83C's Motoring Musings

10,039 · May 17

Well, its been a hot minute since I last posted any car content, but with the general nastiness of the politics section now strictly off limits to me the last few days of browsing the forum has become much nicer, so I thought I'd have another bash at being active here.

You join me at a busy time, I've currently got six vehicles in fleet and some of them work. I am in the midst of preparing to reduce the fleet, so obviously I went and bought a Volvo estate the other day, for which I've ordered a new wheel bearing and driveshaft. This is because my daily driver 535d is off for major surgery soon, because I did an oil change and found this:

Yup, copper glitter. Because I'm a moron I sold my completely reliable S211 E320 CDI in February and bought this F11 535d Touring, purely because I found the S211 a bit dull and I really disliked the lack of cupholders. Now in all fairness this particular 535d came with a wad of receipts, the N57 was utterly silent, no rattles or evidence of problems, it had only had two owners and both of them clearly looked after the car well mechanically. Long service intervals can go suck a dick, and from the receipts the previous owners thought the same way - lots of oil services in the history. The last oil change was at 180,500 miles, I bought it at 184,000 so at 188,000 it was due an oil change. The oil filter that came out is genuine BMW, so the previous owner clearly wasn't skimping even at this age and mileage. What I'm hoping is that I've caught it early enough and there's no extra damage to the crank, so the car is now switched off until it gets trailered to the specialist.

Of course this meant the World's Most Unreliable Car was called upon yet again to save the day, like it has done several times before:

This car has been fantastic. It is the one vehicle I trust to start and drive whenever I need it to, and go anywhere, as demonstrated here in the middle of a 3,000 mile European road trip last October:

That all said I'm not blind to the car's deficiencies, it is 226,000 miles old and carries a few faults such as one of the air suspension valve blocks being a bit sticky, some rear bushes being worn, rust creeping in around the rear arches, the air con compressor seized 20,000 miles ago and needs replacement, headlights are going misty, driver's seat is ripped, headlining is dropping, there's a clunk when steering from the front... It really deserves some time and money spent on it, which would be the case if the rest of the fleet wasn't trying to drain all my money out. The VXR8 has just been MoT'd but needs either the diff mounts or prop centre bearing replacing, and the Bentley is going to be sold soon because I simply don't have the time to get it back on the road. This brings me back around to the Volvo, which needs work too.

To be continued.

5,842 · May 17

Welcome back!

37,491 · May 18

Do you think those are bits of timing chain or or more sinister bearing material?

10,039 · May 18

29 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Do you think those are bits of timing chain or or more sinister bearing material?

I reckon it’s bearing material. I don’t think the timing chain has any copper in it.

138,481 · May 18

Welcome back.

22,430 · May 18

12 hours ago, 83C said:

I reckon it’s bearing material. I don’t think the timing chain has any copper in it.

The N57 does suffer from bottom end issues - for some reason the twin turbo variants seem to suffer more - I have the 530d and I am thinking of punting it on while the mileage is reasonably low - 113k. It's a shame - its a powerful lump with tons of torque - I have done 8k in mine in 16 months and changed the oil twice due to the fear of a humongous bill.

10,039 · May 20

Today and tomorrow are mostly car spannering days.

Job one was the recently acquired V70, curing a rumbling and vibrating from the front.

This might be part of the problem.

And looking much better with a new driveshaft, wheel bearing and track rod end. The TRE wasn't strictly necessary but the boot was split and I had the option of a new TRE for £16 on the day, or buy some spare boots online and wait. Test drive revealed the 60mph wobble was gone, and some of the bearing noise had gone, but there's still a rumble from somewhere. Tomorrow's problem.

Elsewhere, the VXR8 got another new battery. It had a new one from Halfords not long after I bought it in late 2023, a Yuasa 096 with a 5 year warranty. Fast forward two and a half years and off the car it could be charged, as soon at it was fitted it dropped virtually all power and wouldn't even allow the boost pack to work. Fair play to Halfords, once they tested the battery and found that it had definitely failed I was sent on my way with a new Yuasa which solved the issue.

The 535d went off to get fixed at a local BMW specialist, hopefully it'll be back next week.

Tomorrow will be exhausting.

10,039 · May 21

My niece’s Polo had a split exhaust flexi and the back box isn’t looking too great, so that was this morning’s job. However despite ordering the parts last week from Parts in Motion the rear box still hasn’t turned up, so it had to be just the front section today:

In fairness this is the worst bit done, there was a snapped stud on the flange from the cat that needed drilling out and tapping for a bolt but the rest of it came apart pretty easily. Even the mid section clamp came off without much fuss, and got reused with some new nuts and bolts. Rear box is three exhaust hangers away from coming off so when it does eventually arrive it shouldn’t be difficult to just swap it over.

