someguynamedross.com
Various ramblings - Electronics, radio, old computers, cars & other junk...
Cars
Here you'll find the various cars I own, or have previously owned. If you click on the pictures, a full size version will be shown. If you click on show/hide, extra pictures will be shown under each section. These require that javascript is enabled.
Holden SS Commodore
2003 VY Series II SS Sedan, Silver - Owned from February 2010 to Present
While I'll never regret buying the E39, I was never truly happy with it.
It looked great, but it wasn't as comfortable as I had hoped and it was also a bit of a boat when thrown into corner (the steering response wasn't what you'd expect in a BMW, dull would be a good word to describe it...).
The performance of the car was also a big disappointment, the engine just wasn't up to the task of pushing the 1600kg tank around.
Another big thing that bugged me about the E39 was the auto transmission.
It was nice to drive around town in and at first I kept telling myself that it wasn't such a compromise compared to a manual gearbox, but as soon as you pushed it beyond leisurely city/suburban driving the delays and jumpiness you typically have in an auto make themselves very well known.
After a small scare where I thought the transmission was going to give up on me (and the mini heart attack I had while researching replacement options), I decided to look into ditching the E39.
The E39 was the last BMW that I could look at without throwing up in my mouth a little bit, and at that stage I didn't want to look at anything older than the E39.
My brother purchased a 2004 V8 Commodore about 3 months before I started looking, and naturally when he brought it home I had to take it for a spin to "test" the V8.
I was blown away, with the performance and the overall fit and finish of the car.
Holden had improved their cars so much compared to the Commodore my brother once owned, and this was the very first time I seriously considered buying a Holden.
After some more research I decided that an SS would be good purchase (price vs features), and was well within my budget (give or take a few thousand of what I could sell the E39 for).
Long story short I found a nice SS, and a few weeks later was the proud owner of the car below.
BMW 530i Sport
2001 E39 530i Sport Saloon, Topaz Blue - Owned from November 2008 to March 2010
It was sad to leave my 320i at the dealer, but I was almost too busy grinning like an idiot while driving away in this.
The 530i has an M54 engine, which has dual VANOS (variable cam timing on the intake and exhaust cams, fully variable).
With 170kw and 300Nm, it's much more grunty than the 320i, and even with the extra weight and auto transmission is great fun to drive.
DICE iPod integration kit show/hide
After getting sick of the CD stacker in the boot and comercial radio (only took 3 days), I decided I needed to find some other way to get music in the car. After poking around forums, I decided on a DICE iPod integration kit. It ties in with the stock BMW radio, displays text on the screen and allows you to control an iPod from the radio and wheel controls.
Install was easy, just needed to run a cable from the boot to the DICE module behind the centre console. There is a great series of videos on youtube here (7 parts in total, check the related videos for the others) which shows you step by step what you need to do.
Still getting the hang of navigating through the radio/DICE interface, but it all works very well and sure beats listening to CD's
BMW 320i
1994 E36 320i Saloon, Morea Green - Owned from December 2006 to November 2008
My first BMW, and certainly not my last. The 320i has an M50 engine, in my case the M50TUB20 (Technical Update), which has VANOS (variable cam timing on the intake cam). The 2.0L engine is a bit under powered for the weight of the car (110kW/190Nm, 1335KG's), but it loves revs, and aslong as you keep it above 3k, it's great fun to drive.
Dead fuel pump show/hide
A few days after I had solved my DME issues, my fuel pump died.
I knew I was going to be up for a replacement at some point as the pump had been groaning on and off for about 6 months, perfect time for it fail...
I jumped in the car to drive home from work, went to start the car and had no luck.
I started freaking out, thinking that the replacement DME had failed.
Once common sense kicked in I started to troubleshoot the problem, and blame finally came to rest on the fuel pump.
My dad had told me once that you can somtimes get a failing fuel pump to kick over if you give it some encouragement.
I pulled the rear seat up, gave the pump a few thumps with my tow hook and I was able to start the engine.
I let it run for a few minutes before heading off, but about 500m up the road it failed for good.
Another trip on a tow truck (second one in less than 2 months...), and I was home.
No pictures of the changeover sorry, flash photography probably isn't wise near an open fuel tank...
The brown/red staining on the old pump is probably varnish buildup from petrol.
As a bonus my fuel gauge is now much more accurate, the pump module doubles as the fuel gauge sender.
