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

[andrewwynn]

Removed my starter. Didn't have time to put the new one back in yet. I will make an awr-fix DIY that will surely help others save hours and skin from knuckles. I wasted two hours trying to undo the gorilla tightened main power bolt from below before I went with my instincts and pulled the intake boot and DISA and was able to use my impact wrench to knock that sucker off in 2 seconds.

Lots of wobble extensions involved in this job.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by Redraptor141

Yeh I managed to get the controller out without touching the manifold. Wasn’t as hard as some other BMWs it seems. These X5s have so much space everywhere compared to the Saloon/Touring models!! So I don’t feel too bad! Got a whole set of 6 on order now so I’ll do all of them when I do them. Got the thermostat and a gasket set too.

I’ll do the thermostat and then take it for a drive and check it comes up to temp alright and then start on the plugs.

Defiantly going to be gentle with them, they shear off just looking at them!! At least there is no DPF to not regen when the glow plugs are broken and I live in Cornwall so it barley gets down to freezing.

I’m hoping that the last guy in there used a Tq wrench!

Fingers crossed for you. All 6 came out without drama on the wife's E70 and added a smear of copper grease to avoid issue in the future should the need arise. I had to employ the wife to get that damn controller plug off and on though, I was about to rip all the wiring out from frustration. Pulling the coolant pipe would have made it much easier, but didn't want to have to mess with the cooling system again (did WP, thermostat, and hoses not that long ago).

I wish we got an m57 powered e53 over here. I bet it's a great engine in this chassis.

[Attacking Mid]

My OEM hitch turned into a torque wrench calibration station!



I have wanted a large torque wrench for a while for torquing the front axle nuts on BMW's, but couldn't justify one for basically one application. However, we just got a bigger travel trailer requiring an Equal-i-zer® weight distributing hitch. The ball needs torqued to 420 ft. lbs. and the head is torqued to the shank at 320 ft. lbs resulting in my justification to buy a big, honkin' 3/4" drive 100-600 ft. lbs. torque wrench. I feel so MANLY walking around with that thing!

Since I bought an older, used wrench on Ebay, it was the perfect time to set up a calibration station to set the "new" wrench along with my older 1/2" and 3/8" drive wrenches. Worked super slick, and interestingly, my 50ish y.o. Snap-On dial-type wrenches were still pretty close. In fact, my 1/2" drive didn't need any adjustment at all.

AM.

[timmyc]

Installed the correct side view mirrors after finding out the PO didn't take the time to find out how to pull the mirror off and broke the mounting tabs off of the assembly then glued it on with god knows what! At least it didn't stick to the plastic. Then found the heated/auto dim mirrors at the local pick and pull! 35$!
Fixed the erratic reverse dip while I was changing the mirrors.

[amancuso]

Switched out to my non winter wheels/tires, and changed my front wheelwell splash shields that were chewed up from neglecting to install the front belly-pan. I left the 20mm spacers on the rears with the stock 168s and it looks pretty good. no rubbing.

[Serb404]

headlight restoration completed on my E53 this past weekend, last time it was done was 2 years ago, looks great now and when I took it to my shop to get an oil change my mechanic commented how clean the engine bay was too lol

[semcoinc]

Finally was forced to fix driver door window regulator band-aid fix that I did several years ago after the window failed to rise after I closed the door with the window down. The window rattle when the door closed was a big clue.

Replaced the rearmost attachment slider and inserted the proper clip and hardware that I already had on hand.

Thankfully, it happened locally and not during my recent 1200mile trip from Wisconsin to Texas.

Also had to deal with the secondary fuel level float in the driver side fuel tank side. Fuel Gauge was hanging up at about 1/2 tank and not going down (almost ran out of gas until I realized my range couldn't possibly be over 500 miles. So I started by pulling the passenger side with the fuel pump (DUH) and checked resistance and confirmed that it was not the bad actor. Finally remembered there was another float in the jet pump side........Opened that up and exercised the float. Seems OK now but will watch for it to go lower than 10 gallons that I have in it now.

[andrewwynn]

I have a DIY how to do a proper refurbish of the float resistance. You should used the hidden menu reset after working on the gauge. I think it's item 21

[semcoinc]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

I have a DIY how to do a proper refurbish of the float resistance. You should used the hidden menu reset after working on the gauge. I think it's item 21

Thanks Andrew

I'll check out the hidden menu. Both the gauge and iBus app are showing fuel being consumed. Today I went from 10 gallons to 7 gallons in the iBus app.

Mike

[Mouse]

Also attempted DIY headlight restoration with proper sanding followed by minwax/mineral spirits cocktail. Not bad for first time. May sand a little deeper next time.

Before and after....