Did just purhase the cheapest X5 ever?

[Naz24]

I look forward to the transition of this X. Looks like you have great taste judging by your other cars...

How long till you think you'll have it back in good cosmetic and mechanical shape?

[theblue]

how long is an interesting question. hopefully within a month or so. I need to find a black hood to avoid paying to paint one.

I drove it to work today for the first time, got 14mpg over 25 miles of mixed driving. Hopefully this improves a little once I replace the MAF.

I'm packing an extra battery and jumper cables in case the new battery drains out.

[TwinsPoppa]

Originally Posted by theblue

how long is an interesting question. hopefully within a month or so. I need to find a black hood to avoid paying to paint one.

I drove it to work today for the first time, got 14mpg over 25 miles of mixed driving. Hopefully this improves a little once I replace the MAF.

I'm packing an extra battery and jumper cables in case the new battery drains out.

You can unlock your OBC and do test #9 to monitor your voltage. Normally if your alternator has a problem you will get an idiot light. However, maybe the light is bad or something else.

At least you can get more info. from your vehicle. You can monitor it while driving but be careful please.

http://www.xoutpost.com/859367-post5.html

[Dark5yde]

Hell the best my 3.0 has ever done is 18mpg. lol I average between 12-15

[SlickGT1]

lol. No ebay wipers. lol.

[theblue]

couple big updates today.

1) new battery is holding stong at 12V off, 13.3 on at idle
2) I fixed the keyless entry. I just needed to be reinitialized by cycling it 5 times in the igntion then holding down some buttons on the key.
3) I unlocked the hidden menu in the guage cluster so I can now do things like have it display real time voltage etc.
4) I drove 70 miles mixed driving with a bad maf sensor and still got 15.4 mpg.

xoutput is an awesome forum.

[e30mpower]

$2k is not a bad deal, you'll have fun getting it fixed up. My dad and I bought a BASE E30 about 12 years ago for $1k that had front end damage, needed a tranny, etc. So I don't think two grand is much to ask for a lot more car. That being said, with a lot more car comes a lot more expense. I read your list, none of that sounds uncommon or terribly expensive.

I will tell you though that from personal experience, the problem with the steering wheel and memory seats is the memory seat module on the side of the seat. And those are expensive for what they are. I found a used one for ~$65 a few years ago and it was a effing steal. Not sure what they're going for now.

Nobody uses the reclining rear seats anyway, unless they are riding in your car for the first time and are like "what are those little buttons up there?"

Window regulator, door handle carrier(s), etc... Not expensive but a PITA, definitely doable. I would suggest trying to do both yourself because the door handle carrier specifically is an expensive job to have someone else do. I think I got charged 3.3 hours of labor for one door.

Read and re-read the articles and understand what you're in for, if after fixing it up and you decide to sell it, you can probably make a tidy profit. If not, the 100k+ X5 is the most expensive club in the world. Hopefully you won't have formed too much of an attachment to it. I probably should've dumped mine a while ago, but I'll be damned if that SOB didn't trap me, and now I can't let it go.

[theblue]

thanks!

updates:
- door handle fixed
- the power rear seats was a misunderstanding, key needs to be in ignition.

[Dark5yde]

Originally Posted by theblue

- the power rear seats was a misunderstanding, key needs to be in ignition.

It does not. At least on mine it doesn't need the key in.

[theblue]

don't know the true expectation, but they work fine while I'm driving along and do nothing with the key out of the ignition.