Xoutpost.com - DIY: 2006 X5 3.0i CCV Overhaul

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Quote:

Originally Posted by trader4 (Post 1041560)

...You have a positive cable about the size of one of your fingers going from the alternator to the battery. That cable
is held on using a big ring terminal, with an exposed end and nut....

OK,

I am a safety-conscious person and I am not worried, why?

1. That red cable (to the alternator) is very short, it cannot move too much.
Plus the surrounding environment is all plastic (Plastic Intake Manifold etc.). Not too much metal around this cable.

2. Coming from E39 (1998 528i) where disconnecting the battery cable is a snap, the E53 battery cable d/c procedure is a PITA: removing spare tire, this and that just to get to the battery cable. I have back pain, so I skip that non-sense.

3. Worried? Then tie it with some string as mentioned, then cover the end with black electrical tape. Then tie it out of the way. Trust me, if you do it this way, you will save the time and non-sense of going to the trunk to d/c the battery cable.

A random thought for future...

The pain of this CCV job is from the fact that the CCV itself is buried deep under the Intake Manifold, necessitating removing a whole bunch of stuff (DISA, ICV, Throttle body) just to get to the Separator.

I wonder if one can relocate the Separator to somewhere above the Intake Manifold. Then make some kind of hoses to the dipstick housing, and to the intake manifold nipples as designed. So the only difference is in the "new" location of the Separator.
This way, future CCV is a piece of cake.
Plus, with the Separator sitting on top of the I.M., oil has to travel up a slope to get there, so less oil consumption, theoretically speaking!

Quote:

Originally Posted by trader4 (Post 1041566)

...It's both dangerous and insane. Spark? Yeah it will be a hell of a spark. And that assumes that it's just a brief contact and the cable doesn't wind up in continued contact with some tool, part, etc
that winds up touching it. Do you not understand that you have
a cable the size of your finger connected to a battery that is
capable of delivering hundreds of amps? First, you have to
unscrew the energized nut holding that cable on. Given where
it's located and that the tools are metal, that's the first part
that's insane.

OK, Sir...

If you know a thing or two about electricity, it needs a ground source for spark.
Put your finger on a battery terminal won't cause anything to spark: in fact, this is what people do all the time to change the battery in their vehicles.

Again, you need ground for spark. I already looked around, there is no metal that this red cable can reach.

I had rubber glove on.
I removed the 13-mm nut.
Then tie the red cable away.
There was no metal nearby to spark, it is all plastic for that matter!

OK, maybe I have been wrenching for 30 years, so I know what spark is. But I am not afraid of this thingy.

Your car, your choice, go to the trunk and d/c the battery.

Quote:

Originally Posted by trader4 (Post 1041566)

First, you have to unscrew the energized nut holding that cable on...

Do you realize that this step (unscrewing the 13-mm nut on the alternator) is, from an electrical theory perspective, no different than undoing the 10-mm nut at the battery terminal?

PS: I cannot believe this CCV thread is getting into a "electrical fear" session LOL.

Cn90, don't bother with Trader4, he is just a troll. Hopefully a mod will come in here and clean it up.

Trader is going back on my ignore list he is just a friggin lecturer nowadays again, I remember now why he was on the ignore list when he first joined.