2010 30d M Sport - Carbon Black Diary

[Sit]

Picture of OEM boot liner courtesy of Cotswold BMW -



Si

[acarty]

[quote="Sit"]
Does look so much better, I like that - did you have to cut the surround away from the round tail pipes or does it unclip? Was number removal required??

Si
[/quote]

The black plastic surrounds just pop off (small plastic clips hold them on)... I think I sold these for £30 for the pair!

The bumper didn't need to come off either, cut the old tail pipes near the backbox, slide them out (carefully!) and then slide the new ones in and clamp up.

I have the same boot liner, finishes it off really nicely whilst protecting the carpets.

[Sit]

So i have experienced my first fault/problem with the car, over the last few days I noticed the front and rear lights weren't illuminating when unlocking the car. I thought perhaps I had changed a setting whilst meddling with iDrive but it seems there is no such switching function for these lights.

Then I went out this morning and started the car and got the dreaded 'bong bong' noise and it popped up a message of 'Increased Battery Discharge' so I posted a thread on the E70 problems area and did a bit of googling and it seems my battery could be on the way out hence the lights not coming on etc.

Its a bit of a pain as the next week or so we planed to use it quite a lot with a weekend to Devon this weekend, trip to the airport for a LapLand holiday next week and the following weekend we are travelling unto London so it couldn't have come at a worse time.

Some comfort that it has AUC warranty which makes specific mention of covering the battery so I will call my local BMW dealer tomorrow and see if I can get it in before the weekend for a check/replacement battery. Failing that I will have to carry on as normal and hop that BMW Assist comes into its own if so required.......

Keep you posted.

Si

[Waka]

To get the 'follow-me home' lights (I think they're called), you have to have the headlight switch set to auto. I think the car is smart enough to turn bits off when the battery is low so that could be happening.

Interesting comment about the AUC warranty possibly covering the battery. I occasionally get the discharge message although my warranty is the BMW insured warranty I have bought myself and had assumed the battery wouldn't be covered due to wear and tear - unless AUC has better terms than the insured version?

[Sit]

Yes I think the follow me home function has been switched off because of battery issues as lights are permanently on ‘auto’ setting so guessing it made its own mind up!!

The BMW warranty page states - ‘The warranty provides 12 month coverage, even guaranteeing your vehicle’s battery and exhaust system.’

This may only be applicable to AUC but worth a check on their website.

Si

[Sit]

So the inevitable happened whilst on holiday with the family in Devon - ‘Battery Charge Very Low’ graced my iDrive screen, a number of things switched themselves off and oddly I also got a message saying that ‘P is not currently available, please ensure you apply the parking brake when leaving the car’ which I thought a little unusual.

So I called BMW Assist into action, logged the fault and the fact I was on holiday needing to get home later this afternoon. They advised they would send an engineer within 60 mins.......30 mine later I have a call from the engineer asking for directions to our cabin on the park. He arrives, connects his testing equipment and diagnoses a faulty alternator; which bizarrely is OVERCHARGING the battery?!?. He calls back into control to log the fault and shortly after BMW Assist call me to advise my car will be collected shortly and taken to BMW Exeter (closest to where we were staying) for repair in the morning to begin. I then have a call from Enterprise Rent A Car telling me BMW have been in touch to arrange a hire car to be delivered to us as the park, a Nissan XTrail has been agreed (equivalent size due to holidaying) however they couldn’t deliver it as skeleton staff being a Sunday. They will send a taxi to fetch me, 30mins later Jeff rings my mobile to say he is at reception to collect me and take me to Enterprise Rent A Car.

A short journey to Exeter Airport where a ‘67 plate Nissan XTrail is waiting, quick handover from the rep, some signatures and a £50 refundable deposit and I am on my way.

Very impressive BMW!!!! I will keep you posted on developments, hopefully they carry on in the same manner as today.....

Si

[X5Sport]

With the P function being electric, losing the battery means you cannot disengage ‘P’ without some serious messing about under the car (used to be possible from under the front left cup holder using the big red key), hence it being disabled.

I wonder if the BMW Warranty includes Assist?  Somehow I suspect not!

[Sit]

Morning, that makes some sense about the ‘P’ issue, luckily I got 12 months Assist as well as Warranty so we are all good from that perspective.

Si

[Sit]

So it’s been a hectic week!!!!

After heading off to the airport and dropping off the X Trail we flew out to LapLand with our daughter for an amazing trip. Whilst out there I was notified that overnight one of my rear airbags had collapsed and the technician walked into the workshop to find it all lop sided! So the fault was investigated and found to be an ‘internal battery fault’ which was causing the electrical gremlin. The airbag was also stripped out and refitted to sort that issue out as well.

