TX4Runner 20x18 Garage Setup

TX4runner · Feb 16, 2025

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 · Feb 17, 2025

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 · Mar 15, 2025

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 · 2026-06-14T17:10:32-0400

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.