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

[plasstik]

My wife found some door/puddle lights that show the BMW emblem when you open the doors, but they didn’t fit in the original holes.

Took a while to figure out how to mount them without it costing anything, or messing with the door panels.

So I cut up the light housing/plastics used them to hold the new lights.


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[crystalworks]

Few days ago had a break in the rain... it's back now but the X5 is under her cover again so no matter. So I took the opportunity to wash her as I was (of course) forced to drive it during the rain and it got dirty. The BMW dealer is close to the wand wash I use so I stopped in there to look at the used lot before heading home.



As my luck would have it, during the one night my truck spent without its cover on (was dirty before the wash pictured above the next day) a stray cat took the opportunity to sharpen its claws on the paint. Awesome. Some of this will buff out, but one or two of the long ones are easily too deep and can be felt by fingernail. Anyone know of a savory (or unsavory) way of keeping cats off your vehicles? Please PM unsavory ideas so as to not upset the cat lovers out there. I have looked at some of the sonic motion sensor ones and might try putting a couple of those on our car port poles. Cats are just as much a nuisance as rats and have plagued my cars for years with this kind of damage.

I am really glad this happened before I got the hood painted though. I'd have been really mad. As is the hood has lots of pock marks and character so the scratches look bad, but at least they aren't the only blemishes on the hood. I guess anyway, if I'm looking for a bright side.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Few days ago had a break in the rain... it's back now but the X5 is under her cover again so no matter. So I took the opportunity to wash her as I was (of course) forced to drive it during the rain and it got dirty. The BMW dealer is close to the wand wash I use so I stopped in there to look at the used lot before heading home.

She still looks fantastic CW. Anyone from the service department come out and look at your beauty while you were there?

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by Overboost

She still looks fantastic CW. Anyone from the service department come out and look at your beauty while you were there?

Thanks OB. Not this time. I was only there in front for about 10 minutes after the wash. She does usually draw a crowd when I take her in for inspections or picking up parts.

After all this rain stops and I finish the E70 I'll get it back in the garage and see how much of the cat scratches I can get out.

[BigLion]

High fives all round - Lord Burly passed the Abu Dhabi Vehicle Inspection test yesterday!!

The previous 'warning' (fail) was to replace a CV boot, get two new front tyres, and deal with an oil leak which precipitated a full trans refurb ($$$ ouch!!) since the shifting was clunking and not immediately going into reverse on a cold start.

I also replaced the DSP amp to reanimate the Subs and got rid of the intermittent hissing and popping. I also FINALLY received two replacement door handles shipped from eBay UK via my parents since I could NOT find any clean ones here for love nor money - Abu Dhabi BMW main dealer told me it was not even guaranteed to get them from Germany as the E53 is now such an "old model" (hey!!) ... at the same time the handles went on I replaced the drivers' side window which long ago I cracked trying to lever it back after the lifter collapsed.... and matched the tint at the same shop as I treated the other windows, which thankfully was still in business!!

... and I even had a few dollars left over for the wife's Birthday!

[guntherrex]

result!

[BigLion]

Not as easy as it sounds cos the ADNOC inspection guys are Filipino BMW fans and I think they believe we all have enough money to get our cars back into 'showroom condition' with a limitless restoration budget! We all get killed on the cost of private school fees here, so we just have to do our best with our car maintenance budgets :P

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[plasstik]

Crystalworks, where did you get your blacked out 4.8is badging? I’m trying to find them for my 4.4i


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[andrewwynn]

Fixed my central lock/hazard button.

Some condensation from a large iced tea dripped into the switch buttons and apparently re-activated an age old soda spill.

Turned into goo and stuck three buttons down and/or together.

Symptoms:

Doors locking and unlocking on their own, press hazard button and no hazard but the door locks operated instead.

I was sure the liquid got in and shorted the ckt so I went to remove and was expecting a soldering job was in my near future.

One of the easiest fixes "of ever"

Took about five-eight minutes and do to the luck of having a bottle of water near me and a utility knife I never left the driver seat!

Press a utility knife blade down the back and then there front (or two at once) and pry the sucker out.

The frame of the switch is only held on with tiny clips that can be released with the same utility blade.

