>2004 3.0 6spd owners:

[SchagenWagen]

What is your RPMs at 65 and 85 mph in 6th? Trying to compare with 5spd.

[X5HogTown]

Bump for a good question. Curious myself. These seem to be rarer than the 5 speeds.

[GABRIEL]

Originally Posted by SchagenWagen

What is your RPMs at 65 and 85 mph in 6th? Trying to compare with 5spd.

I have a 2006 model special ordered will on Germany, I will answer after work.

[motordavid]

I also have the old 5 Speed manual...rpms are murder,
at speed; see pic attached, below.

From memory, the X5 6 speeds have a 6th gear ratio of
.83, ("overdriven), vs. the fifth gear ratio of 1.00 in
our 5 speeds...the 6 speed vs. the 5 speed has the
identical gear ratios except for that OD 6th gear.

Some mental arithmetic suggests a 6 speed man.trans
should be 700+ less RPMs at cruise speed, imo.

BMW doesn't care about manual transmissions in Xs,
esp. X5s, (witness no more manuals in E70), and they
could have fiddled with the ratios in the 6 speed or,
at least given it a seriousazz OD top gear, imo.

Some poster here has got to have a real world "80 mph"
cruise RPM report, but I'd guess it's ~700+ RPMs less
than our 5 speeds.

Maybe in the X6...
BR,mD

Edit: that old pic is of us criusing at "85" with the corresponding
high rpms; the real point is that "85" is not really 85, due to
the optimistic speedos: thus, ~80 mph = 4,000 RPMs in the
5 spd manual. Ugghhhh...

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/l...g?d=1113337366

[lo_jack]

That math makes sense, and is a pity. IIRC my 5 speed manual at 70mph unladen is somewhere just north of 3000rpm. Horriffic.

Having said that, I would still entertain swapping to the 6 just for those 700rpm.

[SchagenWagen]

700rpm less sounds too optimistic

[rltx5]

I have a 04 x5 with 6 speed. In 6th gear at 65 mph slightly over 2500 rpm and 3300 rpm at 85 mph.

[motordavid]

Originally Posted by SchagenWagen

700rpm less sounds too optimistic

As I guessed, that's about right on, based on the following post:

Member



Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Memphis,Tn
Posts: 5


I have a 04 x5 with 6 speed. In 6th gear at 65 mph slightly over 2500 rpm and 3300 rpm at 85 mph.

[rltx5]

Pretty good math. I checked my x yesterday.

[Lambeau]

I have the 06 manual and also put 295/45/20's on it to decrease the RPM's even more. I'm sure my speedometer is off a little but I'm accumulating fewer miles on the odometer too. My mpg average over the entire 34,100 miles is 21.6 mpg accoding to the computer. It's actually higher than that becasue the computer hasn't compensated for the more miles actually driven becasue of the larger diameter tires. I'm on the road for Air Force duty this week and will check the RPM's once I get back to the airport.