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

[andrewwynn]

Doesn't. Darn near flush and the bolts are resesed.


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[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Doesn't. Darn near flush and the bolts are resesed.


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Interesting. Looks like an easier way to reinstall for sure.

[andrewwynn]

The only issue is that the nuts aren't flared and the bolts are so ideally swap the nuts with flared nuts to reduce the pressure on the aluminum plate.

Taking my own advice: MY skid plate bolts are pointing down. At least one or two of the really hard to reach could have a little bar welded on and would lock against the frame tube and you wouldn't need to hold the bolt to remove or replace the nut.


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[andrewwynn]

Wife's car started having constant misfires on #4. I pulled the plugs on 3 and four and not only they looked like crap the gap was 60mil and spec is either 28 or 40 depending on the brand of one ground plugs.

Those plugs have less than 25,000 miles yikes!

I cleaned the plugs and swapped 3&4 plugs and coils and the car ran great before it didn't: "somebody" forgot to plug the MAF back in. (Me).

Plugged that back in and engine ran great (instantly the idle corrected)


I reset the codes and replaced all plugs with some NGK quad platinum like the car came with and ran fine for 110,000 miles yeesh.

Since all the plugs were about the same level of crappy I suspect the #4 coil just isn't quite as strong so I swapped it with 3 just to see if the problem returns it moves to cyl. 3 and I can confidently call it the coil.

Kudos to the wife she noticed the misfires before it tripped the ses/mil

Now for a good test drive maybe I'll take to Chicago tomorrow. Wife is gun-shy she had to drive the last 20 minutes in fail safe yesterday was not a fan.

Notice the resistor color codes on the coil packs. i wanted to keep track of the original locations.

Oh: a few tips on plugs:

They were so stiff to remove I out copper anti-seize on the threads and torqued to 30 Nm. The original spec said 25 but there was plenty of compression left in the crush washer the last 5 and I read they re-did the spec to 30.

Number six is a bitxh to get the socket on/in/off/out. I use a DeWalt 90° right angle drill adapter for most small bolts/nuts under the hood and it worked great for turning out and in the sockets (on hand tight mode).

The plug socket held the plug too tight and pulled the socket off the extension. I took the rubber grip out and cut three slits 120° apart to reduce the grip and now it works far far better. I can get a new plug into the socket without a pliers and I have some hope of pulling the socket out with the extension.

I have a locking 3/8" impact adapter which I used to "hand tight" the plugs but then I used a digital torque adapter to set the torque for the sockets and the coil packs

[stackz]

what did I do for my x5 today? I got mad and yelled at it.

went to close my cupholder in the center console and the lid literally just pulled apart right behind the handle for no reason. I mean wtf? ugh. what makes me even more mad is I HAD a perfect one that I sold on ebay just last week.

[tttomttt]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Wife's car started having constant misfires on #4. I pulled the plugs on 3 and four and not only they looked like crap the gap was 60mil and spec is either 28 or 40 depending on the brand of one ground plugs.

Those plugs have less than 25,000 miles yikes!

I cleaned the plugs and swapped 3&4 plugs and coils and the car ran great before it didn't: "somebody" forgot to plug the MAF back in. (Me).

Plugged that back in and engine ran great (instantly the idle corrected)


I reset the codes and replaced all plugs with some NGK quad platinum like the car came with and ran fine for 110,000 miles yeesh.

Since all the plugs were about the same level of crappy I suspect the #4 coil just isn't quite as strong so I swapped it with 3 just to see if the problem returns it moves to cyl. 3 and I can confidently call it the coil.

Kudos to the wife she noticed the misfires before it tripped the ses/mil

Now for a good test drive maybe I'll take to Chicago tomorrow. Wife is gun-shy she had to drive the last 20 minutes in fail safe yesterday was not a fan.

Notice the resistor color codes on the coil packs. i wanted to keep track of the original locations.

Oh: a few tips on plugs:

They were so stiff to remove I out copper anti-seize on the threads and torqued to 30 Nm. The original spec said 25 but there was plenty of compression left in the crush washer the last 5 and I read they re-did the spec to 30.

Number six is a bitxh to get the socket on/in/off/out. I use a DeWalt 90° right angle drill adapter for most small bolts/nuts under the hood and it worked great for turning out and in the sockets (on hand tight mode).

The plug socket held the plug too tight and pulled the socket off the extension. I took the rubber grip out and cut three slits 120° apart to reduce the grip and now it works far far better. I can get a new plug into the socket without a pliers and I have some hope of pulling the socket out with the extension.

I have a locking 3/8" impact adapter which I used to "hand tight" the plugs but then I used a digital torque adapter to set the torque for the sockets and the coil packs

Looks like you could use a valve cover gasket change according to the look of the porcelain part of the spark plug.

[andrewwynn]

I'm sure. I think I'll aim to do that this summer. Needs CCV Refresher as well. There was not a lot of oil in the spark plug holes


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[semcoinc]

After years of poor backup light illumination (even with the most potent LED bulbs I could find for the backup lights) I found this 54 watt LED light bar that fits absolutely perfectly in the under panel of the E53.



https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TC-X...720100562.html

Mounted it today.

The hardest part was drilling holes in the stainless steel bracket

It's powered by the same relay output that isolates the camera from voltage fluctuations in the backup light circuit. The mounting bracket lays perfectly centered between two ribs in the under belly panel.









Understandably, not everyone is a fan of my rear camera mount and that's OK, it works for me.

It should really make visibility at night while baking up a real illuminating experience.

Mike

[twinspool]

recently had the brake flush done and power steering flush..

I didnt do it yet, but I purchased a few coolant overhaul parts, including the AGA coolant pipe kit.. fun times! lol

[Purplefade]

I don't know if it was karma, fate, destiny or irony but I'm just hitting 100K and as preventative maintenance I was going to refresh the cooling system on my X as soon as the weather warmed up some... but I didn't make it. About a week ago the water pump decided to give up the ghost - thank goodness I was sitting still and just shut it off as soon as I heard it start making noise.

So, over the last week I have:
- installed a new water pump - and I figured while I had it apart I would go ahead and throw in.

- bimmer fix water pump stint (preventative, mine wasn't leaking.. yet)
- t-stat
- coolant temp sensor(s)
- vanos o-rings and a good cleaning
- (all) coolant hoses & belts
- auto trans t-stat
- ac tensioner
- idler tensioner
- idler pulley (the one below the alternator)
- valve cover gaskets & spark plug tubes
- crank case ventilation hoses, caps and those orange rubber "flappers", I forget what those are called :-)
- iridium spark plugs
- BMW High Performance Coils
- expansion tank (actually done last spring due to a cracked seam)
- fuel filter
- trans filter and fluid (I have to admit, an easy enough process but tough to do and not make a mess...)
- converted my angel eyes to 40 watt led and wired as DRLs
- soldered up my passenger side tail light turn signal pad to get rid of that blasted check tail light warning
- cleaned the throttle body and mass air flow sensor (and air box and air tubes while I had it all apart)
- pulled the radio and added the "aux" input, which I ended up really liking


Totally feels like I'm missing something here, I'm sure it will come to me as soon as I click post.

Phew.. it has been a long week!! :-) I am seriously looking forward to getting it back on the road asap, I've been stuck driving my 2001 Cherokee since she's been down.