Due to reasons I still can’t quite explain, this is my first Wrenching Wednesday of 2024. Hey, no time like the present to take a look back on the last calendar year of wrenching, share our stories, and be proud of each other for our accomplishments.
Last year was a big milestone for me, as I ended up with local lift access through Toronto-area car club RCLUB. It’s been instrumental in some of the stuff I’ve done, and I can’t imagine giving it up anytime soon. Admittedly, I did much more wrenching in 2023 than I expected, although since most tasks were fairly small projects, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that the little things add up. Unsurprisingly, my high-mileage BMW 325i enjoyed the bulk of garage attention, so let’s start there.
The headlights that came on the car were quite oxidized, so a set of used replacement ROW-spec units without the amber retroreflectors were sourced, installed, and aimed. Sure, they set me back a few hundred bucks, but better visibility at night is worth it. Add in dirt-cheap new side markers and the fog lights I replaced in 2022, and the lighting situation on this thing is looking fresh. At the same time, I performed an oil change, because that’s just regular maintenance.
Next up came sorting the steering system. A small leak had developed at the rack’s pinion input seal, and since “while you’re in there” is one hell of a drug, I ended up going with a remanufactured OE Bosch steering rack, a brand new steering shaft, and brand new tracking rod ends. The result? An old car that steers like brand new. Did I spend an amount with a comma on it? Sure. Am I ever selling this thing? Not if I can help it. Shortly after, I chucked in some new rear dampers in Alpina specification, because why not? The car’s old, and dampers are cheap.
Once the mechanicals were sorted, I treated the 325i to new underseat subwoofers to replace the worn-out factory units. If you’re handy with AliExpress, you can often find car parts hocked by expensive brand names at discount prices, and that’s precisely what I went with. The new units simply dropped in, and were about $200 well-spent.
The factory rear bumper cover was properly gouged, so I ended up popping for an M Sport replacement. Admittedly, I haven’t got around to painting it properly, with just a thin coat of paint and clear on the bumper for visualization. The goal is to eventually have a whole respray done, so I’m not terribly fussed about the somewhat satin finish for now. Speaking of cosmetics, I also re-dyed the steering wheel, to brilliant results.
Oh, and then there’s the ongoing process of stripping surface rust from the underbody. I managed to do the pinch welds, sills, and inner arches myself for pennies on the dollar, but I’ll have to drop the fuel tank next year to get at the surface corrosion behind the fuel tank. Thankfully, there’s no massive scale, so this chassis is definitely receiving to treatment. The end goal is a fun three-season rainy weather, autocross, trackday, and airport run car, as this thing hasn’t been out on snowy roads for a couple years. Yep, I own two cars and drive neither in the winter. I am very smart.
As for the Boxster, it’s only required an oil change, although I did add an auxiliary audio port to the back of the factory head unit and replace a worn shift boot. Everything else has fallen under cleaning, although I will eventually need to bake open the headlights to replace the discolored inner lenses once replacement parts are in stock. It’s nice owning one well-sorted car, as from a mechanical standpoint, it’s really just a case of keeping up with maintenance.
So, what wrenching do I have planned for next year? Well, the Boxster needs new tires and the aforementioned inner headlight lenses. I also need to replace a vanity mirror as it’s irritating me. Cheap and cheerful stuff, for the most part. As for the 325i, the body restoration process will continue, and it’ll be getting new discs, pads, front drop links, M3 front control arms, and some other special sauce I’m working on. More on that in a future update.
With that, I turn it over to you. What wrenching did you accomplish last year? Whether several little projects or something big, I’d love to hear your 2023 wrenching wrapped, if that makes any sense.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
1939 Chev Master 85 Businessman Coupe – dd: Slid into a concrete abutment on black ice – (Merry Christmas 2022). Rechrome front bumper, replace bumper brackets – rechrome back bumper (just because) – powder coat bumper brackets.
1965 Ranchero: changed the oil (not by me) to Lucas Hot Rod with zinc.
2001 Honda Accord V6 Coupe – son hit a deer at 115 km. Driver side fender and inner liner, hood, hood hinges, hood latch release cable, hood struts, driver side mirror, battery, air cleaner, air handling box, driver side headlight assembly including connectors, battery, zip ties on tear on bumper cover, brackets replaced and/or straightened.
