Newcomer, Hi everyone

[o3x5e53]

New to the BMW scene, AND first European car. Just wanted to say hi to everyone that owns one of this beautiful Classic Bmw X5 E53.

Please excuse my bad grammar and spelling mistakes.

I bought one not long ago, a 2003 BMW x5 E53 4.4i and plan on carrying out most of the maintenance

I come from the Honda Community (Little boy race cars as everyone would say) and have worked on a lot of them.
Basically from engine swap, clutch changes bigger intake, throttle body, exhaust suspension and bushings etc.
Here’s a glimpse of my little daily/Sleeper.
Basically this civic is my second build.
You can see my 1st build through this link: Ozhonda Forums
And this is my quick second build over view:











Why civic? Sleeper status and basically it’s a 170kw (227hp with bolt on) in a 950kg shell. Zippy, handles great and fast. Great on fuel too.

I’m from Australia/Melbourne, 3month or so ago I picked up a 2003 BMW X5 E53 4.4i 240,000km on it. Engine and auto transmission was basically mechanically A1, besides the poor BMW oil service drain intervals.. What a joke. It’s why I haven’t owned a European car till now.

I service my Honda every 4-5k and the engine depending on how hard I drive. It looks brand new every time i open it up to inspect etc. Reason I change oil so early is because I rather spend 60-70$ every 2-3months then 1000$ of dollars fixing stuff. The way I see it.. Oil keeps engine temps down.. Lubricates gaskets and seals and keep them from being brittle etc.

Upon buying little leaks were detected. But nothing major, well for now. Valve cover leaks, PS steering hose leaking a-bit
Little dribble not a lot at the Rear main/Upper oil pan gasket which I will sort out too. It does not drip on the ground.

In the 3 months of owning the BMW x5 I have so far done 2-3000km,
So far:

*4engine oil service (1 when I first got it home. New oil/oil filter in drove it for 30mins and dumped the oil again it’s was MIGHTY black even after putting new oil/oil filter in)

*20days later dropped the oil/oil filter again, also black. Engine noticeably more crisp and smooth

*Just completed another oil change yesterday 17/6/2015 drives beautiful and waiting to change it in another month or so.

* Air filter, Cabin filter, Spark plugX8, Right Valve cover Gasket (one side for now, will do other side when weather picks up. What a bitch to work on)
*1x Rocket cover has been re-powder coated when valve cover gasket was getting done.

*Transfer case oil (Also black) has been change, Rear diff and front diff oils changed.

*ZF lifeguard 5 Transmission oil/gasket/filter changed by ZF boys themselves 17/6/2015. They said it was really really black (I knew it was going to be black, no one ever changes it). Before service they did a diagnostic check to see if there were any errors code and how it drives. It droves smooth despite how black the oil was. After service It definitely drives even better clearly day and night. They told me to come back in 4months and they will change the oil again to get 100% new fluid in there.

Future/soon service & refresh, Water pump, High pressure power steering hose, Alternator, RMS/Upper oil pan and MAF sensor and 4x o2 Sensor, lower oil pan gasket. Planning for a full refresh of Front & rear Control arms + 4x new bilstein shocks

For me I rather prevent things from happening. Then rather wait till it happens. I’m very anal when it comes to servicing and maintaining cars which I have 4 cars especially this BMW having 240,000kms on it.

I will also be towing my other car 2000 Honda Integra type R I have at home to race track events here in Australia/Melbourne.

My other hobby is car detailing, I do it sometimes when I get request over the weekend for few extra $$.
A week later into buying the car I did a 14hour day in detail it from top to bottom.

Upon inspecting paint the previous owner mention he had it “Professionally washed, wax and cut and polished”
When it was time for me to inspect the paint..i had found that they used a glaze to temporarily hide swirl marks and defects.
I stripped back whatever was on the car to free all residues to expose what lay beneath the makeup.
Passenger door, previous owner also mention that the professional carwash place had a portable shade which the wind blew the legging of the shade and scratched the passenger door.
Here are some before and after pictures.

Some before shots




Some 50/50




Some after shot. The car came out outstanding. Although this was only a 1 stage cut, I will be doing another finer stage to make the paint pop even more.





Will update when i get home from work. Thats it for now.

[Ricky Bobby]

I also am a fellow enthusiast detailer. Nice work, I corrected mine last year to about 90% +, next spring I'll probably do another pass or two with finishing polish to get any small defects I may have accumulated since the correction.

[StephenVA]

Great workmanship!

Welcome to the family of X5 owners and detailing nuts......

Clean = Good
Dirty = BAD

[kvc]

After shots look great and reveal all your hard work. Keep the pics coming, as they show what can be done to those of us who wish we had the time... (motivation for me anyway).

