2003 BMW M5

[95naSTA]

A few more little things knocked out.







I also only had 2 of 4 plastic nuts holding the O2 sensor connector cages up under the car but now there's 2 per side.

[95naSTA]

A couple more boxes got checked.

The rear glass rubber seals were beginning to crack so those got replaced.

I wanted to replace the fuel pump as a wear item and as a variable for tuning the DME post-header install. With a new OEM fuel pump installed, I know I'm good for another 100k and will be tuning on good fuel pressure. (The filter was done less than 3k ago)





I was surprised to see that the fuel pump was actually already replaced. The sound deadening/insulation insert was already pulled and separated. There was also a tamper seal with a circled K on the locking ring. Does anyone know what shop this is from? I decided to replace the pump anyway since I have no documentation of when it was replaced (not even in the carfax). It could be anywhere up until 65k when the previous owner purchased it.

[95naSTA]

Two out of the three tensioner/idler pulley bearings were intermittently making noise and the belts were due for replacing. I decided to replace all three pulleys, the belts and while I was at it, the leaky crank seal I mentioned a few posts back.

For holding the crank I tired to get the BMW damper holder tool but the lead time was too long. I saw what others have done and picked up from 2" flat stock to make a holder with just incase I couldn't make any of the existing tools I have work. It turns out I was able to make the water pump holder tool I had from my 528i work. The only issue was one of the four E14 bolts was blocked and I just had to reposition the tool for the last bolt. The holder doesn't actually fit the my water pump bolt pattern but I'm able to still use it without damaging anything.

Removing the crank seal was very easy with a Lisle limited access seal puller (p/n 56920). I don't know how I got along without this before.

For a seal driver I read of some using sockets and also 2" PVC pipe. If there was more room I would just use mallet and driver. I liked the idea of threading it down evenly in this case. I picked up a PVC 2" pipe cap and a 2 to 1.5" reducer. I traced the 4 bolt holes of damper onto the 2" cap, drilled them out and used the cap along with the original bolts to pull the new crank seal evenly into it's bore. The cap had a small lip (pictured below) that actually held the seal nicely but the same lip stopped the seal from being pressed in completely flush. The 2-1.5" reducer didn't have a ridge and would seat the seal flush but was too tall to start with. It's a shame because the factory thrust washer the damper bolts tighten down on actually seats perfectly inside the reducer. With the seal almost all the way in, the bolts are long enough to thread this combo down and get the seal flush. Longer bolts and/or a way to cut either PCV part down true would mean you only need to use one of the PCV parts. I didn't have either but this worked just the same.

You can see some water pump seepage at the mounting face in a few of the pics. I'm going to let that live for now. I also decided not to replace the hydraulic tensioners since they seem to still be in working order.




Getting the seal area clean



New seal with silicone grease


2" PCV Cap


2-1.5" reducer + factory thrust washer



Water pump holder tool in action




Yep, it was time



2" cap with lip on the left, 2-1.5" reducer with no lip on the right

[95naSTA]

Not much of an update but I made a second trip up to Palm Springs with this car over Mother's Day weekend. This time it was my wife plus our son. I only snapped a couple pics of the car. A hasty cut off pic in the garage of the AirBnB we stayed and one showing how a 48 qt cooler only reduces the trunk down to what I would consider a normal size. Truth be told the car doesn't come with a spare well since the second muffler occupies that space but my plug kit and cig lighter pump are under the cubby on the right. We ended up bringing way too much stuff but there was plenty of room for it.

I bumped the fueling up a hair before I left since my fuel trims were -1 to -4% from the headers and would set a lean code after a few weeks. No codes on the 300ish mile round trip.

[Sirius]

That is a cavernous trunk!

[95naSTA]

I think my G35 trunk was as big as what's pictured with the rear of the cooler being the rear seats on the G. The rear seats fold down 60/40 on this car which can add space too. I originally wanted to do a wagon swap for more utility but this will certainly get pretty far.

