BMW DIY advice, and the occasional critique of the company
This weekend I found a video that really conveys the excitement of BMW E39 M5 ownership. Parker Nirenstein lovingly describes his 2001 M5 while promoting his purchase assist company Vehicle-Virgins.com: I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment. A few corrections and clarifications to the video: He quotes $92,000 as the original price of the car […]
Right after the new year I upgraded my E36 M3 headlights with a new set of European elliptical headlights from BMW supplier Hella. Here’s the full story. After I installed them I had the beams adjusted at a local service station. Recently I noticed that the headlight assemblies were no longer flush to the corner […]
Earlier this week my E39 M5 had a flat tire, driver side rear. This happened to me while I was traveling on the Washington Beltway, heading north 95/east 495 going from Tysons to Alexandria. The loss of air pressure was very quick, and I pulled off onto a narrow shoulder area as quickly as I […]
This weekend I found an entertaining video from MotorTrend, courtesy of the BMW Blog. Mike Febbo of MotorTrend and Greg Emerson of European Car Magazine squared off on their pick of the best affordable sports car today. Mike is a huge fan of the Scion FR-S, while Greg feels that the Volkswagen GTI is the […]
This morning I fixed a small issue that could have caused me a large problem. My E36 M3 spoiler brake light wasn’t working consistently. Sometimes the light came on when I applied the brake pedal, sometimes it did not. In addition to being a potential problem while driving at night, my car needed to pass […]
My 1999 BMW M3 turns 14 this month. I’ve owned the car for almost 10 years, having bought it with less than 16,000 miles. The first birthday story back in 2008 still says it all on how I feel about the car. It’s been a busy year keeping the car in top shape. That’s because […]
When the E39 M5 was first introduced in North America in 2000, it was a $70,000+, top of the line BMW sedan. As such, it came with a list of standard features that were options on lesser models. One of those standard features was Xenon headlights with an auto adjusting feature, which was fairly new […]
This morning I attended the Cars and Coffee meetup at Katie’s in Great Falls, Virginia. It was my first visit, and I was blown away by the size of the event. There were easily 100 cars this morning, and the crowd spilled across multiple parking lots. Lots of low volume sports cars and collectibles, including […]
This week I solved a problem with my E39 M5 having a vibration at highway speeds. At 70 mph there was a vibration that seemed to come from directly beneath the car. It was not coming from the steering wheel, and was not connected to accelerating or braking. BMW suspensions have a reputation for being […]
Everyone who even cares a little bit about their car knows the awful feeling. You come back to you parked car, and some $#*&^#$* has left you with a ding. It happened to my M3 a couple of weeks back. I drove to the gym, and when I walked back out someone had left a […]
My recent story on how to find the best replacement parts for your BMW sparked a lot of comments on LinkedIn. Most of these were in the BMW M Owners group, with a number of owners and a couple of former parts managers sharing their perspectives. (Thanks Mike for taking the time to leave your […]
Anyone who owns an older BMW knows buying the best quality car parts at the best price can be confusing. In this era of global consolidation and cost cutting, it’s never been harder to know how to balance quality and value. The Truth About Cars ran an excellent piece today about how car manufacturers exploit […]