What Did You Do To Your E70 Today?

[ddinse]

Originally Posted by boneca

I admire your dedication, not an easy job for sure!

not feeling the blue accents but as long as u like it that's all what matters.

Thanks gang for the compliments. Told my daughter she needs to keep it under 70 or it will all peel off....

[boneca]

Originally Posted by ddinse

Told my daughter she needs to keep it under 70 or it will all peel off....

hahaha u bet

[Spyro235]

Ok guys. Today and tomorrow are devoted to my dirtbike, getting the speedo cable swapped and the seized rear caliper swapped out too. After that, it's X5 time!

As for happenings, I'm about at 226k miles, and while towing this past weekend, I realized that if I shift manually 4-5 under boost, my trans completely misses 5th gear. Dash shows m5, and it gets out of 4th... and then doesnt hit 5th, just slams back into 4th and keeps revving in 4th. I believe this is due to a weakened solenoid, as under normal driving it will occasionally flare, but mostly just shift normally. I've been putting off a trans service, which is now officially going to happen before the long tow.

Here/s the shortlist of things to do before the end of august, when I'll be towing 6000 lbs of driftcar/tools/gear 2000 miles round trip to wisconsin for a big midwest event.

1) Install my new steering wheel. Bought a heated sport unit in nearly immaculate condition from ucsbwsr. Just got the airbag cover in from china, which I believe to be an OEM unit, as it's got the bmw logos, and stamps, and even a "germany" stamp, which I believe is from the airbag being mated to the cover in germany for bmw. Who knows though. Can't wait to put this on, it's happening this weekend.

2) Finally put in my new glow plug controller. Been sitting on this module since... march. Needs to go in, and it'll be the first time I ever drive this car with no CEL! Hopefully that's the issue and plug #5 isn't actually bad...

3) I have my tensions struts to replace. Another quick afternoon job, shouldn't take long. Just need to pop the new ones on, and I've never aligned the car so I'll probably get an alignment. I get $50 alignments through a sweet tire shop that sponsors me and other local drifters, so for $50 bucks I might as well know it's perfect. Hopefully this cures my wheel shake / throbbing on the highway/braking.

4)Big transmission service. I'm going to replace all the gear solenoids, in addition to doing the pan/filter, fluid, and the mech seals. I'm hoping with all new seals, and new solenoids, that the trans feels like brand new. I'm hoping to get rid of the flare between shifts under more than low throttle, and really feel what sutphin's tune can do when my trans isn't hindering performance. This will give me TONS of peace of mind, as bought the car at 203.5k miles and have no knowledge of the trans ever being serviced.

5) MAYBE change the differential oils. I'm considering jsut putting this off, because after my big event on september 1 and 2, It'll be time to buy diffs, and attempt the diff swap to 50i 3.15 gears. With any luck, ucsbwsr will have gotten to it already, and I'll know exactly what I need to do! Personally, I'm hoping for a 3-5 mpg increase, even though I know that's hopeful. I think the 70 mph cruise going from 2000 rpm to 1700 rpm could really make a huge difference in consumption.

All of this, with big drift event in the middle on august 4 and 5, and the fact that for any of these jobs I need to have my drift car 100% ready to go to bring me to work. Drift car performed flawlessly all day in 90-95* heat on friday and saturday, but my AC was giving me issues. Having that checked out today/ tomorrow by a mechanic, because sometimes it's just easier for someone who's an expert to diagnose a system I'm not super familiar with. Once the AC is settled in that, I'm willing to tear into my X5. Now, the goal with all of these jobs is to not take more than an afternoon, and I'm hoping the trans is just a 3/4 day project, but I'd like to have an alternative to riding a motorcycle to work in 90*+ heat days, should it come to that. The bucket seat is great for drifting, but it'll be interesting to commute 100 miles in.

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

All of this, with big drift event in the middle on august 4 and 5, and the fact that for any of these jobs I need to have my drift car 100% ready to go to bring me to work. Drift car performed flawlessly all day in 90-95* heat on friday and saturday, but my AC was giving me issues.

Sounds awesome, any footage I can find of event or your car?


As for my E70, replaced the reverse bulbs with these...

[Spyro235]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

Sounds awesome, any footage I can find of event or your car?


As for my E70, replaced the reverse bulbs with these...

How do you like the new bulbs? I HATE how dim the e70's reverse lights are. Can't see anything in the camera.

That's me on saturday, Second time ever at this track and I was hucking it right up to the wall, on the banked/ walled turn. It's crazy intense just staying flat out on the entrance to the bank, you're facing the wall, climbing the bank, and the you whip it as late as your balls allow to try to get up nice and cozy with the wall. If you glance at my other videos you can see in car perspectives from the tracks I drive at pocono raceway. Didn't bring my gopro this past weekend, unfortunately.

