Another old wagon repair log
 

Hey all,

Picked up a 2010 535xi last month, it has ~135k miles on it, but luckily the previous owner took good care of it.

It came with many documents and receipts, the pre-purchase inspection revealed a few issues but nothing that was tooooo unexpected. The biggest concern is the oil pan leaking....which is going to positively blow to fix. I'm planning to address the oil filter housing gasket and valve cover gasket, here soon then run it. If the leak is pretty severe, then it will likely come off the road and into storage and I'll save pennies for the repair (as this is a "fun" car, so doesn't need to fixed right away) And if we're pulling the subframe, axles, etc then I will be replacing the stock turbos at that time as well, as although they don't have any issues right now...even with it being a 2010 (with allegedly better designed wastegates) I'm sure they'll fail within the next few years.

But, hey, that's just spitballing...

As of right now, the next item on the list following fixing the oil leaks and doing the oil service is refurb'ing the tailgate. The previous owner had mentioned the hydraulic arm had come off the ball once before, but he put it back on and didn't have too many issues with it following. While I was helping the trunk come up (guessing the hydraulic fluid needs replaced) the arm came off again, and holy shit that tailgate is heavy. The ball is fairly rusted, so I've ordered a replacement, and picked up the repair kit that a fellow 5series.net member has on eBay that consists of 2 5mm ball bearing tipped set screws, a small tap, and a small drill bit. The plan is to replace the helper arm, replace the body mounted ball, and drill & tap the lower hydraulic arm to install the set screws to lock the arm to the ball. (As seen here: The Fix-it Blog - Sorting Things Out: BMW 535xi Touring E61 Tailgate Hydraulic Strut Popping off the Ball Joint - Set Screw Repair )

That's the plan anyways. I've got more hydraulic fluid on hand, and a syringe and will be following DaHose's really good writeup over on BimmerForums (Here: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-opening-fully)

Beyond that, the 3rd taillight doesn't work, and I'm guessing it is part of the wiring harness passing through the hatch...which my right license plate just failed today so I have a message about that. I've reached out to Sencom to buy their repair harness' and plan on taking care of that some week/weekend in the future. Also, could've smokechecked the filter behind the right speaker, but who knows. This is me just being an armchair mechanic with the googlemachine. We'll see!

Here are a few pics:

Waiting for the pre-purchase inspection...
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Heading back home into Indiana
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HOME!
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Added Tint
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Also the previous owner had a carbon fiber vinyl on the rear spoiler/decklid...thing...It had started pulling up, so he removed it, but the adhesive stuck and was extremely stubborn to get off. Even after hitting it with some goo gone and heat. I bought a specific adhesive/glue remover that is designed exactly for situations such as this, in addition to some plastic razor blades. After 20 minutes of work, it was gone and looks great!

BEFORE
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AFTER
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Those are certainly some good posts about fixing the hydraulic tailgate. I looked at those as well for guidance when I re-retrofitted my hydraulic pump that had been deleted by a previous owner. Since yours is a 2010 does it have the updated CIC iDrive or the old, clunky CCC?

It does have the CIC iDrive, which is AWWWWWWESOME. :)

Forgot that I updated the nav system, too. It was a 2017 map pack, and updated to the 2019 map pack. Thank goodness for really smart people on the interent. Using another forum, I got a script put on a USB, plugged into my car, which created a .bat file (I think, this was a few weeks back at a very late time) that I used to generate the upgrade code. The 2019 map pack was procured from....the 7 seas. Yar.


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If you need help finding resources to upgrade your CIC, post up and i'll try to find the links. Once the upgrade started, it was about 45 minutes or so....I started the process of acquiring the map pack and upgrade code around 11pm or so and everything was finished up around 3am.

Congrats on the new wagon.

i also had an issue with the hydraulic arm continually popping off the ball even after replacing the ball with a new one. There must have been some wear in the socket also. In the iDrive menu for the tailgate, I lowered the height setting to the second from the highest and the ball stopped popping off. It must have been the change in angle which put less stress on the mechanism.

2 Weeks ago a buddy and I tackled the OFHG and did oil service at that time as well. Additionally, replaced the belt as I couldn't see when (or if) it was replaced prior to me getting it.

Ever since picking up the car, it has had a nasty shudder when slowing down so I'm fairly certain the nice cross-drilled rotors had warped. Luckily, the previous owner had kept the hardly used stock rotors. I grabbed those out of the parts pile and took them over to a friend who knows a guy with a brake lathe. They didn't even need turned, just sanded the face and sent them down the road.