Bad coil packs and failed DME show/hide
Driving home from a friends place one night, my car started behaving strangely. It was down on power, shuddering and severely bogging down on take off. I had it towed to my mechanic, and he discovered that two of my coil packs had died and taken the DME (engine management computer) out too. He sent it away to be repaired by a company that specialises in DME repair. I picked the car up a couple of days later, and the it was very hard to start, coughing and spluttering for 20-30 seconds before finally starting. Once idling, it ran fine, apart from a hesitation on take-off. My mechanic was told by the ECU repair company that this was normal, and that it should clear up after a week or two (DME needed to recalibrate itself to the sensors in my car). In the end, it turned out that even though they had repaired the major issue (a blown up output transistor that drove one of the coil packs), it was still faulty. They sent a technician out to diagnose further, and he discovered that the circuitry responsible for dealing with the crank position sensor was faulty. After stuffing about trying to get them to give me my money back for a repair that wasn't complete (I ended up getting some money back), I was left with a faulty DME. After weeks of calling wreckers and scouring the internet, I finally tracked down a second hand DME. I plugged it in, problem solved!
Rear Shock Mounts show/hide
Like clockwork, my rear shock mounts failed. Very easy to replace and pretty cheap too. You know you're due for new ones when you hear a clunking sound from the rear of the car. Very simple job that any DIY mechanic can knock over in a few hours. I didn't think to take any photo's when I replaced them, but here are the failed ones. They make the clunking noise because the shock isn't solidly attached to the car anymore, there is a small amount of play when the metal and rubber separate. The worst one could move about 2-3mm in either direction
Painted VANOS Cover show/hide
Finally got around to painting the VANOS/Rocker Cover on my engine. Pretty much every M50/M52 engine I have ever seen has had cracked and flaking paint here. Most of the paint on mine had already fallen off, so I removed the rest and painted it with some high temperature paint.
Painted Hubs & New Tyres show/hide
Another quick one to tidy the car up. My car had rusty wheel hubs, thought it was about time I fixed that. Quick cleanup with a wire brush, some high-temp spray paint and things are looking much better.
Replacement window regulator show/hide
Few pictures of the window regulator that decided to tear itself apart. The window made a loud clunk when I closed it, opened the windows to check what happened and it jumped out of the track and got stuck. The replacement regulator cost $110 from a BMW wrecker.
New Speakers + Subwoofer show/hide
Clarion 5.25" splits. The back speaker boxes required a fair bit of modification as the original speakers were smaller than the replacements (strange size between 4" and 5.25"), the front speakers were a direct swap without mods. The sub is a cheap 8" speaker in a DIY MDF ported box.
Nissan Pulsar
1989 N13 Nissan Pulsar Hatchback, Silver-ish - Owned from November 2006 to January 2008
Friend of a friend's daughter had recently gotten a new car and wanted to get rid of her old one.
My dad jumped on the chance to get a run-about for my sister to learn to drive in.
My sister didn't use it during the week, so started usign it for work (rather than putting a heap of KM's on my E36).
It looked like crap, but it ran well. This model was the Pulsar Q, a "performacne" model which is similar to the sedan style Pulsar SSS.
It had a 1.8L fuel injected engine, it also had a viscous LSD (but by the time we got it the LSD was toast, silicon oil wears out and it becomes a regular open differential) and disc brakes all round.
Despite its looks, it was a very dependable car. The only major issues were cooling system related, had to replace the radiator and a few leaking hoses.
The car had 267,000 km's on it when we got it, and we sold it about 15 months later with 306,000 on it.
The onyl serious mechanical trouble I had with the car was with the catalytic converter.
The ceramic slug broke free from the casing and managed to flip itself sideways, partially blocking the exhaust.
Had it towed home, grabbed a "new" catalytic converter from pick-a-part that weekend and was back on the road for work on Monday.
Ford Laser
1989 KE Ford Laser GL Hatchback, White - Owned from January 2006 to December 2006
My first car. I put about 50,000km's on it in the 11 months I owned it, all that went wrong in that time was an intermittent starter motor and busted radiator.
If you're a DIY mechanic, pick-a-part has rows of these cars. You can even get a lot of parts from mazda 323's of similar vintage.
It may not be the best looking car, but it more than makes up for that in its reliability.
When I purchased this car, it was in a pretty sad state. The previous owners didn't even bother to wash it when I first looked at it.
I was pretty keen on getting a car, and this one seemed to be in the best condition and have the most potential.
Pretty early on I ditched the factory tape deck and speakers, replaced various worn trim (door handles were that classic powdery plastic) and installed a dash cluster with a tacho.
The GL version of the Laser came from the factory with a big ugly clock instead of a tacho....
For a laugh, I also installed some air horns. Not my proudest moment, it seemed like a good idea at the time ;)
More Laser pics show/hide
Some more pictures of the Laser. I think some of these are the ones I used in the online ad.
