Andy5150

After a lot of research last year i read something that suggested that any 3G device that can’t find a 3G network will default to the next fastest alternative, in this case 2G. The built in SIM in the F generation 5 Series runs in Vodafone in the uk, who switched off their 3G in March of this year I believe. My 2015 5 with the ConnectedBooster pack still active from last year still works - it no longer shows the 3G symbol and the weather, news etc are slower to load but they do still load up - occasionally I’ll travel thought areas where the 2G signal is so poor that my idrive shows a “no connection” message but it’s not very often. Most importantly though, RTTI still works nearly all of the time too, again only occasionally defaulting to TMS. I live in Buckinghamshire but regularly drive to Birmingham and London and the availability seems pretty consistent. I believe none of the networks are switching off 2G because it uses so little bandwidth and is also a good backup emergency service. I have to say that I’m quite pleased that the loss of 3G hasn’t totally killed my idrive’s usability as I’d feared it would. Whether or not BMW will let me renew my connected drive services this December is another matter though as they might consider using them over 2G to be such a below par service that they can’t charge for it.

A MUCH cooler paperweight than mine! Albeit I’m not sure I’d have wanted to go through THAT to get hold of it!

That’s exactly it! The garage offered me the offending item (items now!) as rather unusual paperweight! That inner rubber ring is seriously thick and yet it just shows how perished it must have become to shear off like that. Job done but took them a while, in part because they’d been sent the wrong part which they then had to wait for its more expensive replacement. Final job was £480, so pretty much bang in the same as @Munzy paid. The mechanic told me that the torquing was a challenge as they had to remove all the under trays to get the additional angle rotation after initial torquing-up. Aside from that, all pretty straightforward. Interestingly it’s quite noticeably smoother than before. I’d not noticed to loss of smoothness but I suppose it had become gradual. There had recently been a feint whine noise when the engine was cold which raised and lowered with the revs and this has no gone. I wonder if this was a tell-tale sign of impending collapse of the pulley? Looking forward to a proper drive again - spend the rest of the day cleaning and valeting. Happy to have it back.

Excellent tutorial, as always, Andrew - thank you for sharing! I think I’d be happy enough doing the aux belt on the B47 as there’s plenty of space in the front, unlike in the 535i but I’d draw the line at attempting the sheared crank pulley in mine.

Went to the garage (an Indy, not a main dealer) and they confirmed the belt is fine (although will be replaced) - it’s the crank pulley that sheared off. Turns out it’s rather common (in fact a friend’s 2019 340i had the same thing happen to it on only 35k miles!). The mechanic said to me “I don’t know what your mileage is but we see quite a few of these and they nearly always go around 120k miles) - he laughed when i told him I’m on 118k! As the part is a harmonic balancer there’s a substantial rubber component to the pulley which eventually dries, cracks and shears off. Supposedly a common fault although not one I’ve ever heard of it in the traditional timing-chain/yellow grommet/etc list of things to look for on the F generation. Waiting to hear from the garage if it’s complete before 1pm otherwise it’ll be Monday. All being well it should be just the pulley and a new belt - current quote is £420. Pricey but I would have felt out of my depth trying to fix that. Not that I could now anyway because I’d have no way of recovering it home - I think I’d get about a mile before it would die from either overheating, no electrical power or both!! 😅

IMG_4388.HEICIMG_4389.HEICHad my poor F11 recovered 55 miles from work near Coventry back to Buckinghamshire and my nearest garage. Aux/alternator belt snapped in work car park yesterday leaving me with a a warning of non charging and a rapidly heating up engine! Now waiting for the garage to find the time to check if the belt has snapped or it’s been thrown by a broken tension or pulley… Grrrr IMG_4389.HEIC

Yeah, always a challenge to store tools etc. I can’t seem to justify buying a bigger better (wider!) jack when most of the time the one I have does the job. Glad the creaking has gone - let’s hope for good

This is something I’m wondering about for when I do my Touring (*IF* I ever get around to doing it, that is!). Is yours an F10 or F11 @skyjawa? I know that the F11 is jacked from the plate where the rear bracing bars join whereas the F10 is the rear diff casing but I’m wondering whether my 2T cheap-ish trolley jack will go high enough now… hmmmm

