aja540i

Pads have quite a bit of life left in them, but they were quite glazed from sitting around for ages between drives, cleaned up ok and seem to work well enough, need to do the rears as well.

Pulled one headlight apart and shook the old adjusters out, ordered replacements from 2 different suppliers to hopefully get some before the WOF re-check deadline, and replaced the rubber pads in both keys, a small but satisfying job done.

Dash board all fixed, replacement stepper motors fitted, re-assembled and fitted, all appears to be working, front brake pads and discs de-glazed and re-fitted, squealing appears to have been cured, and new front suspension arms have cured the shuddering, starting to drive like a proper car again! Just need to sort the airbag light, headlight adjusters and rear brakes then WOF re-check....

No, it was here when I bought it, privately imported by the previous owner.

My e61 M5 is a UK import and it certainly wasn't concourse condition, but it had no bad visible rust underneath, a small amount of surface rust on some fasteners, but nothing on the chassis, also no obvious repair work like a quick re-spray to hide the rust. If you are thinking about doing work to tidy it up, wait until its here as the compliance guys could ask you to re-do it. If you like the car, and it sounds like you do, then take the punt, but be prepared to do/spend a bit to get it legal.

I can spin the ball joints by hand so they are totally shot now, the bushes may have been replaced but they are toast now as well, should make a massive improvement to the ride and braking, sway bar links have been replaced and still seem ok. In other news I have dismantled another dash cluster and removed 2 hopefully good stepper motors, but damaged a trace on my dash cluster PCB so need to repair that before I chuck it all back together, more slow progress....

Out with the old, VERY old, and in with the new, who says you can't get 300000km out of suspension bushes

Tyre swapped from buckled rim to used good 'un...

new handle for the boot floor panel arrived, fitted, I didn't get the original barrel so it can be locked / unlocked with any key shaped object but I can live with that.

Finished the upper chassis braces / roof racks!

You can also get a remote control to turn it on and off, it will also only activate if the battery is above a certain voltage, but the control boards are a common fault. I'm in 2 minds about whether or not to remove it completely, I have heated seats and its not my daily driver.

Yep, supposedly comes on below 10 degrees, but commonly fail, can see the exhaust poking out below the under tray.

Took the front wheel off to get the tyre swapped to the (hopefully) straight rim, decided to investigate the brake squeal, de-glazed the pads and disc, discovered the bottom inner section of the backing plate had broken its spot welds and was waving around in the breeze, not sure if it was contributing to the noise but it could have been so I cut it off! I briefly considered rewelding it but its aluminum and I didn't want to remove the hub to do it.

Still not quite legal and I think a 360km round trip with no a/c and a bad shudder at open road speeds would be enough to drive me mad!! Plus the M5 probably needs to stretch its legs, it will be feeling a bit neglected!

Front plate holder sorted, diagnostic cap replaced, HVAC unit replaced, new one is much quieter but yet to see if it helps with the battery drain issue.

A relatively successful Pick a part mission after the meet today, found an Orient blue sedan with a good bumper, but I don't need it anymore!! Took the passenger wing mirror though, got 2 good HVAC panels, one has NO broken buttons, like it has never been used! Got a wheel to replace the buckled one because it was just lying on the ground , got a pollen filter housing with alarm bonnet switch and the metal clip that holds it on, got the correct number plate mount with the chrome strip, another donor dash to rob stepper motors from, both air inlet pipes for the a/c unbroken!! And some other bits and bobs, now to fit it all....

Drilled and tapped M8 blind holes for mounting bolts, cut 50mm studs and glued in, glued rubber pads on where the bars will mount to the roof rails...

Yellow-ised the fog lights and put them back in, started on the roof racks, welded ends on the bars, welded some slugs in to take bolts for attaching to car, Cut some brackets from box section to make mounting clamps,

the woman at VTNZ couldn't answer that and said I needed to ring NZTA.... I will build up the mental strength to tackle that next week sometime.

Took it for a WOF, battery went flat while it was waiting in queue, went to auto sparky next door, paid too much for a battery that is not quite the right size, but also not knackered, installed new battery, started car, went in for WOF.... it failed its last WOF on 3 things, I have fixed many things, including 2 of the 3 from the last check, this time it failed on 10 things, which I believe is a much more accurate representation of its condition. I don't know how it only failed on 3 things last time, maybe they just got bored and gave up checking?? Nothing particularly major, a few light bulbs, wiper blades, headlight adjusters, and the airbag light, which throws a code for the drivers seat buckle switch, so another trip to Pick a part/ Zebra is in my near future.

Dusted off the ancient laptop with carsoft 6.5 on it and scanned the car, also re-coded it to show mileage in Km, and reset the service lights, every module except the EWS has a fault code!!

Are the rims nice and round? They can be balanced and out of round if they have smacked a pothole etc, some tyre places will look for it but some don't...

Bumper and under trays back on, number plate on temporarily, test drive around the block, airbag light on, bugger ! Will have to check code and clear so I can sort that, hopefully just from having so many airbag parts disconnected over the last few weeks. Certainly goes better now than when I collected it, trans is much happier, a LOT less smoke! New front suspension arms ordered, that should sort the shudder under brakes. Will take it for a WOF on Friday / Saturday and get a new to do list! Photo in the dark shows the bumper at its best...

I am chasing a similar issue in mine, apparently some of the keyless entry modules can fail preventing the car from going to sleep, but I haven't dived into it too deeply, I had some serious wiring issues in my tailgate loom, but have fixed those, I have also replaced a faulty alternator regulator and my IBS/ earth cable, which needed doing but haven't fixed all the issues!