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Last summer I bought a pre-LCI 6 speed M sport car. It was pretty high mileage (140K) but I figured I could maintain it and it would be a nice winter car while I used my 92 M5 in the summer. I was rocking a 2009 E91 that was very well maintained and I planned on selling. It didn't work out and I ended up having to sell the E61 and the M5 went a collector in Texas. Fast forward to spring this year and a guy I got to know was selling a 2010 E61 he basically got from the original owner. I was back and forth and actually backed out once as the E61/N54 scares the crap out of me. My E91 sold really easily this spring to a nice guy and I made what I thought was a pretty fair deal for the 2010. It was owned by a female doctor here locally and was mostly well looked after. It needs some technical love as well as a little bodywork but nothing crazy. I spent the first little bit getting familiar with the car and checking things over. I did some paint correction which turned out pretty good and cleaned the snot out of the interior which also turned out pretty good. So far I have repaired the thigh bolsters and just changed the air and cabin filters and swapped the PS fluid (although not enough - it has way more volume than my E91). Placed a decent sized order at FCP (water pump, belt and idlers, diff, transfer case and oil) and will redo the OFHG as well as the oil cooler gasket. The PO had the OFHG curse him all kinds of issues to the point he ate a belt. He had to drop the pan etc to get it all out and I am curious to see ho this fix holds up. I went under the car and took a look at it and there were two drops of oil. The car has 128,000 km on it so relatively low miles (which is good). No turbo rattle, ad HPFP and injectors were already replaced. I am taking it in this weekend to have a guy do the walnut blasting and I'll look after the other stuff the week after as I am vacationing. I did the usual E61 rear end stuff and removed the sun roof drains, relocated the trunk modules and checked the air intake hose, and I was able to score a space saver tire and jack kit ! I luckily have a programmed Bav Tech cable and used it to reset the airbag light set off from a low battery and will use it for maintenance and troubleshooting. Unfortunately the car only came with one key as he didn't realize that the "other" key was for someone else's car - the doctor had two a 2008 and the 2010. I confirmed it was for the other car and sent the guy the key. I'm sorting out my winter tire/wheel situation as we speak as my winter tires were junk. Luckily the rims are good so go from there. all in all I am really enjoying the car and will get he maintenance up to date and then sort the bodywork out over the next year. I like it a lot more than my E91, it's got more space for the kids etc. Plan is to keep it and drive for a while. I'll post a few photos in a bit. It's an M-sport with some decent options.
If for whatever reason you ever come out west to Vancouver there is a guy I found on Craigslist who has a programmer for BMW keys. For $200 he sold me a new BMW key for my E61 with comfort access and he programmed it for me as well. I paid a locksmith $50 to cut the metal portion of the key. Beats the $751 that my local dealer wanted to charge me.
If for whatever reason you ever come out west to Vancouver there is a guy I found on Craigslist who has a programmer for BMW keys. For $200 he sold me a new BMW key for my E61 with comfort access and he programmed it for me as well. I paid a locksmith $50 to cut the metal portion of the key. Beats the $751 that my local dealer wanted to charge me.
Doubtful I'll get that far with the car just for that but appreciate the offer. There is a place in Winnipeg that quoted me $300 to do the same. I know it's possible to program new key fobs away from the dealer. They quoted the same $700 to do it.
I have the spare key for now but it does not start the car. Unlocks the doors but with the adapter it won't start the car. Dealer is gonna check that out for me - I assume for no charge cause it's weird that it won't start the car.
Funny I believe it was the car you ended up buying I was inquiring about as well last spring ? Hope it's treating you well. Not sure yet how I feel about the E61 in general, Love the idea of the car, the size and intent of it, see how it treats me over the next twelve months or so. I know where I think I'll end up (dollar wise) if I do all the stuff I need to for maintenance and bodywork. I figure you lose some cash each year to drive and that price is still cheaper than car payment so......