After praising them yesterday Halfords have let me down today, I ordered some oil for the Range Rover so I could do oil and filters but despite getting a text to say it had arrived in stock it actually hasn’t and might come tomorrow, possibly. It’s not even anything special, just Total 5w40 fully synth to the correct spec. I suppose I’ll just have to dig into why the Volvo still rumbles instead.

22,430 · May 21

19 hours ago, 83C said:

Today and tomorrow are mostly car spannering days.

Job one was the recently acquired V70, curing a rumbling and vibrating from the front.

This might be part of the problem.

And looking much better with a new driveshaft, wheel bearing and track rod end. The TRE wasn't strictly necessary but the boot was split and I had the option of a new TRE for £16 on the day, or buy some spare boots online and wait. Test drive revealed the 60mph wobble was gone, and some of the bearing noise had gone, but there's still a rumble from somewhere. Tomorrow's problem.

Elsewhere, the VXR8 got another new battery. It had a new one from Halfords not long after I bought it in late 2023, a Yuasa 096 with a 5 year warranty. Fast forward two and a half years and off the car it could be charged, as soon at it was fitted it dropped virtually all power and wouldn't even allow the boost pack to work. Fair play to Halfords, once they tested the battery and found that it had definitely failed I was sent on my way with a new Yuasa which solved the issue.

The 535d went off to get fixed at a local BMW specialist, hopefully it'll be back next week.

Tomorrow will be exhausting.

Your BMW Specialist must be very special - many now don't want to touch anything "involved." Just servicing and easy repairs.

12,958 · May 21

Glad to see you posting here again and fingers crossed the specialist is able to sort the BMW without it hitting your wallet too hard.

5,842 · May 21

Glad to hear you're making progress with the Volvo!

10,039 · May 22

More Ovlov progress. This afternoon was spent chasing the other wheel bearing noise, I thought it might be from the n/s/f but really wasn’t sure. Jacking up the wheel didn’t reveal anything, no excess play or noises. So wheel off, disc off, still nothing. However, popping the driveshaft out revealed the bearing to be properly rough, so out it came:

This tool made life very easy:

All back together, test driven and passed - no more bearing rumble. The spare key got a new battery which removed the only dashboard warning, so the dash now looks like this:

There are still some jobs to do, there is still a rattle from the n/s/f which is probably suspension topmount, the rear feels a bit soft and it still needs rear discs and pads, but it’s going up for sale as is. I’m using it at the moment for my commute to work while the 5 series bankrupts me, but it has to go once that comes back.

10,039 · May 25

Braking bad(ly).

Even a cursory glance through the spokes of the Volvo’s rear wheels suggested the rear discs and pads were utterly fucked. Luckily there were new discs included, so that was this morning’s job:

The whole lot looked like it’d spent plenty of time being driven through the sea, but some serious wire wheel action had it all sorted. The lower caliper slide pin was seized solid, meaning the inner pad was almost on the metal as the caliper had been unable to slide as it should. Bit of heat freed it off, then a tickle with some emery cloth got it back to a serviceable state. Regreased and refitted, all good. Other side was a bit easier, though still quite crusty.

After:

Note the proper brake pad grease - this side was lagged in copper slip so plenty of brake cleaner got rid of it and only a sparing amount of copper slip applied to the lip of the hub where the centre ring of the wheel sits.

I was going to do the front top mount today but it’s just too hot, so I’m putting the tools away and going for a drive.

9,639 · May 26

Some great work as always 👍🏼👍🏼. Volvo very tempting now you've fixed most of the issue with it 👍🏼👍🏼.

10,039 · June 1

Ouch.

N57 fun and games, but hopefully good for a long time to come. New chains, new main and rod bearings, new valve cover gasket, main seals and more. Needs an oil change in 1,000 miles and hopefully that’ll be it, back to 6k oil changes.

I’ve also possibly done a deal for another big German saloon, though it’ll be a catch and release:

This picture is a couple of years old from when I owned the A8 on the right - forum bike and famed for front bumper removal shenanigans. The A8 on the left was bought by a friend on the back of a ride in mine when I owned it, and he’s now looking to replace it with a D4 A8. It’s leggy (215k-ish on the clock) but has been pretty reliable for him. I think I’ll have a ball joint or track rod end to sort and wang it through an MoT, and then it’ll be for sale if anyone fancies it, probably around £1600.

No, I won’t be removing the front bumper unless absolutely necessary.

23,141 · June 1

On 18/05/2026 at 08:22, Split_Pin said:

Do you think those are bits of timing chain or or more sinister bearing material?

That was a great catch @83C , it will be bearing material and it's not uncommon, but perfectly treatable if caught in time!

10,039 · June 1

3 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

That was a great catch @83C , it will be bearing material and it's not uncommon, but perfectly treatable if caught in time!

