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

[Salty B.]

Originally Posted by Effduration

Westfalia is the good factory hitch...It is worth grabbing if you have time.
I have pulled a few Westfalia hitches off E53's in junkyards. I then get them sandblasted and painted.

It takes about 45 mins to remove one...

If the junkyard LCI has one, what do you think it's worth? I already have a Westie hitch. Planning to go later today now that it's not frigid-cold...

edit: no hitch on this one.

[Salty B.]

Originally Posted by Factory6speed

Ooh a gray one. If you do go take a look at this, can you please see if the driver's door has any rust in the crease at the bottom? I may have to go get that door. The two I have found so far were in the same condition as mine, rust at the bottom. I haven't really been able to find one.

This thing appears to be rust-free. I pulled the driver's door card and felt around at the bottom and there's nothing there, nor on the outside. I took some pics of the inside and the outer bottom but they're kind of crappy. The vapor barrier is largely intact so I took these through a tear in it. I tihnk it can be reused if patched.

Too bad it didn't have sport seats... they are gray and I think with heaters but someone ripped that control panel off so I'm guessing. I want the wheels (18") but the two rears are stuck to the hubs; looks like someone tried getting them off as the lugs are all on the ground. The tires are from 2018 and are Lingling Chinese crap, but they will do for now, if I decide to go back for them and their guy can get the rears un-stuck. They're dirty but in good shape.

Come n git it!

VIN: 5UXFB53306LV2580Z

[andrewwynn]

Had you sprayed some liquid wrench you could likely knock off those stuck wheels next visit. Recently i couldn't get some fronts off a Camry, put the lugs back on finger tight then one turn loose and drop the car on the wheels knocked them loose. A 2x4 and a big sledge might be the only way with these though.


–awr–

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[Salty B.]

I've got the driver's door card off again for what feels like the 13th time... and more of the black mounting point brackets broke free. Again. I'm going to hot-glue them back on, but trying to decide if I want to use self-adhesive velcro strips to hang it back on. I'm so tired of those plastic clips breaking. Anyone done that? I think I remember someone mentioning that.

The crappy Chinesium door handle carrier broke, but not at the usual place that y'all been putting steel zip-ties around that shaft. Something let go where the outer handle connects. Gonna put the new* one in tomorrow.

*OE BMW part.

[Effduration]

Originally Posted by Salty B.

I've got the driver's door card off again for what feels like the 13th time... and more of the black mounting point brackets broke free. Again. I'm going to hot-glue them back on, but trying to decide if I want to use self-adhesive velcro strips...

I have glued several of those brackets back on succesivley with "Ulta-black" gasket maker. I think an RTV-based product has the right combination of adhesion and flex for this purpose. Hot glue may be too rigid.

[Salty B.]

Originally Posted by Effduration

I have glued several of those brackets back on succesivley with black gasket maker. I think an RTV-based product has the right combination of adhesion and flex for this purpose. Hot glue may be too rigid.

I used the black JB Weld gasket maker on this door panel the last time I had it off and those seem to be holding well; the ones that broke off this time were the original yellow glue that's now turned to rocks. I used hot glue on another door panel earlier this year and the tube of the JB Weld vanished during my move last summer, so I guess that's what I'll be using. I have to get this done tomorrow before the weather turns cold again.

edit: no store here had the JB Weld stuff so I found a Permatex equivalent and used that. Also found one of the door pockets partly separated so that got glued down. Curing overnight.

[Salty B.]

Got the driver's door DHC replaced, re-glued the mount points for the door card last night, installed the miraculously-intact vapor barrier I got from the junkyard this past summer (and a rear one!) with some butyl rope and a heat gun. The old DHC was replaced in 2019 by prior owner; based on the $25 price in his spreadsheet it was either a junkyard part or Chinesium from amazon... and it broke where you'd expect it; see pic.

The ÜRO external door handle and gaskets I got from FCP are shit. I might put the old ones back on because the gaskets in the kit are so soft it's impossible to get the handle aligned with them and now it's not sitting flush with the lock cylinder cover. But at least I can open the door without dropping the windows with the key or crawling in from the other side.

