Crazy Dave

Hey Matt, do you work in Sheffield Cres? I see your car around the area quite often.

Must be getting old me thinks

Discovered for the first time the little orange light on the dashboard of the E39 that shows loss of traction. However the Landrover Discovery gets hauled out of the barn on days like this.

Had not thought about a price but we can chat off list if you find a wagon. It is more important that it goes to a collector who will look after it.

I used to have a ex army SII. Pity I sold it. I still have for sale the 24v HF radio that were fitted to the SII and the V8s if someone wanted to make an original comms one.

Thanks guys, Brent was spot on with the diagnosis (lifting the back of the electrical connection sockets causes both lamp units to wobble around) And sounds like the rest of you have a good understanding of the issues. So mine is a jap import. From memory, manufactured in Sept 01. I think that makes it facelift but it has the Xenons with LED angel eyes if that nails it down. So I am an engineer and like to consider myself reasonably practical at fixing or making things, but I'm not sure how to get these lamps apart. I suspect like everything BMW, there will be a short fast easy less obvious way and also a long slow painful way where bits get broken. Any directions on the fast easy less obvious way would be appreciated. I do have to say though, that having discovered German automotive engineering just over a year ago, I do love this car, and am happy to put up with a few little niggles like this. I assume that these adjuster rods are made from the same plastic as the cup holders (mine have not broken yet) and the seat side switch units Cheers Dave

2001 E39 I do not often drive at night so have only just noticed this. A few months ago I noticed that the headlights (main and dip) were set way too low and so I adjusted them up to where they should be. A month or so later on a rare night drive I noticed that they were too high so I wound them down again. Tonight I have noticed (you guessed it) that headlights are too low again. I know that there is an auto leveling circuit and I suspect this is playing up. Does anyone have any ideas on what may be at fault or where I should look?

Hotwire (Grant) on this forum would be the person who could probably answer your question, if anyone can. Might want to PM him in case he misses your post.

Oooops didn't mean to put the South Pole one in there (No BMWs down there that I saw) but at least I got the picture thing sussed

Just testing to see if I can imbed those photos [/url] So the problem [/url] Take the blank out [/url] Glue in a hook [/url] And tie a tether onto it [/url] And all fixed [/url]

Even if you have an E39 that has not broken this plastic, this fix would reduce the risk of it breaking in the future. Thanks for the "E38 generic" info Grant. There is another unused blank at the rear of the plastic. If I can find an original switch to go in that hole, I would consider putting my garage door opener inside the seat and wiring it to that switch. (At present my complete garage door opener sits in the door side pocket)

Cheers - we can give that a go So the problem http://iforce.co.nz/i/5hr4fttb.lfo.jpg Take the blank out http://iforce.co.nz/i/w5yrckzk.zhj.jpg Glue in a hook http://iforce.co.nz/i/sxngzmfu.4gq.jpg And tie a tether onto it http://iforce.co.nz/i/3zfzehfs.qda.jpg And all fixed http://iforce.co.nz/i/uhv3fj5o.1gj.jpg

I think this is a common problem on the E39 (along with the cup holders ) I fixed mine and took some photos but when I try and attach photos in this posting I get: "Upload failed. Please ask the administrator to check the settings and permissions" So until I get permission to attach photos, I cant show you my easy way to fix it. I had tried several other fixes beforehand but none of them last well. The current one has been fine for months. At the front of the seat switch block is a blank for a switch that is not fitted. (Hmmm, what switch went in there) I removed this blank and hot glued a steel eye (like a picture frame hook) into it. I used a large eye and completely filled the blank with glue. I put the blank back in the seat and from the outside it looks no different. But it now has a strong anchor point that the plastic switch block can be pulled back in against the seat with. I just used some strong cord and tied it back against the underside of the seat. From the outside there is no visible difference.

Thanks Dean and Jochen. Good info and a great link.

