OWNER Kridre (400E)

[Kridre]

Good news!

I installed the new erling gasket because this is what I had laying around and there is no leaks for now. I didn't replaced the filter because it didn't arrive on time before me going on the vacation. I just replaced the transmission fluid because I used the yellow atf to get the car back home. I ordered the wrong type fluid and didn't had time to wait for correct type to arrive.

Now for the bad news. I wanted to get the drive shaft sorted and indeed the u-joint is bad, also the center bearing was starting to go bad and I already replaced it 40kkm ago. Now I bought the SKF bearing. We will see how long it lasts, the rubber support is still looking brand new so I just reused it again.

I wanted to get the u-jont replaced at the same day, so I drove 200km to get it fixed and the guy told me that they will not get it done today and I need to wait few days... I called them the day before and they told me that they can do it on the same day, so I wasted 5h to deliver the drive shaft myself. Now I need to wait for it to arrive by mail. I hope it wil arrive in one piece and correctly assembled. I really don't trust anyone to do anything nowadays.



Now for the really bad news. I wanted to finally replace the o2 sensor because I had the exhaust out of the car. Sadly no matter how much heat and wd-40 i used the o2 sensor wouldn't move. I finally used the impact gun and o2 sensor finally moved and I got it out with threads... I wanted to use the recoil and fix it. Nothing easier I did it many times before, so I grabbed my 18.5mm drill aaaand nothing. Drill burned and I didn't accomplish anything so I bought cobalt drill and finally drilled the hole to make threads for the recoil. Sadly the hole was probably destroyed after my first drilling attempt and when I cut the new threads I somehow did it at an angle that is not 90 degrees. So when I screwed the new o2 sensor is was crooked really bad. Now I'm waiting for the new o2 sensor bung and will get it welded...



Lastly this is how rear febi exhaust hangers look like after 10 years. I bought the MB hangers now, the rest I replaced with MB long time ago.

 

[gsxr]

I really don't trust anyone to do anything nowadays

ME NEITHER! WHich is why I do 99.44% of all work myself.

Glad you have almost everything sorted out now. The O2 sensor threads are a bummer though!

 

[lowman]

Rarely the bung threads going bad ,but rather the threads from the sensor that tears,and making it look bad.
Ive done this, on 5 500e's, and it has been the case everytime.

As a matter of fact, i did this job yesterday....on my spare front exhaust section, which im building up with new cats.
So a rethread is all they need,and this one was stuck like a motherT%%&er,,,as you can see on the threads...

 

[Kridre]

God dammit, you're right @lowman I was thinking the threads stripped out completely and now that I think about it I didn't check if the o2 sensor would screw in and just grabbed the tap to rethread the bung. I think my brain stopped functioning in that time because I never had the m18x1.5 tap so I might have grabbed the m16 and I was incorrectly thinking that the bung was destroyed.

Well, let's pretend it never happened.

New bung is now welded and the car is back together. Drive shaft is now flawless, but there is still some vibrations at highway speeds. My last suspect is the wheels. I will swap the rims for the second set of 8-hole 16x7 rims after I will finally send them to get refurbished and maybe this will finally fix the vibrations.

 

[Kridre]

Update, vibrations are the same as before. When the car sits for two weeks the vibrations are really bad. After driving for 10-15 minutes they are almost gone. I don't get it. What can cause this weird behavior? I was thinking that maybe the upper oil pan is not correctly aligned with transmission bell housing, but if this was the case the vibrations would be different at different rpm and not in one speed range 100-130km/h like I have. I also had this issue before whole engine restoration, but I think vibrations were not that bad.

My other guess is the wheels as I previously mentioned and maybe the axle shafts that are now NLA, atleast in EU.

IDK why it's only appearing after the car is not driven for a while, this is really strange and I can hear the vibrations resonate through the whole chassis.

 

[gsxr]

My other guess is the wheels as I previously mentioned and maybe the axle shafts that are now NLA, atleast in EU.

IDK why it's only appearing after the car is not driven for a while, this is really strange and I can hear the vibrations resonate through the whole chassis.

Vibration that goes away after 10-15 mins of driving sounds like tires to me. What brand/model tires are mounted, and what is the date code / age?

Rear axle shafts superceded to a new part number (with ASR, anyway) but those are still available new (link) - just expensive. Not sure about non-ASR axle shafts, I haven't checked.

 

[Kridre]

I'm running dunlop sportmaxx front and rear. I bought new set in 2024 so date code is probably 2023 or 2022. I will maybe get them balanced with road test somewhere with refurbished wheels and we will see. I can also myabe pump them to 45 psi when I don't drive the car and see what happens. I had the same problem before changing the tyres last year.

I didn't had the new P/N glad they're available, but the price hurts, 1800euro per piece.

 

[Kridre]

Another update, this car won't give me a break.

Right now the engine developed the rough idle problem when at stand still in D or R to the point that I got abs and asr light on the dash. So I decided to read the codes, I got few of them but I will see what will come back. After that I was thinking that maybe it finally time to replace the caps in the engine computer. So I did exactly that. I used Panasonic caps because this were the only ones that I relatively trusted and could buy. They are rated for 5000h at 105 degrees celsius.



Today another drive and issue is still there, fine when cold, bad when warm and sometimes the issue magically goes away. I ordered new F8DC4 plugs so this is my next step. After that maybe I will install my old computer without WOT and see what happens.

I wonder is new O2 sensor could be the issue here, but I don't think so.

Here are the codes that I got today after clearing everything.



Nothing major, but pin 8 and code 5 is not good (max temperature in control box exceeded). I tested the fan for control box and it's not working. I will fix this ASAP, I wonder if it's repairable.

Of course it's NLA, P/N A124-830-09-08

​

 

[Kridre]

I removed the box fan and after few love taps it came back to life. Just for the sake of it I disassembled it to see if there are any brushes in the motor to replace, but I think this is brushless motor so not that much that can go wrong here.

 

[TerryA]

@Kridre,
Have you checked for a vacuum leak? That’s a great possibility. OR maybe motor mounts but didn’t you just put this car together? I’m sure motor mounts is a far reach.

What about distributor caps & rotors?

 

[Kridre]

@Kridre,
Have you checked for a vacuum leak? That’s a great possibility. OR maybe motor mounts but didn’t you just put this car together? I’m sure motor mounts is a far reach.

What about distributor caps & rotors?

I don't really suspect any vacuum leaks, but if new plugs will not help I will check.

I'm planning to replace caps and rotors next year. They have 10 years and I think 60kkm done already. I don't really know what service interval is on them but 10 years is good enough.

Of course I replaced the motor mounts.

Funny thing is that today I did drop the wheels to be refurbished and the unstable idle didn't appear. I did around 100miles. So the issue is not consistent.

This is the second issue as of today that is appearing at random. Other issue is that sometimes I have a little miss fire or stumble every 2-3 seconds when driving. This happens maybe 3-5 times a year and it's totally gone after restart.