There is a picture floating around, i believe on the main page, how to remove your stock stereo.

Its pretty simple, i did mine last week, You just pull the volume knob off, and you will see a small t10 (torx #10) screw to the bottom of the knob, you need to find a small t10 and stick it in there and turn counterclockwise 90 degrees and pull at the same time, the MID will open, starting with the driver side, with the hinge being on the passenger side.

Next is one connector, you need to remove the lock on the connect at the top and move it down. Once the connector lock is off you can pull the connector off.

Follow it by spraying the connector on the MID and the connector on the wire coming from the car.

I did this on my MID last week, and unfortunetly it didnt fix it, so i am looking for a replacement on ebay right now.

Good luck, congrats on the X5, you'll love it im sure, but there are some common problems with them which are all mostly explained on the site There is a search button that will search the site as well.

EDIT: I found the link from the mainpage, this should help.

http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/s...id-bmw-x5.html