I’ve used all of my wrenching luck for quite a while. Cleaning the throttle body this weekend I had a few close calls.
First, when I was taking it off after getting it all disassembled I heard a ‘clink’, but didn’t see anything. I looked all over and under but didn’t see anything. I silently hoped it was something random that was stuck somewhere and not part of what I was taking apart.
Then when putting it back together, of course two of the four studs are in tough locations. There is a washer and nut on each stud, and I ended up dropping the washer once on each one. The engine bay of the E28 isn’t terribly busy so I found both fairly easily.
Of course I was eager to get it buttoned up and go for a test drive, so I kind of forgot about the clink.
I got back after the successful test and backed the car into the garage as usual. As I was walking around the front of the car a shiny object caught my eye. It was the part in my hand below.
I had NO idea where it came from, so I put it in the box where I keep my keys and went along with the rest of my day.
Fast forward to today, and I’m looking back through the many pictures I took during disassembly and something caught my eye. Turns out the part is a catch for the throttle cable on the throttle arm. When I was twisting the round part back on the cable I did have to twist it way past the mark I had made on the cable, but couldn’t figure out any reason why.
Man, I was lucky. Honestly, it probably wouldn’t have caused an issue for a while, but it would have eventually.