Quote:
Originally Posted by bcredliner
It's easy to come to the conclusion by following the forum that E53s have a huge number of common failures. Members post because of problems but seldom about how few problems they have had. I bought my 4.6 new. Now has 122,000+ miles. In comparison to what I read here I must be the luckiest owner on the planet. I have had very few problems, even those that are called common. Stay the course.
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Agree completely. With a few exceptions my E53 has been extremely reliable, since new in 2002. I did what was called for by the maintenance sked until it became my kids car and then I neglected it utterly for several years in anticipation of getting rid of it after getting them off the payroll. That I kept the car has been costly in that I've had to do a lot of deferred maintenance, but I would have had to do that anyway, over time if I hadn't neglected it.
The exceptions have been window regulators and clips, which drive me crazy and are a woefully inadequate design, bordering on engineering malpractice. I think one could argue too that the cars shouldn't leak as much as they do, starting at an early age. I have, and have had significantly older cars that don't leak anywhere near as much as my BMW's have.
Speaking of deferred maintenance, I'm about to order Range Rover L322 spring conversion front struts for my X5. I need new struts and my hope is that they are 1.5 to 2" taller than the X53 struts so I can yank the spacer lift I am using now up front. I read that BMW cribbed the RR L322 suspension and subframe design in mass for the E53 and the struts do look like carbon copies in terms of steering knuckle attachment, strut tower bolt placement and sway bar fitting.