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I've never been known for making good choices, so when I saw a craigslist post about a 2009 BMW 535Xi Touring with 155k miles for $6000, I had to jump on it. Especially seeing pictures showing that it was filthy and gently tapped a deer with the hood. What could go wrong? Well, I contacted the owner and he said that the AC just went out, too. GREAT! EVEN BETTER! So I met up with him and immediately saw it even had some significant hail damage. I'm in. He also had the turbos replaced (by the dealer!!!??? at a very significant bill, he said $7k. I don't believe it, but I don't know how bad dealers have gotten). I did some negotiating and gave him $4000 cash and he gave me the title and two keys. The thing drives loving great. No stumbles, no hesitation, no lag... and for a big car, it moves. Before I took it home, I had dad drive it and he said it felt a lot like his E92 M3. Not as fast, but similar. I concur. So. I got it home and got to work. The pictures I took didn't really show the level of profound filth in the interior, but I honestly don't know how people live in such literal dirt. It's not hard to dust and vacuum a car once a year or so. It's a tough one to get pictures of, but here's one of the interior... it's so much worse than it looks, though: And one terrible picture from the ad: So on the list is to get it clean first, then start checking stuff mechanically. I plugged the low-side AC gauge in and gave it a half can of refrigerant and the compressor came back on, but I can't get the high side connected since there's a bulkhead blocking my connector. I'll have to pull that all off to get a full idea of where the AC is at. It's also going to need all fluids changed, I'm assuming everything other than the engine oil and coolant is original (coolant I assume changed when they did the water pump and hoses). So yeah, a meatpimp car thread for the first time in way too long. Enjoy.
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# ¿ Jun 12, 2018 01:25 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 13:21 |
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Beverly Cleavage posted:That interior though. Wow. It may not photo well, but it's obvious how dirty it is. Can't wait to see it cleaned up. The interior is terrible... but then there's the motor... bolind posted:Are those Thule Aerobars and were they included? Yeah, they were held on with strap feet, also Thule, I guess they're good? (Edit: I just looked them up, retails for $400 for the bars and feet... not bad. Maybe I'll get $200 out of them and be into the car for $3800.) Started it this morning and had a good bit of smoke for the first couple minutes, PCV system check is on the list of things to do now. meatpimp fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Jun 12, 2018 |
# ¿ Jun 12, 2018 12:53 |
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blindjoe posted:Remember to clean the sunroof drains, mine would fill the trunk with water whenever it rained. That's high on my list, especially since this is going to be an outside car. Good news is that it has been an outside car and the back area is dead dry. Hughmoris posted:You still have the Escalade? Yup, hopefully it's an automotive cockroach. LloydDobler posted:You said in the general chat thread that it had some hail dents, are you going to try PDR or just have a shop do it? Yup, going to be glue-tabbing them, at least. New news: The codes it's throwing are P0597 and P0598. Pointing at the thermostat signal. My hope is that it's something fucky with the connector, because a) there's no reference to those codes being thrown on an N54 motor and b) it looks like the 535Xi is some unbelievable monster in packaging of the thermostat/water pump and I'll end up hating life if I get in there to replace it. Apparently it's an entirely different beast than the 535i because of the front drive stuff taking all the room. Update: Unplugged the thermostat and cleared the codes. Started up and drove a mile with no light, but as soon as I got on the main road, light and P0597 came back. Looks like it's the thermostat. Kill me. meatpimp fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Jun 13, 2018 |
# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 11:22 |
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Nidhg00670000 posted:You're a gambling man, and you just lost. Possibly, but it's such a good running car otherwise, I'm not selling it out. We'll see what the quotes for thermostat replacement come back as and go from there. I'm in to it at a low enough price that I've got options. This is the first car repair I'm looking at farming out in 20+ years. I got close with my wife's old RAV4 with the V6 that was squeezed in so tight that the failing water pump looked like a similar nightmare to replace. I sold that one instead. blindjoe posted:Ha yep, mine shut down on the highway due to overheating. So I replaced the water pump and thermostat. And got a too cold code. The waterpump was supposedly replaced, so hopefully it's just the thermostat. How much did the labor cost you for the job?
