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  #1  
Old 03-06-2013, 02:20 PM
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New X5 owner and forum member - initial check list.

Hi all,

I picked up used 2001 X5 3.0i about three weeks ago and immediately started looking for a forum of other owners . . . this looks like a good place to hang out! I appreciate any help in advance as I will undoubtedly have some questions now and in the future.

There were some obvious problems when I bought, but now that I have had a couple weeks to get used to it, there are a few more fixes to work on. Here is a short list of things I have done or need to do:

1. When I bought the truck, the CEL was on. The PO indicated he had the codes read and they were misfire codes and that his shop suggested new plugs, but he didn't have the work done. I pulled the codes when I got it home - 10 codes! - all related to misfires in various cylinders, etc. The truck seemed to be running fine. After a bit of poking around, I noticed that the oil filler cap seemed to be a little too loose when "closed." Then I realized that it wasn't an OEM cap. About a day and $10 later, I had a OEM cap and after another day of driving the CEL went off. I cleared all codes and none have returned since.

2. The heater blower was not really putting out much air and adjusting the speed didn't really increase air flow. I suspected the FSU. I pulled the unit and it was the original type. I did jiggle the wiring which actually did improve flow a little, but I still didn't think it was working properly. Unfortunately, the following day, I had a dead battery. I unplugged the FSU and recharged battery. Last night I installed a new style FSU . . . it's like a hurricane in the cabin with all that air flow now. Wow, big difference. I hope the FSU was also the cause of the battery drain.

3. Last week I was driving and came to a stop and then the engine stalled. I restarted and drove away, but the CEL came on and the code was P0340. I took a chance on it actually being the intake cam position sensor. Installed a new one last night and cleared the code. We'll see if that does the trick.

4. According to the PO, the washer fluid reservoir had a leak. After investigating I found that the pump for the headlight washers had a broken nozzle where it attaches to the hose that runs to the headlights. I removed the pump, took out the grommet/screen and wrapped it in cellophane as a temp "fix". It is holding fluid fine now.

4. The rear window wiper arm is broke. I assume that fix is as easy as buying a new one, unbolting the old one and installing the new.

5. The rear driver door handle is broken. I am assuming that this is the handle carrier issue - currently on the "To Do" list.

6. The front passenger window is not operating properly. I am assuming the motor or regulator there. I'll have to investigate to know more.

7. There is a very small coolant leak - no coolant dripping, just damp at the t-stat housing. I have a new t-stat/housing, but will probably end up getting hoses and a water pump and doing it all at the same time along with a coolant flush and change.

8. The up-down control on the steering wheel adjustment is not working. I am assuming a motor may need to be replaced. It actually didn't bother me because it was stuck in the up position. But then when the battery died and I had to recharge, after starting, it immediately went to the down position, which is annoying. But now I am wondering if actually the motor isn't bad since it actually went down. Is there some other control that may need replaced?

9. The NAV system is not working. There is power to the NAV CD system in the rear, but when it select GPS Navigation from the screen, it just says "Please wait a moment . . ." but never does anything. After examining the book of NAV CDs that came with the truck, I realized one was missing, so I suspected that it may be stuck in the CD reader. I tricked the tricks of trying to get a stuck disc to eject, but no luck. So, I pulled the unit and popped the cover off. Turns out there are actually two discs stuck in there - and one is not a NAV disc! Someone jammed an audio CD in on top of a NAV CD! Good grief. Anyway, I managed to get the audio CD out, but I didn't want to try to force the NAV CD out without the proper tools (I need a much smaller torx bit to get in there). I am hoping the CD reader is not totally hosed. I guess we'll see.
10. The truck has a facotry video display that drops down from the ceiling and, hidden behind the rear seat is a sweet VHS player. I love it . Unfortuately, neither the VCR or the display will power up. I can't find anything about either in the manuals or any fuse that is list for these. Anybody know what the deal is there? Ultimately I would like to pull the VCR and install a DVD player for the kids, but will need some power first.

So, that is my list as of today and I am working to fix these as best I can.

