charles28

Tomorrow i'll bleed them and see if it helps..thanks for the advice guys. Will visit supercheap/repco etc to find a one man bleeding device..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bavarian-Autosport-European-One-Man-Brake-Bleeder-Kit-With-Catch-Bottle-/221397396542?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item338c502c3e&vxp=mtr if only I could find something like this locally..

I'm getting this odd issue. My car goes and stops fine for the most part, however once I've been in heavy slow moving (almost not moving) traffic for 20mins or so, I get this issue with the brakes grabbing, when this happens, the car barely moves when you take your foot off the brake (when in Drive). usually it'll move along at a good 5km per hour or so without your foot on the accelerator. Its also hard to get the car moving, as its fighting the brakes when this issue occurs. If you get it moving and let it coast along in drive, you can feel the brakes being applied on and off, almost like a pulsating, you really can feel the brakes being applied. It only does this while stuck in traffic, but once your going over 40km per hour it seems to come right again, but will quickly play up again when stuck in traffic straight away. However drive it on the open road for 10mins at 100k and the issue has gone when you come to a standstill and move off again...no more feeling of the brakes being applied and the car will coast along at its normal rate. To me after a good run the wheels on the passenger side of the car feel warmer then the drivers side, which also seems odd. Where should I start?. replace brake fluid and see what happens?

Annoyingly it could be that the new battery needs charging, might have been sitting around?

Picture of when I got it, shows the actual colour.

Today I: Washed the car Went over it with the claybar Polished it with Meguiars Ultimate Compound Waxed it with Meguiars Gold Class Polish The pics are not so good, due to poor light, its dark blue rather then black. This is its 1st proper clean since I got it at 123,000k, its now at 129400, but i've also only had it for 3 Months.

Do the adjusters work ok on your Smileys that your selling? mine are seized

Yeah, I think it was.. mmmm, wish i'd stayed home, 3 hours drive to work isn't cool, was almost out of fuel, had 3 km's of range left ont he OBC whenI finally got to a petrol station

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/photos/9791692/Christchurch-flooding-March-5-2014 loads of pics.

Saw a drowned Mercedes on the way to work. I had to drive through water almost as deep, but made it somehow..

I have the same factory Stereo in my E39, it was working well enough really and also had no real issues, but have upgraded 2 of the front speakers on each side to a DLS MS5A component set, the sound quality improvement was quite noticeable. I have also installed an older Alpine V12 Monoblock Class D Amp and a 10inch Subwoofer (Atomic Manhattan) for sounds under 80hz. The next step for me is http://www.eonon.com/Car-GPS/Specific-Car-GPS/BMW/D5124F.html I like that it looks like an OEM type System. I will then use a 4 channel amp to Amp my Component speaker set (with the factory mid disabled) so that its amping my DLS Speakers along with the speakers and tweaters in the back. (Which I'll also upgrade eventually). The E39 is a good platform for good sounding audio, as the car is well insulated with minimal road noise even at open road speeds.

My E30 has the typical Smiley headlights. On low beam they are aimed too low and need to be adjusted, however the adjuster screws on the back of the housing seem to be siezed.. i have sprayed them with WD40. Which Adjuster controls the up and down adjustment? Any tips on how to deal with siezed adjusters? Cheers

I was going to do a DIY Tranny filter and fluid change, but its too hard for me to have the car level while i'm under it as I only have 2x axel stands, also I had know way of knowing if I had the tranny fluid at the correct temp. I ended up paying my mechanic to do it, they told me the old fluid was pretty much black, not so good.. probably the original stuff, at 128,000k lol.

Since swapping coil pack #2 with #5 I have not had a misfire. I'm waiting for my cam sensor to turn up, should arrive early next week. I got the thermostat replaced today and the transmission serviced. I assumed it had a ZF gearbox, but its got a freakin Jatco box, I assumed that all the steptronic boxes would be ZF in the E39, but I was wrong.. My mechanic reckons it looks different to other jatco boxes he's seen in other BMW's, (older e39's and e36's) The 1st filter kit was incorrect and he had to get another... But the good news is the gearbox is as smooth as silk (was before the service too).