[o3x5e53]

Thanks for the kind words.
I'll try my best with the photo. It will be only phone camera quality.
Here's my x5 with my brother in laws rangy


Will post up interior and full car soon.

[o3x5e53]

Back from the dead. Its been awhile since i have updated this.
The BMW x5 e53 4.4i has been going strong, it tows so well and drinks so little while towing i cant believe it.
In terms of service, its had multiple engine oil/oil filter changes. Front differential oil has its second oil change and transfer case oil has been changed multiple times too.
Transmission oil had its second service since the first one(17/6/2015 oil, filter and gasket) and the second one was done on the 16/2/2016(oil, filter and gasket) and boy you can feel the difference! it just glides into gear changes
and you can barely feel it. Service done by the boys from www.abautomatics.com.au Genuine ZF remanufacture. Genuine Lifeguard 5 was used.
I have also done some Front suspension touch up, Both thrust bushing, both lower ball joints and both anti rolls bar joints have been changed to brand new.
While changing the front stuff, front driver right hand side shock spotted sweating abit. Driveshaft boot also has a torn boot. In time they will be replaced.
Thermostat has been replaced along with all radiator hoses.
Expansion tank Level indicator stick got disintegrated, so the whole expension tank got replaced.
Valve cover Gasket got replaced(Only changed one side last time)
I have Also been collecting other parts to service.
Valley Pan kit(all gaskets and o rings)
CCV Kit
Intake manifold Gasket along with all gasket for CCV and Throttle body etc.
Water pump too.
Both Front Lower Cover gaskets too.
New 2x Engine mounts
New 1x Transmission/Transfer case mount
New 4x Rear subframe bushings that i filled with Polyuthrene to make it more solid for Towing.
1x Tool to press rear subframe bushings in/out too.
8x New Injector O-ring Gasket
It has been cold lately in Australia, Melbourne. starting the car up in the mornings have been showing signs that the CCV/intake manifold gasket needed to be replaced.
I also spotted oil leak coming down from the Oil return pipe that leads to the oil sump. I immediately knew some hoses have harden and rotten away leading this to leak oil.
Finding time to do it was abit hard knowing i will need at least 1-2days to work on the car. Its hard when weather is always 3-8Degrees and raining.
Fast forward.. Woke up one morning and thought.. lets do it.
Summary of this service.. I knew it was going to take long. The car itself is so tall. Reaching for bolts for the Coolant ACCUMULATOR bolts at back of the engine is a bitch.
the Injector clips is also a tedious job. labeling wires and cleaning while taking things a part just takes up time. I also didnt want to break any bolts or wreck any gaskets.
I kinda took my time cleaning and checking while everything was out.

In this picture, lying on my back trying to open up the Circle clip that holds the two wires leading to the sump and I think Oxygen sensor which was so hard to open up! Biggest drainer too because there was a cable tie between the shaft/behind AC compressor that bundled up the wires that I could not get any cable cutters to... took me 40mins just to cut the cable ties..


These Hose were also hard to take off. I didn't want to break the Plastic Nipple that this hose slips into. Everythings so brittle.


Taking off the Intake manifold I knew I was going to find underneath, Dirt, oil and a little bit of coolant. But what shocked me was there was a hose the rotten away lying on top of the two coolant pipes.. melted.. leaking oil.
The oil separator hose also just came off without me even touching it when I lifted off the intake manifold. Good old BMW.
I also had to cut the hose that lead to the Brake booster on I didn't want to ruin the brake booster lines or anything by yanking on it.

Throttle body was so dirty underneath i just had to clean everything up.


Intake manifold was so oily! I degreased Inside Intake manifold and scrubbed the intake holes. New gaskets back and front

Coolant Accumulator is off. What a bloody struggle. I was literally on my stomach, feet off the ground lying across the engine trying to reach the back bolts.


I Scrubbed and cleaned this Coolant accumulator so well it looked brand new. I forgot to take a picture of it when it was clean.


Coolant pipes off and scrubbed down.


This was night time after work about 8pm outside. I got new hoses for the oil separator and oil return hose. New valley pan and valley pan cover was also replaced.


Close up of picture. I tried cleaning as much of it as I could.


Intake manifold back on. I also changed all 8 Injector O-Rings while I was at it.


These were the OEM original Rotten Hoses.


I plugged most of the things back up. Need to plug 2 more wires up and im done. As you can see.. my electrical boxes are damaged. They were so brittle. I will have to do something about it.


Will bleed coolant tonight and see how things go. Fingers Crossed... coolant doesn't leak at the at accumulator pipes, despite putting knew O-rings in.

[Anhelenuk]

You did a lot of work on this rig hopefully it's lifespan got extended by another 5years

[jljljl]

Wow, wish I knew how to clean her up like this ..
Looks great, keep up the good work!