What is/was broken on your E53 today?
 

I wanted to make a place to move the fix-it discussions out of the supposed to be fun what did you do with/to your E53 Thread

Is: in the case you are hoping for some help solving a problem

Was: in the case you recently fixed something broken and want to share so somebody else can refer to your fix.

-awr

What is/was broken on your E53 today?
 

Wrapping wire was easy Just a pair of pair of pliers (one pliers for each hand).

The difficulty was the spring kept popping the axle out until I got a full wrap.

The videos didn't show the process just a rotating view of the repaired part.

I think I will post a thread over here with the fix. It makes me cringe to think of how often that part breaks and people spend real money to replace with a part with the same design flaw.

Rear brake pads wore out and Im in the back yard now changing them. No drama so far :)

Oh one tip for people when they do the brakes on these. ALL of my bmw's wheels love to seize to the hubs. When you need to remove a wheel first loosen all the lugs a few turns and then let the car down off the jack until you hear the wheel pop then jack it back up and take the wheel off. Beats using a hammer any day of the week. Never caused issues in many years of removing the wheels from a bunch of different vehicles. Just make sure to only loosen the lugs a few turns.

Changing rotors or just pads? Nice tip on breaking the wheel lose. I have done similar on other cars. If wheel won't break free from the weight, steer back and forth if a front wheel.

Tip for changing the rotor: the parking brake will likely bind. Find the adjuster and loosen the brake pads before trying to remove the rotor.

Just pads this time rotors look fine with no lip at the edge.

While installing the brakes on my X5 (which I had to run to napa and get a 7mm allen since I couldn't find mine.... ) the ups guy delivered the tire to replace a bad one on my wifes other car which is a pacifica awd.

I just now noticed I ordered 235/65r17's and my notes say 235 55r17's are what she has on there now....

Grrrrrrr...

Well I guess I will order 3 more of the cooper cs5 grand tourings and put them on my X5 since that's what size it uses.

Plus one 235 55r17 for her pacifica.

Im officially tired of 2017. 2018 has to be better and needs to get here.

I wanted the Michelins for my x5 :(

New addon to the rear brake tip. Use or get a SHORT 7mm allen socket. The long one I bought at napa wouldn't clear the shock absorber thus pushing this project into the drama zone. No need for details but lets just leave it at I really wish the 7mm I bought was shorter.

Dremel will modify the length of hex key in seconds


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Also to clear the check brake linings message or the warning symbol on the cluster turn the key to the second position aka where it is when the motor is running but don't crank the car. Let it sit there for 10 seconds or so till the brake light goes out. Now crank the car and let it run a second or so cut the car off. The warning should be gone.

If its high cluster you make have to crank the car a 2nd time to get the text message to go away.

Oh I agree but I want to keep this one long as it fits my well pump pressure valve much better with the longer length. That's where I think my combo set of allen wrenches met their demise. I had "help" cleaning up after doing some work on it and haven't seen them since.

I was tempted to cut it with the dremel, trust me.

I found the reset procedure when I did my rear brakes recently. Back to tires: I can't use 235 in the summer. I often don't use brakes while cornering and I need 255. I upgraded wife from 235/65-17 to 255/50-18 and the difference is stunning


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Now that I think of it the trick I used might come in handy for someone so here is what I did solve the 7mm being to long. I left the bottom bolt out of the main brace that bolts to the rotor backing plate and pushed the bottom part as far inward as it would go and tightened the top backing plate bolt down. That have just enough room to force an extension into the 7mm socket going by the shock. After I had the 7mm caliper bolt tightened down all the way I loosened the top backing plate bolt aligned it all and put the bottom bolt back in and tightened both of them. Then I tightened the top caliper bolt.

Goofy but worked.

When I was removing it all to start with I just took both backing plate bolts out and pulled caliper and the plate together.

I couldn't go that route. I scrub now at times (rarely but it happens) with the 235/65r17's. Going lower wouldn't work for me.

Knock on wood, both of mine are set, no issues, no need to fix anything. The 4.8is has a new upper windshield seal in a box waiting for me to find time, but that is it. I recently installed new brakes all around incl. new rotors.

Contemplating selling both for a X5M or 50i, unsure at this time. Reading about a host of issues with the N63 also. Gheesh BMW, I am not asking you to build a Lexus reliable car, but how about testing out new drive-trains before releasing into the wild.