Happy Friday evening, im not sure if anyone is too bothered by the loss of ConnectedDrive in their 5 Series but I for one had been mildly dreading the Vodafone shutdown of 3G over the last few months as both the weather app and RTTI satnav are super helpful still. I’d read some limited evidence that suggested our Fives would continue to offer connected services over 2G which is being retained but that it would be unusably slow. I was even willing to gamble paying another years subscription on the off chance it might work! I’d read that Vodafone would be switching off all 3G during February and was prepared to lose my services but what I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks is that a) very occasionally I do lose all connectivity in certain areas but it’s brief, like a black spot and returns a few mins later and b) when loading up weather, news etc, the icon in the top left hand corner to show you’re connected no longer shows a 3G symbol. Having checked online Vodafone indeed confirms that it has now switched off all 3G services as off the end of Feb. So… everything is still happily working in my car. Yes, the weather app takes a little longer to update, yes you get the occasional black spot where you didn’t before and yet RTTI still works as effectively as it ever did. So it seems that idrive NBT can indeed use ConnectedDrive services quite happily in 2G apparently! Id be interested to hear anyone else’s experiences with this? Andy

Somethings wrong with these pictures @Andrew??! What’s that yellow glow on the grass behind your anti roll bar? It looks like sunshine but surely it can’t be? Scotland?? 😉

That’s interesting to hear @skyjawa, I’ve heard that they can take some time to arrive and returns can be troublesome. I have to say that autodoc do look very attractive but some of the feedback puts me off and I’m impatient for delivery when I order. Good to hear positive things about Febi because whilst Lemforder do seem to be the ones everyone recommends, they’re quite expensive. I ordered a cabin filter(s) from Parts in Motion, they were brilliant so +1 to them! Let us know how you get on with the job. @Andrew - thanks for the kind guide. Note sure I’d fancy removing the ARB from my f11 though but by the looks of my drop links they don’t seem too crusty so hopefully I won’t strip the torx sockets when I eventually do the job, unlike when I tried the same job on the front of my sons Ford Ka. I’m going to have to cut the nuts off or buy a nut cracker.

I was thinking of those too until I was kind of put off changing the drop links once the garage told me they looked fine, last month. However, the noise is getting more intrusive than it was before so for that price I may as well just go for it! @skyjawa, was that from Autodoc? I’ll be interested to hear how you get on - it might just spur me on to do mine too!

I’d agree with Steve. One note to add though based on my experience (albeit F11, not F10) is that my shocks and top mounts were replaced last June and at some point this past autumn I started developing a knocking from the rear with almost the same triggers as you Skyjawa. Ruling out the shocks and top mounts as being too new, the other likely culprit is the rear anti-roll bar drop links. Mine were inspected at the dealer recently who said they looked fine and they weren’t picked up in the MOT at the weekend either but I guess it’s possible they’re still clunking even if visibly ok. Worth checking the drop links on your F10? it could also be rear subframe mounts but I’d assume that a) you’d feel squirminess in the rear handling, b) louder clonking and c) surely they’d last a very long time and therefore perhaps still have plenty of life in them?

Hi Sgc, mine are exactly the same, as are the rear aluminium window trims too - looks like they have milky water spots on them but nothing rubs them off as they’re apparently surface oxidation underneath the lacquer. I was only looking at this video last night which looks promising. I don’t have a rotary polisher but will buy some 4000 grit paper and try it out manually on a small area. I hopeful it’ll work because it looks pretty rubbish to me at the moment! Only concern I have is that you’d need a good finishing polish to seal the aluminium because clearly this process removes the lacquer at the same time as the oxidation and you’ll want to shield it from the elements going forward. This isn’t a problem I’ve heard people mention much in this board so I’m guessing folks are either lucky and don’t have it or are happy to accept and live with it. If anyone has any other suggestions I’d be interested to hear. Hope this helps? Andy

Could it be your rear arb drop links? Both touring and saloon have them of course but out of interest which model is yours? I get a similar sound although doesn’t happen with speed bumps, triggered more but driving in a rough broken surface at slow speeds. Trouble is, my local dealer tells me that visually everything looks fine with the rear suspension… hmmmmm