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# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 16:31 |
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Fo3 posted:I just found this post on bimmer Thanks, that doesn't look that bad. I was reading this thread: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=856598 that says it's nightmare fuel. Most threads and comments are putting it at a 2-4 hour job for a pro, I'd gladly pay that. We'll see what the local shops come back with. Dagen H posted:https://blog.bavauto.com/14581/bmw-how-to-video-electric-water-pump-replacement-diy-n51-n52-n54-n55-6-cylinder/ If only it were that easy. The RWD N54 cars have a lot more access. The x-drive fuckers are packed so tight as to be unreasonable.
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# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 18:12 |
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New post because enough of that sad bastard poo poo. You're here to see clean things. My garage is an absolute mess. And BMW's paint has ridiculous levels of orange peel. My dad's E90 M3 is the same way. And the interior is coming along, too. I need some leather touch-up for the edge of the armrest, but at least it's not covered in a layer of grunge. It's getting better...
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# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 18:32 |
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Fo3 posted:What did you use on the paint with the front door because seriously most tips I've seen suggested 1500grit sanding, which is something I wouldn't want to do on a newer car even if it had a bad orange peel effect. I've found that Meguiars Ultimate Compound is amazingly versatile. It's gentle enough to use as a basic scrub with a soft pad and lower RPM, but I used it with a hard pad and high RPM to get some cutting and polish action. The other thing about UC is that as it breaks down, the grit value goes up, so you can start hard and finish soft in the same application. After that I used a coat of Chemical Guys Black Light and that really brought out the depth.
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# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 18:50 |
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doogle posted:I have a replacement keyfob shell if the car doesn't have comfort access that you can have. Man, that would have been perfect, since the PO's dog chewed one of my fobs... too bad I've got comfort access. Thanks, though!
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# ¿ Jun 13, 2018 22:06 |
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InitialDave posted:Thermostat or not, I think you got a bit of a bargain there. You going to turn the wick up on it at all? Oh man... I hadn't looked at tuning options until just now. $400 gets 80lb-ft at the wheels and more than 140lb-ft in spots under the curve. The ideal thing to do to a 150k mile motor! blindjoe posted:I think it was in the range of $400 cdn. But thats at an indy instead of the dealer. Definitely sounds like you've been in, on and around these things. I haven't received any replies from my quote requests on the stat, what is there to look for with the HVAC fan?
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# ¿ Jun 14, 2018 11:51 |
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Alarbus posted:Yeah, bumping the power on the N54 is really easy. The N55 isn't bad, but the newer B58 basically requires a different exhaust to get more out of it. Brakes seem fine, but unremarkable. I looked up the options before I got it, nothing spectacular... no nav, just Premium, Cold Weather and Comfort Access packages. blindjoe posted:https://5series.net/forums/diy-do-yourself-14/e60%5Ce61-aircon-blower-motor-replacement-120792/ Thanks for the link. I'll be doing some digging there. I've been watching the AC and I don't think there's anything wrong with the AC system, but something's fucky with the blend doors. I get a mix of hot and cold out of the center vents, so something's stuck somewhere. On that note -- my OBDII reader doesn't work with Deep OBD, so I need to get a new one. Once I get that working, it should let me troubleshoot with the INPA stuff. Edit -- AC is fine. Someone hosed around with the vent settings and had the driver's side all the way hot in the settings, that's why I was feeling the hot/cold mix. I reset it to zero-offset and it's blowing nice and cold. meatpimp fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Jun 14, 2018 |
# ¿ Jun 14, 2018 15:53 |
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I now know too much about modern thermostats with integrated heaters. This car, and others, have a heater in the thermostat to trick the stat into thinking the coolant is hotter than it is, in effect making the coolant cooler. This is for high-load conditions to increase the viscosity of the oil. https://www.mahle-aftermarket.com/media/local-media-north-america/pdfs/catalogs-and-literature/mo-2-1013.pdf This looks like the thermostat failure I'm seeing. The stat is working, but the heater is dead. No major issue, just a check engine light until I get around to changing it. I'll double-check next time I have the car in the air, if the terminals show the circuit to be open, then that'll tell me for sure.
