B7's daily e39. And it's a goodbye to sport no2!

[aceraf]

Looking good...

Why did you choose to buy a 35W kit as opposed to a 50W kit though?

I fitted 50W 4300K to my brothers E39 and they're alot brighter than the 4300K 35W i have fitted on my e30.

Didn't know there were different ones to be honest.

50W version is about 1/3 brighter than the standard HIDs.

[Jon_Bmw]

Trev, the genuine Xenon sets easily sell for very good money as I found out recently. I had no drama shifting a set for £400. The adjustors were spot on, and no broken brackets. A really nice set, but I thought I could live with my pre facelift xenons and pocket the £330 profit.

Yours look good, despite the fitting dramas.

[d6dph]

Looks cracking Trev. Just needs some white LEDs in the anal eyes now to freshen those up a tad.

[B7]

Looks cracking Trev. Just needs some white LEDs in the anal eyes now to freshen those up a tad.

I quite like the contrast to be honest . I've seen some with an LED in the ring (ooooheeerrrr ) and it's looked a bit "Saturday night cruise"?

[d6dph]

Perfect for when you are doing skids down ladymead with bert then

Hmm, could loose the nice OE-ness of it with LEDs I guess. They are pretty pricy for what they are too.

[B7]

UPDATE: Just been for a spin in the dark and after a quick adjustment to the alignment of the offside, they are pretty damn good. Just need to sort the correct bulb holders. I've mailed the company re this.

Jobs left to do:

Theres an oil leak, albeit a slight one, from somewhere under the inlet manifold thats running down a pipe that enters the sump (or the bottom of the dipstick tube) on the upper flat side on the nearside. Barry had a peek today and we think a strip down of the intake side will reveal more.
Front track control bushes are past their best
Pixels on the dash. This is a job I'd love to do and have done since I bought it. It's got no worse from when I bought it but it would be nice to sort it once and for all.

Who said you could run one of these on a budget

[B7]

Contacted HID's Direct and they have ben excellent. It appears they've sent me the wrong holders. The correct set are on their way so I should be sorted real quick.

[Simon]

Hate the LED's for the angel eyes, they look good as standard in my opinion. Also, the LED's strobe apparently, due to the check control system.

The oil leak you mention Trev sounds like the emmisions control valve. It looks like a similar set up to the M52 engine. I recently cleaned mine out on the E36, removed the pipe from the rocker to the valve, and the one from the valve to the dipstick, and cleaned them all out, made a huge difference to the way the car drove..

[B7]

Hate the LED's for the angel eyes, they look good as standard in my opinion. Also, the LED's strobe apparently, due to the check control system.

The oil leak you mention Trev sounds like the emmisions control valve. It looks like a similar set up to the M52 engine. I recently cleaned mine out on the E36, removed the pipe from the rocker to the valve, and the one from the valve to the dipstick, and cleaned them all out, made a huge difference to the way the car drove..

Any chance you can ID it on realoem for me. I looked but couldn't find it. This is the main suspect talking to Barry. Thanks

[Simon]

This is the system on the M54..slightly different to the M52.

You probably couldn't find it because it comes under Cylinder head not inlet manifold..

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=11&fg=15

Obviously item number 1 is the regulating valve, it clogs up and causes the mayo effect under the oil cap and around the dipstick.

Lots of cold starts and short journeys cause these problems.

[B7]

This is the system on the M54..slightly different to the M52.

You probably couldn't find it because it comes under Cylinder head not inlet manifold..

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=11&fg=15

Obviously item number 1 is the regulating valve, it clogs up and causes the mayo effect under the oil cap and around the dipstick.

Lots of cold starts and short journeys cause these problems.

Perfect. Thanks. I'll get it up on stands and have a look under the inlet manifold.

[B7]

UPDATE: Just been for a spin in the dark and after a quick adjustment to the alignment of the offside, they are pretty damn good. Just need to sort the correct bulb holders. I've mailed the company re this.

Jobs left to do:

Theres an oil leak, albeit a slight one, from somewhere under the inlet manifold thats running down a pipe that enters the sump (or the bottom of the dipstick tube) on the upper flat side on the nearside. Barry had a peek today and we think a strip down of the intake side will reveal more.
Front track control bushes are past their best
Pixels on the dash. This is a job I'd love to do and have done since I bought it. It's got no worse from when I bought it but it would be nice to sort it once and for all.