[Sirius]

It's too bad drive-in theaters have gone the way of T-Rex and disappeared. You could sneak your entire high school senior class into the drive-in in that trunk. The caboose on my 1963 Star Chief may have been bigger, but that car was a land yacht (and handled like one) - you could have landed an F-18 on the hood.

[95naSTA]

COVID actually brought drive ins back to a smaller capacity. In my area it was older movies and even concerts with socially distanced spaces.

63 Star Chief, that's a big boy. My dad's late 80s Town Car trunk might have been close but still not that big.

[95naSTA]

I went to throw some hub-centric spacers and longer bolts on to un-sink the wheels. I chose the spacers that are considered the standard for the OEM wheel setup, 12mm front and 10mm rear. The fronts went on without issue. The rears didn't because the hub lip is 13mm and since the spacer hubcentric ring starts at 10mm, it won't go on all the way. I also saw that the OEM wheels won't make full contact with the hub until it's 5mm in. So, basically I missed the memo that you can't just get generic hub-centric spacers for the rear if they're less than 13mm. They'll need to be designed for that 13mm hub height and >5mm wheel depth. The good news is the 12mm front spacers seem to even out the depth of the wheel when compared to the rear and it's plenty fine for me for now.




The plastic headlight adjusters on these cars are really made of glass from the factory. They always break and mine have been broken for some time. The headlights have an auto leveling motor that also acts as a third mounting point. Luckily it's metal and it keeps the light shroud from completely falling in the assembly. All E39 headlights with the exception of the 2003 can either be pulled or baked apart. Since I have an '03 I have to use the ship in a bottle approach. I've been putting this off for a while but it really wasn't that bad. I picked up some Odometer Gears brand adjusters which will hopefully last longer.

[Sirius]

I can see why you put off the headlight task. I find that often a particular task is not as big a PITA as I think it will be. There's also the converse as well - those projects I think ought to take 15-20 minutes that wind up taking all day.

[95naSTA]

I could not agree more.

[95naSTA]

I've had a 55ish mph shimmy intermittently for a little while. It would be at it's worse when the car sits for a couple days but when I drive it every day it's almost non-existent. All threads on this issue pointed to thrust arm bushings, which commonly wear well before anything else in the suspension. This also makes sense since they are loaded into place from driving.

I decided to replace just the bushings with a common upgrade, Meyle bushings meant for an X5, since the remainder of the suspension is tight and still has some life left. I do have plans on a full overhaul down the line. It turns out the driver's was ripped and passenger side had leaked all the fluid. They were also miss-matched indicating one or both were changed at some point. The driver's was Continental and Passenger was BMW.

I wanted to see if I could replace them without waiting or paying for the BMW driver made for this job. I started with a 3-jaw puller and a socket I matched up to be slightly larger than the bushing at an auto parts store. On my first attempt, I pressed the old bushing flush with the arm, pressed the rubber through (with a smaller cup I had from ball joint kit) about a half inch and used the new bushing to press the old one out. This started to work then required more pressure than the 3-jaw could provide. I ended up removing the arm and having a local shop continue with a hydraulic press. A Schwaben 20-80mm ball joint tool I've read is good for everything V8 E39 suspension ended up being too big for the thrust arm ball joint on the smaller setting. I ended up just taking the thrust arm bushing nut and putting it on top of the thrust arm ball joint nut to take up the slack, which worked.

On my second attempt I took the arm out to begin with, pressed the rubber out and CAREFULLY sawzalled the outer shell of the bushing that was still pressed in the arm. Once I got it close, I took knipex pliers and caved it in on it's self. Then I took the arm and bushing to the same shop to press it in. This was way easier then the first attempt and how I would have done both in retrospect.

[Sirius]

I hate when you're 80% through a job then find out you don't have the resources to complete it the way you planned.

So did your efforts fix the shimmy?

