coupenut: Routine Maintenance and Fluids

I completed a bunch of standard maintenance items on the car. With this car, I elected to buy some parts and filters that are original equipment manufacturer, but not necessarily in BMW boxes with BMW part numbers. There is money to be saved this way.

The power steering reservoir comes with a new cap that says "CHF 11..." on it. That is the new power steering fluid BMW uses and is not right for the M coupe. M coupe should have ATF. BMW does sell a little green label that says "ATF" (part 71246798132) that is supposed to go onto the cap to cover up the printed "CHF 11...", but it is $15.84r. Even I think that is nuts. I know there is ATF in there, I know to use ATF, so I am leaving the $15 sticker off. Incidentally, the single 10mm bolt that holds the P/S reservoir to the car is a real whore to put back in place. The bolt is very short and it's hard to line up with the welded nut on the other side. The fix here is to totally remove the P/S reservoir bracket from the left side motor mount. Two 13mm bolts for this. Once completely free from the car, the P/S reservoir bracket will get a little more flexible and you can get the 10mm bolt started. I spent a stupid amount of time fiddling with the 10mm bolt before I figured this out. Incidentally, the way to bleed the P/S system is start the car and turn the wheel lock to lock several times. I removed and replaced the lower power steering hose in order to drain the maximum amount of fluid from the system.

In the process of replacing the transmission fluid I found a crack in the giubo/driveshaft flex disk so I will be replacing that in a future post.

The valve cover wasn't leaking any where and you can change spark plugs without disturbing the gasket, but I wanted to look inside the engine anyway. Very nice color and very good indications of a healthy, well-cared-for engine. So that was good news. Plus, new gaskets are fun.

I am planning to replace the radiator in this car with an S54 radiator and add an S54 oil cooler at the same time. But, I am not sure when that will be. So I am changing the coolant now just because I have the car on jackstands. ~$20 for coolant is a cheap might-as-well. I replaced the coolant drain plug with a LeatherZ / VDO drain plug so my to-be water temperature gauge can read the temperature there. More on additional gauges later.

Diff Oil, Castrol SAF-XJ, in stock bought on ebay years ago, $0.00

Diff Plug with integrated o-ring, 33117525064, $6.17r each, need 2

BMW OEM LT-2 Trans Oil, $151.73r for 5-liter jug (enough for 3 oil changes)

Fuel Filter, Mahle, FCP Euro, $20.99r

Air Filter, Hengst, FCP Euro, $11.99r

Spark Plugs, Bosch, FCP Euro, $7.99r each, need 6

Valve Cover Gasket, 11120034108, $50.67r

Oil Filler hole gasket, 11127526447, $7.25r

Rubber seal, valve cover, 11121437395, $1.16r each, need 15

BMW Drei Bond for valve cover gasket, 07589062376, $19.01r

Power Steering Reservoir with integrated filter, 32416851217, $60.63r
Power Steering Crush Washers, need 2, 32411093597

Power Steering Fluid, Redline A4 DTF, 2 liters