E61 V8 Bearding

[ATM]

ATM said:

Can anyone recommend a good plug and a good coil to choose? I've read stuff about Chinese copies of branded coils which are rubbish.

Finally ordered some Bosch coils and fancy NGK Iridium plugs. The coils have arrived and have some fancy seals on the boxes as if to prove they're authentic but surely a determined copy outfit could just copy these too. I'm still waiting for the plugs. Haa anyone tried this job? The Internet suggests having a good selection of extensions for your ratchet. I don't even know if I have a spark plug socket as I've not changed plugs since I had a Fiat Cinquecento.

[Quavers]

I wanted to look at my plugs however all I could do was get off the electrical plug - there was no room to get anything on the coil to pull it. So I left it alone.
All the youtube how to's seemed to skip getting the coil free.

[ATM]

Looks like it's just held in by interference looking at these new ones

[ATM]

Plugs arrived

[ATM]

Plugs and coils now fitted. Engine purring lovely now. Drives totally different. Can't recommend it enough.

[ATM]

ATM said:

E61 fans

I bought a cheap and cheerful, hopefully, OBD reader from Aldi and the results are in. I have 9 in total:

P0444
P0300
P0301
P0306
P0303
P0307
P0302
P0597
P0304

So the 300 numbers are misfires detected. 300 is generic and the other designate the cylinder number. That just leaves

444 - EVAP Emission Control System Purge Valve
597 - Cruise Control Circuit Open

So if this means anything to anyone here please let me know.

TIA

So my car had another juddering fit at the traffic lights today and I had to turn it off and on. Will clear all the existing codes using my Aldi scan tool and then see what's what. Above is an earlier post showing the original codes from before I changed all the coils and plugs.

[Quavers]

Does anybody know if UK cars have secondary air injection system?

[Jules Sunley]

I was at the Ultimate BMW meet a week ago at Gaydon and some kind soul took a good pic of me leaving which was posted on the meets FB page. c1400 cars there and we had about 20 Alpina in our area.

[ATM]

Quavers said:

Does anybody know if UK cars have secondary air injection system?

I think they are the same as any where else.

[Quavers]

Yes they are all the same.

[Owen Snell]

I've got an interior light issue.

The interior lights come on as normal when I get in the car, but then they stay on while driving. Using the push button on the front light turns them all off. Exiting and locking the car leaves the lights on for quite a while - just checked now and still on after 15 minutes.

Any ideas?

[ATM]

Owen Snell said:

I've got an interior light issue.

The interior lights come on as normal when I get in the car, but then they stay on while driving. Using the push button on the front light turns them all off. Exiting and locking the car leaves the lights on for quite a while - just checked now and still on after 15 minutes.

Any ideas?

Small glass boot open?

[Owen Snell]

ATM said:

Small glass boot open?

I do use the glass tailgate and it's a consistent problem.

I read somewhere that the switch on the glass tailgate latch can go bad.

[ATM]

Owen Snell said:

ATM said:

Small glass boot open?

I do use the glass tailgate and it's a consistent problem.

I read somewhere that the switch on the glass tailgate latch can go bad.

Mine is bad. So it won't open on demand. It will however open itself without demand. I know it is open as the interior lights stay illuminated. It stays in the down position obviously.

[Jules Sunley]

ATM said:

Owen Snell said:

ATM said:

Small glass boot open?

I do use the glass tailgate and it's a consistent problem.

I read somewhere that the switch on the glass tailgate latch can go bad.

Mine is bad. So it won't open on demand. It will however open itself without demand. I know it is open as the interior lights stay illuminated. It stays in the down position obviously.

I've had intermittent issues with the glass boot opening itself. Going to get Birds to investigate at this year's service and replace the latch.

[Owen Snell]

ATM said:

Mine is bad. So it won't open on demand. It will however open itself without demand. I know it is open as the interior lights stay illuminated. It stays in the down position obviously.

Back at home and checking it over, the tailgate wasn't properly latched. Will have to see if it does this again, of if it was just me being an idiot and not shutting it properly.

[Owen Snell]

Jules Sunley said:

I've had intermittent issues with the glass boot opening itself. Going to get Birds to investigate at this year's service and replace the latch.

While checking out the tailgate latch on Youtube earlier, a guy did a video of removal / replacement and it is really straightforward.

[ATM]

Owen Snell said:

ATM said:

Mine is bad. So it won't open on demand. It will however open itself without demand. I know it is open as the interior lights stay illuminated. It stays in the down position obviously.

Back at home and checking it over, the tailgate wasn't properly latched. Will have to see if it does this again, of if it was just me being an idiot and not shutting it properly.

I have switched my idrive to only lock and unlock driver door because it seemed to unlatch when I was about to drive off but doors still unlocked. So if only driver door unlocked it doesn't do this. Otherwise I had to stop and get out to latch it.

[Jules Sunley]

Owen Snell said:

While checking out the tailgate latch on Youtube earlier, a guy did a video of removal / replacement and it is really straightforward.

Thanks, I'll search to watch

[BigMacDaddy]

Jules Sunley said:

Thanks, I'll search to watch

Just to add some words of encouragement, I bought a replacement switch and fitted it myself a few years back with little difficulty, if a ham-fisted oaf like me can manage it you should have no problems