What did you do to your E60/61 today?

[Jens]

4 minutes ago, Humour said:

I dont understand the question.

Why would there be a legal issue with trying to protect your height lenses from fogging up after restoring them? Unless, you mean if you "tint" them (with PPF or similar), in which case there could be as tinting coupd reduce light output, hence be considered dangerous/illegal. 

Well, that's why I asked.  There may not be any legal reason in the UK (I hope) but in some countries, I think, (Germany comes to mind?) PPF on headlights, even without tint, isn't legal.

Don't ask me why ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Jens

[Max535]

I was planning to clear coat them with Spraymax 2K this year as I did this on my other car and it came out amazing, 3 years later and it shows no sign of deterioration at all. But I kept putting it off on the BMW and now its too late with the state of the weather. This was just to get them looking good for the MOT this week, but when it warms up again next year ill spray them and probably never have to do it again.

To anyone planning to do it i would say take the headlights out, you only need to sand them up to 1500 grit as the clear coat will do the rest, and one can is more than enough for 2 sets of headlights so if you have more than one car do both at the same time. Once you press the hardener button i think you have 24 hours to use it, whatever is left will turn solid in the can after that and will be wasted.

[Ray112]

I did mines with wet sanding first, then clear coat and clear PPF on top. So far 7 months and they look the same as on first day. Applying PPF isn't too bad, it's quite flexible when heated, so easy to get in correct shape. And I don't think you can really tell the difference if anything been applied to lenses, there definitely won't be any legality issues in UK, plus it's so unnoticeable that even Germany would need to remove headlights to tell there's PPF applied on them.

[Gonzo]

On 15/11/2023 at 11:59, Humour said:

Any recommendation on product/spec? From research I've done it's suggested to use only 2K top coat, but that would need mixing, no? 

Suggested alternatives are Ceramic coating, which is good for a year only, but is very quick and easy to apply with a spomge. The other is UV rated tint film which is a PITA to apply but should protect from chips and last way longer than Ceramic. 

I need to do both of mine too, hence looking into this topic for some point in the future. 

You can get 2k in a can mate, it has an activator cartridge and is good for a certain amount of time once activated.

[Humour]

@Gonzo I didnt know that. Thanks

@Ray112 Your approach sound like the best way to do that job for longevity. I hope I will get to do mine in due course before they deteriorate too much. 

 

[Jens]

Rear end refresh this weekend.

After getting the car back from Deutschworks on Tuesday it was absolutely bogging - Deutschworks is in the middle of nowhere, you don't quite have to drive over ploughed fields to get there, but your car will look like it tried by the time it's been there and back at this time of year.  So gave it a good wash and set about sorting out the rear lights.

I'd already fixed the offside rear outer light a couple of years ago, that one still looks good, but the inner tail lights and the nearside outer were in a bad way.

The inners had started to delaminate from the top and had ugly black grime between the layers, so I ordered a good used set from ASWR in Manchester.

The nearside outer was a good high speed pot hole away from falling apart completely, the lens was literally just hanging on.  Water had been getting inside for some time and again it was full of algae and road grime, making it look very unattractive.

So off it all came.  I replaced the inners quite easily, just one nut either side and the new units dropped in with no drama.

The outer was a bit more involved, rather than buy a replacement which probably won't be much better (ask me how I know) I decided to go down the same route I did with the offside a couple of years ago, so I set about pulling it apart, cleaning it up and epoxying it back together.

The epoxy I have is supposed to have a 60 minute cure time, but it was more like six hours!  By the time it set hard enough to put back on the car it was too late, so I just popped it back on this morning.

The lens didn't need much persuasion at all to part with the main body.

It cleaned up nicely and then the two parts went back together with the aid of epoxy resin applied to the outer edge of the lens part.  Plenty of clamps, pegs and tape to keep the two parts held firmly together until the glue set.

There was a bit of squeeze out on the upper section which I had to scrape back this morning, and then only because it interfered with the black trim piece, and it was back on the car. 

I also had a new BMW badge to pop on while I was at it.

The finished light - it will never look completely like new as there's a bit of silvering that's worn away on the lower reflector where the dirt accumulated inside, but it looks a damn sight better and unless you're looking for fault a blind man on a white horse would probably never notice.

Before:

After:

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Jens

[Humour]

@Jens good job. Looks good. 

It's a subtle difference yet notcieable with the before and after. The Before is like the Mrs make up after a party or sleeping with it on and the After is like after the makeup has been cleaned off haha. 

 

[Jens]

3 hours ago, Humour said:

@Jens good job. Looks good. 

It's a subtle difference yet notcieable with the before and after. The Before is like the Mrs make up after a party or sleeping with it on and the After is like after the makeup has been cleaned off haha. 

 

Thanks, @Humour.  It's little things like this that make me feel better about the car again.

Every now and then I go through a stage of thinking I ought to replace it and then I'll do a small job like this that improves it, or fix a nagging little fault or a squeak somewhere and I feel good about it again.  Even a good clean can be the difference between wanting something newer and deciding it's still a goodun.

