hotwire

Well put Glenn, don't blame you for that at all.

i guessed this was more maintanence than electrical.

twice today i had problems starting my car but both times i got it jump started ok. The first time it died i had the heater in the car running for maybe 20 minutes without the engine on, after i jumped started i left it idling for ten minutes then started it a couple of times and then left it for maybe an hour and it woulnt start again.

so my question is, is there any ways to test the barrey, or check the age of the battery? and lastly there is a lable metioning battery status im not sure how this works? can anyone help?

the car is a 1998 E39 540 automatic

Cheers

Stuart

Running the car for 10 mins WILL NOT charge the battery - it merely puts a surface charge on it - which will soon dissapate.

Hense the car will restart immediately but not after an hour.

Adding to this - for a modern Calcium battery (as yours) when completely flat, it is recommended to have the battery recharged on a proper charger rather than simply relying on the vehicles alternator to recharge it.

Even on a charger it can take 24 -36hrs to fully charge from flat.

Bear in mind too - a battery can be fully charged but still be stuffed due to low output capacity, best get it checked by an auto sparky or similar.

Yep, High line is the Jap variant (as mine) high spec model with TV, Nav etc

Welcome to site.

Have PM'd you re this.

It would clean out fine (kinda) - the problem is all the wear associated with it, and maybe to the extent it can't be cleaned out of small, important orifices.

Yep, right - the wear caused to the above mentioned had run the cam jounals in the head for both cams & scoured hell out of the one where the shaft broke - hense throw away engine.

The whole probem caused by that crap blocking the journals tiny lube orifices - allowing no lubrication & siezure of cam

Sweet, thanks guys. So I dont need to drop the oil out or anything silly like that?

Nope, just make sure you tighten it properly but not overtighten

Hey everyone,

So my E30 (M20B25) had a slight oil leak.. always has, never worried me too much cause it wasnt big. Then it started getting bigger, until tonight I found a huge puddle on the floor of the garage! Turns out oil is leaking through the oil sensor in the side of the block (according to my Bentley manual its the oil pressure sensor).

Im replacing the sensor tomorrow. Is there anything I need to do or know before I go rip sh*t and bust and pull everything apart? Just want to make sure I do things properly.

Cheers in advance!

Jason

Simple enough - undo & replace, Can use a thin ring spanner (cant remember size off hand. I put thread tape or thread sealer on new thread as I replace.

Good old lack of oil change .... Oil breaks down .. owner just puts new (usually crap or incorrect grade) oil in.

Good to see your covered though! Atleast you get a mint car with known good engine out of it!

Towed in a no go Nissan Bluebird with SR18 engine a few months ago - checked - no distributor turn, rocker cover off - broken cam shaft. Engine looked the same or worse than above -& only done just over 100k & looking like never having had an oil change. Over 2G later -with another engine (Bloody 4WD! ) it was all good.

I thought it was best not to go with the uniden one and went and seen a proper install place today, I am looking at the Mongoose M80G , which has triple immobilisers and a list of features to long to list, Looking at $650 for a full black wire professional install.

Anybody have any opinions on this mongoose.

Good alarm & good back up from Mongoose. AGAIN as already said - ANY alarm is only as good as install.

Personally not a great fan on Uniden - I am an authorised installer for Mongoose & Dynatron, have fitted untold alarms & experience with Uniden has not always been good

Not sure off hand - but check inside top of glovebox for a dropdown panel - as is E39

Have a great day mate!

Pixel failure is common in these cars - more in the bottom of instrument cluster than the air con display.

There is a DIY procedure for the dash if competent, havent done one myself though.

Robinsons Instrument Service in Auckland repair them.

I finally picked up my 01 540i m-sport and my god what a car. very powerful and amazing to drive.

But one problem,

it sounds like a diesel at idle. I have a funny feeling that this was the vanos unit and asked a bmw technition and he said they all do it. but to me this is not good enough.

whats your opinion. is it ok or should i get it fixed?