Does anyone in New Zealand have a copy of V31 of the Nav software for MkIV Nav units? I want to play with POI additions but now that Megauploads has gone, it is a bit difficult to find. I'm not talking about the Map CD that lives in your Nav unit, but the upgrade software. I probably need and older version as well - V29 ? - so that I can go thorough the upgrade process. Cheers Dave

Well, I am now a bit confused. After playing with DC blockers, the DC feed to the OEM antennas does not seem to matter between 5VDC and 12VDC. The antennas work just as well at either voltage. What I did discover is that if you connect both built in OEM antennas to an aftermarket DVB-T tuner then it goes really deaf. It has to be a really strong signal before you get a TV picture. (15km from the Christchurch transmitter) If I connect one built in OEM antenna to the aftermarket DVB-T tuner then it is almost as good as the two supplied (ugly) antennas stuck to the windows. (40km from the Christchurch transmitter) So at the moment I have one built in OEM antenna to the aftermarket DVB-T tuner and one OEM antenna to the old Analog OEM tuner and the system is working pretty well. (and no ugly stick on antennas) I suspect some sort of earth loop or diversity switching signal supplied separately to the antenna pre amps may be the issue but I have always struggled with the WDS site so need to get my head around the wiring to those preamps.

Are either of them Jap imports? The plastic gears in my RH electric folding wing mirror have stripped and they are only found in Jappers I believe.

The digital TV transmission is in the same frequencies as Analog UHF TV. And it is just a radio signal so the antennas can be the same. All the BS around needing a new "digital" TV antenna to receive digital signals in your house is just marketing to sell some antennas riding on the back of a technology change. Things only change when the RF is demodulated down to baseband signal inside the receiver. My problem is that I am unsure about the circuitry in the BMW pre-amps in the pillars. I am wondering if they are giving less gain at the 5VDC supplied by the DVB-T receiver. I might build a splitter circuit to feed both the Analog and DVB-T receiver while only supplying the DC from the Analog (OEM) receiver.

So I got the connectors and am experimenting with the cars in built antennas on the DVB-T tuner. At first it did not work at all. I checked the DC voltages to drive the antenna pre-amps. The DVB-T tuner supplies 5 VDC to the coax and can be switched on and off from the menu. The OEM analog tuner supplies around 10VDC and so I thought that this was the problem. However after a bit more playing it seems that the in built glass antennas do work, but they are just not as efficient as the stick on supplied ones. I also found that if I connect one antenna it works far better than having both connected. I am still trying to get my head around that !!! I will keep playing until I find the best solution.

Just a tracking device whenever the ignition is turned on. Have a look at: http://aprs.fi/?call=zl3trx-9&mt=roadm...&_s=ss_call I have been overseas for the last few weeks and the car has hardly been used so not much activity. Will have more activity next week when I get back to work. My other vehicle (Landrover Discovery) http://aprs.fi/?call=zl3trx-12&mt=road...&_s=ss_call gets used by my wife a bit more often. I will probably contact you off list soon about a MK IV Nav conversion. Its getting too much hassle to source one from the countries I go to.

Im pretty sure the GPS aerial on a touring is on the dashboard. Fitted in the A/C grill. Certainly looks like one and the aerial cable from the GPS receiver goes forward and along the tunnel to the front of the car. I have gutted the GPS engine out of the original box because the Jap GPS did not have a standard output, and have fitted a conventional NMEA GPS engine into the same metal box for a vehicle tracking application that I use. I'm gonna be in trouble though when I get onto Grant for the MKIV nav upgrade. I'm already using the aerial !!!

I fitted one of these units to my E39 touring a couple of days ago. It works really well. I'm using the supplied antennas at the moment until I can get the correct connectors to make adapters for the OEM antennas. I was thinking of putting in an antenna splitter and feeding both tuners, but I cant see that I will be using the Analog tuner much now. The unit plays MP4 videos and MP3 audio. The only problem is that the input to the tuner is mono and so MP3s are naff. Someone mentioned feeding the audio into the amp. Either into the Tape inputs or the CD inputs. Im just wondering where the easiest place is to access these inputs.

So the anti burst lock on the seat seems to be locking just fine. The seat seems to lock back into place correctly and I can manually flip the lock over when the seat is forward and everything seems to work OK, except the belt is still locked tight. So it seems I will be doing a seat teardown. Those pointers on where to start with this task (or even the whole task) would now be appreciated. Cheers Dave

Awesome thanks, I had discovered that when the seat was not latched, that the belt would lock. Quite a clever safety design, but a pain when it goes wrong. I did not figure out how this worked, because the seat seems to be locking into place just fine. I will have another look later (It is 4am now - isn't jetlag wonderful) but I still have this feeling that it might be a seat teardown. I will let you know Cheers Dave

Hi All Have a 2001 E39 touring and the rear center seat belt tensioner has locked on and wont release. I just cant see how to get the seat apart so that I can try and fix the tensioner. Any ideas are welcomed. (I have just arrived back in country and am jetlagged and 10 hours out of timezone so I might be missing the obvious) Regards Dave