Peter530i

Hello guys,
It has been a while since I posted here......

I hope this post will help a little to the guys who have slightly "older" E60's and are new here as I'm not probably going to discover the universe below....

I've recently done a software update on on my E60 most of all due to this great forum that gave me the idea, so I thought I owe this post to the board I was always afraid to it because of all the side effects people have mentioned here. Eyebrow lights not working, fried TCU, etc etc..... Thank God I have not experienced none if this.

1) my old CIP software was 12.3 !!! now I have the latest version and the car is trully much better now. It is totaly worth it.
It really does effect the whole car - engine, tranny, steering and last the I-drive menus, new DTC icons.... Engine and tranny feels much smooter now, better throttle reponse.....

The mystery answered:
2) MP3's works like a charm - yes, my car is 8/2004 with Business Navi and now MP3 works just by CIP update. I had to specificaly ask the service to enable this feature besides the single software update issue!!!

( thanks to Lomag's insutructions how to burn the CD also, that is a very imporant part of having the MP3 working in your car as I've jsut discovered by myself too)


3) being a motorhead I always felt there is something with the steering, something that should not be there on such a expensive and new car.... It was there from day one. While driving on very bad road, pot holes or railway crossing I could just "slightly hear" the steering box - the joint from the steering column with the wheel axis..... No passenger or a random driver on this car would ever tell but I knew that there is just something.

Now I know- it is a known problem to a good BMW service places..... BMW knows and admits that the steering box may be faulty - giving a BMW freak the feeling of the "joint " beeing loose there.....
The solution is to change the special hydraulic oil in the steering box at first. If that does not help BMW will change the steering box under warranty. In my case it seems like the oil change help. My car is now feelts even better than brand new.

During my service time I was given a loan car which was the E39 525d and I must say, WOW, all my respect, a car with 100k kms on the clock felt almost like new.... That was my 2nd BMW I've driven. No rattling, no vibrations, and most of all very smooth engine, I could hardly tell it is a diesel only just by the noise in the cabine-which was noe, there was none of that diesel tapping at all. No comparo to even the new VW diesels which are terrible in the noise and vibration level going in to the cabin.

Well all I have to say is that thanks to this great board maintaining your BMW is a much easier task since most of the general BMW services know much less about our cars than we do....