What did you do to your E60/61 today?

[Tallman85]

44 minutes ago, Changy said:

It needs two people or a way to video the engine bay. Engage a gear, put your foot on the brake and increase the revs. If the engine mount is poor, you will see the engine lift excessively, usually on one side.

Ensure you press hard on that brake pedal, and don't let someone do it if you don't trust them. It only takes a moment to see if the mounts are failing; there is no need to spend too long revving the engine.

ok, noted; 

I think I know what you mean.

[Ray112]

7 hours ago, Tallman85 said:

ok, noted; 

I think I know what you mean.

You don't need two people, just look through bottom of bonnet when it's open, you can perfectly see if engine is lifting up or isn't. 

[Tallman85]

6 minutes ago, Ray112 said:

You don't need two people, just look through bottom of bonnet when it's open, you can perfectly see if engine is lifting up or isn't. 

When you say the engine lifts up…i think we are taking about few mm right? 

[Ray112]

8 minutes ago, Tallman85 said:

When you say the engine lifts up…i think we are taking about few mm right? 

More than that mate. When I had bad engine mounts on my E39, it was lifting engine for about 2cm, but it was completely snapped engine mount. Have a look on YouTube how to test BMW m57 mounts, you will see how much is engine movement as well.

[Tallman85]

3 minutes ago, Ray112 said:

More than that mate. When I had bad engine mounts on my E39, it was lifting engine for about 2cm, but it was completely snapped engine mount. Have a look on YouTube how to test BMW m57 mounts, you will see how much is engine movement as well.

Thx

[Changy]

1 hour ago, Tallman85 said:

When you say the engine lifts up…i think we are taking abouta few mm right? 

As @Ray112 said, you will see more than a few millimetres of movement. I admit I never tried peering through the bonnet, I use my phone to video it. 

[Tallman85]

So today I tried to remove the a-pillars and failed 😞. I removed the screw under the airbag tag, i popped the clip in the middle too but somehow it is stuck under the dash and i was afraid to break it as its old and flimsy etc….there is like tab but…stuck.

The reason why i wanted to remove it is that the fabric is coming away as per pictures and is getting worse every summer.

I am thinking maybe a fine needle 💉 syringe with some glue so that i can inject between the fabric and the plastic??
 

   

Edited January 6 by Tallman85

[Kopfjaeger]

Have you tried tilting forward towards the windscreen?

On my F07, after removing the screw, the A pillar trim has to be pulled inwards towards the cabin to free the clips, then moved towards the windscreen to disengage a couple of hooks at the base of the trim from the dashboard...... this frees the a trim pillar.

I assume that this is common across BMWs.

Or use RealOEM to get the A pillar trim part number and check online for photographs of the trim to see what the back of it is like.

The other option is NewTis, if no one else here can help.

[Tallman85]

1 hour ago, Kopfjaeger said:

Have you tried tilting forward towards the windscreen?

On my F07, after removing the screw, the A pillar trim has to be pulled inwards towards the cabin to free the clips, then moved towards the windscreen to disengage a couple of hooks at the base of the trim from the dashboard...... this frees the a trim pillar.

I assume that this is common across BMWs.

Or use RealOEM to get the A pillar trim part number and check online for photographs of the trim to see what the back of it is like.

The other option is NewTis, if no one else here can help.

Thanks for the feedback.  Yes it has a kind of a hook 🪝 that goes under the dash.  There is also a video of someone doing it on youtube but mine is very pressed in the bottom.  Yes i tried but the wind shield comes in the way. 

[Gonzo]

Got to be quite firm with it, bend the trim down toward the dash about halfway then pull back toward you.

[Tallman85]

20 minutes ago, Gonzo said:

Got to be quite firm with it, bend the trim down toward the dash about halfway then pull back toward you.

Thx Gonzo.  I will give it a try when the weather is hot (summer) maybe the plastic will be softer…i was afraid of breaking it.  

[Ray112]

Track rod end replaced on passenger side. Weirdly it was replaced ~30k miles ago with eurocarparts part but can't remember brand, probably not the posh one. Anyway febi part installed, took about 30 minutes, that's with test run and adjusting position on steering rack. Now steering perfectly straight, car running straight so all good.

And I was having a little squeaky noise when turning steering or suspension going up or down, I thought it's ARB bushings, but apparently it's ARB links which don't have any play in them and dust boots aren't split either, but they are just too dry 🤨, anyway took them off, filled some lithium grease in and it's silent again.  So spend around hour around front suspension and everything else looks good for now, so rear arms next and should be good for MOT at the end of March.

