Greenfingers

It was surprisingly hard to find any info on how to do this job. There's plenty about F models with rear air springs, but the G31 is a different procedure with the spring and shock incorporated into one unit, so a mini tutorial may help others save some of the pounds that a main dealer would want. This job shouldn't be too tricky for anyone with a decent socket set and reasonable DIY ability, but bear in mind the car may also need 4 wheel allignment afterwards. Step 1 is to isolate the compressor electrics, either by removing the relevant fuse, or disconnecting the battery (which is what I did). The most frustrating part for me was discovering how to remove the interior trims to gain access to the 3 nuts and 1 bolt holding the strut from above:- Remove the 'C' pillar trim by prying off the airbag symbol and unscrewing the hidden torx screw. The rear seat side squab needs to be removed by pulling up and forwards to expose a couple more torx screws securing the black trim above the carpeted panel. With the plastic trim pulled away from the side window, there are a couple more torx screws to remove the carpeted panel. Once this is out of the way, the 4 strut fixings are accessible with a 13mm socket . The seat belt assembly can remain in situ. You can see the bolts holding the strut in place in the middle of this photo:- The basic mechanics of removing the strut assembly are then simple:- jack up and support the car, remove wheel, disconnect air line and remove the bottom mounting. The drop link bolt and innermost bolt in the lower suspension arm also need removing to provide clearance to extract the strut. Once the wheel is off, there is a plastic panel under the bottom wishbone that needs to come off (2 x 8mm socket heads) and the air hose unscrews with a 10mm spanner. The innermost end of the bottom wishbone connects to the rubber bush via an eccentric bolt and nut (for camber adjustment?). I took photos of the nut and bolt and made sure they were in the same position when reassembled, to hopefully avoid the need for reallignment. Nuts and bolts removed (21mm & 18mm and E14 etorx & 16mm for the drop link). You will be able to pull the strut assembly out through the top of the wheelarch after lowering the bottom part into the void, so a standard jack provides plenty of height to do the job. Reassembly is the reverse procedure, not sure about torque settings, but a good pull on a bar about 2 foot long. Be cautious after reconnecting the electrics - my compressor didn't kick in until I drove the car forward, so it may take a few minutes before the ride height is corrected. As far as I'm aware, no reprogramming or calibration is required. So in all, a more involved job than on an F11, but I would hope to do it in a couple of hours next time - much less than the 5 hours or so someone suggested BMW would quote. I just hope these units are more reliable than the old style airbags, because they aren't cheap at around £750 a pop. I thought the old style bags failed due to exposure to grit etc, but these newer versions have a plastic gaiter, presumably to protect the rubber bag. Obviously that didn't work in this case, because the unit I replaced was leaking at 73k miles. I got a used one cheap this time (manufactured in 2020), so we'll wait and see...

Having replaced air springs on my old F07 at least a couple of times, I wasn't worried after noticing the rear of my G31 dropping on one side after being parked for a couple of days. Aftermarket parts were readily available for about £30 for F series cars, but searching for G31 air springs on eBay yesterday gave me a shock - the design is completely different, with the shock absorber and air spring seemingly incorproated into one unit. I haven't had a proper look yet, but it looks like a far more involved job than on the older models. Has anyone here experienced issues with this type of design?

My wife's 320d (b47) was recalled for the 'EGR software update' late last year and the cooler had already been replaced under the previous recall. No immediately apparent performance difference, but it has since been throwing EGR/MAF/air pressure codes at random intervals. I thought I had fixed it a while back after clearing a blocked exhaust pressure sensor pipe, but when the drivetrain warning came back last week, I decided it was time to clean the EGR valve along with the part of the intake manifold where the soot deposits tend to be worst (at the junction with the EGR pipe). I've done the inlet manifolds on 2 n57s and 1 m57 before, so had an idea what to expect. I did the job yesterday and actually this one wasn't too bad, which in a way is disappointing, but it has left me wondering if the BMW 'software update' has resulted in a more sensitive system. BMW said the update was to enable closer monitoring of the EGR and I suspect this involves more constraints on the normal operating parameters, so that fault codes are generated when smaller deviations are detected. In any case, if these codes reappear, my next plan of action is to get the EGR and swirl flaps deleted. This is probably the easiest way to prevent any future soot problems and if done in conjunction with a remap, will give you a much more driveable car and significantly better mpg. I know a guy near Milton Keynes who specialises in BMWs and has remapped 3 vehicles for me - all with excellent, problem free results My Xdrive 530d now produces 325bhp/700NM and returns 40mpg from everyday driving with no more soot deposits. FYI Bavarian, disabling EGR reduces air intake temp and no need for DPF delete.

