Sell "Christine" and buy an M3? I'm just so disap

In the last two weeks I opened my GOB didn't I; I uttered the words " reliable" and Christine the Biatch decided she was going to make a fool out of me again

On the way home from Piston Heads meet at Silverstone she started hesitating and by the time I got into the busiest part of my journery crossing Tower Bridge the Biatch stopped altogether, me fighting with the car to keep her running above 3000rpm. I found the alternator was not charging, but was at an absolute loss as to why. I wriggled a couple of connections on the alternator which were so tight I had trouble getting them off restarted it and the alternator was charging better than ever ....go figure when the car had been running well all the way there and half way home..

I climbed underneath and checked all connections and before people say check your earths yes I have; both of them all conections are tight its an brand new loom as of just over a year ago, its a brand new alternator and starter motor of similar ilk.

I have to be honest I am bored of going over the same old crap week in week out ....yep its boring me stupid "christine" has taken over the last four years of my life and its still as an unreliable piece of French Plastic Crap its ever been not even my R19 was this bad and trust me that was extremely bad.

I have had trouble starting again in the last couple of days the started motor giving a huge clunk but nothing else I managed to start it with a fresh battery and a jump start pack which suggests bad contacts or resistance! I tried 3 diiferent recharged batteries all with the same result .....CLUNK!!! an nothing else. I thought maybe the sudden drop in tempreture that the batteries were no longer putting out their best so I tried my spare van battery its too big but I managed to squeeze it in at an angle and connect it up within a sercond the car was trying to start and did, not onece but twice in a row A brand new Bosch 61amp hour (larger than standard) battery was purchased worth £115 retail fitted thininking that all three batteries were passed their best .....

...............can you guess the rest of my story; i bet you can .......

click


Can anyone answer my question .....why does it always ply up just before I have an event which has cost me a large sum of money to enter leaving no real time to fix it:?:

I have power to the bulk head thats as good as at the battery so it got to be at the starter and I checked ll the connections were tight at the solenoid last weekend

why do I spend all my money and time on car that is unrliable cost me a small fortune and is uncompetatie in the class I have to run.....an older shap M3 would not give me this trouble I am sure not to this level and be quicker out of the box.

Will someone please remind me why I do it cos TBH I am seriously asking myself why

si21 ........ bored of it bored of being skint bored of it embarrassing me whne the work that has been done has been done properly I really am

PS now wondering what crap awaits me with the LeMans

...........when it goes CLUNK, does the ignition and all the other warning lights go out.
Put a meter between the engine (Black lead) and the Bulked Positive junction (Red lead)........ what happens to the voltage when you turn the key to start,

The aim to get as many Alpine and Renault sport cars out on the circuits possible enough to run our own championship Now that would be cooel

Now, if you sell Christine and buy a beamer how are you going to achieve this??

...........when it goes CLUNK, does the ignition and all the other warning lights go out.
Put a meter between the engine (Black lead) and the Bulked Positive junction (Red lead)........ what happens to the voltage when you turn the key to start,

Hi John

I really cant beleive I am still having this conversation

My Dad quickly checked the voltage at the battery as 12,8 volts and checked it again at the bulkead and earthed to the engine at the same voltage; altough he would not have been able to check the voltage with the car trying to start as he was on his own.

I am either going to bump start it at Lydden or jump start with a another battery which it seems to do just

I have put so much time work and effort as has my father into this car Iam seriously wondering whether its worth continuing ....its taken over my life

I'll take a quick look tonight will now be loading tomorrow night to go to Lydden for Saturday more embarresment bump starting in the paddock I dont have the time to pull it apart and certainly not in the pitch black at the side of the road

Thanks for your much needed positve comments ....is it too much to ask that the blooming thing just starts and drives its not really modded just a standard car

Unhappy Atmo owner

The aim to get as many Alpine and Renault sport cars out on the circuits possible enough to run our own championship Now that would be cooel

Now, if you sell Christine and buy a beamer how are you going to achieve this??

Good Question Il still own the LeMans maybe I can hack that round the cirtcuits LOL ....I might not care so much if that point is reached

It is a dream though

Question Mogster Q: Will you support the class on a reasonably regular basis if we try and get it up and running

si21

My Dad quickly checked the voltage at the battery as 12,8 volts and checked it again at the bulkhead and earthed to the engine at the same voltage; although he would not have been able to check the voltage with the car trying to start as he was on his own.

Unfortunately checking with a meter off load will always give you a false reading, as I have commented recently, a meter draws little or no current by its self, and therefore if there is a high resistant joint there will be no voltage drop across it, so the battery voltage will always appear either side of a poor joint, however when you draw current with say, a lamp or starter, if there is a poor joint, a lower voltage will be read on the side away from the battery. So that is why it is so important to do this type of check with the circuit drawing current...... as in this case, with the key in the start position.

