After a 5 year hiatus, looking to get back into an E53

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by X53Jay4.8is

Isn't it amazing how an BMW E39 M5 is more reliable than the V8 X5?

That can be attributed to the following:

E39 M5 made in Germany

E53 X5 made in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

It gets better for OCD owners like us - my first year to year and a half were brutal on the wallet - the last 2 years besides my alternator taking a dump have been just oil changes and normal maintenance and some preventative things -

But there are more nonOCD owners that aren't DIYer and when they take their car in it is usually a minimum $500 to $5,000 service. You have been on this forum long enough to see the change in ownership. The new owner doesn't get a PPI, SES light is on, but they still buy the BMW. This is their first BMW and they are suckered into that crap about German engineering and the ultimate driving machine and it's a BMW that they can afford to buy but not afford to fix.

They come on this forum after taking the car to either a dealer or Indy and when they get the estimate to fix the BMW they are shell shock. We tell them what could be wrong but they get into an argument with one of us and call us a know it all douche bag. Afterward, the attack and foul mouth language come out until they are ban from the forum.

[DiscoStu]

Originally Posted by X53Jay4.8is

Coming from a Highlander you are not going to find anything more reliable than that. I love my X5 4.6is and I am a DIYer so that helps but the X5 will demand the greater part of your attention or wallet or both. Since this is your wife's vehicle and you have small kids you are really going to have to give this some deep consideration. Do you plan to keep the Highlander as a backup? If you do then I would say that you can get the X5 so that when it goes down she has something to transition to until its up and going again.

I think that is the thing that's giving the greatest headache. The Highlander is a damn tank, I change the oil every 5k miles and the thing just goes without issue. The plan would be to ditch the highlander for the X5. Again, it's a very boring car to drive though.

I've been around the block before with the E53 so I'm still kind of leaning that direction. The worst that happened on our old X5 was when the battery died during a snowstorm. I had let it sit outside until the snow melted before replacing the battery. I unlocked the driver's door manually with the key, but when I pulled the handle, it broke. With no way of opening a door, or unlocking the car with the key, I had to hook jumper cables up to the starter motor to give the car some juice to unlock the trunk. In a weird way though, I kind of miss these "experiences".

Another issue I'm seeing is that when I browse around online, most of the X5s I'm seeing are sold by those shady roadside used car dealers. They seem to be hit or miss which is why I'm thinking a PPI is a must.

[ylwjacket]

I bought a car a week ago from one of those places. The Carfax actually looked good on it - regular maintenance identified to about 200k miles. It had 212k when we bought it.

In our case, the saga continues:

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...otal-loss.html

When I waffled on it, they threw in a 3 month warranty, which has saved us $1500 in the first week.

I think at this age/mileage, it's a crapshoot, and you have to walk into it expecting to do something.

We figured we could buy one with 100k miles, but we replaced a bunch of stuff at 100k on the old one too. Our thinking was that, no matter what we spend, we're probably dumping in $2k in the first few months anyways, which turned out to be true.

Happy shopping.

Originally Posted by DiscoStu

I've been around the block before with the E53 so I'm still kind of leaning that direction.

Another issue I'm seeing is that when I browse around online, most of the X5s I'm seeing are sold by those shady roadside used car dealers. They seem to be hit or miss which is why I'm thinking a PPI is a must.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by ylwjacket

We figured we could buy one with 100k miles, but we replaced a bunch of stuff at 100k on the old one too. Our thinking was that, no matter what we spend, we're probably dumping in $2k in the first few months anyways, which turned out to be true.

Happy shopping.

This is the correct mindset to have when purchasing any used BMW. If you don't end up spending that money then you are lucky, but always go into it expecting to have to bring the car up to spec. Especially if you are like most owners on the forum; enthusiasts. We like everything to look and work as it did when it left the factory. A good PPI is a must if you aren't qualified (or able) to go over the vehicle yourself with a fine toothed comb. I've broken that rule twice now with the e53 and been fairly fortunate in that it didn't bite me too hard.

I've purchased an X from both a small curbstoner dealer and also from a large dealer (Buick) and both trucks had their issues that needed addressing.

Upallnight's description of used BMW owners is pretty accurate unless you are buying from an enthusiast. It applies to all BMW's, not just the e53.

Good luck on your search.

[DiscoStu]

From what I'm reading, everything sounds par for the course. Nothing really scares me about these cars other than the automatic transmission, which I have zero experience with.

I've been eyeballing this Stratus Grey 2006 X5 this week. Seems to be in good shape, low miles, with the options we want, at a great price. The history looks good too - originally a lease and then sold as a CPO. It has three prior owners, each owning for roughly an equal amount of time. I might have a look at it this week.

[audiophool]

Our '04 3.0 has 255,000km on the clock and it runs great.

Bought it 4 years ago with 185k and put new dampers on it first thing as the originals were baked. Front driveshaft boot on DS was torn, so that was replaced during the damper replacement. One clunk in the front end was a bad tie rod.

It came with some funky LCD screen ICE (Kenwood? Panicsonic?) unit that sounded horrible and was unreadable in daylignt, so I put the Business MID back in to find pixel funk. Bought a new ribbon cable from pixelfix and it cured the pixel problem for about a year and now it's dropped a line but is still readable so I'm not taking it apart again. Some of the speakers aren't working in the doors but I've not torn into it - not sure if it's blown drivers or broken wires at this point.

We tow a boat across the mountains and it'll pull it without much complaint although it'll drop to 3rd on the steeper grinds. 5AT is working great - might do a fluid swap before boating seaon this year as I suspect it's the OE stuff.

I like this car but it's a bit of a buckboard on rough roads (much quieter than an Infiniti FX though).

It makes a 'clink' noise when first put in reverse. Probably the front driveshaft?

[bcredliner]

I would be flexible as to the year and focus on the mileage,maintenance history and a 1-2 owner vehicle to go along with that PPI. As a safety measure I would strongly consider a warranty. At 100,000 you are into the range that some of the more expensive parts such as suspension components are coming to the end of their life cycle. An X5 with 75,000 miles or less would be a good target.

Just the other day I spent a couple hours in a shop that has been repairing ZF transmissions for many years. I was in the rebuild area with main tech. In his view the ZF5hp24 is a better overall transmission. He said the 6 speed has more problems but is still a good transmission. He mentioned that almost all 6 speeds that come in have the same problem which does not require a rebuild. I can't remember what part he was talking about or the cost to fix. I would have a transmission shop familiar with ZF transmissions do a separate PPI.

I have been changing transmission fluid every 40-50,000 miles since new and use ZF fluid. He said that is best practice. Very often fluid changes are because the transmission already has symptoms and fluid change is an attempt to fix it, that's too late and further developing symptoms in a the near future are attributed to the fluid change.

[dannyzabolotny]

Originally Posted by X53Jay4.8is

Isn't it amazing how an BMW E39 M5 is more reliable than the V8 X5?

That's because the S62 is a very overengineered version of the M62tu since it was built for more intense usage. The BMW Motorsport engineers took the M62tu and fixed a lot of its flaws when building the S62— they installed a dual-row timing chain which solved the chain guide issues, they installed a better cooling system, they installed a lower temperature thermostat that prolongs the life of the cooling system, and they reinforced a lot of the engine internals.

I think that the S62 is what the M62tu would have been if the bean counters hadn't stepped in. All of the technologies in the S62 were already available when the M62tu was created (double-Vanos was on the Euro S50 M3 engines, dual-row timing chain in the previous M60 engine).

[audiophool]

^^I was told mine has the A5S 390R (GM 5L40E) box. Did some of the 3.0i use a ZF box?