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# ¿ Jun 14, 2018 22:51 |
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IOwnCalculus posted:That thermostat seems like it could fail dangerous if the coil fails, since it won't open as quickly as expected. The heater helps to vary the temperature from like 105* to 95*, I'm not really concerned, since it is only in play when you're hammering it, and I only do that for short bursts. It won't come in to play for my use. On that note, I got a quote from a local shop for $520, including the thermostat, so that's worst-case. Ultimately, I'll probably do it myself somewhere down the road. In other news, I am waiting on some pure methanol to be delivered today. Hopefully that'll take out the haze that's on the inside of the headlights. And on the light front, I took out the fog lights and wet sanded then polished them today. I think there was a bit of difference. Before: After:
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# ¿ Jun 15, 2018 15:26 |
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IOwnCalculus posted:Does not compute A quick 20-70 run isn't going change the oil viscosity through the heater making the thermostat open a bit more. If I was tracking it or sustained and repeated pulls there may be a difference, but that's not what this car will see. Am I making sense? Bajaha posted:Huh, I didn't know about using methanol inside the lights to clean the lenses. Xenon adaptive headlight unit... couldn't be more than what... $700 used?
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# ¿ Jun 15, 2018 15:56 |
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blindjoe posted:I wanted to replace mine as they were yellow, then figured out they wanted $1500ea. Looks like you can get them for $900 each now. Methanol didn't touch it. It WAS on the outside, even after a 1500/2000 wet sand. So I went with a more aggressive 1500/2000/Meguiars plastic cleaner / Meguiars plastic polish and that worked. There's still some stuff on the inside, but I'm leaving that. Overall, it looks great. I'll get covers for it and call it good. I also just got back from selling the Thule roof stuff. Got $250 for it after just listing it yesterday. That brings total car price to $3750. Ordered a cheap set of Kuhmos for it. I've had really good luck with Kuhmos.
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# ¿ Jun 15, 2018 23:20 |
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TheNothingNew posted:I figure you're the person to ask: how to get pet hair out of cloth car felt? Like that stuff they line trunks with. Wagon's covered with dog hair and I'd like it to be less so. No easy way with that. Make sure you have a STRONG vacuum with a brush attachment. Keep going over the area slowly in a circular pattern so you cover every area from all directions. In BMW news, there's good an bad. The good is that the PO said he had some suspension work done. When I got under it, I saw 2015 date codes on the control arms. That explains why the fucker is so smooth. The end links have a little play, but that's the easiest of the easy. Also, every date code on every part I've checked shows to be original, everything made in late 2008. I thought the front had been repainted, since my paint thickness gauge showed 6-7mil thickness on the front and 2-3mil everywhere else. As I look more, I think it's more of the way the thickness gauge reads on different materials. I think the front fenders of this are plastic and the hood aluminum... I have no idea for sure, but there's no indication of any respray even after disassembling the lights and grille. The bad is that I took off the oil filter cap and was met with the cartridge filter staying in place, with the center of the cap broken off inside. From the looks of the deformed pleats, the oil filter was clogged HARD and if I had to guess, the last time it got changed the mechanic noped out of there and left it all in place. Anyway, that required a trip to the BMW dealer today for a $50 oil filter cap (new cap on the left). Just waiting on USPS for an Amazon delivery of oil filter, air filter and cabin air filters and I'll be checking to see how this thing likes a sump full of nice, clean synthetic oil (I bet it really likes it).
