UPDATE: I just got a call from Bob Collins, owner of T&A Alignment, and he tells me that replacing the “2001-2003 BMW 530i Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank (E39 Chassis Type)” fixed it — I am ready to roll!!! Woo-hoo!

I really don’t drive enough in the desert or everyday to know not to stress test the coolant system of my 2001 530i BMW “e39″ sedan, but now I know what not to do: Idle in noonday, historically high, 105F heat, AC blasting, while taking a business call on my cell because I was afraid to drive for fear that the West Nebraska cell phone service was going to be too spotty.

Well, the result was pretty catastrophic, or so I have been fretting for the last couple days. The above picture is taken in the first bay at T&A Alignment, owner Bob Collins.

Here’s the deal that I wrote down to post onto the BMW enthusiast forum, Bimmerfest, Overheat to Red and then Fail During Idle and Crack in Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank:

Of course I am already freaked out that this is a cracked cylinder head but let me just post what happened.  I am driving through Nebraska and got a call so instead of staying in the restaurant and taking the call, I jumped into the car and idled and had the AC running for 20 minutes in the noonday heat.  I noticed the AC was off and just the blower/fan and then noticed the temp was not in the middle, like always, but in the red, with the light on. All the way in the red. Instead of turning the car off, I started driving to get some air in it and it got worse, so I stopped the car, opened the hood, and there was coolant all over the inside of the hood/bonnet. The temp gauge went all the way to hot and turned off, actually. And stayed all the way right.  I had a rural mechanic come over and look at it and it had cooled but there was no coolant in the reservoir.  I drove 1/2 mile to the garage and their first diagnosis is a crack in the Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank, which I will replace, so they can do the test to see if it is, in fact, just that crack or if the pressure backup from a cracked cylinder head.  What is your intuition.  I know that I should not have been idling in 100F heat in the car with the AC on — and I also know that I should have turned the car OFF when I saw the overheat and left it there for at least 1/2 hour.  But I didn’t.  But I will do from now on.  What does your intuition say? Replace the Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank or the whole engine?

They’re going to check a couple things to make sure there’s structural damage to the engine — a real possibility — or if replacing the cracked Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank with the one that I ordered and had drop-shipped from 1A Auto (I had a feeling right away that Bob wouldn’t be able to find one so I made sure there was a plan B) fixes everything or will I need to take advantage of my 200 mile tow with AAA Premiere and have her towed to Tom Dinsdale BMW in Grand Island, Nebraska, for some more serious work.

Wish me luck!

And yes, indeed, I am still in Ogallala, Nebraska, where everyone’s really nice and friendly and the beds in the Comfort Inn are the comfiest because they all have pillowtops. I am sleeping like a very worried and neurotic baby.

Here’s a spy photo of a late-design, pre-production version of the next BMW M5 via Autoblog:

What do you think?  Here’s a gallery of more photos for you, too.

[Guest post by Stevie Wilson of the LA Story blog] If you aren’t familiar with me, this is Stevie Wilson and I post very intermittant posts here and on Marketing Conversation.com .

Chris Abraham has been on my blog many times–both in podcast and in reference (where have you been?). If you read this blog you know that Chris Abraham, attends– and speaks at– many major social media events and conferences. He’s an interesting person to know because he’s a multi-dimensional person with an inquisitive mind and lots of interests. If you want to know about the posts on my blog, head over there and do a search on my blog or head over to www.chrisabraham.com or marketingconversation.com and search for my posts there. This might be a bit redundant for this blog but hang with me people, it gets better!

Chris Abraham (looking pretty dapper here and he was dressed pretty much like this the night we had dinner)

Before we get into the podcast, you need a bit of back story. I interviewed Chris Abraham at least 3 years ago– about a statement he made about his life. (Like I said, it’s a podcast, hunt it down in my blog or his). I was able to connect to him and he was willing to talk to me and so began a series of irregular podcasts and contributions to blogs that sort of created a friendship of sorts. Given the range of topics, we have no problems laughing at each other’s jokes or finding out that we both like to do target practice. Yet during all this time, I had never met Chris. The only way I had seen him was his photos or if he was in a video–really– in at least 3 years.

So as Chris Abraham made this sojourn across the country, making pit-stops in all kinds of places (and being stuck in ice storms), we eventually put together a “meet-up” and when all was worked out, we met at the Beechwood Restaurant in Venice. Not the easiest place to find for an Angeleno who doesn’t know Venice but so much easier for someone from out of the area — he beat me there because I got lost and circled the area twice! Patient man that he is, he recognized me as I can flying in the restaurant door and we headed out to the patio for dinner — and to get me a cocktail.

We ordered up some appetizers– and this man has a taste for the exotic and I went with it. Great idea too! Fried edamame, fried spicy chickpeas (YUM!) and some sashimi type fish.

This podcast was done LIVE in a busy restaurant. I have tried to amplify and clean up the sound but parts might be a bit faint so turn up the volume or plug in a headset and turn up the volume. It is very very funny. We had a diverse range of topics to talk about.

