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

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

The price has come down so much on rotors not worth the effort to resurface.

Especially if you buy from FCP euro.

I was going to say the same. At the risk of starting a brake parts quality debate, the brake kits I use for all my cars are ~$220 for pads/rotors/sensors. Always do all 4 and replace everything.

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by Overboost

It was fun coding with you on your E53 Jae, that was a great day. You should take a video of the halos as turn signals, that actually looks pretty cool.

So, OB.. Do you remember how SLOW my I-Bus App was? Well.. I pretty much stayed out of playing around with it until my backup camera started appearing for no good reason. And is (yet) repeatable. Totally rando.

Before I took a torch to the whole damn thing, I decided to last-ditch effort and clear all the I-Bus app data. And, guess whut? She FIRES! Man! The app is SOOO fast now! Feeling all brave today after slaying that dragon-sized fly yesterday, I went to figure out the silly backup camera. It was only when I finally found the XTrons Factory settings password- 3368, BTW- that I made headway.

Buried in the factory settings menu is a setting for 'Reverse Camera Disable'. Turns out this appears to be a typo (surprise). Change the setting to 'Disable' and the camera stops the silliness! Anyway, there's a TON of cool settings in there- like the correct format for the radio, enabling TPMS, enabling front camera... I am also intrigued by the various bluetooth protocol choices. Could THIS be the place where simply selecting a more appropriate BT selection enables the HU to talk to the snappy amp in the back? But I am sure as hell down for checking it out.

It was all an exercise in education, anyway. I am taking a new backup camera in with the X5 and I'll have to re-enable it to see if the new camera fixes the signal problem. I have ordered a front dash cam like I installed on my daughter's 128i. Her's is only 720p and it's great. I went with 1080p. Also, while it's in there, I may (just may) use one of the extra cameras (I ordered 3) for a front parking camera. Sorta cause I am curious and sorta cause it can be done.

Thursday is a road trip check by a buddy who's a foreman at a local dealer. And then.. we're off on Saturday! I don't know if I'll step into the 170's or not, but I bet we'll be knock knock knockin on the door.

[LA02MAX]

I've been sitting on the choice for a while now on how to fix my busted front differential. After calling a bunch of diff specialists to inquire about rebuilds and having them deny me when I tell them it's a BMW, I started shopping around. I bought a used diff from the UK for $800, and then I got a call saying it was mistakenly listed on eBay and they didn't actually have it.....So I spent $1800 for a brand new one. ugh. I'm also waiting on a $2k order from FCP euro that includes a coil conversion kit for the suspension using OE parts, new belt tensioners and idler pulley, and some other miscellaneous parts. This X5 is getting close to having every mechanical part replaced

[TriX5]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

I was going to say the same. At the risk of starting a brake parts quality debate, the brake kits I use for all my cars are ~$220 for pads/rotors/sensors. Always do all 4 and replace everything.

Usually the rotors look decent after the first set of pads is worn. So, I run a second set of pads, then dump the rotors and start again. (Those slotted ones on the front were Brakemotion, pretty decent gear, they do cause a bit of rumbling/grinding noise.) I have come to like the Bosch pads, nice bite to them, use them on all my cars now.

Downside, with the slotted rotors when using Bosch pads, they tend to dust something awesome, much less dust with the non-slotted rotors. So, reverting to regular rotors, Bosch for rear and "Ate" up front. (Ate used to be the go-to brand for German car makers.)

When I was very young I remember going to shops that resurfaced drums and rotors....I can't imagine doing that anymore.

(Anecdotally: A friend of mine got ripped off by the Acura dealer when they resurfaced his MDX rotors at $100 each....a $900 brake job that should have cost less than half that. I found it hard to believe they actually still did that kind of work in the 21st century.... Have been teaching him to say: "Later" as he has trouble telling them NO. He successfully turned down a $600 spark plug change on his Accord.

[Bdc101]

My records (from the PO) show that they replaced pads, rotors, and sensors in 2011 at 64k miles. I am at 121k miles now, and have a hard time believing that rotors could need replacing after 57,000 miles, especially rear rotors which hardly get used. I get that new rotors are only $85 from FCP, but that seems a wasteful and needless expense.