Who said you could run one of these on a budget

Think I've sussed this oil leak now. it is the returnpipe from the seperator thats been chafed by a wiring loom. Ordered a new pipe as it's now turned essential.

[B7]

Contacted HID's Direct and they have ben excellent. It appears they've sent me the wrong holders. The correct set are on their way so I should be sorted real quick.

And this lot are p1ssing me right off an all. They've admitted send the wrong parts, I've sent them 3 emails and not had a single response to any of them. So they are heading for some serious neg feedback and I'll be out of pocket for some correct bulb holders

[ricey46]

Thats a shame Trev, I paid 35quid for my HID's, they came from china i think, best 35quid I've ever spent, never had any problems.

Car's looking good now though!!

[BadDave]

The change of dash trim fairly makes a difference.

Trev, there is a chap in Southampton that fixes them for £80. If you drive down he'll even take the cluster out for you etc. I am yet to do it, as it doesn't offend me and the low OBC shows everything anyway.

Look him up on the BMW 5 forum.

Jon.
Any chance that you may have a link/details for this chap.

The pixels on the Alpina could use his assistance, if he's as good as you've made him out to be.

[B7]

The change of dash trim fairly makes a difference.

Trev, there is a chap in Southampton that fixes them for £80. If you drive down he'll even take the cluster out for you etc. I am yet to do it, as it doesn't offend me and the low OBC shows everything anyway.

Look him up on the BMW 5 forum.

Jon.
Any chance that you may have a link/details for this chap.

The pixels on the Alpina could use his assistance, if he's as good as you've made him out to be.

This is him. Need to get mine sorted. Mileage is now fading fast.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E38-E39-E53-X ... 2306a9b064

[BadDave]

Thanks Trev

Might pop round past on the way back from Le Mans to save having to send the cluster too him.

Pixels on mine aren't too bad just yet, but they would look better repaired.

[B7]

Thats a shame Trev, I paid 35quid for my HID's, they came from china i think, best 35quid I've ever spent, never had any problems.

Car's looking good now though!!

The new holders arrived today (still no emails from HID direct ) and guess what.

1. they are like cocks in socks in the headlight
2. theres no way of locating the bulb in the right position
3. theres no way of sealing the unit from moisture.

Escalated it to a Paypal claim now. Had enough. They are a f*cking pain in the ar se

[Blitz]

My dads 525d auto Avus edition is nearly ready.

[B7]

thats nice blitz.

[Blitz]

Thanks. Have you seen the size of the battery's on these? Truck sized on the diesels.

[B7]

UPDATE: Just been for a spin in the dark and after a quick adjustment to the alignment of the offside, they are pretty damn good. Just need to sort the correct bulb holders. I've mailed the company re this.

Jobs left to do:

Theres an oil leak, albeit a slight one, from somewhere under the inlet manifold thats running down a pipe that enters the sump (or the bottom of the dipstick tube) on the upper flat side on the nearside. Barry had a peek today and we think a strip down of the intake side will reveal more.
Front track control bushes are past their best
Pixels on the dash. This is a job I'd love to do and have done since I bought it. It's got no worse from when I bought it but it would be nice to sort it once and for all.

Who said you could run one of these on a budget

Think I've sussed this oil leak now. it is the returnpipe from the seperator thats been chafed by a wiring loom. Ordered a new pipe as it's now turned essential.

Today I finally got the chance to sort the slight oil leak that had appeared. only it had gotten quite bad in the end. And no wonder.

This is whats left of the return pipe from the oil seperator to the sump it came out in 2 peices!




It had completely rotted away and gone really soft and frilly.

Even worse though was the fact that the return pipe on the sump was blocked solid with oily crap! It remined me of cleaning out the breather on an old Ford CHV

Theres only one reason for this! F*cking BMW's extended service schedules! It p1sses me right off. This thing has a fully stamped by BMW main dealer history. It cannot have been looked after any better. It's just too long between oil changes.

Tip of the year? Ignore the service lights and change the oil every 6k. It's the ONLY way!

[B7]

Well time for an update.

It's MOT time for the daily hack and not much has been spent snce the last update and she's been running really nicely. I still love this car and despite hankering after an Msport e60, these 530 sports are still a superb car.

