[uucdigest] Wednesday, September 17 2003 Volume 03 : Number 6759
_________________________________________________________________ | | Search the ARCHIVES: | http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Visit Richard Nott's Ultimate BMW Database: | http://www.bmwdatabase.com | | For all available Digest commands including unsubscribe/subscribe, | visit the BMW UUC Digest page: http://www.uucdigest.com | | Send SUBMISSIONS to [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Complaints? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you must. | Technical Problems? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] |__________________________________________________________________ In this BMW UUC Digest: [uuc] 525i electrical gremlin [uuc] RE: [E39] Argh. Brake light on E39 2000 528iT [uuc] <FS>'87 535i Manual Seats. Re: [uuc] Tire Patch Shape -- in the Snow [uuc] Re: Tire Patch Shape -- in the Snow Re: [uuc] Tire Patch Shape -- in the Snow Re: [uuc] 525i electrical gremlin ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 14:36:14 -0700 From: Kit Wetzler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] 525i electrical gremlin Hi All, my beloved 525i is having an electrical gremlin. I keep losing the radio, OBC, door activated interior light (although the other interior lights work) windows, power locks and wipers all at once. Happens pretty regularly when I shut the car off, (usually the windows, etc stay powered until I open the door). It has been happening even after I restart the car, now. Usually comes back somewhere during the drive. Any ideas? Relay somewhere dying? all the fuses are good. -kit ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 17:48:11 -0500 From: Neil Maller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] RE: [E39] Argh. Brake light on E39 2000 528iT on 9/16/03 4:28 PM, "Dennis Liu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > When replacing the pads, I noticed that the rubber boot covering the piston > on one front caliper had a small tear in it. After retracting the piston to > put new pads in, the boot was so compressed, you couldn't see the tear. > > Query - how important is it to replace this boot? It's very important. > Will the brake dust destroy the seals on the piston? The problem is water, which will corrode the brake piston and perhaps the caliper bore. > Secondary query - this SHOULD be covered under warranty, no? Beats me. > I have no idea how the boot could be torn; it seems like an awfully strange > place for a tear to develop. If not, how difficult is it to replace the seal > myself? Not difficult as such, but it's fiddly, messy and time consuming. You have to take the caliper off the car, blow the piston out, and renew the seals. A new dust boot cannot be inserted with the piston still in the bore. Neil 96 M3 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:02:30 -0700 (PDT) From: Alex <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] <FS>'87 535i Manual Seats. I need to sell a set of front seats from 1985 535i. They are in pearl beige leather. These seats are in an excellent condition. Leather is soft and has no crakes, holes or rips. Seats are standard (non-sport). They are manual, which are lighter then electric and easier to fix. I prefer to sell them locally (San Francisco Bay Area) because shipping is expensive. Delivery within 100 miles from San Francisco can be arranged. Will ship if necessary. Here is a link with a picture: "http://members.roadfly.org/nicto/front+seats.jpg"; Will send more pictures if needed . I am asking $400. TIA Sasha El Sobrante, CA '88 M5 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:42:51 -0400 From: "Stan Jackson Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Tire Patch Shape -- in the Snow Sure makes it easier when we converge on a mutual opinion. Not that I've ever been wrong in the past, or anything ... Strangely enough, ice racing studs (Menards, for those wondering) are generally mounted on a pretty narrow tire! On a course where there are a lot of studded vehicles (20 minimum, I would say), you get a seconary effect: instead of driving on ice, you are driving in ice chips. It actually gets to the point where custom racing studs (3/4" screws) are apparently slower than 3/8" Menards studs! I say apparently because I have never attended such an event, just seen the results and heard eye witness reports. I still stand behind the wider tire approach here (for studded tires racing on ice). I suspect that these racers and their tire providers are stuck (pun intended) in the deep snow and mud of rallies and ice races of years past. I do not think the fact that Menards are better than screws in ice chips changes the preferred tire patch shape. Wider Menards would be even faster (but maybe not, who knows!)