[StradaRedlands]

It's the countdown for service (brakes, oil, emissions, etc) you get on your CIC screen if you have one or via the turn signal controller for the dash. The thing that says X miles/km till Y service due. I tend to not use it and just max out the timers as I keep a spreadsheet for services. But nonetheless I want it to be working!!!!

[StradaRedlands]

And so it begins...

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

And so it begins...

Your braver than I am... I don't trust jack stands unless two wheels are on the ground and the jack is still in place.

I put together cribbing using 2x4's. I jack the car up and put them under the tires. Can get 24" of clearance under the car.

[krhodes1]

[QUOTE=StradaRedlands;30738590]Yes, heated steering wheel and comfort access, which I didn't notice it had till it got here. So yeah, a lot of bells and whistles!
/QUOTE]

At least for my '11 e91, the heated wheel was standard equipment- even if you didn't get heated seats or the Winter pkg, as long as you didn't get the Sport or M-Sport package (in which case no warm hands for you).

Nice find at a great price, and seems like the issues are fairly minor and easily DIYable.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

Your braver than I am... I don't trust jack stands unless two wheels are on the ground and the jack is still in place.

I put together cribbing using 2x4's. I jack the car up and put them under the tires. Can get 24" of clearance under the car.

I did the X5 yesterday... that was definitely a leap of faith!

Originally Posted by krhodes1

At least for my '11 e91, the heated wheel was standard equipment- even if you didn't get heated seats or the Winter pkg, as long as you didn't get the Sport or M-Sport package (in which case no warm hands for you).

Nice find at a great price, and seems like the issues are fairly minor and easily DIYable.

Ohhh, that's cool to know!

[whyzee125]

Nice find! That's not a bad spec at all--I actually like the gray interior. Get some sport seats, sport wheel and black mats and it'll look sharp. Nice that it has xenons too!

[StradaRedlands]

Yesterday was the X5 transmission fluid/filter/pan change and that went smoothly. Today was back to the wagon and changing it's 123,xxx mile transmission and rear differential fluid! The trans went really well and I was able to get it done quickly. California car so no rust on any of the bolts and everything came off quickly. Drain, fill, heat, re-fill, go through the gears, close it up! I used a new filter but re-used the filter seal ring. I'm going to go with the presumption it'll be fine. Zero leakage around the original gasket, which was amazing to see on a BMW. Good job GM!



Differential on the other hand about did me in. Bottles spilled, overfill went everywhere, wasted a bunch... just generally unhappy with the process. I figure it was because I was tired and pushing to get it done :-/

Final bonus was when The Baby drove up in the X5 while I was finishing up. I was on my back under the back of the wagon, so got a great view of the X5 gushing fluid as she drove up. A look under the hood showed the expansion tank started to crack. Called the dealer and got a $232 quote and a five day delivery due to the holiday. Looked on Amazon, $45 for aftermarket delivered tomorrow. They seem to all have the same problem of cracking on the front side, so might as well have the $45 one crack vs. the $232 one!

That was my day!

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Differential on the other hand about did me in. Bottles spilled, overfill went everywhere, wasted a bunch... just generally unhappy with the process. I figure it was because I was tired and pushing to get it done :-/

Final bonus was when The Baby drove up in the X5 as I was finishing up. As I was on my back under the back of the wagon, I got a great view of the X5 gushing fluid as she drove up. A look under the hood showed the expansion tank started to crack. Called the dealer and got a $232 quote and a five day delivery due to the holiday. Looked on Amazon, $45 for aftermarket delivered tomorrow. They seem to all have the same problem of cracking on the front side, so might as well have the $45 one crack vs. the $232 one!

That was my day!

I found the diff fluid easy especially with the car lifted high. I have a small fluid transfer pump that fits perfectly on a bottle of gear oil, I think it's from Harbor Freight.

I wonder if the BMW coolant bleed procedure causes the expansion tank to rupture. When you open the bleeder screw and fill the reservoir until fluid seeps out of the bleeder, that's a lot of coolant. At least the three times I did it, it seemed like the reservoir was really full, and even after doing the bleed procedure it seemed like the reservoir was overfilled. Last time I did it on my 335, the tank was leaking from the seams.

[Tambohamilton]

Surely you just check the level like normal after doing a coolant bleed? Can't be overfilled if the level is correct....

[eljay]

Sooo jealous of those rust-free bolts! 😀

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by eljay

Sooo jealous of those rust-free bolts! ��

Pretty amazingly clean under there, isn't it!

Originally Posted by lowrydr310

I found the diff fluid easy especially with the car lifted high. I have a small fluid transfer pump that fits perfectly on a bottle of gear oil, I think it's from Harbor Freight.

