Unplanned maintenance
 

D1 - no problem. I set off the alarm accidently last week.

A8 - I noticed since last week the temp needle was cooler than normal. Even on warm days. The SES light never turned on. Is there an aftermarket cooler thermostat that works on an M54? Would an aluminum house work better? I'll probably order one from FCP. Good maintenance to replace it every few years with a lifetime warranty. :D

F0 - Okay, that will explain on why "Scooter" had no power temporarily. It went away. I started it up after work at home and it was gone. Since I don't know the plug mileage, I'll swap them out. I have the single prong ones recommended here.

1E - Okay, this one concerns me. Is it a coil going out? Did it detect a bad ignition condition? 152k miles is a lot of miles. The coils may be original. :(

Ihad to replace a coil or two on wife's m54 about 160-170k mi. Mine made it 205 on original coils.


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Just replace the thermostat with an OEM one. 95C is actually a good temperature for an engine to be at. Running cooler might cause CCV issues.

BKR6EIX Iridium spark plugs will go in as replacements. I'll have to look up torque specs in my Bently manual.

Does anyone run NGK coils? I use NGK products on all my other vehicles. Never had any issues with their products. All 6 are reasonable at RockAuto.

A few hoses have been replaced. On hand is a coolant o-ring kit. I'll replace a few o rings on hoses. Plus, a new heater valve is ready for installation too.

Be aware of "fake" or not up to spec Iridium plugs. +1 on the thermostat, nothing wrong the original temp. I would go with the Bosch coils but probably not a big difference.

Guess I've been lucky. Have owned 20+ bmw's, mainly gasoline and have not ever had a problem with coils. Problem has always been elsewhere. :)

A single Bosch is hard to find in Austin. All special order or mail to home. A euro shop ordered one. I’ll go pick it up tomorrow. I’ve set up appointment with them. For $85, they’ll give the X5 a full scan and diagnosis report. Super price if you ask me. They can scan the CAN BUS for activity. Maybe they can tell me what’s keeping it wake and pulling the amp draw. I’ll get the other coils ordered on line. The single one is pricey but worth to keep it running. The shop is busy so the appointment is 1/27. I plan to do more testing myself. I’ll take as much info to them as possible.

You can get a set of 6 NGK coils from summit racing for 131 bucks.

Part#: NGK-49177
Item: IGNITION COIL MULTIPACK
Status: Shipped on 12/29/2021
Price: $131.50

The Fixer,
Ironically, I'll be in Ft W next week. I've to entertain myself for a day. I'll drive out to the Summit Racing store to buy them. The store is a really cool place to walk around.

Waiting for the shop to call me on the Bosch coil, I charged up battery and started to chase amps. The shop didn't call. I guess they couldn't find the coil either. Glad too, $100.18 each! Ouch!

The rear doors lock and unlock again. The rear hatch and tailgate work again. I found a blown fuse. It doesn't help when a 20 amp fuse is there when a 30 is required. All good now. I'll have to buy a few spare fuses. Only 1 30 amp spare was available. During testing, my voltmeter alarms for low batteries. Not having any AAA batteries, I made a parts run.
Here are my amp chase results. I tested all the fuses before 16 min expired, then tested them again after 16 min. It was set for sleep mode.
The accuracy is not great at low volts. I'm ordering a clamp for small amps and volt measurements.

Voltmeter set at millivolts.
F11 - 1.5 - instrument panel
F14 - 0.5 - imobilizer
F27 - 12.75 volts - GM3 module power supply
F43 - 4.1 instrument panel
F74 - removed
F75 - 0.1 audio systems

The interior lights don't work. So next step, replace all the bulbs. Will LED bulbs work? The shop will test the light module for errors. I don't see anything significant keeping it awake or drawing amps. I'll have to test stuff under the tire and engine bay next.

I have had all interior LED lights for several years. I bought a kit that had all the bulbs in it. If I recall correctly, I bought the ones that the features list included won't throw codes.

Is the kit from eBay or another website.

F60 - for GMIII was the blown fuse.

Unplanned maintenance
 

My new to me e70 "BMWЯ₂" came with full LED lighting. Big fan. The k temp too high for my personal taste but it's "daylight bright".


