[Delarado]

Hi guys,

First off, hello! I'm from the UK, looks like this is more of a US forum, but hopefully it doesnt matter too much that i say things like crikey and gosh and have tea with the queen.

I've recently become the proud owner of an E60 M5 and i have a few questions about them.

First off, at tickover, it sounds a little rough. I've done googling and searching and seen a million threads on this issue but everyone seems to have a different opinion! The car feels as if it perorms ok, but has a fairly obvious rattle at idle that goes away when its revved. Could this be a VANOS issue, or do they all do this? The car is a 2005 model.

Secondly, the brakes feels a little "rough". I own a few other cars (A few heavily modified ones) And the brakes on the M5 feel similar to the ones on my twin turbo FD3s RX7 (360mm 6 pots with slotted rotors and endurance race pads) in that they make a little noise and send a very slight vibration through the car. Are all of the brakes like this? I test drove quite a few M5s before buying (6 of them actually) but never noticed this on any of the cars (Even this one)

Its only since ive driven it a few hundred miles and started to stand on the brakes a bit more ive noticed the brakes are not completely silent and smooth as silk as i'd expect from a BMW. However, im also aware the brakes are massive chunky items with lots of holes in them so some vibration may be unavoidable. The dics are NOT warped, i can tell you that much. When i say vibration, its less than the vibration youd get out of a cellphone. Its barely noticeable.

Thirdly, one of the rear heated seats doesnt work. The other 3 are all fine. When you press the button, both green lights flash up for a split second and go out again straight away, and the seat doesnt heat up. I've checked the fuses in the trunk listed as for the rear seats on the chart (a 5A and a 20A Fuse) and they are both fine.

ARe there any other fuses or relays i should check? How easy is it to remove the rear bench and is there much under there thats serviceable for me to look at?

Also, not so important this one, but is there any way to configure the car so that the seat bolsters close up around your sides when you put it into M mode, and relax again when going back out of M mode? The car has the active seats, but i'm not too worried if they are on or off.

Lastly, and i belive the answer on this is "Tough luck" But i have the BMW iPod interface, and its terrible. Every time i scroll down the artists or whatever i feel like im breaking my i-drive, and it literally takes 3-4 minutes to load the list of artists/albums every time i change CD2-CD3. Is this delay normal, and is there any software updates or hardware available so i can do sensible things like browse by letter (E.g look at artists A...B...C rather than artists Andrew, Andy, Apon, Azon, Azum etc etc)

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[ecain63]

Hi mate, welcome to the wacky world of M5 ownership. The good thing is that there are a couple of UK owners on here so you are not alone. The downside (lol) is that this is a forum dominated by US and Middle Eastern owners so some of the issues we have may not be recognised by our brothers in the US / Middle East. The upside is that they are very friendly and will take the piss out of you for using terms like 'brake disc' instead of 'rotors'.

As for your issues:

These cars are known for sounding like diesels at idle and so long as the rough sound goes away when driving its all ok. If however you have a 'wum,wum,wum' noise when driving you may have a Vanos issue but its hard to diagnose as some cars do have a slight hum. The best thing to do is see a good dealer to have the car checked over. Do you have that all important warranty? How many miles has it got?

The brakes do make a slight rumble noise due to the numerous cooling holes around their massive surface. Nothing to worry about. The noise will also get slightly louder when the brakes get hot. So long as the steering wheel isnt wobbling under braking you have nothing to fear.

No idea about your rear seats but if you have a BMW warranty (get one asap if you dont) get BMW to check it out. They should work 100% given the cost of the item.

Active seats are not fitted in my car so im not sure what the adjustments are.

The ipod thingy might be an IDrive version issue, the later cars got upgraded softwars and hardware. Do you have the Ipod cable instead of the BMW cable? Mine has the Ipod cable fitted and its perfect. The slowness might also be down to the amount of stuff you have on your ipod. If its a huge hard drive with billions of tracks there may be conflict with the amount of info the IDrive can handle. Worth experimenting with the cables in my opinion.

Other than that, enjoy. This will be the last V10 that BMW release so make the most of the experience while its hot. Get some pics up too. Its rude not to put pics up, lol.

Any further Q?'s fire at will.
Eddie

 

[Delarado]

Thats great, thanks for the vote of confidence on the brakes

The car also sounds glorious as soon as you get on the throttle so no issues there. It just seems everyone has a different perception of how much clatter is ok at idle, with some people claiming theyve had it completely eradicated through the dealers.

I didnt buy the vehicle from the dealer so i don't have a BMW warranty, but i have invested in a third party warranty that actually looks better than the BMW warranty! (Covers catalytic converters, wear and tear and various other stuff the BMW one doesnt)

The cars got 43k on it and seems to have aged pretty well. I think the rear subframe bushes may be a little worn as theres sometimes a slight clunk coming from it on gear changes, similar to the sound i had on my X5 when the rear subframe bushes went on that. Its not bad at all though.

My ipod interface i think is teh official BMW one... I went out and bought a 160gb ipod specifically so i could have ALL of my music in the car at my fingertips...then found out the damn thing cant handle more than 255 artists so i didnt get any music past about The letter F!