I see you're in NYC, if you wanted to come to Pocono bash (at pocono raceway), it's a hoot of a time as a spectator, and you'd be welcome to hang with whoever comes with me. I'm good friends with chrisfix, so I usually pit with him, and I'm also having a buddy who drifts in michigan come down to drift that event too. I'll probably be bringing a few friends, one of which homebrews and will bring a keg or two of his latest brews. I'm also looking forward to meeting a a friend's boyfriend who's bringing a roush charged coyote swapped e46- did everything himself and created an absolute monster of a car. the future of my car isn't THAT cool, but hey someday soon I'll be supercharged around 400hp.

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

How do you like the new bulbs? I HATE how dim the e70's reverse lights are. Can't see anything in the camera.

Just installed this morning and waiting until nightfall to really see if there's any real difference lol . I got the idea from the Tacoma guys on their forums.

Cool vid! I might be up for Pocono's and thanks for the invite to hang. That roush charged coyote E46 sounds like a monster!

[rconti]

Just joined the board recently. Bought a loaded 138k mile 2011 3.5d from a BMWCCA buddy.
Registered it yesterday. Slapped on a 1up single bike rack, going for a long bicycle ride in the mountains this weekend, so I'll be starting a 500mi roadtrip with my new ride tomorrow afternoon.

Put in "error-free" LED turn signal bulbs in the rear yesterday. Immediately got errors for brake lights and turn signals. Long story short, turns out my brake bulbs were on the verge of failure; I swapped them for my old incandescent turn signal bulbs which looked like new.

Both reverse lights were OUT. why I didn't get errors before I pulled the carriers, who knows. Maybe the jostling was enough to end the lives of all 4 non-LED bulbs. *shrug*

Ordered a few replacement parts. right side 3rd row seatbelt clip for black trim. Oddly, RealOEM says there IS NO CLIP for black color trim after 2010, but they have the clip for all 3 other trim colors. and they have the left side clip in black. Yup. 4 colors, 2 sides. 7 part numbers. When I ordered it on FCPeuro, they even told me it "won't fit" my 2011 x5. The part is there on my car (the spring), it's just the plastic clip itself that apparently broke off.

Also a new tiedown ring since only 3 of the 4 work, 1 is busted.

Also a euro driver's side mirror, from russia, via eBay, to arrive sometime this year

Probably ordering euro taillights soon, I hate red turn signals with a passion. Saw a forum post here saying amber weisslict turn signal bulbs light up amber despite the red lens. WRONG. (well, okay, weisslict are NLA, I went with some amazon $20 "Error free" ones that otherwise work great).

[Spyro235]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

Just installed this morning and waiting until nightfall to really see if there's any real difference lol . I got the idea from the Tacoma guys on their forums.

Looking forward to results. I've been debating doing a "ucsbwsr e61" style reverse light, mounting a 6" rigid lightbar behind my diff somewhere, with a very wide beam format, to provide light on the ground at night backing up. In the scheme of things, $80 is pennies, but I've been leaking money on my vehicles lately so it'd be something I'd have to commit to. Still need to buy groceries....

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by rconti

Probably ordering euro taillights soon, I hate red turn signals with a passion. Saw a forum post here saying amber weisslict turn signal bulbs light up amber despite the red lens. WRONG. (well, okay, weisslict are NLA, I went with some amazon $20 "Error free" ones that otherwise work great).

Every comparison I have found online doesn't seem the show that much of a difference. Is it really that different in person? All the images i found of amber turns look like and amber bulb shining thru a red lens.

[NorthCountryGuy]

Changed out oil today.
First time using my new QuickJack. Did work well. I might just leave the frames on the floor under the parked car. They are heavy to move around, and I did have them up against and braced to the wall.

The first lock position is for pulling a tire. Second lock position is full elevation. I feel better with the jackstands there.

[rconti]

Originally Posted by Nyc Dito

Every comparison I have found online doesn't seem the show that much of a difference. Is it really that different in person? All the images i found of amber turns look like and amber bulb shining thru a red lens.

Nope! They look identical. Or, rather, they look more LED-ish. Brighter, flash faster, etc. But the color looks red red red.

Still trying to figure out if I can get away with just buying euro outers, or if I need outer+inner taillights. Some pretty cheap ones on eBay right now if I just need the outers. Also getting conflicting information on whether going LCI-LCI Euro causes an error or not. I AM reading that they're plug-and-play, so I'm having a hard time figuring out how weird it could possibly look to have euro outers and US inners. I imagine they illuminate the same other than the turn signals, but I don't know for sure. And I'd rather not spend the money and find out the coding to remove the errors applies for all 4 pieces, and then once I code to remove errors for the euros, the US inners cause an error.. or something. I don't know, only ever done VAG coding, never on BMW before.

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

Looking forward to results. I've been debating doing a "ucsbwsr e61" style reverse light, mounting a 6" rigid lightbar behind my diff somewhere, with a very wide beam format, to provide light on the ground at night backing up. In the scheme of things, $80 is pennies, but I've been leaking money on my vehicles lately so it'd be something I'd have to commit to. Still need to buy groceries....

I was not impressed. Further reading on the Tacoma forums i saw how one guy was not getting the power output he expected since the factory wiring was limiting the power being given to that bulb/harness. I can only imagine BMW does something similar. If it doesnt rain tonight I'll have one of these installed and the other side the stock bulb to show for comparison.

