Quick (Belated) Intro

[bcredliner]

Originally Posted by X5SND

Green Goblin mod ftw! :p

Impressive work!

:agree: It is great to see someone that really gets into his work and still has fun.

[BimmerM3inGA]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

I want to buff those headlights so bad LOL!

Come on over! I'll have all the stuff ready for you

[Gregory891]

Persistence pays off. Nice outcome, although it's a shame that someone really mucked up SO much on the engine. I wonder how it started, but you'll likely never know. Given the history, you'll likely learn "more" when you sort out the 02 sensor fault issues.

I assume you've changed oil in both diffs, transfer case and transmission as well. Given the jaded maintenance history - it would be prudent.

In the end, you will have a car that you can trust - as you've sorted it out so intensely.

[BimmerM3inGA]

I think (hope) that I'm pretty close to having this X5 sorted out. Since the last update, I have changed the oil in both diffs and the transfer case (Red Line 75W-90 gear oil and D4 ATF, respectively).

I have also changed the automatic transmission fluid and filter. On colder mornings, I noticed a slight slipping in 1st gear when pulling away from a stop. It would go away after a few minutes - by the time I got out of my neighborhood. But needless to say, it had to be addressed. The old ATF was nasty - most likely the factory fill. Changing the fluid cured the slipping and also noticeably smoothed out the shifting.

I had the MID display rebuilt. Now I can see what station is on and what time it is! One of my past E39s also had a ton of dead pixels in the MID and I bought the kit to fix it myself. The kit was about $60 and after several attempts, I could not get all the pixels back. In fact, the more I tried the worse it got. I ended just up buying a used MID with a good display to replace it. Instead of taking the chance of blowing another 60 bucks and still having to replace the MID, I just sucked it up and paid someone to do it. It cost $100 for the rebuild, which is a tad pricey to me. But it works perfectly, so I suppose it was worth it.

I had to put a set of tires on it almost right away because the ones on it had cords showing. Ever since then, there had been an annoying vibration in the steering wheel. I came across another set of wheels/tires on Craigslist for $100! I swapped them out and the vibration was gone. So it was definitely in the tires (and not the suspension, as I feared). I took the original set back and had them rebalanced - vibration cured! An easy fix, for once!

Replacing the upper control arms in the rear suspension cured a very loud and very irritating squeak. The outer ball joints were completely rotten and binding badly.

I still haven't been able to find the problem with the O2 sensors, though. I did some troubleshooting and it looks like maybe the post-cat sensors are the problem, even though the error code says it's all 4. None of the obvious stuff is the problem (broken wire, blown fuse, etc), so I might just replace the sensors and hope for the best. They do not look OEM, so maybe that will take care of it. If not, at least it'll be one less variable to deal with!

I am happy to report, though, that it passed its first torture test. I had to drive up to Atlanta (a 2 hour ride for me), and then get from one side of town to the other on the Friday after New Years day. One part of the trip was a 5 mile drive that took over a half hour. Then, on the way home there was a 20-mile traffic jam on I-75. No problems whatsoever on the trip. Yay.

And finally:

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

I want to buff those headlights so bad LOL!

Better?

[Riggodeaux]

I may have to drive down to Perry and have you buff out the minor fogging on the top edge of my headlights! Short of that, any tips? I have used the 3M kit [using a powerdrill] successfully on other vehicles.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by BimmerM3inGA

And finally:



Better?

So the big question is, after all the work and money put into it, did you come out with a bargain on your wallet or what?

[BimmerM3inGA]

I may have to drive down to Perry and have you buff out the minor fogging on the top edge of my headlights! Short of that, any tips? I have used the 3M kit [using a powerdrill] successfully on other vehicles.

LOL, bring it on! I used the SYLVANIA Headlight Restoration Kit. Advance Auto Parts and Autozone both used to carry it, now neither one does. I ordered it from eBay instead. Doing a search will find lots of folks selling it for about $25. I just followed the directions that came with the kit, except I augmented the polishing phase by adding some Mequires Plasti-X polish and used a power drill. I think the key is the clearcoat that is included in the kit. That really gives the lights a great shine and keeps them from going dull again.

So the big question is, after all the work and money put into it, did you come out with a bargain on your wallet or what?

That remains to be seen. Because of all the engine work it needed, I went about $1500 over my budget. I'm really hoping that when it comes time to sell it, that I will get somewhere around $7500 - $8000. If I can pull that off, I'll come out slightly ahead if I don't factor in the time I spent doing the repairs.

Anybody want to buy an extremely well-sorted E53 X5 3.0i?

[Riggodeaux]

Wish you the best on the sale, after all the work you have done. FYI, I helped my son in law get a 2011 black on tan 2001 auto 3.0 inspected and up to snuff [with only 80k or so miles on it] in Houston; with the pre-purchase repairs [cosmetic, cv joint, etc.] He paid $9900 for it.

[tmv]

I sold my old 2001 3.0i which need nothing for $8k with 105k miles last August.
How many miles on yours?

[BimmerM3inGA]

OK, so I think I finally solved the ongoing problem I've been having with a Check Engine light that won't stay off. In a previous post, I said that the problem was related to the heater circuit for the oxygen sensors.

For those who may not know what that means, most modern cars (BMW included) have multiple oxygen sensors. In the case of most 6-cylinder BMWs, the exhaust manifold is actually two separate manifolds. Bank 1 collects the exhaust for cylinders 1-3 and Bank 2 is for 4-6. The catalytic converters are actually part of the exhaust manifolds, so there are also two "cats". Then, there are two exhaust pipes running to the back of the car.

There is an O2 sensor in each of the exhaust manifolds before the cats ("pre-cat", or "upstream") and one in each of the exhaust pipes after the cats ("post-cat", or "downstream") - 4 total. These sensors must be a certain temperature to operate properly and are thus heated electrically until the exhaust reaches a sufficient temperature.

During the engine top end rebuild, I replaced the pre-cat O2 sensors because I had to remove them anyway - so it just made sense. The error message I was getting on my diagnostic computer was telling me the problem was with the heater circuit for all 4 sensors, which didn't make sense because 2 of them are brand new. But I tested them anyway and they were fine. Stumped, I decided to also replace the post-cat sensors thinking that maybe there was some kind of wiring problem that was somehow interfering with the heaters for the pre-cat sensors as well.

Upon installing the new post-cat sensors, I found the problem. Holy crickeys, how did I miss this?! If you've been following this thread from the beginning, you will recall that I do not have a high opinion of the mechanical skills of whoever worked on this car before I got it. Well, I have more evidence of this person's ineptitude. Turns out, the post-cat sensors were plugged into the pre-cat sensors and the electrical connectors that are supposed to be plugged into the O2 sensors were plugged into each other! So, the O2 sensors were not even connected to the car's ECU and the circuit itself was being short circuited. And somehow I missed this when I replaced the pre-cat sensors! In my defense, though, I never unplugged the connectors on top of the engine (the ones that are supposed to go to the post-cat sensors). So it's understandable that I could have missed it. But damn, I could have saved myself a ton of aggravation (and a sizable amount of money) if I had found this sooner.

Originally Posted by tmv

How many miles on yours?

142K-ish