I wonder if the BMW coolant bleed procedure causes the expansion tank to rupture. When you open the bleeder screw and fill the reservoir until fluid seeps out of the bleeder, that's a lot of coolant. At least the three times I did it, it seemed like the reservoir was really full, and even after doing the bleed procedure it seemed like the reservoir was overfilled. Last time I did it on my 335, the tank was leaking from the seams.

Agreed, normally a super-easy job!!! But not this time around! I think I was tired and just fumbled it :-/

I betcha the X5 tanks have a design flaw. Mine started leaking at the exact same spot shown at 9:00 in this video. Flat plane, no seams or joint. Betcha some engineer went to town with the CAD and got a bonus for saving .03€ per tank on material costs. Sure, just a coincidence...

[StradaRedlands]

Y'all knew this was coming, right!?!?!?







FYI I still have a bunch of the 3D printed pieces... DM me and I'm happy to mail one out to you!

[Mike K]

Great feature to keep those tailgaters annoyed!

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Mike K

Great feature to keep those tailgaters annoyed!

Feature, not a bug!

[POBEP]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

OK, you stumped me on this one... this is approaching scary land for me. First I've heard of it, is this a pretty good guide? https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1426773
I can swap OFHG and radiators all day, but I hate stuff like this...

StradaRedlands - yes, the ^ is THE guide.

It helped me with recovery when my E70's HDD took a dump during 2023 map upgrade.

However, it could be greatly simplified if the goal is to keep your NAV operational (before HHD fails) and make maps reasonably responsive (CF Card upgrade).
The effort becomes no more complex than the work you've done to replace front right door handle.

In short, your steps will be
- take off trim, pull HDD drive out
- back up entire HDD to a file (no need to worry about individual partitions)
- store old hdd in a safe place (tag it with VIN number using permanent marker)
- restore file backup into a CompactFlash card
- put CF card with IDE adapter in the CIC slot, re-assemble trim.

On linux/mac you can backup (and restore) entire drive using single command.
Remember to replace if(source) and of (destination) with your actual device handles reported my linux/macos

To backup

dd if=/dev/<hdd_block_device_handle> of=/path/to/backup/file

To restore, use block size 8192 with CompactFlash card, 10x faster than default 512

sudo dd if=/path/to/backup/file of=/dev/<cfcard_block_device_handle> bs=8192

I failed to make a backup for my E70, and then spent a week re-building partitions, etc
https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1716221 post #11+ - this NOT where you want to be.

[POBEP]

StradaRedlands - I am thinking to let go my E91s factory 17" wheels sometime in july-august timeframe (to make more room in the garage) ...

[StradaRedlands]

POBEP Alright, officially on my list of things to do! Maybe more so as I now have three vehicles with CIC so should figure it out sooner rather than later!

And drop me a line if you decide on the 17's... could be right place/time/price!

[krhodes1]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Y'all knew this was coming, right!?!?!?

FYI I still have a bunch of the 3D printed pieces... DM me and I'm happy to mail one out to you!

The rear fog switch thing is so odd. At some point in 2010/2011, BMW stopped leaving out that piece, and the ONLY thing keeping you from having rear fog lights is the little tabs that keep the switch from being pushed. The inside piece was there on both my '11 128i (old style all-black switch) and my '11 328i (new style with silver trim switch). Didn't even have to take the switches apart, just cut the tabs out with a knife.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by krhodes1

The rear fog switch thing is so odd. At some point in 2010/2011, BMW stopped leaving out that piece, and the ONLY thing keeping you from having rear fog lights is the little tabs that keep the switch from being pushed. The inside piece was there on both my '11 128i (old style all-black switch) and my '11 328i (new style with silver trim switch). Didn't even have to take the switches apart, just cut the tabs out with a knife.

At 2009, this is my newest E9x vehicle. It has the newer silver knob, but still no plunger piece. But to add to the conversation, my '06 had very short quad-knobs on the bottom, while this newer '09 had them. The older one was basically smooth and I needed to cut off the knobs to get it to fit!

[Tambohamilton]

Wait, what? US spec cars had the rear fogs disabled from the factory, by various versions of switch hardware?

Did you even need to put bulbs in after sorting the switch?

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Wait, what? US spec cars had the rear fogs disabled from the factory, by various versions of switch hardware?

Did you even need to put bulbs in after sorting the switch?

Yes, exactly. I think Canadian cars were disabled as well, not sure about Mexico. So will tentatively say all North American cars had it physically unavailable. But all wiring, bulbs, and coding are in place. So you just need to get the missing plunger piece from a wrecked car, or 3D print one, or fab something to work (people use pen caps, Legos, etc). There are also four little plastic tabs on the NA button that keep it from being depressed, so those need to be trimmed off with a razor blade. Do that and get something to make the connection, and you're good to go!

This was the same on our F10 as well as E70 (it needed an additional wire installed). Obviously North Americans can't be trusted.

[Tambohamilton]

Lol. NA fog only prevents drivers from seeing ahead; it doesn't prevent cars from being seen from behind