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In keeping with the current trend for car polishing I gave mine a basic snow foam pressure wash all over before washing the roof and bonnet with a lambs wool wash pad to remove any residual dirt and going over them with a clay mitt. The paint wasn't in too bad a state so it was difficult to get any meaningful photos of the minimal swirl marks present but here's a couple of wider shots before I commence polishing. After polishing with Bilt Hamber Cleanser Polish. And after a coat of Bilt Hamber Double Speed Wax. The photos don't really do the finish justice. Even Mrs CP notice the difference when she arrived home from work. The paint feels luxurious and silky smooth. After doing all that by hand my arm was getting ready to drop off so I went and fitted and registered my new battery which arrived the other day. That was pretty easy, especially having seen @apples12s tips and @Matthew Ashtons guidance re registering with ISTA. Thanks chaps. I'll get round to posishing the rest of the car in the next few days and put up some better photos.

2nd coat of wax and some new angles

Probably nobody cares but ill update anyway, inlet manifold is not as clean as id hoped, still lots of crusty build up in there but i think at some point ill revisit this with a bath in kilo of caustic soda. That aside, its all back together with new Elring seals, also used some instant gasket on the blanks, everything torqued up to spec and no bolts left over. Just cleared the codes and took it for a drive and all the power is back, re-read codes and its all clear now including 41AB

So after a month or so of searching, I found a set of Style 37's. I know they are common wheels on the E39 (and obviously factory fit on some) But I just had to have these wheels after having them on my 540i many years ago. I was only really looking for a half-decent set which were round and presentable as this car is never going to be show worthy, just clean and usable! They need new tyres, but I wanted to fit them anyway so I could list my wheels for sale and check the car drove OK (albeit without any wheel weights as I removed them all for cleaning!) The wheels as bought (with worn 2016 P-Zero's and less worn 2016 AUTOGRIP M+S Tyres!) The cleaning process below shows AutoSmart wheel cleaner, Auto Finesse Iron Out (twice), White spirit (for tar spots as I have run out of AS Tardis) a quick polish with Lime Prime, wipe down with brake and clutch cleaner and finally a coat of Gtechniq C5 Wheel Armour. I also touched in some of the curbing to take the edge off and seal any water ingress - however, the factory lacquer on these doesn't really seem to lift. I also transferred my "Floating" centre caps from the Style 66's and replaced all of the wheel bolts with new (the lockers are arriving today and should be the same style and key as existing) with the often lost covers as well. Overall I am really happy and will now proceed to order the new tyres (which I have changed my mind on again!)

I had issues with AutoDoc a few months ago about my faulty MAF. Wanted hundreds of photos on & off the car, the returns form was then a ball ache too as they kept adding extra information they wanted (despite always filling in what they told me to). Plus you don't deal with just one person; multiple emails from different people. One will say it's fine and the other says not . . . . took about a month to resolve. I got a refund and bought the replacement item elsewhere. Like d_a_n, i won't use them again for this return hassle. When stuff goes wrong it should not be an issue to correct and take a large amount of time! I'd prefer to pay a bit more and get it in the UK, much easier to sort out issues.

After fitting the new battery yesterday and deleting the fault codes showing at the time, driving a total of 100 miles to and from work today and scanning for any new codes upon returning home I was happy to find a clean sheet From this To this All clear again. That's nice to see.

3hrs to get this part shaped cut and welded in after some etch. Time consuming work but think will look ok when stone chip covers it all. still got the part to the left of this repair to do but not sure how the part goes where the drain pipe sticks through, think i will just do a hole and use a bung.

Simple ion-echange, i.e. washing soda; it shifts all forms of lime-based scale (e.e tea-scale in your mug, clouding on glasses in the dishwasher etc) because the sodium ions displace the calcium, and its so much more soluble it all washes off. tl;dr: So I'd try a generous handful of washing soda in the bucket of warm car wash solution, see how you get on with that ;)

Last couple of days I’ve revived this. Given to me by a mate without tyres or seat. Got a seat off a neighbour binning a bike a while back and then last week another bike was heading to the skip so I had the wheels (with consent). So fitted the seat, new tyres and tubes. Adjusted the brakes and sorted a no indexing gear shift a spring has gone but works. A good clean and I have a tidy pub bike

Bought her a new outfit. I'm not furloughed or otherwise off the road, on the contrary I'm keyworker and haven't stopped since the apocalypse began. Used to have 1-2 work from home days a week previously, lucky if I've had one a week since March. Problem is that there is a new housing estate being built about a mile from me here on the South Downs, and they dug up hundreds of tonnes of chalk when they started. Trucking it away was slow to begin with, even more so in recent weeks, and the wind carries loads of it from this giant white temporary mountain over the whole village. Every time I clean my car, 24 hours later it's coated in the stuff. It's even worse if there is rain or condensation forming overnight on the car, which then dries off and leaves nasty chalky deposits, looks shocking. Proper vexed about it, cleaned the car today - twice in the hope of reducing them a little - with little effect on the countless spots. . So it's this tasteful off the shoulder number (with matching car sponge with hole in on the roof around the antenna to spread the weight of the cover) until this building crap is over. I'll put up with the ballache of getting it off every day at half five in the morning over watching it get worse and worse. So, anyone know any sure fire ways to get rid of water stains? I've heard limited to mixed results for vinegar. Also, I hate the smell of vinegar

Grabbed a few hrs this morning. Got all the chassis leg re boxed. and started making the little repair on the inside. all welded in bit of paint, and started making the main part of the inner wing. hopefully will get that bit all welded in tomorrow.

