X5smw

As Greydog recommends, buy the bmw software and plug from the well known selling site. It has proved invaluable for me and saved me a fortune! some things to look at. Check the ht leads and the coils to the spark plugs. A failing one will cause a misfire and sporadic Rev drop and a rough idle. You say it has a small oil leak. I would check where this is coming from. Do you have any white smoke or signs of head gasket failure? Any air gaps in the engine will cause all sorts of issues. fault idle control valve and air inlet sensor will cause lean running and uneven idle. where the air comes in through behind the air filter box is usually a round plug into a square black box with a pipe running through it. Try unplugging that and see what happens. thottle position sensor can cause some of the issues above and just needs resetting. the software will show all the problems and will point you at the problem. I really suggest you get a copy if you are a competent mechanic. good luck and keep us posted.

Makes me sing out loud every time.

I don’t trust water cooling in electrics.... I remember the water cooled pc’s coming out and thinking that running mains, processors and water in a box is asking for trouble! 😂

.... if it had lasted 11 I would have been at home! 😂😂 .... what a pain to get to the bottom alternator bolt. Top tip.: buy a 1/2 drive socket set with a knuckle jointed stubby adaptor. 16 and 17mm sockets and swear for about 3 hours and it will be sorted 👍🏻

..... about ten miles, as I found out on Thursday night.! the battery lights came on and I was driving home around midnight. After about 8 miles things started shutting down, the stereo, interior displays and dash lights... then the headlights... then the engine. I couldn’t pull over as the road had a ditch next to it so I just pulled as far over to the left as I could and rang the police. I was stranded on a country road which I’d a busy lorry route so luckily I flagged a passing car who took my wife and son home the last 2 miles. I put my triangle out and waited for the police to come and was amazed one arrived an seconds!.... only to find they were out looking for someone 🙄. I rang my insurance and they would arrange recovery, ... then my phone died. I used the last of the battery as a torch to warn oncoming speeding lorries and cars.... police arrived and they were organising transportation etc but no tow trucks arrived, I couldn’t get an answer from the insurance company as to why and the police ended up staying with me for 5 hours whilst it got light enough to push the car off the road to avoid the ditch... I got in at 6am, just in time for my alarm to go off so I could go to work! 🙄👍🏻 a big thank you to humber side police and the passing motorist for keeping us safe. no thanks to the insurance company or recovery firms for not bothering about the safety of their clients. I’m currently awaiting a call from their director and the police have raised a complaint to them for wasting resources. anyway.... ordered a replacement alternator on Friday, delivered at 1pm sat and fitted by 4.... all good now. 👍🏻

Are the alarm ultrasonics disabled?

A hire van I had refused to start after the addblue ran out. I would buy some and top it up to make sure it’s full it sounds like it is giving you a warning it may be getting low. The sensor may be active intermittently as the liquid is sloshing around. ... stupid invention! Lol

Morning Kev, welcome to the forum. im not to far away, just the other side of the bridge 👍🏻

Hi Sam and welcome. I have owned a couple of e46 3 series and they are usually reliable. the issues I have had is that the rear arches rust like they are made of paper. Don’t know why, but they all seem to be like that. I had a fuel pump fail for no reason and a ht lead fail. I replaced the brake discs and all pads easily and I changed the rear shocks by myself. So nothing is really a big issue. mim not sure if the 318 was fitted with vanos or nickasil issues? My 316 was fine, just needed a clean every now and then. Insurance is weird, my e36 was more than my e46 and the x5 is less than them both. I bought my wife a silly little street ka and it was nearly 2k to insure it! .... it got sold and we bought another 316 e46 saloon. 02 plate and the insurance was £600 fully comp.

Hi battybird. Welcome. im sure you can register one to the car if you have the correct software. what model do you have? Year? @Greydogwill be able to tell you more 👍🏻

Hi jim the loom might already be fitted and you can just plug it in. If I am right, which is not often... you can just run a 12v feed to the seat if needed, although when you switch the engine off it won’t revert back or remember settings. what model is your car? my seats in thex5 have memory from the ecu so when I get in, the seat and heaters and radio and mirrors , steering wheel etc move to my preferred position. Likewise if my wife uses her key it does the same for her. this is an option if the loom is in place and the seats can be programmed for comfort entry I think it’s called.

