South Lanarkshire
4 pots from an M140i, and 340mm rotors.
What have you done to your E89 today
- Thread starter Bombur
- Start date
Devon
What paint did you use? If I can get that quality I will be very happyThank you. I think the car is now pretty much 'finished' as far as what I can do myself.
Other stuff will have to wait now until I can get it to my BMW specialist (and can afford it!).
derin100
Active member
I bought this stuff off Ebay: https://ebay.us/m/iYhFvuWhat paint did you use? If I can get that quality I will be very happy
The colour I bought was: BMW Reflex Silver A44
I also had some 2K clear-coat lacquer lying around that I finished with but I’m not sure if that really made a difference.
The one thing I noticed, by chance because the 2K had gone cloudy in the cold by the next day, was the difference applying a heat-gun to the final finish made!
In total, I think I spent under £50 on paints and sundries.
Good luck!
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Still getting to know the car having only owned it for 10 days, but work done during this week included a full wheel refurb with a colour change to Ferric Grey A80, replacement of the front level sensor and the inevitably broken connecting strut so now having also done a manual adjustment of the headlight levels I don’t have every oncoming car flashing me (they were pointing 15/20degrees upwards so no wonder) and gave the car a full detail including a nourishing leather treatment which it seems it has never had in its 14 year life
Filled the washer bottle with 5 litres of my usual blue screen wash which immediately stained the white paint
so pumped all that out back into the bottle and topped up the daily with it. Refilled with a pale yellow screen wash and managed to clean the stains off with isopropyl alcohol.
Potentially more worryingly, the area at the top front of the engine around the vanos solenoids (N20 engine fyi) was caked in oil. Perhaps I missed it when I bought the car but the immediate reaction was that I would be replacing the rocker cover and gasket as that is a know leak point at the top of the engine. However, on closer inspection after cleaning the area thoroughly, the vanos solenoids are ABOVE the gasket line and the left one is below the oil filler area, which is the one that was really caked in oil. Having made the most of the sunshine earlier today, I gave the car a thorough “Italian Tune Up” with the top down to let some good quality fuel with detergent flow through the valves and help to disperse any carbon deposits. Checked the rocker cover on my return home and thankfully it’s dry as a bone so I suspect the previous owner may have slopped some oil when filling and not cleaned it off. Fingers crossed.
Running like a Swiss watch now so I’m very happy with my purchase and the summer fun ahead.
Filled the washer bottle with 5 litres of my usual blue screen wash which immediately stained the white paint
so pumped all that out back into the bottle and topped up the daily with it. Refilled with a pale yellow screen wash and managed to clean the stains off with isopropyl alcohol.Potentially more worryingly, the area at the top front of the engine around the vanos solenoids (N20 engine fyi) was caked in oil. Perhaps I missed it when I bought the car but the immediate reaction was that I would be replacing the rocker cover and gasket as that is a know leak point at the top of the engine. However, on closer inspection after cleaning the area thoroughly, the vanos solenoids are ABOVE the gasket line and the left one is below the oil filler area, which is the one that was really caked in oil. Having made the most of the sunshine earlier today, I gave the car a thorough “Italian Tune Up” with the top down to let some good quality fuel with detergent flow through the valves and help to disperse any carbon deposits. Checked the rocker cover on my return home and thankfully it’s dry as a bone so I suspect the previous owner may have slopped some oil when filling and not cleaned it off. Fingers crossed.
Running like a Swiss watch now so I’m very happy with my purchase and the summer fun ahead.
Job list for next week
Having done the angel eyes change to LED from halogen yellow, I will do the side repeaters and reversing lights (stock bulbs are completely useless) but coding is needed to disable current monitoring.
While I have the auto electrician out, some other coding items I would like doing are ;
Auto start stop set to OFF as default
Drive mode to always start in SPORT MODE
INDICATORS SET TO 3 flashes (no iDrive in mine)
Heated seat temperatures reset as all three settings seem to be red hot
Drivers heated seat not working on seat base centre and extendable thigh support but super hot on all 4 side bolsters and back centre. Hope that’s something simple and not a big upholstery strip off job.
Having done the angel eyes change to LED from halogen yellow, I will do the side repeaters and reversing lights (stock bulbs are completely useless) but coding is needed to disable current monitoring.
While I have the auto electrician out, some other coding items I would like doing are ;
Auto start stop set to OFF as default
Drive mode to always start in SPORT MODE
INDICATORS SET TO 3 flashes (no iDrive in mine)
Heated seat temperatures reset as all three settings seem to be red hot
Drivers heated seat not working on seat base centre and extendable thigh support but super hot on all 4 side bolsters and back centre. Hope that’s something simple and not a big upholstery strip off job.
Thanks for the reply. Good point about the new members section.Why not say hello in the New Members' section?
FWIW it's best to avoid mixing different brands of screen-wash in BMWs as it often leads to the pump filters getting blocked by sludgy algae.
I got the vast majority of the screen wash out and used quite a lot today to flush the new stuff through so hopefully it will be ok.
Scottish Borders
Afaik it’s not possible to code to have sports mode
You don't need iDrive to code the indicators to three flashes - you can do it using the left stalk and the display between the dash dials.
You can code a digital speed display which I've found useful previously but I needed a carly subscription to do it last time so maybe something to ask for.
Ware, East Hertfordshire
Useful info thanks. I obviously haven’t delved deeply enough into the stalk settings. I like the idea of adding a digital speed readout and also battery voltage monitor
Found the setting and done the change already. Thank you
Worth remembering that the settings are at a fob level only - so if you have more than one fob they will all need programming independentlyFound the setting and done the change already. Thank you
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Drove home from work (2 hours). I thought I could smell oil on arriving at home. Looked under the car to see what looked like gearbox oil dripping down. I crapped myself. Investigated this morning. Car up on all fours sump shield off. Bone dry!
Ran it up to temp and still bone dry.
It was condensation from the Air con and or roof seal drain. (it comes out under the tunnel above the gearbox).
I left it running for another 30 mins and still bone dry. Phew!
However; whilst under there I found deposits of engine oil from the sump gasket replacement which BMW did under warranty. Wiped them up and then noticed the lower v strut had a bolt half done up and a bolt missing. M10x45. Absolute amateurs! I will be double checking any work carried out by them always. They are ordering two new bolts and sending them out as I refuse to travel 3 hour round trip for a monkey to let loose again.
Ran it up to temp and still bone dry.
It was condensation from the Air con and or roof seal drain. (it comes out under the tunnel above the gearbox).
I left it running for another 30 mins and still bone dry. Phew!
However; whilst under there I found deposits of engine oil from the sump gasket replacement which BMW did under warranty. Wiped them up and then noticed the lower v strut had a bolt half done up and a bolt missing. M10x45. Absolute amateurs! I will be double checking any work carried out by them always. They are ordering two new bolts and sending them out as I refuse to travel 3 hour round trip for a monkey to let loose again.
