Arma

Sounds like a waterpump leak to me. Have a look from under the car. Is it dripping onto the belt directly below the water pump location? Assuming you've already ruled out the thermostat being the issue since you replaced the o-ring and gasket - but make sure it's not leaking out of the sensor area on the thermostat either - mine used to do that (though that is easier to check as it's more noticeable). My waterpump drips coolant once every now and then and it falls directly onto the belt under it. Has your's ever been replaced? Possible that it still has the crappy plastic impeller ones that crack, in which case you should replace it. I'm no mechanic, but just giving my 2c based on my experiences with my e39. ;-)

That would be awesome Jooles! Though I have no idea how to check compatibility - assuming these are Xenon adjusters.

Not too much, crash was almost 2 months ago and is all fixed now

That is awesome Tom. Looks real good - do you plan to glue the fabric down further or just leave as is? Now kindly give me your sewing machine skills. (and your m3) Btw. Where did you source the alcantara material from?

Cheers. Forgot about this thread. I only have 9 other maintenance threads going concurrently, not enough. Weird though, an hour after I posted this I crashed the car. Probably explains why I forgot about this... I've considered getting the e39 m5 mirrors but not sure whether they're compatible.

So I been doing it the hard way. Can't find the date anywhere on the headlights so not sure if it has the invincible glue or not (so not sure whether to try the baking method). Anyway, been trying the way Martin did it. Luckily I got one of my busted headlights from the crash to practice on. Haven't gotten far... yet. After fiddling with a t15 driver for ages (as recommended by all the guides out there), I failed and almost stripped the damn bolt on the low beam adjuster. Switched to a t10 and it loosened with no problem at all. The adjusters on these 'busted' headlights are actually still intact, which is making taking them out a bit annoying. After unscrewing the torx screw for the low beam adjuster, I managed to get the bottom part of it out. Had to use a tack lifter to grab it properly, else it was flying around inside the housing: The top part of the adjuster is still in. Trying to figure out how to get that out. Can [barely] see the top piece here: The other thing I'm having trouble with is taking this adjuster unit out (after taking the t20 screws out, which are still attached in the photo). Tried using the techniques in the guides but the thing just doesn't want to come out.. it may have something to do with my adjuster on this busted headlight not being broken, but not sure:

Thought this might be small enough (below), but I failed at fitting that. An Allan key was my only option. Ended up doing it when replacing the radiator anyway.. had all the space in the world

Maybe i should cut the well and fit m5 exhausts

Congrats, you must be stoked . Am also keen to see this sometime after it arrives! Color looks great

When looking under the car, there's a slight upwards indentation where the crack is. Looks like the bend is what caused the crack. The area of the floor where the crack is is also slightly raised (hard to tell from pics), so something underneath is pushing it up due to bending perhaps. Doesn't look major but interested to know how the hell it got there. Yeah dunno about the oil, can't find evidence of a spill on the trunk mat. Hope the pb's spilled something during repair

I did have a bottle of 5w30 in the trunk, didn't think it had leaked though. I'll double check. Thought maybe the oil might be trans oil being flown in through the cracks magically while the car is moving. Imaginative, nothing's impossible. Yea definitely oil. Some of it looked new as well (closer to the rear end of the car).

Took some crappy pics. Couldn't take the spare out to see yet, as I'll have to move my subs to do that. But here are some pics. First shows the oil on the right (driver) side rear part of the spare wheel well. Second shows some cracks on the left side of the well under the spare wheel, which I've never seen before: Question time. How the hell does oil get in there, and what oil? Transmission? Could the crack have been caused by the crash? (I don't see how, especially if the front bumper shocks and chassis rail absorbs the damage) Is this common and/or potentially dangerous? Can it just be welded lol? Kind of confused by both the oil and the crack in the well.

I guess I no longer need the holder

Anyone got a used one they wanna sell, or know where I can purchase one locally from? Or is this an actual BMW tool that I can get from BM workshop/milland?

