My new to me X5 is on its way here
 

The 2001 X5 Im adding to the fleet is on its way. Should be here in about 30 minutes. As long as the motor seems ok and the trans shifts correctly Im buying it.

I'll post some pics and details once I take delivery.

What? Needed more projects? Lol good luck!

Nice, what's leaving the stable or is this just an addition?

Just another addition :)

This sucker is loaded.

Heated seats, sport seats, etc.

Got it for $1000.

The only thing wrong with it is the rear air suspension isn't working. I will dive into it tomorrow and if its messed up to bad I will just convert it to normal. This one is going to replace one of my pickup trucks eventually. I wanted a rough X5 to use for offroad use to check on the old house from time to time. Since buying the new house with the paved driveway and all I spent a ton of time cleaning up the other 2 x5's and don't want to get them muddy again so I bought this x5 for that :)

Trying to find a usb cable to transfer the pics off my phone. I will upload pics in a few.

I use DropBox... Phone to DropBox, DropBox to computer

My pics sync automagically to One Drive where I get 1TB of space each for 5 users of Office 365. No one can touch 5TB of storage for the O365 annual subscription price. My young daughter's iPhone is connected this way as well. She and my sibling are 2 of the 5 users. They get Office, too.

Saves time and aggravation. :thumbup: I can't recall the last time I connected a phone to transfer pics except Bluetooth. If you don't like cloud storage, have you tried Bluetooth transfers? It's nice as well, but is a few clicks. Probably no more than with a cable.

Really, I just want pics ASAP. So, get connected or somethin and GIVE! :stickpoke

Ok here are some pics. Its very dirty and I just bought it. I will clean it up some tomorrow and try to take better pics.

Just needs the heated steering wheel upgrade :)

Has everything else that I can tell.

The cable is a BUNCH faster.

Wow, looks nice! "Drive it like you stole it" applies here! :thumbup:

I use the cable because its usb 3.0 and can move a 4gb movie off the phone in 60 seconds or so.

I shoot the pics at full rez then shrink the ones I put up on the web to 1024x768.

The cable makes moving them real fast. Wife snagged the cable off my desk without letting me know is why I had to track it down.

It was kind of funny they kept going over the details, new paint, new tires etc. All I wanted to see was it not knock when floored and shift thru the gears without slipping. I never even used a flashlight to look at the body till after I paid them and they left.

It's role is a glorified pickup truck so looks aren't important. But after checking it out with the flashlight it seems to be in real good condition.

I need to run the vin and figure out what options it has.

What's a "cable"? :nanana:

Ok I went out and scanned for codes on it and it has a bazillion codes.

The battery was bad and they had to replace it before bringing it to me so that was expected. I cleared the codes and nothing returned.

I don't have a "code" for the rear air suspension. But the dash does have a light lit for it. But again I couldn't find any codes for it.

The only place in the scanners list for air suspension type of stuff was :

ECH Electronic Ride-Height Control

But I don't know that is what the rear air bag only suspension is called. That may be fore the 4 wheel air suspension cars.

When I go into that section it says :

No communication.

Verify the system is configured.


So is the rear air computer controlled or stand alone?

01 is a bit early for me to remember. If stand alone ima go with a bad pump or bag/s.

Looks nice though!

I'm still stuck on "cable to transfer pics"


I had to look to see if this post had been zombie bumped from 2007.

Nice find!

+1

That's what our '01 has. We had one bag go a few years ago and replaced both. No problems since.

Do check for evidence of water back there tho. And clear the sunroof drains as a matter of course.

:rofl:

Sun came up so better pics :)

Still needs washing but its cold and raining so not today.

Was looking at the option list on this thing after I noticed the headliner and pillar covers were strange looking.

Options show it has anthracite headliner.

Didn't even know that was available. Pretty cool looking and feels strange to the touch.

Anthracite over beige? That’s bizarre.


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Was noticing a bit of miss at idle but no codes. I think I found the problem.

I popped the hood and was checking the air intake boot for rips and noticed a strange fitting on it. Basically an elbow piece someone had added or something. I couldn't decide if something should be there and they bypassed it or what. Then I figured it out.

See if you come to the same conclusion :)

Lol! Top quality repair there! After you replace that, if you still have a mis fire, load up your laptop, it will list the mid fire even if you don’t have a check engine light.

It had misfire codes galore when they delivered it along with about another 100 or so codes. But they had installed a new battery to get it to me. I cleared the codes and nothing has returned yet but I haven't driven it. I ordered a new intake boot just now on amazon so with prime it will be here Saturday. Its oem not Chinese so hopefully that will fix that.