2019 Volt: oil change – not by me.
Nothing. It’s built Toyota Tough.
2020 BMW X3M40i – Nothing required
2016 BMW M4 – Nothing required
2011 BMW Z4 35i- Water pump and thermostat
2011 X3 28i – Right side electric hatch lift strut
It was a bad year for my truck. Last winter the active grille shutters died, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to DIY diagnose it and had to take it in. Replacing them is simple, but the part is expensive (because diesel, so it’s a unique part from the less expensive gas version) and by the time I paid for that and the diagnosis I just let them replace it.
Then over the summer some bolts holding the exhaust rusted through and dropped a hot exhaust pipe on something expensive. That might have been the most expensive repair I’ve had to do on it in nine years. 🙁
Daily is Toyota 4runner. Zero repairs.
Oh my. I’m down to one vehicle at the moment and it’s been a peach this year. 2014 GMC Sierra 264000 miles.
Done:
Transmission rebuild
Timing chain
Oil pump
High pressure fuel pump
Fuel injectors
Vacuum pump
Torque converter upgrade
Transmission thermostat upgrade
Thermostat
Temp sensor harness
Wheel bearing
Lower control arms
Sway bar bushings & links
Still to do:
All 4 shock absorbers
Upper control arms
Turn or Replace front brake rotors
Catalytic converters
R53- Head gasket, camshaft, timing set, rotors, pads, cat-back(the guy I bought it from had straight piped it so the drone was appalling), adjustable control arms in the rear(it was also lowered incorrectly by the previous owner), supercharger service and porting, ported and polished the head, supercharger horns. I think that’s about it, I’ve finally been able to start reassembly recently but now the weather has made working on it nigh impossible until it stops snowing and I get temps above 35 degrees.
1990 F350- Basic tune up stuff like plugs, wires, distributor cap, etc.
Buick Apollo- Still need to get started on that one but need my MINI back on the road first.
Manco Dingo- New motor, brake, seat cushion, paint.
2023 was the year spent on my 96 Jeep XJ. Aside from the trans tunnel, I rebuilt the entire floor front to back. And parts of the uniframe, front seat mounts, side rails under the doors, tailgate seal area. Fabbed all the pieces from steel I bought from work for $250, otherwise it would have cost a fortune. And then the “while I’m at it” parts – new fuel pump, tank, straps, and shocks, new fluids. And just before new years, I put in a set of H4 headlight housings, and replaced some other burned bulbs. This year I still gotta do the rockers, but that’s it for rust repair. Front U joints are worn but I’ll see if I can get through winter since I don’t go far. If not then I’ve got the parts and I’ll brave the cold.
Only work I did on my other cars in 2023 was put new tires on the Celebrity. This year I’d like to fix the little bit of rust and do a DIY repaint, as it’s extremely sunburnt. Last time I did that was 2006.
And since the rear brakes are finally worn out on the Cutlass wagon, I’d like to convert it to rear discs like I did on the Celebrity and several other A bodies.
Well, last week, I replaced the drum brakes in my 92 XJ… yeah, I know it’s 2024, but I bought it all in 2023.
In addition to a number of fleet-maintenance oil changes and tire rotations, I was actually able to tie up a number of other odds and ends in 2023:
1982 Jaguar XJ6: Started to replace the stereo… never finished, but the old one is out. Fixed a fuel-smell in the interior by un-clogging the vents by the filler necks. Also changed out the transmission fluid from the non-original 700r4 using the vaccu-suck via the dipstick method. Did the filter a couple of year ago, so didn’t see the need to open it up again even though the fluid was surprisingly dirty once again.
1987 Corvette: Helped my daughter (her first car!) replace the odd-branded spark plugs with factory OEM-style ones. Runs much better now.
1994 Fleetwood: Replaced a leaky oil-cooler line, valve cover gaskets, some random rubber hoses, and the PCV valve. Also slapped on a shiny new set of mustard-and-mayo Vogue tires just before leaving for a Christmas-run to Florida with a side trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky for one of the last runs of the Corvette factory tour (very cool btw). Made the drive much more pleasant – the Hankook whitewalls still looked pretty good, but the date code showed them to be 14 years old (yikes) and highway speeds were producing various small vibrations.
