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

[bcredliner]

If the engine temp is normal and there is no indication of water in the oil or oil in the water you may just be chasing the weakest link. New expansion tank may be faulty or just the cap.

[zener]

Greasing door handle wires did not help. Front door's where frozen again. Handle didn't even move until I heated door lock a bit. I think the problem is the old lock mechanism with old grease that freezes...

[EODguy]

Originally Posted by zener

Greasing door handle wires did not help. Front door's where frozen again. Handle didn't even move until I heated door lock a bit. I think the problem is the old lock mechanism with old grease that freezes...

Search for Andrewwyn door lock fix or DHC fix, repair.

He has it down pat on how to keep them from freezing and many other improvements

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[andrewwynn]

If the door handle won't move it's an external part of the DLA that freezes. Best way to unfreeze is internal warmth. If the window isn't stuck you can usually open the window to use the internal handle to open the door.

30-40 min. drive is usually enough to warm the DLA to defrost the outer handle but beware: it literal takes one drop of water (shown experimentally) to re-freeze the mechanism.

You can put a piece of nylon tape in the magic spot to prevent this and I always do this when I have any door apart.

Never try to force it you'll likely break the hinge on the DHC. FYI BMW thought they fixed the handle freeze problem by changing the cable on the DHC that was not the root of the problem it was the DHC outer handle lever. Find my video.

You can spray some wd-40 into the access hole in the door edge to attempt to help the situation but I can't remember if the problem is open or under plastic.

I have done this by putting a 90° bend in the red straw and aiming straight down about 1.5" into the access hole.

If you manage to pull a frozen handle up you will likely get it stuck open. The door will not latch until you melt the ice. You can do this with a hot air gun or hair dryer into the jaw of the latch but take it slow the metal there is covered in plastic and a heat gun is hot enough to melt it.

[zener]

Took the door panel off, because I changed dhc. Problem was pretty obvious. Handle mechanism was dripping water... I dried it out and put some gun oil for it, so let's see if it helps.

And yes, it was -6c this morning and handle did not move at all so the mechanism was frozen. I heated it to get it work.


Guess I'm gonna revisit this with the tape method soon.

[c-bass]

Originally Posted by BigLion

It's been a while trying to find a coolant leak which drains maybe 2L a day; despite replacing the water pump, radiator, pipes, expansion tank, gearbox oil cooler connector plate... something is still forcing the expansion tank cap to leak! There's no leak at the front of the car anymore, so I guess we gotta check through the engine at some point - although there is no vapour at the exhaust

Yesterday I spent two+ hours scrubbing into the corners of the rims but the front ones still have little rusty lines in the sharpest corners - I'll try a polishing bit on the Dremel for that, as I guess the laquer will already be breached.

Apart form that, all is good - starting, shifting, AC, suspension, braking all like a champ, CD changer changed (for the older style with the BMW logo as I blew up two of the Alpine changers) with subwoofer and all speakers hot - best of all I managed to pick a HU out of the dusty pile of parts in the workshop and it turned out to have a pixel-perfect screen and working illumination and volume pots - I'm praying that todays' passenger door lock and window lifter change will be the last for some good while!

2L a day sounds like you have something else going on than a leak at the expansion tank.

[andrewwynn]

Get the kit to measure exhaust gases in the coolant.

Your symptoms match a head gasket leak that is allowing exhaust gas to get into the coolant and over pressurizing the coolant systems.

[bcredliner]

No other symptoms other than loss of fluid? Have you checked for error codes?

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Get the kit to measure exhaust gases in the coolant.

Your symptoms match a head gasket leak that is allowing exhaust gas to get into the coolant and over pressurizing the coolant systems.

+1

[BigLion]

Any particular module to check?

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