! As for all-season versus snow, you are correct that certain all-season tires perform admirably well in winter conditions these days. However, at the very top, the best snow tires are still significantly superior on snow, packed snow, and ice. There now are snow tires which are nearly as good as all-season tires on pavement. The Nokian NRW is one of the best, but there are others. The NRW is advertised as an "all-weather" tire (between all-season and snow), but it easily meets snow tire standards and carries the Snowflake Symbol, the new criteria for snow tires. The Blizzak LM-22 should fall into that category too, if it is still available. The biggest key to dry pavement performance from a snow tire is to get away from the very low Q speed rating. Get at least H if not T or S (my order could be wrong here). You may give up a little snow performance relative to a Blizzak WS-50 or Nokian Hakkapeliitta, but since these tires are so stable on pavement, you can go with a narrower tire! So, pick one of the better all-season tires or a high speed-rated snow tire if you want good winter performance combined with good pavement performance. Stan Gary Derian answered: > > Stan, I agree mostly. > > For ice racing with studs, I'd go for the wider tire as you can rip up more > ice. For 1 inch of snow or semi packed snow where a tire leaves an imprint > of its tread pattern, new all season tires are almost as good as snow tires. > Notice the word new. Q rated studless ice tires <cough-blizzak-cough> are > scary on dry pavement but are great for driving on an ice rink. > > A narrow tire that does not need to push snow away is a major benefit in > deep snow. For ice and packed snow, wider does fine. For moderate > conditions, you don't need the best, all season tires do well. Its only > when the weather is extreme that one needs the best. If one needs to get > somewhere in the worst of conditions, driving a bit slower in dry conditions > is the price to be paid. The narrow tire packs the snow harder underneath > it. Snow is one surface that you do not want floatation. > > H rated snow tires in a reasonably wide size are a good compromise for dry > road driving in the winter. > > For mud, the tire really does need to get down there past the slop to the > more firm stuff. > > Gary Derian ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 01:34:41 -0400 From: "Stan Jackson Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] Re: Tire Patch Shape -- in the Snow Rich rote: > > STAN > > If you are on ice or hard packed snow, there will be little or no benefit to the narrower tire. > RICH > For the most part I would agree although I don't think you should forget that the contact patch is still the same > size with a narrower tire. Nope, I did not forget that the tire patch is the same size. I am saying that there is no advantage or disadvantage to wider or narrower tires on packed snow and ice. BUT there is a disadvantage to narrower tires on pavement due to tire patch shape. > RICH > I would again state that the snow tires compound and siping (especially the small siping that is done to gain more > edges within the contact patch) are most important for traction in hard packed snow and ice. Also, tires like the > Nokian offer spiral siping which tries to gain more siping without as much given up to squishy/soft tires as the > spiral sipe is supposedly more structural. HOLD ON! WAIT! You are breaking the rules of the discussion. Remember, I held ALL other variables constant. Therefore, you cannot compare different compounds or tread designs. The fact of the matter is that if we add the variable of compounds and tread designs, the shape of the tire patch becomes irrelevant. The compound and tread design factors far outweigh tire patch shape. We are only comparing various tire patch shapes for exactly equivalent tires. Basically, we are trying to decide which size snow tire to buy, NOT which brand or model to buy. > RICH > You do sacrifice some cornering with a narrower tire (which benefits in heavier snow conditions which happens > more than enough in my area to warrant narrower tires for winter), but lets be realistic, most of the winter, I am > not looking for maximum cornering, I am looking to maintain traction in inclement conditions. I am more than > willing to sacrifice some cornering on the on/off ramps and corners (<1% of my daily driving) for traction on the > highways and byways. > > STAN > > What does this all mean? Think carefully before buying a narrow snow tire. > > If it is a Q speed-rated tire (typical for a snow tire), you may find an > > exacerbated loss in dry pavement capability and little or no benefit in > > winter driving. A wider snow tire will give you better dry cornering and > > equivalent winter performance except in deeper snow. At least that is my > > best current opinion. > RICH > I would generally agree, I just choose to give up a good bit of dry pavement capability (a majority of my winter > driving) for more capability in inclement conditions where I will take as much traction as I can obtain short of > studs. YES, this is the choice. However, if you decide on "scary" Blizzak