We flew back into Bristol airport late last night after an unfortunate delay, waiting for us was a ‘66 plate 320d M Sport to get us all home. I have to say having not driven any of the new generation BMW’s I was very impressed with the 3 Series although the lack of space compared to the X5 was noticeable. Anyway BMW called me this morning to tell me my car was ready and would be delivered back to my door at lunchtime. At 12.30 this arrived outside my house -



Even better was an invoice on the front seat which had a balance due of £00.00 - the best invoices to get!! The car seems transformed and I am not sure why whether it’s because I haven’t driven it for 5 days or whether them replacing the battery has reset everything but it seems much more ‘eager’ and box seems less lethargic???

All in all super pleased and very impressed with service from BMW, shows where your money goes when you buy through a dealer. Off upto London tomorrow for the weekend so will report back on how we get on.

Si

[X5Sport]

A faulty alternator could sap a lot of power from the engine as drag so a new one will have got rid of that issue 

[graemeX5]

Hi

That sounds like a good result with Bmw and not a bad week either 

Graeme

[Sit]

Thanks Graeme - it’s been a bit of a whirlwind and was always set to be a busy week but when the X5 failed I had visions of chaos, but I am pleased to report it went swimmingly.

As I previously mentioned we were heading upto London for the weekend to visit friends, a good opportunity to stretch the legs of the car and ensure all was well. The journey up was hampered by a bizarre decision from Highways to close an entire junction in both directions on the M4 for the whole weekend - the diversion was horrendous and pretty much nose to tail in both directions. It added an hour or so onto our journey but we arrived safely and in utter comfort at our hotel around 1pm.

The X5 remained parked for the weekend at the hotel as we took in Christmas At Kew which was superb and if you havent been I can’t recommend it highly enough, London is blessed with incredible public transport options compared to carrot crunching Somerset, we had no reason to use the car.

We woke on Sun morning to find it had been snowing most of the night and was continuing to snow fairly heavily through the morning. We headed out for a super Sunday roast before getting loaded back up and heading home. I decided to go M3 then A303 on the way back to avoid certain gridlock on the M4 and it’s diversion again. The light quickly drew in and at 4pn it was pretty much dark, the snow was still falling but it absolutely reminded me why I bought the X5.

My wife was sat comfortably, heated seat on dozing intermittently my daughter in the back also snoozing and despite the dark, cold, snowy conditions I felt absolutely safe. The car was planted and sat happily with cruise control on not a bit bothered by the falling temperatures or road conditions. The space, comfort and cabin ambience is unrivalled and having owned 40+ cars I am hard pushed to pick out something better.

Morefamily trips are planned as Christmas draws ever nearer and no doubt the car will take it all in its stride. I have to admit though that having spent a weekend in London where nearly every 4x4 is adorned with a big set of shiny black alloys, thoughts turn to buying a present for my car.........

Si

[Sit]

So since coming back from repair the X5 has been pretty faultless in terms of what they have replaced, all the electrics are behaving themselves and suspension sits as it should so all good there.

It is due a brake fluid change in the next few weeks so going to go online and book that in at Westerly BMW, Bridgwater. Whilst it is there I am going to ask them to have a look at a couple of other issues that have come to light -

The heater fan has started making a 'bird' type noise, to start with we weren't sure what it was but slowly through a process of elimination found that if you switched the fan off completely the noise stopped. It can be drowned out by turning the radio up a few notches but sometimes you don't want the radio on and I leave the climate set to 'AUTO' so it persistently chirps away which is a nuisance.

The second problem that made its presence known this morning after a night of rain was when opening the top half of the boot water literally poured out of the boot lock/mechanism which I am sure isn't a good sign and suggests that a drain is blocked or something is letting in water. With all the electrics for lights, boot release and lock I am guessing it should probably be a dry area?!?

So hopefully they can be sorted alongside brake fluid change and the warranty should take care of costs all being well.

Other than that I am loving every trip and feel it was the perfect choice for us.

Keep you posted.

Si

[X5Sport]

My E53 started producing bird like noises and it was necessary to remove the dash to find which of the multitude of fans was upset.  It was believed to be a bearing drying out.

[Horizon]

I had the same problem with my 3 series E93, aparantly a common problem with the E9# series. I read on a forum that someone had an easy fix.
They said remove the pollen filters and look down the ducting , you could see the fan blade and the offending part was the washer that stops the blade coming off, it rusts and causes the squeak/ chirp
I sprayed it with PTFE / penitrating fluid and it's been fine for over 12 months.
Worth a look if you can see the fan. If not accessible  could be a big job as X5 Sport has said.