Having done this job on my three previous BMWs (with M57 and N57 engines), I know how gunked up the intake system can get. Cleaning the throttle body, intake manifold and egr pipe resulted in noticeably improved mpg and responsiveness in all three cases, so I am planning to do the same for my G31. There seem to be loads of tutorials for the previous engines, but I'm struggling to find a good guide for the B57. It looks like a fairly straightforward job, so the scarcity of information on the web is surprising. Granted, many of the newer models will have been maintained by dealers or garages and not yet fallen into the hands of DIYers, but there must be plenty of high mileage cars out there now. One thing thas does seem conspicuous is wear to the swirl flap actuator shaft, causing implausibility readings from the position sensor and even air leaking past the seal at the actuator end. BMW's answer is to replace the manifold, but that is taking a wear and tear approach to something that shouldn't be happening and will likely need doing multiple times if the car is driven to, say 200k miles. I intend to remove the flaps and hopefully the shaft as well, if I can find a way to seal the exit point near the actuator. My guess is that the biggest restriction to air entering the engine is likely to be at the end of the EGR pipe, at the junction just after the throttle body. This is the first thing I want to check, but I'm not sure if the pipe can be removed without pulling out the whole intake manifold. Can anyone advise?

Just to update: all working fine now with a cable from eBay (part no 9380880, which came from an X1).

I'm having ongoing issues getting the central information display on my ex police G31 to work reliably. When I got the car, the screen had been relocated under the centre armrest, with the original LVDS cable extended to facilitate this. I bought an Android MMI box and 10.2" screen as an upgrade for the Basic Media 2 head unit (no sat nav) and 8.8" screen. After installing the MMI box and coding the bigger display, I got a black screen and then discovered that the LVDS cable cable supplied with the box had different pin out assignments to the original cable (I believe it is for F series cars). Using the original cable gave a 'No signal' message instead, which led me to believe the bigger display was either incompatible, or coded wrong, so I reverted to the smaller display and it has been working to a degree, although the image keeps breaking up and 'No signal ' appears sometimes. Flexing the LVDS cable where it is joined seemed to make things worse, so I resoldered the connections and it's even worse now! There is still continuity between the pins at each end of the cable, but it has suffered a lot of trauma due to the whole installation being removed and reinstalled so many times and I have no idea how voltage differential signalling works, so probably best to just get a new cable. Realoem suggests I need part no 6832083, but I can't find a source anywhere. 9395513, 6991466 and 6832032 all look similar with varying lengths which doesn't matter. I know I need connector A4225B head unit to A121B CID, but the orientation of the cable relative to the connector must also be correct to enable the connectors to plug in without fouling adjacent ones. Does anyone here know which cable they have, or can you advise how to fix or modify one?

I've already returned an Autophix 7910 because the functionality was so limited with my G31. However it did work fine on the F31 and was much quicker than this bluetooth one. Now I've ordered a Vlinker BM from eBay, so we'll see how that goes. Apart from coding in a bigger display, setting the auto stop/start to stay in the last state and a few other bits, hopefully it won't be needed too often, so speed shouldn't be an issue.

I just bought a Vgate iCar Pro OBD tool via Amazon where numerous people reported that it worked fine with Bimmertool on their cars. It turns out that it doesn't support quite a few functions for G30/G31s and after a bit of reading, it appears that these bluetooth scanners aren't so good with newer generation BMWs. Okay, so the Vgate iCar Pro is one of the cheapest available, but how much do you need to spend to get a fully compatible scanner? Bimmertool's list of recommended scanners include some at over £100, but do you need to spend that for full functionality? Having said that, if you're paying around £75 for the Bimmertool and Bimmercode apps, then it would be silly to get an OBD scanner that couldn't use those functions. I'm tempted to try a Vlinker BM, which can be had for around the £30 mark. Can anyone here recommend one that works?

Having just sold my F07, I still feel it was the best all round car I've ever owned and at 60 years old I've had loads of cars. Glad you're a fan Kopfjaeger - I would seriously consider ditching my G31 in favour of a low mileage LCI model if one came up. The F07 is a rare sight on UK roads, because it wasn't readily adopted by our public mainly due to the 'big bum, awkward' looks, but I believe it was ahead of it's time and now we are seeing similar design concepts from other manufacturers. Based on the 7 series platform, it provides a more refined environment and is much more spacious than the 5 series saloon or touring variants. It was clearly marketed wrong, because the newer model is branded as a 6 series and I think it lacked the sporting looks that buyers expect from a 5 series. Perhaps I'm biased, but if you like big BMWs and haven't ever tried an F07, you should - 7 series comfort with X5 space. Anyway, for anyone who might be interested, there is a lot of information in this complete 124 page training manual:- https://autodiagcart.com/wrd/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/F07-Complete-Vehicle.pdf

Yes, that's it. The rubber part can also split and throw up the same fault codes, which should be evident without needing to remove it.