Not sure what you mean. The 255/50-18 are identical in size to the 235/65-17. That's the beauty of it. I can have the 235 that fits in my spare well that matches the rolling circumference of the 255.

Nope they are shorter.
This isn't going line up perfect but should make sense.


235/65r17 255/50r18
Diameter 29" 28" -3.4% smaller

Width 9.3" 10" +7.5% wider

Sidewall 6" 5" -16.7%

Circum. 91.1" 88" -3.4%

Revs/Mile 716 741 +25 more per mile rotation

Awesome thread... I'm sure I'll have some things to contribute soon, with 2 E53s in the house and all... :D

EEPROM-KI on the cluster, random air ride deflation, groaning in the power steering and what feels like a flat spot in the throttle response. So pretty much the normal quantity of issues, with the symptoms on shuffle.

Is your power steering full? Ever change the fluid? Wife's x5 moaned like crazy when it was cold outside. Fluid was low problem solved when I topped it off.

The gas pedal is almost identical to the old school volume knob of a stereo receiver. I think there are two parallel potentiometers for when one fails. If one fails and has an area of low or high resistance it will act just like you are saying "flat spot". It shouldn't be terribly expensive or difficult. I'm betting you can put an ohm meter on to verify




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My bad I thought the base tire was 235/60-17 not 235/65-17.

Some quick math does work out to 12mm lower. Good catch on the 65vs60 ratio I didn't realize I was using the wrong ratio.

That said; Lower Cg does help with cornering. Smaller radius also puts more force to the ground during acceleration. I'll live with the 1/2" lower ground clearance that's what the engine shield is for :-).

I have gone through some pretty amazing obstacles with my X: quick enough incline that I dug my trailer hitch into the ground, steep enough ditch that leaving the ditch getting on the road, I lifted one of the front wheels 5-7" off the ground and one steep culvert where I measured 37°down and 15° roll.

Never had a problem being 1/2" closer to the ground. For me the handling trade off is more than worth it.

(Says the guy that in two months will be putting on a set of 235s; for winter. The grip of the otherwise identical tire is tremendously better)

Oh Im sure it would handle better lower to the ground. My vette and 323i have about 1 to 2 inches tops ground clearance. I have to trailer them to the highway :)

1 inch lower on the X5 would be bad. 2 inches would high center it and it would be stuck. So every bit helps in my weird situation.

whats broken on mine? i would say my X5 is safely parked at a salvage garage somewhere in CA, assuming it hasnt been shredded in 10,000 pieces haha.. still miss it to this day, miss that handeling

I once got my van stuck on a rock in the middle of a dirt road. The differential "pumpkin" hit and lifted the rear wheels off the ground (solid axle).

I drove my x5 through some very deep ruts in sand and I steered towards the side to continuously climb up the wall to avoid bottoming out. X5 does have nearly miraculous traction but once the wheels are floating: "notsomuch"

You have no idea. Or, better said, I am in full agreement.

***doing the happy steering wheel stays put dance***

Fixed the automatic steering wheel moving :)

I posted a thread on it. This one was driving me flat nuts.

Had the same problem myself. but I could get the socket in, just not when attached to the wrench. So, I grabbed the socket with vice grips. That did the trick.

Check the O ring on the reservoir as well. Mine was groaning as well. Opened it up and it had low fluid. also had a fine mist of fluid all over the housing. checked the o ring - hard as a rock. New o ring, no leak and no more groaning.

That's awesome.


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LHF door handle carrier arrived today. Will pull the door apart tomorrow.

And then probably pull the Mrs drivers door apart and replace the window clips that I've been meaning to do for a year. :(

I have two doors that don't behave properly: drivers door will not reliably lock or unlock from the key fob, the left rear door will lock but not unlock from central lock but will lock. Anybody have experience with either of these. I just need to know if I need to replace parts or just clean and lubricate.


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Same exact experience for me. Weird how the mist just somehow saturates the area with a film and you can't find a point source for it. But yes, simple replacement of the reservoir cap o-ring fixed it for me too.

BTW - tip for those cases where you've got a non-sealing seal and can't immediately replace with new ... sometimes one side of the gasket is harder than the other, so just flipping it over and reinstalling it will improve or even fix things for a while.

