What did you do to your F10, F11 or F07 today?

[mullinsj08]

16 hours ago, duncan-uk said:

Interested to hear your symptoms - mine has all new OE bushes up front now so should be as factory - were yours worn?

@duncan-uk The handling was really loose and car would "float" and sway side to side. The brake reaction arms were replaced 2 years ago but had worn out again and noted on the MOT. It's much better now and I'm very happy with the outcome.

[Andrew]

2 hours ago, mullinsj08 said:

The brake reaction arms were replaced 2 years ago but had worn out again and noted on the MOT. 

Ooooft

What miles were on them and what make? I'd put money on they weren't installed properly (torqued wat ride height) and that destroyed the bushes.

Assuming you mean the lower front banana shaped arm, tension or control arm?

[Skynet5]

Any idea about step 3?  Not sure even if I had a torque wrench I could attach it to the bolt or supplied tool, to tighten to 8nm. It’s like hex, but curved and far enough down the post to make it hard to get a socket over.

 

every other bolt is 4nm Allen key which you tighten down with a supplied 4nm torque wrench, like in step 5.

Edited February 15 by Skynet5

[Dimsum]

Car has been with the main dealer for some repairs after the AC/heather fan stopped working. They replaced the blower regulator and the blower motor in order to fix. This will be the last time I use a main dealer as the price for this repair work was over £1000. Seems pretty high to me. Can’t argue with the service though, they are all decent chaps.

They have apparently identified the cause of the squeaking I get when driving slowly over speed bumps. They say both front spring strut mounts need to be replaced. I’m going to leave this job to a trusted local mechanic as I’m sure I can get this fixed cheaper than the £633 they quoted me!

Also had the MOT done which highlighted one rear tyre being at 1.7mm which stunned me tbh! The other rear is on about 2/3mm and the fronts rest are around the same so time to replace them. They are Goodyear F1 Asymmetric 6 tyres and I’ve only done about 15k in them so they haven’t really lasted as long as I would have hoped.

The wheels also need a refurb so I’ve decided to side step both of these and buy new/refurbished wheels that already have good tyres on. I’ve gone for a set of staggered 19 inch style 302’s. Should have these by next week. Dunlop fronts and Pirelli rears. This will be the first time I run different makes of tyres front and rear so will see how that goes.

[Dimsum]

On 03/02/2024 at 16:10, Munzy said:

Got the refurbished wheels and new tyres ready for fitting. 
 

Wheel colour is Reflex Silver A44
 

I found a website that sells very convincing M Sport badges at very reasonable prices (have bought cheap ones from eBay before but the M was white/dull instead of silver). 

https://www.cyled.co.uk/bmw-badges-wheel-badges?page=2

Which is the best combo of the three?

1: Grey

2: Black, yellow and red

3: Factory original 

I didn’t think I would, but I really like number 2!

[Andrew]

19 minutes ago, Dimsum said:

 

They have apparently identified the cause of the squeaking I get when driving slowly over speed bumps. They say both front spring strut mounts need to be replaced. I’m going to leave this job to a trusted local mechanic as I’m sure I can get this fixed cheaper than the £633 they quoted me!

 

I built and replaced both my front struts for £138 each including new top mounts, bump stops, spring pads and all fixings.

 

 

[mullinsj08]

21 hours ago, Andrew said:

Ooooft

What miles were on them and what make? I'd put money on they weren't installed properly (torqued wat ride height) and that destroyed the bushes.

Assuming you mean the lower front banana shaped arm, tension or control arm?

They were fitted about 40k miles ago, the make was TRW.

They weren't fitted correctly as the car was sitting 30mm too high on both sides until late last year when I took matters into my own hands, undid them, and torqued them back up with the car on its wheels. Probably far too late at that point but at least I had some amount of steering feel back.

Yes, the front tension struts as shown in your picture 👍

[F10-65]

48 minutes ago, Andrew said:

I built and replaced both my front struts for £138 each including new top mounts, bump stops, spring pads and all fixings.

 

 

Impressive price Andrew let alone the fact you did it all yourself

[F10-65]

1 hour ago, Dimsum said:

I didn’t think I would, but I really like number 2!

I second the number 2

[Dimsum]

2 hours ago, Andrew said:

I built and replaced both my front struts for £138 each including new top mounts, bump stops, spring pads and all fixings.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, F10-65 said:

Impressive price Andrew let alone the fact you did it all yourself

I agree! Alas my skills won’t stretch to doing it myself.

[skyjawa]

Found my new dimming passenger mirror is working when plugged in to drivers side, so gotta redo the wiring for the dimming circuit and hope it’s not broken further down the harness….

[skyjawa]

Finally fixed my creaking dash - well pleased as it was very annoying! Thought it was the android screen and bracket but after dynamat all over the back of the mount and some rubber washers stuffed between the mount and the screen it was still creaking.

did some playing around on a quiet road and found that if I pushed the windscreen vent trim it creaked something chronic!  Found this vid on YouTube:

ordered this,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374627558600

and fitted and it’s silent again! Woohoo!

Nice design bmw 🙄
 

two last things I want to resolve now, the passenger mirror as mentioned above, and the creaking rear suspension with what sounds like a boot lid rattle.  Then I’ll be happy to leave it alone (until the next thing comes along 😆)

Edited February 17 by skyjawa

[skyjawa]

On a roll! Sorted the stored and present error for the passenger mirror! Stripped the wiring back and I’d been a total muppet and cross-wired the black and purple dimming circuit 😑

no idea how I managed that can only think it was getting dark and the purple wire had an old black sleeve on it.

sorted it out, plugged in BimmerLink and error gone 👍

[Dimsum]

19inch 302’s fitted and I’m chuffed with how they look. They really seem to fill the arches out nicely. Will add a photo at some point.

