What have you done to your E70 today?

[andrewwynn]

Was it doing this at moderate or full throttle? With my 3-season tires i get wheel spin on most roads full throttle shifts into second. The gas pedal does push back on my foot telling me this.

Are your summer tires staggered? You can do a circumference check: a dab of paint on each tire and drive a couple rotations and measure. X-drive not happy if much more than 1% difference. People often refer to shuddering feeling when front and back don't match.

[Bdc101]

Got our first real summer weather today, temps in the low 80s, and taking my whole family out in the heat of the day -- of course this is how we find out that though the AC works, the fan is uncontrollable. Turn it up or down and it just stays on low. Fortunately thanks to Xoutpost I find that this indicates a common FSR failure and that it's easy to replace on this car. Found a brand new genuine BMW one on ebay for $83. I was kind of hoping this car would give me a few weeks before it starts breaking, so that I can get the E53 ready to sell, but I suppose that was too much to ask.

[Bdc101]

After finally figuring out that my blower speed control problem is just a dying battery possibly complicated by comfort access handles failing/shorting out, and replacing the battery, it's like a new car. I don't get "increased battery discharge" alarms anymore and everything works (except comfort access which I pulled the fuse for).



I'm hoping to track down which door handle or handles are shorting out, and reactivate comfort access for the rest. But at least one is definitely failing. When I washed the car last week it just locked and unlocked the doors constantly while I was spraying down the car with the hose, with the key in my pocket. The remote entry is super flaky.



I also adjusted the trunk hinge, since it decided to stop opening after I put the new battery back in - but it worked fine after I adjusted it a bit.

[Bdc101]

There's always another twist, the stereo amplifier is powered off the same fuse as the entire comfort access system. Why?



Guess I'm plugging it back in so I can use the stereo again and disconnecting individual door handles to try to nail down the failed one(s).

[Toothbrush]

Replaced the starter - that was a pain but wow the difference. Old one was slow cranking for a while and finally died.

Not fun for two bolts and a single nut for one part, but well worth finally getting it done.

[andrewwynn]

Mine never slow cranked but it just outright ignored the start button press on increasing frequency. For about a year every month or two it would take 2-3 presses. Then a couple months ago many many presses over 10 minutes no start.

After about ten minute pause it started first press and I drove about 75 minutes to my best friend's heated garage where I replaced the starter the next day. (I had the part in my car for months waiting for a more direct signal that it was the motor not the start button etc).

[Toothbrush]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

(I had the part in my car for months waiting for a more direct signal that it was the motor not the start button etc).

I more or less did the same thing, waited (probably too long in my case) for something more definitive that the starter was the problem before replacing.

When I pulled it out, 12v to it did nothing at all without banging on it a bit.

In other news. over the weekend the left side was sagging all the way (rear air shocks) and the Level System Malfunction error would pop up and then go away on restart. I could manually engage the compressor and lift it back up and it would stay there until I drove again. Though the level sensor might be bad as ISTA reported everything good except the 'offset' distance never changed even when raising or lowering.

Turns out the arm of the level sensor popped off the ball joint, thus it never moved when the rear level changed. 30 second fix with a carpenter clamp and all good.

[andrewwynn]

Those level arms get rusty on the ball. I've had to refurbish a few of them. I've also replaced a couple. When I have a corner apart with level sensor I will lubricate that ball joint.

When I bought my e70 the headlights were aiming low in spite of max up adjustment. Apparently somebody replaced the arm with one the wrong length.

It's made from an aluminum tube with Plastic ends so I pullled off the rod, aimed the lights with my laser level and a target about 30' away just turning the level sensor arm. Measured the length needed to match and fortunately that was shorter like 12mm. I think I've seen mm length on the bars and I'm guessing the wrong one was used. The beam hit the ground like 70' from the car nearly useless on low beam.

My old starter fired right up when I took it out go figure. Also I've noticed if I hit start immediately after putting in the key I'll get a non start. I had thought that was why I got the non start in the past part of why I didn't swap the motor. I did finally get an error related to starter iirc something about terminal 50 and maybe over current. Suggesting the start circuit is monitored and when end of life starter pulls too much current it immediately shuts down. The weird part was I never even heard solenoid click. However I think I figured out finally when it actually wouldn't start for minutes I opened the door and could hear a click so I think it was just solid sound insulation blocked the solenoid click.

My e53 starter did the same. (Spin on power application) but in that case it did pull a lot more current.

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by Toothbrush

Turns out the arm of the level sensor popped off the ball joint, thus it never moved when the rear level changed. 30 second fix with a carpenter clamp and all good.

Follow up on this. On e53 the rear sensor bar would rust to the point the ball joint no longer swivels and the plastic would just bend. This will of course give about as accurate a signal as when the ball pops out.

Great find though. Best repair is a "plug it back in" !

[Nanniepoo]

Pressure checked the coolant system after coolant tube and valley pan change yesterday. All good, and slowly working on reassembly.


Ironically enough this all started with noticing some oil drips on pavement when I went to check oil before letting wife drive. Told her to take i3. Once I had time, got it up on ramps, and noticed drips dangling from bottom panel, and it's coolant. Looked around and weep hole was wet. Very confused on how I thought coolant was oil until I noticed the control arm bushing is shot and leaking oil. So that's on the docket for later.