Smith_Jason

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.

Azar

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.

Azar

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.

Azar

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.

MysticRob

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

Azar

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

Azar

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!