My F10 530d: Removing the Police roof antenna...

After 3 years driving around with the Police aerial base on the roof of my F10, I decided to finally get rid of it.

I was able to access it by removing the third brake-light and bending the roof-lining down at the back.  This revealed the underside of the aerial base, which was held in place by a 15mm nut. I had thought the entire roof-lining would need to come down, but got away without doinh that so it is worth noting that this is an easy way to access the underneath of the 'shark-fin' roof antenna.

I had expected the base to be a 'stick-on' type, with a layer of adhesive underneath like a badge, but found this baby had been stuck down with a liberal amount of strong silicone-based sealant. A bit overkill considering the size and weight of the aerial-base, but I guess unmarked Police cars must still get a bit of vandalism... Sadly, the plastic top broke off so I was left with a snapped base and a hole in the roof of my car, meaning my chances of turning back were out of the question and I would have to see the removal through come what may.

So, like I say, I wish I had left the aerial-base on for the time being! As if the high-spot round the hole created by tightening the nut wasn't bad enough, even the gentlest of prising has left marks in the paint / lacquer... nightmare. But, alas, here we are so the question is what to do about it now?

A full paint repair would involve removing the raised rim from the hole, bridging from underneath with fibreglass-mat and P40 fibreglass-filler, keying a small circular area around the damage, smoothing off from above with body-filler and then somehow priming, painting and lacquering the affected area in sympathy with the rest of the roof... Whoa, this has created quite a lot of work here. For the time being a square of PVC-tape will have to do! Watch this space as the weather improves!

F10: Centre-console / Arm-rest / iDrive-panel Replacement

The centre ash-tray had been replaced with an aluminium plate for the Police-light switches and stuff, so that needed replacing. The centre-console itself, apart from being black vinyl, which would never do, had holes drilled both sides to mount the Police radio / scanner. There was also blobs of glue all down one side, so after a brief attempt at titivating the damage, I decided a whole new one would be necessary and gave a welcome change up to a leather arm-rest!

BMW Response Vehicle Owner's Manual

I can't imagine many people have this in their book-pack. BMW supply cars directly to UK Police constabularies, so this is their in-house user manual for controlling the lights and sirens no less. It shows even the switch-gear being factory fitted with buttons to match the BMW fascia, though I am not sure what level of spec mine had. I guess this is another easter-egg gift that comes with owning an ex-Police car, along with tons of extra wiring and air-con that stinks of sweat...

E60: Update + New Turbo!

Right, now the E60 is back on the road and all legit it's time I fine fettled the engine-vacuum and rattling exhaust issues left from the engine swap. The exhaust needs realigning at the back of the turbo so it doesn't contact the bracket and the vibration-dampers can be set correctly. The only way to do this is to first remove the rocker-cover and injectors and after my injector-seal problems with the new engine I haven't been able to justify doing that unless it's really essential and that time is now.
The culmination of all my messing around with the vacuum-lines [from this post] is a partly-boosting turbo that sounds like a police-siren. From the word go I was told this is the key sign of a broken turbo, but just couldn't believe it as the turbo seemed to be working ok after the initial engine rebuild (or was it?!) and the other vacuum niggles gave me false hope that it could be a cheap, easy fix. I should have learned by now that this is never the case and have now come to the conclusion of a glaringly obvious broken turbo. I guess that swirl-flap destroyed every part of the motor that it passed through, so lets hope and pray, seriously, that I don't have catalytic-converter issues in future.

So here is my replacement turbo. It's from an E65 730d and was the only used turbo I could find that fits my 'vacuum-actuated' setup, rather than the later and far more common 'electronic-actutor' type. I got it for the spiffing price of just £200, including delivery, but alas there is another catch - the front casing is dented at the outlet-port to the intercooler and the alloy has cracked, maybe during transit, but probably in the crash that wrote-off the 7-Series. This isn't a major setback though, as the front casing just bolts on and is a dry fit, so should not be much drama to swap the cleaner casing from my turbo onto this one. It also plays no part in the functionality of the blower, so if the mechanism works then it works. I'm no turbo expert but there is less play in the spindle than my current blower so if it cures the problem it will have definitely been worth the extra effort for the knock-down price.