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Old 03-20-2020, 10:51 PM
Cyrix2k Cyrix2k is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Frederick, MD
Posts: 149
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Wrecked X5 back from the dead

Thought you all might appreciate this. Short story first: I was driving this 2009 X5 3.0 and hit a deer in november. Even though not much damage was done, insurance totaled it so I bought it back and rebuilt it. It just passed state inspection and is fully back together at this point

After the deer:



Back from insurance









Back together:


Long story: This was my dad's X5. 3.0, sport packaged, 148k miles on the clock but extremely well cared for. It was having an issue where it would randomly die and fail to restart. After the second time it happened, I drove the X5 over 1000 miles while my parents were on vacation. Of course it never misbehaved, but I liked it so much I bought one - a 4.8i -that is actually the same color & has the same running boards. They look like clones When my parents returned from vacation, the X5 left my dad sitting yet again, so it returned to me for diagnosis and I checked *everything*, eventually finding the fuel pump to be faulty based on a current ramp test. As a side note, this was aggravating as the faulty pump was almost new after being replaced as part of the recall campaign!

After I replaced the pump, I drove it to work once as a test drive and of course hit a deer on the way home. The deer broke the headlight & the fender, plus a tab on the bumper and tore a small hole in the fender liner where a screw attaches to the headlight bracket. My dad's insurance stated they only use *new* parts and came back with a $6000 repair bill which just pushed the X5 over their threshold for a cosmetic total (clean title). I ended up buying it back at $3000 + towing, then bought a used headlight for $250 and a fender in the same color for $330 shipped. Including miscellaneous hardware & adhesives, the total repair was around $700.

The condition the X5 arrived from the insurance initially annoyed me. The running board were off, mirror removed, trim removed, etc. - plus all the parts tossed inside. I have later realized they did a good job. They pulled the vehicle apart presumably assuming it would be fixed. With a new fender, they would spray that and blend the paint into the hood & door. All the hardware was in ziplock bags and labeled. The only thing that annoyed me is that the speaker connectors were broken; I have no idea if that was unavoidable or not.

This X5 now lives with my friend who I sold it to for a good price. Ironically it's in better shape than my 4.8!
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