Still thinking to replace all front arms as well but would prefer doing it in summer, and I know they surely can wait that much since it's all inspected now and ball joints are still tight and no splits bushings.

So next jobs in plan are vacuum pump gaskets, headlight washer retrofit and rear control arms. 

[Tallman85]

Good one Ray…

I still did not even buy the parts for my front arms, wish bones etc… 

[Humour]

1 hour ago, Ray112 said:

...... that's with test run and adjusting position on steering rack. Now steering perfectly straight, car running straight so all good.

Good job. 

Can you elaborate what you mean by adjusting the rack position? 

I have my wheel sitting 1 or 2 degrees off centre but I've had it tracked and the wheel was definitely straight when locked in place for the adjustment. My car also has a slight positive camber on the OS side and that's the side the car pulls towards and the wheel naturally lanes that couple of degrees if not held by my hand. 

I've improved on this by changing the lower arms front inner bush with poly but it's still not perfect. The previous owners Muppets of mechanics had apparently changed the TRE's which raises suspicions they haven't done something right, as everything else they touched was a royal f&£#k up I had to deal with since owning the old hag. 

 

[Ray112]

47 minutes ago, Tallman85 said:

Good one Ray…

I still did not even buy the parts for my front arms, wish bones etc… 

That febi track rod end was bought about two months ago, and rest of bits are mostly bought as well, only headlight washer jet caps and pipes need sorting out. Not too worried about piping, it will be just custom made pipe, but caps will need to be bought and springs for them as well.

[Ray112]

1 minute ago, Humour said:

Good job. 

Can you elaborate what you mean by adjusting the rack position? 

I have my wheel sitting 1 or 2 degrees off centre but I've had it tracked and the wheel was definitely straight when locked in place for the adjustment. My car also has a slight positive camber on the OS side and that's the side the car pulls towards and the wheel naturally lanes that couple of degrees if not held by my hand. 

I've improved on this by changing the lower arms front inner bush with poly but it's still not perfect. The previous owners Muppets of mechanics had apparently changed the TRE's which raises suspicions they haven't done something right, as everything else they touched was a royal f&£#k up I had to deal with since owning the old hag. 

 

Adjusting how deep track rod end is screwed on the steering knuckle. That'll change overall length of steering rack+ knuckles+ track rod ends length. That's how toe in/out is getting set, which obviously you know. Just probably said it little wrong on beginning. Basically if car was running straight with steering wheel being straight, then changing just one side track rod end means you have to adjust it so the car runs straight again with steering straight and tracking will be spot on. Been doing this for decades and never had uneven tyre wear neither straight running issues. Have done quite successful 4 wheel alignment on my previous e39 in past with 2 parallel string method and some online alignment calculator.  Probably sometimes when being interested in this sort of stuff and trying your best you can achieve better results with ancient methods than kwick fit appearance will manage with "can't be arsed" attitude. 

[Humour]

Nowt wrong with strings, or the fancy equipment. They do the same job. It's the tool that's using them that is the biggest risk factor in the outcome as you said. 

I dont blame you not trusting most garages to do a proper job. Having apprentices in minimal wage doing the job is never going to be "take pride in your work" type of outcome.

I know what you mean about the rack being centered and all makes sense, I thought you may be doing something else. 

Edited January 14 by Humour

[Changy]

I fitted new drop links to a mate’s 2006 E60. Okay, so it wasn't my car, and it was freezing cold. I also learned that Halfords sells Lemforder drop links. Eurocarparts let him down, and an online search brought up Halfords. 

[Changy]

My old girl passed the MOT; the handbrake no longer showed poor efficiency thanks to the recent work. Sadly, the near-side rear ball joint is an advisory, so that is the next job on the list. 

[Tallman85]

I found this story about the true designer of the e60.  A very touching story i must say.  It’s a 3 mins read. Enjoy.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/09/26/chris-bangle-reveals-the-truth-of-the-e60-5-series-design/

 

[Humour]

On 21/01/2024 at 20:27, Tallman85 said:

I found this story about the true designer of the e60.  A very touching story i must say.  It’s a 3 mins read. Enjoy.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/09/26/chris-bangle-reveals-the-truth-of-the-e60-5-series-design/

 

Great story. I didn't know that, thanks for sharing. 

At the time I was not a fan of the design either, I was an Alfisti owning and jabing owned several Alfa's in my early days, but from the BMW stable, the E30 and E36 and even the E39 we cool looking cars in my mind. The former two having often been involved in motorsports which always captivate the imagination. 

[Humour]

Yesterday the Glow plugs and glow plug nodule were finally replaced. What a ball ache that job turned out to be! I nearly, gave up, twice. 

