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  1. #101
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Fairfield, Connecticut
    Posts
    1,339
    My Cars
    '98 540i '01 540i 13 E70
    Quote Originally Posted by 7 Series View Post
    I had an 06 X5 4.4i and got rid of it as soon as I had the white smoke exhaust problem and that left a bad taste in my mouth.

    I'm back on the hunt for another X5 and came across an 07 X5 3.0si that I am very interested in mainly for towing boats and occasional 40 minute commutes to work. From other posts I'm seeing positive feedback on most 3.0's. Anything else I should look for on this vehicle? It has 150k miles and all service records.
    For what you're going to use it for you should be fine. I had an 07 3.0 but it was too underpowered for me.

    Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

  2. #102
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Fairfield, Connecticut
    Posts
    1,339
    My Cars
    '98 540i '01 540i 13 E70
    Quote Originally Posted by 300kplus View Post
    For what you're going to use it for you should be fine. I had an 07 3.0 but it was too underpowered for me.

    Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
    Update: Purchased a 2013 e70.
    I'm wondering if a cold air intake is both the best bang for the buck and easiest DIY for accomplishing a little more "umph?"
    Anyone?

    Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
    Last edited by 300kplus; 07-14-2019 at 02:34 PM.

  3. #103
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    maryland
    Posts
    462
    My Cars
    e39 m5
    No info on the e70?
    1988 e28 535is...sold

  4. #104
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Fairfield, Connecticut
    Posts
    1,339
    My Cars
    '98 540i '01 540i 13 E70
    OK so I own, newly, a 2013 E7035XI LCI with 81K on it now. I've had it a little over a year and my 1st major repair is a lower control arm on the driver side...
    For all you previous owners who have I owned these vehicles for more then a year, with higher miles, is this indicative of the front end failure I'm going to experience as I climb into higher mileage?
    TIA!

    Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

  5. #105
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Fairfield, Connecticut
    Posts
    1,339
    My Cars
    '98 540i '01 540i 13 E70
    2013 E70 35XI LCI
    But her about a year ago and with 81K on the clock, my 1st major repair now is a lower control arm on the driver side. Is this common on front ends of these vehicles for those of you that have on them... Are they prone to wear out this quickly? Or is this common mileage point for suspension parts on the front of these vehicles to start feeling? Thanks in advance!

    Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

  6. #106
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Location
    Southern California
    Posts
    1
    My Cars
    2006 BMW X3
    Anyone know if doorhandle carriers on an 06 x3 can be swapped as long as they are on the same side?

  7. #107
    Join Date
    Jun 2021
    Location
    New Orleans
    Posts
    288
    My Cars
    02 E53 X5 4.6 swap
    I thought I should weigh in on this excellent thread since my E53 4.4i is approaching 20 years old and has just over 150k on the clock. All in all its been an excellent beast that I have recently decided to hang on to and mod into an overland style vehicle. This isn’t to say that there haven’t been problems. Early on the one or two big ones were covered by warranty and then I allowed the car to slip into a years long period of benign neglect, punctuated by driveway work or trips to the shop only when it forced my hand and insisted on grabbing attention.
    The car was my wife’s daily driver for 13 years after we bought it new in 2002. After that it transitioned to being my kid car and supplemented my ’93 grand Cherokee as the dog hauler and my airport car. Flash forward to this year and my kids are now out of the house and I’m looking for a project car. I still don’t have a Porsche or Gen one Camaro to work on, and the X5 is in my driveway.
    First of all, a few small things have been the biggest reoccurring head ache on the car. Passing perhaps 60k I began to throw multiples of the below at the car:

    • Door handle carriers and window regulators. Absurd that BMW would engineer such crappy pieces.
    • Those stupid, flimsy cheap-assed clips that hold the windows in place
    • A battery every 4 to 5 years seems to be its run rate.
    • Pixels burnt out on the cluster and radio over a decade ago. Only recently did I put a “new” cluster from a 4.8 in the car. I highly recommend Fixels for this job; they did a great job and reprogrammed the DME to work seamlessly with cluster from a later model X5.

    Up until I re-inherited the car my philosophy has been “fly to failure”. With a few exceptions above and below, the stuff that has failed has not been out of line with milage or other cars I’ve owned.

    • Just put my second set of air springs in (rears only in this car). I think roughly 75k from each set is quite reasonable. I had the car up on jacks this month to put a small lift kit in so I did them preventatively. They looked pretty poor and I suspected a small leak in one based n the compressor running more than I remembered it should. Guys seem to have problems with the self leveling suspension in this model, but mine has been very reliable and I really like the ride. A spring conversion kit is available though.
    • 4 years ago in response to terrible squeaking from the suspension I redid every major component in the front and rear myself, with the exception of the rear subframe bushings. A few weeks ago I replaced these. The OEM bushings really didn’t look too bad, but wear was evident.
    • The fuel pump failed at about 80k (15 years) ago but fortunately it was in the driveway.
    • Valley pan leak perhaps a decade ago that I took to an indy shop to fix. They didn’t do a great job so I ended up taking it to the dealer, which hurt a lot.
    • I’ve got the first fuel filter replacement ever ready to install in the car this week.
    • I’ve also got a timing chain tensioner ready to put in as well. I should have done this long ago. My plan is to pull the lower oil pan since it has a leak, look for plastic from the guides and use that info to base a near future engine swap or rebuild decision.
    • I’m on my third round of front axels on the car, and have a front right ready to put in this week. Both boots have been shot for over a year so its time. I don’t recall ever doing the rears.
    • The hood and roof clearcoat failed miserably (in slow motion) on the topaz blue paint. She’s getting painted right now and the guy doing the job said “its always the blue cars that fail”. A word of caution I guess.

