Timo02

Thank you intellichimp. This is diagram most helpful.

Does anyone have an exploded diagram they can post or a link showing how the front struts and inserts go together? TIA.

Thank you Clydeg. That seems like a good idea I'll give that Lucas oil stabilizer a try. Have a good one.

Is it just my imagination or does the '02 gear box run a little noisier when using sythetic gear oil as opposed to the "standard" non synthetic dino gear oil? Thanks in advance.

Hi Zenon, Thanks for the moral support and great advice. You sound just like my friend who claims the only way to get anything done correctly in this day and age is to DIY all the way. He owns several cars, including a few exotics, that he does all the work on. It takes a lot of his time to do this work but he can rest assured at the end of the day that the job is done correctly. There is a lot to be said for this and I am starting to fall into this camp. At any rate I am planning on giving them a little more time, like a few more days to bring it up to two full calender weeks since they have had the car back for the 2nd go around. If the work is not completed by that time I will take some time off of work and pull the car out of their shop, in a peaceful manner, and either do the job myself on a weekend or have another shop complete job. Of course if it should come to this I will then at that point file a claim with the BAR/Dept of Consumer Affairs. My goal here is not to bad mouth anyone but to recover what is rightfully mine and to let the folks at Consumer Affairs know that this repair shop does not provide good service an d are very poor at communication with the client. I have never had to do anything like this before and hopefully it will not come to this. Some of my clients and friends have advised me it is a good idea to pay for large repair jobs using a credit card that way if the shop (or any merchant for that matter) does not do good work or fails to deliver as promised then the cc company can intercede and hopefully at least some dollars can be recovered. At best it sounds like a long shot to me. Does anyone on the board have experience with this? At this point all I want is my '02 back in running order and leak free just as it was running for the past five years. All the best,

Some of you may have seen what follows below under my other post regarding a Rear Main Seal Leak. I am re-posting the contents here, slightly edited, and in the hopes of getting some good advice. Background: My'71 '02 has been back in the repair shop for over 6 business days now and a rear main seal oil leak still has not been repaired. I have not been by the shop to see the car as they close before I can make to their location after work( it is about 40 miles away from my office). I am now starting to doubt if they have even started on the job yet and today when I called them I was told that they "do not have any answers for me" and are "waiting to get everything ready" i.e. the rear seal installed into a new rear cover so when they drop the transmission out they can replace it. IMHO this is getting more than a bit excessive as most other repair shops I've dealt with (on BMW's and brand-X cars as well) give return repair work (aka "come backs") top priority. When I first told them about the excessive oil leak after I had had the car back for only two days from the 1st visit (after they replaced the rear main seal the first time) one of the shop owners told me that "he has my number and will call me when he can fit me in". I called back in the very next day and spoke with the other owner and he told me to bring the car right down which I in turn did and it has been there ever since. Every-time I call in I reach only the one shop owner, the 1st one mentioned above, who seems to try to give me the brush off. I have called them a total of four times since the car has been brought back into them, twice last week and twice so far this week. As stated above the purpose of this post is to get advice and ideas from fellow '02 owners on which way I should proceed from here: BAR/Dept of Consumer Affairs...ect...ect...? I don't want to make threats or bad mouth this repair shop in anyway as they have done some good work for me in the past. However there are some basic facts that I simply can't ignore any longer: 1)The shop has my money, over $1,000.00 for all/other repair work done. 2)The shop has my car and it is still not fixed after nearly a month. The original date I took the car into the shop for the 1st visit was on 01/30/06. Yes, I am taking into consideration that this is 35 year old vintage car and some parts may be hard to get a hold of however I still believe their slowness, *poor communication* and general lack of service is un-acceptable. This said shop in question advertises themselves as local independent BMW and Mercedes Specialist. At this point I know one thing for sure, after I get my '02 back from them I will never recommend any BMW owner to them ever again. All advice and comments on this topic are very welcome. Thank you.