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# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 20:32 |
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iwentdoodie posted:Going to do a flush with anything to get poo poo out that's inevitably stuck in there, or just run fresh oil and hope for the best? Thankfully, I'm going into this expecting PO fuckery, but yeah, not happy. From the looks of the filter, nothing penetrated, so I think I'm okay. I've let the oil drain all day and just buttoned it up, so I'll drive it for a thousand or 1500 miles and change it again and go from there. Edit: Holy poo poo did an air filter and fresh oil make a difference. meatpimp fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Jun 16, 2018 |
# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 21:10 |
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I suck at pictures and keeping up with my threads. However, I've got a set of tires arriving today, so I'll get them put on tomorrow. In preparation, I've got the car up and the wheels off, getting the tape weights and 9 years of crap off of the insides of the wheels. When I put it up, I was shocked to find out how damned STIFF this thing is. In this picture I've got the front end supported on jack stands and the passenger rear jacked up with a floor jack. The DRIVER side rear is up in the air almost as high as the passenger side rear. Hard to tell from the picture, but all 4 wheels are off the ground here... Also, I did a multi-step sand and polish with the headlights like I did the fog lights. I don't have a before picture, but they were almost as bad as the before fog light pic above. I got a good, clear polish out of them, but they started clouding up a day later. I bought a Sylvania headlight coating kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KIVYE6G and it looks to have worked great. We'll see as time goes on.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2018 15:30 |
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bolind posted:Yeah, my E87 (shorter wheelbase, I realize, but still) you can jack up one jacking point and the car will basically lift that side. I'm not proud but I have done a wheel change that way. It's okay, this is a safe space for unsafe work. I do the same thing. My wife's Juke and brother's GTI both hike the rear wheel when jacking the front up same-side. I do rotations and wheel changes like that, too. This is the first time I've seen it across the car though, especially with one this long. Got the Kuhmos mounted and balanced yesterday, so it's new tire day today. Shopping for transmission fluid change stuff and spark plugs, since I don't know when these were changed last.
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# ¿ Jun 21, 2018 11:31 |
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blindjoe posted:When you do the transmission fluid, make sure you check the electronic sleeve (if your car has it? mine did). Its a plastic thing that keeps the fluid out of the electronics, and can get old and leak. Thanks for that. I'll definitely get the sleeve to have on hand and evaluate whether or not to change it once I open it up.
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# ¿ Jun 21, 2018 23:49 |
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In other car news -- I have not washed the Escalade since March. It still looks clean. It's out in the rain right now and the rain is just falling off of it. I was driving in the rain today and every time I stopped, a wave of water came down from the roof, since it's just pooling and not sticking. I'm an absolute believer in the cheap Chinese ceramic coatings. I've never seen anything make water bead and fall off like this stuff does. Yes, it takes two coats instead of the high-dollar stuff's one coat (it's probably more dilute), but drat... so worth it.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 01:03 |
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Applebees Appetizer posted:What is this ceramic coating you speak of? Stupid cheap, stupid good. It IS a coating, though, so proper preparation and application is critical.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 01:39 |
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Fo3 posted:I'm interested. What is the proper prep? Searching just gave me engrish. Compound/polish, then wipe down with isopropyl alcohol, then apply in a small area at a time. ~5 min to dry, then buff off. And to show I'm not exaggerating, here's the car as it sits right now. Hasn't been washed since March. Has been driven ~1000 miles. Rained 2" in the last 2 days and I was driving through a lot of it. The sides are dry, the top surfaces have water beads that run off as soon as I hit ~40mph.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 12:37 |
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Applebees Appetizer posted:That all seems kinda redundant, whats the point of compound/polish if you're gonna wipe everything down with alcohol? Is that just if the paint is in crappy condition? The compound and polish is to correct the paint (after clay, which was assumed). None of those products have any protective value, they are for polishing, the alcohol wipes down to give the polished surface the best adherence properties for the ceramic coating.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 17:56 |
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Applebees Appetizer posted:Yeah I know it's not protective, what i mean is how do you know if the paint needs to be "corrected" or not? If the paint looks fine to me, can't i just clay then wipe it down with alcohol? Ayup.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 19:12 |
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everdave posted:Should I coat my new car? I love the color it’s a metallic. I just clayed/polished/ceramic'd my wife's Juke. It's a pearl white metallic. She is not a car person and is not particularly into cars. But she noticed the difference and she noticed that the metal flake was showing in the son and neither of us have every really noticed it before. So, yes. On the BMW, it's a dark metallic and it's a half-shade darker than the uncoated part (I can see this directly, because I missed a spot near the roof rail. ) So yes, you should do it.