Well that was a fun time. Spent the past couple days doing some maintenance on the car. Replaced the water pump and thermostat, did the OFHG and cooler gasket (for peace of mind more than anything) did the belt, tensioner and pulleys also replaced the ignition coils (plugs hadj just been done)changed the oil and had a guy local to me walnut blast the intake. Still a handful of stuff I’d like to do but for now this is a good start. Still have some differential fluid to replace and transfer case fluid to change.
I got a picture before and after of my intake valves. They were dirty.
Next big big round of maintenance will be the transmission fluid and mechatronic seals (same local guy likely) the vacuum lines, a VC gasket and maybe vanos solenoids. Also probably time for new pads and rotors and brake fluid flush.
I updated the Nav system to 2019 maps too.
Still only one key for the car so i’ll Try and rectify that. Had a look when I had the engine cover off. I have index 11 injectors. They have about 60,000km on them so should be good for a while. Happy about that you
Last edited by Smith_Jason; 08-07-2019 at 02:07 PM.
Funny I believe it was the car you ended up buying I was inquiring about as well last spring ? Hope it's treating you well.
I've really been enjoying it. I've done quite a bit of work, most of it not necessary but because it's the thing I like to do. It was supposed to have the auto liftgate but a previous owner had removed the pump and hydraulic arm and put a new trim piece in the rear to cover the hole where the hydraulic lines went. Got a new pump and arm on eBay and it's working great. Has a bit of wastegate rattle so I'm currently in the process of repairing that. I've got the subframe on the floor in my garage and the turbos in a shop having the VTT wastegate rattle repair kit installed. I did the oil pan gasket last night for good measure since I'm in there. Thanks for leaving the car for me
I've really been enjoying it. I've done quite a bit of work, most of it not necessary but because it's the thing I like to do. It was supposed to have the auto liftgate but a previous owner had removed the pump and hydraulic arm and put a new trim piece in the rear to cover the hole where the hydraulic lines went. Got a new pump and arm on eBay and it's working great. Has a bit of wastegate rattle so I'm currently in the process of repairing that. I've got the subframe on the floor in my garage and the turbos in a shop having the VTT wastegate rattle repair kit installed. I did the oil pan gasket last night for good measure since I'm in there. Thanks for leaving the car for me
Subframe out to access everything is ideal. Be curious to see how your wastewater repair holds up. Ideally the wagon would be a toy but it’s my DD so out of commission for extended time is not great. So far no rattle on mine. I am just hoping for no leaks out of my water pump replacement as it’s a pain to get at. Hose would be ok but I’ve heard bad stories about the back plastic casing leaking. That would suck. I hung onto my old pump just in case. Bought from FCP so if needed can always swap and return for new
what guide did you follow to remove all that. One day I may be in a similar boat.
what guide did you follow to remove all that. One day I may be in a similar boat.
Well it wasn't as simple as it used to be
With my E46 the Bentley manual is great and gives you everything you need, for the E61.... not so much. It doesn't even tell you how to take the oil pan out! Fortunately there are many others who have done similar things. @gman6262 did a fantastic job with this last year and I got ideas from there. For torque specs I went to newtis and for part numbers to get new stretch bolts/nuts I used realoem. The Bentley manual is a bit helpful for somethings but mostly I decided what I'd do by playing around under the car. I found myself really trying to leave the subframe in, just hang it but then I realized how silly that was because what was I saving by leaving the steering rack in? It's another $20 for the nuts on the endlinks and I will need an alignment anyway... So it was very easy (as others have said) to remove the subframe and then I had tons of space. The worst part was getting the oil fittings off the top of the turbos but fortunately I could dismount the turbos with the lines attached and do that on the garage floor. Here's some photos along the way. I'm hoping to get the turbos back from the shop today with the new VTT flappers installed and can start to put it back together. Got the oil pan on yesterday and the front diff will go back on when I get the new o-rings and seals from BMW today.