Example this is exclusively lit at night from the interior LED lighting!
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...fa5f5f2755.jpg

Dang! The plate lights and upper hatch are LEDs. The plate lights were updated since one side was missing a cover. Eventually, a camera/light combo will replace one side. I'll look for an LED kit. I want to have them replaced before shop scanning on the 27th. I'm taking them as much information as I can find.

My iridium plugs are lost. I put them in a safe place now I can't find them. Hope to find them or order new ones. I'll get new coils from Summit on Thursday. The store there is huge.

I don't know about you guys but anything other than fluids and filter changes has been (unplanned) maintenance or dare I call it "are you kidding me" maintenance![emoji1787][emoji848][emoji28][emoji848][emoji25]

I'm still messing with my B-clutch and now I have a short in my washer motor.

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I know that it was not eBay but don't recall where I purchased them. There are 5000K bright white. I believe my choice was a recommendation of someone on the forum. There was a thread about LED lights that you can do a search to find.

I bought some similar style t10 lights as some of mine were blinking and some weren't lit.

Turns out two unlit weren't plugged in completely! And one so far has a faulty connection wire. Also not T10 so I have to figure out what the bigger lamp is.

I'll report back if the t10s I bought are total crap or not they are 10% the price of the BMW branded 10 lamp kit.

I was able to get satisfying results by swapping the rear seat dome lights with the rear seat reading lights that don't come on with the door. (Stop gap until the new lamps come tomorrow).

Hoping that the t10 also used in wife's '12 and I can upgrade her to LED now that I found out I only need like 3 not ten lamps.

I do need at least 2-3 of the bigger size; the ones that light up the footwell directly.

The ones I purchased weren't from BMW either.

How many interior light bulbs are needed? 19? How many sizes? I’m searching for a kit.

Depends on your car package. I have the special lights package and have what seems to be double the normal quantity. About 19-20 lamps in my interior.


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Looks like I found a kit. All LED for a panoroof X5. Designed by an electrical engineer and specific to BMW. No codes verified!
Out of curiosity, I have not looked any wiring diagrams yet. Are any lights wired in series?

Share the link to the kit.

My lamps came in I will be installing a few as soon as tonight and report of they are worth getting or I have to send them back.

Unlikely - that would then require lower voltage lamps... :dunno:

No lamps are series. My replacement lamps are rated 12-24v however

E53 specific, no codes LED kits. Other BMW models are available or can be made. I'm ordering mine today!

I think you'll be very happy. I'm amazed how uniform and bright my X5 is vs. wife's much fancier outfitted model.

I'll be sharing any extras I have from my kit with her.

I ordered that same kit... it does not produce any codes or warnings. But some of the bulbs still flicker. :rolleyes:

Edit: Bulbs were installed 10/08/2015. Forget how long it took before flickering started, but it was not as long as I would have hoped.

One problem.....no interior lights work! So I think the module is toast. I have a test replacement. If the replacement works, I'll figure out the coding later or live with the tamper dot. I can't wait for a full BMW scan on the 27th.

Yea, the lighting will be nice. Black interior and limo tint on rear and cargo windows.

You're in Austin, what full scan are you looking for? I could probably steal some time away and head up there with the laptop.

After spending time going through all the rear and 60 fuses in the glove box, I threw up the towel. It has not hit the floor yet. I'm chasing the no sleep issue. So far, I have not found an amp draw for a clue. I want to fix the problem before it becomes an issue to hurt electrical systems or near 1 year old battery. This shop: https://www.hceuro.com/ , will charge $85 for a full scan. About three hours for them to set up all the monitoring equipment and let it fall asleep on its own. Well, only as far as it will go. Worth every penny if I can get clues to the no sleep issue. Plus now, the no interior light issue.

If you can spare time, I'll meet you half way or drive it to San Antonio. BBQ and BEvERageS are always a treat. I'm making a wish list too. Like coding the temp gauge to read lower. Turn on the auxiliary fan accordingly. Plus code stuff others have done here. The no sleep is really the only problem keeping me from making it a long trip driver. It needs mechanical attention. I have nice pile of parts now. Until I fix the no sleep issue, I'm holding off on the parts.

