So yet more work but nothing too major but something that needed to be done soon as. The gearbox.
My rear undertray which covers the gearbox and the oil filter housing had seen better days. I had accidently ripped it off the mounting points but was a blessing disguise as it had been saturated in oil and I found a concerning issue, a small leak/sweat coming from the sump plug. This was pretty strange as I had the gearbox serviced 2 years ago. I did notice the sump plug had looked a little chewed.
So thought simple fix and tighten to stop it. Well it didn't fix it and after a few turns, the plug had started to continually turn. Thankfully it wasn't leaking heavily as there is an O ring seal but would need addressing. Ideally need a ramp to do this job or some sort of quick lift jacks which I will be investing in one day, I took it to a local garage to replace the lower sump and fresh fluid.
Gearbox service kit:
While it was in, the MOT was due and I'm always wondering what could the car be failed on. But trusting my instincts, thought there's nothing really it could fail on. It passed with only a few advisories which were rear brake hoses and front brake discs. The garage had said everything with the car was spot on so I'm really pleased it's had good praise. So the plan next year is to overhaul the brakes with new discs, pads, hoses, small caliper upgrade and refurbishment.
So that just left me to sort the rear belly pan undertray. Looking on RealOEM, it is specific to the V8's and there is at least 4 part numbers. When I looked up prices, it was over £100 and some £200. So I tried to find a secondhand one but breakers tend to be far out from where I live. I studied the belly pans off other models and found they all looked the same in terms of shape and mounting holes. The only difference on 6 cylinder models is they have an extra bit one side that covers a bit more. So I decided to order one new from BMW directly which was pretty cheap at £60 and the part number is 51757154142.
Once it arrived, I got on to modifying the new one to match the old. Here's the new:
Old, this was also missing the cover for the oil filter drain and filter:
So with the new one, it was a case of dremeling and cutting the excess bit of the pan on one side where its not needed along with shaping the edge and swapping over the aluminum shields from the existing ones which are held in by staples. On the new pan, you just make small holes for the staples to secure the shields.
All done and ready:
And fitted:
She was looking mean so I took a pic before taking her out the garage:
So where are we at now with this build? Well so far I am really happy with everything I've done on the car. Some of it hasn't been plain sailing but I have now reached a decent goal where I've replaced a lot of common wear items. I didn't think I would have gone this far with it but as a car enthusiast, once you start, it doesn't stop. What has been a surprise is how much I have spent on this. This was a bit of a neglected E60 with the previous owner looking to give it to webuyanycar and get whatever if he could if he was lucky. Other than that, it would have been destined for the scrap bin. So far, this car has just reached 10k in terms of spend and that is not including what I paid for it. I do look at that figure and think its quite a whopper and what was I thinking as I would never get this money back. On the other hand, its what you do when you have a love and passion for a car. This would have cost much more had I not done a lot of the jobs myself. Thanks for reading guys and will post up the next update soon.
