Finished!

Well it’s been quite a year in many ways so it was good to put the final touches to my 535d repair. These photos were taken on Christmas Eve when we finally got some sunshine but the low sun makes photographs a bit challenging so apologies for the shadows and odd lighting.

Extensive Vehicle History (Copy)

For Sale - SOLD! (subject to collection)

Originally I was planning to rebuild the car for my Dad who has always really liked this car. However, my Mum has intervened because she feels the last thing an 86 year old needs is a larger, faster car than what he already has! Maybe she has a good point! :)

So the car will be going up for sale shortly, probably on Auto Trader and I’ll be looking for what I think is a very fair £4950 for a car which without the CAT S marker would be valued close to £7000. I’ve tried to be as transparent as possible with the repair and am happy to answer any questions.

• BMW E61 535d

• 2993cc Twin Turbo Straight 6

• 286BHP

• First reg 06/02/2009

• 1 former keeper

• 152k miles

• MOT’d until November 2021

• Category S Insurance Write Off

• Extensive vehicle and service history available in folder with receipts

MOT - Passed ( 151891 miles )

When my insurance company settled the claim with me, they advised me that a fresh MOT would be required before they would be prepared to cover the car again. This was the only stipulation they made since apparently vehicle identity checks are no longer carried out.

I took the car to the same MOT station who have tested this car every year since 2014 and explained what had happened and even shared photographs of the accident aftermath with the tester. When he saw the pictures he appeared quite relieved since he could see the extent of the accident damage was quite limited and unlikely to pose any problems for the MOT. That said he inspected the car as thoroughly as he always does including a thorough brake test since the car had been off the road for a while. Fortunately I had cleaned up the brakes manually before the test and had used the drive to the test station to further bed them back in so they passed with flying colours. The only advisory given was that the rear brake pads are wearing a bit thin which is easily fixed.

Let The Healing Begin!

Post Accident Inspection

Bumper Cover Removed

Bumper Crush Tubes Intact

These are designed to collapse under impact

Bumper Support Bar And Plastics Removed

Spare Wheel Well Reshaped

Wheel well dressed back into shape…

…using the new plastic diffuser part as an alignment guide.

Rear Bumper Replaced

The rear bumper cover was clearly unrepairable so a genuine used part was sourced on eBay and fitted along with a new steel reinforcement bar and crush tubes. The original crush tubes had not been damaged but the new bar came with new ones attached so I just replaced it as a unit. The alignment was excellent since all the mountings were undamaged.

Tailgate Replaced

I had originally thought the tailgate could be repaired but after knocking out the majority of the damage, I wasn’t happy with it so sourced a genuine used replacement. I figured if I’m going to be paying a professional bodyshop to paint it, I want the end result to be right!

Better Than It Was...

...But Not Good Enough

Replacement Sourced With Some Minor Cosmetic Blemishes

Tailgate Replacement Underway

Painted Tailgate Fitted

Front End Inspected

Front bumper cover removed

The damage to the front was mostly in the grill area and only affected various plastic parts including the sides and top of the radiator cowling and the main engine intake pipe. The upper bumper support was also bent slightly and since this is an alloy part and is important for bumper alignment, I decided to replace it as well. As expected, the bumper support itself was undamaged although it is also a bolt on part so could have been easily replaced. The plastic parts could easily have been glued back together but they are also readily available on eBay for £20 to £30 each piece and it makes for a much better result.

The bumper cover itself was beyond reasonable repair so a genuine second hand part was sourced on eBay along with a couple of PDC sensors and a pair of new chrome grills.

Radiator cowling plastics replaced

Front end back together for trial alignment. Note the part with the orange “E60” written on it - that is the upper bumper support I mentioned above.

Everything aligned pretty well straight away and there is enough adjustment available to fine tune the shut lines later once everything is painted. I tried to find Alpine White III bumpers but in M-Sport guise they seem to be super rare. I’m sure if it was a police spec car then white bumpers would be easy to come by!

My New 535d

A few days after the accident, my wife and I were due to make a road trip to the south of England to visit our daughter. Fortunately the hire car provided by the insurance company, a BMW 3 series Touring, allowed us to keep those plans. It also presented us with an opportunity…

Since we were travelling the full length of the country from central Scotland to Chippenham, I searched for potential 535d replacements along the route. Unfortunately the 535d E61 is pretty rare so I only came up with three potential candidates. One near Bristol, one near Slough and one near Bolton. In fact the one near Bolton only came on the market the day we started back home.

The one near Bristol was a pretty basic spec and didn’t even have Xenon headlights so I didn’t bother going to see it but I made an appointment to see the one near Slough. We even got half way along the M4 before I got a call to say it was sold! Oh well…

I then called the dealer near Bolton to see if I could come and see his car the following day and we made arrangements. I viewed the car and took it for a drive and we did the deal!

