Where are you getting this? Since when have tyre manufacturers provided ‘approval certificates’ when people want to fit their tyres? What experts are ‘giving the okay’? Seriously, type approval is ONLY required by the manufacturer/their agent in order to sell their cars in the UK. It does not apply ...

Cars are type approved with specific sizes - as shown in the tyre pressure plate. Anything different will take the car away from its type certificate. Technically that makes it illegal on the public roads. This is simply not true, as I've mentioned before on this forum. The type approval ONLY appli...

There are two parts of the battery coding. One is to tell the car the type/capacity of the battery and the other is to tell the car that a new battery has been fitted. If you fit a new battery you really need to do the second one regardless of what you fit. Obviously if you change the type or capaci...

[quote="Spandex"] If the battery (or alternator) had failed there should be other signs. [/quote] [quote="Chrispy"] Also explains the weird recent phenomena where when getting in the car the sat nav split screen would always reset to "current position", the climate woul...

[quote="Leslie"] The starter on my 330d was on the way out a few years back and it would spin they disengage ,yours is doing nothing so suspect battery first though it could be other things ... [/quote] If the mechanism (solenoid, or whatever) to engage the starter fails then it will spin....

I've had a starter fail on an e61 525d that basically had a lot of the symptoms of a failing battery (or faulty alternator/regulator not charging the battery). It would either crank slowly, or not at all. So, it is possible for a starter to fail in the way you describe. Can't help with your other qu...

I think the (unpopular) answer to the question "How do these vehicle perform in snow on the M&S tyres" has to be, "the same as any other car on those tyres". Ultimately, the tyres are what governs how well any car will cope in the snow. The added ground clearance and 4wd will...

[quote="X5Sport"]
All mine are Thule which look awfully like OEM, but cheaper.
[/quote]
I was going to mention this. BMW don’t design or make roof racks. Any ‘genuine’ BMW rack will be a rebadged model from a well known manufacturer such as Thule, with a hefty price premium.

Whereabouts are you? I have a set of Whispbar Aero-X bars in the shed: https://www.roofbox.co.uk/scripts/rbvehsel4_tab.php/roofbars/whispbar_97cm_aero_x_rail_bars_2_no_prs46/Qx%40w%2C6M4gNax5vN1Yv0vegd3uH%40Cl6XreFUtyuG8RuDq%40~gXGbpbbaErHRank%2C6kN Not OEM, but they're a lot lower profile (and ther...

[quote="V12 EGO"] Once it has started to peel you need to replace it. [/quote] Probably a bit late to help the OP, but someone might find it useful... It's not true that a peeling, sticking glove box lid invariably means a replacement. It is possible to fix, although it's not guaranteed to...

Not sure I understand the question. You say “across the e70 range”, but also say you’re looking at x5ms.

The e70 x5m on any age will be £555 to tax. I think all the other petrols will be £540 - £555. Some diesels may fall into the £300ish bracket.

I once took one out to visually check the wiring, then put it back in. It’s relatively simple, if a little fiddly in places. When you open the door you’ll see a rubber bung that covers a torx bolt - undo that and that’s all that’s holding the handle in. You’ll need to slide the end piece (the bit th...

The simplest way of saying it is, all petrol E70 X5s are ULEZ compliant and all diesel E70 X5s are not ULEZ compliant.

[quote="NehalX5"] Indeed. Believe our A6 3.0TFSI is Euro 5 compliant, so no issues there, but the X5 is Euro 4, which is an issue for ULEZ. [/quote] Just to be clear, Euro 4 is only an issue for diesels. The 4.8l X5 is Euro 4 petrol, and this meets ULEZ minimum spec. I know that's what you...

I don't believe it counts as a modification at all, as long as you fit tyres which meet the manufacturers spec. For the X5, I don't believe the spec states they must be RFT and it doesn't state they must be star marked either (star marked is a recommendation, not a requirement). So, any tyres that m...