We did order dinner– and you will hear it in the podcast along with 2 people who were sitting next to us. The person who mentions Steve Martin’s book is the wife and the man talking about dying his hair red is the husband.. and they were interesting people–VERY interesting people.

Here’s my dinner– and me! Photo by Chris Abraham.

(sparkly eyes thanks to the Jack and Jill cocktail and a lot of laughte. Recipe at the end. )

I didn’t take a photo of Chris because he was back-lit and he would have either been dark with a halo (hmmm Chris does that mean you are an angel in disguise?) or I would have/should have used my flash and then worked it a bit in photoshop! Why didn’t I ? I thought it would stop the flow of conversation and the people on the other side were listening to our conversation too. I guess we were pretty interesting or we were having a better time than them.

Beechwood Jack and Jill Cocktail

• Lairds Applejack
• Pomegranate Syrup
• Fresh Lemon Juice
• Orange Bitters

Served on the rocks, topped with Prosecco.
Yummy drink and the Prosecco adds just the right amount of fizz.

Thankyou to Chris Abraham for being willing to podcast in that environment. I think he may not remember all that was said. I certainly didn’t. Also the couple next to us were very chatty and very funny. Thanks to Chris for dinner too.. he was willing to fight me for the bill. So I deferred to his better judgement as he is over 6 feet tall and I am about 5’3″. We both have the similar taste in cars– fast, German and BMW are 3 key words. What they will be next year.. could be entirely different.

Chris Abraham has left LA now and headed north. So by the time he sees this I am not sure where he will be. However maybe, if we are very lucky, he will head back down into LA and I can corral him into another podcast about social media topics or affects or whatever topic he chooses. “The princessification of girls” is on facebook and his blog.

Thanks again Chris. It was really fun. Hope we can have coffee or show you something other than Venice as part of a tour of LA. I think you would like to see more of So. California.

Stevie Wilson, LA-Story.com

Just after I wrote BMW is a Stinking Lying Liar! I got a tweet from @holgr saying “The same is happening at Mercedes as well.” Well, here’s what I wrote:

My next article is to out Mercedes for doing the same thing, which used to hide its displacement in its number. So, the S500 or 500S had a 5-liter engine and a E320 had a 3.2 Liter engine and a 300D had a 3-liter Diesel engine, this the D — and the 560SEL had a 5.6 Liter engine — I am scandalized!

Well, I did a little research and what Holger said is true.  Now, please forgive me if I got this wrong.  Let’s compare, using my favorite Mercedes-Benz automobile, the CL-Class coupé.

Starting with the first-generation 1992-2000 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class “W140,” there was the CL500 with a 5.0L 315 hp V8 and the CL600 with the 6.0L 389 hp V12 — OK, that works… the 1992-2000 CL500 did, in fact, have a 5.0L engine and the CL600 had a 6.0L engine.  That works.

The second-generation CL-Class had the “W215″ chassis (my Mercedes 300D had a 123 chassis, for example).

Between 2000-2006, there were a number of CLs.  The V8-powered CL500 (5.0L), the supercharged V8-powered CL55 (5.5L) AMG, the V12-powered CL600 (5.8L — oops), a 2001 limited-edition V12-powered CL63 AMG (6.3L), and the rare bi-turbo V12-powered CL65 AMG (6.0L — whoops!).

Wow, based on the W215 examples here, there was a little moniker authenticity slippage back in 2000-2006 with the CL600 and the CL65.

OK, now let’s check on our current CL-Class chassis model, the W216.  How’s the authenticity between the displacement of the engines versus the number… is this indicative of the terrible, terrible, catastrophic end of civilization as we know it?

Wow, this is really weird… the W216 CL500 and the CL550 have 5.5L V8 engine, the CL600 has a 5.5L V12, the CL63 AMG has a 6.2L V8, and, crazy enough, the CL65 AMG is a 6.0L V-12 BiTurbo!

Good Lord, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz has started lying to us, all for the sake of appearances.  Or, as the guy from the BMW dealer told me, “for tradition?”

What else is happened?  What else is falling into the opening and broadening cracks down to Hell, with fingers of fire and sparking flakes of brimstone.  When the German pragmatist in all the German automakers completely goes to hell, what is there left to believe in?

I spent the day at the Roswell, Georgia, BMW dealer with my friend S as he shopped for 7-Series BMWs and I must lodge a complaint as the owner of a 2001 BMW 530i “e39″ with a 3 Liter inline six motor.

The complaint is based on the two numbers after the series number of each car. For example, in the past, a 750i had a 5 Liter engine, a 328i had a 2.8 Liter engine, and the 318i had a 1.8 Liter engine. The engine displacement has always been kept in the two numbers after the 3, 5, or 7 Series number.

Now, as we test drove a 2011 BMW 740Li and a 750Li I discovered that the 2011 528i has my car’s engine, a 3-Liter inline-6, and is just sporting the 28 “out of tradition.” What? What’s more, the 740Li sports a twin-turbo 3 Liter 6, not a 4-Liter, and the 750Li sports a 4-Liter 8 and not a 5-Liter!  Even more, the 2011 BMW 335i is a 3-Liter inline-six with a twin-turbo and not a 3.5 Liter engined car.

