yeewiz: you posted sometime back about moving the modules on top of the spare tire but could not.

I wonder if its worth removing the tire, going to the lousy RFT ride and keeping the modules high. just a thought

 

obiwan, nah, not a chance, I prefer a spare tire. My options appear to be:

1) Wait for a LCI owner to confirm or deny the existence of a drain valve in the spare tire well. If there is one, I'll install it. FWIW, I've looked at the trunk floor diagram of an LCI E61 in realoem.com and I don't see a drain valve. FWIW, I suck at searching realoem.com so it's possible there can still be a drain valve in some other diagram.

2) Move the electronics to above the spare tire either in that styrofoam filler that sits in the spare tire wheel, or into the felt compartment above the spare tire

Lotus99, you don't have to yank on the tubes. If you reach up from under the car, you can feel the SureClog valves and just peel them off with your fingertips. That's what I did.

 

Yeewiz, I thought that only the driver's side tube (from what I recall reading in one of the threads) was reachable from below car, without pulling off things from under the car?

I was going to take out the spare wheel once, just to practice, but it looked like a real PITA. I looked it up quickly in the manual, and it seems you have to pop off the hydraulic arm or something? I yanked on it a bit, and it didn't come off, so I didn't want to risk breaking it if I'm doing it wrong.

Is there some tricks to taking off the trunk floor to access the tire?

 

do you have the trunk floor with two compartment covers, or just one big cover?

if you have two, popping off the hydraulic arm of the smaller cover is very easy and you dont risk breaking anything.

1. just grab it at the lower end and pull upwards - it will easily detach from a ball joint
2. detach the two strings that limit the opening of the cover - just grab the round plastic elements at the upper end of the strings, and slide them upwards (to the roof of the car) to take them out of the rails
3. now its time for the actual hinges of the cover. as the cover is free from any restrictions - open it and carefully continue to move it towards the front of the car, until the two hinges "pop out". then you can take it out of the car.

this is all made to be done a million times, so no real risks unless you are acting like you're on drugs

 

1) you can get to both tube ends from under the car. you do have to remove the undercladding to get to the passenger side one but it's not that difficult

2) follow mmitev's instructions to remove the trunk cover, he's exactly right, and it's really not that bad

3) we need you to remove the spare wheel and the electronics under it so we can see if there is a drain valve in your wheel well. a lot of us are waiting for this answer. we'll help you if you have questions.

 

Thx 4 the replies guys.

The undercladding on the pass side, is it obvious what I'm supposed to remove? I assume I don't need to first open up the inside trim to see the tube itself?

I'll try to check for the drain in the next few days hopefully after work, when there's daylight, and report back. If I see any drains, I'll report back.

 

Thanks for the instructions. I managed to do it, which was a good thing, as the spare tire only had 35 PSI of air, vs. the recommended 60. On this first part though, the one thing that I noticed - because my motto is often when you're using force, you must be doing it wrong! - that at the bottom of the hinge, there's like a plastic jacket with an arrow on it pointing up, which slides up and down, and when you slide it up, THEN the hinge pops off the ball (it's like a shoulder socket).

 

SUNROOF DRAINS

So I decided to test my sunroof drains, and noticed that for the front two corners, there is a little hole, which I poured water into, and it immediately poured out behind the wiring of each front door, where there's a tube! Cool! Those drains work!

Then I poured water in the OUTER gutter, as per the tip in the thread on sunroof drains, and the water started dripping out by the rear bumper corners! Cool. So at least my drains aren't clogged. I tried to see the tube on the driver's side, and from what I could see and feel, there was no "cap" on it, like the attached picture from someone else who yanked theirs off. Looked as if you'd just cut a tube, it had nothing attached at the end. The tube I'd say is as thick as your thumb, but it was totally open, except for an S shaped rubber divider in the middle of it. So I think they redesigned this tube for the later models!
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SPARE WHEEL WELL DRAIN

Then I went and checked for you guys the drain in the spare wheel well, and I'm sorry to report that there was none...

But I've come across some BMW tech bulletins about how to drill holes in the wheel well for that problem as well as how to relocate modules, in case it helps!

Here's a pic of the wheel well (after the picture of the old sytle valve):
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Lotus99, thank you for solving the mystery of the LCI spare wheel well drain (or absence of) and the tech bulletins.

So, folks, the SI B 61 13 06 pdf says: "c. In the bottom of the trunk are 4 stamped openings in the sheet metal which are filled with seam sealer. Drill a 1-2mm one hole through the center of each of the forward 2 stamped openings only.
NOTE: The drilled holes should only penetrate the seam sealer and not the steel floor pan."

Anyone have a guess where these stamped openings are? I'm guessing they're where the arrows are in this picture but I'm open to opinions:



TIA!

 

Does anyone in this thread (or others) have any updates on their fixes?

I am going through a bunch of preventative measures with my '06 wagon and this is one.

Thanks