I know the doors on these cars suck, and it makes sense to first suspect a problem in there. But I've had similar intermittent remote issues on my '01, and it has ended up being weak batteries in the diamond keys. Our keys are old by now, and the rechargeable batteries in there are not what they used to be.

It charges while in the ignition with the key ON, but with an old key and a lot of short trips (using the remote but not enough drive time to recharge it), we would eventually get flaky performance from the remotes.

Solution (I've done this twice now, with spectacular results):
Park in driveway, hooked up to battery charger at the convenient ports in the engine bay.
Key in ignition, turned to ON
All other remote keys (we have 4 total) taped in place as close to the first one as possible
Leave it there overnight to charge up

The battery charger is of course to make sure the car battery does not die. Yes a lot of effort to get some charge into those tiny key batteries, but this has worked perfectly for me. Other methods I've read on here, such as using an electric toothbrush inductive charger, have not worked at all.

Other than the few cents of electricity you burn keeping the car powered on overnight, unless your car gets stolen, there's really no downside to trying this first.

And I know it seems to make sense that if the key battery is the issue, then all doors would either open or not, rather than flaky, differing behavior between different doors. But I've learned that these cars are so complex that it's good to always keep a little doubt in mind when debugging.

Last time this happened to me (when my son finally let me know he'd been having issues with the key remote), I methodically went through all keys and all buttons, etc. logging results trying to scientifically isolate the problem. The answer I got was that basically things were flaky, although somewhat repeatable. The recharging solution above fixed them all - going from flaky to rock solid, overnight.

On the first time I did this, things had got so bad that I think I had to reprogram the keys (easy procedure, given on here in a few places).

Remote works just two doors don't work properly. I just need to figure out if I need to replace the motors on the lock or a clean and lube can fix them.


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What is/was broken on your E53 today?
 

Replaced wife's driver side front bearing and CV axle.

Got to finally take advantage of my upgraded bearing press! Wow that was a huge improvement!

It was very loud and I was surprised how much time it took for the 700 ft·lb tool to knock that sucker out. I did heat the carrier up to about 240°F to help things along.

I've gone through three hardened 3/4" threaded rods before I figured out to upgrade to a 1" grade 8 bolt.

Using the bearing press tool I started with the bolt inside I held it with a wrench and used the monster impact to turn the nut on the outside. That works until it doesn't: as the bearing moves out the wrench can no longer hold the bolt. A problem that could be resolved with a socket and breaker bar inside.

I flipped the bolt to the inside and held the nut on the outside. That was way better as I could see the progress as the bolt worked it's way through the nut. I cheated to get the impact tool back behind the carrier because I was also replacing the CV axle. I cut the inner boot to quickly get it out of the way.

It did take about 6-9 minutes of impact to push out the bearing and I did loosen up and start over three total times including swapping orientation so I could lubricate the bolt and the thrust bushing.

I will make a thread about the job because I have a number of solid tips not that I've done 3/4 of mine and wife's front bearings (both of hers and one of mine).

It takes maybe a 3' extension on a socket wretch to do this without the big impact. My small impact (220 ft·lb) won't budge the thing.

I did the first two with a ratchet, lots of effort and lots of heat and cold (put bearing in the freezer over night to cool to -10°F. This new way is a huge huge improvement!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5f62273ec6.jpg

After and before: 1" bolt rated for 62,000# vs 3/4" bolt rated for about 25,000#. I stripped three of the 3/4" bolts changing two bearings before I wised up. The new bolt is rated higher than even my 700 ft·lb impact can torque. The math worked out to an estimated 58,000# I think. It was a joy to use today. Wasn't quite as fast as a hydraulic press but not having to remove from the car is a huge bonus.

Replaced the left front CV axle on Lumba2 (wife's x5). I've had it for more than a year (I bought both sides but after replacing the right side the problem I had was cured: shaking while in reverse and not moving).

I took it out in pieces as it was in my way to remove the front bearing. I cut the inner boot and pulled out the outer 3/4.

After I was done removing the bearing I proceeded to remove the inner part and that was a beech! What finally worked was getting a crowbar on opposite sides and pull. There is just a tiny space before it goes into the differential where I could get the crowbar on one side and the other side I think I pried on the bump that is about 1/2" from the end.

It fought me tooth and nail. It took maybe 40 minutes to get it out. It shot out about a foot once it released!