The first thing the dealer did when we shot off in the 740LI was, “doesn’t feel like a six, does it?”  The tail doesn’t at all designate that the traditionally and historically naturally-aspirated award-winning BMW engines are now often turbo and twin-turbo-assisted, though this is not represented in the new alpha-numeric nomenclature.  Since “i” means fuel-injected and “x” means all-wheel-drive and “L” means long-wheelbase, shouldn’t “t” mean turbo or “b” mean biturbo?

Am I silly or are you as appalled as I am?

I rented a full-sized car from the Enterprise at the Hotel Nikko on Mason in San Francisco to do a day trip to Guy Kawasaki’s house for a fundraiser. All they had was a big lacquer black, leather-swaddled, Chevrolet Tahoe LT.

They gave it to me for the same price and I was in heaven. OK, she was nothing like my BMW, but as I reported before, whenever I get my hands on an American truck, my heart leaps! The truck was a flex-fuel truck with an V8. There was plenty of rock-solid stability all the way up to 90. While I am spoiled by my 5-series german sedan, with its precise steering and its on-rails handling, the sloppiness in the wheel was OK because this is a Very Big Truck. The Chevy Tahoe 12:28:07 feels a lot less urban cowboy or yuppie than it does proper ranch-owner or construction company owner. This is a blue collar vision of a good time and of arrival. This is also a vision of the world that would fit in well in a motorcade — it is gorgeous enough to replace that Towncar if you have to impress clients picking them up at the airport. It feels larger than it looks from afar. I think it’s a bit smaller than the Chevy Suburban and the Ford Expedition. But I could be wrong. I don’t know if I will trade my gorgeous, well-loved, 2001 e39 530i BMW in just now. But, if I need another vehicle, I will surely consider adding this gorgeous behemoth to the stable, let the greenies be damned!

The Citroën DS 20 was not only a very popular car but also a very elegant and advanced car.

Many modern conveniences such as air shocks, hydraulics, directional headlights, and many other refinements that are commonplace today but were very odd, quirky, eccentric, and bizarre back in the day. What an amazing example of this proto-luxury French auto.

David Gelles and I stumbled upon this 80s-era E28 BMW M5 parked on the street in San Francisco and both fell in love. San Fran is the home of quirky, awesome, and rare classic cars.

I have been reading every month that BMW is losing its heart and spirit, losing its spirit of driving, its passion for naturally-aspirated engines and tight handling for turbos and assisted steering — going for heaviness, luxury, softness, sloppiness, and technology over its driving and sport heritage.

The R and RS Audis have taken away the motorsport badge from BMW and Mercedes’ AMG badge does heavy, fast, and luxurious much better than Beemer ever will.

I stopped buying 5-series cars at the E39 body style, last made in 2003, and consider the latest 5s and 3s to be derivative and lacking the heritage and inspiration — quickness and handling — that had made BMW the epitome of the driver’s car with maybe the high point being the BMW Z3 M car — a car that was so powerful and mad that it was fiercely irresponsible — in a good way — and offered so many horses and torque for its size that the driving shaft would sometimes just commit hari-kari.

Oh well, it looks like I will be buying “classic” from now on. To me, the only car that hasn’t lost its heritage is the Porsche 911.

Audi, congrats to you for stealing, eating, and keeping BMW’s lunch with your fantastic RS4, R6, and supercar R8 of Iron Man fame.

Sorry, BMW, I only say this because I love you and I very well expected to keep on buying 5-Series for life — but probably not any more — I hear the electronically-assisted steering on the new fives is a Bavarian heresy!

While I do miss my 1997 Land Rover Discovery, RIP, I have nothing but pride and excitement for my 2001 E39 BMW 530i, bought used from BMW. She’s fast, tight, quick, handsome, timeless, reliable, and not getting long in the teeth even after 89k miles and almost a decade since she was born. I just bought another two years of registration in Virginia on her and feel an explosion of pride every time the valet drives up. In fact, I am so besotted that I find myself checking out other E39 5-Series BMWs — it’s a handsome sedan. My ode to my 5.

BMW‘s official unveiling ceremony isn’t until Monday, but a few authentic shots of the all-new “F10″ BMW 5 Series are floating around cyberspace. These three low resolution images only give us a frontal glimpse of the upcoming 5 Series sedan, apparently as it does a dress rehearsal for its big show at the beginning of the week.

Our first sans-camouflage observation says it looks much like the 5 Series GT, its close sibling (nobody was expecting any radical styling departure anyway). Thanks to its “sport sedan” role, the new 5 Series four-door sports a slightly more aggressive flair to its front facade and side styling.

In case you were wondering, the little black buttons just ahead of the front wheels are side view cameras, just like those found on the 7 Series. We’ll reserve further judgment until Monday, when they pull the rest of the tarp off. Thanks for the tip, Brandon!