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mobius · 03-30-2015, 02:17 AM

I really enjoy this forum the more and more I use it. This is a great writeup and helped me with the odd bits of doing an overhaul like this. I completed it this weekend. It took me two weekends of time not spending all day and taking my time labeling everything. I have to got to say, if you can take out as much as possible. It makes things so much easier although it does add to your removal and put back together time. I figured why not do other stuff when I've got the car taken apart as much as I have. Note it does help that my 318ti is not my daily and can stand to be worked on slowly. The biggest pain of this job was that rear coolant connector, everything else was simple in comparison. I ended up taking out the air vent grating, the metal cowl that goes around that area and moving the main harness box further back into that area. This gave me more wiggle room to get my hands into remove the connector. I recommend removing the secondary air pump so you can then easily remove the alternator. My alternator was coming out anyways as the main bearing in it is very noisy and likely on its way out, thus needing a rebuild. Removing both of these parts makes the starter bolts simple. I used a 3/8" rachet with a 7" wobble extension with a swivel joint on the end. It made removing the bolts pretty simple to do after a good spray down with pb blaster. I never had to get under the car except for removing / reinstalling the drain plug on the block and the drain spigot on the radiator. I have a question though for those that know. The secondary air pump valve that sits on the left front of the engine (mines an m44) has a 1/8" diameter rubber hosing that looks to run under the car to the fuel filter area. My question is it normal or even good for there to be two round inline cartridge filters on this hosing run? I need to replace this hosing run as it's cracking in a few places.

03-30-2015, 02:17 AM	#165
mobius Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Maine Posts: 55 iTrader: (0) Photo Gallery	Great Writeup! I really enjoy this forum the more and more I use it. This is a great writeup and helped me with the odd bits of doing an overhaul like this. I completed it this weekend. It took me two weekends of time not spending all day and taking my time labeling everything. I have to got to say, if you can take out as much as possible. It makes things so much easier although it does add to your removal and put back together time. I figured why not do other stuff when I've got the car taken apart as much as I have. Note it does help that my 318ti is not my daily and can stand to be worked on slowly. The biggest pain of this job was that rear coolant connector, everything else was simple in comparison. I ended up taking out the air vent grating, the metal cowl that goes around that area and moving the main harness box further back into that area. This gave me more wiggle room to get my hands into remove the connector. I recommend removing the secondary air pump so you can then easily remove the alternator. My alternator was coming out anyways as the main bearing in it is very noisy and likely on its way out, thus needing a rebuild. Removing both of these parts makes the starter bolts simple. I used a 3/8" rachet with a 7" wobble extension with a swivel joint on the end. It made removing the bolts pretty simple to do after a good spray down with pb blaster. I never had to get under the car except for removing / reinstalling the drain plug on the block and the drain spigot on the radiator. I have a question though for those that know. The secondary air pump valve that sits on the left front of the engine (mines an m44) has a 1/8" diameter rubber hosing that looks to run under the car to the fuel filter area. My question is it normal or even good for there to be two round inline cartridge filters on this hosing run? I need to replace this hosing run as it's cracking in a few places.