I used the method of only removing the two bolts that hold the wheel carrier to the strut and discovered that it's far far more difficult to push the axle into the hub if even ONE of those bolts is installed. I fought for a few minutes to push the axle into the hub and no go. I pulled out the strut bolt and it went all the way in without effort!

A tiny bit of sideways force from the CV boot caused a huge headache!

All back together and no more moaning and vibration in the steering wheel.

That car is like whack a mole with bearings. I replace one to find out it was masking the noise of another one! There is only one more I'm planning to preemptively strike and replace before it starts moaning.

This last one instantly got noisy when I upgraded the wheels from 235 to 255. Flipping which race of the bearing was holding the load. The same happened to my car when I switched temporarily from 255 to 245.

Very happy that the bearing and CV finally done I've had the CV for a year and the bearing has been getting worse slowly for a few months. It was pretty subtle only really moaning above 70 and very difficult to tell for certain which corner.

Sounds like what I went thru getting the cv out of the passenger side. The old axle came apart on me pulling it out of the front end. When it finally came out it landed about 5 or 6 feet from the car.

I WILL buy an axle puller before I do another one.

Well let me rephrase that. I will buy an axle puller that fits. I bought a front wheel drive car axle puller from autozone but it was way to small to fit the bmw's cv axles.

I DIY 99% of everything and even I didn't want to deal with doing the CV on our X5's. Local german shop replaced it for one hour labor, totally worth it to not do it myself.

In other news, mounted an E70 wheel on my E53 to see what a set might look like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-hlHmvWn1I

Last week I fixed all my windows/locks/security by cleaning the contacts on the door harness.

Today I replaced the front pads and rotors...They were in terrible shape. One side already had the set screw broken off. I ended up using the lug bolts + drilled out the plastic cap from some tea bottles to keep the rotor in place until the calipers/pads were fitted.

Waiting to do the rears until I get my new suspension bits in, needs a total overhaul in the rear.

Now my Yellow exclamation light is on. This also happened after I fixed my door harness, but went away. It's staying on after doing the front brakes, I'm guessing the computer is confused as now one brake sensor is working and the other is still tripped. Otherwise... Any other thoughts on this?

I also noticed a little platic switch connected to a front suspension arm. Maybe height control? The fastener to the arm was looking rough. That could be an issue too..

I thought there is only one brake sensor on the front left and one back right. There is a process for resetting the brake worn indicator. Smart on the bottle cap idea I think one of my rotor holding screw is broken so I may need to copy you in the future


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That is correct, I thought no point in trying to reset until I do the rear brakes (+sensor).

Just make sure the cap is from a wide mouth bottle. ;)

If the rear sensor not also tripped you can reset.
I could use a plate from my bearing press and a single lug bolt


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That should work very well, better in fact! I had to use 2 since one cap could not support the weight of the rotor against the hub.

Rears are definitely tripped. These rotors are in rough shape, and the pads are virtually non existent in all 4 corners.

I will look into an axle puller or make one before I do the left axle again. The right side is easy to remove as there is an access hole in the aluminum plate where you can put in the likes of small crowbar or large screwdriver then hit with a hammer to knock it out it pops right out. The left side there is no way to get behind it.

I think I could use a gear puller on the left side axle I wish I'd have thought of that yesterday

The drivers side is the one that was a pain. The passenger wasn't "easy" but I could at least pry on it from below.

That's why I bought the cv axle puller thing after doing the passenger side. But it was to small for the bmw's axles. There has got to be a "bmw" tool for it.

Hey guys, so what broke on my x5 today, also fixed itself.. Which is a bit concerning! Basically the car wouldn't start. Turn key, everything lights up as normal, turn to start, and nothing at all. On off on off on off etc, nothing. Locked car then unlocked, and car started like normal. Google hasn't been helping me with a solution, other than it might be the key. Spare key wouldn't start car either though (although the spare key battery is flat)

So at a bit of a loss what to do! Grrrr!

Strange no starts like that usually are the sign of a failing ignition switch. If it is it will happen again and again with it taking more and more effort to finally get it to crank.

After changing the front rotors and pads I'm now getting the "trifecta" of lights. Brake, abs, yellow one in the middle.

Not sure if me messing around the hubs disturbed one of the sensors. Or possibly from pushing the caliper pistons back?

Light came on immediately after... Hasn't gone away. These same lights came on after cleaning my driver door harness, but went away within a minute.

