Txyaloo,

Are you saying you had the cluster reprogrammed to work with your current mileage on your X?


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Installed android unit, but someone has been messing around with radio wiring and forgot my soldering tools at home (as I was installing radio at work), so I will have to fix wiring first so did not fully mount it yet. Unit seems to work nicely and quite fast too.

Coded the GM module today.
 

Finally got around to coding a few things in the replacement GM, plenty frustrating as my desktop PC is completely unable to access these modules on the e53. My laptop was giving me some trouble but eventually got it to work. (My E70 used to be a breeze, connected easily to either, not sure why the e53 is so much more finicky.)

Coded the GM to unlock all doors with one push of the remote. Some time back I messed up my GM in a low voltage incident and decided to get another one rather than try to reset at the dealer (it reverted to transport mode....) The replacement module had the selective door unlocking enabled which was starting to bother us. There are 5 settings, one for each key plus a general one.

Also coded the GM to allow window auto up/down function to work when door is open and open/close windows with the key remote.

Lastly, with some trepidation, coded the LCM. Some have had some trouble after coding their LCM but all I wanted was the Fog Lights to come on with the High Beams. It is a bit scary as after the coding completes, the trifecta is on, all the settings on the nav screen revert to factory. But resetting all of these was no trouble.

It is too cold today to be in the garage and installing new brake pads and mounting the winter tires will have to wait for slightly better temps.

Intake
 

Assembled the intake for my 4.6 motor finally. Details and pic on the Overland thread.

Yes- I sent it off to Fixels. He replaces the rom chip on the cluster that sets it back to a "virgin" state. Once you plug it in, it syncs the vin and mileage from the DME and LCM. He also has a DME flash that enables the warm up lights and oil temp. The cluster had 165k on it before I sent it off.

He does great work. I've got a pristine late model E53 cluster in my 2002 4.4i with everything working. He even swapped the DSC/traction control warning light for the proper 4.4 display.

Towed it home to Louisiana from Virginia over the weekend... dang thing left me stranded again so I had to fly home, get my truck and make a 2300 mile round trip to get it home. I swear, I'm going to make a successful road trip in this 4.8is one day!

I haven't diagnosed it yet but I think a bearing went out on the front differential. Makes an awful noise when I'm rolling unless I'm accelerating and gear oil is leaking from the diff. I was cruising along at 60 mph when I heard/felt a pop and then noticed the obnoxious noise.

https://i.imgur.com/QRdHpFA.jpg?1

Finally, after oh lets just call it 10 months I resolved my crazy timing issue. The issue was me, more specifically me putting it in the wrong hole, it being the TDC lock pin. I devoted all day yesterday to getting it put back together and buttoned up. This week taking her in to get an alignment since I refreshed the front suspension while she was down, getting a state inspection, and getting the registration re-upped. Then back to getting 12mpg daily.

Took out my JL 1000/1 v1 from Red. Had a problem with major noise introduction whenever the left RCA input was connected. Found someone had been in there before and goobered up a "repair."

https://www.caraudiojunkies.com/atta...1&d=1638080305

https://www.caraudiojunkies.com/atta...8&d=1638080261

https://www.caraudiojunkies.com/atta...0&d=1638080305

https://www.caraudiojunkies.com/atta...7&d=1638080261

https://www.caraudiojunkies.com/atta...3&d=1638080319

Looks like the solder blob they added on top was being contacted by the center pin after they twisted an RCA upon insertion/removal. Quality work. :rolleyes: Will repair this today.

And made a few garage upgrades over the last month. Added a Harbor Freight upper cabinet. Been trying to add another one but apparently the supply shortages have kept these things in the Pacific. I grabbed the last one from a store a distance from me because the closer ones were out. On the wall I mounted my power supply for coding, programming, testing, etc. Got tired of it sitting on the work bench and the cable is plenty long to reach most areas of the garage so I made a mount for it. Used some audio box carpet to dress it up before throwing it on the wall.

Attachment 81303

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I'll be 40 next month and am tired of pushing vehicles up a sloped driveway to get to the garage. So I added a winch, naturally. Went with a 12v because they are substantially cheaper for more pulling power vs 120v. This setup works awesome and had no problem pulling the E70 up the driveway. I need to add another set of anchors in the front of the garage so we don't have to push at all, but for now this will work.

Attachment 81306

Those are the anchors/bolts I ordered off Amazon. Also pictured the N52 timing tool set that I need to repair the commonly broken 4 front head bolt problem on my wagon. It's puking oil out of the front after warming up. :rolleyes:

Attachment 81307

Made a plate to mount the setup on. I wanted a nice chunk of steel, but holy crap are those expensive. Ended up sandwiching some quality ply between 1/16" (maybe 1/8"?) steel plates. Works fine.

Attachment 81308

I'm going to mount all of this on wall next to the garage door in the future. Only having the power leads for the motor coming down. This should help the range of the wireless remotes too (nice feature to have). But for now...

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That battery is an old dead POS (keep it as a core) so had to use the power supply that's mounted on the wall to supply 14v to use the winch. I have another battery that will be better suited to this purpose. Will need to load test it, but it seems to hold voltage after sitting on the shelf.

I ended up with 22.8mpg for the first half of the trip. Only slightly better than my previous best tank. I haven't filled up for the return trip but since that included 4,000 ft of elevation climb, I doubt it will be any better.

I think part of it is that 5th gear in the 5-speed is shorter than top gear in the automatic. Probably doesn't help highway cruising. My car is at about 3,000 rpm at 65mph.

I also found out that all the local body shops are probably not going to get my family car fixed until next year, which means my X is going to be seeing full-time family hauling duty for a while, as well as a 1,000+ mile road trip. And I am going to be putting a lot of miles on my bike.