one last curve ball and we’re outta there!

i don’t mean to jinx myself…

…but i think my car’s fixed. at least the problems at hand that prevented us from driving him for the last week.

yesterday the water pump pulley arrived first, so while i waited for the alternator part i decided to install the pulley. it’s four bolts, it’s fairly straight forward, and it would make feel that i’d accomplished something on poor mr. grey, who had been sitting dormant since friday night. but i quickly discovered that one of the four bolts was bent, and even doing three of the four the pulley sat wonky. i pulled it off and tried the three bolts in various positions and finally pulled it off, spun it, and even though it spun smooth i noticed something:

if you look close to the right of the pic you’ll see the 5mm solid steel disc the pulley attaches to is bent. what the fuck? if that was bent to the point of splitting the pulley (which fell apart when i took it off prompting me to order an aluminum one to replace the plastic factory one) i wonder how much longer it would have been if the alternator hadn’t forced the issue before a catastrophic failure of the whole belt system woulda happened?

i now know how to burp or bleed (depending on which diy you read) the cooling system. at first nothing leaked, but it started to drip pretty consistent after about ten minutes of idling. i could see coolant steady dripping between the radiator and the expansion tank – but that might just be pressure bleed because of overfilling during the blurping procedure. or it could be some leftover that came out of the burp screw. or it could be a leak. what i DO know is the level after said incident was still good. i drove three miles through lockhart to the store and back and the level was still good this morning. i did a lot more errands today with the temp gauge staying where it should and we’ll see what the level is after it cools. if it’s still good i’ll check it through the weekend and then consider us good, although eventually it wouldn’t mind draining and replacing with actual bmw coolant if i am now, in fact, leak free.

i’ve now got a new water pump, pulley, and bolts. the air filter is cleaned and oiled. and the issue that got me off the road friday in the first place? apparently it WAS the voltage regulator and even though the model number that came off didn’t match the part three different parts sites said it was a direct replacement (of course i checked after the amazon one arrived but really didn’t have much of a choice since the amazon order didn’t list a proper part number). after the water pump hiccup adding my receipts together from amazon and autozone i still came out about ten bucks LESS than just the two parts plus the ridiculous shipping i originally spent and have now been refunded.

not bad…but my hands fucking HATE me.