aja540i 1906 Report post Posted October 28, 2015 I get trade price from BMW anyway, and the best price I have seen online is about $750 us, so no cheaper than getting locally. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted October 29, 2015 Can you take a picture of said board and semiconductor that got a bit hot?Sure can......You cant see them now but when i first opened it there were 2 tiny blobs of what looked like solder stuck to the outside of the semiconductor the pen is pointing at, also the coating on the board is a lot darker around there than the rest of the board. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) So i have ordered 1 new actuator from JC BMW and i have opened up the second actuator and it all looks ok, the gears are worn, but the board looks fine, so i have rotated the centre gear 180 degrees to even out the wear, and lightly lubricated the moving parts. Also gave all the throttle bodies a quick clean and lubricated all the moving bits, hopefully that will delay the almost inevitable failure of the other unit for a while. 130K seems to be about the lifespan for these units from what i have read but im hopfull i can extend it a bit with some preventative maintenance. Fingers crossed! Have also ordered a set of replacement gears from odometergears.com, roughly $400 for the set with shipping, enough to do 2 actuators. Edited October 31, 2015 by aja540i Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oriphinz 11 Report post Posted November 1, 2015 (edited) Might be worth pulling a computer ram heatsink to try and prevent failure again? something like these: Ah link got removed, search amazon for "Cosmos ® 8 PCS Copper VGA RAM Cooling Heatsinks" Edited November 1, 2015 by oriphinz Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 Might be worth pulling a computer ram heatsink to try and prevent failure again? something like these: Ah link got removed, search amazon for "Cosmos ® 8 PCS Copper VGA RAM Cooling Heatsinks" Problem is there isnt really anywhere for the heat to go as the board is sealed inside the actuator, plus the entire board is back to back with a 3mm aluminium cover plate so it should be losing plenty of heat through that.I think the board is only failing because the mechanical issues are causing the motor to draw a lot more current than it should, and there is only so much of that it will take! Worst case scenario is 2 new actuators every 120K or so, eventually they might get cheaper! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Allanw 1071 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 Worst case scenario is 2 new actuators every 120K or so, eventually they might get cheaper! And you brought the M5 for it's ecconomy, ease of maintenance, and the low costs of it's parts... Get some transformer oil, and fill it up :-) Oil cooled actuators A few Electric Bike guys have done it, and lower temps/increased motor life (they can do 50MPH in a few seconds... on a push bike, so it's a fair bit of heat created) 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 Has that component actually failed? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
*Glenn* 854 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 Has that component actually failed? It probably overheated and failed due to severe wear in the gear set Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 Has that component actually failed?I can't guarantee it is that component that failed, but the board is poked, and my best guess is at least that one component is fried.If someone is interested in testing it somehow I can send them the board. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 If you send it to me I can test it and possibly repair it. We do this kind of stuff regularly at work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 If you send it to me I can test it and possibly repair it. We do this kind of stuff regularly at work. PM me the address and i can send it down, do you need the whole actuator or just the board? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted November 2, 2015 Just the board. Pm'd Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 3, 2015 New actuator arrived today, apparently it was the last one in NZ! All fitted up and it runs fine, will check fault codes again and test drive later. Replacement gears have also been shipped from the USA, and should arrive next week. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Allanw 1071 Report post Posted November 3, 2015 New actuator arrived today, apparently it was the last one in NZ! All fitted up and it runs fine, will check fault codes again and test drive later. Replacement gears have also been shipped from the USA, and should arrive next week. So which car will be arriving in my drveway on my birthday visit this weekend??? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 3, 2015 So which car will be arriving in my drveway on my birthday visit this weekend??? I guess you'll find out on saturday, it will probably be blue and a station wagon!! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 4, 2015 Cleared fault code and drove to work today, all good! Just need to get battery re-initialised and we are good to go. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hybrid 1043 Report post Posted November 4, 2015 Naffed voltage regulators ? Polley should be able to sort it easy enough. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 4, 2015 Naffed voltage regulators ? Polley should be able to sort it easy enough. On it's way to him now..... 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted November 5, 2015 Turned up this morning. Those 4 devices are a H bridge driver to drive the motor forwards and backwards. Confirmed the darker one is shorted, will remove it later and see if I can identify it. If it can be identified there should be no trouble replacing it, hopefully it hasn't taken out anything else with it. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
polley 916 Report post Posted November 6, 2015 Replacement fet's are on the way. Will replace whole set. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 6, 2015 Replacement fet's are on the way. Will replace whole set. Sweet. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 6, 2015 Replacement gears arrived from the States so it looks like i may end up with a rebuilt unit to keep as a spare for when the other one fails!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Allanw 1071 Report post Posted November 7, 2015 or you can install 5 more cylinders. My mum says I'm an ideas man. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted November 16, 2015 Have been driving the car for a couple of weeks now with 1 brand new unit and 1 original unit that i rotated the reduction gear 180 degrees in, and all works fine , Polley has replaced the component that failed on the board in the other original unit and it is on its way back to me, i will replace the gears in that unit and next time the manifold "has to" come off, i will test the rebuilt unit and if it is all good i will swap it for the original that is still in there. Fingers crossed! 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