Replaced the fuel rail, fuel injectors and fuel pressure regulator with some new old stock items: Also replaced the ignition lead plastic carrier as the rear mounting tab had broken off: Enjoy your weekend and stay safe. regards, Mick

You are very welcome. Good to hear you got it sorted. Thanks @Keliuss for the kind words too

I'm a happy bunny now. I drove two hours to the dealer in the previous car (msport suspension with the runflats refitted for sale) two hours and then got straight in the VDC car. Even with runflats on the VDC car, the difference was obvious as soon as I was off the forecourt. The car doesn't jiggle about and become upset from even minor road imperfections, and is much more composed through holes etc.. Comfort+ on the motorway was exactly as good as I'd hoped, and not as wallowy on B roads as some posts would leave you to believe. I'm surprised how composed it is despite managing to be very soft and smooth. The Pano roof and oyster interior makes it feel really light and airy, and the 6wb dash and pro nav is a big improvement over my previous 6wa and business nav. Memory seats is nice to have, and the speed limit camera is surprisingly handy. This is what I'd hoped the previous car would be like, and is what I'd expect from a modern 5 series. Looks like I'll be keeping this for a while! Thanks to everyone for the advice on the VDC.

Pretty much yeah everytime I scan same codes are there ....

Yes, suspension work is so expensive. The parts aren't cheap and there can be lots of labour involved as well. If you're in the south-east that adds up really fast.

And i found a interesting site on BMW oxygen sensor trouble code,but the code is different 2A5F http://www.car-auto-repair.com/how-to-solve-bmw-320-oxygen-sensor-trouble-code-2a5f/

Hi, As per Ray above, except he meant 'FM'. The DAB+ unit will have a range of frequencies it'll 'transmit on' so choose one that isn't the same as an actual FM radio station in use, lets say it's 88.9 FM. In the car, you tune and save a present to 88.9 and that 'station' will pick up whatever the DAB+ unit is tuned to on the DAB+ list. I think the included instruction book may be a bit 'vague' ! Not sure if the DAB+ unit can be connected to a DAB antenna (doubt it) so I'd imagine performance may be somewhat hit and miss, but depends on how strong the DAB+ signal is in the areas you drive around in most often. Cheers, Dennis!

Update : Finally all my ordered items arrived shame it had to be from different suppliers to either get the best price or item out of stock, the only thing I did add to the list was a Halfords Advanced 200 1/2" torque wrench for the wheel nuts especially as I now have the Dewalt DCF 894P2 impact wrench, I was worried about how much torque was being applied putting the nuts back on with the impact wrench, it turns out I need not have worried because doing the wheels nuts up without access to a high reading torque wrench for 45 years, by judging the approximate torque being applied with an extended wheel wrench I was within 1-2 lbs from the 140Nm specified torque, but now I have one I will use it more often. Where I have found my low reading torque wrench particularly necessary was when removing and replacing the glow plugs, if set to marginally below the maximum torque specified by the manufacturers for the glow plugs you are not likely to snap one off in the head. Now for my daft or stupid question does anyone know how to easily remove the Halfords Advanced 200 torque wrench from its slide box, I have several car tools items in similar slide boxes that pull apart easily with a slight resistance on the plastic indentations, but Halfords box is damn near impossible to open I have tried squeezing where there are two arrows marked on the box on all four sides, but you can only squeeze two of them together, but this makes no difference to opening the box, I think Halfords must have taken to fitting child proof openings on their 200 series torque wrench. So I don't mind being stupid for the day if anyone knows how to open the plastic box, especially during this lockdown it's not easy to go back to Halfords to ask them how the box opens, the only way I have managed to open it so far is with a flat screwdriver and prising it open Second photo is the only parts for the BMW 520d rear pads and wear sensor, in first photo brake parts are for the wife's Mini Cooper, and third photo that damn Halfords box why can't they be like the Norbar one above.

More Messing in lock down. I've done something I swore I'd never do and tinted my own windows. I tried to get a couple of local guys to do it but they were not working. Spent £25 on decent tint film and started at the worst one which is the back window. Wasted a bit getting the hang of the way it shrinks with the heat gun but got there eventually. I took my time and did it over 4 days. A few trips, stumbles and waste and it was done. Redone the shadowline vinyl and had a play with what was left. Fitted a heated seat kit to the drivers seat and mounted the switch on the seat side where the oem lumbar adjuster is. I've fitted them before in my e39 se seats but doing it this time on the sport seat was a ball ache. I added extra padding to the seat base and bolsters while I was at it. That's it for now. 223,000 miles on the old bus.

MOT time - first one in over 2.5 years! *Passed

In some cars, the voltage to the alternator used to go through the bulb. So if the bulb went, the alternator would not work. The E34 has a resistor in parallel with the bulb so even if the bulb went, the D+ terminal would still receive power. The power to the bulb comes from fuse 17. It goes via the unloader relay to D+ terminal of the alternator. That terminal is negative when you turn the engine on so the bulb lights up. When the alternator is charging, the alternator changes that so the bulb goes out. You don't mention the year of the car but I am pretty certain they all work in the same way. Diagrams are here: http://www.wedophones.com/BMWManualsLead.htm