Take apart all the plastic parts and clean them with soap and lots and lots of water. Almost always the defect is just that the buttons get stuck depressed. You can confirm by operating the buttons on the circuit board.

Wait until you hear what happened minutes before this.

[andrewwynn]

Last Friday night while attempting to drive 1/2 mile, car stalls, refusing to restart.

Pull out foxwell and command the pump on; I hear noises but definitely not normal.

Fortunately I had a spare pump, less fortunately, it was 75 miles away.

Back to fortunately; my best friend happened to have the spare in his garage and was free the next day to drive it to me.

Had only one complication swapping the pump; the center seat belt was locked and I couldn't figure out how to release it and my "always with" socket set under the passenger seat was out because I used it to remove the stiffening plate.

So: utility knife to the *rescue*.

Replacement genuine but used pump worked great and back in action, I also took the opportunity to fix my left sender unit which only went down to 7.8L so the car would never go below 30 miles to empty.

So that issue resolved.

However; today driving about 40 minutes to job site, car stalls exactly same symptoms from 5 days earlier! WTF.

Scan showed typical errors from gas related stall but the more interesting part; pressing on gas test point valve pin and air comes out like venting a tire! Lots and lots of air!

I pull up test six and it shows 40L which is way higher than the isthmus between the tanks and the right side was reading zero.

(That is physically impossible without something broken).

I figured I must have pulled the discharge hose from the right tank when I fixed the level sensor on left tank so I open the right side first since it's a much better view of the siphon jet outlets.

Crap; they are ok, but I did visually confirm the right side was bone dry, not 4oz of fuel at the bottom. 4 paper towels would have made it dry.

So: off to the left side to solve this mystery;

Pulling out the sender unit the problem becomes instantly apparent;.



Holy what the fug!

Somehow I managed to get the "foot" of the sender unit between the two hoses from the aft siphon jet! The float arm was caught at apparently 40L or so.

The silver lining;

I figured out how to remove the resistor unit from the sender unit to repair it without removing the sender unit (it's non trivial to unclip that thing and not mess up the seals, one that is plastic on plastic).

So after refurbishing the resistive unit and testing the full sweep with test six, I put the thing back in and put the sender unit back in non moronically this time!

Drive to gas station with 2g of gas a brother delivered to me, I just finished fixing the issues when he arrived

After repair the left side read 1.4 which is a bizarre coincidence being what the right side will read at flood stage.

Minor quibble; 1.4 extra liters vs. 7.8 won't throw my DTE off

The real bonus is the only way to really test your siphon jet is to drive the tank dry which nobody should ever do on purpose.

The result; siphon jets working perfectly! There was not 300ml total both sides of the tank!

I'm a moron for a day for not watching test six after fuel pump replacement! Rookie mistake!

I would have immediately noticed left tank not dropping and especially when the right tank gets below 1.4L. (that's reserve fuel only).

When operating correctly, when right tank says 1.4 you actually have 5.0, starts dropping below that, it's time to immediately get gas and confirm your siphon jets are working.

On the 2g trip, the right side measured 0.7 to 0.9L even though we put in 7.6!

So only five liters fits in the right side untill the left fills enough to flood over the isthmus, so all things equal any amount over 5L should get you a reading of 1.4L, however since there is a lot of fuel pumping around in circles, and into the left side to get siphoned to the right, the right side will read lower while all gas is depleted.

As long as test six will show any value in the right tank, you should be able to drive ten miles.

A sheriff stopped to check on disabled car, he was a little surprised when I said I've already diagnosed the problem and should be fixed in 20 minutes (using only a crowbar and 10mm socket), and brother on the way to deliver gas.

So the moral of the story; always always check test six after anything fuel supply related; always!

And the silver lining; the only way to know for sure if siphon jet is fully operational is to drive to empty so mine passed.

(The far better way is to just monitor test six and drive until right tank reads 000). If there is any reading on left side there is a problem with level sensor or siphon jet o-rings. Until you refurbish your siphon jet o-rings you should do that test twice a year.

When the o-ring fails, the right side will drop with left side reading 15-20L

Miraculously I had only half load of tools so back seat was up!

Learn to read test six and when needed fix your o-rings.