PDC works when it's warm outside, but not when it's cold. lol.
Front left throws a code. I have a replacement but am waiting for my RealOEM.com - Part Search to turn up

The abs sensors are sensitive to not being in the correct position.

I have one the the retaining bolts for the abs sensor that broke off and it's only held by friction. It would occasionally wiggle out just a mm or so and trips the trifecta.

The abs sensor is not close to the brake caliper but if you grabbed in the wrong place you could have damaged the wiring which would take replacing the sensor to repair. I don't know how to test eg with Ω meter etc. You could remove them and clean and replace them.

Before I figured out a solution to snug up my loose sensor I had to push it back in 3/4 times. After which it would reset the lights usually within a block of driving. If it didn't reset then some problem still exists. The same condition will happen from a low voltage issue from the alternator so enable the hidden menu in the odometer and set to voltage and verify the voltage stays above 13 even at idle. If the voltage drops low enough the DSC ABS will be disabled

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply! My googling didn't show up anything about ignition switches, but after putting it in, it seems a common problem, and an easy/cheap part to replace, so have ordered a new one, fingers crossed!

Hope that fixes it. I have never owned any other brand car that does like bmw's do when the ignition switch goes out. For that matter other than my bmw's I have never had to replace an ignition switch except on one car out of over 200 vehicles I have owned.

What is/was broken on your E53 today?
 

I misread your post initially I thought you said you didn't have a spare but re-reading I agree with the switch being the likely culprit.

The immobilizing circuitry doesn't use the battery. If your spare remote doesn't work more likely it's a bad solder joint than the battery. There is a guy that will repair for like $60-70. Saves like $130 over replacing.

Warm weather killed our diesel today....

Wife was running errands, smell from under bonnet, no power steering, alternator light on. Was gonna tow it but after it cooled no problems. Ended up taking it to our mechanic anyway whilst we go away on business.

Am expecting tensioner or main harmonic? pulley...

Sigh.....

Yup, harmonic balancer shot. Rubber broken down and unable to take load causing alternator light on and loss of power steering.

Out with old in with new and she runs again!

Grin...

What is/was broken on your E53 today?
 

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...ff2792c023.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4ddd38654c.jpg

Mid way through replacing wife's rear rotors and brakes. Wanted to show the "Dr Seuss" ratchet that I used to remove and replace the caliper. It has two swivels and can literally go around corners. I bought it to work on the rear bearing and it saved me from having to climb under the car.

Sure glad I took that picture just noticed that I didn't re install the clip on the outer pad.

Dr. Seuss! :rofl:

I managed to shatter my rear glass while replacing the hatch struts. Hatch slipped out of my hand and managed to catch the strut between the body and glass.

https://i.imgur.com/FLfVFpG.jpg

OUCH!!

Damn, man that sucks so sorry for you.

$400 later it was fixed. No one around had OEM privacy glass. They had to get OE at $800+. Ended up going with standard glass and got it tinted. The strut did manage to dent the body next to the hatch. Most people likely wouldn't notice it.

I'm still finding little pieces of glass everywhere.

Ive had a few cars in the past that had broken glass spread thru them. I NEVER got it all out. Every time I thought I had gotten it all up I would find another piece somewhere. Its like the pieces reproduce !

So... "Not Here" is Australia, right? Seems like these vibration dampeners (harmonic pulleys) fail a LOT in Australia (on the diesels anyway...) but rarely anywhere else.

Must be a heat thing.... :dunno:

Ouch I'm reminded of last year when I went to demonstrate how tough windshields are, hit with the palm off my hand and it shattered.

Don't do that demonstration if it's hot as hell out with the AC blasting on the inside apparently the thermal stress makes it easy to break.

Silver lining is I found out it would only cost $3.50/mo to change my deductible from $100 to $0.

Did you remove the cargo floor to clean rather than vacuum in place? I take mine out a couple times a year for cleaning

Unfortunately, the cargo floor was out since I was doing some maintenance back there. Would have been much easier to clean up had the cargo floor been in. On the plus side, I had intended to actually get the glass replaced at some point. It had a nice arc of scratches on it from a worn down wiper blade. It's nice having clear glass again. Also prompted me to upgrade to an E70 wiper arm.

I broke the front windshield several years ago while replacing the top rubber trim strip. I feel your pain. I carry full coverage on the X, but it isn't worth enough to pay extra for a low deductible. If it wrecks, it's likely to get totaled. I tend to pay for any damages out of pocket.

