C's Bimmer

I just wanted to give props to one of the best contributors on this forum. I'm not sure if any of you have ever had him respond to any of your questions, but he is without a doubt one of the most knowledgable members on this forum. His name is Nick (nicke60gre) and he saved me at the dealership today.

You may have seen a recent post by me whereby my xenon headlights were not leveling out, after I lowered my car. The headlights were pointing down and only giving me about 10-20 yards of visibilty ahead of me (not good). I tried to play with the lights, but it didn't work. Nick posted a possible cause of the problem, which I didn't know even existed. I PM'ed him immediately for further info. He told me that our cars have a "Level Sensor" on one of the front struts, which controls the leveling of our lights. Who knew!?!? He even proceeded to send me a link to realoem.com which showed the EXACT part and where it falls on the front axle. I printed it out and brought it to the dealership with me. The head mechanic came out and asked if I had done any recent work to the front underside of the car. At first, I said, "um, noooo", but he asked again so I gave in and told the truth. Right then, I whipped out the piece of paper Nick had sent me the link to, and told him that I thought this was the possible cause of the problem. The head mechanic looked at me in shock! (as if no other customer would ever know that....hahaha...it was classic). He then proceeded to tell me he's going toi have to charge me b/c they didn't perform the job on lowering the car and it's out of warranty now. Yikes! I almost freaked. Being these salesman that I am, I told him I had been there for 2+ hours and had been very patient. He then walked up and whispered to me, "ok, I will do the job and swap the sensor back to it's original position for 2 reasons. 1) You have been very patient and been waiting a while. 2) You know more about this car than most of our customers and I can see that you really care. I won't charge you and I won't put any notes on your record about this." Ha!

20 minutes later, my car was out and the lights were leveling out as normal.

I just wanted to thank Nick personally and PUBLICLY on the forum. He is a savior!

Nick - You rock man. Thanks again for the ammo. I looked like a superstar when I walked in there and I couldn't have done it without you.

/CC

PS - If you guys have questions about your car, don't go PM'ing Nick now. He has a life outside of his car...I think.

ExGMan

Eek! Scary situation...

Great that Nick helped you out and probably saved your warranty! Just shows to go that more knowledge is better, and how important e60.net really is.

blinkme_210

Care to elaborate what the problem and which part it is for future reference?

EDIT:
Found it, was the regulating rod (#9) stuck or something? http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mo...hg=31&fg=05

C's Bimmer

No, it's part #1 and part #6. It's the Level Sensor. The mechanic said that the sensor was connected backwards, hence the reason the lights wouldn't level. He said the sensor thought the lights were pointing to the rear and inverted, so it actually leveled downwards and not the other way around. Not quite sure how this happened with the front strut, but according to Nick, it's very easy to dislodge or have a crooked sensor when working on the front struts, especially on the xi where the front strut has more parts than the standard RWD cars. I'm sure my guy didn't realize this when he did the work. Anyway, the issue is fixed, my car is back to normal and I didn't void any warranties! This post was more of a thank you to Nick, so I don't want to change that.

Rudy

I agree that Nick is a great contributor here and it's great that he was able to take time to personally help you out via PM, etc. It's also nice that you chose to publically thank him for the work he did. Atta boy Niko!

One thing that's clear -- between our current members and the searchable archives, this place usually has the answers. In the case of the headlights and the level issue, you might be interested in reading the following thread from February 2006:
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=21988

I remember back when that thread was first posted, I assumed there was no connection between springs and lights until member '5 Rakete' told us that there was, in fact, a tie between the two. You learn something new every day around here, that's for sure!

Glad you got your problem solved cmansbimmer!

vegastrashed

I'll chime in as well. Nick helped educate me in offsets and spacers. With his help I found the perfect setup in regards to my 166 wheels, tire dimensions, and spacers without any rubbing.

ICEMAN 316

I agree Nick's great I learned alot reading his posts

mmwaly

I fully support the fact that Nick is a great contributer to this forum, I have a personal experience with him where he helped me alot to retrofit comfort seats in my E60. Thanks Nick.

Busta

nick is the man I regret not meeting him while in Greece :\ but I'tll happen soon

Bimmer530I

Yes, I totally agree with you guys that Nick is one of the greatest contributor to the forum. Thanks Nick.