HOw do you mean experiment with the cables? Mine just comes out in the glovebox. IS it just a USB connection somewhere i can try a different cable or what? Im pretty sure it replaces the CD changer as i no longer have one in the boot, and have to access the CD menu to get into my ipod....

Thanks for the swift reply and the welcome to the forum! Im actually at work at the moment struggling with some stupid fax machines so dont have any pictures to hand, but i spent 6 hours washing and mopping the car the day after i got it and took a few pictures afterwards so i shall upload when i get chance!

 

[ecain63]

If you have a USB port it'll be under the phone cradle in the centre arm rest. Its built into the forward part of the armrest but below the cradle. Just lift it all up using the press buttons and you should see it there. Thats if its fitted i yours. The CD multichanger is in the glove box in my E61. Check yours isnt in there.

As for the warranty, who is it with? You do know that with the BMW one you dont have to pay up front and pay it back dont you? With an aftermarket / third party one you'll be forking out, only having to wait for your money to be returned to you. Thats if they play ball! I had a Warranty Direct policy on my RS6 and they were crap. You dont buy a BMW warranty from a dealer, just google 'bmw insured warranty' and it'll come up under Mondial. Very good policy and easy to use. So long as its sub 60k miles and has a FBMWSH it'll be eligable.

The clunking at the rear might just be the diff engaging, but get the bushes checked anyway. They dont last forever and mine were done front and back at 40k.

Eddie

 

[Dexter Morgan]

Welcome aboard!

RE: the active seats in M mode, yes you can program this through the idrive so that they 'activate' in P500 and 'deactivate' in P400. Mine is set for 'two bars' meaning the second most aggressive bolstering. I had this feature in my Merc CLS55 AMG and loved it.

PS - I know what you mean by 'mopping' the car as I've heard this term used on Wheeler Dealers, a UK show we get here in the US (featuring the great Edd China!! ha). Polishing is the common term we use stateside...

 

[Delarado]

If you have a USB port it'll be under the phone cradle in the centre arm rest. Its built into the forward part of the armrest but below the cradle. Just lift it all up using the press buttons and you should see it there. Thats if its fitted i yours. The CD multichanger is in the glove box in my E61. Check yours isnt in there.

As for the warranty, who is it with? You do know that with the BMW one you dont have to pay up front and pay it back dont you? With an aftermarket / third party one you'll be forking out, only having to wait for your money to be returned to you. Thats if they play ball! I had a Warranty Direct policy on my RS6 and they were crap. You dont buy a BMW warranty from a dealer, just google 'bmw insured warranty' and it'll come up under Mondial. Very good policy and easy to use. So long as its sub 60k miles and has a FBMWSH it'll be eligable.

The clunking at the rear might just be the diff engaging, but get the bushes checked anyway. They dont last forever and mine were done front and back at 40k.

Eddie

Thanks Eddie, Ill have a look in the centre console. The CD changer def isnt in the glovebox, because i've already checked the fusepanel there and didnt see it!

I looked at the policy document for the BMW warranty and didnt like it, i found it a little vaugue. The part i especially had a problem with was where it was listing what is covered, and it said:

Engine: Including but not limited to (short ish list of major components)
Transmissiong: Including but not limited to (another list)

Anything not listed above is not covered.

So they were basically saying that your cover includes XYZ and more, but anything outside of XYZ is not covered. That left a little too much scope for interpretation for me. I checked with my current provider before purchasing a few things, and the parts that really impressed me were 1. EVERY part is covered, electrical and mechanical (Except some exclusions like brake pads etc) 2. Catalytic converters are covered 3. It covers you against wear and tear

I said to the lady before i bought that i was worried with so many electronics, little things could go wrong. I asked what would happen if my heated seat suddenly stopped working or an electric roller blind, and was told this would be covered no problems; and they are happy to pay garages direct if the garage will accept payment from them.

What bushings did you have changed at 40k and how much was the job if you dont mind me asking?

Oh, and, pics after my day of washing, clay baring, polishing, waxing and sweating. :applause:

 

[Delarado]

And Dexter, thanks for the reply - but what i'd actually like is to not have the active seats on - just to have the bolsters close up permanently when in M mode and relax out of it. Is this possible?

P.s, is there any way to tell if the car is still limited to 155 without the obvious test?

 

[Dexter Morgan]

And Dexter, thanks for the reply - but what i'd actually like is to not have the active seats on - just to have the bolsters close up permanently when in M mode and relax out of it. Is this possible?

P.s, is there any way to tell if the car is still limited to 155 without the obvious test?

That is not possible to program. Your only workaround (as I'm sure you know) is to manually close them up tight using the controls on the side of the seat.

 

[Delarado]

Thanks for the info Dexter, much apprecaited. How are Astra and Cody?

 

[Dexter Morgan]

Thanks for the info Dexter, much apprecaited. How are Astra and Cody?

They're well...in Orlando with nana and grandpa. I'm all alone once again now that Lumen has left me.