Makes sense. But this was not my case as the diff was full of fluid. Something happened to the right side of the diff. The axle had major play and after ruining the seal on that side and spitting out fluid, there was still more then enough oil in the diff.

New brakes, 19s installed
 

Last weekend decided to do an oil&filter change. Yesterday, finally got around to installing the pile of rotors and pads that was sitting in a corner of my garage. Also put in fresh rubber inserts for the front guide pins. Already took care of the brake fluid refresh a couple of weeks back.

At the same time took off the winter wheels and installed 132s with a set of Michelin Latitude Tours in 255/50. Given the terrible condition of the roads this car has to traverse nearly daily, I decided not to fit the 87s/20s but went for 19s. To get the correct look I decreased the front spacers to 15mm and rears to 20mm to get just the right fill of the fenders.

For the rear I picked up a set of N0 spec tires which, to my surprise, sport about 20mm wider thread then regular 255/50s. When I was about to mount the fronts I discovered that one was a regular spec, the other an M0. Found a match for the M0 spec which is a little wider than regular but not by much. So, now it has Benz spec on the front and Porsche spec on the rear :) I have driven a bunch of these Michelins on different cars and these confirm previous experience to be correct. They are very comfy and produce very little road noise while tracking true and provide good grip.

This morning gave it wash and she is ready for the warm season. :thumbup:

Looking good. :thumbup: Those are my favorite 19" wheel on the E53.

Well that about explains it...

https://i.ibb.co/7KZJ1yR/Screen-Shot...8-14-32-PM.png

"well thar's yer problem"


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Damn! How does that happen?

Have no idea. Car developed some issues and noises which slowly got worse and worse. Sharp turn followed by hard acceleration caused the entire car to shudder hard. Like teeth skipping. This must’ve been due to the maneuver activating the differential action. Besides that, there was simply a thump noise, increasing in frequency with speed. Almost like a bad wheel bearing. Amazingly, I was still driving the car and it was moving. Once again, how this happened, I do not know. No damage to the casing either.

Wow! Quite a failure!


I ordered rear pads, shims, and a wear sensor. I am curious, my rotors have plenty of meat left, but I read something about not being able to turn BMW rotors. Is there any credence to that or can I reuse them after resurfacing, provided the remaining thickness is OK?

Somehow posted the below on the wrong thread. User error….

Had a new alternator pulley installed to replace the deformed one that came with my FCP Euro rebuilt alternator and was almost certainly the cause of the car eating and barfing out main belts at inopportune times. I have the pulley and will post a pic later.

Since the car was in the shop for the pulley and a once-over by a fresh set of eyes to check my handiwork, I had my two Cardone $40 (each, on sale) “remanufactured OEM” rear axles installed (broken boots both sides), some stainless braided brake lines I have had laying around for a while installed with a flush and bleed, and two new rear ABS sensors installed to hopefully take care of an occasional code I was getting.

She’s back on the road again and ran strong around town all day yesterday. So far I’m not seeing any unexplained coolant loss, so hopefully I dodged a huge bullet and didn’t burn up any head gaskets when it shed the belt and overheated the first time. I’m thinking about starting an oil testing history with the car, but have read varying opinions on how useful this is. Internet being what it is. I ordered a few bottle kits from blackstone and the test isn’t expensive.

I’ve got about 1100 miles on the the new motor so it’s time to change the oil at some point this month.

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

The price has come down so much on rotors not worth the effort to resurface.

Especially if you buy from FCP euro.