Sorry to say that I don't think your engine problem is fixed yet. The EGR cooler recall was a safety campaign to prevent the intake manifold catching fire due to glycol leaking from the EGR cooler. Your issue may be partially related to a clogged EGR valve, but some of the codes you posted are for the exhaust back pressure sensor, as BMW suggested. The exhaust back pressure sensor is on the end of a pipe that comes out of the exhaust before the turbo - nothing to do with the EGR, although it is exposed to the same sooty crap that clogs the EGR and swirl flaps. A low or inplausible sensor reading is nearly always caused by the pipe getting blocked and it takes less than 5 minutes to verify - just take of the pipe, remove the sensor from the end and blow through the pipe. If you can't blow through it, buy a used replacement from eBay for about £20 or try unblocking it (but I've tried this and even after soaking in brake cleaner for 24hrs, I couldn't push a wire through). If you can blow through it, then the sensor itself will be faulty (which you can verify by doing resistance tests with a multimeter) and those too are about £20 from eBay. Don't keep putting it off, or you'll need to get recovered again.

Near Woodstock, just north of Oxford. Most of the timewaster calls have come from what sound like dealer types who say they're coming from London and the second question is 'what's the lowest you'll take'. The scammers yesterday were probably from Oxford, because they were here 30 minutes after phoning and there are plenty of bad apple Asians in East Oxford. I Googled 'scam car buyers' when they had gone and sure enough it's a well known ploy. In the end, it was easy enough to remove the oil from the coolant bottle, but I've just got back from a 40 minute drive and there was still a hint of smoke on full throttle, so I'm going to initiate a DPF regen and go for another run which will hopefully clear it completely. They had definitely squirted something into the exhaust, because there was a slimey yellow residue on the paper towel I wiped inside the tailpipe and the underside of the exhaust was dripping with oil. I think I saw them driving off in an old 1 series BMW, so it might be worth going to the local police station with the video footage, in case other people have had the same happen.

Oooh, that looks nice! Like you, I've just 'upgraded' to here from the F subforum, but your upgrade looks better that mine.

I can hardly bear to sell it, because it's actually in better condition than the car I just bought for double the price! But market value is what it is and that makes cars like this a fabulous bargain if you can find a good one. I think a lot of people are scared of buying older luxury cars with high mileage, because they are frightened of high maintenence costs, which most forum members here know does not need to be the case.

Having recently bought a G31 530d, the F07 that has served me so well for the last 6 years is finally up for sale (cheeky link to eBay advert):- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144945418971 I can't believe there are so many timewasters and scammers out there. In the first week , I've had four separate people arrange and agree a time to view the car and then fail to show up. But today was the worst: a guy who said he was fairly local, wanted to come and see the car in half an hour. He confirmed he was looking for a car for himself and his family and he had cash available, so I obliged. Around half an hour later, a pair of guys in their 20s show up. They said they had missed the turning and parked their car up the road. The first thing they asked to do was look at the engine and then as soon as I opened the bonnet, one of them asked to see the service history, which he took to the back of the car and started spreading out in the open boot. I had heard of scammers sabotaging cars to devalue them with the intention of buying them at knock down prices, so after showing one guy where he could find various receipts, I quickly went back to the front of the car to keep an eye on the other guy and became suspicious because he was tightening the expansion tank cap. He said he was just checking the level, but then I noticed some wet oil of one of his hands and asked why he had oil on his hand. He said 'oh I just checked the engine oil level', to which I asked 'where did you find the dipstick?'. He pointed to the front of the engine and I said 'no the dipstick is near the back of the engine; how did you get that oil on your hand?' to which he mumbled in a broken Asian tone and then his friend came round and said he would have got it from taking the oil filler cap off to have a look. Then they wanted a test drive, but neither could provide proof of insurance, so I offered to drive them down the road. They kept wanting me to floor the throttle and long story short, when I was reversing back into the drive, I noticed white smoke coming out of the exhaust (which has never ever happened before). I knew something was going on and got fairly short with them, at which they left saying they would get back to me. The first thing I did was check the expansion tank - and sure enough, there was a load of black oil in the top. Furthermore, I found a trail of what looked like oil on the block paving driveway, which I now believe was some of the oil they must have squirted into the exhaust to cause the smoke. Bastards! Anyway, a warning to anyone selling privately, this happened in less than 30 unsupervised seconds so beware! I've got some good CCTV footage showing their faces, so we'll see what happens......