If it wasn't for my friend's fully tooled workshop and some extra experience on his side, I definitely would have failed doing this job. 

I followed @Gonzo advice and dismantled all of the covers and plastics required to remove the inlet manifold with the engine still running so to keep the head nad plugs as hot as possible. From the point of switching off the engine to taking the manifold off to have access to the plugs was less than 5 mins, but that's where the good news ended. 1,3 and 4 cracked fairly easily and moved half a turn, but 2 was though to get moving. I obviously sprayed an anti seize agent and I followed Gonzo's recommendation to set 30Nm on a torque wrench to no exceed that torque during removal. Well, they were so tight in there that after an hour of going in and out on all 4 in sequence, not forcing it beyond 30 when they bound up and going back in to loosen them up, I was probably not even a quarter of the way out. The screeching and k locking they were all making trying to wind them out of the holes was a pretty horrid experience. and I was ready to screw them back in and give up as I can't be dealing with a scrap head right now.

Anyway, my mate had a look at the replacements and said that they are much bigger than the Alfa/Fiat ones he has to work with, and that the sound they were making if they were the Alfa ones he would advise giving up as well, but he said he will have a go on mine. In short he just bossed them out, but we were both cringing at the clicking they were making during that process, it didn't sound good at all! Fair play to him, his balls are a factor of 10 bigger than mine, that's for sure and I know we exceeded 30Nm to get them out. 

Suffice it to say when they came out the threads looked pretty bad. They were rought to the touch with plenty of aluminium inside the plug thread. 

Luckily for me he has a good set of metrics taps and dies and we found one that could rethread the plugs. Had a play with one used one and cleaned it up pretty good. I put the cleaned plug back in each hole and use it as a thread cleaner with some specific lubricant for this purpose. Surprisingly, the rethreaded plug went into all holes pretty cleanly, stiff but only minor squeaking and no cracking sounds. So we decided to use the equivalent tap cutter tool to clean the holes. That was tricky, the tool was short and the holes are not perpendicular to the head, they are about 5-10degrees leaned backwards which made getting the tool to sit true in the holes quite difficult. That wasn't helped by the fact that the tool was binding right at the start of going in so again I was a bit reluctant to force it. With alot of messing about with the retheeaded plug and feeling the tool engage by my fingers I managed to get the tool in all the holes and within a few attempts managed to fully rethread 1,3 and 4. No 2 was another matter, I managed to get the tool in about half way, but it really bound up beyond that and again I was afraid of forcing the thread and damaging it in the head, instead of just coealing it, or worse, snapping the cutting tool inside which had a pretty thin neck so didn't want to risk it. So despite my OCD kicking me in the balls, I decided to take my win and fit the new plugs with No2 half cut. 

No thanks to Autofuck (that would the Autodoc), I also found they sent me the wrong plugs as they were 10-15cm shorter than what came out. Looked at my order and the plugs in the order were what was shipped, but they are also stated as fitting to my car, so their database is obviously incorrect. FFS.

Many frantic phone calls later, a local place with stock of 4 Bosch plugs released me with £80 of my hard earned, but at least I was back in the game, pending delivery. 

The new plugs were the correct length. 1,3 and 4 were like butter going in. No 2, well obviously that one was going to resist. Not as bad as when coming out, but it took some effort winding it from half way in. All torqued to 13Nm. I'd argue that No2 is tighter as that took more than 13Nm to reach the seat imo. 

Putting everything back in was also a bit frantic as the plugs didnt arrive till 4pm and we had to be out by 5 (pesky children lol). 

The net result is for the first time ever, since I owned the car, ISTA is showing all modules in green and no fault codes, I mean, I can't believe that still, especially given that I was left with one plug in the engine bay by the Alternator/AC compressor area I could not find a home for and run out of time to play. The previous time I took the manifold off, I don't recall ending up with a connector with no home, but this time I did. A bit perplexed to be honest as it's a split loom with a the other plug in the split going to a connector hanging from the AC compressor, so its brother from that loom can't live that far away. I thought that's the Air sensor connector (as its close enough and it fits (same connector), but it wasn't, I found that plug and then realised I mixed them up, so now I have one connector without a home. Overall, took a whole bloody day and the other two jobs I had planned now have to wait till next time. 

Now I'll have to research the electrical connections in the N47 bay and see if I can find where it belongs. I thought ISTA will throw a code and show me, but nothing, yet. Will be scanning her again after a day or two of driving to see if anything pops up. 

