Welcome back everybody. It's Mark with Exotic Car Play Place driving along in
the BMW e60 m5 today, and I'm gonna be talking today. This is one more of that
series of the top 10 things that you need to know about the BMW e60 m5. One of the
top 10 things about the e60 m5. If you saw my last video, which had to do with
the loud cold start, this is sort of in line with that. This has to do
with the startup process because we're talking about today the startup or the
sliding tachometer. And the sliding tachometer in these cars in the M series cars
is a fairly unique feature. You don't see it in a lot of cars, you see it in some
of the m3's and the m5's where BMW has incorporated a system which shows the
tachometer that slides, and it moves and it regulates based on the
temperature and the readiness of the engine to perform. Now part of that has
to do of course with engine tempertature part of it. It has to do with exhaust system temperature
and the whole packaging, and an even idle time. It all goes into the algorithm,
into the computer within the system here that the e60 that tells the computer where
the redline should reside in the moment. Now as the car warms up, the redline starts
at a very low point and that is strictly because a lot of the M cars, we all know
have very tight tolerance, because BMW built tight tolerances into their
performance breed of cars like the M cars. And so as a result they want to
make sure that the car has adequate warm time.
Without adequate warm time, we already know what can happen with these cars.
There's a quite a history and an evolution of discussions on the rod
bearing problems that you can find as particularly the M series cars like the e60,
you know, the e90 series, of M3's, as well as the e60 m5 and because this is
a problem people panic but unfortunately there's a lot of factors
that contribute to that. And tight tolerance is part of it. Of course the
right oil is part of it, and break-in period is actually part of this. There's
a lot of factors that play into the rod bearing problem. So BMW sees the warm up
period as very important as a matter of fact important enough to include a
sliding tachometer, and most of the other BMWs do not have that technology, but
they included in the M series because the M cars as I mention already have a
very tight tolerance and with the tight tolerances you have problems with oil
not making into the rod bearing area, and proper lubrication and therefore they
want to make sure that the user are heating up the car
properly and giving it all of its appropriate heating that it needs. Of
course with any technology as you find with the e60 m5 sliding tachometer,
there's always a potential for failure and I've heard of a few potential for
failures. One of them being the tach will stick in a certain position. Like it'll
jam up at 8,000 rpm and it won't move from there. There'll be a
problem with the tach not doing its job. It basically seizes up. Other
issues that I've heardL it won't even heat up at all, like the cars temperature
heats, but the tach won't respond and you're stuck at the low 6,500 or 7000
rpm base default redline. That's another issue but the one of course is the big
issue that most of you guys probably don't want to see, and unfortunately as an
e60 m5 owner, there's a very good probability you will experience this.
It is the BMW cog of death and that has to do with usually a serious catastrophic
fault. Usually an actuator, an idle actuator, a
throttle actuator, maybe an issue in the SMG transmission, or some other factor
that will ultimately set the car into default dumb mode, and will drop your
RPMs all the way down to its base default setting, and prevent you from
driving the car like it was meant to be driven. So for the issues that aren't the
red cog of death related and maybe they're just an issue with the
tachometer, there's been some claims on the internet where people have had these
failures and so the first approach by the dealership tends to be a re-flash on
the computer, because sometimes that will fix the problem. Maybe
sometimes this equipment goes out of calibration and then it'll have an
issue where it just it kind of loses its marbles temporarily. Sometimes
a re-flash will work. Unfortunately
what I've seen and what I've heard and the people I've spoken with a large
percentage of the time unfortunately it's not software related. It becomes a
mechanical issue, or something binding, or something failed, and what happens is it
just dies, and that requires often a new a new gauge section or that part of the
system may have to be upgraded, or repaired, or replaced. So sometimes that's
the issue, but like I said you know and that's an occasional
thing that can happen. But I haven't heard of too many stories.
That's just the stories that I have heard that is a possibility. So everybody
I hope you enjoyed the video it's just a quick talk about the sliding tach, the
fact that it's more or less unique to the M cars, and and very unique to the
BMWs in general, and you know occasionally they give me a failure
alongside with that, but it really is something that you need to
follow closely in your warmup procedure. So make sure that you follow that
sliding tachometer to the full 8250 before you even consider going hard.
Of course make sure that your temperature gauge is reading a good 220. Those are
the best sure fire ways that you're gonna prevent your engine damage
from occurring. Doing things like that, making sure you give it the proper
warm-up, making sure you use the right oil, you do a regular oil change
regularly, but again everybody that's the little bit of feedback I can offer you.
That's one of the key elements that's unique to the m5 and I thought I would
share that with you. In the next video be sure to come back on the next one.
I've got another interesting video coming up very soon
Maybe it has something to do with more electronics, possibly a dipstick, we
don't know, we'll see. So everybody, I hope you enjoyed the video. As always make
sure you give the video a like, comment below, and don't forget to subscribe to
the channel if you are not already a subscriber. I'd love you guys to come
back on the next one, as it's a lot of fun having these discussions with you guys. I
know there's more and more questions that come up every single day, and I
absolutely adore it. I love it guys. It's amazing to have those debates and those
discussions with you guys out there. Yeah not everybody agrees, everybody's got
their own opinion, it's interesting to hear the positive stuff,
it's equally interesting to hear the the stuff that's not as constructive, but
that's okay that's what this world is about. Let's have those discussions. Make
sure you hit the like button, share with your friends, subscribe and we'll talk to
in the next one. See you soon. Bye-bye.