I'm also impressed that there is no discernible difference in ride comfort compared to the old 18’s. 
 

 

[Munzy]

Sent the driver’’s seat off to get new foam in the lower bolsters and base - 158k and my aging backside needs all the padding it can get! 
 

Nice opportunity to get a good hoover done 😀

[Andrew]

Found out that my ABS works as it should…..🫣

[skyjawa]

Well I’m proper stumped. Trying to get to the bottom of the creaky rear end, got into a quiet car park and got the missus to drive the car over a speed bump several times while I listened from outside. Couldn’t hear anything at all 

From inside she and my son both said that the noise was there as they did it but from outside all I could hear was the hiss of the shocks compressing and no real difference between front to rear.

Clutching at straws on this one, so any pointers of maybe things to look at would be gratefully welcomed!

[Andy5150]

2 hours ago, skyjawa said:

Clutching at straws on this one, so any pointers of maybe things to look at would be gratefully welcomed!

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

[skyjawa]

Mines a saloon.   was thinking it might be drop links or ball joints but the fact I couldn’t hear the noise outside the car was bizarre!

[Andrew]

Top mounts, they are buried up away in the strut tower so may only be audible in the car 

[F10-65]

Remove the speaker covers on the rear shelf and the speaker underneath

easy and a connector 

[Andrew]

6 hours ago, F10-65 said:

Remove the speaker covers on the rear shelf and the speaker underneath

easy and a connector 

Just remember if you unplug your rear speakers and you reverse the car, you will not get any audible parking warning! 
 

The parking sensors sound their warning via the parcel shelf speakers, oh and it will also log a fault code for this if you switch on the ignition with the speakers disconnected….. just to be extra annoying…

 

How to get to your rear top mounts 

 

[skyjawa]

Thanks for that, I'll do some more playing to see if I can pinpoint it down to the top mounts, will get in the back and get the speaker covers off and lift up the soundproofing.  I'd probably do the lot, shocks springs etc if it is considering the car is on around 115k.  Its due a service in May and going to get the ZF box serviced at the same time, so will likely wait till then and have them do the lot, my days of doing this myself are over, just don't have the time or means 🙂

Edited February 22 by skyjawa

[duncan-uk]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282222057382

I found these very useful for diagnosing an errant clonk

[Steve84N]

After changing almost everything that spins I still had a vibration at motorway speeds. A newer propshaft, new brakes and wheel bearings all round all made incremental improvements. I did start with the obvious thing being the wheels and got them rebalanced, so I assumed it wasn't those as nobody said anything was off with them.

However, I have previous experience with an e91 that had a buckled wheel and a second hand replacement was also out of round. Only a new set of wheels fixed my vibration through that car. It feels like a similar problem with my 535i. The rear left visibly wobbles when driven in the air on a ramp so must be buckled.

Whilst on holiday in France last week one of my tyres wore through on the inside edge, I knew it was low but didn't think it was on the limit. I had to get a cheap replacement (100 euro Neolin Neosport) as an emergency stop gap but it prompted me to look at changing all four as the fronts had already been on the rear for a while so they were all worn on the inside. Clearly, it's a good opportunity to also change the wheels...

I actually placed an order for some aftermarket wheels but had second thoughts the morning after and cancelled it. The 351M wheels above are very heavy at about 14.5kg each! They are 8.5J ET33 front and rear. I wanted to stay with 19" as 18" is too small for my 374mm front brakes and 20" looks good but the tyre sidewalls are a bit thin. I thought I'd explored all the other possible OEM wheels that might fit and not really found something suitable that I liked. Then I stumbled across some winter wheels for an F80 M3.

Whilst the usual M3 wheels are a bit wide at 9J and 10J the winter 641M setup are 8.5J and 9J. The offset is ET27 front and ET29 rear, which translates to sitting 6mm further out on the front and 10.35mm further out on the rear. The wheels were being sold with barely used winter tyres size 255/35/19 all round. It's not quite right as the 5 series runs on a 40 profile but it's close enough that I'll use up the Dunlops first. The speedo now underreads by almost 4mph rather than the usual 2mph and it'll be slightly worse economy but I wouldn't get much money for the tyres. When they're done I'll fit 255/40/19 summer tyres all round, probably Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6. The 10mm smaller radius leaves a bigger arch gap and drops the car a bit, although it's only temporary.

Finally, I have no vibration at speed! I believe the new wheels are usefully lighter too, possibly up to 2kg each. You can certainly feel it when handling them and being rotating mass it's the best kind to save on. Personally, I really like the design and you can see the big brakes more. I haven't seen any other F10/F11s on these so it's a bit unique whilst staying OEM. I don't like pokey wheels but these sit just right and don't look out of place.

Unfortunately, I'm still tackling other problems. I've got a coolant leak that I think is the upper radiator hose as there's some residue on the alternator, so a new one is arriving next week and I'll see if that solves it. For now I can use it and topup the reservoir after each 100 miles or so.

My idle has the odd hiccup where the revs drop and then recover so I'm thinking it could be a fuel supply issue. Being an early N55 I have the expensive high pressure fuel pump and it's known to fail. I don't have long crank times or trouble on the move so I'm hoping it's not that. Instead, I'm going to try replacing the low pressure fuel pump in the tank as it's much cheaper and if there isn't a good supply to the HPFP it could cause the hiccups. There's also possibly some hesitancy at lower revs on the move and some odd resonant grumbles around 2.5krpm. One day I'll get there with it all...