hunter

14 hours ago, Eagle said:

Ill have sit in it sometime to see what its like compared to all the used seats.

You’re welcome to come and try it out 

With the drivers seat refreshed it’s super comfy the only issue being now I’m sitting on fresh foam I feel like I’m sitting higher in the car but I’m sure that will bed down.
 

 it’s great to have the support on both sides of the seat from the back and from the seat bottom. 
 

The reassembly process went without a hitch and I managed  to not break any of the old trims which was really good. 
 

Switching to my driver's seat renewal project, to renew my punished 22-year-old driver's seat with as fresh as possible foam.

I scored a passenger sport seat back a while ago for the material, and have decided to use the foam and material for the refresh on the driver seat. As well as a new back frame from @hqstu

The reason being is the Trimshop believes the outer bolster slackening the current seat has, is due to the seat chassis being bent, rather than just foam deterioration, the shape is defneatly off so doing both makes sense.

The bottom is also ruined, with the chassis rail digging into my legs. Rather than muck around trying to find a good condition seat bottom, I've bought a new one from FCP because they are available (for now) and new is best, something the seat back is not readily available as. I will be reusing my material as it was repaired 2 years ago,

So, the new seat cushion is a week away, and the back is more or less ready to swap out, so by the end of the month, I should have a decently refreshed driver's throne

24 minutes ago, adro said:

Good luck! My E39 drove me insane hunting for noises but I did learn a lot. Very satisfying once you figure it out. 

Cheers man. Yeah annoying as it’s all new gear.
Will track it down. Hasn’t done it today yet haha. 
 

Front Wheel bearings replaced, like to do things in pairs, amazing shipping from Schmeidmann less than a week to NZ.

Wheel bearing noise is gone...

BUT  click in suspension/wheel area remains, suspect one of the new control arms, and end links have gone bung, the saving grace is I got it all from FCP so will be covered by the warranty there.

Only does it when turning left, it's not the brakes, as the calliper and pad were removed and checked yesterday too.

Will have to put up with it for now and see if it gets more obvious.

The Obligatory 'Ring lap, 

The BMW Car Club Trip up North was fantastic, with many new twisties to explore at pace. all in all ~18 cars all up.

A fair amount of roadwork too, meant that the stones in the hub issue returned twice. 

I also have some metallic rattle & a grind coming from somewhere on the bottom of the car when it's warm and I'm turning hard left or right and moving slowly (that's when I can hear it) eg pulling into my garage.

Jacking the car up yesterday and removing the front wheels I thought I'd solved at least part of the issue when I found 2 tar clad stones stuck between the spring pad ( and right beneath the lowest coil) and the shock in the front suspension, this would account for the grinding noise when manoeuvring, sure enough, removing these and a heap of other stones, mean the grinding noise has gone but the metallic rattle remains. sounds like it's near the back of the engine, but hard to tell with sound bouncing around the garage.

Kerry Mosen is going to put it up on his hoist next week and have a decent look for me. 

***update***

removing the undertray yesterday revealed not only were ~5 of the 8 or so screws not properly fastened but one of the larger brackets the tray attaches to was about to fall off due to a loose screw.
This was repositioned and tightened. the tray was fully installed with all fasteners done up and additional metallic rattles are now gone.

However, I will have a small click when steering when the car is hot (well up to temp) and at low speeds can hear what sounds like fragments of something rattling in a cylinde, around the wheel. think stone in an empty tin can if you rolled it slowly on the ground.

I suspect stone fragments or something else in the back of the brake hat/hub from where several stones were stuck in there. removing the wheel shows nothing obvious. 

***Update 2***

Noise was determined to be a wheel bearing, drivers side failing. Have ordered 2 fronts from https://www.schmiedmann.com/

Car has been very stable after last round of maintenance. 
 

a great trip to tokaanu for the BMW car club annual meet up at Braxmere. Aside for a stone that was lodged in the back of the rotor hat for half the trip all was performing perfectly. 
 

Off up North this week for the Autumn fling again with the BMW car club. 3 days of northland B road bliss.

In project news I’m on the hunt for a single style 66 front wheel.  
 

try vmr wheels in the states

got one of these in my 530i - lovely wheel 

1 minute ago, BreakMyWindow said:

I've had good luck getting e39 xenon units via ebay uk. They will more than likely need new adjusters and a good wetsand polishing session. I think the last pair i got for my old touring were $280 landed.

 

Cheers Martin. i'm really on the fence about 2nd hand ones and doing more polishing but will take a look. 

wary of hairline cracks and pitting that cant be removed...

New cap working well, car no longer makes odd sucking sounds (now i know what it was)

Flush at Coombes was successful and showed no sings of wierd stuff in the coolant.

