Quote:
Originally Posted by smokeyyank
Nice! Glad you got it hammered out.
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Thanks! Yeah, I'm glad I was able to fix it and get it back on the road.
Anyways, after I got it running, I drove it to work and realized just how filthy it was!
Later that night I went to one of those 24-hour self-service washes to try and clean the X5 up a bit. This is what it looked like before the wash, after 5 months of sitting outside. It was a pretty sorry sight, almost like a neglected stray dog.
And this is what it looked like after a quick wash. By no means perfect, but a huge improvement:
The Ammo Skin sealant had done its job and protected the paint from the majority of the sun and bird droppings. There are a few spots where the bird crap etched into the clear coat a little bit, but that's something I can polish out once it cools off a bit. It's too hot to do any real detailing!
A few days later it was back in its natural habitat:
12.8 mpg, haha. I don't anticipate it getting much better since my commute nowadays is mostly street driving. Plus I drive it with a lead foot, because why the heck not?
After two days of driving the X5, I noticed that the right side of the dash was blowing hot air instead of cold air, so I replaced the heater valve. It's the valve next to the engine on the driver's side— it often goes bad on the E53/E38/E39. Thankfully a new one was only $205 and I already had it laying around from a previous order (I had intended to replace it back in January but then the X5 broke down). I don't have any pictures of that job because I did it while half-asleep at midnight one night. I will say that I spilled a bunch of hot coolant everywhere, so that was not fun. It only took about 15 minutes for the whole swap, and the problem was fixed 100%. Now the vents all blow cold, just as they should.
Fast forward a few days and the AC suddenly stopped working, which was really fun with it being 109º outside. I then went to my friend's house where we used his AC gauges to check the system. It turns out that the AC system was dangerously over-charged by whoever had previously charged it. The high side was really high and it was causing the compressor to go into a failsafe mode which is why the AC wasn't working properly. I assume it's because this X5 was last charged in Seattle which has a much colder climate and different air pressures— Phoenix is a pretty drastic change in climate, especially in terms of heat. We evacuated the system entirely, did a vacuum test to check for leaks (no leaks!) and then filled the system with an appropriate amount of R134, using a commercial grade fill tank (not the canned crap). That solved the AC problem, and we noted the duct temperatures were 44º with a 110º ambient temperature outside. So the AC works extremely well now, to the point of where it actually makes me cold. I'm glad I got that sorted out, because tomorrow it's supposed to be 120º here in Phoenix.