So, a phone call to Barry got me an MOT at his Chandlers branch this morning at 9. And actually, it faired pretty well. Barry left no stone unturned and depsite the result being a successful issuing of a cert, it does require a bit of work.

The front has started to feel a bit loose of late, wandering along road repairs and tram lining. We suspected front track control arm bushes and I was expecting the worse. But Barry reckons they weren't worthy of a fail so in addition to a pair of those he's also recommended:

2 x drop links on the front
2 x drop links on the rear and
a pair of lower rear ball joints.

Already ordered up the parts from my local dealers and the total bill is £211. Should tighten the car up very nicely I reckon and thats not a lot of money when you consider it's now on 107k and it's 10 years old.

Front struts are start to lose their quality, so a pair of struts will be in order soon. No essential at this point.

A both front tyres are now worn on the outer edge, no doubt due to the TCA bushes having too much play and me being a bit "urgent" through the twisty bits around where I live

A HUGE thanks to Barry for his efforts this morning and for the offer of help with replacing the above parts in the near future. Cheers mate, I owe you one.

Update very soon.

[B7]

Yesterday saw Barry get his hands dirty on this, changing all the suspension parts we'd spotted on the MOT. He saved all the parts he removed so I could see how bad they were and they were well and truly f*cked.

To say the car drives better now is an understatement, it's tighter, turns in nicer and feels so much smoother.

I've also bought two 235/45 17's for the front that I now need to get fitted. I went for OEM Conti SportContact3's aas they seem to suit the car. These should make things even better as the nearside one has now formed a physical step on the outer edge.
BIG TIP. As soon as you here a knock, get it sorted before it wrecks 250 quids worth of tyres.

Heres a few shots of said parts. I don't reckon 211 quid is too bad for genuine parts.



TCA bush showing splits.


and we didn't actually notice how bad this ARB link was. It's far worse than we remember. This was obviously the main cause of the knocks.





A HUGE thanks to Barry for fitting these and apologies I didn't get time to fit the basics. The TCA bushes I would have struggled with in situ and the rear lower ball joints require a special tool to remove so to have Barry on hand to deal is a major result! Cheers matey.

[DanThe]

If those TCA bushes were on an E34 the driver would probably have 'white finger'
Either that or death

[B7]

Tyres are on now and it's driving nicely again.


Except..................Left rear speed sensor faulty now

This is getting boring!!!!!!

[Andyboy]

Both my 295'000 mile '89 730i and my 180'000 mile '93 318iS sailed though the MOT.............

The former just laughs at MOT tests, the latter was a 'packet of biscuits' job.

[Simon13]

the e36 328 went through this week! 1 advisory. compared to last year! 162,000 up now

[pacerpete]

Dans C2 and my red 325 shooting break flew through this week with no advisories. The PINK FIGARO, cough, will be going in early next week with a catering size boxes of biscuits to take the testers eyes away from the smokey haze that follows it !

[Andyboy]

The pink wafers do the trick I find.

Gotta love the '89 730i though. 0.61 CO, 134ppm hydrocarbons - that would pass an MOT for a catalyst car.

[B7]

Seriously thinking a nice late e34 may be a better bet for me at the mo. May also have a 328 coupe on the cards as well. Needs a bit of work but I'd tool it about for a bit.

[pacerpete]

Seriously thinking a nice late e34 may be a better bet for me at the mo. May also have a 328 coupe on the cards as well. Needs a bit of work but I'd tool it about for a bit.

How did you get on with the ABS issue Trevor ? The "dash of death" often ends in tears ! Ask me how I know !

[B7]

Seriously thinking a nice late e34 may be a better bet for me at the mo. May also have a 328 coupe on the cards as well. Needs a bit of work but I'd tool it about for a bit.

How did you get on with the ABS issue Trevor ? The "dash of death" often ends in tears ! Ask me how I know !

Cleared the code today. Fitted the new sensor yesterday and all seemed fine. It glitched again last night but has been fine since

[bigwinn]

cant tempt you with this Trev...?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-BMW-730I-AUT ... 3f0435f245

[B7]

cant tempt you with this Trev...?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-BMW-730I-AUT ... 3f0435f245

That needs the trev and si treatment.