No sleep at all or does it go to sleep and wake up? I went back through your thread and didn't see any steps to look at the obvious. Mine was a bad TCU in the rear and unplugging fuse 72 in the rear is a quick and easy diagnostic to rule that out. That is one of the most popular draws that will kill a normal battery in 2 days.

Most people will find the draw within a few days of trying.

Pulling Banks of fuses is a quick way to find which group is the culprit.

Fuse #72? It’s not on my troubleshooting list. I did try 75. 74 is pulled. The motion sensor is unplugged. The FSR was replaced. Will 72 affect radio operation? If not, I’ll pull it tomorrow. While testing before 16 min expired, it did have a voltage drop there. After 16 min, it went to 0 drop. However, my two current voltmeters don’t have accurate range to low milliamperes. The list above is where I found voltage on fuses after 16 min.
The Foxwell does command sleep. After 1 second, it wakes up. The P light is not working now. It did before when it’s awake. I know it’s a wake by the green left window switch button. When sleep command is activated, the switch light turns off. After a second, it turns back on.

So you need to unplug a fuse or four at a time and commamd sleep until you find a batch or a fuse where it stays sleeping.


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Sorry, typo. Fuse 74 is the fuse for the TCU. Look at your aux fan next
.

+1 on beware of bogus NGK Iridium plugs. Don't by them on line. I bought a set on Amazon. The electrodes melted down in about three months. Clearly not iridium plugs.

Not a bad cost on that scan/diag. :thumbup:

I'll see when I can slide away on a weekend. I have a buddy in Austin I need to meet up with that the wife has been expecting. Jan. is pretty full as we had/have 4 birthdays, 4 dr. appts, and the kiddos are getting their second jabs. Fun month. :rolleyes: I'll shoot you a PM if I can get a kitchen pass.

Never done any hex coding (think that's necessary for the temp gauge), so make sure you have your notes on that if you want to give it a go. I have the full BMW suite running (minus ISTA-P) so troubleshooting/scanning should be no issue.

[mention]Overboost [/mention] has the step by step to make the temp dial functional.

The auxiliary fan has been replaced. It stopped working shortly after I bought it. A new brushless fan works great. Spins crazy fast. Takes about 10-15 seconds for it to wind down. Hopefully the scan will give good info. Maybe even something to code out. I’ll post back here with a report.

Yup, plugs is an item I don't buy on Amazon. I've seen too many fakes. The easy ones to spot are Motorcraft. A friend had a 3.5 twin turbo F150 4X4. Ran great for about 2 months. I get the call. My first question, where were the plugs purchased, Amazon! Told him to get me Motorcraft from a dealer and I'll pull the old ones out and install them. Ran great afterwards. If I can't find my RockAuto ordered ones, I'll buy a new set at Summit Racing, Arlington.

Shorts to parkas to light jacket weather all within 5 days. :wow:
Today, I helped a friend check his wife's SUV brakes. The brakes were good. A little grease and cleaning stopped squeaks. I bought new coil packs at Summit Racing, Arlington. $140 NGK 6 pack over a single $100.18 single Bosch at a shop! No parts stores had a single coil. Using my friend's garage, new plugs and coils went on in about 20 minutes. Only two were tight, all others were kind of loose. #6 looked the worst. The prongs had gunk all over them. #1 was next. The misfire #3 had oil residue. Time for a valve cover gasket and gourmet. The #3 and #5 had different coil packs. The #3 had a replacement Bosch coil. #5 had a NGK coil. The #5 coil part number matches the new set. So three different aged coils. The plugs are 1-6 left to right. The #5 plug was not burned through like the others. It bucked a little at startup then smoothed out. Drove home 20 miles and it ran great. The in gear idle shake is gone! I assume #3 was misfiring enough to cause the shake but not set a code. Well, only once. I'll drive it the next few days and check operation. I wanted to have them installed before shop scanning on Thursday. Hopefully the scan will show what's keeping it awake. Once I know, I'll fix it. Even if I have install an accessory kill switch.

The cap oil sludge is back. It had gone away until now. I guess the cold weather is causing it. Plus the thermostat is stuck open. After the scan on Thursday, the water pump will be replaced.