What did you do to / for your E53 today??

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by sandbagger

I use to tell the car owner/driver that we were both better off when he would just drop the American Sedan(AS) car off at my place and let me prep it for the weekend vs him working on it and me fixing it all weekend at the track.

He won the NASA Championship in Spec Iron this year

Good advise.

That is a great series. I worked with Paul and Brian Fessler last year.

[Attacking Mid]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Glad you found the aiming hardware issue. Once you get it working do yourself a favor and aim the lights exactly 0°. Park parallel to a brick wall on the driver's side and cover one headlight so you can aim it until the mask transition is parallel to the bricks.

Then cover the other headlight and repeat. You will be mind blown when you see the difference


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Can you elaborate? I don't know what this means.

AM.

[andrewwynn]

Properly aimed.

I'm in the USA so the driver's side is left. On RHD, they would be opposite where the left angles up.

Both lights have the same pattern so you have to cover up the one you aren't working on, it's not the left light lights left and right lights right.

[Attacking Mid]

Ahhh, now I understand. It looks like yours are very slightly angled up as opposed to true zero degrees? So this is a little higher than other traditional methods? Do you get flashes from other drivers?

AM.

[bcredliner]

Originally Posted by Overboost

So lately the back of the X5 felt unstable on road variance and hard braking.
Kept thinking yeah, I need to do the rear control arm bushings, they are probably worn out.

I really started to notice it the other day in a hard downpour running into normal hydroplaning areas on the freeway. The back just seemed disconnected.

I wondered about tires and gave them a good look and noticed the outer edge of my right rear was wearing ahead of the left and noticed some cupping.

Jacked it up and gave the wheel a lateral shove and Holy mother of God, it moved at least an inch.

Took the wheel off to find the tow arm had loosened up. I guess I hadn't tightened it enough when I did the Hard Race arms last year.

I tightened it up and all is good now but this is the second nut/bolt that I failed to get tight enough (front thrust arm was the first) even though I leaned on all of them when installing.

Note to self, stick to programming the race cars and leave nuts and bolts to the mechanics.

I use a three times process. Tighten the bolts, check all the bolts from one direction, check all the bolts again going the other direction. Second and third step are often done using a torque wrench. Most of the time I gather all the bolts for whatever I am putting back together before I start installing them so I am less apt to miss one of the bolt holes. And, yes, there are times it doesn't work and seems to be increasing as I get older.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

I use a three times process. Tighten the bolts, check all the bolts from one direction, check all the bolts again going the other direction. Second and third step are often done using a torque wrench. Most of the time I gather all the bolts for whatever I am putting back together before I start installing them so I am less apt to miss one of the bolt holes. And, yes, there are times it doesn't work and seems to be increasing as I get older.

I will adopt your 3 step method bcredliner.

Step 1) Install suspension components and tighten.
Step 2) Go back over and really tighten everything again.
Step 3) Go back after 1 month and really, really tighten once again.

[andrewwynn]

Not angled up actually slight down. The right side is angled up a lot. It does a fantastic job of illumination of road signs. In fact I am responsible for virtually ALL sign illumination. All other cars have their headlights aiming into the ground.

Studies have shown not one in ten cars have properly aimed headlights.

Especially bad now with projector headlights. People aim the headlights down as if the light comes out in a cone like incandescent lights and the projector mask clips half the light so the headlights light out maybe 100-200'

The light from my headlights on the left side never goes higher than the hood of an oncoming car so of course I never get complaint blinks.

Look at the picture with the yellow corner angles: they are about the height of a door handle of a sedan, a foot or more lower than eye of a driver.

I usually aim the lights so the clipping mask split goes out exactly horizontal. If I find any sense of dim on the road in front of me because I'm illuminating road far enough away I'm not looking there I will adjust them down a bit.




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[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Studies have shown not one in ten cars have properly aimed headlights.

They've also shown that most aren't even delivered new at the dealer properly aimed. You kind of expect they would be when you buy a car. Honestly, with as much as the state's charge for inspections/taxes... they should aim your headlights for you when you get it done.

[andrewwynn]

Yes exactly not one in 5 cars from the factory have properly aimed lights. It was covered in the studies. Also, usually when a DIY or mechanic touches it makes It even worse.

The BMW method of aiming is not bad but probably still uses ideas from 1950s or 1960s to aim down 1/2 ° or more to avoid blinding oncoming cars but as is clearly demonstrated from my photo above the light above the masking plate is reduced 95-98% and is a total non-issue above the level of a hood of a normal car.


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[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Honestly, with as much as the state's charge for inspections/taxes... they should aim your headlights for you when you get it done.

It's a significant vehicular safety hazard possibly as big as the 3rd taillight and way more than the now legally required TPMS.

Think about it: literally 90% of drivers don't have a proper lighting of whatever is in front of them. How many animals or kids are run into simply because the driver didn't see them of their own fault not having headlights that light up what they can avoid rather they light up what they are about to run into but can't do anything about it