road noise, earthing, bonking and water change

    Firstly, I seem to get quite a lot of cabin/road noise.. i sthis normal? it seems to come more from the rear of the car. Is there any good methids to reduce this at all as I was under the impression that the 8 series was supposed to be a quite cruiser? I also geta certain amount of wind noise from around the top front of the car.



    Secondly I randomly get MID error messages about a fog or low beam light failing.. however they quite ofetn go away on their own accord. Today driving back from work I also had no dash instrument!!!:oops:


    I suspect it maybe a fuse (I have yet to check).


    Thirdly, I get a bonking when taking up or letting off power. I suspect it may be the tranny bushings but are there any rear axle ones that also do this?


    And finally, changing the water. Is there a way to do this withot a hose and disconnecting the heater hose etc? i.e. if I remove the bottom rad hose will this be enough to drain the system?

    I certainly noticed more road noise in the E31, especially from the rear. I just thought it was normal, but later I realised that it was one of the rear wheel-bearing failing when it got worse.


    Removing the lower radiator hose gets surprisingly little water out of the system, even when the car is facing down a slope. The BMW method is to remove the drain plugs in the block, but these are obscured by the exhaust manifold, are very tight and a pain to get to - so I usually flush with a hose to get the old coolant out of the block while the car is facing downhill.

    Matt, the erroneous error messages can be caused by wiring breaks in the loom where it passes into the boot lid. Over time the wiring fatigues and the insulation breaks down causing a short circuit and false error messages. Often it's the earth connection. Have a look at this thread - I had this with my car and it's quite common:

    http://www.8er.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7582

    The above would apply for errors warning you about rear lamps.
    For the heads and fogs I recommend you check inside the headlamp buckets for broken insulation in the wiring, especially where it follows tight curves, the headlamp wiring is known to be only just about adequate for the current loading when the cars were new, over time it's no longer up to the job. 8tech made up some uprated headlamp looms so if yours do need replacing it might be worth asking him if he has any left if you don't want to make it yourself.
    Have a look here:
    http://www.8er.org/forum/showt…highlight=headlamp+wiring

    Thanks guys.


    Yes I have repaired the rear wire loom already! I suspected it maybe faulty headlight earthing!


    Are there any other bad earthings to watch out for.. particularly anything for the ignition or anything that might affect the running of the engine?


    Real pain that the drain plugs are where they are. I dont have a hose pipe so cannot do Tims method. I was aiming to put some rad flush in as I feel that it could do with a really good flush out!!


    In order to reduce road noise Im thinking of making a top 'ceiling' for the boot as I suspect a fair amount of road nose comes through that!


    I have a worn bushing at the rear too. Replaced the rear shocks and springs with Bilstien/Eibachs 2 weeks ago with new top mounts etc an now have a really bad knocking from the drivers side rear. At first I though it to be the top mounts not tightened up properly but there is a certain amount of movement in the rear wheel and I think it maybe the top bush on the rear hub assembly for the top wishbone/sway arm thing. However removing said wheel is now almost impossible due to the hub concentric spacer I fitted (now much less wheel vibration I may add).

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