[Junebug85]

Originally Posted by danlad99

Does anyone know what these are? And are they the cause of not being able to make the full connection at garages, and can they be removed?

photo a https://photos.app.goo.gl/CU7uv6djYjJk12zw5

Many thanks

They are TPMS Valves/Sensors. Confirmed by the fact that you say you can see individual pressures on the iDrive

[madlad2000]

Originally Posted by McBeemer

Do as Highland Pete says by checking chassis only, run it on sport mode all the time … then if you want sport setting for engine & gearbox, simply flick the gear lever to the left … best of both worlds

That sounds like a great idea. Although does that mean learning how to manually shift up and down? Id imagine at first it would be no way near as quick or at changing point where max torque and power starts to stop... (especially as I've always had petrol in manuals). But I have noticed how, sports mode or not, when flooring, it shifts at around 5 revs, much much higher than my 420d,and much more like a petrol would - except im guessing max torque and power is, like most diesels much lower down, so it should be shifting sooner, although the sound it makes it lovely.

That said.. Now I know the softness is intentioned I actually like it, why.*not* enjoy the softer ride with less wheel crash in every day urban roads, and switching to sport on the motorway for tighter steering and added over taking power, and for the occasional time I have to go on country roads. Leeds is notorious for potholes, many old roads in offer suburbs still have cobbles lol. The district is much much larger than the urban portion meaning much money goes on maintaining the many rural roads

Any one any idea on what the metal thing is? Some googling shows it may be a 'valve stem' for improved visuals that can be removed... But I'm guessing they'll have to take the front tyres off again when doing it... Increasing the risk of potential alloy scatches

If they c are valve stems they look old so I wonder if they were put in with the original owner,rather than added with

[Junebug85]

Originally Posted by danlad99

That sounds like a great idea. Although does that mean learning how to manually shift up and down? Id imagine at first it would be no way near as quick or at changing point where max torque and power starts to stop... (especially as I've always had petrol in manuals). But I have noticed how, sports mode or not, when flooring, it shifts at around 5 revs, much much higher than my 420d,and much more like a petrol would - except im guessing max torque and power is, like most diesels much lower down, so it should be shifting sooner, although the sound it makes it lovely.

That said.. Now I know the softness is intentioned I actually like it, why.*not* enjoy the softer ride with less wheel crash in every day urban roads, and switching to sport on the motorway for tighter steering and added over taking power, and for the occasional time I have to go on country roads. Leeds is notorious for potholes, many old roads in offer suburbs still have cobbles lol. The district is much much larger than the urban portion meaning much money goes on maintaining the many rural roads

Any one any idea on what the metal thing is? Some googling shows it may be a 'valve stem' for improved visuals that can be removed... But I'm guessing they'll have to take the front tyres off again when doing it... Increasing the risk of potential alloy scatches

If they c are valve stems they look old so I wonder if they were put in with the original owner,rather than added with

See post #45 for the valve question

With hitting the stick to the left you don't need to change up/down. You can if you want to but left stick puts the gearbox into sport while auto mode is still engaged. You will see an S and a number appear in the instrument cluster.

[madlad2000]

Originally Posted by Junebug85

They are TPMS Valves/Sensors. Confirmed by the fact that you say you can see individual pressures on the iDrive

My old 2014 420d m sport didn't have these, is this a new thing, or optional extra?

And what do I do then.. As it means the 4 petrol stations I tried, the metal casing goes so far up, the air hose end wont go down enough to make a full seal to fill air, only letting air owt. [ although the pump used at the tyre place worked fine]

What do you recommend I do? Hunt for somewhere that will fit? Trouble is, each time I test somewhere the air drops a bit more, so I couldn't keep going back to the the tyre place. Unless I get them to fill to the correct amounts, and go back every 4-6 months or so, or whenever one gets too low, and give them a fiver to top them all back up?

In fairness I only tried two places, shell and sainsbury's. Perhaps I should try a morrisons and or esso garage air pump.

Also if the only option is to remove them, can they easily be kept and re clipped in in the future? And will I be able to disable / silence the warning on the idrive

Both front tyres are reading 2.6 bar. (as opposed to 2.8 bar as recommended on the labelling), so I could just leave them. Then ensure they do the back ones to 3.0 bar as recommended. They did mention they always fill a little lower than what it says as it's better.. He said they fill all tyres generally to 38psi, which is 2.6.



UPDATE: I found that turning the petrol station pumps round, using the other end, although fiddley as you have to feed it through the alloy, works like normal. So no issues now. All sorted and happy. Just to get the rears changed, then alignment. Then will look at getting the rears tinted, as for some reason they didn't come with privacy glass which I only noticed the other day.