Ok, I thought that I would start a thread for this car. A real time "ownership experience" if you will. This will be a space for me to keep track of major maintenance, pictures, progress, trips, etc. I'm not really asking anyone to read, but all are welcome to follow along if desired.

I bought this car having never driven an X5. The test drive consisted of going for a ride in it. It had all the appearance of a shady craigslist deal gone bad. I was dealing the the seller's "assistant" as he was "in Japan". It was all completely on the up-and-up, but I was always cognizant of how much it seemed like one of those scams.

I didn't actually drive the car until it was paid for, but I was immediately in love with it. I was buying it for my wife. Having completely hated her last car (that she chose) and being in love with my e46 DD, she put her trust in me to pick out her next car. I'm happy to say that she is even more in love with this car than I am.


Car had just over 120k miles when we picked it up in Maryville, TN. I was really trying to find one with 100k on it, but this one had impeccable maintenance history, and it was very well optioned. So I took the plunge.


The car has a couple of issues. The glow plug module is bad, which led me to the conclusion that the thermostat is bad, which I confirmed.

I have the thermostat, water pump, glow plug module, and some supporting parts already on order. I will minimally document that repair here, as there are already threads on it.

I've also discovered that the air springs are leaking. Not surprising at this mileage. After looking at the writeup on here, I was pleasantly surprised by how relatively easy that repair looks. I found a local guy on craigslist that has a brand new set of replacement bags very cheap, but the ad is getting very old and I can't get a response from him.

Lastly, the brakes need attention, and first one, then the other headlight washer nozzle went missing.

Here's a few pictures.

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