BMW 530d - Touring - what a cracking car!

[alexander72]

my flaps have been removed   fnar fnar

[Wile E. Coyote]

I think I paid about 200 for garage to remove them on mine and replace with alloy blanking plates.  If the swirl flaps (or rather the rivets holding them to the rod) fail then it's a "write your car" off level of cost... as has been said, there's no warning.

Also, when the back end of the car starts squeaking it's a fairly cheap to fix (~£120 a side) to get the lower balljoints done.

 

Harder one is the exhaust manifold which is a £300 part but costs the same again (or double if you use main dealer) to change.  There are cast ones on eBay now that look more robust.

 

You'll probably be able to find online how to reset the service indicator if you do your own pollen filter / bigger service jobs: if you can't then PM me as I think I have the instructions saved somewhere.

 

Shame you didn't mention you were thinking of one as you could have had the proper spare wheel that I left in the saloon I got rid of....

 

Which reminds me: I still have a set of four (genuine BMW) 18" 7 spokes (the wider spoke version) for the 5.  Two are in good condition and two ideally need a bit of straightening (in spite of being bought as straight!).  I'd planned on using them when I needed to put summer tyres on again, but that clearly isn't going to happen now I've sold the car.  They're cluttering the place up but if anyone on here wants them then speak up and I'll hang on to them for a little while until someone can collect / arrange for the WSCC courier service to do its thing (I'm less than 1/2 mile off the main route from M6 to Oulton).  Free of charge (or donation of your choice to Air Ambulance if you feel bad about taking them for nowt).