Still haven't started in on the air suspension yet.

All SPP E53's came with black headliners. It's the same reason on this example that the PP chrome is replaced with high gloss trim around the outside windows rather than matte finish trim of non-PP/non-SPP. The SPP is also why there is a silver mesh grill peeking out from under the front bumper. At some point, the POs replaced the kidney grills with those from a SPP 4.4/4.6. They were black on all 3.0s.

It's the same on my '01 3.0 Here's a pic from 17 years ago when we picked it up. Note the absence of dual zone climate. This is an odd duck SPP/Non PP car. The kicker? Ours *does* have DSP. :( :

https://xoutpost.com/attachments/tes...ink-inside.jpg

https://xoutpost.com/attachments/tes...nk-frontlt.jpg

Does the pump run crows? On my parts truck it turned out to be a removed relay and blown fuse. Replaced those and aired it up through the foxwell.

I haven't heard it run yet. So I guess it doesn't run. From what I have read it should come on when I open the door but I don't hear anything when I open the door.


I asked the previous owner about it tonight and they said went out while they were driving it and just parked it. So everything should be there parts wise. Could be a blown fuse or the pumps dead Im guessing. I will try to diagnose it some tomorrow weather permitting. Saturday is the next dry day according to the forecast.

The pump is only loud enough to hear (for me on both air suspension E53's) if you're on top of it. Folks report hearing it run when it is on the way out, but normal operation should be silent.

There exists a refurb process and parts for the air suspension pump. $24 on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/BMW-2000-2006.../dp/B00U53VBSC

Anxious to see the progress Crowz!

I book marked the rebuild kit for future consideration if I get that far :)

Hoping I can make some progress soon :)

So far its rain, rain and more rain. I could pull it under the carport if I have to but the rainy cold weather makes me just want to go back in the house and sleep.

On high mileage suspension compressor pumps (like mine at 113K) I had a great result by buying the complete head unit from a source on Ali.

My compressor cylinder bore was shot and the new cylinder head and piston ring restored excellent performance and no more codes.

$22

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Air-...866104110.html

Yes I first tried Bag Pipin Andy’s piston ring solution but no joy.

Mike

I think I am going to do mine before doing my stereo setup... because afterwards access will be, let's call it less than ideal. ;)

If you remove the lower trunk floor Crowz... you'll be able to hear it running. Even a healthy pump makes enough noise to be heard without that.

Weather permitting I will check that tomorrow. This weekend for sure.

Since it will HAVE to have a backup camera and it just has the mid/cd player now what's the vote on which one to go with on this install?

I'm thinking about maybe this one :

https://www.seicane.com/android-auto...trol-cpu-s6942

https://static.seicane.com/media/cat...adio-7_101.jpg

Since its so radically different from the ones I have done in the other cars. All of the other ones are factory looking ones. This would be the tablet 9" screen type.

Oh and don't even go down that cutting a hole in the top of the dash version.

To put it simple on that particular type....

AIN'T HAPPENIN !

I like that one 'cause it's the same unit as the one I have. :thumbup: Different brand, same bits.

I like the large screen. Plenty of real estate for Waze, Amazon Music, etc. I rarely watch Plex movies or use a browser like Chrome on the thing, but it is nice to have a big ole screen if needed.

I'd be interested if your use reveals my experience. I find that I need to aim juuuust a touch high on the intended target. ie when searching using the keyboard, I need to aim for the top portion of a given letter. App buttons like a press on the top most edge, etc.

I dunno what part of Android addresses this, but I would like to figure out a screen calibration to make it perfect. It's one of a dozen things on these radios that could be better than it is, but isn't a deal breaker for me.

I do still wish it had a knob for volume. 30 years piloting Bimmers can't be undone by one with a touch control- even if the wheel buttons work fine.

That only works with the OEM Nav setup - it's not compatible with the CD-Player/MID setup we have. :D

BUT, for your reference... (in case someone finds this thread and wonders what you are talking about...): -

https://www.seicane.com/android-1998...ontrol-s028205

And yeah, given how fast my heart was racing just coding some stuff, I ain't going near the dash with a knife.... :rofl:

And to answer your question - if this is going to be your "beater" do you want to spend a significant proportion of the cars value on a stereo..?

With all the outstanding (and bound-to-happen-sooner-rather-than-later things that have yet to bite me) maint. needs on my (admittedly bloody good) e53 I can't justify spending $1,000 on a stereo upgrade.