Next job is to get the new headlights in, then it's off to a professional detailer to have them polished and PPF'd.  I also have a new windscreen weather strip on the way, the old one is a bit perished.  Should look really good after those jobs are done.

I'd like to get the wheels refurbed as well but will have to see what money is like in the new year.

[Gonzo]

I put XHP stage 3 on mine as it's on a black Friday offer, was 15% but the gits have an extra 5% off for the rest of the day 🤬

[Tallman85]

4 hours ago, Gonzo said:

I put XHP stage 3 on mine as it's on a black Friday offer, was 15% but the gits have an extra 5% off for the rest of the day 🤬

And results?  Shifting aggressively? 😄 and faster? 

[Gonzo]

On 27/11/2023 at 17:49, Tallman85 said:

And results?  Shifting aggressively? 😄 and faster? 

Yeah, it's rather good 🙂

[Tallman85]

3 hours ago, Gonzo said:

Yeah, it's rather good 🙂

How does it affect the sport automatic transmission? Does the sport button still work? And it works on both maps (D and Sport) ? 
 

thx

[Gonzo]

10 hours ago, Tallman85 said:

How does it affect the sport automatic transmission? Does the sport button still work? And it works on both maps (D and Sport) ? 
 

thx

Still not had a proper play with it but sport button does make the steering heavy and lock out 6th gear, you get the downshift blips when you click it left with XHP. I just need time to go and have some fun.

[Tallman85]

11 minutes ago, Gonzo said:

Still not had a proper play with it but sport button does make the steering heavy and lock out 6th gear, you get the downshift blips when you click it left with XHP. I just need time to go and have some fun.

On mine at least..the SAT button makes the steering heavy, the accelerator is much more responsive/aggressive and the shifts are faster from when on D and S (putting) the shifter the left.  Even the rev counter behave different…it move much faster very similar to a DSG if you know what i mean. 
Thats is why i am asking 🙂 

[Gonzo]

49 minutes ago, Tallman85 said:

On mine at least..the SAT button makes the steering heavy, the accelerator is much more responsive/aggressive and the shifts are faster from when on D and S (putting) the shifter the left.  Even the rev counter behave different…it move much faster very similar to a DSG if you know what i mean. 
Thats is why i am asking 🙂 

I bit despite saying the SAT box was good enough, and omg, just the lower shift speeds, no jumping up a gear or 2 on hills, you make use of the torque instead of the revs, it's so much fun based on that alone. It's also very tweakable as you have control over most things, even allowing 6th gear in left sports mode, am currently waiting on a reply from XHP about allowing it in button sport mode but I doubt that will happen.

 

[Ray112]

Kid managed to break cup holder last night while waiting for takeaway and pushing everything in and out probably hundred times or more, well just middle part for smaller size cans that gave up, at least I had apology this morning and so daddy decided to fixed it today. One of pins which holds that part in together with spring was snapped, so I super glued it first to make it one piece again, but since it's about 2mm thick piece of plastic, there's no way super glue would hold it, especially since there's tension from spring as well. So to make it reinforced I used a small piece of paper clip, heated it red hot and melted in middle to give some strength. Tidied all around with soldering iron to make it perfectly round again, pushed spring back on and it all works as new.  Second hand these are still going for £25+, never mind price of new, so bottle of Kraken well deserved for Saturday night.  

[Jens]

Fitted my "new" eBay headlights over the weekend.  Made a bit of a faux pas, should have waiting until it wasn't freezing outside as taking them from a nice cosy warm house out to the freezing cold has introduced a bit of condensation inside - nothing drastic, just a bit annoying!  Will have to try to sort that somehow!

Dropped the car off with a local detailer this morning to have them PPF'd so they don't go manky and horrible like the old ones did.  They were too far gone to rescue.

Still chasing lean codes round the engine bay.  Smoke tested the car on the weekend - no vac leaks I could find, so I cleared the codes and invested in the OBD Fusion app which seems very popular for logging telemetry data over on the E46 forums.

For a tenner it's pretty bloody good, although you do have to splash out a bit more on the OBD bluetooth dongle thing to make it work.

I've collected quite a few logs now and have it active all the time I'm driving - I was hoping to capture the condition that causes the PCM to throw the errors but the bastards now refuse to come back, dagnamit!  Long term fuel trims are still high though so that's indicative something still ain't right.  If I knew what to look for in the rest of the telemetry data I might have an indication of what's wrong - those E46 guys seem to be able to tell a lot but I'm uneducated and uninitiated as yet so feeling around in the dark.

Watch this space, as and when I find something (or have replaced every possible culprit part) I will let you all know.

[Bmwsmx]

Got my wheel’s refurbished on Thursday along with a new set of Michelin primacy 3 zero pressures. Then done an oil and filter on Friday.

[Humour]

Oil and filter change as well as new ARB droplinks today along with full tracking, then followed by MOT. 

Passed with one minor advisory. One of the new rear brake lines (done earlier this year) is slightly twisted. I'll take that. 