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# ¿ Jun 23, 2018 21:59 |
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I was changing the oil on the Juke today. I hadn't checked the air filter in a while and I found out I'm the PO.
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# ¿ Jun 24, 2018 16:08 |
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In my experience, no turbo motor likes ANY restriction in the intake. Plus, it's just dirty. And that will not do. On the BMW front, everything looks really good with it. But I'm assuming there's maintenance that hasn't been done. With that, I'm thinking about just putting it up on jack stands and taking some time to get everything up to par. Why would that take time? Well, in its infinite wisdom, BMW made part 1 of changing the transfer case fluid "Drop the exhaust system." For the front differential, there's "Remove the subframe brace" which is a serious metal plate needing some impact work to remove. For the transfer case there's "Drop the driveshaft going from the transfer case to the front differential." With all of that, I think it'll be better to just put it up in the air, take everything apart, do all of the fluids at once and be good to go after that. Maybe while I'm under there I'll clean the oil underneath and try to find where that's coming from.
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# ¿ Jun 25, 2018 14:15 |
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blindjoe posted:Mine was leaking a ton of oil from the oil filter housing gasket. There is an seal at the oil cooler that gets brittle and leaks onto your alternator. Of course this is an N52 so don't know if its applicable. That's one of my first thoughts. From what I've seen there's something coming from up high, so either valve cover or that housing gasket. I'll dig into it when I take the top stuff off.
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# ¿ Jun 25, 2018 16:05 |
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Applebees Appetizer posted:Jesus Christ, no wonder most people seem to avoid the awd models Hopefully it ends up a good car, I'm not trusting it yet. I still need to get the AC system evacuated and recharged to see if it's just out of whack with the charge or if something else is at play. Even if I set gauges up to it, I know the PO messed with the charge, so I'd rather know there's spot-on the 700g charge that's supposed to be in there, then troubleshoot from there. If all goes well, I'll keep all current cars. The reason for this one is that my son is turning 16 soon and he's getting the Avalon. That leaves the Escalade for family trips (my wife's family is 2 hours away and the extra space is a godsend with two kids. It's worth keeping the Escalade just for that. And then the BMW for daily. Even typing that sentence makes me cringe a bit... I know how needy BMWs are.
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# ¿ Jun 25, 2018 18:18 |
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Oh dear. I found this site http://mhdtuning.com/mhd-flasher-n54/ and got stuffs on order. It's only got 155k miles, what could possibly go wrong with adding another 60hp.
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# ¿ Jun 29, 2018 19:39 |
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everdave posted:Could I bother you with a question on a car I've got coming from Japan? I'm thinking front bumper needs a respray but I'd like an opinion. Only if you put a turbo on it. I saw the pics, probably will need a respray, but the pics aren't clear enough to see if it's paint transfer or rubbed off down to primer/base plastic.
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# ¿ Jun 29, 2018 21:04 |
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everdave posted:THere is a worse spot than what you saw so I guess respray Let's see! The spot I saw (RF Bumper) is tough, because it's also a 2-color spray.
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# ¿ Jun 29, 2018 21:31 |
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I am absolutely sold on cheap Chinese ceramic coating. I washed the Escalade today, for the first time since March or April. It still looked clean and the water ran off of it. As I got to cleaning it, there was a dirt buildup that came right off and it was a quick dry. Ceramic coating worked great. I then washed, clayed, polished and ceramic'd the Avalon. Man, $5 ceramic coating is the best thing for garbage cars. It filled a lot of the scratches and gave it a great shine. It looks presentable and it'll be a good benchmark for the coating's longevity since it stays outside. I only did one coat, but even that will probably be worlds better than what it was like before.
