Looks great!

Updated body panel with the retro wheels. Very pleasing to the eyes!

The front air dam has the X5M look. Did you retrofit the M bumpers or does it come that like factory?

Thanks fellas...wasn’t fishing for compliments...just saw the post prior to mine about the style 87 wheels...and though I’d share that (similar to the style 37 MPars)...the style 87 wheel can have life after the e53. :)

It was serendipitous that they got put back into service. I was looking for 19” e70 or f15 wheels to use for a winter set and couldn’t find anything & with winter fast approaching and winter tire stock was getting low...I got fast & furious with the wheel/tire calculators to see if it was possible to mount them before all the winter tires got back ordered...and the 87s would have to spend winter lingering unused in the shed.

I was also a bit reticent about using a 20” snow tire...especially the 315/35/20 on the rear...but driving in some mild winter conditions cold/wet/dry...cold/light snow/ice/slush...the Yoko BluEarths have done well. Hopefully they will do as well if we get a deep snow (8”+). :popcorn:

@ Marruzo: ...its the bumper that comes with the M-sport pkg on the f15 X5. The X5M front bumper has similar air vents on each corner...but the middle air vent and bumper design is slightly different (more aggressive looking).

I was shocked that the 87s didn’t look that odd when I rolled the wheel up next to the f15:

Hopefully fixed the self level suspension inactive today. After reading a thousand threads on this I was dreading trying to diagnose it properly without throwing parts at it. My big takeaways from all the threads were to get it diagnosed with BMW ISTA or GT1 scanning equipment so I can get the proper code. I paid a BMW Indy shop to read the code which was “accumulator pressure constant”. They didn’t put the code # on my receipt so not sure of that. All the research told me it was most likely a bad compressor so I bought the bagpipingandy piston rebuild kit. Swapped out the piston, went back to the Indy to clear the code and wala, all is well again. Hopefully anyway. We’ll see if the error stays away. The up/down switch works as it should. Hoping that did the trick. $115 for the scan/clearing of code and $45 for the kit so very happy about saving $400 ish for a new aftermarket compressor. Plus the labor probably saved me another couple hundred. The compressor is very easy to remove and fix. Key is get it fixed as soon as you get the error message if you have a bad compressor or leaky bags.


Sent from my iPhone using Xoutpost.com

Link to this piston repair kit?

Replacing the panoramic sunroof over the this next week and I’ll be replacing the sunroof/body seal. Any advice, should do’s? It’s in my garage, so no rush to get it done.


Sent from my iPhone using Xoutpost.com

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...00a90d3a85.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f1c355c5f1.jpg

Mid way through bearing and CV replace. Took about four hours to push the axle out of the hub. I've done the task about eight or ten times. Never needed more than a few whacks with a 4# hammer to knock out.

The axle was completely fused to the hub. After an hour of pounding both with a 5# slide hammer (i mushroomed the end of the 5/8" rod had to cut off 1/2" to fix it). 2 hours more of pounding with 4# hammer, I got the axle to move about an inch.

The next day it dawned on me maybe the plate from my bearing press might fit just fit inside the lug bolts, so I bought (3) 50mm M14 bolts and washers and sure enough it worked. Took 20-30 minutes to get everything lined up and 1-2 minutes of impact wrench.

Based on the sound of the impact it was close to the bearing install of 25-30,000# of force.

I am about to install new rotors and plan to cut out the center of an old rotor for similar push/pull in the future.

Most hub press tools use a 5/8 push rod and that would have instantly stripped had I tried.

Now I have to figure out if I can restore the hub, other than the $80-100 I want to fix my car tomorrow and can't re-install hub into the bearing so bearing plus hub must be done together.

Barrina LED lights
 

Technically this is not what I did, but it will help me with what I'm currently doing(Panoramic sunroof install). Installed Barrina LED lights from Amazon. 6 pac, 4 foot lights, all cords/plugs included for $78 USD. Turned my garage into an X5 repair shop!! Wow! So much light for very little $$. Highly recommend!! Search Amazon for "Barrina LED Shop Light, 40W 5000LM 5000K, 4FT Integrated Fixture, V Shape,T8 Light Tube, Daylight White, Clear Cover, Hight Output, Strip Lights Bulb for Garage Warehouse Workshop Basement (Pack of 6)"

My left exterior power fold mirror was floppy & stripping gears as it opened. So I opened mirror housing to expose the teenie-timy electric motor and the 2 removable worm gears were stripping each other. So, using spare parts, I replaced both time gears and reassembled. Problem gone.

I've done a LOT of work on my power fold mirror assemblies over the year. I mean a lot. A LOT, so I'm very intimate with how they work but this is first time I've ever seen stripped gears so it took me a bit of time to diagnose.

Besides the white ring (with 2 indents for the limit switch)on top of motor assembly housing, all parts are interchangeable. But those rings can pop off and onto another motor housing assemble with a good motor/gear situation. You will need to adjust/unscrew/rotate some.more stuff to get a left motor housing with right side ring to work on the right side (and vice versa) but all the parts are there.



Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

What did you do to / for your E53 today??
 

I did similar for client about a month ago. He had one 4'x2 florescent light that was putting out 1/5 the normal light as getting cold.

I wanted to install across the trusses that were 8' spacing so I bought a pair of 2x2 and installed them perpendicular and screwed the 36" long 3000L fixtures to that.

Home Depot had the fixtures for sale for $10@

I installed 5 total fixtures now the garage is OR bright with 15000L.

I did a similar upgrade to a friend's garage but after we just installed white accoustic tiles after double insulating (6" fiberglass and radiant barrier with air space both sides).

We hung the lights facing UP on chains so it's indirect lighting doesn't blind you when looking up.

I can flip the one over the engine facing down when I want more light.