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

[OrangeFurious]

I've decided not to drive anything today, or, frankly, to even go near my cars. Gotta break a streak.

• Wednesday the 11th: Dead battery on the 750il - Replace and switch to X5
• Thursday the 12th: Blowout on the X5 - Waiting on tires, switch to M3
• Friday the 13th: CEL & Emissions errors on the M3 - Drink beer, stay home.

[andrewwynn]

Solidarity bro, my x5 a month ago gave me the "three middle finger" salute with abs brake dsc. Brake yellow followed a day later by upgrading to red brake.

Doing research that the red vs yellow indicates likely low brake fluid. Holy crap it was low bought some and topped it off.

It took less than a minute for the computer to reset all the lights and timing couldn't have been better: I had to drive 90 minutes in fresh falling snow on unplowed roads.

Fast forward 85 minutes: at 2 miles from home coming to a red light and the trifecta lit back up.

Launched dash command to look for codes (none) then start looking through gauges etc and discover voltage not stable at idle indicating bad voltage regulator.

Start disassembly to get alrenator out of the car and suddenly temps drop below zero F so I pause and use wife's nearly identical '01 x5.

A few days later on a 90 minute drive to Chicago the car stalls at 80 mph on the tollway. No code reader with had almost 1/4 tank of gas but had tollway assistance add 2gal in case gauge wrong but won't start.

Tow away get a ride home and the next day steal the likely candidate (cam position sensor) from my car and go back to install. (About 50 min. Drive)

Check codes. Similar to codes when my CPS died so I swapped the part.

About an hour later in Walmart parking lot at 15° F part in. It was a rough start but it started on 2nd or 3rd try.

Drive home fill with gas and no problems until almost exactly a week later and car dies on the freeway! About 80mi DTE.

Suspecting fuel pump I replaced but didn't love not seeing improvement in right side fuel quantity and eventually found a bad o-ring in the jet pump connector. Got that fixed and now her car is golden. Now I can finally get back to mine and get alternator going and put the new replacement CPS in.

I harvested mine because I wanted to use OEM part not off the shelf crap. Can't buy original CPS locally and none available Amazon prime


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[andrewwynn]

Today is following Orange's lead and do anything but work on a car. We are going on a fun family day trip for frozen custard. I will order my alternator repair kit though.


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[OrangeFurious]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Today is following Orange's lead and do anything but work on a car. We are going on a fun family day trip for frozen custard. I will order my alternator repair kit though.


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Good call on the custard. I've done a few freezing mid-west roadside repairs myself. I used to live in Beloit and Madison. Gets chilly.

[andrewwynn]

I lived in Madison for about a decade. Live in Racine. My most memorable car breakdown / repairs in the cold are:

➀ replace crossover pipe on 71 impala in the rain at 34f.

➁ Stall from straight up cold at a red light. -23F (-31C). Of course wouldn't restart so I had to push 2 tons of American steel out of the intersection solo with -60F windchill than walk a few blocks to a nearby friend's house. That was an interesting trip in many ways including that the shocks were effectively rigid: the oil was too cold to flow they were locked. Felt like a ride in a hay trailer.


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[OrangeFurious]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

I lived in Madison for about a decade. Live in Racine. My most memorable car breakdown / repairs in the cold are:

➀ replace crossover pipe on 71 impala in the rain at 34f.

➁ Stall from straight up cold at a red light. -23F (-31C). Of course wouldn't restart so I had to push 2 tons of American steel out of the intersection solo with -60F windchill than walk a few blocks to a nearby friend's house. That was an interesting trip in many ways including that the shocks were effectively rigid: the oil was too cold to flow they were locked. Felt like a ride in a hay trailer.


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Ouch. That's miserable. I think even with the WI breakdowns my most memorable was in Los Angeles. I was on a date in my '69 Nova SS and it broke down. The girlfriend ended up helping me push it through an intersection until it started rolling downhill. Cut to a beatup muscle car rolling down the hill dragging a woman in a velvet dress and heels. It was a memorable night.

[itsbrokeagain]

finished assembling my X today, new intake boot in and finished the rest of the cooling system. Used PAsoft to turn the DRLs and delete the turn signals as parking lights.

Friday was interesting. Girlfriends E46 kicked the fuel pump at work, about 30 miles from my house. Took some tools with me to diagnose what I was hoping to be a dead fuse or a relay, but the outcome was grim.

Short tow later to the shop and I changed the pump out this morning. Sock was black with dirt and the bucket inside had sediment as well. Wiped out as much as I could, and hope it will present no further problems.

[semcoinc]

Originally Posted by OrangeFurious

I've decided not to drive anything today, or, frankly, to even go near my cars. Gotta break a streak.

• Wednesday the 11th: Dead battery on the 750il - Replace and switch to X5
• Thursday the 12th: Blowout on the X5 - Waiting on tires, switch to M3
• Friday the 13th: CEL & Emissions errors on the M3 - Drink beer, stay home.

Now THAT's a Trifecta!

Good Luck!

Mike

[xbimma]

Originally Posted by OrangeFurious

I've decided not to drive anything today, or, frankly, to even go near my cars. Gotta break a streak.

• Wednesday the 11th: Dead battery on the 750il - Replace and switch to X5
  
• Thursday the 12th: Blowout on the X5 - Waiting on tires, switch to M3
  
• Friday the 13th: CEL & Emissions errors on the M3 - Drink beer, stay home.
  

Friday though was a giveaway. Should have stopped trying past midnight




Garage:
E53 X5 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

[OrangeFurious]

Originally Posted by xbimma

Friday though was a giveaway. Should have stopped trying past midnight

Funny enough, I made that joke Thursday - even said I was going to avoid the M3 just in case.