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# ¿ Jun 30, 2018 21:15 |
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Rhyno posted:Ceramic coating is indeed awesome, is that the stuff you linked before? Does one bottle really do an entire car? Yes and yes. One bottle got me at least 2 coats, even on the huge rear end Escalade. I ordered 6 more bottles just because it's so cheap, I want to make sure I have some on hand all the time.
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# ¿ Jun 30, 2018 23:46 |
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I got the cable and threw the MHD State 1 tune on it and... good news and bad news. Bad news first -- as soon as it starts to push, it falls on its face. Combustion misfires, cylinder 1. Unknown plug/coil history, so I just ordered a set of both. The holiday fucks me and Amazon won't have the parts here until late in the week, though. The good news is that the code is quickly cleared and it tries again and... gently caress... this thing has a potential to be really fast. Feathering into the throttle in 2nd gear generates one hell of a lot more push than it did before, and that's not even being able to go full-throttle. If I can make this reliable, it'll be an absolute loving beast.
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# ¿ Jul 1, 2018 20:12 |
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Minnesota Mixup posted:Just hope that it isn't an injector. They have to have a matching index with the others which usually means replacing all 6 and having to have them coded as well. Could be. I got lucky with the code for the thermostat heater clearing after I cleaned the contacts. I hope my luck streak continues.
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# ¿ Jul 1, 2018 21:11 |
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angryrobots posted:Fuel filter? We'll see after plugs/coils. Both are known wear items, with the plugs being recommended at ~40k intervals. It was on my list to do anyway, since I don't have a full service history. With that, I'm assuming the plugs are old and probably gunked up (along with the intake ports). There were no issues before, but as soon as it sees parameters exceeding stock it falls on its face... that makes me think of the known maintenance things first. Stay tuned, we'll see when the plugs and coils show up!
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# ¿ Jul 1, 2018 22:43 |
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bolind posted:I think it allows them to manufacture to looser tolerances and then just compensate in software, but yeah, means recoding. It is my understanding that one doesn't have to replace all of them at once, but it could be. There are different revisions/numbers. If you are replacing like-for-like, you can do 1 and recode. I haven't looked deep enough to see what version is installed on mine yet. That'll tell me if they're original or if they've been changed.
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# ¿ Jul 2, 2018 15:49 |
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doogle posted:I also have a full set of N54 injectors and a HPFP (used) that were replaced with newer revisions but didn't fix the problem (on my car it was the in tank fuel pump). You can have all that stuff for $50 to cover shipping if you want it. I'll definitely take you up on that. Give me until next week so I can get it running? Wait, what's that? Get it running? Yes, I'm a cavalier dumb impatient monkey and I wanted to drive it without the missing from the tuned map with crap plugs/coils. So, I decided to back out the tune and it turbofucked the whole god damned car. The MHD tune seems to work fine, all reports are fine, it shows that it's writing the DME and completes successfully. Unfortunately, all I get is a few seconds of cranking with no fire, or it does catch and bounces between 1200-1500rpm with no throttle response. And the whole dash is a christmas tree. I replaced the battery with a brand new AGM monster and coded it with Carly. No change. I checked every fuse, all fine. I have tried several different map writes, including re-reverting to stock. No change. I'm loving tired, hot and annoyed. It seems like the bouncing idle is a throttle issue, but the conventional wisdom of holding the pedal down, etc. does nothing. I've got ISTA-D / Rheingold downloaded, but gently caress, I didn't want this to turn into a deep dive. meatpimp is sad.
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# ¿ Jul 3, 2018 19:35 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 13:21 |
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It's alright, I'm thinking it's probably a single point of failure. If I can get it to idle and respond to throttle, I'll be able to drive it and hopefully most of the codes will clear. I just need to get on top of a lot of the software that's available, but that I have no experience with... deep dive, baby, deep dive. Playing with cars can be a dangerous game.
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# ¿ Jul 3, 2018 22:24 |