Buying and rescuing an X5

[ZAX5]

After many a year, workshop built, house built


Got to working on the X5 again


Sprayed the bonnet, and front wheel arches
polished the head lamp lenses on a buffing machine
Rebuilding the alternator, got the regulator and bearings
Found a dud spark plug


Will drive it once alternator has been sorted

[amancuso]

Wow. long term project indeed!

[ZAX5]

Hi,

Had a chance to repair the alternator.
I will make a new page for this with photos.

Now the battery us being charged at 14 volts when the engine is running around 1500 rpm


https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...ml#post1179027

Went for a drive and had a funny,

CEL light blinks under light acelleration
Stays on permanently when accelerating
Goes away when going down hill

Will have to find my INPA cable again,
Been put in a safe place
Now to find the safe place

It is running one piston short

But other than that, been good to get it going again

[Bmwtvboy]

Turns out the manual 3.0 was a blast to drive, especially in the slippery winter months in OR. Miss that beast and it wasn't nearly the problematic noise n nonsense of V8.

[ZAX5]

So, another long stint of being busy.
Got the tape deck working.
Ended up the little motor that does the play selection needed some oil on the spindle.
Use sewing machine oil.
Now I can play tapes.
The test tape was Queen.
Also replced the two back door speakers with a larger speaker.

The X5 has been reliable, except the time i tried to fry the battery....

[ZAX5]

The gearbox error pops up every now and then, but that is the selector switch.
Switch the car off, go in and out of park once or twice and the error is gone.
So oneday I might open it up and repair it.

[ZAX5]

There seems to some vibration when accelerating, but I suspect a spark plug coil or something along that line.
Will connect the laptop and see what is happening.

[ZAX5]

The mis-fire on the pistons was also sorted.
INPA had the error on piston 8.


Went through the spark plugs, Piston 4 had a non standard plug isntalled,
I measured the resistance, and the non standard plug has a different reading.
The coil pack has been desinged for the standard plug, so changing the type will cause the coil pack to mis-fire.


Replaced the spark plug with a standard one, and all is well.
So error on 8 was caused by wring plug in 4.

[ZAX5]

Also did a gearbox oil change.
Used the ATF 6 stuff after reading all over the place on what to use.
Is has about 1400 miles since replacing the oil in the gearbox and all seems well.


Does change better without the slight vibration.

[ZAX5]

I drove the car to the mechnic I prefer using, that was a 1200 mile round trip.
Was paid for by work as I was doing a contract near to the mechanic.
He found a few issues
1. Front suspension. Bent control arm, replaced that
2. replaced the front left wheel bearing
3. replaced engine oil and filter
4. checked gearbox oil after I filled it with ATF6. Looks fine
5. Cleared all the codes with his newer ODB2 reader. Also sent me a list of erros proir to clearing them all
He says the car is in good shape, just a few parts need replacing.


He also mentioned to leave the thermostat out, as the car runs cooler than with a stat. All it does is use slightly more fuel, the oil gets up to working temp.