Everything in this car is a bloody fight, and I thought Italians cars were bad 😜

Edited January 27 by Humour

[Ray112]

Not all days we are happy and proud of ourselves. Today I decided to replace vacuum pump gaskets. Everything went straight forward, but in the afternoon I realised there's nearly no vacuum at idle. When driving with higher RPMs, everything is fine, but at idle brake pedal is hard as hell. I'm quite sure everything went back together as it was, so I'm really confused now what's wrong with it.

Will remove it tomorrow and see if I can found anything wrong with it.  If you have any ideas or suggestions feel free to add them. 

[Humour]

@Ray112 Yeah, I hear you. Sometimes you try to do preventative maintenance and afterwards you wonder why you bothered for any number of reasons.

Until recently I didn't know that there is a vacuum pump integrated into my N47 and is driven by sprockets or chains. Never occurred to me that since a diesel doesn't have a TB, there is no way to make a vacuum. 

I'm curious which engine is it, and where is your pump located, as my vacuum pump is well inside the block of the engine, nobody is getting to that in a hurry.

The only obvious and generic advice I can give you is to start again and rebuild methodically. Maybe something didn't fit as well or you oveooked something. If you have the original parts still, compare the replacements with them once apart. Small details could be a factor. 

I personally like a hard pedal, it's easier to heel and toe with and I removed my vacuum servo on my track car for that purpose, but I appreciate for relaxed road use it could be a PITA, especially when it's soo hard you get zero feel or modulation back through the pedal, then it's definitely bad. 

 

P. S. On the topic of my dramas, I found where my connector without a home belongs this evening. The concerning part is it didn't throw up any errors with it unplugged. It was the Oil pressure sensor that's located in the oil filter housing. It appear my car isn't bothered whether the engine has oil pressure or not. The only Maglev N47 in the world??? 😂 I doubt it, it's a dirty tractor with dirty tractor smells and noises 😁

Edited January 27 by Humour

[Ray112]

57 minutes ago, Humour said:

@Ray112 Yeah, I hear you. Sometimes you try to do preventative maintenance and afterwards you wonder why you bothered for any number of reasons.

Until recently I didn't know that there is a vacuum pump integrated into my N47 and is driven by sprockets or chains. Never occurred to me that since a diesel doesn't have a TB, there is no way to make a vacuum. 

I'm curious which engine is it, and where is your pump located, as my vacuum pump is well inside the block of the engine, nobody is getting to that in a hurry.

The only obvious and generic advice I can give you is to start again and rebuild methodically. Maybe something didn't fit as well or you oveooked something. If you have the original parts still, compare the replacements with them once apart. Small details could be a factor. 

I personally like a hard pedal, it's easier to heel and toe with and I removed my vacuum servo on my track car for that purpose, but I appreciate for relaxed road use it could be a PITA, especially when it's soo hard you get zero feel or modulation back through the pedal, then it's definitely bad. 

 

P. S. On the topic of my dramas, I found where my connector without a home belongs this evening. The concerning part is it didn't throw up any errors with it unplugged. It was the Oil pressure sensor that's located in the oil filter housing. It appear my car isn't bothered whether the engine has oil pressure or not. The only Maglev N47 in the world??? 😂 I doubt it, it's a dirty tractor with dirty tractor smells and noises 😁

It's M47 engine, they have vacuum pump at the front of engine(cylinder head), it's driven by exhaust camshaft. The same applies to m57 engines. Only parts replaced was literally 3 o rings, so not much to compare unfortunately. 

Too spongy pedal definitely is a horrible thing, but my current brake pedal is unpredictable - it's okay while you are driving with increased RPMs, and for first time when stopping with engine at idle, but after second time using brakes when engine speed hasn't been increased they suddenly turn from normal to hard and stopping distance is a lot worse, maybe because I'm not pushing pedal that hard ( since it was fine on previous push). 

I'll take vacuum pump off tomorrow morning, if I won't find anything wrong with it and it's still giving poor vacuum at idle, I'm of to u-pullit (help yourself breakers about 40 miles away) for another vacuum pump.  Driving with those temperamental brakes are challenging and there's no way I would give it to wife. Actually she has some experience with automatic transmission BMW and freshly replaced brake pads 😁 It was my previous e39, fitted a new set of front pads, obviously winded back pistons etc, only after assembling everything back together I somehow missed to pump brake pedal to get pads in normal position. So what she got into car, started engine and selected reverse gear car was just going back what ever she was doing with brakes. In the end she grabbed handbrake and stopped car without crashing into fence. By the way that was her first or second year with driving licence, so with all respect that reaction was above average women thing to cover eyes with hands and let it go😆

Edited January 27 by Ray112