Added what? The anticipation is killing me :dunno:

Sorry I can't post the picture. See the thread: Fixing or replacing steering wheel trim. The picture is there.

First time ever doing a decent detail job since buying in February of this year. Wash, Iron-X treatment, nanoskin mitt and then a coat of sealant. Looks pretty damn good, definitely a few spots in desperate need of deep cleaning, my driver side D pillar felt like sand paper!

Pics or it didn't happen ;)

Oh yea! It's about that time of the year, I need to do my fall waxing, and then come spring it's time for another clay bar. I might start teaching myself to detail on my drift car's paint, so I can learn there and then perfect it to correct my X5. I LOVE my black sapphire metallic, but my oh my does it show every swirl of my truck's 236k miles.

So hopefully I can learn over winter, and then totally correct and make my X5 pop again with the beautiful paint it has.

Follow up on these struts/shocks. They felt great for about 4 months, handled well, rebound and compression was liveable but could have been stiffer. Now after 7 months they are totally overwhelmed by the vehicle weight and lowered springs. Still not sure what Koni means by 'active' but they are now so sloppy they need to be replaced. Go with the Bilstein B8 and don't make the same mistake I did (btw, the B8 were not available at the time with no eta). The Koni may work fine with stock springs but lack stiffness and either change over time (active part?) or simply wear out prematurely.

Fitted FK Automotive front springs (40mm) and rear lowering links.

Next jobs are 15mm(front) / 20mm(rear) spacers and oval tailpipes. Pics to follow :thumbup:


https://i.ibb.co/kHwRRtx/IMG-2575-small.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/QpT2Hck/IMG-2574-small.jpg

Swirl flap delete, new glow plugs and module then fixed two chips that were starting to show signs of rust on my drivers door.

It was the first time doing legit two stage (color/clear) chip repair. I sanded the little chips down to bare metal then did 4 coats of color and two coats of clear so that it was up above the OEM paint. Sanded down with red scotchbrite, then 1500, then 2000 wet sand. Topped it of with Meguiars 150 and PC then some sealant. You can see where I did the correction looking straight on about 12" away but if you look down the side of the car it's smooth as glass and from 4' away you can't see it. I chalk it up as a win!

Ok this is the dummest thing I ever did, recently changed brake pads, all good until 2 days later I started having a grinding sound coming from the passenger side, started low but ended up seriously bad, the car was un-drivable. Took a test run with the guys that replaced pads, and they said it sounds like I need to replace bearings, then I started getting quotations for new bearings, chose the cheapest then drove the very same car very slow to fetch my friend so we could go buy the bearings. When I got there I see him staring at my passenger side wheel then he said, "WHY ARE YOU DRIVING THE CAR WITH ONLY 2 NUTS ON THE WHEEL?" I'm like what?? I checked and all the nuts were missing except for 2 and they were also loose! The damn guys from the Brakes Dealer forgot to tighten the nuts after changing pads. I've just replaced new ones and problem solved. Almost caused serious problem for nothing.

On 2009 X5 4.8 had the injectors deep cleaned. The result is amazing, the car is pulling much better. Feels like extra 20-30 hp. The procedure involved removing micro filters (they were so dirty and brittle at 89k), cleaning (using a gizmo from eBay and 9v battery) with brake fluid, then with seafoam, and finally with carb cleaner; installed new micro filters, new o-rings. Put everything back with a little bit of dielectric grease.