1995 Escort: New flex-connection pipe for the exhaust along with a new rubber-piece between the filler neck and the fuel tank as the old one had started leaking fuel whenever I’d fill it up.
1999 F-250: Way overdue tune-up with a set of new coils and spark plugs. Pretty sure the originals were still in there – the improvement was remarkable. Also fixed the janky shifter handle and it now goes into and indicates the correct gear. Two new 10-ply tires on the back has it back to doing truck-stuff.
2000 Jaguar XK8: Changed the “forever” fluid and filter in the transmission. Also did the spark plugs, serpentine belt, and the fuel regulator.
2003 Trailblazer: This dumb thing – replaced two bad coil-packs, a fuel filter, two solenoids in the transmission along with the fluid and filter and checked/diagnosed a number of other things. Still doesn’t run worth a damn. Down to either a plugged cat or maybe a bad crank sensor. Sitting out back awaiting warmer weather and more free time.
2012 Volt: Rear brake pads and rotors. They didn’t actually wear out, but instead saw so little use that the pads came off their base on both sides and begin making interesting noises in their newfound positions. One of the rotors ended up extremely gouged in the process.
2014 Spark: Had to replace a leaky coolant reservoir tank. Also did the spark plugs as a preventive item.
Honorable mention: Found some cheap Ebay-special tires for my ’66 Biscayne, but unfortunately never found the time to actually get the car out of storage and the new tires are currently sitting under my cousin’s ’72 Beetle, another project I didn’t get around to finishing in 2023.
Another XK8 owner here – badass!
Hell yeah! I’m looking highly forward to your XK8 content (editors – please assign some XK8 content to Stephen). Also, I didn’t mention in the list up there, but I was missing the right-front fender emblem and that only took three months of patient ebay-lurking to find a decent replacement for under $70.00. I’m also hoping I never break a headlight. Mechanicals haven’t been bad so far, but trim parts $uck. Hoping to (successfully) do the dreaded timing-chain(s)/water pump/etc. replacement this spring.
1998 Jeep 5.9 Limited:
New front wheel hubs and tie-rods (still needs an alignment, but that’s scheduled)
New heater blend door actuator
New wiper blades
New battery
LOTS of cleaning (bought it from behind a barn the day before Easter)
1977 Cutlass:
Maintenance and cleaning only
1998 Mazda B-4000:
New front brake pads and rotors
New alternator
On the 128i:
On my son’s 20-year-old E46:
2009 Mercedes-Benz CLK350
At the 105,000 mile annual service – it needed a “B Service” (Less than $500), as well as new TPMS sensors on all 4 wheels (over $1200, parts & labor)
This beats 2022 where in addition to it’s regular A Service and a few other minor things, I needed a new differential – because MBUSA in their ultimate wisdom never called out for a fluid change for non-AMG cars.
Ever.
And the MN dealer service departments never recommended a fluid change – even when it started making low growling noises.
Weirdly, I didn’t have to fix anything. Oil changes aside, my cars just worked. Clearly that can’t stay true forever, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
That said, I did upgrade the headlights on the two oldest in the fleet (Holley Retrobright 4x6s on the Monte Carlo, United Pacific 5.75s on the Delta 88, both massive improvements over halogen sealed beams), so there’s that.
380SL: replaced the fuse for the fan and HVAC compressor a few times…
ATS-V: 2 oil changes, and a new set of tires
Thankfully the cars have been happy to just do what they they’ve been doing this year. The bicycles on the other hand…
All City Zig Zag: New to me this year, so new Thompson polished seat post, polished whiskey parts co 120mm stem and 42cm bars, new tape, swapped to a newer 175mm crankset, 65mm Carbon wheel set with new brake rotors and pads.
Marin Stelvio: New cassette and new rings, new tape and new chain
Scott Addict: Painfully expensive dura-ace parts, months of dealing with Di2 battery drain issues saw a new battery, lots of things taken apart, and finally a new wireless unit.
Canondale Topstone: Some new derailleur hangars, chain, and a took apart an older wheel set and had it built up using the just fine hubs to get polished silver 650b hoops into a stupid fun “skinny MTB” wheel set.