New E53 Owner (Build Thread)

[Drifter2090]

I have a FBO E92 335i that I do not drive for winters, so usually every year I buy a cheap winter beater (E60 530i, W211 E-Class, Civic SI, 4RUNNER, etc.)

This year I was looking and found a great deal on a black/two tone 2001 E53 X5 3.0 with only 68k on it!

The car was pretty base, only real options were: Xenon's, PDC, Heated Seats, Business CD. But with such low mileage I didn't care too much because I could add options I needed later.

When I first picked it up (Sept 30th 2018):






A week later, I found someone parting out a 06 4.4 X5, picked up:
- Two Tone Sport Seats,
- Rear-view mirror (My ones tinting was dead)
- Sport Heated Wheel + Airbag (Got the relay and the clock-spring as well, Will need to restore the wheel
before I put it on)
- Clear Taillights
- Clear Sidemarkers
- Running boards
- Newer Business CD player so that I could use AUX

Got some parts installed (Oct 7th 2018) (Sport Seats, 18s, E46 Sport Wheel):




Got the running boards on (Plastic clips sucked!)
- Had to swap out the coolant reservoir due to a small leak, ended up breaking the trans oil cooler thermostat taking out the tank, so I replaced that as well. Also got an alignment.
- Still need to fix the rear trunk latch banging sound on bumps, might order the revised bump stops


UPDATE (Oct 28th 2018)
Was looking for a set of 20" Style 87's and a set of 18's with winter tires online. Found an amazing deal for a set of 87's 80km away, he was asking 700 for them. I said okay to the 700 and the guy also had a set of Style 58's with winters, I asked him how much he wanted for both sets. The guy said "you can take the 20s, 18s, and the whole 2001 4.4 X5 for 1k", I hopped on that.

The 4.4 had timing chain issues but still drove, I made the 80km trip there and looked over the car, gave him the money and almost made the trip back home in the 4.4, it died 5mins from my house. Luckily I have CAA so I got it towed to my driveway for free. I was surprised it could even move with the way the engine sounded. The 4.4 was technically free so no complaints here, I will be taking some parts off and selling it for a couple hundred with my old 17s on it.

[amancuso]

Cool. that 4.4 probably had timing chain guide failure.

[Drifter2090]

Originally Posted by amancuso

Cool. that 4.4 probably had timing chain guide failure.

Yeah definitely

[LOWvert]

where abouts in Canada are you?


I may be interested in some parts off that silver E53

[Drifter2090]

Originally Posted by LOWvert

where abouts in Canada are you?


I may be interested in some parts off that silver E53

I'm in the GTA area