But that's me. That and I adore the OEM look of this e53 platform - I'd rather keep it look "period correct". :thumbup:

:thumbup:

Well at $379 its not too expensive and I have to have a backup camera. There isn't much cheaper wise to go with. I will spend more than that on tires when I swap to a more aggressive set of tires.

I will probably replace the entire pump if its bad. Im hoping a relay or fuse is to blame.

Ohhh, Crowwwwz.. .Mooohahahah

https://xoutpost.com/attachments/x5-...0607_30157.jpg

Out of the build thread from hell. THIS read will keep you up for a couple hours... :popcorn:

https://xoutpost.com/attachments/x5-...0607_50203.jpg

Not going that far. The whole purpose of this X5 is because I don't like the way trucks drive vs the X5. If I go that radical I will be right back where I started driving the truck.

On a side note I did watch all of his videos. Great job he did on it. Just not what I want to do to this one :)

Well I couldn't stand it any longer and stood out in the rain and checked the fuses.

Im showing 79 and 87 for the air suspension and both are good.

There was water in the passenger side cubby hole down at the bottom (about an inch). Its coming from the insulation on that side of the car but not sure past that point. I have no idea if water is in the spare tire area as I bailed after checking the fuses.

Have you got ISTA?

You can reset the rear air suspension module with it as a starting point?

The only thing I have connected to it is my foxwell nt510 scanner. It says the module isn't there when I select the air suspension.

I will try to pa soft next just because its the simplest one. If that doesn't work I will get into the old school tools.

I cant see any water standing in the spare tire well itself so I guess I am good there.

Next thing would be to pull the dome from under the spare tire and see if I can read power at the compressor itself plug while opening the door. If it does then the pumps bad if it isn't then I will work my way back.

On a positive note I drove it for a bit today. The previous owner kept the tag screws for some reason so I went to napa to get some which they didn't have so I had to order replacaments. Robbed two screws off the wife's E53 till the new screws get here so at least it has a tag now.

Filled it up with super unleaded and we drove around a bit. Drives great other than the rear end bouncing because of the deflated air bags.

I think I came out pretty good for $1000.

When my pump was in shutdown a little while after my Bag Pipin Andy fix I could bring it back to life with a Creator code reader reset, would work for a few minutes, miles then dead again.

Then I went with the complete cylinder head assembly from Ali a few months ago and have had no problems since and no codes. All 4 bags are good and after a month of inactivity opening my door activates the pump for a slight pump up.

Mike

Im charging up the laptop I use for diags now and will see what I can see in a bit. Temp outside is falling fast so it may be tomorrow before I tackle it.

If it can't communicate there might be a fuse to the system or the module itself is dead. Water can get into that tray down there somehow. I don't remember how (it was a monsoon style rainstorm, but could not find manner of ingress), but water killed the air module on my rear axle air 4.4i and was only fixed with a "new" used module from ebay. :dunno:

It absolutely flooded the spare tire well. After that I drilled a few small holes in key areas and never had any problems after that. Not sure if water ever got back in there, but I took no chances.

Well the "tub" the tire in is dry but the area under that where the battery is may have water in it. Havent removed the spare yet.

Its just to cold for my old bones out there tonight. I will try to do more to it tomorrow when the suns up.

Sorry, force of habit calling it the spare tire well, which is what it would be on most cars. I meant the electronics tub that is under the spare tire. It's an interesting way to conveniently house all the expensive electronics in an area that can turn into a small comfortable pool for said electronics. :confused: I seem to remember threads of people losing PDC, Air suspension, and radio functionality after a big storm. :yikes:

Pretty common and will cause an owner to sell it to the shop. The water in the rear wells usually comes in from clogged sunroof drains.

Ok did the intake boot repair.

Of course I started out with the blood sacrifice right off the bat.

Also I managed to break a host clamp during the reinstall.

Last but not least this is what I was dealing with :)

The youtube video below shows the redneck mess they did to the intake boot in more detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3FpYVA5HWw



After all of this it purrs like a kitten now. Super smooth and what I thought was normal intake air flow noise was actually one massive vacuum leak.

What a mess. UGH. Some people. Also was there water in the electronics area in the boot?

I never got to the air suspension stuff. Took all day on the intake boot. Had a late start waiting on it to get warm enough outside to work on it and then all the problems doing the fix on that didn't leave me time for it.

Maybe tomorrow.

Ahhhh. OK I'll check in tomorrow night. ;-)

Way off topic, but don’t forget to check those brake lines under the drivers area!

Common problem ?

Never had brake line issues on my other X5's.