I was sweating buckets due to passenger seat occupancy sensor fault keeping the airbag light on and couldn't get rid of it for weeks, but after messing about with the connector under the seat with electrical contact cleaner, followed by a 10 minute drive and clearing of the codes, it shut up long enough for the MOT tester not to see it. Will have to find a permanent solution for this before the next MOT, that was too close of a call, I got lucky. 

The tracking was all over the place! She does steer allot better now, but my suspicions of the front end looking odd were confirmed with a measured OS front at 0.8Deg positive camber and 6Deg of caster. The NS has 0.6 negative camber and 7Deg of caster. Not ideal and explains why the front drags a bit to the right (allot less now than before, but still needs a hand on the wheel), anyway, not adjustable so couldn't do much about that but I'm unsure why they are so far out. Dead top mounts perhaps? 

Also, I finally managed to have a peep under the spare wheel. Only 1 module there and all is dry, so happy days.

A thanks to McGard in Germany for sorting me out with locking bolts spare keys (for a price), saved allot of hassle after the last session in the garage misplaced the only key I had, now I have 2 😁

Lastly, she was lit up like an Xmas tree when I got her, finally she is now down to low single digits of errors, happy to report. Randomly certain stuff pops up but doesn't stay on, so also happy days. Yes I know I need the Glow plug module and glow plugs doing, have them in stock, but I get limited garage time and have had to prioritise for the last 17 months, those still will have to wait a bit. 

Special mention to @Gonzo for all the help this year via FB and on here and for sorting me out with an OBD app while my ISTA is AWOL so I could keep the fight on towards her good health(ish) lol

Merry Xmas to all. 🎄🎅😎

Edited December 13, 2023 by Humour

[olliecampbell]

I think most diesel E60/E61's have that error. It's a medal of ownership honour not an error code :)

Thermostat change...both of them. Back to normal.

I think I said before, but repainted the wiper arms, new Bosch wipers all round too. And some stone chip touch up paint ordered.

 

So much to keep on top of!

[Jens]

6 hours ago, Humour said:

I was sweating buckets due to passenger seat occupancy sensor fault keeping the airbag light on and couldn't get rid of it for weeks, but after messing about with the connector under the seat with electrical contact cleaner, followed by a 10 minute drive and clearing of the codes, it shut up long enough for the MOT tester not to see it. Will have to find a permanent solution for this before the next MOT, that was too close of a call, I got lucky. 

 

IIRC the passenger seat occupancy sensor is a common problem known to give trouble.  It failed on mine about six months after purchasing the car.

When I looked into replacing the sensor - which I think is a seat pad - it was circa £400, and that was seven years ago.

I did a bit of research and found that bypass kits are available on Amazon (other online retailers are available) for less than £20.  It fools the system into thinking the seat is always occupied so in the event of a crash the passenger airbag will deploy but on a 14 ish year old car I figure it would be a total loss in any case so I didn't have any issue - YMMV.

If you do go down the bypass kit route, make sure you get one with a seat belt bypass included, otherwise the car thinking there is always somebody in the passenger seat will cause the seatbelt warning light to remain lit, and possibly iDrive will have a fit and you'll get bells and whistles as you drive.

HTH

[4aceman]

2 hours ago, Jens said:

IIRC the passenger seat occupancy sensor is a common problem known to give trouble.  It failed on mine about six months after purchasing the car.

When I looked into replacing the sensor - which I think is a seat pad - it was circa £400, and that was seven years ago.

I did a bit of research and found that bypass kits are available on Amazon (other online retailers are available) for less than £20.  It fools the system into thinking the seat is always occupied so in the event of a crash the passenger airbag will deploy but on a 14 ish year old car I figure it would be a total loss in any case so I didn't have any issue - YMMV.

If you do go down the bypass kit route, make sure you get one with a seat belt bypass included, otherwise the car thinking there is always somebody in the passenger seat will cause the seatbelt warning light to remain lit, and possibly iDrive will have a fit and you'll get bells and whistles as you drive.

HTH

Not sure about the E60 but definitely E39 you can code the passenger occupancy sensor out, with NCS or BMW Scanner

 

The reason for the sensor is so that if you have a rear facing baby seat in the front the airbag won't go off. As long as you don't have that a bypass kit or recode will be fine. 

[Gonzo]

@Humour I can code out that occupancy error when the laptops working.

[Tallman85]

Guys …a quick one.  I have been fighting a steering wobble for months.  My wobble starts at 80km/h …. If it’s a damaged rim it would do it all the time correct?  Not just over 80… It must be balancing?  At 50/60km/h it is perfect smooth 

[Ray112]

10 hours ago, 4aceman said:

Not sure about the E60 but definitely E39 you can code the passenger occupancy sensor out, with NCS or BMW Scanner

 

The reason for the sensor is so that if you have a rear facing baby seat in the front the airbag won't go off. As long as you don't have that a bypass kit or recode will be fine. 

Yes you can do that on E60/E61 as well. That's what I did on mine when passenger occupancy sensor started to play up. It don't cost you anything and is known working solution, while these emulators cost you money and looks like some work, some not so well. 

Just one thing to remember, you have to unplug sensor when it's coded out, otherwise there will be a fault code and airbag light on.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Ray112