Also purchased some new spot lights, OE quality but not genuine (they are just holders for nice bulbs arefterall) got a pair for 190 ish NZD shipped from Aussie.

These replace the pitted and very old exisitng ones, one being non standard  and not fitting correctly.

Next up maintenance , maintenance maintenance and Xenon Headlights later in the year - considering buying new unless anyone has some very good condition E39 Xenons

Wondering why my car was losing a bit of coolant each month. Not a huge amount but enough to notice a slight drop in the level. 

Had a peek in the filler tank today with a light, hello o ring what are you doing down there.  Lol.

 New Genuine radiator cap acquired. 
I can see by comparing the 2 caps my original was actually breaking down, with missing prices of plastic from the lower section. 
This is how that little o ring fell off. I guess the plastic fragments from the cap are somewhere in the cooling system, or have been flushed when I got a new radiator last year. 🤷‍♂️
to be in the safe side will do a coolant replacement this week. 

Got some bits from FCP last week among them is Trans filter kit and new center consol cubby, with roller door.

The original roller door fell in to many peices one day when i opened it. Ordering a new OE spec one was easy enough, however when it arrived it was not quite black and had a rubberised coating, different from the original.

Thankfully these items are a 3 eice design (chassis, bucket, roller door) and i was able to use the new roller door and buket with the original chassis for a new cubby that doesnt look out of place - some times it's the  small wins.

and i've some how slighty curbed one of my polished lips, barely noticable, but i know it's there 😐

Looking at these. Seem like fun little cars albeit with some labour heavy maintenance items due to compact design. 
 

who has one /had one. What’s good / bad about them. 
 

cheers. 

2 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Penrite ATF FS is what you want. I usually buy a 20L which does 4x drain and fills on these. Probably can get you one at trade price if you like.

Id recommend doing the filter and fluid, driving around for a week and doing another drain and fill. This gets rid of most of the old fluid and less likely to upset anything. After that a transmission adaption reset in INPA etc should have it shifting noticeably better.

PS - Saw you driving pass Repco that other day.

 

Good advice mate.

Trade price would be great. Pm me the details. 👍 

22 minutes ago, BreakMyWindow said:

Yep that kit will work, the same one i used to fit to the spare trans i had for my old 530i touring.

Penrite do a fluid that’s approved by zf for this trans. Can be found at repco. 
 

Torque converter rebuild will be knocking on the door soon i think. Common problem with these ones.

Cheers mate. 
have you done the rebuild, what’d  it cost?

what are symptoms you’ve experienced cat shifts fine most of the time. At times it feels jerky into and out of 3rd. Particularly after the abs module triggering trans fail safe. Not that I drove it far in that mode maybe 2kms to home. 

I’m looking at a trans service. Does anyone know of this will fit my car. 2001 530i

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-auto-trans-filter-kit-zf-24152333915

real OEM points to this part number but the reference to 5hp-19 has me question comparability. 🤔 

also what trans oil is best for a car that done 165kms

Todays BMW NZ Car club run was a real goodie. Hamilton to Cambridge the loooong way round. 

 

I now have a new used Abs module onboard. ( yay for friends who have friends who have parts cars and euro garages, who have ABS modules with the same serial number as me )
Installed this arvo drove home no issues so far, fingers crossed. 

aaaaaand now i've got ASC, ABS and Trans Failsafe Prog error -doh

After these shows up last weekend, HQSTU helped me clear them

Last night they came back in rush hour traffic this time with a dead speedo. Ive limped the car home (not far from where the error kicked in )

Today we will try scanning again and possibly replacing the rear wheel speed sensor to eliminate that fault (speedo)

Fingers crossed it is only a sensor and not the whole ABS module....im thinking it might be the latter though 😫

Update; Solved this issue, removed lower dash trim, and steering column trim.

I lubricated the steering guibo and the point where the steering column goes through the firewall with lithium grease (spray on)

Tested this by going for a few drives withthe panels off, worked well and no noise, panels have been replaced - happy days 

The E39 has, for some time now, had a slght groan in steering (no noticable play) when hot, and the noise is most obvious when turing slowly.

It appears to be coming from the steering column near the top.

Today i've gotthe lower dash trim and steeing colum cowl off and i have applied some light grease to rubber bits and mating surfaces for steering wheel. slip ring too.

My next drive will reveal if this has worked on or, im just trying obvious /easy stuff. 

If anyone else has experienced this noise and found a solution, let me know!

if not hampering the steering at all but is annoying.

 I havet taken any vids my self, but this one has the noise....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLXZpfg9s4g

Also steering fluid level is all topped up and not reducing (leaking)

Got all the interior back in. First time in 6 months it’s all been back together. Went for a blast to raglan today. Great weather and the car performs great on the open road. Good times.