2012, an e31 year to forget. (this is a long story)

2012 was a huge disappointment for my e31, I had some positive things happen in other places in my life but with regards to my e31 there was few positive things.

This story begins late 2011 as my oils sump seals are starting to leak badly at the end of the season, off course the upper one is the worst.
I lose my normal winter storage place so I have to store the car outside my apartment for the winter.

December 2011 I buy a new house, and I’m very happy.

I move in to the house in late January, barely able to drive my 8 to the new house because of snow, the house has no garage, so the car is stored in a carport for the rest of the winter.
During storage I have this bucket of drying salt in the car to keep the humidity down, while moving the car in January I put this in my passenger seat and forget to put it back on the floor once at the new house. I also buy a new front section stainless-exhaust and x-pipe.

March 2012
Now my troubles start, something I’m unaware of at this time.
I am about to take my first drive of the year and find the bucket of drying salt has tipped over and my passenger seat is ruined.

I take the car for 2-3 short drives but the oil leak is just too bad from the oil sumps to use the car.
My gearbox has been acting up so I decide to have it completely rebuilt, and at the same time get the oil sump seals and the rear crankshaft seal replaced at the same time, and install a new front section exhaust and an x-pipe.
In April I book an appointment with a gearbox specialist, but they can’t take it before May 21^st.
I stress that I need the car by June 1^st because I’m going to a e31 meeting in Sweden and need time to prepare the car for this trip, amongst other things change to a 3.15 LSD diff I bought in the fall of 2011.
Well... I end up getting the car back June 14^th, the day before we drive to the meeting, and my exhaust sounds crap because I did not replace the back boxes.

I go to the Swedish meeting, pretty happy, though knowing I have a few things to address.
While at the meeting my alarm system acts up, and I end up disabling it to be able to get home.
Before I get home I fit a new CSi kit to my car that I bought last year through a Swedish friend, at this stage I’m very happy.
I drive home and once home I have enjoyed my 8 for about a week driving ~1500km.

The following day I go to visit a friend.
When leaving...... Huge bang and the car is going nowhere, the car can be rolled back and forth in P so something is very wrong. The next day a puddle of oil is found under the diff.
I notice the transmission shop that I have had an incident.
I get the car home on a flatbed truck and replace the diff a couple of weeks later after a job trip.
The 3.15 LSD is on the car and ready for a test drive.
Car won’t start.
The famous hidden fuse is broken, and the fuel (just 9 liters) has gone bad from sitting for 5 weeks i go get 18 liters of fresh fuel.
Finally get the car going after 3 days, only have 1^st and Reverse.
Back to the transmission shop, summer closed....
A week later, I go back and I’m told to bring them the car and they will look at it.

I manage to drive the car, in first gear, the 10km to the shop and drop the car off an August 8^th and I’m told it would be ready when I get back from work on the 22th.
Now things get worse, this is just too much to explain but I have been there numerous times and the car has just sat there because they have too much work, I quickly realize that the rest of the season is lost, and stress that I need the car before the snow comes.

November 20^th the car is back together and all they need to do it take a test drive but they are unable to start the car.
I help them and get the car running, but it has sat without power for so long that it need DK calibration ect so it does not run well, sometimes on 6-cylinders, I go get another 18l of fresh fuel and put it in the car.

I have to go for work so I just leave it to them to take the test drive.

Friday December 7^th I get a call.
The car now run, after they had done some troubleshooting, but they have still not taken a test drive, and now there is snow and ice outside.
At this stage the Garage I have been building this fall is close to finished.

At this stage I’m not sure how I’m going to get the car home, but I might have to get a flatbed truck again.
I get called back for a job after less than a week home, we get a weather break and the roads clear up and I’m lucky to have a fellow e31 friend pick up my car and drive it home and put it in my newly garage while I’m at work.
The car starts with no issues, but run rough, something I guess was due to the DK-calibration.

But at least the car is now safe in my new garage

December 30^st.
I’m attempting to move my car to get lights installed in the ceiling of my garage.
The car starts, runs rough, probably on 6 cylinders, get the car half way out of the garage and it sputters and dies, and refuses to start again.
3 days of troubleshooting later it looks like one of my crankshaft sensors are broken, and has probably been causing my issues dating back to August.

This is how my 2012 season went and I’m going to forget it as quick as I can, huge expenses and just 1500km of joy.

On the positive side I have a new house, I have built a new garage for my cars.
My 8 is not leaking oil, my gearbox is good, the 3.15LSD is on the car, I now have a CSi kit on the car and I was just able to get my hands on a complete black buffalo leather CSi sport interior to replace my broken seat, and everything else.

During this winter storage I hope to get the new interior installed, do some other interior modifications.
Order new mufflers for my exhaust and get those installed.
I also plan to do some service items, and minor cosmetic mods.

I’m starting to look forward to 2013. A year that I hope will be a good trouble free year for my 8, If I should try to get something positive out of this, at least I have resolved some issues that will not cause me issues in the future.

Thanks guys, I just needed to "vent".
I hope that this year will be a really good year, and I'm really looking forward to Vienna.

I will have Wokke's Lock-up unit installed so I hope this and the change from the 3.45 to the 3.15 diff will improve my consumption, and hopefully I can get this close to a stock car.
Rumor has it that there is a good tuner in Poland that could do a custom tune for my SC-setup too, so maybe I can have that done this year too.
I'm sure I will enjoy the new interior, and I will get some new mufflers from Thomas Engl that will probably take care of my exhaust sound.

Now that I have the car in my garage it's much easier to do small things during the winter, so I hope to get a few things done, I have started to prepare a list, but this list also includes long term projects.

Zitat von 8Harry8;107361

Egil, a 3.45 diff is what I'm looking for currently...
how much(PM )

Don't have it, remember the puddle of oil I mentioned?
The planet gear shaft snapped off, one planet gear split in two and the other got wedged in front of the diff by the input shaft and cracked the housing.

So it was scrapped. Sorry.

I have to say that the car was out of my sight for so long this year that I at times more or less forgot I had it.
I guess it helped that I did not have to go and look at it every day though.

she's finally home and there is just a few things I need to do before I can take her out for the first spring drive in about 3 months.