What have you done to your E70 today?

[Daytonawim]

Nice job, i would like to paint them to, it looks a bit crappy now with the open wheel.

Do you have more pic’s

Would lik to see also how they fit with te color of te car.

[Toothbrush]

Originally Posted by 13brian

I like the blue a lot. Looks great. More pics always good, would be interested to see the wheel liners and serum. NOT supposed to grease guide pins, news to me. Glad mine were working well at last check, I have not tried to on my e70.

Originally Posted by Daytonawim

Nice job, i would like to paint them to, it looks a bit crappy now with the open wheel.

Do you have more pic’s

Would lik to see also how they fit with te color of te car.

Apparently I'm not that good at pictures as I've tried getting good shots to no avail, but here's a couple that might help. The blue is 'close enough'. The pic with the flash light is a little misleading - I didn't try to color correct the photo. In person you can tell it's not exactly the same as the BMW blue, but it's close enough for me.

I included pics of the 'before' and 'after' of the steam cleaned wheel liner, it might be hard to tell but in person there's a big difference. Also, the 'after' picture is two or more weeks after the last decent wash.

The trim serum is so far the best trim product I've used. It still makes the X5 stand out in a parking lot as the trim is noticeably black (not faded grey), even next to brand new vehicles. During the golden hour it still looks amazing even after all these years.

Additionally, I did 'fix' the peeling steering wheel buttons by removing the trim, then removing the soft coating from the buttons that had the peeling issue and repainted/clear coated the whole thing (including the unaffected buttons for extra protection.

Looks a bit odd with 'blank', but working, buttons, but so much better than buttons with half worn off labels. The PDC button is the only other one that needs attention now.

Note: I know the tires have needed replacement for a while and those are being taken care of as we speak. Currently, I only drive it 50 miles a week, if that.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that I also replaced the side marker (blinkers) as when I fixed the windshield washer pump issue some time ago I broke one of the clips for the driver side and it just recently came loose enough to pop out and hang.

Lastly, I bought replacement 3rd row seat belt clip replacements as those were missing/broke when I purchased it but just recently identified what was supposed to be there. Trying to put the new ones on seems a bit more difficult than I anticipated though.

[andrewwynn]

Made a custom pole to hold up the front of long items carried on the roof rack.

Had to load solo made home Depot nervous putting 16' 2x6 on top of an SUV.

Works great though. Been using the trick for many years it started as a way to carry 40' extension ladder on my e53. I forgot to being the custom pole with the special shape tenon to fit in the tow hook.

Got to make a much improved version from some handrail.

[andrewwynn]

Changed valve cover and boost solenoid. Oh also plugs.











Saved about half on the FCP OEM VC. Time will tell how wise that was becusse it's tedious getting all those bolts properly torqued.

A tip for anybody doing this job; I loosened the AC lines going past the aft starboard corner and it dropped 30 min. hassle to 10 seconds getting VC past the flipping things.

[andrewwynn]

The vacuum reservoir is built into the top of the valve cover. If it develops a crack it will suck in oil. You can check for the problem by pulling the vacuum hose from the vacuum pump and use a q-tip or piece of paper towel to check for oil.

If there's oil you need to replace that cover asap.

Over a cup of oil poured out if the VC when I tipped it upside down.

(If you are missing oil and not smelling it, might be where it's going).

–awr–

[Daytonawim]

Nice peace you wrote, from this job!

Why did you replace the boost solenoïde?

And a tip from me, put a towel or so in the air inlet from the turbo. If you drop something I can not fell in there and screw up the turbo.

[andrewwynn]

On a recent trip I determined I wasn't getting boost. Especially horrible becusse I was towing a trailer in the mountains!

I had no codes so it was a nightmare.

I came across a YouTube video showing the leaky VC vacuum reservoir and sure enough mine failed the test.

I was already planning to replace VC this summer so I ordered a replacement sent to where I was 800 miles from home. Fortunately I brought enough tools to take care of the job. Sadly didn't bring my torque wrench so had to use my torque adapter which isn't automatic had to read the digits and with ≈26 bolts that was tedious took about 4 rounds or > 100 tightening episodes.

With no code showing I did more searching and boost leak and boost solenoid and map sensor were other candidates for a problem so with FCP return policy I bought those two parts also.

When I got the VC off made simple work to get to the boost solenoid. I put a piece of vacuum hose on it and sucked with my mouth plugging the other fitting and was surprised I could suck though. I tried both ways and air came though either direction.

I did the same test on the new one and it held vacuum. Eventually I picked up a vacuum/pressure tester and confirmed the results.

The loss of boost was instant. I did a few wot runs to "let's say triple digits", and no problems then stopped for gas and getting on the freeway I noticed my steady state mileage was terrible. Under 20 when I'm used to 24.

I thought maybe I got some bad gas and used injector cleaner on a few fill ups with some improvement but I had to use sport mode and M/S in the hills or getting to speed.

First drive with the new parts had instant satisfaction. Measured sub 7 second 0-62 but more importantly butt Dyno said things were back to normal.

Then the fun:

GPS said 28 minutes on back curvy roads to town out in the country. Made it in under 20!

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Z5yeZFhU8G6Y

Some pov video of killing my mpg!

If I drove like a "fossil" as wife would say, I could get 21 even in the hills and more than 1000' of elevation change, but post fix and "hammer down" I pulled that doen to 14.

I didn't end up using the map sensor so I need to return that.

I didn't have my smoke machine with to do a smoke test on the intake but if there's a leak it's minimal. I will do that though. With the leak I had in the boost solenoid I'd have prob seen the leak when putting smoke into the vacuum lines.

I did test the vacuum reservoir on the old VC just pulling vacuum with the new tester. I made the mistake of having the VC not horizontal and filled my vacuum tester with oil!

A quick test of the vacuum reservoir would be to pull the hose from one of the outlets and draw vacuum and make sure it holds. Mine failed that test.

[Daytonawim]

That’s a Nice Place to drive, you don’t see that in Holland.

With out a decent Torque wrench it’s no fun to do this job, also very risky because the VC is quitte fragiele.

Thanks for explaining why you replaced the solenoid, I guess if I had a problem with it, the tuner would have seen it on the dyno.

On the highway I can get a decent 25 or 26 Mpg, on the country Road I get around 21 or 22 mpg, in the City I don’t Wanna know :-)

Next week the tuner will do a wallnut blast, I will see if the will put it on the dyno again to see if there is some difference. Above 5700 rpm’s the values where neer to stock values.

[Toothbrush]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Made a custom pole to hold up the front of long items carried on the roof rack.

Had to load solo made home Depot nervous putting 16' 2x6 on top of an SUV.

Works great though. Been using the trick for many years it started as a way to carry 40' extension ladder on my e53. I forgot to being the custom pole with the special shape tenon to fit in the tow hook.

Got to make a much improved version from some handrail.

Curious, I assume the weight of the load along with the tie down prevents any vertical movement, but does it have any play in that custom pole? Seems like you'd want a pin or lock of some type to keep the pole from popping out of the tow hook.

?

Either way, genius!

[andrewwynn]

I lift the load until there is almost no weight on the front crossbar. I think when I drove 75 miles I put a screw in sideways to pin the tenon in but for 20 minute drive not needed.

If I was going to drive cross country I might add triangulation from the other tow eye.