sinX5, I have a few more thoughts that may help if you plan to do the installation yourself.

1. I have seen a couple of non-OEM tow hitch receiver installations. None of them looks anywhere near as nice as the BMW OEM installation. I think you should take a look at some finished products, and decide which ones would be acceptable to you on your X5. To me, the OEM was the only way to go.

2. The OEM kit also includes the wiring harness and a trailer control module. I understand that those are not available except with the OEM hitch kit.

3. If you decide to install the hitch receiver yourself, take a look at ranchhand’s thread. One thing I would suggest is that the reflectors which cover the two mounting bolts are easier to remove than ranchhand suggests. I didn’t use the long screwdrivers as ranchhand suggested. You can just lay down on the garage floor at the back of the X5, and reach up there and release the spring clips. Make sure the car hasn’t been run for some time, so that the exhaust system is cool. You can’t avoid brushing your arm up against it. Your arm has to reach around the exhaust pipe – I found that I had to use my left hand on the left side reflector, and my right hand on the right side reflector, because of the particular curvature needed. Look at ranchhand’s pictures, and just reach up there and locate the spring clips by feel. Squeeze the two spring clips together, and the reflector pops right out! It can be re-installed from the outside by just pressing in place.

4. You will also need the rear bumper fascia trim kit and the ball mount. I ordered those as a package with my hitch kit.

5. You will need a pop rivet installing tool, available at Ace Hardware or similar stores. If you don’t already have one, buying the tool is much cheaper than paying your dealer service department to install the two pop rivets.

6. You will need four of the trim retainers that hold the wheel well trim in place. Those have to be destroyed to remove them, and you will have to install new ones. They are less than $1 each at your dealer’s service department, but order them in advance, because I find that many dealers don’t have them in stock. You also need a large pop rivet installing tool to install those, but once again, you can buy the rivet tool for less than the dealer charges to install the four rivets.

7. The trailer control module is supposed to be installed in a "module carrier" (which the service department refers to as a "module support"). If your X5 already has one or more modules installed in the rear cargo compartment, it will already have a module carrier. If your vehicle doesn’t have a module carrier (mine didn’t), it must be added! That’s a simple job, involving just the module carrier and two plastic nuts. But first, you have to get the module carrier and the two fasteners. My dealer provided those under warranty, at no charge, but I can’t guarantee that your dealer will. Look for the module carrier before you start, and have the dealer order the module carrier and fasteners before you start, if your vehicle doesn’t already have them.

8. Have a torque wrench handy when you install the hitch with the eight new nuts. I installed mine with a socket wrench, just guessing at the 80 foot pounds of torque. When I went back with a torque wrench to check them, I had under-torqued all of them drastically! I torqued them correctly with the torque wrench. That has to be done before the rear bumper fascia is re-installed, because you can’t reach them after that is in place.

9. I wrapped the wiring harness with duct tape (for extra protection, as recommended by the instructions) and labeled all of the wires with a label maker before I started the installation. In that way, all of the wrapping and identification could be done at the work bench in comfort and good light, rather than while straining to reach into the cargo compartment or stretched out under the car.

10. The 3-pin vehicle BUS connector on my X5 was wrapped around the original wiring harness and then wrapped with black electrical tape. That made it pretty hard to locate. If you have problems finding yours, just look for wires of the proper colors, and trace them into the bundle where they are wrapped for protection. The plastic connector was completely hidden by the tape wrap, so that takes some searching. It’s in there, though!

11. All of the wiring harness fits amazingly well. As you are threading the wiring harness around the various obstacles, each push-on connector will like up perfectly with one of the studs already attached to the body of your car. You just push the connector onto the stud. If something doesn’t line up, check to see that you have routed it correctly. Everything fits so well it’s actually a pleasure to install!

12. When you are pushing the wires into the back of the fuse panel, double and triple check to make sure that you have the correct place to plug each wire in. You will need a pair of needle nosed electrical pliers to get the plugs in. They are fairly hard to get in. Again, make sure you are in the right place before you press them in. I’m not sure how you would ever get one of them out if you get it in the wrong place!

13. The biggest problem I encountered was in removing the rear bumper fascia. Ranchhand has identified all of the bolts, and many of the push connectors. But there are some push connectors that are really hard to find. Just go slow to avoid breaking any of the connectors or the plastic pieces they snap into. I can’t offer any better advice on that. I would really like to hear from any other members who have better information on removing the rear bumper fascia.

14. Oh, yeah! After you get the hitch and the wiring harness installed, you have to put the rear bumper fascia back on. Fortunately, that is about one-tenth as much work and trouble, and takes about one-tenth as much time, as did taking the damned thing off!

15. I didn’t get any error codes from the trailer control module after I installed the hitch. However, you will have to have your car computer re-coded by the dealer after the installation. I understand that the hitch control module coding takes less than an hour. That is billable time for the service department. If your car is still under warranty, any other re-coding should be covered by warranty (defect code 72 60 93 02 00, according to the BMW instructions). I was glad that was covered by warranty, because that took six hours on my car!

I’m not as fast as ranchhand or most BMW technicians. The instructions call for 2.5 hours to install this hitch. Ranchhand did it in four hours. It took me longer than that, probably around six hours, although I did it over two days just because I wasn’t in a hurry and was very careful. For that, I saved over $500 and I am confident of the installation.

Besides, I kinda like working on the X5. It’s my Baby!