Spinner99

FYI There are a couple of coding options i found to fix it, I made them but I didn't see any difference but it might work for someone else? If it does please let me know. Both in the KOMBI module. Changing from aktiv to nicht_aktiv is supposed to show the true car speed. BC_DIGITAL_V_KORREKTUR BC_V_KORREKTUR

Is the one on this car what you're after? https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/bmw/other/listing/4640866643

The car lies to you I've noticed if I'm driving along with the instrument cluster saying 50hm/h, ISTA reports the speed as lower (e.g. ~47km/h). My conclusion was the car knows exactly how fast it's going, but it inflates that a little on the instrument cluster for reasons. For me 53km/h on the instrument clustser = 50km/h IRL. I suspect this is something to do with variances in tyre diameters etc and them wanting to avoid the opposite where you're going faster IRL than the instrument cluster says, as that could open them up to having to pay for speeding tickets etc. One of the giveaways for me is the RPM, I'm making up numbers at this point for illustrative purposes, but if the car is sitting on 1950 RPM and tells you it's doing 50km/h, it's likely that 2000rpm is probably a true 50km/h.

Morning, I haven't taken a look under my car to confirm but looking at some photos online you shouldn't need to lower the subframe if you're just doing the lower oil pan ( I'm looking at this post https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/n62-lower-oil-pan-sump-gasket-replacment.1358261/ ) . The upper oil pan yes, I think that would be a lower the subframe type job. If you want to do the alternator gasket with the subframe lowered I'm sure that would create more room/access there's a bolt or two around the power steering pump that were difficult to get to but might be easier if the subframe wasn't there, but you don't need to lower the subframe to do that job if you don't want to. You do need to support the engine though to remove one of the engine mounts as the mount attaches over or on (I can't quite remember) the alternator bracket. I found putting the bracket back on to be a PITA and second set of hands was quite useful for that. If you want a hand let me know. My other advice is the oil cooler loved to leak oil so be prepared to contain that I think the worst part of the alternator bracket job was getting the alternator back in, I don't know what I was doing wrong but I think it took me 2 hours 😮 Replacing the engine mount on the alternator bracket side would be a great job to do while doing the alternator bracket as you've half got it off already. The drivers side would be extra work. Sorry I don't know how to tell if they're past their useful life either

The usual bug and tar remover products will take care of tar on your rims. Are you sure that isn't pitting?

+1 for oil pan. I don't know the size of the pool, but it sounds bigger than the diameter of a tea cup? It might be helpful to understand if the puddle continues to grow over time (suggesting it's leaking from a place with a constant supply of oil when the engine isn't running such as the sump) or the puddle gets to a certain size then stops (suggesting it's leaking from somewhere with a limited supply of oil when not running such as a vanos solenoid). My thought is that if the puddle is appearing when the engine isn't running and it's growing the longer it's sitting there it's probably a low down leak around the sump area. There's also possibilities of leaks from the oil cooler and it's lines though. There may be a little oil in the odd place in the upper parts of the engine but I wouldn't expect any significant quantity to be able to leak out once the engine isn't running. Did you have a feel for roughly where the puddle was relative to the car? e.g. was it in the front right corner ? If you haven't already it could help to take the front under under body cover (the dust cover, not the metal support one) off and leave it off so you can see where the pool is and focus in that area. Oil can travel down hoses etc so the leak may not be exactly above where the pool is, but it gives you a good start on where to start looking.

I now have a Varta H15 in the E61 550 and the car is so much happier for it. (Thank you @Jun ) I'd definitely buy another the same if I needed a new battery. Re your transmission issue it could be the battery. I had something similar that happened only once and while the battery was in a low charge state. I was driving along and was going up a bridge that crosses a railway track and all of a sudden there was a massive bang that nearly resulted in an unplanned #2's event on my part. There was an error that came up on the Idrive that I *think* was about DSC but my memory could be failing me on that. Unfortunately I couldn't quite coast it over the top of the bridge . Once stopped I put it in Park, and I also can't remember if I turned the car off or not but eventually I selected Drive again and off it went and I continued my way home. That was over a year ago now. That same day I purchased a battery charger and I use it when I think it's needed and the same thing has never happened again. FYI I do have the LCI with electronic shift so that might be a variable.

I thought I'd do a quick shout out - backstory is I wanted shift paddles for the E61 and I managed to get my hands on a M-Sport steering wheel from an E60 but it was in rough shape. Before I spent any money on repairing the wheel I got the shift paddles working which was easier said than done (the factory wiring diagrams were wrong and I had to spend a fair bit of time reading up on the right way to go about it.) I'm a massive fan of the shift paddles and I'm really happy with them now they work! I don't drive the car in manual mode but I do like to shift gears now and then - e.g. going up or down a hill the transmission doesn't always drive the car the way I want it to. Anyway I struggled to find someone in the Wellington region that could do a steering wheel. I was initially looking for someone to re cover it as I thought it was too far gone, but I ended up reaching out to Erika @ The Leather Doctor https://www.myleatherdoctor.co.nz who said she could fix it up without re covering. I offered to remove the wheel from the car which made the job a lot easier for her. The Leather Doctor is a mobile service so they came to my house meaning I didn't have to faff around dropping the car off somewhere for the day etc. I'm really happy with the result, it looks a million times better now! Here's a before and after photo. Apologies in advance for the background, I took the photo on the front steps and in hindsight that wasn't a good spot, but you can still see the difference , it's night and day.