Well the '02 has been back in the shop for over 6 business days now and they still have not fixed the leak. I have not been by the shop to see the car as they close before I can make to their location after work( it is about 40 miles away from my office). I am now starting to doubt if they have even started on the job yet and today when I called them I was told that they are waiting to "get everything ready" i.e. the rear seal installed into a new rear cover? IMHO this is getting more than a bit excessive as most other shops I've dealt with (on BMW's and brand-X cars as well) give return repair work top priority. When I first told them about the excessive oil leak, after I had had the car back for only two days, one of the shop owners told me that he has my number and will call me when he can fit me in?!? I called back the next day and spoke with the other owner and he told me to bring the car right down, which I did and it has been there ever since. Everytime I call in I reach only the one shop owner, the 1st one mentioned above. At any rate I am seeking advice from you fellow '02ers on which way I should proceed from here: BAR/Dept of Consumer Affairs? I don't want to make threats or bad mouth this repair shop in anyway as they have done some good work for me in the past. However there are some basic facts that I simply can't ignore any longer: 1)they have my money, over $1,000.00 for all/other repair work done. 2)They have my car and it is still not fixed. The original date I took the car into the shop was on 01/30/06. Yes I am taking into consideration that this is 35 year old vintage car and some parts may be hard to get a hold of however I still believe their slowness, poor communication and general lack of service is un-acceptable. All advice on this very welcome. Thank you.

esty, Try this one: http://replacement.car-stuff.com/parts/carstuff/wizard.jsp?year=1970&make=BM&model=2002--001&category=F∂=Starter&returnurl=null&dp=true&showdc=true#top Sorry for the long cut and paste, but this source has a good blow foto of the "new" version '02 Bosch starter. The *correct* part number SR-71X, I left the X out in my previous post so perhaps that is why nothing came up in your search. HTH. I just installed one of these "new" starters on my '02 so it will be interesting to see how long it will last. Zeon I agree at least this starter motor turns FAST and seems quiet too. ...I'm still planning on hanging to the old starter though...rebuild it just for a spare. P.S. EAS (European Automotive Systmes) located in New Mexico also carries a lot of Bosch parts. I have been very pleased with their service and price points over the past three years. Their web page has good pics as well however there search engine is down, they seem to be having an internal server problem at the moment.

This is a very helpful post, thanks for the info Zenon regarding the labling of the post on the ignition switch...seems like I have been through all of this before but I can't remember on which car. I hope your starter/solenoid works freely and quietly esty. Cheers, P.S. There is a new (to me at least) BOSCH part number, I believe it is SR-71, for new and "factory reconditioned" '02 starter motors. The "new" starters are smaller in diameter as compared with the older ones and thereby easier to install. However from what I have been told is that they are not as well built as the original/older BOSCH starters that came on the '02.

Yes that is a very good looking tii IMHO and according to the blurb inside the front cover the car has 275K miles and looks like brand new!

Thanks polloelastico and rho for the replies. The car is back in the shop and I'm sure that they will get sealed correctly. This is one time I'm glad that I don't have to re-pull the tranny myself. Have a great weekend.

I just had the rear main crank seal replaced by a local repair shop when at the same time they installed a new starter motor, and a 5-speed gear box. Before this job was done there was a slight leak(a weeping) that would allow a drop or two of oil to hit the ground occasionally. The last time the rear main seal had been replaced was in December of '01. At any rate now I get the car back from the shop, after all the work and the rear main seal had been replaced and now it leaks ONE H*LL OF A LOT, something like six inch diameter puddles after over night!?! Besides a possible scoring of the rear main journal what are some of the other possible causes of this oil to leak to be increased after seal replacement and what can be done to fix this? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for this info...this forum seems to be an excellent source of good info for helping to keep the old '02 on the road. Cheers,

What does "13 SPRING POCKET 2" mean? The other number is for the part? Once again a big THANKS to everyone for the helpful tips. When I find out what the source of the rattle is I will report back. All the best,

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

Thanks for the super quick reply! The upper strut bearings are only three years old...where are those strut collars located that you mentioned?

Greetings, On my '71 '02 there is distinct rattle/knock coming from the driver's side(USA)front suspension. This annoying noise is magnified when a passenger is in the car and especially when driving over expansion joints on bridges, "wash board" types of bumps in the road and railroad tracks ect...ect...The car has tii front struts, Bilstien HD's and H&R springs..all fairly new stuff within the past five years. The rest of the car's suspension rides quiet and normal. Please advise as to what this noise could possibly be and how it can be fixed. Thanks in advance and happy '02ing! Tim