On the up side, the PO had some documented work done right before selling. The CCV system was replaced with the updated cold climate version, so hopefully I won't have to worry about that. He also had the battery and alternator replaced - but now the new battery has been drained once. The serpentine belt and tensioners, various vacuum hoses and a wheel bearing were also replaced.

Any feedback is appreciated. I will update here as I check things off the list.
Thanks!
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  #2  
Old 03-06-2013, 03:06 PM
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tankowner,
No help am I on your list of fixes, but kudos to you for taking on repairs and seeming to be very knowledgeable and resourceful, vs some of the initial posts that flow by here.
This Board is a wealth of info, as you may have discovered...
Welcome and Good Luck,
mD
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Old 03-06-2013, 03:13 PM
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Congrats and welcome ....
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Old 03-06-2013, 03:38 PM
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welcome aboard, tank... congrats on the car!!! remember, we want pictures, so we can make cosmetic suggestions that you may consider, based on what the other folks may have done to the same color combos...

about the rear wiper arm - before buying OE, search on this board, there were some rear wipers done that have improved the appearance of the piece in comparasion to the OE without compromising the functionality...

the window - chances are, it is the regulator - be careful about buying the ones off ebay, sometimes they are not a 100% fit as you have noticed with the oil cap... and a lot of times, the piece that is broken is a $2 plastic clip - 2 of them go to the front and 1 to the rear glass... i actually bought like two dozens of them from a dealer, they lay in the garage, in case of the problem, i have them handy...

the I-6 engines (as BMW motors in general) are very sensitive to the cooling system, if you replace the hoses, the pump, blah blah, make sure you properly bleed the system from the airbubbles, otherwise you will start getting strange temperature fluctuations...

you said - factory single display in the ceiling... i know that the rear entertainment system used headrest monitors and a vertically installed dvd player, i don't recall the ceiling mounted ones... nevertheless, if the cost of the repairs will approach $200-300, you may wish to consider headrest DVD players - i have (obviously chinese!!) two of them, they are independent from each other, play all region discs, play different SD/MMC cards, and have USB connection... since the OE rear entertainment system is NOT really interacting with the rest of the car, other then drawing power, i went aftermarket on it - besides, i can always pop the OE headrests back in, it is a reversible process... the biggest challenge for you will be color matching the HR to the rest of the interior...

on the steering wheel adjustment - there might be a fuse... i need to look at the blueprints on the WDS to see if there any...

well, congrats, and welcome!!!
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  #5  
Old 03-07-2013, 12:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by motordavid View Post
tankowner,
No help am I on your list of fixes, but kudos to you for taking on repairs and seeming to be very knowledgeable and resourceful, vs some of the initial posts that flow by here.
This Board is a wealth of info, as you may have discovered...
Welcome and Good Luck,
mD
Thanks!

On a personal note, back when my wife and I first got married and both went back to grad school, we didn't have any more money that what we needed to feed ourselves and pay rent. I realized then that I wasn't going to be able to afford to let someone else work on our cars, so I started leaning how to do the simple things - brake pads, belts, etc. From that I learned that DIY repairs give you a sense of statisfaction and that wrenching on cars is sometimes a nice escape from the other day-to-day stuff. That eventually developed into a hobby of restoring some older diesel Mercedes that I took a liking to. Time passed and now we have a few kids, jobs and more side projects than we know what to do with. I don't really have time for hobby cars anymore, so I sold the Mercedes and picked up the X5 as something I can haul kids around in and still enjoy driving. I don't mind that it needs a little work . . . it will still allow me to escape to the garage every once in a while - hopefully not too often though. We'll see. Thanks for welcoming me to the board, hopefully I will be able to contribute something useful.
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  #6  
Old 03-07-2013, 01:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TerminatorX5 View Post
welcome aboard, tank... congrats on the car!!! remember, we want pictures, so we can make cosmetic suggestions that you may consider, based on what the other folks may have done to the same color combos...

about the rear wiper arm - before buying OE, search on this board, there were some rear wipers done that have improved the appearance of the piece in comparasion to the OE without compromising the functionality...