This weekend I thought I’d bite the bullet and start sorting out some of the interior scuffing in the 130. I had seen on the M539 video on the B7 (Project Chicago) that Sreten managed to clean up the look of the scratched trim which got me inspired so I gave it a go too. I started with just one small piece that was the also the worst in the car, I've attached a before and after photo below. I used De-Solv-it in place of Liqui Molly Orange Power cleaner, from Bunnings. https://www.bunnings.co.nz/de-solv-it-125ml-multi-purpose-cleaner-spray_p0172055 It’s also an orange based degreaser and seemed to do the job. Lyndar Plastic Primer Filler from Supercheap https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/lyndar-lyndar-plastic-primer-filler---400g/376306.html . Note it’s grey in colour rather than clear. It doesn't matter but I think from watching Sreten's video I just had it in my mind it would be clear. Lyndar 1K Matt Black paint from Supercheap https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/lyndar-lyndar-1k-acrylic-matt-black-400g/637895.html Sometimes I found the coating came off easier rubbing it with my thumbs than using a brush, other times the brush was the only way. Overall I’m pretty happy with the new look. One thing that jumped out at me when I put it in the car is it’s a bit blacker than the other pieces around it, maybe a colour closer to dark grey might have been a better option? M539 video showing the process Sreten went through - 16 mins in is where he starts working on the soft touch plastic.

I thought this video gave a really good explanation of the coolant temperature range for a MAP thermostat relative to engine load and speed. Even if you just watch the first 2-3 mins that should give you a good overview. TL;DR = sometimes the car will open the thermostat at 85 degrees ish, sometimes it'll let the car warm up over 100 degrees. I didn't think it looked *that* bad? I will add I'm making the assumption that you'd be doing what I'd do and use the AGA Coolant Pipe https://agatools.com/products/n62-n62tu-coolant-pipe ? I agree the factory one (that needs the front bumper & radiators etc removed to insert it) doesn't look fun at all . There's also a work around option that's easy to install called the "Bimmerfix" stent https://bimmerfix.com Just adding a quick edit - the "Uro" coolant pipe option I wouldn't consider, it looks like it'd give up at the time least convenient to you..

It cost me $650 to get the job done on my E87 (MSport), $500 seems like a good deal!

Lol thanks @M3AN , better late than never I guess

Well the 130i got it’s Christmas presents yesterday. I ended up ordering mostly genuine parts as I got a bit too concerned about after market ones that said they were for multiple versions of bmw originals (e.g. one shock saying it’s both the sports and m-sport equivalent when they are different part numbers from BMW). I also replaced the rear jack pads as someone had munted them (not a fun job), did an oil change and changed the diff fluid. After all that I’ve driven the car around a bit today and can report I haven’t noticed any significant difference in the rear suspension 😊 I honestly didn’t think the suspension was bad until I pulled the shocks out last year so I guess I’m not surprised there isn’t a night and day change, but I was still expecting to notice something I guess. I took the shocks around to show my dad today (retired mechanic) , he described them as “f***ed”. Anyway I’ve ended up with some spare parts on my journey so a couple of things I’ve noted that are interesting I ended up ordering genuine bump stops even though I already had the Sach’s after market ones. Once the originals arrived I compared them and there was a notable difference in dimensions between the two. The Sachs one was generally 1mm too large in all the places it needed to be smaller such as diameter of the hole the shock goes through or overall outside diameter. It was also about 1cm shorter than the original so I’m assuming that means it would allow the car to sink further before bottoming out. Overall they did the job, they just didn’t fit as well as the genuine ones. I also ordered some Lemforder shock mounts on the understanding what would be arriving was made in Germany, but the ones that arrived were made in China. Sreten’s mentioned a few times the Lemforder stuff made in China isn’t any good so I took a punt on some “OEM” brand mounts from Pelican and although they didn’t indicate their country of manufacture I could see where they had ground off the BMW logo & part number so I’ve assumed they are the same part that would be sold as genuine. If anyone needs a set of Sachs 900127 bump stops (one used for 6 weeks, the other was never fitted on the car) or Lemforder shock mounts (33526768544) I have some available cheap 😊 Here’s some photos – the first one is the bump stops – Genuine is the taller one on the left, Sach’s is the one on the right. They’re quite different. The second photo is the passengers side shock and mounting parts removed along side the new stuff to go in. I forgot to take a side by side photo of the shock mounts to compare the originals to everything else I got, but if you’re interested you’ll see the cleaned up original one on the left that came out of the car – it has a BMW written in the top left corner and the part number. The ones in the middle and right of the photo are the new “OEM” brand ones from Pelican. The one in the middle is orientated the same way as the one that came off the car and you’ll be able to see the top left is ground where the BMW logo would go. Next job is to look at the front and see what I find! I might have to let the credit card recover a little first though.

Aussie Freight (seller arranged it but that's who it was through). I think this would have been the option they used (Sea Freight LCL) https://aussiefreight.com/transport/#LCL

It's been a while since I had a radar detector , is the "Instant On" thing for radar only or does that include laser? I got rid of my radar detector when they brought out the laser gun things. I was under the impression by the time my detector picked up the laser and alerted me it was already too late. Is the technology better now so that you have enough warning to slow for a laser too?