It is up here in the north east. I fix them all the time. About 6 inches behind the water drain on the drivers side, under that plastic panel rust developes. Particularly on the hard plastic line holder sleeve. Check the “heads up for a brake line check” or similar thread. You can remove 5 quick 8mm bolts to get a peak at them.

I wonder its a northern-ish thing where they salt the roads. Ive never run into this here in Alabama.

Love these style much better than the ones that look like factory nav. Looks awesome installed.

I bought this one... looks to be the same, check it out first but it's significantly cheaper:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4G-3...2b394c4dkBygac

Well I think I found the problem with my air suspension.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9i8...ature=youtu.be

As an alternative to drilling a hole, maybe consider bailing with a turkey baster and sopping up last residual with some baby diapers or other modern high absorbency materials?

Mike

Already drilled :)

Drained out nicely. Also the pump is coming on for 2 seconds or so now when the door is open after drying the board out. Its toast of course. I ordered a replacement and it should be here in a few days. I still plan on converting it to non air eventually but my ocd wants to make it work first....

Heres a full run thru of what I was dealing with.

Yep, that looks very familiar. At least the modules are cheap from eBay or breaker. BTW, if the rain is hard enough and long enough, it will overwhelm the sunroof drains. We had flooding rain for 3 or 4 days straight to kill mine. Never had a problem again after drilling a few 1/8" ish sized holes in key areas of the tray.

Crowz,

Could you or others who have drilled these strategically positioned water draining holes, provide a picture showing where you drilled them?

Thanks,

Mike

If I can remember when I put the replacement module in Thursday or so I will take some pics of where I drilled the holes.

Thanks Crowz :thumbup:

Mike

Well, there's your problem

Wow. That was really wet down there, good find. Hope she pumps right up with the new module! :thumbup:

I hope so too !


Friends and family keep stopping by trying to buy it from me. I need a "Its not for sale" sign for it :)


The two prevailing arguments I keep getting are "You don't need 3 x5's so I'll take it off your hands for $x" or "It looks to nice to use in place of the F150 you just need to sell it to me for x over what you paid before you ruin it offroad".

Hi Crowz,

What mileage is the car?

This one has 220,000 miles on it.

Still showing 10th aka Thursday as the delivery date on the air suspension module.

Annoying having to wait since I want to drive it some more and to get started on fixing everything. Just isn't as much fun looking for stuff to fix sitting in the yard :)

My daughter's birthday. Good day for it to show. :thumbup:

Actually, January is flush with Bdays. Son is the 7th, daughter the 10th, and mine is the 11th. Oh, then my father's is the 14th. We usually just combine the celebration. That should work for a few more years until the kids get old enough to want their own things. :D

We did just have a sad day though. Had to put our 13YO (his bday was also in January) dog down on the 5th after a stroke. Poor guy, but at least he was himself and ambulatory right up until the end. Still acted like a pup.

His name was Bimmer (of course it was):

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5xgNT4y/Baby-Beamer-24.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/HLWN4fkv/Living...ct-2013-11.jpg

Sorry for the tangent. The date brought up the rambling train of thought in my brain and I couldn't resist the urge to share. I guess it's the freshness of it still. We still expect to hear his paws on the wood floors and such. :(

Sorry for the loss. All of our dogs are getting way up there in years and were dreading the day we lose one of them.

Sorry for you. I know your pain. We had to put down our 18 year old Beagle last year. It's like losing a family member.

Thanks for turning this into a sad puppy thread. :( Sorry for your loss.

Thank you all. Sorry amancuso (and you Crowz) it really wasn't intentional. We've had him since just after we got married and bought our house so he's been with us for what feels like our entire "adult" life. One thing lead to another in the brain and... well, you know how that goes.

Drinking rum and diet is probably contributing as well. But, thanks all for the thoughts/condolences.

Actually, perhaps I should edit that first post and start another thread? Though even in that would be sort of off topic in the e53 area. I'm rambling...

I NEVER mind someone going offtopic in my threads. Mainly because I treat my forum time like standing around talking to friends in real life.

That means people talk about whatever pops into their heads :) So all is good.

Bravo Crowz! Same thoughts here.

Sorry for your loss CW. They are family.

Sorry about your buddy, because we all know that animals truly give unconditional love and are always happy to see even if it was only 10 minutes since the last time they saw you.

I agree about the threads being conversations....

But didn't want to make anyone crotchety:stickpoke:

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I never understand why folks get bent out of shape ab that stuff either. Why is anyone's thread 'their' thread? Once we put it out there, it's the whole community's conversation. The way I see it, a thread is like a child except it's left where it was birthed. From there, the wolf pack nurtures it into whatever it may be.