WS-50 snow tires, you should think twice about going with a narrow width, making them even scarier! On the other hand, if you go with NRW tires, you'll lose little by going narrow. I'd buy the widest WS-50 or a narrower NRW. > > STAN > > BTW, I don't go with the idea of the narrower tire cutting through to the > > solid surface below better. If that were the case, then the wider tire > > would probably be better. A wider tire would have a more difficult time > > cutting the snow out of the way, but at any given instant it would have a > > larger area of freshly exposed "solid surface" (infinitesimal length X the > > width of the tire). The solid surface would have much better traction, so > > having a wider exposed area should be significant. > RICH > I don't see how this jives with having equivalent contact patch size, regardless of the tire width so maybe I don't > understand what you mean by "freshly exposed solid surface". I do believe there are benefits to a narrower tire > as you don't give up any contact patch and you have greater ability to cut through to reach solid surfaces when the > ground cover isn't hard (non-packed snow) at the expense of sidewall rigidity/cornering (and I already stated I > am not going to be looking for significant cornering ability in the winter...colder temps, inclement weather, etc.). Think of the tires moving forward 1/1000 of an inch at a time. That first 1/1000 of an inch is the freshly exposed solid surface. Assume that only that first 1/1000 of an inch is solid surface, and that the rest of the tire is on snow. Since the wider tire has a wider patch, the wider tire has a larger area on the solid surface (but same size overall patch). This is very theoretical, and you would need to analyze the tire-to-snow-to-sold surface interaction much more carefully, but this is my generalization. > > STAN > > P.S. When braking on snow, locked wheels (which utilize the wedge of snow > > to slow the car) *can* sometimes brake as well or almost as well as ABS > > brakes in snow or loose gravel. This presumes that the snow does not smear > > into an icy surface under locked wheels, which is common but does not always > > occur. On sheer ice, ABS tends to definitely be an impediment to braking. > > The ABS cycles over and over trying to find traction that it is almost > > nonexistent -- catching most, but missing some. Locked wheels will catch > > 100% of every bit of traction they hit. > RICH > Yes, but locked wheels do not give you the ability to steer...an important function yes? > > Regards, > > Rich - enjoys tire discussions as I always learn something new. What works for one person may not work for > another. Only if you need to steer! Often, though not always, you are happy with your direction, just not your speed. When Ice Racing, this is particularly common, since you chose your direction (hopefully!). Also, letting off a bit on the brakes for a moment will eliminate lockup and give back steering control until you stomp on the brakes again. The point is becoming moot, since most cars have ABS these days. Stan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 01:37:07 -0400 From: "Stan Jackson Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Tire Patch Shape -- in the Snow Naw, that is when it gets fun! Stan Gary Derian noted: > > Hydroplaning reduces traction to nearly zero so that gets a high priority. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 23:04:27 -0700 From: Bora Akyol (BMW) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] 525i electrical gremlin Does the E34 have an SI board with the NiCad batteries that go dead/ On Tuesday, Sep 16, 2003, at 14:36 US/Pacific, Kit Wetzler wrote: > > Hi All, > > my beloved 525i is having an electrical gremlin. I keep losing the > radio, OBC, door activated interior light (although the other interior > lights work) windows, power locks and wipers all at once. Happens > pretty regularly when I shut the car off, (usually the windows, etc > stay powered until I open the door). It has been happening even after > I restart the car, now. Usually comes back somewhere during the > drive. > > Any ideas? Relay somewhere dying? all the fuses are good. > > -kit > ------------------------------ End of [uucdigest] V3 #6759 *************************** | | In memory of Michel Potheau - friend, enthusiast, founder of the BMW CCA. |________________________________________ | Please visit these UUC-approved BMW parts vendors/service providers: | (listed alphabetically) | | Autoscope-Motorsports - http://www.autoscope-motorsports.com | |==================================================== | | Koala MotorSport . BMW technical information, special tool sales/rental | http://www.koalamotorsport.com | |==================================================== | | Taylor BMW - http://www.taylorbmw.com - Doc Bimmer! | |==================================================== | Turner Motorsport Inc . 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