    A few words on leaks: The 4.4L M62TUB44 didn’t start leaking at all until it was approaching 100k and then it made up for lost time. She’s leaking from every corner and crevice now, but all are slow drips. High milage oil helped a lot initially and also seems to have stopped the vanos ticking on start-up that has been with us for the past 10 years. I’ve replaced the easy coolant hoses at least once and have a lower radiator hose ready to put in the next time its on a lift. I’ve only had one hose blow and leave me stranded…more on that below.
    The car left us stranded only a few times:

    • In its first year the intake duct backed off the throttle only a tiny bit and while not apparent to me, it was enough to give the DME fits and go into limp mode at highway speeds.
    • Check engine light after a few years of ownership and a very rough idle. Two brand new heads at the dealer later due to a recall for blocked air passages and she was in top form again.
    • Upper radiator hose blew locally at around 100k.
    • Tranny had been chugging and lurching for many years. Sport mode solved (or masked) the problem for several years while my kids were driving the car, but she finally gave out on my daughter a few blocks from our house (conveniently). I put a remanufactured tranny and torque converter in in 2019 with no problems thereafter. I can pass the name of the company I got the tranny from as I am a happy customer. Not cheap, but worth it considering the cost of a new-used car for my kids to drive for three more years.

    Timing chain guides failing on the M62 is a catastrophic failure. The good news is that this problem and fixing before it happens it is very well documented, which is good because it is a big job to do the guides. Most seem to do the job without pulling the motor and take the opportunity to fix as many other leaks and failure prone bits while they are tackling the timing chain guides since so much of the motor needs to be exposed for this job. I read a lot about valve guide seals, but I don't think this is an M62 problem...correct me if I'm wrong please.
    Most parts are still available for the early E53s like mine except, it seems, for major interior pieces at a reasonable price.

