New 4.8is Owner - Idle Smoke, Pano, other common items RESOLVED

[2004X5 4.8is]

Greetings from Carmel CA. Recently bought an 04 4.8is! I've had a number of 3 series (older M's mostly) over the years, and this beast is (almost) as fun to drive and any of them. What a sound...

Thanks for all the amazing information you guys post!! I thought I would share my experiences, as I have learned a GREAT deal about the car from this board - THANK YOU. Sorry for the long post.

Got a pretty good discount from BMW of Mtn View ("as is" which becomes important later) with some known issues - mainly the pano-sunroof being disconnected/broken which is a $4- $6k dealership R&R repair. I don't really mind no sun-roof, so not a big loss to me. Otherwise the car is immaculate, all records, dealer maintened from day 1, and 7,000 miles ago a NEW transmission was installed under CPO warranty. ~80k miles.

Driving home, noticed smoke after long idle... Not good because I really liked the car and didn't want to return it! I pretty much knew what was wrong with it after a search of this board. Long and stressfull warranty story (used car warranty I bought would NOT cover it after authorizing $2,800 teardown) but ultimately covered by selling dealership!! Repairs done at BMW of MRY. Diagnosis was leaking valve guide seals and worn valve guides. Due to (major) resistance from the warranty company it was inspected repeatedly and I am convinced this is the cause of the smoke at idle. I know about the CVC systems, and I suspect that if these are working perfectly it will mask the valve guide smoke for a while, but ultimately the smoke is from the guides. ~$7k at warranty discount to repair(!). New guides, seals, gaskets, etc. No smoke now.

While torn down I also did H20 pump, T-Stat, belts, tensioners, spark plugs, filters, ALL hoses/temp sensors, engine seal (whatever that might be), oil, coolant, gaskets, and front control arms. Timing chains, tensioners, etc. checked out fine.

Labor for the "extras" was only $355 due to the overlap with the warranty work. Negotiated a $700 discount on parts, down to ~$1,600. I feel pretty good about the price and quality of the work from the dealership, but it was still full retail... BMW MRYgenerouslygave me a new 2012 328i as a loaner; I drove it for 3-months(!!) while X5 sat torn down in thier service bay waiting for warranty resolution. The 328 is a pretty decent daily driver - the X5 is sooo much more interesting and fun!

If you are in the area, I would recommend BOTH dealerships as really good guys to do business with.

Brought it home, and thanks to this board FIXED the panoramic sunroof - do a search, there are detailed instructions from a heroic guy in New Zealand. I can turn a wrench, but there is NO POSSIBLE WAY I could have figured out what to do to the sunroof to fix it without these instructions. Took me about an hour. Works perfectly now except the back glass panel is permanently locked in position. So what! The front panel is huge, and the whole things works great! Follow the instructions and don't forget the computer reset sequence.

Right mirror was loose - followed instructions from the board and fixed in in less than one beer. Even programed the gate and garage door opener...

Looking forward to detailing it, cleaning up/painting the brake calipers, replacing sunfaded side markers, and figuring out a phone interface with the sound system (it has nav and dsp which I guess complicates the issue).

Then a few hot laps at my local track (Laguna Seca) to really break it in... after I unhook the race-car trailer of course.

Thanks for being an amazing resource and for reading this!