[95naSTA]

That first one was rough. I also went to 5 local shops and 3 of them didn't even have a hydraulic press somehow.

So the 55ish mph shimmy was gone but then I started to get a light 60+ shimmy that was hard to establish permissives for. The trigger was speed but seemed to subside with load sometimes then sometimes not. Braking seemed to help it but it may have been the slowing down.

I did some reading and ended up trying a few things at the same time.

I replaced the caliper slide pins and lubed them. They had some light ridges and zero lube. I had a sticky caliper issue on my G but it was exacerbated by applying the brakes. Since this wasn't the case, I just did this just to check the box.

I also loosened the center bolt for the new bushing and retorqued with the knuckle jacked up and car hovering a couple mm over the jack stand on the respective side. I also tapped on the center of the bushing before tightening since it was a tight fit and could have some torsional tension. When I did it the first time I did load the suspension but had the car just barely on the jack stand. BMW's procedure has you put 150lbs in the driver's seat and all 4 tires on flat ground.

Finally I cleaned up the anti-seize from the PO near the hub centers since some of it was getting dried out and had made it's way to the mating surface.

After all that I took a long highway drive and it had me wondering if there was really an issue in the first place or it's fixed. Either way, I'm more comfortable about it at the moment.

[95naSTA]

Well, I loaded this thing up last week and did a 2,000 mile trip in 6 days with my wife and son. We went to Sequoia National Park, Napa, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Redwood National/State Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, San Francisco, Monterey, Big Sur and Malibu. I packed a bunch of tools, spare parts, consumables, etc. but the only thing I did was add a half a qt of oil half way through.

Sequoia's Tunnel Log


Imola Ave in Napa (my paint code is Imola Red)


Humboldt


Redwoods


Favorite non-car pic of the trip. This was part of a 6 mile hike where we followed Redwood Creek downstream a couple miles.


Crossing a stream at Prairie Creek. This might not seem that bad but without going the way I did, the underbody plastics would have been toast. The driving appliance on the left was higher than my car but didn't risk it.


More 4x4 action at Prairie Creek


San Fran


Neptune's Net in Malibu (from Fast & Furious)

[Sirius]

That's beautiful country. It's no wonder people flocked to the West Coast. 4-wheelin' the M5 is awesome, and I like how you apparently just stop in traffic and jump out to take a car picture.

[95naSTA]

Thanks. Yeah that last pic was a little tricky but I did it right after a cop left from pulling someone over. I figured I had a window.

As if California wasn't dynamic enough near me with beach, deserts and snow within reach, going up north added a totally different landscape. Napa reminded me of SW Spain and about 200-250 miles north of San Fran a switch gets flipped and it's 100% PNW. Geographically, it makes sense but it's something I have yet to associate with California. Now I obviously will. The Redwoods were definitely the highlight of the trip.

[Sirius]

When you step back and think about the geography of CA it's pretty impressive, as you mentioned. There's the Mohave in the southeast, Pacific on the west, mountains on the east, Redwoods and rain forests in the north, massive amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada around Tahoe. Pretty awesome place.

[95naSTA]

Well, I got lucky with this one.

The blower motor has been a little whirlly at low speed for a while now but you really had to listen for it to notice. Halfway through the first day of the 2,000 mile road trip I just took with my wife and baby the blower motor squealed for about 10-20 seconds. It got me a little nervous (b/c of baby) but it leveled out and wasn't an issue for the rest of the trip. The car sat for 5-6 days after the trip. When I went to drive it next, the blower motor squealed at me again enough to order one that day. Sure enough, the motor kicked the bucket the next day.

This was relatively straightforward since I did the blower motor in my old '97 528 (in-law's now) at the beginning of last year. There were a couple of minor differences but nothing too crazy. I went with a new BMW blower so hopefully this is a one and done for this job. I also replaced the dash center vent with new BMW since it was cracked in the corner.

[Sirius]

You have to dismantle the dash to get to the blower motor? How much of a PITA is that?