What did you do to / for your E53 today??

[white_335i]

Originally Posted by X5chemist

Nice! Any before and after sound videos?


Ordered two new rear upper lift supports. With spring helpers, the upper hatch can know you out!

Dont have before clips. Will do afters and post a link once I put the bumper cover back on. At idle, didnt notice any difference. When I gave some throttle, there is a noticeable difference from the outside. Inside the cabin with windows rolled up, couldn't tell much. This was all inside the garage. I will go for a drive once the bumper is on and will let you know how I feel then.

[Salty B.]

Originally Posted by g300d

What I remember looking into this many years ago is it was bonded somehow, and not easy to transfer.

I think I came across a thread where someone used aftermarket elements instead.

How about swapping the left and right front seat cushions? Possible?

The driver's side has a bad hot spot.

[Salty B.]

Originally Posted by Bottomfeeder

I've been doing quite a few road trips in my aging X5s over the last 5-6 years and it seems like frequently the biggest part of the trip is just getting out of Texas. Texas is a lot. :-)

Yes it is, but try the mind-numbingly straight part of I-5 north from the CA-99 split up to where it jogs left before Tracy. With cruise control and a bungie cord holding the steering you could probably nap safely... (do not try this).

[Henn28]

I took a break from my M62 rebuild (need to update that post for the one or two guys that care), and some long deferred home chores, to take care of an alignment and troubleshoot a left front CV boot that has been throwing grease for a year.

First, thanks to Factory6speed for some great guidance and lessons learned on the do-it-yourself alignment process with string and a ruler. All told, it seems to have worked great (I only did the front toe-in as my steering was off about 15 degrees left, to drive straight).

The right side was at 3mm toe -in so I eased it off one turn/ 1mm to get it to 1.5 mm. The left side was toed-in fully 6 mm, which I suspect was the majority of my right drift or left 20 degree steering wheel to go straight. 2.5 turns put it to about 1mm by my measurements for roughly 2ish mm total toe-in. A short test drive makes me optimistic that I got it right finally. A longer test drive on the highway will tell the story though.

Then it was up up on the floor jack and the right front came off. A good amount of grease, which I have been seeing for many, many months and just ignoring. The axle is a GKN and maybe 3 years old and I had noticed that the small clamp on the outer boot was loose when I inspected it a year or so ago and was the source of at least some of the grease. I tried to clamp the silly Oettinger clamp down more at the time, with limited success.

Today I found some cracking in all the boot creases but I didn't see any areas fully torn. That said, I suspect there are some small tears since there was a lot of grease all the way back to the hub. I cleaned it all up, cut off the clamp, jammed my grease gun under the small end of the boot and shot as much red and tacky as it would take into the joint. After it started squeezing back out of the small end, I put a screw clamp on it and wrenched it down.

Hopefully this will get me through the winter and hunting season so I can change the boot in the spring. As usual I didn't do this job when I had the hubs off a few months ago, and now I'm wishing I hadn't been in such a hurry to get the job done back then.

[g300d]

Originally Posted by Salty B.

How about swapping the left and right front seat cushions? Possible?

The driver's side has a bad hot spot.

Its been so long I dont remember, so I looked at realoem and I see (at least for the sport seats) that the front cushion and seat covers are the same part numbers left and right.

So yes, they can be swapped.

[g300d]

Originally Posted by Henn28

I took a break from my M62 rebuild (need to update that post for the one or two guys that care), and some long deferred home chores, to take care of an alignment and troubleshoot a left front CV boot that has been throwing grease for a year.

First, thanks to Factory6speed for some great guidance and lessons learned on the do-it-yourself alignment process with string and a ruler. All told, it seems to have worked great (I only did the front toe-in as my steering was off about 15 degrees left, to drive straight).

The right side was at 3mm toe -in so I eased it off one turn/ 1mm to get it to 1.5 mm. The left side was toed-in fully 6 mm, which I suspect was the majority of my right drift or left 20 degree steering wheel to go straight. 2.5 turns put it to about 1mm by my measurements for roughly 2ish mm total toe-in. A short test drive makes me optimistic that I got it right finally. A longer test drive on the highway will tell the story though.

Then it was up up on the floor jack and the right front came off. A good amount of grease, which I have been seeing for many, many months and just ignoring. The axle is a GKN and maybe 3 years old and I had noticed that the small clamp on the outer boot was loose when I inspected it a year or so ago and was the source of at least some of the grease. I tried to clamp the silly Oettinger clamp down more at the time, with limited success.

Today I found some cracking in all the boot creases but I didn't see any areas fully torn. That said, I suspect there are some small tears since there was a lot of grease all the way back to the hub. I cleaned it all up, cut off the clamp, jammed my grease gun under the small end of the boot and shot as much red and tacky as it would take into the joint. After it started squeezing back out of the small end, I put a screw clamp on it and wrenched it down.

