BMW DIY advice, and the occasional critique of the company
This weekend I performed some basic maintenance on my 2002 E39 M5. This was at another productive DIY event put on by the National Capital Chapter of the BMWCCA. It was held at Proctor’s Foreign Auto Services in New Carrollton, MD. Owner Tim Proctor has hosted the DIY crew before and was very gracious, helping […]
Mike Miller is a subject matter expert on BMW technical and maintenance information. Mike is the long-time staff member and technical editor for Roundel and formerly for Bimmer magazine (sadly killed by its publisher). He’s a former mechanic, and holds a Master’s of Environmental Law degree from Vermont Law School. Mike is essentially a mentor […]
This past weekend I assisted on a fairly common BMW procedure. I helped my friend Duane replace the valve cover gasket on his 2002 530i. I had never seen an E39 valve cover gasket replaced, and sometime down the road may need to replace on my M5. The National Capital Chapter DIY event was hosted […]
Happy New Year! With 2018 in the rear view mirror, how did BMW do in the North American luxury car market? In a year when its closest competitors were down in the market, BMW managed a sales gain of 1.7 percent in 2018, selling 311,014 vehicles. Overall the NA luxury market was down .3 percent. […]
The online auction site Bring a Trailer is making waves in the BMW enthusiast community. The site has been around for a few years but has jumped in popularity in the past 12-18 months, becoming a go-to location for low volume, enthusiast oriented BMWs and other brands. Roundel, the magazine of the BMW Car Club […]
Last week I completed a headlight retrofit project on my 2002 BMW M5. The adjusters inside the headlights were broken, causing the lights to point too low. Since I needed to replace the adjusters, I decided to also upgrade to more modern headlight projectors. Some background on why I went for a headlight retrofit. My […]
This weekend I refreshed my 2002 BMW E39 M5 interior. The car recently ticked over 100,000 miles and has yet to surprise me with any unexpected repair issue (knock on proverbial BMW wood). It’s as exciting a car as when I purchased it in 2011, and after seven years it deserved a few interior tweaks. […]
Over the Memorial Day weekend I tackled a DIY project that had been on my list for a while. I replaced the driver side door handle on my 2006 BMW M3. The silver coating on the handle flaked off somehow as I opened the door one day. Since this obviously didn’t affect the car performance-wise […]
This weekend was the first BMW CCA National Capital Chapter (NCC) DIY date that worked for me this year. BMW of Sterling hosted the club on Saturday and I was able to do some simple maintenance on my E46 M3. I changed the oil and the coolant. To drain the coolant the traditional way in […]
Final numbers are in for 2017 BMW sales in the U.S. For the first time since 2009, the overall automotive market in this country did not increase. The total number of new cars sold in North America went down, by 1.75 percent to 17.245 million vehicles. BMW brand sales were down 2.4 percent to 305, […]
This weekend I replaced the front brake rotors and pads on my 2006 BMW M3. None of the components were totally worn and the brake sensor warning was not illuminated, but the rotors were original to the car and the pads were at least five years old. By my DIY standards front brake rotors and […]
Over the holiday weekend I completed a small DIY project I’d wanted to do for some time. I replaced the worn out shift knob and boot in my 2006 E46 M3 with a brand new piece. That sounds straightforward enough, but I wanted to improve on the original. The car had a short shifter kit […]