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I've been looking for a wagon for quite some time and stumbled onto this 08 BMW 535xi wagon and went and checked it out. I loved it immediately and upon reading the potential power these could have.......I had to have it. This is my first BMW but I don't think it will be my last. It did have problems initially with the wiring harnesses in the hatch area with no less than 13 wires cut between both sides. Faults included; keyless remote and start didn't work, heads up display didn't work, rear left tail light was out, rear right reverse bulb out, hatch didn't operate, hatch glass didn't open. When I added about 6 inches of wire and soldered them together everything worked perfectly. Future mods are planned and any advice is welcome. If there's anything I should know about the car please let me know.
Mods so far include:
Tinted windows
Cobb tune for 93 octane
BMW Ipod cable (works so much better than a USB stick)
12" Sundown Audio sub with RF T300.2 amp
Gloss black kidney grill
Have you looked into MHD for your tune? Costs less and has lots of potential for no mods to future mods. I've only done MHD, CAI and throttle body spacer (TBS) and I am very happy with results. Not the fastest wagon around but certainly fast, reliable and still fuel efficient (I can get up to 30 MPG if I baby the throttle). 25 MPG at 80 MPH avg highway only.
Before you start with performance mods make sure you change your oil, spark plugs and possibly coils (if coils are over 50K miles). Weakest components will start showing errors under tune, in my case it was sparks, misfire on cyl 6, then it was the coils, then O2 sensors (only when I had the TBS, if I removed the TBS everything worked fine). Dealer ended up changing all O2 sensors and doing walnut blasting cleaning to my intake before everything went back to normal. Just a word of advice.
Have you looked into MHD for your tune? Costs less and has lots of potential for no mods to future mods. I've only done MHD, CAI and throttle body spacer (TBS) and I am very happy with results. Not the fastest wagon around but certainly fast, reliable and still fuel efficient (I can get up to 30 MPG if I baby the throttle). 25 MPG at 80 MPH avg highway only.
Before you start with performance mods make sure you change your oil, spark plugs and possibly coils (if coils are over 50K miles). Weakest components will start showing errors under tune, in my case it was sparks, misfire on cyl 6, then it was the coils, then O2 sensors (only when I had the TBS, if I removed the TBS everything worked fine). Dealer ended up changing all O2 sensors and doing walnut blasting cleaning to my intake before everything went back to normal. Just a word of advice.
Enjoy your wagon/estate, they're good cars!
Thank you for all of the great information. I've done everything except the coils and I haven't gotten any errors yet so I'm happy about that. I have looked into MHD but decided to stick with the Cobb tune since I already have it.
So I purchased new fog light shrouds and replaced those and I've also fixed the drivers side fog light. The electrical connection from the harness to the light itself was bad.
I was in class the other day and driving home on my lunch break and someone backed into my car while I was driving away. It looks like he has insurance but they have not contacted me yet. The bumper will probably need replaced and I will be taking it into the dealership on Tuesday.
Nice wagon. Not sure how attached you are to that 12" woofer and all the cargo space it's occupying but there is a company from Poland called Basser who makes a stealth box for the E61, I have their enclosure in my E39 Touring and have been very pleased. The enclosures are .5cu/ft and accept 10" subwoofers. I went with the Sundown SD3 which has been excellent so far.
Their prices are reasonable but if you are interested let me know since I will be placing an order for my E61 as well and maybe we can get a deal on multiple orders.
08-12-2018, 10:33 AM
My "new" E61