And I'm sorry to hear about the pup. My daughter has been looking for the eventual replacement for our rescue. He's either 9 or 10 and sleeps alot so his day is near. We've had him for 6 years.

https://xoutpost.com/attachments/tes...14-custom-.jpg

I agree. Your dog looks like a sweetheart.

Well lets try posting this again. Seems the site is having issues.

Anyways the air suspension module shows to be in PERRYSBURG, OH.

With tomorrow being the delivery date to here in Alabama.

That's the good news.

The bad news is it also shows in red letters :

Shipment exception
Weather delay

So I don't know if I will get it tomorrow or not :(

Man, I had the same aggravation since Monday! USPS left me a card to sign as the eBay seller sent signature req'd. Smart, sure. But no less annoying.

I signed it and TAPED it to the mailbox in a plastic sandwich bag. Ain't NO "I didn't see it" going on here. I have the video of the letter carrier taking it off and promptly driving away. No package. :banghead: So I promptly went online yesterday, filled out a request for redelivery (playing by the rules) and set up camp to await the mail delivery today. And there he came. And went. :rolleyes: I know his route means he's coming back to the neighbors across the street, so I wait a few minutes and ask him.

He was nice enough to give me a direct number to the local station. I called and was told, "It's on the truck. Should be there today." :rolleyes: So we went around a bit and the man came back to say it was awiting my signature at the station. :confused:

The good news is two-fold: That experience didn't take even 1/2 as long as I expected. Nobody goes to the post office anymore. :dunno: And second, The i7 3.6Ghz processor is swinging away in my desktop where it replaced a fully-capable i5. The i5 will find a home in my NAS build.

So, hopefully you'll get some relief without too much effort as well. Good things *can* happen! :thumbup:

Wait to use isn't as bad as waiting to see if its fixed by replacing this :)

The air bags could be cracked or worse but I have no way of knowing till I replace the module.

Nooooooo not critical about it at all. The sad face was for the pup. [emoji22]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Fingers crossed for you Crowz that the delays aren't bad. From the evening news you would think it's the next ice age upon us. And thanks for your understanding, I agree with you about organic conversation in online forum interaction... but not everyone does.

Thanks all for the well wishes regarding the pooch. We got a nice hand-written card today from the vet hospital we took him to which was nice and I'm going to write a review for them as that was unexpected. Upset the wife a little though as it freshened up the would again. :( But it was still a nice bit of unexpected thoughtfulness.

Shows on the truck out for delivery so it looks like its a go for trying to fix the air suspension today !

Well I tried the module and forgot to take pictures of the holes I drilled. Sorry about that.

Pump came on when plugged in and did its whole routine. Dash light went out so no air suspension warning.


Then after about a minute it turned off and the warning light came back. But it was doing what it was supposed to do. Since there was air hissing out of the passenger side airbag :(

So now its either get a bag or do the swap to non air. I want to see it work right once before I disable it.

So Im off to watch vids on swapping the bags then I need to find some cheap bags.

Was the hissing coming from the bag or lines?

Sorry for your loss.

Its coming from the passenger side rear wheel well. Since all the lines are inside the car it would have to be the bag that's hissing I guess.

I went and watched a video of changing them. God its easy. So I think I will keep the air suspension as long as the bags are not a constant problem.

I priced cheapies on amazon at $88 for both.

FCP euro has them at $113 each for arnott with lifetime warranty.

So the question is are the arnott's that much better than the offbrand cheapies.

From what I have read everyone that went cheap aftermarket had failures pretty fast. The arnott seem to last 5 years or more easy.

Anyone want to chime in on this before I purchase?

I'm a springer so I can't recommend either way but logically for $25/ea more for a lifetime warranty, I would go with FCP Euro Arnott's.

When mine fail, I'm sure I'll replace with Arnotts.

:rofl:

Replace both sides at the same time with Arnott. The rule of these things is that as soon as you get one fixed, the other breaks.

We replaced the 01' rear bags 5 or 6 yrs ago and my '04's some time ago. Who can remember any more. :confused:

Well if they last at least 5 years each time I will be mega happy. The install looks to be super easy.

So a pair of arnott's it is. My ocd sucks at times on this stuff.

I should of just put springs in it when I bought it. But I just HAD to see it work right once first :)

You might just leave it after its fixed. its a pretty nifty system

I agree. I really enjoy the air system.

Glad the module did it's job for you Crows. :thumbup:

I may tow with this one some. How do the air bags compare to regular springs tongue weight wise?

