Intro/Mod/Service History Thread for Our X5

[crystalworks]

I figured it was about time to post a thread for our X5 that we purchased in June of this year. I had been looking for a couple of months for a new "baby mobile" as we had quickly outgrown our full size sedan (2013 Loaded Kia Optima SX). Our, at the time, 6 month old and her accompanying accessories were making it difficult to make trips to the grocery store or elsewhere without sacrificing bringing something or limiting purchases.

June 22, 2014

So two months into the search I planned a day trip to Houston while the wife stayed home in San Antonio to watch the little one. I had 3 or 4 vehicles picked out of autotrader and craigslist to take a look at. All 4.4i sports... if I was going to sacrifice mileage, I was going to have fun doing it. I looked at all of those and was extremely disappointed all but one of them. The descriptions and pictures grossly misrepresented the actual condition. So, it was still earlyish and I decided to just drive around as Houston has TONS of little "dealerships" that are basically curb stoner lots.

After driving around for an hour or two and checking out one of two more X's that I passed on (didn't have sport seats/pkg) I found a small lot that specialized in work type vehicles and duallys. They X they had was an acceptable color combo and appeared to be well cared for aesthetically. It had been hit on the front right but had been repaired with factory BMW parts (still had the parts tags on a few of them). They had it priced at $11995 with 109,200 miles on the clock. I took a video and test drove it. Drove fine with a few suspension type issues, but I expect that of almost every used BMW I test drive. Not being knowledgeable on the platform I did miss the torn CCV diaphragm and valve stem seals (not bad but need replacing). They had cleaned the bay up a lot so I also missed the leaking valve cover gaskets, upper timing cover gaskets, and possibly alternator bracket gasket.

I decided I really liked this one and even if it needed $2000 worth of work, I'd still come out ahead of the ~$13000 suggested retail if I got it for $10000 out the door. Gave the dealer my offer and he took it. Told him I had to go back to San Antonio and show the wife for final approval but I already had my check and could email him the info the next day to finalize the purchase. Had dinner with a buddy in Houston, showed him the vid (he approved... also a BMW fanatic), and drove back home to show the wife. Below is the video I showed her.



July 6, 2014

- The story is getting a bit long... so suffice it to say the wife really liked the truck and okay'd it. I purchased the vehicle the next day taking care of all the paperwork through email. Picked the truck up a couple weeks later and drove it straight to my buddies tire shop where I had wheels/tires waiting to go on it before driving it back to San Antonio. The ones on the X were shot. We sold our Kia Optima SX to Carmax a month later after we were sure we wouldn't need/want it. We never wanted to drive it anymore after getting the X. My wife and I were happy to once again be an all BMW family (4 of them).

-Replica style 336 wheels: $859 & Tires cost me $800

Ebay Staggered 336 Reps

Front:
- 20x9.5
- et 45
- hub 72.56 (need small hub rings for hub centric fit, I run without rings no problem though) Have rings and will install on next rotation.
- Toyo Proxes 275/40/20

Rear
- 20x10.5
- et 40
- hub 72.56 (need small hub rings for hub centric fit, I run without rings no problem though) Have rings and will install on next rotation.
- Toyo Proxes 315/35/20






- Installed retractable black cargo cover for power recline seats purchased off a member here on Xoutpost. Thanks!

- Installed new battery in the key we got with the X. It would not work with central locking and that was getting annoying with the wife and kiddo. Easy fix for less than $10.

July 18, 2014

- Replaced the factory nav screen with a unit ordered from ebay @ $124.00. Old had 4 failure dots and did not look good at all.

- Also installed new floor mats that had been ordered from BMW Parts and Accessories at GetBMWparts.com @ $117.95.

- Removed all the faux wood trim dash kit that previous owner had installed. That made everything so much nicer alone. The stuff was everywhere.

July 20, 2014

- Removed all OEM wood trim (including center console) and wrapped with carbon fiber vinyl. I had this lying around from a previous project and it really helped to update the interior look of the vehicle. Looks like I don't have any good pics of this... I'll take some later and upload them.

August 6, 2014

- Had rear wheels aligned to correct excessive camber. Wanted to preserve the $800 20" tires as long as possible.

- Installed new license plate mount for the front and rear on the X5 purchased at local BMW Center. The previous owner had ghetto rigged a mount on there.

August 30, 2014

- Installed new CCV diaphragms on both valve covers. One was still good, but I replaced anyway. $38.10

- Replaced illuminated divers door handle. PO must have worn rings and scratched that one up severely. It was the only scratched one and now they all look great. My OCD can get expensive sometimes. $59.83

- Replaced passenger rear window regulator. Purchased truck with bad regulator. Upon opening the other doors they have been replaced at some point so maybe I won't have to do one for awhile. Depending on what brand they used anyway. $140.33

- Replaced all wiper blades and installed a new front windshield washer pump. Needs a new rear one also, but not too worried about that ATM. $50.33

- Installed complete interior LED bulb kit from ebay. Also installed some LED lights in the puddle lights (I had these from another car) under the folding mirrors. Very happy with these upgrades as ~5k light frequencies are much more pleasing to my wife's and my eyes. We even run that color temp LED's in all our house fixtures when possible. $32.95

- Put in a black OEM cargo liner ordered used off ebay

October 13, 2014

- Picked up new OEM key from local BMW Center. We like to have at least 2 keys for all vehicles and the X only came with 1. $180.86

October 27, 2014

- Picked up the X5 from our local premium detail shop. They do really good work and take good care of your vehicle. Cost $1281.67. They did:

- painted kidney and hood grilles gloss black

- wrapped door pulls in graphite vinyl to match illuminated door handles (original finish was scratched and marred)

- re-tint the whole vehicle w/ 25% Renegade window film

- headlight correction

- paintless dent removal for 2 dents on hood and 1 on roof

- 3 step paint correction, polish, and seal

- apply Opti-Coat (3 year warranty). This stuff is amazing. Always looks like I just waxed the vehicle.







