Yesterday I confirmed their sage advice, but it took awhile... 8-)

I started out in the morning and my goal was to clean the contacts on sensors connected to the radiator on Kate's bimmer, but my work diverged several times in the process.

Am I the only one who gets diverted to perform other "fixes" while working on a car?

I began by removing the air cleaner assembly, so I could access all the wires easier. As I was lifting out the assembly I noticed the lower portion was disconnected from the base that connects to the right fender wall (rivets were broken). So I replaced that air cleaner assembly with a better one we had as a spare. In the process I cleaned the entire assembly including outside of the air flow meter, the connecting tubing, the AFM contacts, and replaced the air filter while I was at it (Mahle).

After the air cleaner assembly was out I could see the beautiful manner in which the spark plug wires were laid out along the side of the cylinder head, a wonderful display of craftsmanship. I couldn't help spending a few minutes appreciating the well-engineered construction of this fine automobile... 8-)

Then I snapped out of it and realized I hadn't checked the plugs even once since we bought the car over a year ago... we haven't put many miles on the car since then, so I forgave myself, but decided I'd better take the wires off, inspect them, clean and maybe service the plugs while I was at it... what the heck.

As I was working on the plug wires I found a portion of the insulation on wire #6 was getting a little on the bare side. Repaired the insulation on that wire and made a mental note to order a new wire set one of these days, even though the original set still looks pretty good. Then I removed the spark plugs. Hey, CAN YOU BELIEVE the engine was still running smoothly even with plug gaps at 0.060"? They're suppose to be set at 0.029"!! Simply amazing!

Anyway, I cleaned the plugs, polished them, cleaned the top contacts and lubricated contacts with DeoxIT, set the gaps to .029, applied a small amount of anti-seize compound to a few of the threads on the lower portion of each plug, reinserted them, finger tightened, and then torqued 'em to 20 ft-lbs. Made a note to order 6 new plugs, as these were getting darn close to their end of life... not much center electrode left at all.

Once the spark plugs were replaced and the wires nicely stored away in the nifty channel container, I thought I could FINALLY begin the process of cleaning the contacts on the radiator temperature sensor.... but wait! Then I noticed a little bit of insulation "protector" was missing from some of the wiring that goes to the hood light, sooooooooooo...... well, you get the picture.

That's pretty much how the work progressed all throughout the day. Going from one project to another, always thinking I was about to begin work on that initial task of cleaning the temperature sensor contacts. Don't ask me how I also ended up changing the oil as part of this day's work, but somehow I did! LOL [BTW, I used Mobil 1. I've heard it's a pretty good synthetic oil. And I can buy it in 5-quart jugs at Walmart or other discount stores for a pretty good price.]

Sometime in the late afternoon I finally accessed and cleaned the contacts on those sensors connected to the right-lower-rear face of the radiator.

I used a mild solvent from my solvent tank on a rag to clean the general area first (got most of the oil and dirt off the air conditioning lines, wires, and other surfaces). Then I disconnected the terminals, after labeling a couple of them with some "marker wire ties" (I've found these are really handy), and cleaned them with MG Chemicals "Electrosolve Contact Cleaner," a zero residue, fast dry, nonconductive cleaner that's safe on plastics and comes in an aerosol can. I think I got it from radioshack.com.

As a final treatment to the contacts, I used DeoxIT, a liquid cleaner/lubricant which I also got from RS. I use the form that's sold in little plastic bottle (25 ml) with a long metal tube that allows me to dispense very small quantities right where I want the stuff. I like using it, and I guess my contacts like it, too... because the temperature gauge, which "quit working" earlier, has come back to life!

Amazing how happy and cooperative those electrical components will be when you treat 'em well... LOL

Just wanted to share my Saturday "diversions" with you. Hope you didn't get too bored, if you read this far, my friends. Have a good one, Rick

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Rick & Kate Johnson
Venice Ranch, Burns, Oregon
http://home.centurytel.net/venice/
1985 735i (Wife's); 1985 745i (Son's)