Just arrived home with the Silver 535d with my other 535d sitting behind it and the insurance hire car in the background.

Having the silver 535d takes the time pressure away from the repair process of the white one which turned out to be important as the Covid-19 lockdown descended on us a few weeks later.

I’ll talk more about the silver 535d at a later date but it’s basically the same car albeit a year older and with fewer miles. I plan to do a similar online logbook for it in due course so watch this space!

Accident!

I’ve been driving for 30 years so I guess it was inevitable that one day someone would run into the back of me. Today was that day!

Rear offside view

Rear nearside view

Minimal front end damage to the grill area

As you can see, it was a lovely morning with the sun shining and dry roads. I had come to nice gentle halt as the traffic in front had stopped due to someone turning right into a junction. I was a good 6 to 8 feet behind the car in front of me when I saw a red object in my rear mirror approaching with no signs of slowing down. I just had time to yell and make a funny face before I got hit and pushed into the car in front!

The guy who hit me was on his way to return the hire van and had clearly been distracted in some major way to not notice several vehicles directly in his path on such a bright day. The car in front was driven by a young Mum who had her son as front passenger. To be honest I’m glad I was there because otherwise he would probably have hit them directly instead of me.

The impact wasn’t enjoyable and certainly left me a bit stunned initially but nobody was injured and we got the front two vehicles off the road into an adjacent car park to exchange details etc. The van was not drivable unfortunately and the ensuing road blockage soon attracted the police who took statements and breath tested everyone. Happily we were all fine and recorded “zero” test results.

I had a good look at my car at the roadside and after a chat with one of the police officers we concluded it was safe enough to drive home carefully which I did. The car felt fine on the journey home except for a slight rattle where clearly the exhaust had been displaced from it’s normal hanging position and was touching the underbody somewhere. When I got home I took a closeup of the rear damage before starting my insurance claim.

I had a dash cam fitted so I sent the footage from that and the photos I took at the scene to the police and insurance company. This resulted in the van driver being held 100% liable which certainly made the insurance process very straightforward for me as it activated various perks such as a hire car through my legal protection cover. My insurer was Admiral Insurance and honestly I can’t fault them in the slightest.

As I expected, the value of the car and cost of commercial repair using brand new BMW parts conspired to render it uneconomical to repair and so it was deemed a CAT S write-off by the insurance company based purely on the photos I sent them before any dismantling. I could have argued for a CAT N but there was some damage to the spare wheel well so technically that does constitute structural damage. However, all other damaged parts were easily replaceable by unbolting the old and fitting the new, and since I am free to use second hand but genuine parts, I felt the car was too good to let go. So I bought it back from the insurance company with the intention of repairing it myself. As you’ll see from the other pages of my blog, I have considerable mechanical knowledge experience as well as the required tools and a garage!

Oil and Filter Service ( 149106 miles )

Today I replaced the oil, oil filter, microfilters and one of the rear hatch gas struts.

Wiper Arm Bearings Replaced

My front windscreen wipers had been a bit noisy for quite a while but generally only when running at full speed, which wasn’t all that often. However, today they decided enough was enough and failed entirely!

It turns out this is a common issue where the two little bearings in the driver’s side wiper arm break down over time and eventually the inner race breaks free from the outer race and the arm comes apart.

The fix is detailed in the below video from Ask The Mechanic and this is where I got my bearing kit from for the later type arm shown in the video. I followed the process outlined here and was up and running in no time.

Left Front Spring Replaced ( 135745 miles )

As mentioned in the last post, it’s essential to replace springs in pairs so here is the other side stripped down for replacement.

Right Front Spring Failure! ( 134979 miles )

A picture paints a thousand words! Fortunately it happened just as I was leaving my driveway while travelling at 5-10 MPH otherwise this could have been really nasty. As you can see, the broken spring tore a hole in the tyre sidewall.

Unfortunately replacement springs for an M-Sport are not held in stock and have to be specially ordered from Germany with a 7-10 day ETA. So I ordered a pair along with a new tyre. I don’t believe in replacing springs on one side only so my intention was to get the car mobile again by replacing the broken spring but then follow that up soon afterwards with the other side.

Strut Removed

Computer Not Happy

This looked more worrying that it turned out to be and was just the result of having mismatched ride height and a wheel that stopped turning suddenly. That caused a chain reaction of other fault codes.

More Warning Lights!

New parts arrived and were fitted

New Rubber Components Too

Oil and Filter Service ( 134966 miles )

Another oil and genuine filter change. This time I switched to Petronas Syntium oil having heard good things about it. If it’s good enough for Mercedes F1 cars…

Winter Tyres Purchased And Wheel Refurbished

A full set of Goodyear Ultragrip Performance Gen 1 tyres were purchased and taken to a local fitter to be mounted on the wheels. Unfortunately it became apparent that one of the wheels had a significant buckle on the inside face that needed repair.