I managed to get one corner done and moved over to the passenger front and barely turned the rotor retaining screw and it stripped. I didn't have time to deal with that so I put the wheel back on and that's where it's currently sitting. I ordered new rotor retaining screws for all corners and will try again once I get them here. Current plan is to hammer in a 1/4 hex socket into it and hope it comes out. If that doesn't work, I'll probably drive over to my buddies, have him weld on a nut and get it that way. Then I'll just do the stupid brakes in his driveway. Haha.

Life pro tip for rotors....get a small 3 or 4 inch c-clamp...once you get the spring off the front, get the clamp on the backside of the caliper and in the hole where you can see the piston (where the brake sensor goes) and compress it a bit. Makes it way easier to get everything apart. Took me WAY too long to figure that out.

still have those links by any chance?

I did the same map upgrade via USB. It was really pretty easy. PM me if you like. It was cheap and easy.

Whoops, didn't see this...

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1461515

That's what I used, then someone may be able to torrent the 2019 Map Pack. If someone was so inclined and had the ability to do it...

EDIT: This is the 2020 Map Pack, though unsure if it is for CIC or not...

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1654612

and here is someone who explains it if you're new to the process

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1662689

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So, that 2020 Map Pack link is for CIC. Was kind of a pain in the dick to do this time, as my car kept going to "sleep" even though it was on the charger. I dunno, I just finished it while I was driving around this morning and seems to be fine.

How is your oil pan gasket holding up ?

it pleases me to see people driving these with 130k miles on their original turbos.

the E61 is a very nice machine but there is almost always something to be fixing.

Ha, leaking like a sieve.

Eventually, probably sooner rather than later, oil pan gasket and turbos will need replaced.

In addition to the tailgate harnesses.

Ever since I bought this car there was a clunking in the rear suspension. It turned out it was the ISC shocks that were purchased with the original ISC front coilovers. Replaced both sides and took care of the clunking.

Still enjoying the wagon as we are coming up on the one year mark of ownership. Put about 7k miles on it, mainly troublefree miles. The rear brakes need replaced, and I have the parts to do it, but I did my front brakes last summer and herniated a disc in my back. So a bit gunshy on that as, wow, that was some intense pain and still have some nagging pain. Probably me just being fat and getting older...now I'm rambling.

Anyways, pretty sure turbos are on their way out and I will randomly get a "SES - MAJOR ENGINE FAILURE" after a bit of a pull and wagon goes into limp mode. Somewhat looking for a 535i sedan with 6 speed that has been wrecked to do a 6 speed swap with RWD conversion, but we'll see. Maybe I'll just get another car and do a cheap LS swap.

Air went out a few weeks back, no fan movement whatsoever. Defrost - Nothing, max AC - nothing, the knobs still lit up and buttons worked, but the air just wouldn't blow (hot or cold) Seemed to be the blower motor and/or final stage unit. Checked all the fuses and they were fine. Bought a brand new blower motor and FSU from FCPEuro, took everything apart and couldn't get the wire from the FSU off the old unit. It had shorted/melted itself to the FSU. (There's a harness bit that disconnects from the main harness and runs through a small hole in the blower motor cover to go to the final stage unit, this is the harness that had melted at the end) Ordered a new one from BMW, got it, re-installed everything....AND NO CHANGE.

So...yeah...5-6 hours and a couple hundred dollars wasted and still have no idea what is causing the issue. Probably dropping it off at an indy shop soon to troubleshoot. I've no idea what they can even do to trouble shoot it....really hoping that it's not a main harness issue. I had to start the car with it apart to move it to get my wife's vehicle back in the garage, and now I have a AWD & DSC error with a warning to take it to a service center. LS swapped E39 sure is looking really nice nowadays.

Wasn't there a recall for blower motors or something regarding the wiring recently?

Hey there! Upon googling it looks like it was for the E90s 3 series a few years ago...curses!

So, I backed the car out without touching anything....and the air started working. But it sounded like one of the "wheels" was hitting something when it was spinning. But hey at least it was working...I was getting that AWD/DSC error, so I backed the car out and spun the wheel lock to lock and drove down the street and the error went away....and the air worked without any noises whatsoever. Not sure what that's about, but not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. Just gonna SENNNND IT!