I guess because I'm so busy riding my bicycle, but on Wednesday, I finally had the CDV removed from my 530i.

My friendly independent BMW mechanics had never done one before, so I printed DaveZ's information / instructions, dropped those and the car off, and went for my morning bike ride. I told them I was going to the beach, so they took care of several other cars first.

When I got back, they hadn't started on it yet. So, I sat around and read a couple of back issues of Auto Motor und Sport (lots of pics of the 1 series, the M version of the Z4, all the Mini variants, etc. - even some words I could understand hear and there) until my car went onto the lift.

I got to see the lousy, stinking valve in place, and 5 minutes later, I got to see it in a bag. I let the mechanics bleed the hydraulic system in peace, paid my $60, and drove off ready to see if this would really cure my seeming inability to drive the car smoothly.

I've driven the car four different times now, and only made one "jerky" shift. When my daughter and I left the house for lunch, she asked me at the first corner if I'd had something done! She claimed to be able to tell the difference from the passenger's seat. Her boyfriend had driven my car the previous Saturday, and she called him at work to tell him the CDV was gone, because he'd told her (but not me) that while he loves the BMW, he hated the clutch action.