the window - chances are, it is the regulator - be careful about buying the ones off ebay, sometimes they are not a 100% fit as you have noticed with the oil cap... and a lot of times, the piece that is broken is a $2 plastic clip - 2 of them go to the front and 1 to the rear glass... i actually bought like two dozens of them from a dealer, they lay in the garage, in case of the problem, i have them handy...

the I-6 engines (as BMW motors in general) are very sensitive to the cooling system, if you replace the hoses, the pump, blah blah, make sure you properly bleed the system from the airbubbles, otherwise you will start getting strange temperature fluctuations...

you said - factory single display in the ceiling... i know that the rear entertainment system used headrest monitors and a vertically installed dvd player, i don't recall the ceiling mounted ones... nevertheless, if the cost of the repairs will approach $200-300, you may wish to consider headrest DVD players - i have (obviously chinese!!) two of them, they are independent from each other, play all region discs, play different SD/MMC cards, and have USB connection... since the OE rear entertainment system is NOT really interacting with the rest of the car, other then drawing power, i went aftermarket on it - besides, i can always pop the OE headrests back in, it is a reversible process... the biggest challenge for you will be color matching the HR to the rest of the interior...

on the steering wheel adjustment - there might be a fuse... i need to look at the blueprints on the WDS to see if there any...

well, congrats, and welcome!!!
I'll have to take some pictures one of these days. I feel like I should polish it up and put some new tires on first! Thanks for the good info - I will have to look around at the rear wiper options.

Yeah, the video player is a singel display that releases with a push botton and swings down from the top - says BMW on it and there is also a little BMW remote control; but in my limited search around this forum I didn't see pics of a similar set up.Thanks for the tip on the headrest versions though. I will have to dig a little and see if I can trace the wiring and figure out why there is no power. It just seems odd to me that the video display/player are not mentioned anywhere in the manuals and there are no labeled fuse locations for those items.

Thanks again for the feedback.
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  #7  
Old 03-07-2013, 04:03 PM
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Many problems with the steering wheel adjustment motors are actually in the controller. The controller is integrated into the seat controller (driver's side) and is the module with seat adjustment buttons. Search and you will see articles and pictures on here.
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Old 03-07-2013, 04:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JCL View Post
Many problems with the steering wheel adjustment motors are actually in the controller. The controller is integrated into the seat controller (driver's side) and is the module with seat adjustment buttons. Search and you will see articles and pictures on here.
Excellent. Thank you. Like I said, I was thinking a motor, but then it moved on it's own, so I don't think it could be the motor. I will investigate the controller.
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Old 03-10-2013, 08:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TerminatorX5 View Post

you said - factory single display in the ceiling... i know that the rear entertainment system used headrest monitors and a vertically installed dvd player, i don't recall the ceiling mounted ones... nevertheless, if the cost of the repairs will approach $200-300, you may wish to consider headrest DVD players - i have (obviously chinese!!) two of them, they are independent from each other, play all region discs, play different SD/MMC cards, and have USB connection... since the OE rear entertainment system is NOT really interacting with the rest of the car, other then drawing power, i went aftermarket on it - besides, i can always pop the OE headrests back in, it is a reversible process... the biggest challenge for you will be color matching the HR to the rest of the interior...
Okay, turns out the problem was a simple 5 amp fuse. However, the fuse in not located in either of the two fuse cluster locations. Instead, it was in the wiring which is accessible through the rear panel compartment on the driver's side - down under where the Nav CD reader is. There is a little black plastic fuse box within the wiring. I pulled the fuse, which was blown, and replaced it - giving me power to both the display and the VCR. There was still a VHS tape in there from the PO, so I hit play and the video looked good, but no sound. After some investigating, and wiggling wires, I found the the s-video line leaving the unit was loose. So now I have video and audio! Now that I know things work properly with the entertainment system, I can move on to upgrading to DVD.
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Old 03-10-2013, 08:46 PM
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you got a picture of that setup? with the fuse box, as well - i wonder if this is a factory setup...
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