Do I have AWD?

[dkl]

Originally Posted by llllBULLSEYE

I wish my X5 was not AWD
as do others

Why would you even considered a SUV/SAV without AWD? What's the point?

[JCL]

Originally Posted by dkl

Why would you even considered a SUV/SAV without AWD? What's the point?

Better handling. Less weight, and thus better mileage and performance.

I was going to buy a 530 touring in 2003, but I couldn't special order one without the sunroof. So I bought the E53 essentially for greater headroom. It was a great car, but I replaced it with a 535 for the reasons listed above. Also, the replacement was more fun to drive.

[dkl]

Originally Posted by JCL

Better handling. Less weight, and thus better mileage and performance.

I was going to buy a 530 touring in 2003, but I couldn't special order one without the sunroof. So I bought the E53 essentially for greater headroom. It was a great car, but I replaced it with a 535 for the reasons listed above. Also, the replacement was more fun to drive.

You're absolutely right and that was my point. If you don't need or want AWD, a RWD wagon would be a much better choice for your stated reasons. Why would you want a high clearance/high center of gravity vehicle with 2WD? Sure it weighs slightly less and gets better mileage, but I'm not sure that it will perform better as it still have that high center of gravity. The E53 wouldn't be my first choice if I didn't want or need the AWD capability of it.

[Nick P]

Originally Posted by SlickGT1

Unplug the harness from the actuator on the transfer case, and boom, rear wheel drive.

I think, it's not that easy, not to mention the transfer case of the threadstarter is the NV125, which is a full mechanical unit, so there's no actuator at all.

The X5s transfercases are planetary gears, so it's like an open diff between the axles - putting the fron driveshaft off would mean no torque at all will be transfered to the rear axle at all, because the rear axle will always have 100% traction - so my understanding, which may be wrong.

The ATC500 has the same basic architecture exept for torque vectoring, so in case of electronical faliure, it would act as the older NV125 with 62/38 torque split - so the putting off the actuator wiring would turn the ATC500 in to NV125 - just in my suggestion, I'm not sure.

So for me the only way to turn the X5 into RWD seems to be the install of regular RWD gearbox and custom propshaft.

I even barely think, a RWD X5 would get really much better gas mileage, because the AWD on E53 is very light and easy.

[SlickGT1]

I know for sure that when my actator died, I was doing drifts. I was peeling out rear tires with minimum forward movement. As soon as I flipped the actuator gear and put it back on, no more peel outs. I can still drift, but in snow and wet only.

Yes you are correct, NV125, you can't do that at all.

On mine, if you unplug it, the a whole bunch of other errors come up, including ABS. So not exactly a solution for rwd. It was more of a joke.

[llllBULLSEYE]

Originally Posted by JCL

Better handling. Less weight, and thus better mileage and performance.

Yes this
As long as it has LSD RWD Im fine. I don't go crazy at turns.