I love documenting the good and the bad.

last night was bad. It’s only the second time I’ve driven the car in the rain and I forgot about the ice tank deleting the cabin air filter. Blower motor is open to engine bay

well, the car had a can bus panic attack yesterday. Lots of dash lights. Made it home.

today I made a quick block off with some ABS and it’s sealed now. I don’t run the car in fresh air mode ever so this will work for now. V 2.0 will be a 3D printed version with a CLS shroud and a cabin filter.

 

Rip to my factory Bosch alternator that made it to 166k miles.

I had to swap the back plates for this new one to work.

I also put on the PLM scatter shield and bled the cooling system on the blower.

also, installed a new coolant reservoir. I expects the Mahle/behr to be German for the price but it came in from china. It’s fine but surprising.

 

Alex, just curious how you removed the alternator. Did you disconnect the passenger side motor mount bottom bolt and lift the engine a few inches or just figure out a way to wiggle the alternator out?

FWIW, I removed and rebuilt my alternator at 150K miles while I had the water pump off the car. Tight fit but the alternator would wiggle out to the front of the engine.

 

I didn’t. I just disconnected the coolant lines for the radiator and blower and it came right out.

 

I think my alternator had been going out for a while. The car is doing great. Ac and all electrical functions are back to normal. 350 miles yesterday and it’s feeling fun and less stressful.

 

Did some maintenance.

I burned up my cwa100 by rubbing it backwards. my mistake. I was wondering why I couldn’t bleed it.

I put in a cayenne hybrid pump from eBay. I can’t get the pierburg new in the states right now.

I also did my oil cooler housing gaskets. They were plastic. The o rings on the oil cooler lines aren’t leaking but I need to get those done soon.

changed the oil with liquimoly 5w40 and a Mann filter. Should be mostly leak free now.

 

The "Liquid Death" alone should be worth at least 10 horsepower...

 

This car makes me feel like a millionaire.

 

The car is running great. It’s a little warm here so I’m really keeping my heat soak expectations reasonable.

Did an all oem power steering system. My high pressure line was coming apart from the inside out.

 

More drama and progress.

Removed the underhood icetank; added a BMW power steering reservoir as the the new tank and put the factory style cabin air filter back in place.

I had water get in again after adding the CLS55 cover, so I went back to a proven sealed up option.

the car is running good after a pep talk from @bbirdwell with the new fuel pump module on the drivers side. I’ll do the passenger side soon.