My rear wiper sucks what is the difference with the e70 arm? I think I want to upgrade.


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This is one on an E53. The design is slightly different. I think it looks a little more modern. The rear end of the E53 looks much more dated than the front/side

https://i.imgur.com/sBanmi5.png

Replaced the thermostat in the X5 and buttoned everything back up and no issues when tested.

The wife drove to her Mom's and when she turned the key off the radiator dumped all the coolant and I got "the phone call".

Turned out the tranny cooler is only held on by a single clip that's easy to bump and unclip. Thought it was inserted properly when everything was put back together. The radiator pressure must have increased enough when the engine was turned off to cause the transmission cooler to blow off.

Easy fix, just took a gallon of BMW coolant and that clip is now zip tied so it doesn't happen again.

Here's the dang clip holding the tranny cooler onto the radiator:
http://cdn4.pelicanparts.com/techart...mall/pic19.jpg

I was pleasantly surprised when I changed my tstat how easy it was to disconnect those quick connects. Thanks for the feedback so we can learn from your "mistake".


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I better check the tranny fluid level when the car gets back home too. :rolleyes:

http://cdn4.pelicanparts.com/techart...mall/pic17.jpg

4f84 and p17e4 transfail :bawling:

Ouch. I did a search and found a case of a diy fix for that code. Suck but beats "new transmission"


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Could you tell me what did you find? I would really appreciate it :thumbup:

Oops http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/#/topics/851159?page=2 I forgot to paste the URL. Reading through at least one person only got a 10,000 mile reprieve but there are plenty of threads describing bringing a transmission back to life changing solinoids


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Changed the spark plugs on my N62 V8 4.4i:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OgFBDO92KI

I commented over in the thread you made on it but I'll post here too. Good job and great video !

Quality videos no doubt


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Love your videos.

I'm thinking about these because of the straight rear wiper..
http://r.ebay.com/4EUoxi

sweet, my blades all need replacing and my rear arm the spring is weak and doesn't hold the blade on the glass well anymore. I think i'll be getting a set.

Subscribed!


Except coils here are $80 each!!

Thanks guys!

What's broke? Who knows....Parked the E53 in the garage for 6 days while we traveled in the CEO's 428i and returned to find this underneath. First time it ever tinkled.

2002 X5 3.0 332,700 miles
2014 428i 33,000 miles

2004 325i sold at 123,600 miles
2001 325i sold at 66,000 miles

1970 Firebird Under restoration

That's a lot of tinkling.

at 332,000 miles that is not a lot.
Valve cover?
OFH ?
Oil Pan ?
Vanos line?

Or maybe a filter cover seal?

I really hope it's a minor problem and you get that fixed easily. You may not know about it but on the list here we have a secret pool to see how far your world record holding AT will go without ever changing fluid. :D

Valve cover (not just the gasket) replaced at 317,000 miles
OFHG also replaced at 317,000 miles
Oil pan gasket - normal seepage
VANOS line replaced at 176,000 miles (currently looks good & dry)
Filter cover appears dry as well.

I'm leaning towards the OFHG since it was just done this year and all this leakage occurred with the vehicle parked and the engine not running.

Transmission still operates fine though :thumbup:

The two separate sources suggests the metal plate caught the liquid before spilling. Hoping you have red coolant and it's a simple busted hose. Keep us posted


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What is/was broken on your E53 today?
 

So: for me: parked wife's car. Shut off. She asked me to back up to not be under a tree. Start the car. Put in R. Car stalls.

Long story short; 60 minutes later, her car now has MY fuel pump since hers no longer does. (Pump fuel).

Quick bit of comparison testing indicated when voltage applied on her pump no whir / humm. Mine did so I swapped mine in.

It was a conscious decision that I could have a second x5 for comparing and borrowing parts and this is the third time it's come in handy.

It was definitely engine oil, probably 1/4 cup.

So it looks like the HVAC blower fan has finally quit. The porcupine resistor is good, but the fan still won't run. For the last 6mos or so, a firm rap on the dash, forward of the center vents has managed to get it moving. That hasn't worked, so it looks like dash removal is in my future.

I watched a video of that being changed. I hope that is as close as I ever get to that job.

Doesn't look particularly difficult, but lots and lots of stuff has to be removed.