- I installed a new set of wind deflectors over all the windows. We were missing one from purchase... OCD kicked in again. $78.73

December 17 - 21, 2014

- Installed Avin Avant 2 head unit and accessories. Yep, this took me 5 days as an ex-pro installer. I pulled the entire interior and followed factory wiring paths. The rear cam install itself took a whole day, but that is mostly due to fitment issues. I'll detail all of this in a DIY thread and file.







Future plans/needs

- As mentioned above the X needs some suspension work. Only noticed failed front tension arm bushings while under it (exacerbated by oil leaks), but I am going to replace the ball joints on the arms as well.

- X5 also needs new motor mounts as too much engine vibe is transmitted into chassis.

- Vehicle leaks oil at a decent rate of ~1qt/2000 miles. I need to do valve cover gaskets, upper timing cover gaskets, alternator housing gasket (not sure, but it's getting done), and all various seals for sensors/actuators.

- Valve stem seals... the biggie!

Overall, I think the vehicle was a decent purchase @ $10k but I have bought about $1200 worth of parts (I have parts for most of the above future list) so far and have more to buy. And a bunch more worth of wheels/tires and upgrades. Still you don't buy cars to make money... and I plan on keeping forever (I can do motor/trans swaps in my garage if necessary) so we are happy with the purchase. Let me know what you think of the vehicle... did we over pay? No offense will be taken, as I said, I am new to the platform and have learned a bunch here already.

Thanks for reading.

[StephenVA]

Thanks for the write up and the correct focus on expectations vs something else. I did like the stripped interior shot while you installed everything. Shows attention to detail that is always too lacking on some projects.
Great job, good purchase (as if you needed someone else to say that) and once again welcome to the family.

[lhordmclain]

Nice work! This blog like thread reminded me of -> Doug's Domain

More power to you ( audio guru) and to your wife ( interior restoration/detail expert)

[SMOKEY53]

Great thread. Enjoy your attention to detail. I think we have walked very similar paths in the short months of ownership! Mine is booked for full correction and opti-coat at end of Jan.


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[salnj]

Congratulations on a nice x5. Awesome work.

[Joshdub]

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Avant 2. And I must say, I really like the rest of your fleet.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by StephenVA

Thanks for the write up and the correct focus on expectations vs something else. I did like the stripped interior shot while you installed everything. Shows attention to detail that is always too lacking on some projects.
Great job, good purchase (as if you needed someone else to say that) and once again welcome to the family.

Thanks for the kind words. My OCD kicks in most of the time and makes me spend an inordinate amount of time (and money sometimes) to get things the way I want them. I must say though that I could not recommend an E53 X5 to anyone who could not work on them. The cost of the stuff I have done/will do at a shop would almost surpass what we paid for vehicle.

Originally Posted by salnj

Congratulations on a nice x5. Awesome work.

Thanks for the compliments. Will keep this thread updated.

Originally Posted by SMOKEY53

Great thread. Enjoy your attention to detail. I think we have walked very similar paths in the short months of ownership! Mine is booked for full correction and opti-coat at end of Jan.

Sounds like it! You'll love the Opti-Coat. So much easier to keep the vehicle clean. Don't know if you guys can get Optimum No Rinse Wash and Wax over in Oz... but the detail shop turned me onto the stuff. It's amazing. I can wash my cars in the garage now and they come out great. The wife and I would love to make it to the Australian Open one of these years... we both play tennis.

Originally Posted by lhordmclain

Nice work! This blog like thread reminded me of -> Doug's Domain

More power to you ( audio guru) and to your wife ( interior restoration/detail expert)

Thanks for posting that... haha now I have yet another BMW bookmark. And, yes my wife and I both have OCD problems... we are aware.

Originally Posted by Joshdub

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Avant 2. And I must say, I really like the rest of your fleet.

LOL... I am 18 pages into the writeup for the DIY w/ pictures. It's pretty detailed. Non-nav installers will have a much easier time of it... unless installing a reverse cam. That makes the job 10x harder. We haven't had much time to play with it and I plan on doing a review video after I familiarize myself with the unit more. Only used it like 2 or 3 times so far since we only drive the X on weekends normally.

[white46]

Forget the x5.
Those 3 e30s are SO clean.
What are they? 325 eta, 325i and 318is?

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by white46

Forget the x5.
Those 3 e30s are SO clean.
What are they? 325 eta, 325i and 318is?

LOL... thanks. Yes alpineweiss II 87 325eta (wife's daily w/ ~400,000 miles), alpineweiss II 92 325i vert in back, and brilliantrot 91 318is turbo. I am a huge e30 junkie and luckily my wife really enjoys them as well. Really we are bmw junkies, had e46, e30, e28, e36, and now e53 chassis with multiples of most.

[motordavid]

Helluva good thread, fun to read and envious of your skills...
That stripped interior shot gave me chills, as I couldn't do that with a full '2nd life' in front of me.

Fine azz looking X, post wheels and detailing.
Good Luck, mD