By the way I officially dub that M5 allen screw that holds the lock cylinder the "bitch screw". Every BMW has at least one and this one took about 30min to get threaded into the cylinder, which being pot metal I didn't want to get all HULK SMASH on it. At least the new (OE BMW part) DHC came with new fasteners.

And now we wait for the next thing to break... but tonight driving back from the grocery store I was so happy with the way this tank drives once everything is working. I've spent about $2,675 on parts and labor in 2.5 years which is not bad, considering the average new car payment per Experian is $748 @ 6.5% interest for 70mos, that would have cost me almost $21,000 by now with a lot more left to owe on a badly-depreciating asset, so I'm quite OK with old stuff breaking as long as it doesn't leave me stranded again like when the water pump blew up in the middle of nowhere on a holiday.

The weather is gonna turn really cold tonight so I'm glad I finished this one, between work travel and unusually-cold weather I kept putting it off. Today was freakishly-warm for the end of December, about 21C/70F.

[andrewwynn]

I averaged about $40/mo on repairs with my E53. Had it for about 66 months. Insurance totaled the car the difference was 1900 from the price i paid.

29+40=69/mo net. Paid about the same for insurance.


–awr–

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[X5chemist]

47F today. Yeah, seat warmer use today!

[Factory6speed]

Originally Posted by Salty B.

This thing appears to be rust-free. I pulled the driver's door card and felt around at the bottom and there's nothing there, nor on the outside. I took some pics of the inside and the outer bottom but they're kind of crappy. The vapor barrier is largely intact so I took these through a tear in it. I tihnk it can be reused if patched.

Too bad it didn't have sport seats... they are gray and I think with heaters but someone ripped that control panel off so I'm guessing. I want the wheels (18") but the two rears are stuck to the hubs; looks like someone tried getting them off as the lugs are all on the ground. The tires are from 2018 and are Lingling Chinese crap, but they will do for now, if I decide to go back for them and their guy can get the rears un-stuck. They're dirty but in good shape.

Come n git it!

VIN: 5UXFB53306LV2580Z

Thank you so much. Really good news. I will probably have to go down there and plan to get that door. I might actually grab the other three while I'm there. Thank you! Happy new year.

Probably the weekend after next I should be able to make a trip.

I almost have this thing back on the road. This has been an absolute ton of work. All I have to do is chip the old donut gasket off of the midpipe and it's done.

I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, especially before pictures, but you all have seen an e53 rear end that's never been touched and spent about a decade in the salt belt. The rear subframe in particular looked like it had spent time in the ocean and I think was close to cracking.

I replaced the subframe with one from the south. I replaced most of the pieces associated with it or reconditioned as I could. The only thing I wanted to replace and couldn't was the CV axles, the manual ones are not available. Otherwise, all new suspension parts in the rear. Bilstein B6 lowering kit.

The brake pipes turned out really well. The pedal is finally solid. The master cylinder was an aftermarket unit from 2017. I replaced that and the booster which was not easy. Since I finally had to take the wiper arms off, I was able to find the passenger one new, but the driver one is NLA, so I had to try and paint that which turned out okay.

I also painted and resealed the diff. And painted the pinion flange, and axle flange covers. I painted a ton of small parts, that took a long time

New parking brake and rear brakes. The calipers are refurbished from carID on eBay for about $100. Great buy so far, we'll see how they work out

I found the eisenmann exhaust on eBay and lowballed the guy. We came to a nice deal. Assuming I can ever finish getting that gasket off and it works out I will post a sound clip of it on m54.

I also trim blacked the bumpers, the side skirts and the fender flares. That took forever. It turned out fairly okay, not perfect but a lot better than it was. It took six cans of that trim black stuff, not cheap.

There was some rust on the rear corners under those heat shields, and the spot in front of the battery tray. I used the wire wheel to knock everything off to bare metal, and then the KBS kit to neutralize and seal everything up. Then I bought the paint bucket of fluid film and went under with the foam brush and coated everything. This all took a few weeks and was not fun and quite dirty, but hopefully will be worth it. No more rust anywhere, except for the driver door.