My understanding is that the airbag system is the one you'd want for towing. Levels out the car and will support as much as the available Class 3 hitch will pull.

That pretty much what I have been finding since I posted that. Seems the air suspension is desired for towing on the x5's.

No experience towing with it, but I've read the same as above.

What I have liked is self leveling while carrying heavy loads. Comes in handy when carrying sand bags or roofing singles.

Why is this funny!

It struck me as funny to equate the troubleshooting efforts of a car and a dead module with something that we normally would say about a family member.

And then, as I type this in reply to your question, it occurs to me that you *were* talking ab the loss of his family member- his puppy- and not the car! :rofl: So I was mixed up in what you were talking ab and it made me laugh for all the wrong reasons.

But of course all of *that* is making me laugh even more. :bustingup Sorry for my confusion. But damn, my confusion is even more funny now (to me). LOL

I have towed about 4500# of trailer and granite as well as another couple hundred pounds of granite slabs in the rear for about a 1200 mile trip and the air bags were most appreciated.

I'm really glad they did not blow out when I was towing that load :wow:

I had a Chinese airbag blowout on me while not towing any load at about 80mph and it was quite the surprise :wow:

I sprang for an Arnot bag to replace that one :thumbup:

Mike

When I was in Colorado, I towed with the X5 every week. Anything from, mini cooper all the way to other X5, the height control is a plus for sure, as it keeps it level through the entire trip. I towed my 97 M3 from Colorado to Idaho, combine GWR was 11-12K total, and it did just fine.
Now I am prepping the X5 to travel back to Colorado Or Texas it all depends... with a Travel Trailer max weight is 4,500lbs so it should be just fine. As for my airbags, they are OE, and I am planning to replace them with ARNOTT brand from Rockauto. They are $97.79 with the same warranty from manufacture, and cheaper somehow:dunno:. I did do a complete suspension refresh. I just need to do that refresher kit on my wife's X3, and we will be all prepped and ready to go on this road trip of 844-1201 miles depends on the location.

Both my X5's have been springers. Here's what my first X5 looked like pulling my Ferrari across the country when we moved to Charlotte. I wish I had the bags...

I mean really, who needs three of the same model vehicle? :thumbup:

Well if your going to sag at least you were sagging in style :)

Ive been telling the ones that use that argument that I still have 4 to go so I can have one for each day of the week :rofl:

Well from the consensus in this thread plus what I have read elsewhere the rear air is a keeper. Since I will tow with this one no matter what else it needs after I change both bags I will fix it to keep the rear air suspension.

Not as a stylist as towing a Ferrari but, no sagging. This waws before I purchase an adjustable hitch

The rear bags are stupid easy. Since you’ll have to “deflate” them to do any rear suspension work, I’d suggest checking all your rear suspension arms & ball joints now.

I can second this - replacing rear air bags is a relatively easy project. Pull the fuse (rear fuse box) when you do it and replace after everything is reassembled. Very good reminder to indeed (as suggested) replace the rear upper control arm that frequently has play and gives you FAR more negative camber than needed. Arnott products work well, lifetime warranty. Buy directly from them on line.

Well my first time experience with fcp euro is NOT off to a good start.

I bought two of the arnott rear air bags for 113 each and paid extra to get them here in two days.

Basically $250. That in itself is fine.

But since their website had issues with my address the order didn't work at first at 11am.

I called and the voice message said they were gone to lunch and would be back at 11:45 am my time.

So I killed some time with the webpage open on the order.

I called back at 12:00pm my time and was on hold for 10 or 15 minutes at least. Annoying on hold music.

After finally getting someone on the phone they tell me my address isn't right is why it didn't work. I told him it showed on paypal it worked and was holding for $250. He said it wasn't really done and it would go away.

Well I logged into paypal (the card I used is my paypal card) and the address on paypal matched except I used highway in place of hwy so the rep changed the address on their end and I tried again.

Bam another $250 on my account and still didn't work.

So $500 tied up now.

They are at a loss as to what to do. So I then used the pay with paypal button (remember the card is ON paypal so its the same thing payment wise) and guess what that worked just fine so the problem is with their website. The address paypal put on the sale also perfectly matches the one I was using for the card btw.

So now my $750 worth of airbags are ordered..... :yikes:


Now I have to wait for the $500 worth of screw up charges to fall off.

Now feeling the fcp euro love at the moment. Hope they at least get here within the time frame for the extra shipping I paid for.

At least they have a lifetime warranty.

True but on this one arnott has a lifetime warranty themselves.