Hopefully this will get me through the winter and hunting season so I can change the boot in the spring. As usual I didn't do this job when I had the hubs off a few months ago, and now I'm wishing I hadn't been in such a hurry to get the job done back then.

I'd be interested, do update when you can please

[Henn28]

Originally Posted by g300d

I'd be interested, do update when you can please

Done! Three part update on the Overland thread.

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...ml#post1247357

[Factory6speed]

Originally Posted by Henn28

I took a break from my M62 rebuild (need to update that post for the one or two guys that care), and some long deferred home chores, to take care of an alignment and troubleshoot a left front CV boot that has been throwing grease for a year.

First, thanks to Factory6speed for some great guidance and lessons learned on the do-it-yourself alignment process with string and a ruler. All told, it seems to have worked great (I only did the front toe-in as my steering was off about 15 degrees left, to drive straight).

The right side was at 3mm toe -in so I eased it off one turn/ 1mm to get it to 1.5 mm. The left side was toed-in fully 6 mm, which I suspect was the majority of my right drift or left 20 degree steering wheel to go straight. 2.5 turns put it to about 1mm by my measurements for roughly 2ish mm total toe-in. A short test drive makes me optimistic that I got it right finally. A longer test drive on the highway will tell the story though.

Then it was up up on the floor jack and the right front came off. A good amount of grease, which I have been seeing for many, many months and just ignoring. The axle is a GKN and maybe 3 years old and I had noticed that the small clamp on the outer boot was loose when I inspected it a year or so ago and was the source of at least some of the grease. I tried to clamp the silly Oettinger clamp down more at the time, with limited success.

Today I found some cracking in all the boot creases but I didn't see any areas fully torn. That said, I suspect there are some small tears since there was a lot of grease all the way back to the hub. I cleaned it all up, cut off the clamp, jammed my grease gun under the small end of the boot and shot as much red and tacky as it would take into the joint. After it started squeezing back out of the small end, I put a screw clamp on it and wrenched it down.

Hopefully this will get me through the winter and hunting season so I can change the boot in the spring. As usual I didn't do this job when I had the hubs off a few months ago, and now I'm wishing I hadn't been in such a hurry to get the job done back then.

Cool. Glad you were able to figure it out and get good measurements. My biggest problem was figuring out which way to turn the damn thing. Once I figured that out and clearly wrote it down for myself it's pretty easy. The race teams will do alignment this way, it's good once you get it down. I'm going to try to tackle the rear towards the end of the month. The guy said it's like a 3D puzzle, moving one arm affects the other two and you have to pull all three into a gradual balance. Not looking forward to it but I did buy nice new eccentrics at least.

I'll have a post with some photos in a couple weeks, the new to me rear subframe is almost ready to go up. I have to address some small rust spots underneath. Nothing too bad, it will be good to get this done.

I made the front brake pipes last night, the one behind the engine was harder than I thought. I had to cut it up by the ac lines and back by the steering shaft and use two unions. It's sitting correctly and not rubbing on anything. BMW did sneak one on me, the fitting at the pump for two of the lines is larger, it's not just the small m10 fitting on all four. I put m10 fittings on the lines, fitted everything, and then that one was too small for the pump. I had to cut the bubble off and reuse the stock fitting, and do the flare right there on the car. It worked out, but they got me good. My only guess is it's so they don't get mixed up during assembly.

I was having fits getting the swing arm bushings out. I bought the meyle HD bushing kit that includes the press cups. Good idea on their part. Even if the bushings end up not being good I'll buy them just for the tools. I got two of them out using the old transfer case bolt as a suitable threaded rod, and then broke it on the third one. And wasted three trips and was not able to find a suitable high-grade threaded rod to get the other two out.

So I decided to buy the harbor freight 20 ton press. I do not really recommend this press. The other ear of the swing arm kept getting in the way of the apron. I had to get creative with some other cups I had and was able to get it done, barely. Then I got back to the wheel bearings, and I wasn't able to use this nice new machine that I bought to press them apart. Because the apron is too small to fit the wheel hub down. I couldn't really block it up either I tried a few things. So I ended up going back to the three jaw puller and got that to work, I got everything separated just with the puller. I did have to use a hammer in a chisel slightly just to get the inner race off to where I could see some light and get the puller started. I was able to use it to get the wheel bearings on, and also the drive shaft center bearing which was nice. I'll use this a bit for the E36 and will probably sell it locally.

[Salty B.]

Originally Posted by g300d

Its been so long I dont remember, so I looked at realoem and I see (at least for the sport seats) that the front cushion and seat covers are the same part numbers left and right.

So yes, they can be swapped.

Good news, thanks!


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