237200km ish

Will finally get around to getting a new WOF on Saturday. Price $4500 Firm and will be back on trade me once I have a new WOF.

Mk5 Golf GTX (Same as the GTi Model, but with a more Subtle look to it). 147KW and 280NM 6 Speed DSG Gearbox Leather Seats, Electronic Seat Controls. ESP, ABS, 10 + Airbags. Bi-Xenon Headlights, Cruise Control, Rain sensing Wipers. Rear Parking Sensors Euroncap 5 Star crash test rating. Fully Serviced Cambelt and Tensioners done. $11500 Firm. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=700595335

Hehe yeah, last Tuesday was up there too.. Mmm yeah some of our gardens taken a real hammering too.

This was about 25mins ago. Poor old E39 got a hammering, but no room for more cars in the garage sadly.

Yeah last week it shut off a cylinder and came back after restarting, i'm not convinced that the camshaft sensor could have caused this. I replaced all the spark plugs about 2 weeks ago, no sign of any oil leaking at all. I had the misfiring previous to this, just didn't know that it was misfiring at the time. The coils don't look that old at all, the boots especially look brand new infact, however they could still be a few years old. Thermostat being installed this week, along with a new Camshaft sensor, I have swapped the coils around to see if the misfire moves, if it does then i'll get a new coil of the same brand (Bosch) for that cylinder. If the mis-fire remains on cyl #2 I'll try another sparkplug, its not unheard of to get a dud.

Cleared the errors, will re-test next week. I don't have a scanner of my own, but have ordered one today from good ole Ebay

Cool. so did a Scan, 4 Errors: 1. Camshaft Sensor (exhaust side) 2. Misfire on Cylinder #2 3. Fuel Tank Evap valve or something? 4. Thermostat Map control Number 4 I knew, as the thermostat is open all the time and I have a replacement ready to install. Number 1, well I'll replace it next week. Number 2, could be caused by number 1, but i'm not convinced, so i'll swap Coil #2 with Coil #5 and see if the misfire moves.

It looks like i've mis diagnosed the issue. I suspect the real cause of this is a Misfire, when the cars got hot sitting in traffic. This morning it was bad, the car dropped a cylinder and ran really badly, after I'd been in traffic for 30mins or so. Turning the car off and restarting it got it back on all 6, for about 10 mins until it did it again. (after driving over a bridge going up hill). Oddly on the way home it didn't play up, I didn't even feel what I thought was a torque convert shudder. Tomorrow I'm getting it scanned, suspect Coil or Sensor.

For the most part my E39 drives smooth and so far I've done 5000k without any issues. (in 2 months). It has the steptronic ZF gearbox, (Not sure which model though). but its a lot nicer then the Jatco box in my older E39 I used ot own. If I drive in heavy traffic for ages, start stop, hardly moving etc, the car eventually feels a bit odd when starting off, almost like a binding feeling/ shudder, when it does this the car feels like its not transmitting the power to the wheels as well as it should. However once the traffic dies off and i'm motoring a long more at a decent speed the issue disappears.. Could the tranny fluid be breaking down and not handling the heat? I assume the auto gets hot when stuck in traffic, or perhaps i'm on the wrong track. Cheers Charles

I did some basic servicing on the E39 Today. I started with doing the sparkplugs, I had imported some for $6 USD each (Bosch Platinum ones). Engine Covers off.. Removing the coils was dead simple, I removed the electrical connector and then the coils. Here's a Picture of the old plugs with a new one to the right to show the comparison. Engine covers back on and took car for a drive. I then headed to repco and got some Oil to do an oil change, I only purchased 6L, but ended up going back for another 1L pack as 6L barely got me to the Min mark on the Dipstick. I already has an OE Oil Filter I imported with some other bits and pieces. I still have a new thermostat Housing (With thermostat built in) to install, along with a new fuel filter. Perhaps I will have time to do that next weekend.. hopefully.