Joined the Bimmer world with my first BMW 08 535xi

[Saiyan7702]

Hey guys,

Just got my first beemer 2008 535xi, came from a 1.8t jetta. So far the car is great, did come with some issues like leak from valve cover gasket and reduced power, dealing with all that stuff this week myself. It came with 161k miles on it, 0 rust car is prob 9/10 for condition. I paid $3300.

Looking for some advice on changing the fogs to led and upgrading the stock headlight bulbs to be a nice bright white without throwing any codes and matching the headlights. I always wanted the red demon eyes like on evos.

Also, kinda stupid the idrive connects to bluetooth on my phone but i cant stream music? that tech should be fired lol. I also kind of wanna upgrade the idrive in there so i can get carplay etc and all the new good stuff if its not to crazy expensive. friend of mine said he did his entire retrofit for around $1,500.

thanks for any input

[pbonsalb]

I’d work on sorting the car out before lights and idrive. Change fluids in trans, front and rear diff, coolant, ps, brake. Change all filters. Fix all leaks like oil filter housing, ofh to oil cooler, valve cover, oil pan. Inspect axle cv boots. Change spark plugs. Remove intake manifold and scrape out goo and walnut blast carbon. Check suspension bushings front and rear. Check motor and trans mounts. Make sure your sunroof drains are clear — remove the plugs under the car and leave them off. Check boost/vacuum lines for cracking. Determine whether turbo wastegates are rattling and leaking. Find out when your electric coolant pump and thermostat were last changed so you can be wary 75k miles later.

When you change the head light bulbs, you may find disintegrating insulation on the wires. No easy fix. New lights are expensive. You may be able to remove them, unseal them, open them and replace wiring or use liquid electrical tape (multiple thin layers works better than globbing it on).

[Saiyan7702]

What plugs under the car?

[pbonsalb]

Sunroof drain plugs. They aren’t quite plugs but they are flaps that get clogged up. Water can get into the trunk and damage electronics there. Expensive to fix. Easy to remove plug flaps. Google E60 sunroof drains and you will find some DIY info. You might not find them if you don’t know where to look so finding the pictures helps. The rear ones are accessed through the rear wheel wells as I recall.

[DaHose]

I feel your pain about bluetooth. I am thinking of upgrading the stereo in our E61 as an anniversary present for my wife. She is the one who mainly drives it.

For the halo driving lights, you can easily find some drop-in upgrades that won't throw a code. I recall putting up a post about the ones I found. They work great! I would also imagine there must be a drop-in to increase brightness of the headlights. The other alternative in an LCI upgrade, but that is a major project that also requires re-coding your ECU.

On the roof drains, just pull the plugs on the ends. Pretty much guaranteed they will clog at some point, and leaving the ends open really doesn't seem to have a major down side. I would also replace the tail-light gaskets. Ours looked intact, but I could see leaking under heavy rain. Replaced those gaskets, and no problems with water incursion since.

If you don't already have problems with broken wire harness in the liftgate, you should open it up and address the issue BEFORE they break/short.

Lastly, if you plan to do work on an E61 at home, you NEED to build an INPA diagnostic computer. Look in the diagnostic forum for help on that.

Jose

[Saiyan7702]

well, i did pads, rotors, oil today. but, i stripped out the caliper guide bolt on top going into the bracket idk how i pulled it off, tried using a heli-coil today and tapped the wrong size in fucking kill me. Any ideas where i can find that bracket? I cant seem to find anything online without buying entire caliper and bracket.