The General's F13 M6 Coupe

Nishcat_M140i

///Member
Glad the beast is back in your possession after some time away. Hopefully there isn't any other scares for a very long time to come.

Car looks amazing, been toying with the idea of buying an M6 GC or an F80 M3 Comp when the time is right to add next to my M140i.

Despite the maintenance costs involved, these cars are good value for money and they still look so good for their age. Would love to eventually get my hands on one.
 

gavsadler

///Member
Glad to see the car back, and hopefully all sorted.

So then was the root cause of the smoking dodgy valve stem seals? If everything else checked out ok.

And the diagnosis and adjustments of the wastegates was a bonus resolution.
 
Glad to see the car back, and hopefully all sorted.

So then was the root cause of the smoking dodgy valve stem seals? If everything else checked out ok.

And the diagnosis and adjustments of the wastegates was a bonus resolution.
Thanks man.
Yes seems it was Valve Stem seals, i drop home from work yesterday afternoon, and saw some smoke come past me at a traffic light, and once when i stopped at my complex boom, so made me a bit worried, went for a drive last night, and drove the car very hard. and there wasnt a hint of smoke, well, not from the exhaust anyways lol.

The car i must say is SUPER strong, the AFRs are sitting nicely, and so is the timing. I was sideways more than i was straight pushing the car last night, granted the roads were cold, and not much grip, but i was breaking traction through third, and once into 4th. so she definately has some restored power...

So im monitoring the car closely, and looking in the mirrors a lot to watch for anything out the ordinary.
 

Bugger

///Member
Thanks man.
Yes seems it was Valve Stem seals, i drop home from work yesterday afternoon, and saw some smoke come past me at a traffic light, and once when i stopped at my complex boom, so made me a bit worried, went for a drive last night, and drove the car very hard. and there wasnt a hint of smoke, well, not from the exhaust anyways lol.

The car i must say is SUPER strong, the AFRs are sitting nicely, and so is the timing. I was sideways more than i was straight pushing the car last night, granted the roads were cold, and not much grip, but i was breaking traction through third, and once into 4th. so she definately has some restored power...

So im monitoring the car closely, and looking in the mirrors a lot to watch for anything out the ordinary.
You should be losing traction into 5th so you weren't driving hard enough I think. Now... If you'd left it with me in Jozi I could've given you great telemetry. But alas.... You didn't.
 
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So, I've noticed the car smoking yet again.

Its on the point where i come to a stop and give its some gas, then i see a smallish cloud come past. I did stop at the gym yesterday and gave it a rev in the parking spot while i looked behind me, and smoke presented itself.
Pretty heart breaking.

its not smoking like it used to, i.e, in the reversing videos, it used to smoke with load as i backed up, it no longer does this, but im not sure if its getting worse as the car is driven more, i mean,. Budler did nearly 2000km with the car, and it wasn't smoking when i received the car. So why its now smoking, I have no idea.

I know they helped with the damaged turbo and put on a second hand used turbo, so perhaps the age or non-use of the turbo had dried it up, i dunno, just guessing. But i will see what the future holds.
I don't want to throw more money at it, and may sell/trade the car in, and get something else, maybe a break from Performance cars for a bit.

Ive actually reached out to Ruan Schneider, as his business specialises in BMW and Merc, and have asked him if he has the tools to assist me in getting a full leak down test done, if that passes, i MIGHT consider looking at turbos. but if not then maybe time to offload the car.

The car is driving fine, extremely strong and loads of power, feels stronger even than it was last year before all this shit went downhill. just the smoking thats a problem.

So feeling pretty disheartened right now, as i thought it was fixed and all behind me.
 
For the meantime though, the 305 tyres were fitted to the rear, the old 295 tyres still had a fair bit of tread of them, but they showed age, so I didn't even bother keeping them to resell, so I left them at the TyreMart. As I noted some cracking etc on the rubber. So I left with the 305s.

Here is a Pic of them fitted.
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I also did a wash evening for the bike and the car as I did a bit of a Sunday ride with the bike.
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Some pics of the bikes.
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Katanator

Active member
Some stuff that comes to mind. No particular reason and could be wrong:

PCV valves?
Smoke from oil filler cap?
Turbos?
Head gasket, water and oil mixing?
Cut open oil filter, cheap check for funny stuff?
 
Some stuff that comes to mind. No particular reason and could be wrong:

PCV valves?
Smoke from oil filler cap?
Turbos?
Head gasket, water and oil mixing?
Cut open oil filter, cheap check for funny stuff?
Thanks man,

PCV Valves - New units
No smoke from Oil Cap, seals good
Turbos - As said int he response, it was replaced with a used unit, so MAY be a turbo seal issue now. but want to do a leak down test to ensure before throwing parts.
Head Gasket - Have checked the coolant tank, no funny milkshake, same with the oil cap.