The only time I have ever had a bad experience with turning rotors was when 18-y/o me ill-advisedly had a shop resurface a warped rotor, thinking they would get the warp out (it did not).

Does BMW specify a minimum thickness for resurfacing somewhere, or do they just tell you to replace the rotor every time you replace the pad?


Edit: answered my question. 10.4mm is the minimum thickness. Will see if I can get a caliper over it tonight without taking the wheels off.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...eplacement.htm

[txyaloo]

Originally Posted by PropellerHead

So, OB.. Do you remember how SLOW my I-Bus App was? Well.. I pretty much stayed out of playing around with it until my backup camera started appearing for no good reason. And is (yet) repeatable. Totally rando.

Before I took a torch to the whole damn thing, I decided to last-ditch effort and clear all the I-Bus app data. And, guess whut? She FIRES! Man! The app is SOOO fast now! Feeling all brave today after slaying that dragon-sized fly yesterday, I went to figure out the silly backup camera. It was only when I finally found the XTrons Factory settings password- 3368, BTW- that I made headway.

Buried in the factory settings menu is a setting for 'Reverse Camera Disable'. Turns out this appears to be a typo (surprise). Change the setting to 'Disable' and the camera stops the silliness! Anyway, there's a TON of cool settings in there- like the correct format for the radio, enabling TPMS, enabling front camera... I am also intrigued by the various bluetooth protocol choices. Could THIS be the place where simply selecting a more appropriate BT selection enables the HU to talk to the snappy amp in the back? But I am sure as hell down for checking it out.

It was all an exercise in education, anyway. I am taking a new backup camera in with the X5 and I'll have to re-enable it to see if the new camera fixes the signal problem. I have ordered a front dash cam like I installed on my daughter's 128i. Her's is only 720p and it's great. I went with 1080p. Also, while it's in there, I may (just may) use one of the extra cameras (I ordered 3) for a front parking camera. Sorta cause I am curious and sorta cause it can be done.

Thursday is a road trip check by a buddy who's a foreman at a local dealer. And then.. we're off on Saturday! I don't know if I'll step into the 170's or not, but I bet we'll be knock knock knockin on the door.

Those bluetooth settings change the chipset driver the software uses for the bluetooth device. The problem with bluetooth on the android radios is the way they're designed. Outside of intel based Joying units 7-8 years ago, none of them provide the android side of the radio direct access to the bluetooth hardware. It's all just passthru data. I've tried getting direct access by running a USB bluetooth dongle and changing the firmware driver to match, but it didn't make a difference.

Be careful playing around in the "factory settings". Selecting the wrong setting can make the radio not boot.

You can use a front camera as long as your unit has an input. When you're on the backup cam screen, there will be a button that changes to the other camera view. You can even do a 360 camera system. I have and aftermarket one in my Bronco.

I hope you have better luck than I did. When my backup camera started showing up randomly, my unit completely died a few weeks later. It was already having issues where parts of the touchscreen didn't work

[Bdc101]

Aint no way to measure the thickness of the rear rotor without taking it off... So I will play it by ear. Fortunately this is basically a spare car for me, so if I end up having to wait a few days for rotors, it's not a big deal.

[EODguy]

It's been 500 km since the transmission swap and all was good.

Until Friday morning.....

I found an oil spot about the size of a Copenhagen can. It was already soaked into the pavers but it wasn't the transmission (yeah?) I am now doing a rear main and pan and.... shit!! Not sure what I'm NOT doing at this point.

I plan on saying I ran over some puppies and must do some repairs just so the wife continues to feed me and and at least sleep inside the house...

Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk

[zener]

Lambda control tolerance bank 2, deviation rich has come back. Worked fine few month after getting original maf and just last week started to throw that code again. Since pretty much everything is new or repaired in the intake side... Is it the lambda itself?

It can work fine for days without CEL and then suddenly throws the light and code.

[andrewwynn]

Three beauty of paired parts: swap them to determine if it's the part.