I took the wheel and new tyre to Carrick Alloys who refurbished my summer wheels previously and they did a repair and fitted the new tyre for £35. Not a bad deal when fitting normally costs about £10 a wheel anyway.

Note the damage at the 12 o’clock position.

Fuel Filter Replaced ( 131238 miles )

A genuine BMW fuel filter had been bought some time ago along with some other bits and I finally got around to fitting it today. The filter itself is pretty easy to fit but first you need to remove under body panelling to gain access. That takes more time than the filter replacement itself!

While the protection panels were removed, I took the opportunity to inspect the various brake lines and battery cables that run in this area and happily all were in pristine condition.

Air Conditioning System Recharged ( 131000 miles )

During the summer I obviously used my air conditioning quite a lot and I felt it wasn’t cooling the car as efficiently as it had in the past so decided to get it recharged and refreshed by Ayrshire BMW & Mini Specialists in Ayr. This is the same company who had coded my Dension ICE system and I knew they would do a good job.

I certainly feel I got my money’s worth as I was there for about 90 mins, first to do a vacuum test on the car where all the old refrigerant is sucked out along with the compressor oil and a vacuum is held to ensure there are no leaks. This takes quite a while since a slow leak won’t be immediately apparent. Fortunately my system was intact so it moved on to the refill stage where a specific quantity of fresh oil is added and the required volume of refrigerant.

Anyone who thinks they can do the same job by buying a can of refrigerant from Halfords and doing it their self should think again because to do the job properly requires the proper equipment to measure the oil quantity removed and to ensure the correct amount is added back.

After performing a bunch of system tests a sanitising “bomb” was set off in the car with the blowers all on full power with the air recycling inside. This is to sanitise all the ducts and generally refresh the car with a pleasant citrus smell. It eventually became “pleasant” but was a bit on the strong side on the drive home! :)

Total cost £48

Alloy Wheels Refurbished ( 129450 miles )

The alloy wheels had started to deteriorate in a few places and one of the valves had developed a slow leak around the valve to wheel seal so I decided to get them refurbished. Carrick Alloys in Prestwick had a deal where you could get a discount on a second car so my daughter also got her wheels refurbished and of course she got the discounted price and I paid the full price…

M-Sport wheel logos replaced - £17.95

Centre caps replaced - £29.95

New pair of Michelin Pilot Sport 4 fitted - £263.10

Glow Plugs Replaced ( 126676 miles )

As explained in my last post, the glow plug controller replacement did not cure my number 6 error code so it was on to glow plug replacement. It makes no sense to replace them one at a time so I bought a full set of six OE Beru plugs from Euro Car Parts for £67.39 and set about replacement.

The intake manifold had to come off again which made me wish I had done this job when I removed my swirl flaps but you live and learn. At least I knew how it all came apart this time!

Once I had access it was on to old plug removal and this was a very nervy affair! These things tend to seize up a bit and also tend to snap off very easily which often requires cylinder head removal so extreme care is needed. First I started with a warm engine, letting it cool just enough to not burn myself before starting work. Then I soaked the plugs in proper release fluid Plusgas (not WD-40). I then got a torque wrench set to initially 20NM and tried each of the plugs to see if any were removable. Nope!

I then waited 10 mins for the Plusgas to penetrate and tried again. Nope! Then I increased torque to 25NM and got two plugs out. It’s a good idea to wind them back and forth a bit even once they start to move since they tend to get sticky as you remove them and make a horrible screeching sound. Patience patience patience!

I waited a bit longer after applying more Plusgas and got another two out at 25NM before increasing to 30NM and trying a few times before finally getting the last two out. Phew!

After that it was a relatively simple case of applying a thin smear of anti-seize grease to each new plug and installing them and torquing them up. Then remove all the blue paper from the intake tracts before replacing the manifold. The fault code was cleared and never returned! Result!

Intake Manifold Off Again...

Six Glow Plugs Accessible

Close Up Of One Plug

Extreme Care And Patience Required

And A Torque Wrench 30NM Max!

Anti Seize Grease For The Threads

And A Long Socket

Glow Plug Controller Replaced ( 126543 miles )

On a routine scan for engine fault codes (everyone has a hobby…) I found a code related to the glow plug on cylinder 6. This can mean either the glow plug itself has failed or the glow plug controller. Since it’s recommended to replace both at the same time, and since the glow plugs require the intake manifold to come off but the controller can be changed with difficulty without removing the manifold, I decided to replace the controller first. I bought a genuine OE unit from Beru and you can see the old and new units in the photo below. Cost was £61.99 delivered.

The controller is located on the nearside of the engine on the side of the block behind the oil filter housing and a mass of hoses and cables. It’s a real struggle to access and requires patience and a bit of ingenuity plus plenty of cursing but it can be done!

Unfortunately this did not resolve my glow plug error code so I ordered a full set of glow plugs to fit another day…