Originally Posted by NorthCountryGuy

Changed out oil today.
First time using my new QuickJack. Did work well. I might just leave the frames on the floor under the parked car. They are heavy to move around, and I did have them up against and braced to the wall.

The first lock position is for pulling a tire. Second lock position is full elevation. I feel better with the jackstands there.

Thats pretty cool lift, but I'd be nervous the whole time under that thing! Jack stands a big YES lol

Originally Posted by rconti

Nope! They look identical. Or, rather, they look more LED-ish. Brighter, flash faster, etc. But the color looks red red red.

Still trying to figure out if I can get away with just buying euro outers, or if I need outer+inner taillights. Some pretty cheap ones on eBay right now if I just need the outers. Also getting conflicting information on whether going LCI-LCI Euro causes an error or not. I AM reading that they're plug-and-play, so I'm having a hard time figuring out how weird it could possibly look to have euro outers and US inners. I imagine they illuminate the same other than the turn signals, but I don't know for sure. And I'd rather not spend the money and find out the coding to remove the errors applies for all 4 pieces, and then once I code to remove errors for the euros, the US inners cause an error.. or something. I don't know, only ever done VAG coding, never on BMW before.

Ahh, cant wait to see and when do them please post some good pics. I follow a guy on IG from Japan and he did the US red tails and removed his ambers..go figure!

[Spyro235]

Originally Posted by NorthCountryGuy

Changed out oil today.
First time using my new QuickJack. Did work well. I might just leave the frames on the floor under the parked car. They are heavy to move around, and I did have them up against and braced to the wall.

The first lock position is for pulling a tire. Second lock position is full elevation. I feel better with the jackstands there.

I've thought about quickjacks for a while, but decided I'd either go for a full size 2 post or a mini 2 post like maxjacks, something like that. Maxjacks are on wheels and can be unbolter from the floor, so if you don't need the for a while or don't want the posts out you can just wheel them to the size of your garage. I'm considering a set of maxjacks for my shop, but I'm probably just going to suffer a while longer until I actually own property one day and can have a shop at my home.

[0-60Motorsports]

Did an Oil change for the X5M with the BMW twin power oil 5W30, changed the front and rear sway bar links that had torn boots all around, installed the new BMW floating center caps as my original ones were corroded. Replaced the driver side window controls trim with one from AliExpress. Easy job.

Need to change out the rear roundel as the original one fell off but didn't have adhesive remover so will have to do that in the next few days.

Edit: I do oil changes every 5000km's.

[quick]

Originally Posted by 0-60Motorsports

Did an Oil change for the X5M with the BMW twin power oil 5W30,

Edit: I do oil changes every 5000km's.

Where did you get the oil and did you use any additive? Don't dealers use some sort of additive with the engine oil?

[0-60Motorsports]

Originally Posted by quick

Where did you get the oil and did you use any additive? Don't dealers use some sort of additive with the engine oil?

I am in Bahrain and yes this time i did buy from the dealer, usually i buy from other non dealer stores but the same oil. I have a close friend and he has more than 270k kms on his X5M and he changes his oil and filter every 5-7000km. I have always done the same regardless with all my cars so it should be ok.

Also, dealers do not add any additives and neither did I.

[Lunker325]

Finished wrapping my wood trim in gloss carbon fiber vinyl. Used the TIS instructions to guide me on removing all the pieces. Took a while but turned out pretty good.

Ordered a 5’ x 5’ section from amazon and some 3M primer 94 pens to be sure the corners stay stuck down.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

[NorthCountryGuy]

Originally Posted by Lunker325

Finished wrapping my wood trim in gloss carbon fiber vinyl. Used the TIS instructions to guide me on removing all the pieces. Took a while but turned out pretty good.

Ordered a 5’ x 5’ section from amazon and some 3M primer 94 pens to be sure the corners stay stuck down.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

Well done.

[Nyc Dito]

Downloaded xDelete on Friday and the car feels different as expected! I like it and hope to do a trans tune soon. I'm leaning towards xHp (I still need their license), but hear good things about Rod Sutphin as well. Just have to decide I guess..

I also took the E70 to have the layer of tints (previous owner tinted the already tinted factory windows) removed from the rears and tinted the two front windows to match at 35%. The pic shows a bit darker then in person, I like it.

[NorthCountryGuy]

Changed out the engine ground strap today. No issues. Just preventative maintenance.

[ryansbmw]

Originally Posted by Lunker325

Finished wrapping my wood trim in gloss carbon fiber vinyl. Used the TIS instructions to guide me on removing all the pieces. Took a while but turned out pretty good.

Ordered a 5’ x 5’ section from amazon and some 3M primer 94 pens to be sure the corners stay stuck down.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

Looks very nice.

Forgive my ignorance, but what are the primer pens used for?

[Nyc Dito]

Originally Posted by NorthCountryGuy

Changed out the engine ground strap today. No issues. Just preventative maintenance.

Is it a "common" issue? I ask since I just got the X in February and haven't come across that under my preventative lists lol