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

[puddinboo]

r n r alternator.

[squidzilla]

On the 4.6is I changed the brake fluid out and replaced the LED lights with regular soft white bulbs. The LED lights is came with are more of an "office light" color and I do not like it. I still need to do the dome and front and rear map lights( the 4.6is has them front and back unlike my 03 5mt and 01 auto that only has them on the front).

Also replaced a tail light bulb.

[wpoll]

gotta love a long holiday weekend for getting stuff done.

Prompted by this thread started by scarab, I finally got my aux. heater (Webasto) hooked up to run from a remote fob.

This is a super-simple project on an E53 3.0D and it works really well.

Not wanting to spend a fortune on this project, I grabbed this $10 remote unit from ebay...



315M DC 12V 1 5000S Adjustable Delay Timer Wireless Relay Remote Switch | eBay

I made a loom and connector and mounted the receiver in the relay tray in the right side of the boot (trunk)...



The loom runs down to the battery tray and connects to connector X18830...



I set up the remote to be a one-shot with a time of 15 mins. A single push of button A closes a relay in the receiver for 15 mins, activating the aux. heater and running it for 15 mins. A red LED starts flashing on the MID once the aux. heater starts up and if I start the car while the aux. heater is running, it continues until either the coolant temp reached 75 Deg. C (I think) or the 15 minutes time expires.

Once the aux heater has started warming the coolant, it signals the IKHA module with the bus to turn on the cabin fan and direct warm air on the windscreen.

15 mins of running uses about 50cc (0.05l or 1/20th of a litre) of diesel and warms the engine coolant to about 40 Deg. C. The cabin isn't super warm but it's a LOT better than the usual refrigerator temps that normally greet me in the mornings.

Cannot use this if the car is in a garage, as the fumes from the aux. heater exhaust are dangerous (as is any exhaust gas) but if the car is a garage, you won't need to use this.

[David D]

Spent yesterday and today taking the interior apart and running cables from the head unit to the rear in preparation for the new stereo system. I took out both front seats, the back seat, the console, the glovebox, the rear side panels... God, I'm tired! Thanks Crystalworks for the awesome write up you did on your stereo install. It was an enormous help!

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by squidzilla

On the 4.6is I changed the brake fluid out and replaced the LED lights with regular soft white bulbs. The LED lights is came with are more of an "office light" color and I do not like it. I still need to do the dome and front and rear map lights( the 4.6is has them front and back unlike my 03 5mt and 01 auto that only has them on the front).

Also replaced a tail light bulb.

What soft white lights did you go with on the X5? Are they still LEDs?. what was the brand?

[thrillcat]

I've done quite a bit since I last checked in. I'll quickly recap the last 6 months.

New motor mounts.
New Arnott bags all around, system test on compressor and lines.
New front upper and lower control arms w/Powerflex bushings plus ball joints.
New front bumper.
Replaced door handle mechanism on passenger side.
New washer fluid reservoir and pumps.
Installed aftermarket hitch for bike rack.
Eonon 5166 head unit - removed a week later & returned.
Installed Dynavin N6.
Replaced LeMans Blue trim with Woodgrain (loved LeMans, but not in my Imola).

Next up is to replace the base of the driver's side mirror to stop it from flopping around, install an aftermarket SiriusXM tuner somewhere, and to actually put in the tail light wiring mod to quit that stupid error message. I've ground the corrosion off a couple times but it keeps coming back. I can see where the contact is intermittent, may try soldering that spot once before I rewire everything, but I've got the parts, so I should just go ahead and do it and get it over with.

[Ricky Bobby]

^Been enjoying the updates on the FB forum - how is the Dynavin treating you? I can't wait to get one someday soon, maybe a present for myself lol

[thrillcat]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

^Been enjoying the updates on the FB forum - how is the Dynavin treating you? I can't wait to get one someday soon, maybe a present for myself lol

It's a huge improvement over the factory unit, that's for sure, but there are some quirks I'm not 100% pleased with, and another thing I need to figure out.

• Just the added functionality and looks are an A+.
  Steering wheel controls work perfectly.
  The sound is decent, but I'm noticing some weird distortion randomly, like a cassette playing over a part that was previously eaten up by a deck.
  I couldn't use my 160GB iPod that I have my entire library on because it's just too much and it really bogs the system down with a library that big. No biggie, though, I just loaded up an old 32GB iPod with a few playlists and most of my favorites and use that and it's quick and responsive.
  Having issues getting it locked into the mount, but I haven't tried too hard, since I should really wait until I have everything figured out first.
  I need to figure out why the backlighting on the buttons isn't functioning.

The big one, though, which just happened this morning on my way in to work, is that the head unit turned on and everything appeared to be functioning properly, but it seemed to not trigger the amp to come on, so there was no sound. I made a stop to drop something off and when I started it back up, it came on and worked just fine.

I don't think this is a problem with the Dynavin, though, as I had the same thing happen with the Eonon that I returned, so it seems to be something in the factory system that isn't functioning correctly, but that's one problem I never had with the factory head unit. Even if my screen was frozen, I still had sound and could control things with the steering wheel controls.

I'm going to email Jeff at J&T later on, he's been super responsive pre-purchase, and I just want to see if he can point me in the right direction on these things. Can't say enough about his customer service. Hopefully these quirks are fixable and he can ID the problems for me.

[admranger]

I thought you were selling your beast, Thrillcat? Glad you didn't.

I had the door dings taken out of the X5 on Friday. Looks 10000% better now. Been using the same dent pro guy for 15 years or so. He's a magician!

[thrillcat]

Originally Posted by admranger

I thought you were selling your beast, Thrillcat? Glad you didn't.

I had the door dings taken out of the X5 on Friday. Looks 10000% better now. Been using the same dent pro guy for 15 years or so. He's a magician!

I thought about it but couldn't think of anything Id want more that would put me in a better situation. So I've been pushing through and settling all the niggling things.


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