My plan to take a couple hours and "pop" on new front pads and rotors in the driveway ended up being a bit of a hassle. The brake work went fine and aside from noticing the rubber dust boot on the right caliper piston was working itself free, the TRW ceramic pads and Zimmerman rotors went on hassle free. I'll need to address the dust boot with a rebuild eventually.

My initial runs up to 40 or 50 mph to bed the pads and rotors seems to indicate that the vibration on braking I was feeling between 60 and 30 mph or so was gone. I haven't had the car out on the hwy though to test for sure. Frankly though I'd be surprised if the brake job fixed the vibration since I wasn't feeling it in the steering wheel. It feels like a classic worn control arm bushing, however, both arms on the front suspension are new and I just had an alignment. The tie rods also check fine, but I do need new front struts soon. Perhaps worn struts can cause vibration on braking? The indy who works on the X occasionally also thinks that the lift, 275 tires, etc. may simply be overcoming the stock bushings. I'll update this when I get the car on the highway. Regardless, it is quite livable and my plan is to keep replacing worn parts over the next several months (struts next probably) until unitl I eliminate everything but bushings at which point maybe I'll switch to stiffer bushings in tension struts first.

At any rate, true to form, the X decided to start rubbing the back of its calipers on the inside of the 16" wheels when I first took it out to bed the pads. I had already taken about 1/32nd off the back of the calipers with a grinder to get the new 16" wheels to fit after the lift, but I supsect they got hotter than normal during the bed down process, and perhaps also the brackets and calipers shifted a nano-fingstrom during the brake change. Back out with the angle grinder. Seems to be fixed, until and unless they get really hot ever I'm sure. I found myself googling brembo X5 conversions and thinking that those massive calipers might work better as they don't look nearly as deep. In fact, the ones I saw don't even have a back to them facing the inside of the rims. Zero point zero chance I will be spending 4k on brakes for the car though!

While under the car trying in vain to check the clearance on my back, I did notice evidence of fluid on the bottom of the bell housing. The motor and subframe stiffener was thankfully clean as a whistle. I was initially getting some oil weeping from quite a few the oil pan bolts when I put the new motor in so I gently retorqued them, which seems to have worked. So unless something oily is leaking down from the back of the motor, I can only assume that the torque converter has small leak. It doesn't seem too cosmic and I'm planning a fluid drain and refresh later this month. More to follow when I get it up on a lift and can take a better look. The last 9 months with a fully leak-free BMW have been heaven, but it was bound to end at some point.

Fully aside, my favorite youtube past time these days is watching the Driftwork guys do major surgery on their BMWs. Specifically their E30 track car is amazing and watching them massage a Drenth sequential gearbox under it is fantastic.

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Current
Original owner 2002 E53 X5 4.4i to 4.6i swap
2026 G80 M3 6 spd
2025 G06 X5 50e
Former
1972 Audi Fox
1986 Saab 900S
1996 BMW Z3
1998 BMW E36 M3 Sedan
2004 BMW E46 M3
2006 Audi A3 Quatro
1993 Mopar 318 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2015 V6 Jeep Grand Cherokee