BMW DIY advice, and the occasional critique of the company
Starting soon new BMW owners will start to receive more frequent oil and filter changes as part of the new car “free maintenance” program. According to the Service Information Bulletin 00 01 13, BMW now approves oil changes every 10K miles or 12 months, rather than the previous 15K miles or 24 months on cars […]
For a few years now many commentators have forwarded a theory about millennials and cars. Supposedly the American romance between young people and cars just wasn’t there anymore. Young people were in no hurry to buy cars, just as they were also pushing off marriage and home ownership. But what if that’s not it at […]
This weekend I replaced the front sway bar links on my 1999 BMW M3. Recently I had new OEM Sachs front struts installed, so it was time to refresh the end links as well. My car has low miles, but 14+ years still take a toll. Replacing front sway bar links is a perfect DIY […]
Pixel failure is a common problem on the BMW E39 5 Series. My friend Steve’s cluster was going bad on his 2002 525 Sport, and he wasn’t happy about how much a brand new cluster would cost from BMW. So he decided to explore aftermarket repair options. He decided to go with a company called […]
Last year I performed the 60,000 mile tune-up on my E36 M3 myself. I replaced the air filter, the fuel filter, the sparks plugs and I cleaned the mass air filter. There was one replacement I didn’t do at the time, partly because I knew it would be a real pain in the butt. That […]
This weekend I tackled a small but irritating issue with my E36 M3. For a while there had been a soft clunk whenever I went over a bump while turning right. Holiday time last year I replaced the sway bar end links, but this didn’t fully stop the noise. I eventually zeroed in on the […]
This past weekend I completed a repair project for a rear wheel on my 2002 BMW M5. In this post from late July I explain how I bent and cracked the wheel. Initially I was thinking replacement rather than repair. I knew color matching was going to be a problem, due to the shadow chrome […]
Last Saturday I was feeling particularly good about my 2002 M5. Over the past few weeks every fluid (minus power steering) has been refreshed on the car. Brake, coolant, oil, transmission and differential fluids have all been replaced. I had just removed an old and faded clear bra from the car the week before. Then a […]
This weekend I tackled clear bra removal on my BMW M5. The bra had come with the car, and over the past two years had become dingy looking. It had been on the car since at least 2009. I had removed the small pieces of film on the front of the side mirrors first as […]
Recently I got together with a group of local E39 M5 owners in Fairfax, Virginia. I’ve gotten to know most of them in online forums, and this was a repeat of a meet we had back in late 2011. One of the best things about owning a BMW is connecting with fellow enthusiast owners. Everyone […]
Over the weekend I did an oil change on my E39 M5, and I also changed the differential oil. This is an important and often overlooked fluid change. The E39 M5 differential is a limited slip differential, allowing for different amounts of power to be directed to the wheels based on driving conditions. The car […]
Early reports and images are emerging about a new line of BMW cars, to be christened the 2-Series. Starting next year, they will slot in between (naturally enough) the entry level 1 Series and the 3 Series, BMW’s most popular line and the majority of its sales here in the U.S. (Starting in a few […]