I opted not to do the water pump because I don't actually think they fail as often as people say they do. I also don't operate on the theory that it's preventative because if that was the case you could argue I should replace the whole engine every two years because something could fail. After removing the subframe it's really easy to get to the water pump so if I have to do it in the future I can get the pump for $400 from rockauto and another $60 for bolts and it's in. (plus $100 for alignment I guess). I didn't even have to remove it to get to the front turbo so my ECS turbo fastener kit which came with water pump bolts will not need those used.
I opted not to do the water pump because I don't actually think they fail as often as people say they do. I also don't operate on the theory that it's preventative because if that was the case you could argue I should replace the whole engine every two years because something could fail. After removing the subframe it's really easy to get to the water pump so if I have to do it in the future I can get the pump for $400 from rockauto and another $60 for bolts and it's in. (plus $100 for alignment I guess). I didn't even have to remove it to get to the front turbo so my ECS turbo fastener kit which came with water pump bolts will not need those used.
That's fair. I wasn't throwing codes on mine either (and apparently you'll get shadow codes long before it actually dies, and I was way below the 100,000 miles threshold), but I have heard lots about failures and because it's ridiculous cold here and I can't be down for multiple days without my car in the winter I figured it was a good thing to do. Now that I know how to do it I can get it in and out pretty quick, so if anything it was good practice and now I won't worry about it too much for a while. When I bought my E91 the PO (who was also a BMW tech) had done it at 80,000km. The E61 I owned briefly last summer had only been done at over 200,000 km. I think living where it gets cold and not too hot helps the electronics on it. You can actually read the temperature of the electronics on it while the car is running.....
Finally managed to track a guy down in Winnipeg who does keys. Because I have a 2010 with updated security he actually had to pull the CAS module out and connect to it. If you didn't know it was an aftermarket fob you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Its the same Siemens VDO piece with same part numbers and everything, he laser cut the key and did the programming out of his mobile service on a side street while I hung out. Took about an hour and half total, cost $280 and now I have two proper CA keys for my car. He also was able to see why my spare isn't working. At some point BMW disabled the transponder......bizarre. So now my spare key works too. So I have the two CA keys and a proper spare key as it was ordered. My OCD is satisfied, if nothing else.
In other totally unrelated news I received my very first tailgate wiring fault. License plate bulb malfunction, which was not the bulb as it came back to life a few hours later.....so I have some tailgate wiring to repair. My research and gut tells me I will do all the wires and I am looking at the Sencom kit and will plan on installing week after Canadian Thanksgiving. It was already on my to-do list but was planning on doing it next spring. I guess the car has other ideas and again I'd rather sort this out now and not in January in a small town somewhere with my tailgate glass causing a problem.
Really enjoined the car, went on a trip to Winnipeg and back Friday (250km each way) it really eats up the highway miles. The Nav screen antiglare is messed up too (which is common apparently) so may take a stab at fixing that too. Found quite a few DIY's on that. I guess in their infinite wisdom BMW changed the screen for the CIC system and got rid of the screen protector for a better viewing experience, which likely worked until it got touched. Hahahah, so some plastic polish and a screen protector application will be in my future.
Last edited by Smith_Jason; 08-25-2019 at 10:06 AM.
When I did a bunch of work this summer, I noted some oil in by the injectors and thought I’d get back in there and clean it up a couple weeks back. Glad I did because while I was there I noted a crack on my VC. Previous owner to me had replaced the VCG but not the cover. So ordered a new cover from FCP, drove like a grandpa for another bit, watched a couple really good YouTube DIYs and got myself psyched up. Took about 4 hours Friday after work and got everything apart and back together again, took an hour Saturday after lunch and got the engine covers etc back on. So about 5 hours total from start to finish. Went well, couple minor thing going back together. I routed the PCV hose wrong, so had to come back for that and when I stopped Friday night I had left the fuel rail disconnected so when I re connected the battery I spilled a bit of fuel. Other than the fuel stink while doing it, I enjoyed doing the job. Learned something new and wouldn’t be scared to do it again. I’ll probably take the covers etc off next weekend to have a look. Reality is I should have left the engine cover off for the week, rookie move.
07-26-2019, 03:53 PM
New (again) E61 owner