    ***Update***
    I thought I'd add a brief update since I've got about 2000 miles on the new 4.6 M62 motor I swapped into my 4.4i. Not too many folks around contemplating a motor swap into an E53, but if you are I'm happy to give you a full and lengthy dump on the process and the many, many lessons learned. 95% common with the E39 too I think. Big picture observations and lessons learned below:
    - Forum help was invaluable, here and on Xoutpost.
    - M62TUB46 will bolt right up to the ZF5HP24 and torque converter that comes with the 4.4i. The 4.6 tranny has an extra clutch and a TQ with a different stall speed, all to handle the higher torque from the 4.6. We'll see about the long haul, but so far no problems at all with the 4.6 driving the 4.4i gearbox. I chose this route because ZF5HP24s for the 4.6 (and their torque converters) are very hard to come by and very expensive.
    - Reputable sources with first-hand experience say that the 4.4 DME will run the 4.6 just fine. I was going to go this route and get a 4.6 tune at a later date, but the swap was taking so long that I elected to send my DME off to Kassle to have the 4.6 ones and zeros squirted in, along with a mild tune, and the SAP system deleted (more on this below). It all works great and the car started on the first try post-swap.
    - 4.6is diffs have different ratios than 4.4i diffs. I elected to keep my 4.4 pieces as the 4.6 motor already gets terrible gas mileage. It still pulls like a monster off the line and really opens up around 4000 rpm, with a wonderful intake roar too. I get maybe 13.5 MPG around town with the car and 17 or 18 MPG at best on the HWY, which is significantly worse than my 4.4.
    - Swap started with a $40 visit to Speedee oil change to recover the refrigerant. In and out quickly and better for the environment. They recharged it when I was done.
    - The swap took me twice as long as I planned, but your milage will vary due to experience level -- this was my first swap. I agonized over if I should pull it from the front, out of the top, or drop it out of the bottom on the subframe. Lift access (using a shared lift) drove me to pulling it from the top and leaving the gearbox in the car. I think dropping it out of the bottom would have been easier, but I couldn't hog the lift for one week, much less the three it took me to do this job. I fully prepped the car on the two post lift, then rolled it to a bay without a lift, put it on jackstands, pulled the front suspension and axles, then the motor came out. I'm not sure there is a right answer and there are pros and cons to each method, except if you have a two post lift I think the "out the bottom method" gives you the most flexibility and allows you to do the otherwise hard axle and diff work out in your garage, not under the car.
    - Big lesson learned is to make sure your engine hoist has enough reach to pull the motor high enough to clear the radiator/cross member. I ran out of hoist, but fortunately the shop had a forklift we swaped it to in mid air and finshed the job. Forklifted the new motor into place too, then swapped it back to the hoist for final alignment and differential stupidity.
    - I found a good suspension shop in town to press suspension and drive bits out of the hubs/carriers, install new seals on the diff, etc. as I didn't want to buy too many single use and/or BMW tools and don't have a press of my own.
    - Diff had to come out to clear the power steering rack. I wanted to leave it on the old motor, then swap it to the new motor on the stand, but it wouldn't clear the rack/column connection. This was a real bummer because it is very heavy and a serious pain to get back in while working on your back. I dropped the new motor in, but then had to raise it back up and drop the subframe a few inches to get the diff back in. Textbook Bentley manual instruction that I thought I could shortcut....lesson learned.
    - Front axles were a terrible pita. Lots of lessons learned on this site and Xoutpost for doing this job. Best advice I found was if an axle wouldn't seat (clip) pull it back out a bit, turn 90 degrees, try again, etc. Worked great for me after hours wasted.
    - Front axles will not turn smoothly with the X5 on jackstands and both joints fully extended. The inner cups hit something (subframe maybe) and make a one brain cell guy like me think he screwed the bearings up pounding the hubs onto the splines. Jack the hub a few inches and they should turn freely if you want to check your work before putting the nut on.
    - getting the splines to seat fully into the hubs was a serous hassle involving a 4x4 block and a small sledge hammer. Others have no problem. There is a tool that is available on ebay for reasonable money that makes this job much easier. In hindsight I would definitely get it if I ever had to do axles again, but all four of mine are new at this point.
    - Take lots and lots of pictures as you disassemble the car, and get a paint pen and witness mark every bolt and nut after final torque. Not that they would back out, but if you are ADD like me you get to wondering if you actually torqued something, then worry about it until you retorque it...etc. Marking with a paint pen after the final torque gives peace of mind.
    - I did the entire job by myself with the exception of physically pulling the motor and dropping the new one in. I found some help for those steps. Pulling could have been done by me alone except for the stupidity of having to get the forklift involved, but the install of the new motor would have been tough without help.
    - pulling the cowl is a must for this job as it allows access to several of the upper transmission torx bolts. the bolts at 3 and 9ish o'clock are still a PITA to reach, but doable with multiple extensions, universal joints, wobble heads and/or wrenches.
    - I had a new long block 4.6 to work with, but I still used all new hoses, O-rings, mounts, bushings, etc, to assemble and install it. Basically I built as much of the motor as I could on the stand and only swapped the AC compressor and bracket, diff, and (right side) axle carrier.
    - I build a "new" long runner intake from Ebay parts. I sent the ebay 540 injectors and fuel rail to InjectorRX in Houston and he did a great job of cleaning the entire mess and flow testing it to within OE spec. Much cheaper than 8 new injectors and a rail, and I want to rebuild my 4.4 someday with its parts.
    - I went cheap for the power steering pump (older LUK make on mine) and so far so good with the remanufactured part from Rock Auto. I will say that it makes a huge racket when you start the car for the first time after the swap so be ready to cycle the steering wheel lock to lock ASAP to move fluid into it.
    - For the most part the install went very smoothly, aside from the diff stupidity. I cleaned the harness and used new OE clips if available, and lots of zip ties where they were not available. Fortunately for me, the pugs are all amateur proof, for guys like me and 1) are specific to the sensor they are hooking up to and 2) the specific harness wire is generally only long enough to reach the specific sensor it goes to.
    - Vacuum lines were a mess so I used new lines where able or spliced in new soft rubber into hardlines where needed.
    - The front diff breather tube rubber was cracked and the tranny breather was completely missing. I ran new rubber up to the cowl from the tranny before I put the motor in, and spliced new soft rubber onto the front diff hardline. These can be painful to get back on after install/work, which is probably why they go missing to begin with.
    - I did a full delete on my SAP system as it hadn't worked for years and there is no emissions testing where I live. I fabricated short plugs from the OE aluminum air line/tubes going into the blocks and had the system coded out for a cleaner look under the hood.
    - Finally, I bought "belt refresh kits" for the main accessory drive and the AC drive. Use these kits at your own risk as I found they were not assembled well, at all. The nut holding the pulleys to the hydraulic tensioner in particular wasn't properly torqued as it turns out and contributed to some extended main belt shedding butt-pain. A slightly deformed alternator pully that I also didn't catch was the other part of this problem.

    In my final analysis this is a very doable job for the average person. Access to the right tools, a lift and lots of will power are the primary hurdles.
    Last edited by Henn28; 05-09-2022 at 02:59 PM.

  8. #108
    Join Date
    Jan 2023
    Location
    usa
    Posts
    2
    My Cars
    3006 x5
    Love the BMx models, had a diamondback myself, lol.

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