Arma

I have a 'silly red light' under my rear-view mirror as well. No idea what it is. I do not have an alarm system that I know of :S

My dad's been driving around my 520i and took it for Wof today. Had oil filter changed but Wof failed for something along the lines of:

Wheels are shaking (?), bushings worn or something for the rear two wheels and front left wheel. Description was a little unclear over the phone so I'll have to go check it out at some point next week. This seem like a familiar issue to anyone?

That looks so sexy.

nothing like a good long drive to get accustomed to a new car!

When i brought my V12 E34, at the time a stock 520i, from christchurch up Kaikoura highway, and slept in the back that night ha good job its a wagon. brilliant drive

not really a fan of the E36 Ti shape, but i bet an M52 in it it must go well!

Paging Glenn, do you still have your one??

I usually see Glenn's one around whenever I visit, last time being last week. Great piece of work.

Guy near my work seems to have upgraded from a E39 540 to a '01 Carbon Black M5.

Could be Martin from the forums? Not sure if his is Carbon Black, but he upgraded couple months ago.

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....showtopic=44646

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....showtopic=44601

More toys arrived from Pelican Parts. The power steering hose to replace my currently leaking one. Also got a new flex disc - my current one is beginning to show cracks/splits.

• Power steering cooling hose
• ATF Reserve O ring
• Flex Disc / Giubo (not going to replace just yet, but later on)

Not sure if any of you are into BMXing, or have brothers/sisters/sons/daughters that might be - I'm selling my Redline Recon 2012 BMX bike on tardme because I just don't have time to ride it any more + no space in my new city place.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.as...mp;id=616113093

It is in excellent condition and hasn't been ridden that much, which you can see from the photos that have been taken recently on the listing. It comes with some extra goodies (like custom grips, helmet, combo chain lock). More details about the bike on trademe link.

If you know anyone that might be interested, feel free to point them towards the above link.

$400 will take it for Bimmersport members.

As Brent said get it checked professionally as the impact bars inside the rear chassis support rails may have been damaged (they are designed to crush), Ring your insurance company and get them to handle it .. Theyre in the wrong so it wont cost you. (hopefully you got their details). The bumper shell isnt where the damage is held.

I'll probably take it in soon to have it looked at. The impact wasn't too hard, so I'm hoping nothing was damaged inside. Yeah I got their details - the woman driving didn't have license, photo ID or a phone on her.. had to take a photo of her, her car and get all other details >.>. Are there any tell/signs that indicate damaged impact bars? Or does the bumper just have to be taken off to check.

Is it scratched through to the plastic? If not a decent cut and polish might do the job?

It looks to be. The cracks on the paint seem to go far in anyway - just no dents. Some of the scratches could probably do with a cut/polish

Was waiting behind cars in a queue on Symonds st on Friday, then this toyota vitz comes and rear ends my car. Didn't really do much damage, just a few paint scratches and cracks on top of a few that were already there - gives me an excuse to get it resprayed. Will probably do it next week.

So I was wondering whether it is worth doing this without upgrading other parts such as intakes, headers etc.? Would there be any noticeable (in driving) difference if just the ECU was tuned (by Gavin for example) and the car parts were still stock?

I know someone in here (forgot name!) had their e46's ECU done by Gavin - wondering if anyone has done so as well with some decent, noticeable difference in driving? I'd love to have a bit more throttle response, and if possible some noticeable incrase in torque would always be awesome. This is for the 530i.

Just one of the things I'm considering / placing in my bucket list for later on, whilst meanwhile I bring the car into a stable, leak free condition. Since its just a 530i, not going to go overboard with performance mods, but just curious whether something like ECU tuning can be worthwhile at all.

Prefer not to get into forced induction as it's probably not worth it for a 530i - I'd probably be a bit paranoid anyway if I haven't upgraded other parts to be able to handle so much power. Please don't respond with 'get a 540i' - as much as I'd like to have one or an m5, that's not an option right now .

Any shedding of light will be appreciated.

Edit: Best person to ask would probably be Gavin.. and I probably should at some point.

You should get that checked if your speedo reads less than your actual speed. Mine is the same, just the other way around.., which isn't as bad I guess? :S Speedo says 60, when electric speed signs detect ~52, and my GPS detects about 52-53. About 6-8km/h off. Always assumed that's just how it should be for 'safety' or something, didn't know something can cause this - maybe should check it too.

What was the outcome on the parking brake? i did a diy on mine - new shoes, deglazed the rotor inner, adjusted, and while it passed wof i'm still not happy with it.

Glenn deglazed the rotor and shoes and adjusted so it works better, but not to 100% because of how it was adjusted during previous services (I'm assuming by Team McMillan). Glenn can explain it better, but during adjustments they had only adjusted the cable but forgot the other part - the shoe adjusters I think (?), which was still at its factory settings. This deformed/wore out something in the drum requiring me to have to pull the handbrake a lot harder than I should for it to engage - and even so not at 100%. My WOF is due November, and my rear rotors will need replacement by then as well, so might do all this during then.

Is this S/C just for the v8's ?

God I want this

Team McMillan repaired a power steering leak when it came up in PPI. If any issues persist, I'd suggest taking it back to them as they may've cut corners or something ...