Oil filter will be opened to check when i do next oil change.
 

Katanator

Active member
Thanks man,

PCV Valves - New units
No smoke from Oil Cap, seals good
Turbos - As said int he response, it was replaced with a used unit, so MAY be a turbo seal issue now. but want to do a leak down test to ensure before throwing parts.
Head Gasket - Have checked the coolant tank, no funny milkshake, same with the oil cap.

Oil filter will be opened to check when i do next oil change.

I would do oil filter as is. Not too much oil lost, just change filter and top up 1L or so. Would at least give me peace of mind to drive as is and monitor symptoms. A turbo recon is not too expensive so a good consideration.
 
I would do oil filter as is. Not too much oil lost, just change filter and top up 1L or so. Would at least give me peace of mind to drive as is and monitor symptoms. A turbo recon is not too expensive so a good consideration.
Thanks, will look into that, assumed it would dump most of the oil if it wasnt drained first.
Im due to do an oil change soon anyways.
 
Quick little update.

I managed to finally organize something that's been missing off the car for a long time since I bought her.

The drivers door jam was missing both the Tyre Pressure information and Vin plate stickers.

When I was still in JHB, I called JSN. And was told it's not possible to get. Same with Century City BMW, so I called good old @deago.parts@abmbmw and he got them for me.

@osiris picked them up for me and posted them, so collected today and put them in place.
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When I walked back to the car, there was a nice looking M4 parked up next to the M6
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sAnDmAn_

Member
Very happy to see you are enjoying the car again!

It's been a long journey, trust it's the end of the issues.

And no better feeling than jumping back in your set of wheels that you've missed for some time
 

Bugger

///Member
You know... Giving up smoking is a very difficult thing to do. So as an ex smoker I'd say that the car is finding it hard to let go of smoking, and is down to 2 or 3 a day rather than the pack it was smoking before it went back to Budler. You could try a patch over the exhaust to make it stop altogether. I also believe hypnosis works.
 

Pisancho

Active member
Im curious. I have been following your thread for a while. At what point do you decide “Ok, I’ve spent enough, let me sell”? And I’m definitely not saying sell but the average Joe would have sold a long time ago. Would I have sold? I don’t know, I still have a Kawasaki KLR that I had to drop 40k to get it to where it needs to be (bought for 25k as a student) and has been running fine for the last 6 years with no issues. You need to kill me to get me to let go of it. Despite the first 2 making me want to burn it🤣. I respect your devotion to the car, it must have a special place in your heart.
 
Im curious. I have been following your thread for a while. At what point do you decide “Ok, I’ve spent enough, let me sell”? And I’m definitely not saying sell but the average Joe would have sold a long time ago. Would I have sold? I don’t know, I still have a Kawasaki KLR that I had to drop 40k to get it to where it needs to be and has been running fine for the last 6 years with no issues. Despite the first 2 making me want to burn it🤣. I respect your devotion to the car, it must have a special place in your heart.
Well. Funny enough, I'm at this very point right now that's a battle in my head.

I've spent nearly half the value of the car on repairing it. There is still a little smoke (granted haven't seen any since Tuesday). Car drives great. Powerful. And smooth. Great place to be seated to be honest.
Has a few other little niggles to sort out that need some attention aesthetic wise.

I currently have a trade on deal ready for the trigger to be pulled. The car, a 2017 Audi TT 2.0TFSI is basic, unmodified, has a TTS/RS kit on.
So have a few internal battles going on, do I cancel the deal, drive the M6 another year and risk any "possible" missed or ignored issues on the M6, i.e the smoke.
I now know the engine history, condition and apart from a few things, the car is good.

Or do I let it go, forego the performance side of life for a little while, recover some financial standpoints and look again a little later on for something to scratch the itch.

The costs will relatively be similar, only cost saving is future maintenance and fuel and stress.
Financially, I'm fine with the car, on condition it doesn't need another massive repair or failure.
Brakes still have a good 40% left before havibg replacement, rear tyres are new, front tyres are 70%, motor is fresh, no leaks of any kind.

Downside for the Audi, it's higher mileage, 150000km, decent service history. I don't know much about the TFSI motor. And would hate to take on a car that has other mechanical issues to take care of.

I have been offered a long test drive Monday. So will drive the car around 50km open road, side roads, etc. I'm driving the car a fair bit this weekend to watch for and monitor the smoking issue.

So the mind is very busy right now, and torn in multiple places.
 
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