Originally Posted by MINIz guy

Now I have a few symptoms...
The brakes pulsate when stopping from highway speeds, and there is a slight vibration in the wheel at highway speeds. The front pads are fine, replaced ~3 years ago, but the rotors have probably been on the car for 65k miles. Thrust arms have been on the car for the same amount of time. Should I associate all these movements to rotors, or should I look at both my control arms? 90% of the time the pulsating when braking from highway speeds is the tension strut/thrust arm (I'm sure you are familiar from your E39), I replaced mine with Meyle HD arms bc of the solid bushings, and the small ball joint with a Febi ball joint on both sides. At your mileage, if the front suspension has not been overhauled, you are due. The only thing associated with rotors "pulsating" is when the brakes are bedded in wrong, which I don't think is the case. If your thrust arms have 65k on them, they are probably shot. Mine were replaced original at 65k and were BEAT, you can tell by going under the car and trying to wiggle the thrust arm, if you have too much play in the arm and can see cracks in the bushings, its time.

The rear end compresses quite a lot with 3 college kids in the back. It also slams over bumps more now. I'm thinking to replace just the rear shocks with Billy HD's and leaving the front original due to cost concerns. The rear camber is also pretty negative...what control arm/ball joint would be the blame for this? I would replace the shocks with OEM or an OEM equivalent, from what I hear, the Billy HD's are pretty firm, so you might be left with a "soft" front end and a stiff rear from the HD's (you don't have sport package right?). Does Bilstein offer an OEM equivalent shock replacement, or another brand perhaps if you don't want genuine BMW? (Also at your mileage I would replace the rear shock mounts if doing the shocks) At $96 apiece though, I would do the Bilstein's and probably be happy, its better than what you have on there now!

For the rear camber these two parts are to blame, again I'm sure you are familiar with the trailing arm ball joint from your M5, E39's notoriously wear these:
BMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L Suspension Control Arm ES#250972 Ball Joint - Priced Each - 33326767748
You need a special tool to remove and install them, I found a guy on the forums who has the ball joint tool and the subframe bushing tool who will rent them to us and lives in Sparta, obviously when you are home that would be advantageous as opposed to buying a 200 dollar tool.

Also on the camber, your "wishbones" might be shot, the straight control arm or guide link is usually fine:
BMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L Suspension Control Arm ES#257324 Rear Upper Control Arm - Left - 33326770859

Fluid wise...never had a transmission fluid flush. I'm going to leave that alone. What about the differentials? 75W-90 is the common one for RWD non-LSD BMW's. Do the X5's get the same?

Can't speak on auto trans as mine is a 5-speed. I flushed my diffs and refilled with fresh fluid last year, at 65k miles. I used Redline 75w-90 in both front and rear diffs (you need 3-4 quarts total I believe)
BMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L Maintenance Drivetrain ES#10752 Manual Transmission / Differential Fluid 75w90 - 1 Quart - 8352257904

Also on my non-Xdrive transfer case I used Redline D4 ATF, you need this kit (I got new drain and fill plugs for both the X-fer case and the diffs just because I hate rusty old drain plugs!)
BMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L Drivetrain Transfer Case ES#2528669 Pre-XDrive Transfer Case Service Kit - 27111226467KT


I'm thinking of doing the subframe bushings too (finally!), but I may not next summer. I'm looking for easy items I can knock out in a few hours in the summer. I've got another car that needs some serious work so I can't dedicate all summer to the X5.

When you're home next summer maybe we can rent the tool from the guy in Sparta and do both cars one weekend? (I know we talked about this last year but I ran out of time with all the work I've been doing on my house)

By the way, I have some serious faith in the X5 for taking it from NJ to St. Louis with no tool box. All I have is 3.5 qts. of oil with me. It hasn't let me down after 1.5 months yet. Gas has been cheap too; my last fill-up was at $3.34/gal for Premium!