Three problems solved - onto the next (archive)

Having the week off gave me time to attack some the the gremlins that had been on my to do list for my wife's 89 735iL. Unfortunately it wasn't enough time to take care of all the problems but I thought I would post them and what I did to take care of them in hopes they may help someone else.

1) Transmission shifts from 1st to 2nd at 3500 RPMs (normally around 2000-2500 RPMs) and would shift hard until it warmed up. At first I thought it was low fluid but fluid level checked out OK.

I went through three iterations of draining the transmission fluid in the pan after driving around for 25-30 miles. (Be sure to used metric allen wrenches as I first attempted with a standard and thought I was stripping the drain plug.) I then drove around about 750 miles and drained the fluid and replaced the filter. Shifts real good now. I used synthetic in hopes it may clean some inards up but still up in the air if synthetic is good for the seals?

2) Drivers side window would make a rachet sound as the window is almost closed

I replaced the window regulator and upon removal of the old one I noticed some teath were worn down at about the spot the rachet sound would have been occuring. Works great now.

3) Passenger side lock would not go up or down with the central locking system.

I removed the central locking system actuator and the door lock and noticed that both parts seemed to work when independant of each other. Turns out the the rod that connects the two has a little gasket that makes the top of the rod fit snug into a hole in the actuator. This gasket had apparently come out of the hole leaving a lot of play and the lever wouldn't move enough up and down to unlock and lock the door lock. Put gasket back in and squeezed the top hook part of the rod a little tighter so the gasket wouldn't come out again. Even thought this was time comsuming it was a CHEAP fix, I like!

Though I was getting ahead of the problems when my wife notified my the odometer, fuel guage, temp guage, and shifter identifier are not working - sounds like a capacitor fix is in the near future.

Thanks to all whose posts helped me make the above fixes. I couldn't have done it on my own without them.

Scott Warnock

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Gotta LUV the board Roxxy 00:38 9/09/2001 (0)

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