lufbramatt

There is a guy on the "BMW e39 club uk buy/sell" page on facebook selling a load of bottles of lifeguard 5 fluid quite cheap. Maybe worth a look. No association with seller, I just happened to notice it this morning.

cheers, less than I thought. That can go on the list then!

these look great. What's a ballpark cost for a steering wheel retrim? Although the leather on mine is in ok condition some of the stitching is coming away under the top of the rim.

It's really not that hard a job just a bit fiddly. Some very long (150mm+) torx screwdriver bits (for the screw that holds the "foot" in place) and various long straight and angled needle nose pliers are a must. Get the slidey bits in the runners before you clip the ball joints together. Once you get a feel for where you're aiming for it's not too bad. the remains of the old ball will be stuck in the "foot" these are a PITA to remove, need a couple of very thin flat screwdrivers to lever the clip out.

I had a hairline crack in one of the radiator end caps that would only show up when the engine was really hot and under pressure. Fine mist of coolant was spraying out but not enough for it to cause it to overheat. That gave a funny sweet smell through the blowers.

haha woops would much rather be back in 2012 with the London Olympics to look forward to and no kids to home school!

The top bit of the hoses underneath starts to perish and go porous. the Febi branded hoses I used were identical to the OEM ones so wouldn't have any issues using those. About £25-30 each IIRC.

watching. Hopefully 2021 will be the year I get mine sorted. Don't need any welding but need both rear arches/quarter panels/sills doing, both front wings and the panel under the boot. need somewhere in north Kent ideally.

I know it's inevitable that the original plastic ones eventually break, but they seem to last 15+ years. Mine went last year and they were 17 years old. Is the rest of the car going to last another 15 years? doesn't seem worth spending that much money on metal adjusters when nylon ones are a tenner.

As an example, this was part of what I had to make- back of the rear drivers side footwell. the fuel tank is right behind the vertical section. Can see I had already replaced a 8" square section of the floorpan.

It all depends how bad it is, how much of the interior they need to strip out, how much stuff they need to unbolt off the bottom for access. When I did mine it had spread in the floor pans on the drivers side and up the inside of the sills next to the fuel tank so ended up having to strip the seats and carpets out, and drop the axle, exhaust and fuel tank. Fabricating patches is time consuming also, fine if its just the flat bottom of the sills, but as soon as you have to start replicating folds, radii and multi layered sections it all takes a lot longer.

edit- sorry misread OP. ignore me

How long does the CCV system last on these engines? Mine had it done by a previous owner about 7 years ago but is starting to show the odd symptom that makes me think it might need doing again. also does anyone have a diagram of where all the vacuum hoses are that need checking?

Don't see what difference it makes if you're paying a garage to fit it anyway? Plenty of people breaking these cars that would be able to remove an exhaust. £30 to hire a van for a day vs a good few hundred for a BMW part.

Agree with above, get a complete exhaust off a breaker. Heavy and bulky though so transport might be interesting. When I had the exhaust off mine to do some welding+ brake pipes etc. it was in mint condition and cleaned up really nicely. That was on a 14 year old car at the time. the steel wasn't magnetic so they must have used some sort of stainless steel from the factory.