Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT TX4Runner 20x18 Garage & 40x21 in '24

[TX4runner]

Finally doing some work in the garage. Now that football is over and I’m still waiting on stuff for taxes, I finally can start on my “winter” maintenance projects. The truck is now 5 years old was told the battery was on the way out so I went to Costco and got a new one. Didn’t want to have issues before the cold front this week as well as planning to have the M3 up in the air for maintenance. Got the scanner out and reset the smart battery charging settings.

Once the truck was sorted, I got the M3 up on the quickjacks and got the brake fluid flushed out.

Initially had an incomplete seal with pressure bleeder and got brake fluid running down the reservoir. which lead lots of cleaning with brake cleaning and a delay in the actual flushing. But it’s all done. Garage is officially broken in. Now the rest of the M3 maintenance can start next weekend.

 

[jonshonda]

It's always something, and a brake fluid mess isn't something you want to half-*** clean up either. Nothing more frustrating and fun-sucking then when an easy project turns into a mess.

Very nice M3 you've got there! I've never owned a BMW but have been tempted to dip my toes into that pool. I've been thinking of trying something out a bit less "desirable" (aka expensive) then an M-car, and looking into the 128i's. They seem like a mini-M3 of sorts but aren't exactly easy to find in manual either.

 

[TX4runner]

The M3 finally came down off jack stands today. I had to take out the front coilovers to adjust the ride height as I was rubbing the tires and scrapping the bumper. That’s now reset and hopefully working.

I adjusted the parking brake as it wasn’t holding. I replaced the wheel studs as they had been on for a few years and many wheel changes and driving event so a little preventative maintenance.
Had some autox friends who had the. Snap after a few years. So wanted to avoid that.


Out of the garage I changed the brake fluid on the truck. Oh my god is that easier than on the BMWs. No ramps, no jack, no tire removal. Just crawl under each tire and the bleed ****** is right there.

Now everyone is tucked back up and on trickle charges. Green dot under cover for 911 and extension cord behind the cobra in the way back.


Tomorrow I just get to enjoy them with a few drives.

 

[TX4runner]

Well it's been a year again since the last update. I'm not good at this. Well the brake fluid clean up wasn't as good as I thought it was. In October my wife's Subaru stranded her, so while it was in the shop she borrowed the M3. Well she got 3 miles from the house and it went into limp mode on her and she again stranded. I brought the truck to her so she could get to work and limped the M3 to the closest dealer. turns out I had a bad brake booster pressure sensor and air suction pump line that were bad, and they just happened to be underneath the brake master cylinder, so I'm guessing they didn't like brake fluid for 5 months. The dealer didn't have the parts in stock, so I happily took the car back home and ordered the parts from FCP Euro. Also ended up replacing the rear O2 sensors. A week later the parts were replaced and many hundreds stayed in my wallet vs. the dealer pricing. It did mean a week of driving the Porsche to work while two cars were out of commission, but there are worse things in live

Besides a leaking A/C that ended up seizing the drivebelt, the wife's Forester had long list of maintenance items that she asked me and my nephew to do vs. the dealership, since I wasn't trying to fix the A/C, but fluids and spark plugs we could handle.

Thankful for the small hands of my nephew as we changed the spark plugs, air filter, engine, diff, brake, coolant and trans fluids & replaced the brake pads.

Knock on wood, that has got the Subie up to date on service, short of the new tires she needed, but just got put on last week.

 

[TX4runner]

August 2025 brought the inevitable repair of the BMW headliner. I'd been putting this off for a year, and it just got worse, so I sucked it up, and pulled it out of the car, covering everything in glue and broken down foam. I think it went in through the front window area before glass because that was a major pain to get out without folding in half. Got a local upholstery shop to strip it down and recover. I'm not sure why certain spots behind the headliner didn't have insulation. Some glue got in the connectors for the headliner, but after picking that out, I got it back in and looking like a respectable E92 again.

 

[TX4runner]

November 2025, I finally got to take the 911 back out to the track for an autocross event, and then actually out for a maiden High Performance Driver Education event at MSR Houston in January.

Didn't set any lap records, but it was great to put it in it's natural environment and start to experience what it's actually capable of doing. The grip is beyond what I could have imagined when comparing it to the E92.


And getting up before the sunrise to get to the track did have it's perks.

 

[TX4runner]

December 2025 say maintenance work on the E92. The valve covers are lightweight and made out of magnesium. Unfortunately, the coating on them doesn't last. It flakes off and can then clog up your oil pick up. Looking in the oil fill cap I could see that it was starting to flake, and not just the exterior coating. I also had some small leaks so I know I needed to replace the valve cover gasket. So I replaced them with NRW aluminum covers in red , because I'm a child lol. This turned into a major, "while you are in there" list of replacing the cam covers that are plastic and can break, new silicone throttle body couplers, billet spark plug tubes, valve cover gasket and spark plugs. Short of a fear of dropping parts of the broken cam cover down into the engine this was a pretty straight forward project.
The parts:
Old valve covers
Cam covers not looking bad yet. Drivers side did have a small chip, but cracked more while removing.
The shiny stuff lol
As it starts to get covered back up
But she has been happy, and no oil leaks from the valve covers, and the internals didn't look like they had worn in the 94k miles she has crossed since Labor Day 2012.

