*The Official E53 Manual Transmission Registry Thread*

[cdowd]

I bought mine in florida in late 2010. it needed a clutch right off the bat but has been great sine then. Mine is a total base model (leatherette and all). But I have to say that stuff wears like iron.

Chris

[motordavid]

Our 5 speed manual...'01 Sport, Prem, sunroof, Cold, etc. Have had it since new; ~80,000 miles. Basically problem free for all of its 10 1/2 yrs.

Back story: when I/we wanted to toss my CEO's '95 Jeep Grand Cherokee in 2001, I had read about the newish BMW X5, and never having had a BMW, it was intriguing.

I hit an NY area dlr, and looked at them. I thought a 5 speed manual was a cool idea. The dlr didn't have one of course, but he located one at an NC dlr, (coincidentally we were building a new/retirement home in western NC, and we were days from moving from NY to NC), we negotiated, traded in the Jeep Grand Cherokee, and he had it shipped from NC to NY. Only took a few days to get to the NY dlr...

That was right after 9-11-2001, and we have had it since. ~80k miles, runs better than my Rolex, fun, handles well, and less than a handful of items have broken or, have had to be repaired, other than maintenance stuff, in the past 10 1/2 years.

I learned to live with the stump puller 1st gear, doing 2nd gear starts often, and my only wish on this car is that it had the newer 6 speed for that slightly OD final gear on road trips.

There are not many manual trans cars out there, and the older ones are fading into the sunset...I suspect we will keep ours until it really pokes me in the fanny, or goes kaboom, as we don't toss cars frequently, and buying a new car on a RetiredBum's fixed/fading income, is a real decision.

Great car: maybe the 2nd or 3rd best car I have had, in 48+ years of cars.
Some repeat pics, but worth a look, imo.
GL, mD

Sorry, still can 'edit'/add additional photos via any method I know...glitchy.


X5 SWA 8-30-'11 by motordavid, on Flickr

[Phr3d]

well at least the one pic that got thru is gorgeous.
EDIT: oops, still working I see, (popcorn avatar here)

[SkiTahoe]

2003 X5 3.0 Manual
Build 10/2002
all options except DSP and Nav
TiSilver/Grey leather/black sport accents inside (headliner and carpets)
Bought used in Dec 2005, 39k miles on it
Current 110k miles
Usual repairs from what I've read on this board over the years: alternator at 80k, brakes/rotors front and rear (various times replaced), tore down cooling system at 100k (new belts, pusher fan, hoses, thermostat, water pump, expansion tank, idler pulley, flushed cooling fluid).
About to install new plugs, valve cover gasket.
X5 has been fun to drive all these years. Love this car. It's been driven to SoCal (from NorCal) 5 times, including a trip through Vegas. To Tahoe multiple times (summer/winter). To SF and Silicon Valley countless times.
Plan to keep this car till it dies.

[GABRIEL]

Originally Posted by cdowd

I bought mine in florida in late 2010. it needed a clutch right off the bat but has been great sine then. Mine is a total base model (leatherette and all). But I have to say that stuff wears like iron.

Chris

Thank you for your response, one more question did you change the flywheel at the same time?

[Phr3d]

Finally emembered to call Rob at UUC (see my earlier post) to check up on the short-shifter.

Rob says the site for the machining is still 45 days out, so no solid ETA, though he promises a heads-up when they are confident on the date.

SOoo, 45 days to order up your shorty, if you are so inclined (wish I hadn'ta bought the replacement Zeckhausen valve so early.. it looks so lonely and small, and gettin' dusty, heheh).

[Green Dragon]

Hey Ricky Bobby, what transmission fluid are you going with on your X? I'm trying to decide on which to use.

My "Lifetime" tranny fluid at 115K feels pretty worn. Its getting notchy, feels like it sticks a bit, and I really have to baby it when its cold. If your not doing a soft 2nd start when cold, you really have to jump from 1st to 2nd gear(as you all know), and the ol girl doesn't like it one bit. I'm in a pretty cold region in northern Utah. Park City on weekends during ski season.

For everyone, I'm interested on opinions/experiences from using an aftermarket fluid vs oem fluid. On my e36 I used mobile one synthetic mixed with lucas synthetic additive and loved it, but on a more modern manual tranny that I think calls for something closer to ATF fluid and not typical MT fluid, I'm a little in the woods.

Not to hijack the thread, I'm just interested on what other people are running in their manual X. Glad to be part of this crew.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by Green Dragon

Hey Ricky Bobby, what transmission fluid are you going with on your X? I'm trying to decide on which to use.

My "Lifetime" tranny fluid at 115K feels pretty worn. Its getting notchy, feels like it sticks a bit, and I really have to baby it when its cold. If your not doing a soft 2nd start when cold, you really have to jump from 1st to 2nd gear(as you all know), and the ol girl doesn't like it one bit. I'm in a pretty cold region in northern Utah. Park City on weekends during ski season.

For everyone, I'm interested on opinions/experiences from using an aftermarket fluid vs oem fluid. On my e36 I used mobile one synthetic mixed with lucas synthetic additive and loved it, but on a more modern manual tranny that I think calls for something closer to ATF fluid and not typical MT fluid, I'm a little in the woods.

Not to hijack the thread, I'm just interested on what other people are running in their manual X. Glad to be part of this crew.

What I used:


Manual Trans - Redline MTL (70w-80 weight, OEM is 75w-80 BMW MTF-LT2)

Front/Rear Diff - Redline 75w-90 gear oil

Transfer Case - Redline D4 ATF


Picked her up today and it wasn't a HUGE difference shifting, but definitely shifted nice, I think it helped. I'm a big fan of keeping up on fluids!


Glad you're part of the 3-pedal crew and glad this thread is beneficial!

[cdowd]

Originally Posted by GABRIEL

Thank you for your response, one more question did you change the flywheel at the same time?

They tech that changed it for me just resurfaced it. It had only started to slip in 4th and 5th gear. cost was around $850.

Chris