That's crappy. I always pay for FCP via Paypal though. Never use their own payment processing so I can't say whether it has worked any better for me. Hopefully the $500 drops off quickly. :dunno:

:wow: love that 348

Yeah, I did too... I miss her, we sold her 10 years ago.

Sorry about your experince Crowz. With PP Onetouch, it's just almost as fast as amazon buy it now. Just checkout with PP and One Touch makes it almost instantaneous !

Refunds are literally processed the same day or following when they get it back.

Another BMW retailer I'm dealing with right now, is playing blond. I email them after 2 week of them receiving the shipment back inquiring status on refund. I sent them a screenshot of UPS tracking # and who signed for it. I get another email where now they magically found the package and will move the refund to the front of the line. C'mon man. Was they waiting for me to either forget the refund and wait for the inquiry

Count yourself lucky to get a refund at all - that whole refund deal is pretty much only the USA - pretty much anywhere else in the world it's "caveat emptor" and you own the item the moment you walk out the store with it (or it's shipped).

Faulty goods aside of course...

Almost no retailer over here would offer any form of refund and no one would ask for one - you buy it, you own it. Makes you consider your purchases rather carefully... :D

Well they lied (or are just wrong) on the extra $500 being freed up by 5pm today.

Its almost 7pm my time and 8pm their time and Im showing the $250 cleared for the bags but the extra $500 is still on hold on my account......

the air suspension stuff gets here today. Shows out for delivery as of now.

I doubt I will install them today though since its 43 degrees and raining.

Tomorrow is supposed to get into the 60's and no rain so that will probably be the install day.

:thumbup: Take some pics!

Planning on it. The air springs arrived today so Im ready for tomorrow. Just hope it gets warm outside.

Ok life got in the way so I didn't get as much done as I wanted but I did manage to replace the air spring on the passenger side (the one that was hissing). Just to tired, cold and late in the day to tackle the other one and super bad storms predicted for tomorrow. So I put it back together and plugged the module in. Pump came on and it leveled up perfectly.

After cleaning up my tools and stuff I took it to jacks to get something to eat.

Cranked right up and ran fine. On the drive there I was amazed how smooth it rode. It drives better than my 2013 X5 ride wise. Very smooth. Even with just rear air suspension it makes a huge difference on rough roads.

Anyways I get to jacks and Im waiting at the window and I notice it starts to idle rough and the idle is getting lower and lower. Its down to 500 rpm when I put it in park. It seems to pickup some but still a little rough. After a minute or so idling in park it starts dipping down in rpms again. I end up having to give it a good bit of gas to keep it at 1000 rpm.

I get my food and pull off and as soon as I get out in the road I realize I have no power.

It barely accelerates. I get turned onto a long stretch of road at it isn't accelerating worth a flip. Actually it isn't "accelerating at all" just holding speed even with the pedal about 1/2 or more pressed. Then it surges and back to no power then after a few seconds another full power (normal power for the pedal position) and then no power again. It does this a few times and then just stays weak.

I nursed it back to the house and went inside. I came back out later and cranked it up and it seemed fine. I put it in gear and goosed the pedal and everything seems fine.

I had a check engine light with fuel trim 1 and 2 exceeded and a pedal error of some kind. Basically read something along the lines of not what was expected.

I will try again with it sunday since tomorrow is supposed to be so bad and I can barely walk right now from working on it :)

Symptoms made me think fuel filter, pump or the hose had come off at the maf meter. But I checked under the hood and everything looks ok.

Its been sitting since last june so no telling what I am dealing with now.

Sounds like it might be the fuel pump? How much fuel is in it?

Between 3/4 of a tank and full. It had less than a 1/4 when I got it and I went and almost filled it up with super unleaded.

Seemed fuel related to me with the surge back to running right then no power.

I went and watched a video on changing the fuel filter on an E53. WTH were they thinking? There aren't that many bolts holding the dash in.

Sitting so long it could be just 'skunky' fuel issue or could have contaminated the MAF.

LMAO :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Im going to try to live data it when the weather clears up a bit and check the maf when its messing up. I did look at the data from it last night after I got it home but it was after it had sat for a bit and was running fine again at that point. The maf numbers looked normal then of course.

If I was younger I would add a fuel filter access door to that stupid shield thing. There is no excuse for a setup like that over the fuel filter.

I'm gonna need a lot more extensions... Holy crap, and doing that without a lift looks like so much fun... And you thought you were sore yesterday... :confused:

I've been there, hate when that happens. Monitoring/checking fuel pressure might be helpful.

It better cooperate when I go to change it.

I haz a sawzall !!!

