When was your first "OH $!*^" moment with your X5?

TwinTurboGTR · #1 12-05-2013, 11:56 PM

I wanted to start this thread because of that post about which X5 is better and there was an eery consensus of "Fixing" something on out X's I wanted to get a thread going and read others stories about their X. It can either be the first time they were gonna DIY something on their X; whether it ended good or bad. Or if you go yourself half way into a job and all of a sudden you have a brain fart and cant remember where anything goes anymore. Or maybe when your hummin along and then you see a dashboard full of lights, or a clunk, or maybe pieces of your motor flying out. Or shortfalls you have seen with your X that you wouldn't have otherwise anticipated.

Hopefully this thread will be funny and helpful at the same time to remind people about procedures and how they should be followed.

I'll go first.

My first moment was when I first got the 4.4. I thought it was great, I mean hell it was a Bimmer. Anyways I drove it everywhere and thought it was the best thing ever. I am a person that enjoys the snow so I was excited for the first snowfall. I mean AWD, in a SUV, this thing will be a tank, right? First snowfall was about 3" and I was excited. At the time I just had the ugly style 58's wrapped with the Michy Energy tires that were NEW... Drive out of my development to the first stop sign... Completely just trucked through the stop! All 4 brakes locked up doing 10 MPH and I was up another persons driveway. It was a miserable day after that. It was so bad that I had to turn the hazard lights on I was going so slow and at the time I was in high school, 30 minutes late and I only lived 8 minutes from the school. Needless to say I discovered Snow tires real quick. Now it's unstoppable.

My second moment was when I did the VPG... Seeing half of your motor on the garage floor and seeing all that space in the bay was a bit intimidating. That and it was so oily and greasy under there that all my nice labeling with tape and everything... yeah wasn't legible at the end. Thank god I was born with common sense though. After putting it all back together, only to be too excited to see if the car would start... And forgetting to put the battery cables back on. When the X did nothing... you know that feeling in the pit of your stomach that you get when you can just envision the amount of money you will have to hand to someone else to fix your F&*^ up? Then my common sense came back and reconnect the battery and all was fine.

X5SND · #2 12-06-2013, 12:14 AM

I'd have to go with when I was doing my system. The truck was nothing but a shell inside. I remember looking at it with nothing but a center console in the garage thinking "I seriously hope I can put this back together".

TwinTurboGTR · #3 12-06-2013, 12:23 AM

Sounds like it might have been a head scratcher. Then after you put it all back... Hmmm... These nuts an bolts must have been spares... Ehhhh F&*$ it." lol

X5SND · #4 12-06-2013, 01:33 AM

Lol! Actually I did have a few left over, but it was from parts I had discarded in and around the amp area!

At the time, I was so focused on getting the system in and X back together that I wasn't really paying any attention to the mounds of panels parts and Trim pieces piling up. Kinda looked like a bomb went off and puked out X5 parts all over.

Owning the X has been pretty much good times all around in my case. It's been an awesome journey/learning experience for me. Hopefully others will find it also!

ProfessorX5 · #5 12-06-2013, 01:39 AM

When I topped off the coolant and there was a puddle on the floor. :P

e30cabrio · #6 12-06-2013, 09:33 AM

Closest for me was installing the front axle. Damn thing was a pita in both directions to get done.

04e53x5 · #7 12-06-2013, 10:23 AM

My first terrible moment was casually driving on the highway doing around 70 then all of a sudden i hear "POP"

WTF was that then all the smoke came so i pulled over open the hood smoke every where at this point im shiting in my pants everything running through my head omg i blew my engine im broke this is going to be expensive. so i waited til the smoke started to go away so im looking dont find anything different.. at this point i saw that theres antifreeze everywhere after the smoke went away so i look i blew the expansion tank..overall it wasnt bad at all it was scary as it being the first time this happen..

Ricky Bobby · #8 12-06-2013, 10:27 AM

When I was doing my right front wheel bearing, I was all done after a serious week of working on it slowly, and was drawing in the axle with a homemade "puller tool", which was an impact socket with an axle nut welded on the end, and the edges ground down so the threads could go inward, thread on the axle stub and pull it in to the hub as I turned the socket.

Well, the welding job wasn't too great and I was hitting the gym hard that week, so I torqued the hell out of the socket just a bit too much, and low and behold, the nut snapped off the socket, completely flush with the inside of the hub and the axle stub. Took about 3 hours of grinding notches in the broken axle nut, and trying to force it counterclockwise using a chisel to get it free again.

That was definitely an OH SHIT moment

luvmy03E53 · #9 12-06-2013, 10:35 AM

Wow... some real horror stories here... Unfortunately, I have NO IDEA what anyone is talking about... I've NEVER HAD EVEN THE SLIGHTEST ISSUE with my '03... Hell, mine even changes its own oil...

TwinTurboGTR · #10 12-06-2013, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

When I was doing my right front wheel bearing, I was all done after a serious week of working on it slowly, and was drawing in the axle with a homemade "puller tool", which was an impact socket with an axle nut welded on the end, and the edges ground down so the threads could go inward, thread on the axle stub and pull it in to the hub as I turned the socket.

Well, the welding job wasn't too great and I was hitting the gym hard that week, so I torqued the hell out of the socket just a bit too much, and low and behold, the nut snapped off the socket, completely flush with the inside of the hub and the axle stub. Took about 3 hours of grinding notches in the broken axle nut, and trying to force it counterclockwise using a chisel to get it free again.

That was definitely an OH SHIT moment

Aye... When you heard the snap... I can only imagine the "WTF!" moment lol.

I remember refreshing the suspension on the 4.4. Came down to the balljoint on the steering knuckle. Used the tool to seperate the thrust arm from the knuckle no problem. Came to unbolting the ball joint from the hub. I think it was a E 45T bolt. Tried the CRC Freeze Off first because I got it from from Bimmerfest so decided to give it a try. Well that stuff sucks. Put some torque on it and the bolt snapped clean off. Great. Try a bunch of other things that didnt work. Finally just took the whole assembly off and brought i to the shop. Viced the knuckle on the bed of the Drill Press and started to center drill the bolt out. Got it all out and started to ream the rest of the sidewalls of the bolt out so I could use a tap to chase the threads. Get the tap and slowly go in and backing it back out. "BINK" tap broke inside the hole. AWESOME. Ended up using a cobalt drill bit to get it all out. Reshaped the tap and started again.

All I wanted to do was replace a ball joint and then I ended up with this mess. 5 hours of drilling and crap later got it all back. Go to put the new ball joint in the cup... found the boot was torn. MOTHER&$^#%$(!!!!. I just put everything down and went to bed after that. The stars aligned perfectly to the point it didn't want me to get this done. lol