I suspect the motor has a burnt spot somewhere on it and depending on where it stops, it can't get going again. Going to yank the center vent and stick an air nozzle from my compressor in there to see if I can get it spinning. I just can't spare most of a weekend to mess with it at the moment... travel, kid stuff, yard work, it never ends. At least the fan isn't a fortune.

Good chance on bad commutator contact. I refurbished a blower motor once and it was a situation where the contacts were press fit and high resistance. I soldered them and brought it right back to life.

Smart idea to try to spin the blower with shop air but low pressure high volume probably would work better. Vacuum over one dash vent with the rest closed. Set outlet to dash only that will probably be your best bet.


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What is/was broken on your E53 today?
 

Mine did exactly like that. At a mere 150k miles. My engine looked new not a speck of oil in the engine bay anywhere.

Turned out to be the oil filter o-ring. 60 seconds to replace the o-ring, 2 hours to remove the fan, the belly pan and deep clean all the oil off of everywhere. Hope it's similarly simple

Check brake linings popped up today on the way home. So its front brake job time. Normally not a big deal. But I had to basically press the passenger side wheel back on the hub after hammering on the hub for the wheel bearing job. So getting the wheel off may be "interesting".

I had a couple very tight hub to wheel fittings where I had a very hard time removing a wheel. Since then I've been cleaning the hub with wire wheel and a shot of anti seize before reassembly.

If you want to get your wheels loose turn the lugs loose then 1 or 2 turns from snug while up in the air. Set the truck down they will usually pop loose with a bang. Then put it back up in the air to continue.


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That's how I have to remove all the wheels. This wheel is different. I had to use the dremel tool to grind part of the hub off to get the wheel back on. Its literally PRESSED onto the hub using the lug bolts to force it on.

I splayed out the hub when I was beating on the cv axle that was stuck last time and missed and hit the hub a fair amount damaging the flange. I had beat on the cv axle so hard I actually shortened the length of the axle by 1 inch or more before I realized it.

I remember reading about that. I think the trick will still work. The hub only reacted m reaches 3-4 mm into the wheel. Dremel a little more before reassembly


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Well it rained all day yesterday so I figured I would change the brakes today.

Its almost 11:30am and its 39 degrees outside.... NOT.

Damn fridge temp in AL? Ouch. If you don't get a break on temp you can make a quick lean-to and use a simple forced air or radient heater. It was about 10°F when I installed my alternator and this trick saved the day.


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Its supposed to go back up to 70 in a few days. I will wait till then to do the brakes. Just to cold today.

I once changed a crossover pipe on a 71 Impala in 34° rain i wish I could have waited a couple of days.

The warning light is pretty over cautious. I've driven over 1000 miles after mine and wife's light came on and didn't feel bad about the amount of pad left. I've changed plenty of pads with less meat on them in the past when no electronic sensor. There is definitely no rush.

Will you just change pads or rotors?

I'm wondering if there is a trick you can use to do the opposite of how you pressed on the wheel to use the lug threads as a gear puller. I think the inside of the wheel hub actually has a ridge you might be able to use an actual gear puller to push the wheel off.

With the lugs loose you could possibly use steering input to wriggle the wheel loose if weight alone didn't do it. 1200# on the wheel that's only about 240# per lug I think they can handle it without damage.

To clean up the hub before re installing I would see if I have a bimetal hole saw that has the proper diameter to clean up the hub in a little smoother circle than Dremel.

I used a hole saw with double sided foam tape to hone the inside of my bearing carrier when changing bearings it worked flawlessly. The same could work on the inside but I'm thinking I'd try to find an exact size that can use the teeth. You can compare to the other side to make sure the size is just right.

I'm hoping it comes off without ww3. I need a break for a change :)

If it comes off ok I imagine it will go back on easy. If it doesn't I will do a bit more dremel work. Luckily its pretty easy to see what needs cutting I was just very tired last time at the point I needed to get the wheel back on. Only the outter lip is flared from the misses with the hammer when I was removing the cv axle so it wont effect the tire seating right if I trim it all off.

That makes sense. Simply re-adding a bevel with a cut off wheel would do.


