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

[OregonDude1]

• Valve stem seals
• Valve cover gaskets
• Upper timing chain cover gaskets
• VANOS solenoid o-rings
• Vacuum pump o-rings

Thanks to Tony for his AGA N62 valve stem tool kit rental!

[andrewwynn]

So last night about 11pm driving from Chicago to Racine, I stumble into one of my favorite cars ever, the Bentley Continental GT. I tried to get along side to send a message using "an app for that". I have an app "Marquee" that I have stored messages such as "headlight out" and one time had to add one "dragging chains, sparks flying" for a tow truck that had ten feet of chain whipping everywhere. Anyhow I have a "nice car" saved message not that the guy doesn't know that but not everybody appreciates how awesome it is.

Traffic was making it difficult to get along side but when traffic cleared the Bentley took advantage of its 500-600HP and cleared some ground.

I still wanted to pull along side so I kept up with GT until I realized we were solid into triple digits. I had my left hand at twelve on the wheel and was blocking the speedo and the x5 rides so well I honestly had no idea I thought we were going 80.

We slowed down to sub-light and I finally caught up with the Bentley and the passenger saw the marquee on my phone. Appreciated my effort to catch up with to get my message that the passenger took a video of my "nice car" message.



Managed to shave 6-7 minutes off my 1 hour trip (and avoid a trip to the gray bar motel).

BMWЯ handled the Midwest autobahn trip like a CHAMP. Added bonus, turned 150,000mi on the trip about ten minutes later. My son even sang a mutant version of happy birthday to you "happy benchmark to you" as I took a video of the odometer.

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[crystalworks]

Added LED front signal lights to compliment the rear LED signals. Love the way they look, and so does the wife. She demanded I immediately order her some for her X5.

The ones I used can be ordered from SiriusLED on Amazon. The rears I can't link to as they were purchased years ago for our first Optima SX, then used on our second Optima SX, and now on the X5. Fronts: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. They are switchbacks, but the white portion of the LED does not get utilized on the X5 as our front sockets only utilize 2 contacts and the LCM does the switching between parking and signal +12v (I'm guessing anyway). Just as well. With as bright as the LED rings are for the halos, I don't think it would look very good having the parking lights be white.

Here are a couple of vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFKeB8pwkbA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HY6WHZCfLU

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Added LED front signal lights to compliment the rear LED signals. Love the way they look, and so does the wife. She demanded I immediately order her some for her X5.

The ones I used can be ordered from SiriusLED on Amazon. The rears I can't link to as they were purchased years ago for our first Optima SX, then used on our second Optima SX, and now on the X5. Fronts: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. They are switchbacks, but the white portion of the LED does not get utilized on the X5 as our front sockets only utilize 2 contacts and the LCM does the switching between parking and signal +12v (I'm guessing anyway). Just as well. With as bright as the LED rings are for the halos, I don't think it would look very good having the parking lights be white.

Here are a couple of vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFKeB8pwkbA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HY6WHZCfLU

Crystalworks did you have to add load resistors to the front LEDs to work on the front so that they would flash correctly or was it just plug & play?

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by X53Jay4.8is

Crystalworks did you have to add load resistors to the front LEDs to work on the front so that they would flash correctly or was it just plug & play?

No load resistors were required for the front. They were on the rear though (at least for the bulbs I have). Just coded out voltage monitoring in Carly and all was good for the fronts.

[Overboost]

Originally Posted by OrangeFurious

I finally re-installed my passenger side fender flare last night.

The fender trim that came with my running boards didn't contain the 4.8is flares. Let me assure you the truck looks super goofy with only the rear part of the flares installed. I was able to disassemble my original, non-running board trim to remove the flare piece and reinstall, but on the passenger side the clips broke and fell out. I ended up fabricating new ones with sheet metal and a dremel then swamping the damn thing with epoxy. End result is it's locked on tight and I'm not longer missing a hip.

Now to find the lemans flairs for the front.

I had the same issues with my rear lower flares and the clips. When I got my bumper, one side was off and the clips were gone. The other side had only 3 of 6 holding it on. Dealer couldn't figure out what I needed. I went back today and we found the mounting kit for the lower flares. 6 metal clips and one expanding rivet per side. The used lower flares looked like the PO had run over paint and it got on the inside surface of the flare so I took some cleaner and started to clean it and found that they are fricking painted plastic. The black came off and they are primer gray underneath. I knew I wasn't going to be able to match the color and texture of the upper flares that are new so ordered new lowers too. This 4.8 rear bumper conversion is quickly approaching $2K.

Let me know what you find on the front Le Mans flares. I am in the same situation...

[xbimma]

Vacuumed red sand (from baseball field) from under subwoofer area. Previous owner at time of purchase had apologized for his kids leaving his dirty gear in the trunk but I guess he was unaware it amounted to this much. Check out the video

[Video]https://www.dropbox.com/s/wdk5y4jymbgy8wy/File%20May%2023%2C%203%2050%2047%20PM.mov?dl=0[/video]



Garage:
E53 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04 (SOLD)
E53 4.8iS N62s born 2006-03-16
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

[crystalworks]

Finally finished the front suspension refresh. Meyle lower control arms and Meyle HD sway bar end links went in. Not sure if it's necessary but I am going to take it in for an alignment tomorrow anyway. Have lifetime alignment with Firestone anyway. We'll see what they come up with.

[crystalworks]

Oops. Double post.

[gatojurko]

Just got DAB+ antenna for my android device

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