Well it wasn't today (last week, in fact) but I finally got the ol' girl back on the road after many months of downtime. Most of that was deciding what to do about the front diff replacement, and then waiting for it to arrive from Germany. I also worked on it 2 hours at a time every now and then during the week, and some weekends I'd spend 6 hours or so working on it. Items I replaced since the last time I drove it:

Engine: Valve stem seals, valve cover gasket sets, upper timing cover gaskets, spark plug tubes, eccentric shaft sensor seals, crank pos sensor O-rings, VANOS solenoid O-rings, valvetronic motor seals and O-rings, vacuum pump O-ring, intake manifold gaskets, throttle body gasket, fuel injector O-rings (2 per injector), all PCV breather pipes, MAF O-ring, both belt tensioners, idler pulley, crank pulley, drive belts, oil drain plug and gasket, oil filter drain plug and gasket, oil level sensor gasket, lower oil pan gasket, oil pump gasket, upper oil pan gasket, new oil, power steering hose banjo bolt washers, power steering fluid, motor mounts

Drivetrain: New OEM front differential, cv axles, right cv axle carrier, all axle seals and O-rings, front diff fluid, transfer case fluid, rebuilt transfer case actuator motor, transfer case / transmission mount

Suspension: front sway bar bushings, all front control arms and ball joints, all struts/shocks, all coil springs, rear spring pads, all strut mounts and associated hardware, rear upper control arms, rear lower ball joint, rear integral links, all sway bar end links, vehicle alignment, front brake hoses, brake fluid


To say that was a massive undertaking is putting it lightly. I'd imagine I saved about $15k in labor, if not more. That being said, I spent about $3500 on parts and $1000 on special tools. But now I have a beautifully smooth running N62 that has NO LEAKS and most of the engine bay crevices have been cleaned from prior leaks. It's truly a miracle considering it was leaking from every possible spot before this. The transmission oil pan and alternator bracket gasket were tackled on a separate occasion and they were also gushing before.

Next up is some cosmetic items such as new headlight lenses, and re-securing the headliner fabric to the pano sunroof shades, but I also need to code out the air suspension still and I'd love to reset the transmission adaptations....just seems like that process requires about 100 miles of road with zero traffic to accomplish lol

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2006 X5 4.8is