replaced the projector lenses in my headlights. All was fine for a while afterwards. Then last fall I noticed that the passenger side light was much lower than the […]
The last two DIY events have involved straightforward changes of BMW fluids, so I’m combining them into one post. In the first I changed the differential fluid and rear diffuser on my E39 M5, and during the second I changed the power steering fluid in my E46 M3. I had last done the differential fluid […]
Earlier this month I completed the washer fluid repair I talked about in a previous post. The windshield wiper system in my E39 M5 was leaking in multiple places. While planning for the DIY I also had the shameful (for an enthusiast) realization that it had been four years since I had changed the car’s […]
Last weekend I replaced the rear brake rotors and brake pads on my 2006 M3. For an amateur DIY enthusiast like myself that’s a pretty big job, and I’m happy to say it went smoothly. Craftsman Auto Care hosted our local chapter at their Chantilly location. Craftsman is a regular sponsor and a great partner […]
My 2002 M5 needed some relatively minor work recently. The car is old enough to be graduating from college this year, so it’s no surprise things are breaking. I tackled these at home rather than a club DIY event and I was partially successful. The first issue was the HVAC blower died. No air was […]