Have added some new photos of the car post-crash-repair: http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/51215-meet-bonnie-e39-530i-m-sport-alpine-white/ Thanks Glenn for the plate holders . Anyway - maintenance plans: Next on the list, though in a very counter intuitive order, will be replacing the water pump (despite having done most of the cooling system already). It is still less than a year old but leaking coolant slightly. I like peace of mind. When does a coolant leak ever give peace of mind? Going to monitor the leak next week or so to determine how quickly I need to do the job ('peace of mind' can wait a couple of weeks). At the same time may as well do some remainder stuff such as my expansion tank and it's hoses, which are quite old now - again, should have just done this with the radiator change. Noting down part #'s for my purpose: Hose that runs from tank to heater core: 11531438632 Hose that runs from tank to auxiliary water pump: 11531438633 Expansion tank: 17111436381 Following this job will be transmission service definitely as this is overdue. Filter, gasket and oil change. Do this ideally by December. A job for the near future is replacement of a couple of power steering hoses. Haven't noted down which hoses they are yet but it's one high pressure one and one low pressure one. Both leaking p/s fluid. I've already replaced one low pressure hose - it's not leaking from that one. High pressure one looks like a pita to remove (see pic below). Also, see all that white crap on the belt? That's from the pump leak.

Bingo. Hoisted it up this morning. One of the high pressure and one of the low pressure p/s hoses are leaking a little bit. Checked my reservoir level but that's still pretty full. Will keep an eye on it and try to get it replaced at some point. Also noticed 1 drop of green coolant on the undercarriage when i took it of after a small drive. Spent a little time cleaning the pulley belt under the waterpump until suddenly a drop of green coolant appeared on it. 80-90% sure that's dropping from the waterpump. Have replaced the thermostat twice in a year so it can't be that (be better if it is, since that's an easier job). Will keep an eye on the coolant and see how major the leak is. I'll tackle the waterpump first. P/s stuff can come later.

I had some M-Parallels lined up but decided not to go forward with them as I with what I was spending for the repair, I'd have to explain to the missus why I'm spending even more. If more pop up by around December I will be looking at acquiring them. They've always been my wheel choice for the e39 and reckon would look awesome. Not sure I'm a big fan of plastidip wheels though . Got to get some euro plates on her as well. Gun metal rings.... hmmm that could work. I considered gloss black too, but those would be too hard to see maybe? Might chuck it on photoshop and play with the options.

Haven't had the chance to take some proper photos and over-edit them in a while, especially since the crash, so decided to snap a few yesterday afternoon.

Good choice I reckon, but I'm no expert. This Monday I installed Hawk HPS fronts and Hawk HPS 5.0 rears and am definitely liking them so far. Very quiet with decent bite and smooth pedal feel. Just make sure you bed them properly.

So to continue with my holy maintenance thread spam. I've noticed my coolant decreased ever so slightly after driving about 70km. Nothing to be super worried about but being the picky person I am with leaks nowadays, I want to address it. I took a video of the undercarriage which seems to have some wetness / water / coolant residue there. Im not sure if it is coolant, as it is not green like it was for my radiator leak. But my question is - what kind of coolant or water hoses are located around that area? Waterpump is a possibility for leak but I replaced that end of last year. I've also replaced the following: upper and lower radiator hoses thermostat radiator waterpump pulley belt (not that it matters) Video below: Are those hoses a PITA to remove? Going to hoist it up on saturday and take the cover off to get a better look.

Have driven it around a bit and feel it's not really bad. I believe I was overthinking it. Can't seem to replicate the issue, which was never hugely noticeable in the first place.. Thanks for the replies though. My tyres will be due in a few months as well and after visiting Glenn yesterday, found that the profiles are the wrong way round on the tires for a staggered setup. Apparently need to be 45's on the rear and 40's up front. Currently got 255 40 17s rear, 235 35 17 front.

The rotors weren't too bad on mine. The right rear one came off easy after 1 hit with the hammer. The left one took a little more effort, had to pry it a bit. Thanks, but I've got a set of brand new ones already - had bought them in with the new pads. Just haven't installed them yet.

On a maintenance thread marathon. I've noticed my steering wheel moves/tilts a bit more than it used to when going over bumps or on uneven roads with small incline to one side. It's nothing drastic but I feel like I am focusing slightly more on keeping the steering wheel steady than I used to. I'm quite picky with these things so maybe that's why I notice it so much. Any idea what it might be? Obviously a suspension part, if it gets to that. Just some info to help: Have done wheel alignment last week front left control arm is less than a year old front left thrust arm is less than 2 yrs old front right tie rod is just a few months old rear ball joints have been replaced less than a year ago sway bars seem fine, including links and bushings front sub frame was replaced few months ago No idea when shocks were last replaced. Any info is useful, before I get it looked at.

Yep did that right after finishing installation. Had to find some empty roads but was able to do it. Definitely has improved feel.

Liking the new rotors and pads so far. Pedal feel is still soft but smooth and no more annoying squeaky noise. Haven't checked dust levels but I imagine they would be low too. Need to fix up the curbing on the wheels. Anyone recommend a good place and any idea on cost per wheel?