Yes, seems I got lucky this time.

Always worth giving a filter a check over once removed.

22,430 · June 1

3 hours ago, 83C said:

Ouch.

N57 fun and games, but hopefully good for a long time to come. New chains, new main and rod bearings, new valve cover gasket, main seals and more. Needs an oil change in 1,000 miles and hopefully that’ll be it, back to 6k oil changes.

I’ve also possibly done a deal for another big German saloon, though it’ll be a catch and release:

This picture is a couple of years old from when I owned the A8 on the right - forum bike and famed for front bumper removal shenanigans. The A8 on the left was bought by a friend on the back of a ride in mine when I owned it, and he’s now looking to replace it with a D4 A8. It’s leggy (215k-ish on the clock) but has been pretty reliable for him. I think I’ll have a ball joint or track rod end to sort and wang it through an MoT, and then it’ll be for sale if anyone fancies it, probably around £1600.

No, I won’t be removing the front bumper unless absolutely necessary.

Not an insignificant bill but it could have been much worse.

10,039 · June 1

For sure. As I only gave £4k for the car it almost brought it to the tipping point of repair or sell as spares, but I'd only be going out and buying another N57-powered F11 so I might as well stick with the one I know.

I have had daft ideas of buying a broken F11 for some of the interior and some exterior parts but I've no space to break a car at the moment, and realistically the next big project I want to tackle is the L322 which is desperate for new wheel bearings, rear subframe refurbishment and front CV joints. The VXR8 also needs a new prop centre bearing, which I'm sure will be a fun* job.

3,143 · June 1

👍 Good to see you gracing the pages again

Still got the Td6 L322 ? - Be interested to hear your views on Td6 vs Tdv8

10,039 · June 1

1 hour ago, Minimad5 said:

👍 Good to see you gracing the pages again

Still got the Td6 L322 ? - Be interested to hear your views on Td6 vs Tdv8

Yes, still here, it’s just returned from a 700 mile round trip to Cornwall which it managed with the usual boring reliability. Initially the plan had been to take the Volvo but youngest daughter prefers the Range Rover because she has to sit behind me and the only car with properly decent rear legroom is an L322.

I’ve not driven a TDV8 example yet, occasionally I see one up for sale that looks reasonable but the turbo issues with the 3.6 put me off as do the electronic dash and other complications in the 4.4. Other things I don’t like are the economised interior (solid bar across the dash looks much nicer than the 3-piece version on facelifted examples) and I’m fairly sure they also economised on rust protection - I’ve seen some utterly horrendous TDV8s, particularly later ones. There is also the tax issue given they’re all in the JFC tax bracket, mine was registered a week before the cutoff so despite being an 06 plate is relatively sensible to tax. Your old Tonga Green V8 was particularly unfortunate in that it was registered on the very day the tax rate changed - 24hrs earlier and it would have been half the price. On the upside, a TDV8 should drive nicer and be even better suited to towing, and apparently they can actually be more efficient than a TD6, though nobody is buying one of these for fuel economy reasons.

I still reckon that the TD6 and Jag AJV8 are the best options for an easy ownership experience - 05/06 partial facelift cars with either the TD6 if range matters, Jag AJV8 if doing fewer miles and petrol costs aren’t an issue. Both are relatively simple engines, the TD6/M57 is the last of the sensible diesels where they had a modicum of refinement alongside solid reliability before suffering all the DPF nonsense, the Jag V8 sounds glorious, goes well and has no added complications. I would like to try one with the supercharged Jag V8, it’d be a laugh and hopefully cure the N/A V8’s one weakness, that of being a bit lacking in low down torque. Maybe next year…

37,491 · June 2

Most people seem to turn their noses up at the TD6 and would rather suffer at the hands of a TDV8.

I think my TD6 is great, the engine design has no significant flaws except that the sun can out- accelerate it😂

10,039 · June 2

38 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Most people seem to turn their noses up at the TD6 and would rather suffer at the hands of a TDV8.

I think my TD6 is great, the engine design has no significant flaws except that the sun can out- accelerate it😂

Try renewing the vacuum lines and clean out the inlet manifold - the manifold gets clogged with heavy carbon deposits from the EGR system, reducing airflow. The vac lines chafe and allow boost pressure to be reduced or lost.

The TD6/M57 can be made to perform extremely well, it’s just that it’ll turn the gearbox into cheese if power is upped beyond standard in the L322 application. The GM 5L40E box is the one weak point on a TD6, in a standard car regular gearbox oil changes will keep it sweet (every 50-60k) but they’re very much at the limit of what power they’ll tolerate. If I had lots of spare money I’d love to try fitting a ZF 8HP70 box, and then the M57 from an E60 535d - I reckon it’d make for a great combination in an L322.