Oh and Team McMillan couldn't really give me details of service history / invoices for the car as it was done by the warranty company - told me to ask previous owner for them.

In other news, ordered the power steering cooling hose from Pelican, along with new O-ring for the reservoir cap. Ordered a new flex disc as well, which I'll have installed later as my current one is slowly cracking. Hopefully arrives next week.

Team McMillan repaired a power steering leak when it came up in PPI. If any issues persist, I'd suggest taking it back to them as they may've cut corners or something ...

Yeah they repaired the high pressure hose underneath, which is fine. After looking at it more closely, it is the power steering cooling hose that is leaking (one going from oil cooler to fluid reservoir). This one:

http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E39-530i-M54_...g/Hose/ES54280/

Probably about 30 mins - 1 hour job. Haven't done it before but I'd imagine it would require:

- Drain the reservoir: with maybe big syringe as someone suggested before

- If there's a filter in the reservoir, then will need to drain the fluid from under the filter too after hose is off

- Take off clamps, remove hose, put new hose in.

- Fill reservoir

Doesn't seem to be leaking drastically, so I might just order the hose in amongst some other parts from Pelican and get it done in the coming weeks. Team McMillan quoted hose at $140+GST, BM Workshop quoted $120 + GST. Pelican has it for USD$32.50 . Hopefully things will stay in order until then - will just top up fluid if it goes low.

Man that cut/polish job looks so good, too bad about birds . I think I might contact AJ to touch up some of the paint nips around my 530 + get a nice cut and polish. Yours just looks too good!

How big a job is a Vanos overhaul? My Vanos hose is leaking very SLOWLY - don't think i need a full overhaul though. I was thinking the timing guides work is the big/expensive one for those v8s ? Or am I thinking about the wrong thing?

That spoiler looks good, where'd you get it? (Sorry if this is mentioned somewhere )

As per my thread in the maintenance section, had a leak in the power steering hose under the ATF fluid reservoir, and some had sprayed around and collected in the undertray. The clamps were only slightly looser than they should be - tightened both the small and large hose, cleaned the oil off and took it for a drive. Noticed that there is still a tiny bit of ATF fluid seeping from under where the clamps are for the smaller hose (the expensive one). It's not an extreme amount, but hose may need changing at some point, and will need to keep eye on ATF fluid level. At this point, haven't taken the clamps off so can't tell whether there is a hole or something on the hose that is causing it to leak or whether the leak is just coming from the reservoir overflowing sometimes, causing the fluid to fall down onto the smaller hose / and get blown by the wind onto the intake manifold. Will investigate.

Ahhhh I get you's now

Hopefully Itl show up today or Monday, if not il send another out

Just got it today. Sweet

Those clamps havent broken. Your just seeing the tail of the clamp. Try tightening them and just check the power steering resevoir fluid level.

And yes, they are both power steering hoses. One is a return (the smaller one) and the other is the pump supply hose.

Ah right. I'll try tightening + checking fluid level once I'm back at the old house today. I might bring it to you early morning tomorrow if things don't look good / I'm unsure.

These could have been tightened and area cleaned in 1/2 the time it that it took to post this topic....

Had to get back to my city place in a rush last night, so only managed to snap a few photos before leaving the car at my old garage. Though I must admit I'm scared I'll get p/s fluid everywhere if I play with the hoses!

Cheers guys

Another little, and hopefully not big, problem. This is for my 2001 e39 530i

Just noticed something, and it's something I did not notice a few days ago - and I don't think it was noticed when I was having my new cooling parts installed last week:

The hose coming out from under my ATF fluid reservoir is leaking fluid. I think it is the power steering hose, but I may be wrong. After taking a closer look at it I've noticed that the clamps on both of the hoses that come from under the reservoir have come off / snapped (see photos). Googling it seems like others have come across this issue a fair bit before. Question is, how could BOTH clamps have snapped/come off and fluid started leaking so much in the last few days? There is a fair amount of fluid/oil under the engine bay (where the guard is), and there seems to be some oil all around the area of the reservoir as well - e.g. on the intake manifold there is oiliness on the side - was wondering whether this could have been caused by some belt or fan spraying the leaking oil onto the manifold?

My main questions, however, are:

Is this likely to be a 'Get new clamps' job, or is it best to get new hoses?

How difficult (time-wise) is the job, for a mechanic?

Is it safe to drive the car to the workshop; distance will be ~3.5km? Have garaged the car and am driving my 520i around atm - didn't want to risk driving the 530i with the leaking fluid... (On another note, the 520i disa valve died zzz )

Anyway, here are some photos:

The hose that's leaking. I think the one next to it is leaking too.

Can see the clamps are not closed. And also, what appears to be, some oil on the intake manifold.

Can see the clamp loose here too. Is this the power steering hose?

Dampness / oil on the intake manifold. How'd that get there?

Odd, I sent it same time as the other one so thought you should of gotten it by now...

Nope. Nothing has turned up :S.

Very vivid! How easily does plastidipp come off the paint - e.g. will a small scratch cause it to peel everywhere?

I really like what you did with the wheels. Did you DIY or have it taken somewhere? If taken somewhere, how much would that cost if you don't mind me asking (plastidipping the wheels like that)?

Have you posted it? Still waiting for mine