Continued to clean up the engine bay, removed the sway bar brackets and unbolted the steering rack to clean and inspect everything.


Sway bar bushings look to be in excellent condition, they only have 30k on them.


The crank pulley/harmonic balancer had a slight wobble to it.
Tilted backwards


Tilted forwards


I swapped on my old crank pulley to confirm the wobble wasn't from the pulley itself, and it wasn't.


I noticed that the 535xi pulley was noticeably larger and heavier than the 335is.


Pulleys are the same diameter


Cleaning and inspecting turbos


I have done some inspection and reached out to turbo experts to pick their brain and I decided the turbos are likely undamaged and good to go back in.


There was an oil pan bolt which broke off into the block


Prepped work area


Screw extractor and the broken bolt


Tested the hole (and others near the impact site.


Seemed like a good time to inspect subframe bushings and replace if needed, surprisingly they look great, no chunks or major cracks, only some hairline cracks on opposing sides, what appear to me as very minimal wear.

 

Epic.

 

What a time to be alive.

 

+1

Beautiful dog BTW.

 

Bought a manual M5 steering wheel to replace my SMG unit with those silly paddle things. eBay find from a M5 with 72k, it was pretty dirty but cleaned up well.

Even though my E61 is more M5 than 535xi, I don't feel there is any need to have those "M" badges sprinkled throughout the car so, just as with my previous M5 wheel, I will run it with the non-M trim. I also happen to think it looks better.

I also snagged the rear aux panel from the center console, mine only had cigarette outlets so the aux input was a welcomed addition. The panel is also prepped for rear seat heater buttons which is nice since I plan to retrofit those down the road. My car was interestingly optioned with the ski pass and heated steering wheel but no "cold weather package" and ultimately no heated rear seats.

Evan


BEFORE






BEFORE/AFTER







AFTER






Aux Panel

 

Here is one of the "detail" mods I finally got around to installing. I purchased a rear door handle insert for my driver door which functionally is a key-hole delete. It worked out as I had hoped, there was no fitment issues and the actual locking cylinder didn't need to be removed, the cover simply sat on top of it.

CLEAN!

Evan



Before


After

 

Wow, anything you do is top notch! What was your procedure on the steering wheel? For both the leather, and the stitching? I need to do my M wheel...

 

nice-clean look, but if your battery totally drains, is there a way for you to unlock the car??

 

Thanks.

Chemical Bros cleaner, soft toothbrush, horsehair brush, microfiber towel.

Best to remove wheel prior to cleaning. I start with the stitching and use the toothbrush. Working in segments wet bristles and stitching and agitate until there is dirty looking foam, wipe clean with towel, inspect, repeat. After stitching is all done I use the horsehair brush with on the rest of the wheel with the same technique. You may need to use the toothbrush around the thumb rest area as space can be tight for the HH brush. One this wheel after segments are done I did another pass on the entire wheel.

If you use conditioner use it VERY SPARINGLY on the wheel and wipe it off thoroughly, the wheel can benefit from some hydration and protection but it isn't worth having a slick wheel. Although I have applied conditioner in the past, on this one I used no conditioner.
Although it is possible for that to happen I am not too worried about it. AAA would be my backup.

Evan

 

Thanks for the info!