:bustingup

Ive got a fuel pressure gauge but checking it while messing up will be tricky but not impossible.

It's the same panel on the 3.0d but being a diesel you have to change the fuel filter every second or third oil change. At least the filter only has two lines (in/out) but that "access" panel is still a real bugger.... :rolleyes:

It’s really not that bad, I rarely have to take the whole cover down, only on the super stuck & rusty ones. It’s hard to remember exactly without being in front of that shield, but I believe I pull the front bolts & most of the side bolts. Both center driveshaft bearing bolts & then pull the cover down. I use 5-6” long 2 X 4 ‘s to hold it down out of my way. I also have the advantage of a lift so this method may not work for everyone.

I ordered a digital fuel pressure gauge like you put in a dash or a pod that comes with 9 feet of line between the sensor and the gauge. Im going to wire a 12volt cig lighter plug to it when it gets here.

With this I should be able to tap the fuel line for a reading and drive the car and watch the fuel pressure.

I have been meaning to do this for awhile. I had a Bluetooth one years ago but cant find it. But with this rig I can test the problem I am having on the new x5 and a problem one of my pickup trucks is having too so it will be handy to have.

It gets here Thursday so after that I can rule out the pump, pickup screen and filter at least.

Im trying to find an adapter that fits the bmw Schrader valve and will accept the plug on the fuel gauge's sensor. Preferably a 90 degree turn one.

Here is what I bought :

https://www.amazon.com/MaxTow-Double...dp/B0095Y5OKI/

Fuel Pressure Sensor with 1/8 NPT Threads

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/...T0_SX300__.jpg

Anyone want to help me find the plumbing I need to connect his to the fuel rail :)

Well I may of fixed the no power and rough running problem. I went to napa and bought a bottle of heet water remover and dumped it in the tank. It spit and sputtered a bit when I started it up but seemed to run better. I went for a drive and it did great. I put about 15 miles total on it and never had a problem. Maybe its fixed.

Someone wanted me to post pics of the hole I drilled in the battery compartment under the spare tire to keep water from pooling up.

Here they are.

One pic shows with normal lighting.

The other picture has the compartment dark so you can see the light coming thru from under the car to spot the hole I drilled.

Thanks Crowz!

I might take that on when I do the rear fog light wiring back there.

Mike

Why is water getting into the battery compartment?

Could be clogged rear drains. Or a rain storm hard and long enough to over power them. That's what happened to mine. Had torrential rains over the course of a week and it flooded that electronics area. Drains were fine as far as I could tell. I now drill a couple of small holes in there to mitigate any possibilities in the future of a repeat.

Well I still have lean codes but the car runs great after replacing the fuel filter.

So I built a portable fuel pressure rig using a maxtow fuel pressure gauge.

I started out by removing the mechanical fuel pressure gauge from my fuel pressure tester and screwed the sensor for the maxtow gauge in its place.

Next I spliced the cigarette lighter power adapter cable I bought onto the maxtow power leads.

This setup didn't work because I couldn't find my fuel pressure gauge adapters. So since I had luckily bought a direct adapter I used it.

Now with something working that would attach to the fuel rail I screwed the sensor and adapter directly to the fuel rail.

I didn't take pictures because I made a video at this point which I haven't edited and uploaded yet. I will insert that here when I get it done :)

Next I ran the wires from under the hood up under the edge of the passenger windshield wiper to hold it in place and then into the passenger side of the car. Then I put the gauge where the ashtray goes and plugged it into the cigarette light.

Nothing. Zilch, nada nothing from the gauge. Grrrrr.

Seems the cigarette lighter socket in the car doesn't work. After making sure all of the fuse were good and checking it with a voltmeter to make sure it was really dead I was stuck with no way to easily power up my new gauge rig.

Then it dawned on me. The cooler plug !

I went and checked to make sure this car had one and sure enough it did. So I used the cigarette lighter plug that's under the dash that's for coolers and such to power it and it lighted up instantly.

This is what the setup looked like. I have some nice videos too but I need to edit them and upload those later.

I have now ruled out fuel pressure with it reading...

49 at idle

48 driving down the road

47 floored for long distances

So the next test will require my smoke machine which I just bought to find out if I have vacuum leaks and where they are. But its getting late today so that will have to wait for another time.

Slick idea Crowz. Nice! :thumbup:

Thanks ! I plan on making use of that sucker on my F150 next since Im positive the previous owner put the wrong pump in it.

I just hate it the 77 degrees we had here today will be 50 or lower tomorrow :(

My new to me X5 is on its way here
 

A little less swing than our "bipolar vortex" 70° swing last week


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