Big Bangle Booty - 635D

[CornedBeef]

As of yesterday, I've had the car one year now! I always now enjoy (perhaps the wrong choice of words) totting up the costs and work done over the past year and reflecting.

For balance, its been a busy year on a car that was previously doing very little mileage. When I drove it home last year it had 56000-ish on the clock, today it has 77000-ish. So a not insignificant 21000 miles in the year. Its been mostly great to be honest, the engine feels unburstable. Criticisms, jiggly ride for a GT car and some electrical niggles of late (more on that later).

Scores on the doors:

Thermostats - 05/12/22 - £180
Glow Plugs & Controller - 13/01/23 - £689
Service (DIY) - 22/01/23 - £105
Battery - 09/02/23 - £240
Front Tyre (puncture...) - 03/04/23 - £145
Windscreen - 20/04/23 - £125
Wiper Linkage - 19/05/23 - £24
Air Conditioning Condenser, Regas and Wheel Bolt Removal - 25/05/23 - £360
Front Tyres - 27/05/23 - £282 (Bargain)
Service (DIY) - 23/07/23 - £120

So, £2270 in maintainance and repairs!! Quite high, some of that is tyres and servicing of course. Things like thermostats and glow plugs hopefully shouldnt rear their head for a long while again.

On the to do list (ideally) is a gearbox oil change, I've had a quote from a specialist to do this and replace the figure of 8 seal for around £550 after VAT.

Niggles...

Two things of recent. One, randomly on some mornings less often then not I get a recirculating clicking noise on unlocking the car from the steering column shroud which I've captured on video (turn up the volume and ignore all of the additional sounds I manage to make prodding things!).

https://youtube.com/shorts/8DyaaLIrBxg?si=g8fLZh6m...

The other, key fob shenanigans. Yesterday morning my usual key fob wouldn't unlock the car. On grabbing the spare, the car then unlocked - tried the original key again and it was fine for the rest of the day? Odd. Tried again this morning and had the same thing! Could this be the original rechargeable batteries in the fob's coming to the end of their life, or something more nefarious?

[CornedBeef]

Boring mileage update.

[CornedBeef]

Maintenance continues, it ticked over to 80k on Friday evening on the way for a curry

Leaves removed from the scuttle panel after it had a flood right after I bought it, this is now a yearly task I've got on the list.



And oil changes for Millers C3 5W/30 again, plus a Bosch filter. I've booked it in for a gearbox service too at my local specialist in Alton, including the figure of 8 seal which is good to address on these ZF6 boxes. A bit spicy at £530-odd but it's not a DIY job I'd be happy with!






And a little Christmas drive I had with some mates down to Goodwood, as usual a bit of a mix! Old 930 911, a turbocharged NB MX5 and a Polestar

[CornedBeef]

I've just had the gearbox serviced this morning, genuine ZF kit done by a local specialist - they went the extra and had the figure of 8 seal replaced too which is located under the mechatronics unit. It has definitely made a difference, the original oil was in there apparently which is now 81000 miles old! In particular, between gears 1-2 was pretty jerky and its now Uber smooth.

Quite spendy at £560, but satisfying

I also tried and failed to remove some peeling rubber on the steering wheel, ballsed it all up and so I've got a CF cover over the top now. I think it looks pretty good!

[CornedBeef]

Waitey said:

I'm nearly on 300k with the original gearbox oil.....

Haha Christ, that might be due. Mind you, yours probably started life differently to mine - mega miles rarely changing gear, mine lived in London sifting through traffic.

[CornedBeef]

The cars rebelled recently, I started it up on Sunday morning to a 'Coolant Low' alarm. Duly checked the expansion tank and it wasn't telling fibs! I put about half a litre back in it, and it's been bunged in with my mechanic this morning.
Two things leaking, the EGR thermostat where it connects to the cooler and also a plastic pipe around the back of the cooler, which runs towards the throttle body. Being mended now, the bugger.

[CornedBeef]

All fixed now, the EGR thermostat was indeed leaking (replaced last year, faulty part!) and a plastic coolant pipe needed doing after being jiggled about in the process.

Little picture from a recent trip to Wales. Must say, the rural roads were horrendous in this, I was driving about wincing as it smashed through every pot hole - must ditch run flats. I've also bought a nice splitter

[CornedBeef]

So today I got the Maxton splitter fitted, I'm really chuffed with it. E63 owners will know that Maxton only produces these for the pre-facelifts, but the splitters can be modified to fit with a bit of shaving



Bumper duly removed, washer fluid everywhere while trying to remove the pipe connected to the bumper...



And then trial fitting, before bolting it on.



And voila!

[CornedBeef]

I'll have to dig out the invoice, but the relay from BMW was pricy - all the parts were genuine, plus paying a specialist for the work. Then lovely VAT on top, it adds up.

It's actually going back next month as I've got errors on all glowplugs, so potentially that expensive relay has died! Should be under warranty though, BMW bits have a 2 year cover.

[CornedBeef]

Not the most scenic of spots, and it got grubby shortly after polishing on the weekend - but a wider shot of it with the splitter. IMO of course, but I think some spacers and the lip have made it nice and aggressive looking.



During the glowplugs visit I'm finally getting the IBS cable replaced, if it's not all too costly I'll pull the trigger on a wheel refurb. I love the polished faces, but I sense it'll be a powder coat job as they'll just start to look rough again after another winter!

[CornedBeef]

Some more petulance from the 6 series. Since purchase I've had sporadic 'High Power Consumption' alarms when first turning on the car. It seems fine, I've left it 2 weeks without use twice while on holiday and it fires up fine, so I don't believe I have a big battery drain.

Last year I had the battery replaced which didn't remove the alarm, now I've had the IBS (Intelligent Battery System) cable replaced as it was assumed to be that. No joy - alarm persists?

I think I'll live with it.

Furthermore, an oil leak from the swirl flaps area has killed the newish glow plug module - garage recommends blanking these now.

[CornedBeef]

Jakg said:

Was the battery coded/registered to the car?

I have, at least within the confines of Carly. In there you can register existing or new battery - I re-registered the existing. I've got a 95aH AGM battery fitted, I could select 90aH or 115aH I think it was - so went with 90! There is no selection on there for the type of battery (i.e. AGM or the older type?), but I'm unsure if that would make a difference.

This was the battery info on Carly - the cars used most days, it seems like the majority of charging was between 70-85%. Again not sure if that's normal as it'll get a good discharge initially starting the car each morning?

[CornedBeef]

village24 said:

Just as a FYI carly states it can register batteries but it definitely does not register it properly.

Interesting, I've done some reading after your message and found the same. So really, I still need someone with the proper tools to register it before I can rule this out.

I must say, Carly seems a rip off - it auto renewed with no warning this year for £125 I think it was. The main reason for purchasing was to adjust the number of indicator flashes on my wife's X1 and it failed to do that.

[CornedBeef]

Court_S said:

Yeah, its a rip off and the auto renewal is a killer. I had a tantrum when I was stung the other year and complained that there was no warning email prior and they basically said tough st, they're not obliged to so ps off.

I had exactly the same conversation, they must send that email 100 times a day. Immediately asked to cancel next year's renewal lol

Minor milestone today of hitting 90000 miles, driving down the M3. So roughly 35k from purchase in a year and a half, not bad going!

[CornedBeef]

Thorough clean today, and showing how Carbon Black can look completely different in the sun!

It's had a service by me as of last weekend, I've essentially lined up the oil changes with it hitting each 10000 mile interval now - next will be at 100k which will be around Christmas time.