Basic principle of over unity with regards to charging. You can’t use a battery to power the car, use all the ancillaries and use a Dynamo to charge the other battery... the magnet in the charger would have to be so large, it would stop the drive battery from running and you would end up with 2 flat batteries! to trickle charge the second battery to even get a mile of power, would take 500 miles of driving. If you could create more power from the device you use, thus overunitiy... you would solve the worlds oil crisis, stop wars and become the richest person ever.... vive la fossil fuels!

Convert the car to run on lpg. converting a non electric car would not be viable at all. the costs to build it from the chassis up would be ridiculous. Batteries weigh in at around 300kg and you would have to introduce things like regen braking and basically just build a bmw shell over a new vehicle. our company is switching the fleet to all electric... all good for the office staff, but us as engineers can cover 500 plus miles a day.... once you think about loading it up with gear, and ladders, we got figures of around 90 miles on a purpose built car. one of my mates is doing a course at Tesla and it still amazes him what goes into the car design. Thats my two pence worth

Welcome Alan. We are a useful bunch... mostly . where in Glasgow are you from? I had a girlfriend from knightswood and one from bellshill. I used to live in Newton mearns too!

Check the fuel pump. Remove the rear bench seat and turn the key to 2. You should hear the pump spin and prime. That would be my first point of call. the relay is located behind the fuse box in the glove box ... hopefully

Hi all and thanks for the festive message. Dave, thank you for all your help over the last year and your knowledge is a great help to us all. to everyone on the forum, have a safe and happy festive period. Keep the cars clean and see you all in 2021. Blessings to you all!

What car is it? Does it have throttle positioning sensor? are the idle revs always stable?

Personally I would hand it back, get the finance company to deal with it. check all the documents to make sure they didn’t list this or any repair work on any receipt. also, make sure you get a receipt from the finance company that you have relinquished ownership to them and the garage. I got in a massive mess because of a missing document that the finance company ‘forgot’ to send me. If it is a precious car to her, then ask for an independent valuation of the car with found issues and approach the finance company with that figure. see what they say. good luck, but you should not be having to spend any money replacing what was not declared in the finance agreement

Would the brake pad wear light be yellow and not red? if the pads are ok, as greydog said, check the wires. If you short them out... ie connect them, the light should extinguish, telling you it’s the wear sensors.

I got some new lights... set of standard on eBay for £35 delivered.... guess what.... I CAN SEE!!! the issue was the lenses on the aftermarket units. Now to find some decent led lights

I married a Latino salsa dancer ..... doing 200mph On a unicycle blindfolded And on fire would be less on the edge! 😂😂😂 quarry doesn’t have any lights in at the moment, but the hunt is on!

Hi Dave. i think the lenses are the issue on the aftermarket ones. I’ll get some standard ones and try them. I might take your tip and fit some halo units in when I get time 👍🏻 .... as for driving slowly, my wife is Brazilian and does not understand the word slow! .... or knows who Elton John is! 😂😂😂

Update..... i finally got round to getting some led lights... I cannot See a thing! im going to go back standard lens and run led bulbs. i could tell they were brighter as the road signs were lit up in the distance, but absolutely nothing in front of the car... and I mean nothing. The angle of the light is correct as they self level, but it is just a faint glow. Projector headlights are a bad bad design. as I live in the countryside, I couldn’t even make out the road markings. I was expecting Blackpool illuminations, I got Elton John’s candle in the wind! 😂

I had this on my e46. When I pushed the clutch in, the noise went away and it was fine in gear.... it was the thrust bearing on the gearbox. I had to replace the clutch as the bearing failed and left me stranded. hopefully it’s not as serious for you.

We had a quote at my old bike shop that said ‘nothing is impossible, it just costs a lot more’ .....