Suggest run it for a while & see if it comes right. Mine (admittedly 6 cyl) when I first bought it into the country -had a tappet noise at idle ( a genuine well serviced & very low milage car too). After a week or so the problem disappeared & has never returned - 3 yrs & about 50k later.

Suggest you do/get done a full service on it first thing so that you are starting from a known point.

Nice car you have. Good on you - you'll be rapt with it.

PM'd you regarding nav etc

Cheers Grant

yahoo... thanks for the update. I think I'll prove my ignorance and ask you how would I be able to tell if it's japan radio or germany one. the car is not an import but german made and imported as new

If imported new from Europe it will have the correct radio for NZ. If Europe but out of Japan it will have a Jap one.

Easy tell -Jap FM frequency is 76-90, wont get stations over 90 unless a band expander is fitted & then the numbers will be 10, 12 or 14 behind on the display (depending on expander) e.g. on a 10 shift 98.6 will read 88.6 on radio display

Yuk! Key words -hate them

One crack in dash - yea right!! I can see two for a start & bet theres more

You probably have an M60 series. They dont have a valet mode as such.

I take it you have a battery back up siren otherwise it wont continually sound with the battery disconnected -if you have - you should have a key to turn the siren off from a switch at the top of the siren.

The alarm itself is disabled by a pin overide - a 4 digit code which is entered by turning the ign key on & off ign in the correct sequence of the pin code (unique to each alarm) This code is supplied with the alarm on a credit card type card. This is intended for use to overide the alarm in the case of a lost or broken remote but needs to be done each time to cancel the alarm - is not a valet mode.

If you havent got this code - best you try & find/confirm it & likewise if you have a battery back up siren & no overide key - best you get one.

I'm after one of those radio removal tools for an original e30 radio (Although I think they're the same with the e36).

It's the one like a small allen key, but the 'key' only has 5 sides - like a pentagon.

PM me.

Thanks,

Eddy

Ive only ever used an allen key for these & never had an issue

E30's don't have pillarless doors, but the lock buttons (except on the cabby) make for a 20-sec break in using the same method unless the doors are double locked.

What I want to know is how they go about breaking the steering locks.

Steering locks broken as mentioned or by using a slide hammer with a screw at the end which is screwed into the barrell then hammered out.

As mentioned with alarms - there are many good alarms out there BUT ANY alarm is only as good as the install.

To do properly takes a lot of time to carefully conceal the module well & wire the system to look as factory, immobilising different circuits.

If the module can be found - the system can be easily overidden.

Also a car with a turbo timer & an earlier alarm/immobiliser (with no delay arm function for immobiliser circuit) can simply be overidden.

I have seen many cowboy alarm installs that I could overide in a couple of minutes flat.

Any alarm/immobiliser install only really buys you time or you hope they get pi--ed off & go find an easier target

Another thing - not ALL crooks are dumb! Unfortunately!

Wire size doesn't matter - a single strand or a nail - all it needs is to conduct from one end to other.

Regardless of size - if you get it wrong with connection you stand to cause damage.

A 1 amp fuse is as high as you want to go - will give some protection but no guarantee if incorrectly connected.

If battery light is staying on -probably a crook alternator. This may well cause the trans limp mode, ABS light too.

Get it checked by an auto sparky

If its anything like an E30 one it'll be the latch thats bung. There are heaps of writeups on the net that tell you how to remove the glove box and replace the latch. Maybe that could be a starting place?

No offense BUT - E30, E60 - Totally different beasts & about 20 yrs difference in technology -hardly likely to be anything like each other in regards to set up although agreed could well be the catch being the problem.

As Glenn was trying to encourage recently - no point in diagnosing problems by comparing apples with oranges.

Battery OR battery lead connection

Well put Glenn - fully agree with you - plenty of us on here with experience in different fields of the trade & willing to pass that on. Personal views are called for but lets keep things positive

oops, my bad. Unsure on BMW's as am new to them. Indicators do use a relay, a flasher relay.

Commonly known as flasher unit (& as I refer it to) rather than relay. That unit wont be affected by headlight operation to cause the stated problem