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Hey guys, just a quick update, went to change trans oil on weekend, car wouldn't start again! Thankfully ignition switch had turned up, slightly wrong one, but I made it work, and she is starting like a champ again! Thanks for the advice on ignition switch, hopefully I won't have to post on this thread again for a while ;)

Great to hear you sorted it. What part did you order and what part turned up. Just so I know... ;)

Hey mate, completely my fault, the part I ordered is what turned up, I misread that the two options were interchangeable.. Which is kind of true if you don't mind cutting off chunks of plastic! Part I ordered was 61326901962.. I should of got 61326901961. So would presume 961 is correct part for you too!

Is the difference right vs left drive?


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I'm pretty sure my mechatronics unit/solenoids are shot. :-P

Hey mate, nah I'm pretty sure the steering column part is the same on both (key on right hand side) but the 962 has extra pins in it, presume it's for v8 versions..

Was broken: coolant reservoir: hairkine split causing a drip about one per second. Symptom: heat was weak in the cabin. Put in some coolant it was 2L low. It was hot when I added (not much choice when you take said car to Walmart at 10pm to get the fluid). I checked when cold a few days later when I was able to start again (replaced fuel pump) and notice when cold it was low (not too surprised) but when I bought another bottle of coolant (wife had the first bottle in her car 70 miles away) that's when I noticed the leak.

Skip ahead a day: picked up a new reservoir, remove the old one and hear an unexpected thump.

The thump was the top of the AT Cooler thermostat flying a few feet across the engine compartment.

Is broken:
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Transmission cooler thermostat. Never knew it existed. About to order a replacement from Amazon for 1 day delivery so I can have BMWЯ running tomorrow.

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Darn near impossible to remove as the plastic is so brittle it just disintegrates. I ended up drilling a hole and putting in a screw to use as a handle.

The place where the screw is placed is enclosed so there are no crumbs dropped into the engine. That sucker is held in tight by o-rings!

Another tip: there is one hose that doesn't need to be removed and doing so will spill a lot more coolant oops.

Ouch.

Hopefully they get the new one to you in time. Amazons shipping seems a bit slow these days to me.

I'm just glad to have found the thing.

Same day shipping is only guaranteed by 9pm. I may have to delay my Chicago trip another day but I'm betting I've just added 10s of 1000s of miles to my transmission by finding the broken thermostat.

You won't know the thermostat is broken until you need to replace the reservoir. Here's a great tip: remove fan and shroud and airbox to make room to work! Way easier and using a 1-1/4" wrench and a hammer takes off the fan so quickly it's well worth the effort!


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Fired up the car to go to work yesterday morning. Bad misfire. SES light came on. Ran fine the night before. Put my scanner on it and got misfire in cylinders 1 and 5. Pulled the coils and plugs. Plugs looked OK. Put coils back in cleared codes and fired it up again. Still misfiring. Checked codes again. Only #5 misfiring. Swapped coils between #4 & #5 and misfire moved to #4. Drove to work. Ordered 6 new coils and picked them up on my way home. Swapped in all new coils when I got home. Runs like a champ. I checked the codes when I got home and it was throwing codes for #4 and #1 again. Replaced all six because the car has 203k miles on it and coils are original figured if two were bad the rest weren't far behind.

That's how I liked to do them. One coil is bad enough but with two the whole neighborhood is definitely toast. No sense in leaving it to come back to haunt you at the worse possible time.

I'd have done the same. I think one of my coils is going bad I twice have had a similar code that puts the car in limp home mode. Fortunately with WiFi dongle in the OBD I can reset on the fly it is completely bizarre to have the engine go from 40 to 225hp while driving after pressing a button on my iPhone ! Very smart coil swap diagnoses. Also very smart to use the one failure as a barometer for the rest. Kinda nice that with multiple coils at least you can get back home when one fails vs old school stranded and a tow.


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Got to fix the broken/cracked driver inside door grip, perhaps a front wheel bearing or maybe axle / diff issues. Then gotta figure out whats left of the motor at 232K miles. Compression test. All else is great.

Good news to report. The reman'd valve body w/new solenoids fixed the X! It shifts like a new car, no more weirdness, clunking or bumping. Also shifts instantly from P to R or D. Also the driver's front window regulator was replaced. Very pleased.

Awesome. I installed my new coolant reservoir and transmission thermostat. Symptom of leak noticed before any drops hit the ground: took too long to warm up the cabin. Very happy was the reservoir since 2L missing if internal very very bad.

Absolutely a joy to work on coolant system on this car with the quick release fittings!


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