Maintenance and Event Log

Oct. 1, 2008

My left low bean HID started to go on and off intermittently. After reading through various M5 forums I'm no smarter than before...other than it's probably the bulb or the ballast. As of last night I noticed that the color of the light has started to change visibly from white to a lot more yellowish. I guess the bulb's slowly failing....or the gas in the bulb is somehow degenerating. The prospect of having to buy a $240 bulb (that's the price at the local BMW of Seattle dealership) isn't particularly thrilling. I'm going to have to look at non-OEM options which on the surface appear to be much cheaper.

Sep. 15, 2008

My first flat. My right rear tire had a 3" nail in it. The tire pressure monitor did warn me of a "Tire Defect" but it doesn't tell you which tire....which is a bit annoying. I pulled over pretty quickly and had the car flat bedded back home. I intended to jack the car up and pull the wheel and take it to have it fixed. Well...silly me....I knew the M5 didn't have a spare tire but little did I know it didn't have a jack either. So I did use the M Mobility system - which is really a pretty slick piece of engineering - to fill the tire with sealant goop and took the car down to Discount Tire. They pulled the tire and found that the side wall was damaged enough that I had to end up buying a new tire. We're talking mucho dinero here. Cost me $419 all in. Wasn't exactly excited about this but what choice did I have?

Here are some pics from my phone...

You can't really tell but there's a nail head in the right bottom of the tire...