Steve84N

I love how much space there is to work in a 5 with a six and the fan removed.

As long as it's not black! 😅 I don't understand/like blacking everything out but black as a contrast colour is alright. The previous owner of my last car had this badge on it.

@Kopfjaeger what colour is your car?

@BobA the fan runs as a failsafe. If you can't sense that the engine is OK you assume the worst and it needs cooling. That helps avoid it overheating when sensors fail.

People say it's the electronics that give up more than the actual impeller, hence the more random nature of when it fails.

@Andrew Pierburg metal pump and Mahle thermostat.

I changed the water pump and thermostat on mine before the new engine and it was on around 95k miles, 12yrs old. Pretty sure it was original so there's no hard and fast rule for changing. If it's over 10yrs then I reckon you're in the danger zone regardless of mileage though.

Unbolting suspension arms, alignment afterwards etc is a pain, it's a close call between that and doing it in situ but I'd go with the latter. Be prepared to sacrifice a socket, keep the axle pushing back towards the diff with a hammer (let's you keep the bearing mating face flush with the carrier for bolt clearance) and you'll get the bolts out.

I just bought new flanges as well as bearings, not that costly and then you can avoid dealing with the race. I reckon you'll struggle to remove the flange like that with the extra friction of the axle in the grooves, mine was stuck together tight. Snapped a three leg puller. Whacking the axle with a hammer from the outside helped on mine to get it started. Access to the E14 bolts is horrible. Even with a thin walled socket we had to grind it right down and use heat to keep them turning. You're fighting for room to get the bolts out. You'll need one of these though: Mekanik Drive Shaft Puller Extractor Socket Tool Set M16-M30 4 Compatible with BMW VW BENZ Porsche https://amzn.eu/d/99f4p8w

Remember Andy is in Germany so maybe things are different there?

Orange is better for your vision at night, that's why. Some of the cluster can be coded to stay white but at least part always changes to orange when dark.

The problem with X-Drive is it slightly over speeds the rear axle compared to the front. This gives it the excellent handling characteristics but also makes it very intolerant of differing wheel sizes, to the extent that even the tyre wear has to be within a few millimetres or it knackers the transfer box.

Probably, takes half an hour if you know what you're doing. Next you'll want a shorter T60 to do the tensioner without removing the fan... 😅

I'm willing to bet it's a slightly buckled wheel. I changed loads of things chasing down a vibration, until replacement (good condition) second hand wheels got it back to normal. They are around 15kg each, which is heavy for wheels, so even a slight imperfection is felt when everything else is so finely engineered.

Do you honestly think two 20Nm bolts that have been removed will allow the plate to move when it's still clamped down by all the others...