New owner - many thanks to this forum

[vandenham]

Hi,

I am the new owner of a 2005 4.4i X5 with 97k miles (156k kilometers). Bought it 6 months ago. The truck was a really good buy, but had not been well maintained and I had to fix a number of small problems.

Thanks to this forum, I was able to fix the following things myself (still have not had to take it to a service shop):

• battery dying because the car would not go to sleep - found a short in one of the electrical connectors under the cup holder in the center console. Looks like fluid leaked into the connector from spilling.
• random red lights (trifecta problem) on dash - turned out to be an overvoltage problem caused by a bad voltage regulator. I put in a new voltage regulator and no warning lights since.
• rattle in panoramic roof - took it apart and place a small piece of felt on the opening mechanism. Rattle now gone
• license plate light - soldered wires onto board to bypass corroded connections
• mirrors not staying folded - took them apart and repaired the micro-switches
• check side lights - replaced angel eye bulb
• check brake light - re-seated bulbs as they were not fully twisted on
• PDC not working - fixed broken wire by right front sensor
• broken passenger door handle (exterior) - installed new handle unit inside door.
• water in right rear wheel well (a lot!) - reconnected drain hose in panoramic roof
• some dash lights dim - replaced some bulbs in the panel and all is bright now

I ended up purchasing diagnostic software and cable from David Wragg and that helped me diagnose a number of the problems, but I could not have fixed all these things without the sage advice of many members on this forum - thank you thank you.

Here are a few pictures of my truck. It is wonderful to drive and I love it.

[TerminatorX5]

welcome to the forum!!!!

nice, nice truck!!!!

[electricalserv x5]

nice X5 ,How do you like her....................?

[ukrcan]

Welcome!
Nice ride!!!

I tried fixing the folding mirror issue, but with no success

[vandenham]

My mirrors both folded, but would not stay folded. I lifted the switch out of the door panel and checked the circuits with my multimeter to help diagnose where the problem was. It turned out that the micro-switch in the mirror was okay, but the problem was the tiny metal lever that opened/closed the micro-switch when the mirror folded. One just needed to be bent a bit in order to press the switch. The other must have jammed and was completely folded in half. I just had to straighten it out for it to work.

[ukrcan]

Yeah, i know the piece you are talking about... one of mine was missing all together, and i could not figure out how to get the other one working, so i gave up after an hour...its a nice feature to have for sure... especially when you park at the mall and hockey arenas...

[vandenham]

Here is a link where you can get new micro switches.

I did not have to order any so I don't know anything about this site, but I know there are switches you can buy - there are some on ebay as well.

This would beat buying new mirrors!

[ukrcan]

Originally Posted by vandenham

Here is a link where you can get new micro switches.

I did not have to order any so I don't know anything about this site, but I know there are switches you can buy - there are some on ebay as well.

This would beat buying new mirrors!

Thanks for the info! I couldn't find any on ebay, but contacted the company from the first link, let's see what they will say

I might actually get this to work eventually!

[tmv]