My Dad quickly checked the voltage at the battery as 12,8 volts and checked it again at the bulkhead and earthed to the engine at the same voltage; although he would not have been able to check the voltage with the car trying to start as he was on his own.

Unfortunately checking with a meter off load will always give you a false reading, as I have commented recently, a meter draws little or no current by its self, and therefore if there is a high resistant joint there will be no voltage drop across it, so the battery voltage will always appear either side of a poor joint, however when you draw current with say, a lamp or starter, if there is a poor joint, a lower voltage will be read on the side away from the battery. So that is why it is so important to do this type of check with the circuit drawing current...... as in this case, with the key in the start position.

Thanks John for the info, I'll see if I can get my Dad out later to give me a hand, but hes not in great health currently do i'll understand if he refuses cant say I blame him I dont want to sod around with it and it my car it like looking for the pot of gold at the bottom of a rainbow

si21

Voted.

Go get your counselling!!

If you did sell it what would find to gripe about? And anyway you would be completely and utterly at a loss to know what to do with all of that spare time you would have, and I'm sure Annie wouldn't want you under her feet all of the time!!

[BIG_MVS]

An M3 would be a boring sensible way out of this wouldn't it? The Alpine is unreliable but it's different and underated that's why we are all here on this site and love them.

Now go back give it a kiss and make up

I would definately look at a Turbot though especially for racing, these ATMO's are OK but the Turbo is more reliable and faster...end of!

Finish the.lemans mot.its sell its before its goes.wrong and.buy a porshe.or.proper race.car and please dont tel me a porshe iso just as unreliable as I don't see any Porshe being fixed or breaking down everyone tíme they try and drive it.

John sorry things didnt got as planned yesterday I got home later than expected so so went for councelling instead.......The Railway Bell sorry it was freezing cold late, dark and the.pub seemed.like.it was worth the effort So i'll.check.it out on race day as usual another days sprinting spent stressing hammering looking forward to seeing how Mark gets on in the afternon .

PS Mark might be needing a shove or 5

Once this sprint is over i can abandon it for a few months and give it some serious thought. I am just no longer prepared to pump cash into a car thats way off the pace or reliable i dont think.its the driver as a guy that has wont.his.lol; my class several times in his M3 csl was driving a fully race prepped beemer 2 ltr straight 6 at my last outing and I beat him.by a couples of.tenths last time out and he was on slicks.

My best option is a ( an M3 ) fuel iinjected lump but that wont solve the it wont start again and again and again issues

I love the attention the car gets but the Biatch dont show much love back

Had an 2 M3 s - The last one was in the garage every month, at least I didn't have to wash it very often. The older was better in all respects.

I wont bore you with the full list

Engine - Fault detected, low power while driving - scared to overtake!
DCS Errors lights,Problems.
Tyre warning system problems.
Gearbox ECU replaced, but didn't clear the problem.
Windscreen wipers failed - well they didn't, just the park sensor, but the software switched them off after 8 seconds, ignition off restart would let them run for another 8 seconds - not happy driving back from chester in the rain.
Paint like a bad case of cellulite - BMW Normal !!!!!!!!!!!
Gearbox would not change down some times (no fault light), but when you are in 2nd at 2500 RPM you would expect a down change.
Gearbox fault light up regularly
Got wiped by a Fiat Coupe 16v Turbo - yes the 4 cylinder one. It had been tuned, but even so.
Engine would not idle - Stepper motor replaced
and more !!!!!!!!

So just because people like to bash the French cars dosent make BMW's any better.

My 320D, had a new ignition bare, turbo and crank bearing - I think BMW just like to keep it quiet.
My Corsavan, C5 Estate and C3 have only ever been to the garage for a service.
So - That makes me feel better - Could go on but it will be far to boring

[phildini]

Set fire to it!!! and finish the L.M.R. .........SIMPLE

Check the trigger wires on the starter motor. (I assume they're present same as the turbo)

Their purpose (!) is to stop the starter being cranked if the voltage is too low. If they are corroded then all you'll hear is the click of the relays in the cabin and the occassional click as the motor decides it isn't going to play. They're just two spade connectors on the main body of the starter but not that easy to see.

Do what I do. Just put it in the garage and leave it there 6 months, the enthusiasm always comes back eventually. You know the grief I've had with mine and I've been really close to outing it a couple of times but now its running nice I'm glad I didn't. You could always buy a cheap 172 Clio if you wanted something a bit more reliable to use for track work

Question Mogster Q: Will you support the class on a reasonably regular basis if we try and get it up and running

i am indeed hoping to make it a more regular weekend occupation

how many entrants would we need to get a alpine class?