 

[TX4runner]

March 2026 brought Phase II of the garage. I needed a new garage vacuum cleaner as my old one from the other house broke. I also wanted to wall mount my active pressure washer to make it easier to use and also had an issue with one of the garage doors, so I "needed" to upgrade it to a shaft drive opener which also helped the the plan for a little later in the spring to get a beefier permanent scissor lift and pass along the quickjacks which wouldn't fit the 911. All of this was going to require an electrician 3 new power outlets along the front garage wall.

The big upgrade.
Bolted down and ready to be tested

And breaking in the new lift with an oil change and that coolant flush I mentioned a year prior lol

 

[TX4runner]

PSA moment of true first world problems. Saturday I spent 7 hours trying to get into the 911. While my 4 1/2 year old battery wasn't dead (and hadn't been on a trickle charger or driven in a month, it decided to go to sleep along with the car and would not wake up. 2hrs of fiddling with the key fobs and then the little emergency key that I thought was unlocking the door but not opening, I called Hagerty roadside assistance to have it towed to the dealership. Called the dealer to let them know I was planning to come by, and they thought it was the battery and give me their preferred towing company in case things didn't sound right. Hagerty tow driver was supposed to arrive in 35 min but that kept getting reset and eventually showed up two hours later. He tried the emergency key also and then said his flatbed truck couldn't move the car and that he needed an old school tow truck that would dolly the wheels and tow all the way to the dealership. NOPE!! Sent him away and called the dealer recommendation. He showed an hour later, tried the key and then called his tech friend. Turns out the door was unlocked but because of the frameless doors the first action of opening the door is for the glass window to drop and release from the seal. Without power that wouldn't happen and the door would not open. So he also said he needed an old school dolly style tow truck to tow it there and then the techs could remove the undertray to release the "frunk" hood latch in order to get to the battery to jump the car in order to open the door. At this point I'm like, if that is what needs to happen I have floor jacks. 20 min later, the car is jacked up, the wheel is turned so that I can take out the wheel liner to reach the frunk release and then jump the battery. Which then just wakes up and doesn't need to be replaced or charged. So, now if I'm not driving it for a week, I should leave on a trickle charger or leave hood down, but not locked or slightly crack the window so it's already below the seal. Unexpected Saturday, but I did get all the tile cut around the lift so it's all back down.

7hrs in, the car has started, and the battery is awake again.



Tile all cut to fit around the lift.

Testing car #2, and currently using all three cautions. Window cracked, trickle charger and frunk not locked. lol

That brings everything car related up to current day.

 

[kppolich]

PSA moment of true first world problems. Saturday I spent 7 hours trying to get into the 911. While my 4 1/2 year old battery wasn't dead (and hadn't been on a trickle charger or driven in a month, it decided to go to sleep along with the car and would not wake up. 2hrs of fiddling with the key fobs and then the little emergency key that I thought was unlocking the door but not opening, I called Hagerty roadside assistance to have it towed to the dealership. Called the dealer to let them know I was planning to come by, and they thought it was the battery and give me their preferred towing company in case things didn't sound right. Hagerty tow driver was supposed to arrive in 35 min but that kept getting reset and eventually showed up two hours later. He tried the emergency key also and then said his flatbed truck couldn't move the car and that he needed an old school tow truck that would dolly the wheels and tow all the way to the dealership. NOPE!! Sent him away and called the dealer recommendation. He showed an hour later, tried the key and then called his tech friend. Turns out the door was unlocked but because of the frameless doors the first action of opening the door is for the glass window to drop and release from the seal. Without power that wouldn't happen and the door would not open. So he also said he needed an old school dolly style tow truck to tow it there and then the techs could remove the undertray to release the "frunk" hood latch in order to get to the battery to jump the car in order to open the door. At this point I'm like, if that is what needs to happen I have floor jacks. 20 min later, the car is jacked up, the wheel is turned so that I can take out the wheel liner to reach the frunk release and then jump the battery. Which then just wakes up and doesn't need to be replaced or charged. So, now if I'm not driving it for a week, I should leave on a trickle charger or leave hood down, but not locked or slightly crack the window so it's already below the seal. Unexpected Saturday, but I did get all the tile cut around the lift so it's all back down.

7hrs in, the car has started, and the battery is awake again.



Tile all cut to fit around the lift.

Testing car #2, and currently using all three cautions. Window cracked, trickle charger and frunk not locked. lol

That brings everything car related up to current day.

Plan to fill in the center/cut out parts of the lift with the tiles again? My OCD is asking.

 

[jon72vega]

That is a really cool picture!

 

[TX4runner]

@kppolich I may fill in some, but the bar closest to the garage doors moves forward, as the lift goes up, and isn't high enough to clear the tile in the center. The section closest to the back wall could be filled in but only partially. Doing that would leave it "floating" as it wouldn't be snapped into anything and would move if I stepped on it while working on the center section.

@jon72vega Thank you. I love it too. The slight details of the car and wheels that you can see when you look close. I actually turned it into a 3-panel canvas print that hangs in my office now. There were many others I took from other angles, but this by far is "the shot" from that morning.