Just Bought an X5

[luvmy03E53]

I had an issue a couple years ago with my battery dying overnight. After doing a little research, I decided to try replacing the FSR (Final Stage Resistor). A bad FSR will cause your HVAC to come on by itself, preventing the car from entering sleep mode. Not exactly any easy job because of where it's mounted, but I got it done myself, and it fixed my battery draw issue.

Good luck!

[bcredliner]

I would have the battery load tested and monitor battery charge and alternator performance by unlocking the cluster before trying to locate a battery drain issue.

[Bianca98]

battery tested good
Also passed a load test.
Alternator was able to charge the battery easily.
In testing amp draw. with the car locked it had a draw of 1ma with the alarm led flashing.
We plan to do some battery charging testing but I am starting to get stumped here. There is a possibility we did the draw test incorrectly. but in 40mins, I was never able to create a draw with the car off of more than 17ma (radio, lights, hvac, door open, heated seats on). I'm open to suggestions at this point!

[upallnight]

Sounds like you didn't do the draw test correctly. The meter has to be in line with the battery so one lead will be to the battery terminal and the other lead will be to the battery cable that was removed from the battery terminal. Don't try starting the car with this setup because the amp meter is not strong enough to carry a load from the starter.

The meter has to be set up for amp reading which is different from a volt reading.

[Bianca98]

I might not be totally familiar with a DDM, but the tech I was working with is. He just wasn't familiar with BMWs! but we did add the battery terminal bolts to be able to tighten them correctly. I am sort of hoping that will solve my problem though...we will see in the morning. its been parked now since 9pm

[Bianca98]

Truck started today easily at 830am! YAY! Fingers crossed that adding the terminal hardware solved my problem.
E70 rear wiper arrived. It was nice quality but I am having the same performance issues as others. Leaves a streak in the high middle. Better than what I had though and it does look nice.


And here is a pic of the battery cable. note the missing piece! On the positive end, it looks like someone tried to solve the issue of the missing hardware by drilling through it and adding a bolt, but they quite before they got through one side. I had ideas of filling the drill hole with JB Weld, but for the timing being the hardware seems to be doing its job.

[bcredliner]

Try spraying your rear window with a window cleaner that has vinegar in it with the wiper moving and/or coat the glass with Rainex.

[Ricky Bobby]

The E70 rear wiper does look nice man!

But I'm keeping mine deleted as none of them seem to wipe cleanly, even when new.

[Bianca98]

Grills are in! I added vinyl tape (yellow/red/black). The curvature was a bit tough to get done well, but they look good from about 5 feet. There was some ice build up and I think I need to bend back some of the mount points to get the kidneys as straight as I would like. Also got new cabin filter in. Lots of parts and fluids in boxes, so stay tuned.

[Bianca98]

Most of my packages have come at this point.
After work today I made it my mission to figure out what I wanted to do with my Aux in.
I swapped out my CD53s. The 03 July unit I got had a bit of messed up faceplate so I swapped the faceplate from my original radio. Interestingly enough, Xexilia was born 8/30/2001, and the radio installed was a 01 May. I was afraid I would have trouble with my ultimate mounting position but it was surprisingly easy. I was able to route it into the armrest in the tray position next to my factory CD holder. I wanted to just throw out the cd holder portion, but I couldn't get it to separate.

Now with this install, I wanted to get aux in and Bluetooth while spending under 200 dollars. I also wasn't all that interested in an aftermarket radio. That means I was left with either genuine OEM equipment, or aftermarket accessories. The best aftermarket option I found was the GROM kit. However, my understanding was that it deleted some OEM equipment and the Bluetooth adapter made this setup beyond my planned budget. To go with the OEM aux in I would need to update the CD player to one post 02 September. Prices on these can vary. Also, these radios are all flat pin harnesses. I'm not sure if flat pins are standard in all X5s, but in my 2000 528i I needed a round-flat pin adapter cord. It was OEM custom ordered, aka EXPENSIVE! I would not have gone this route if my X was round pin. So I replaced my OEM radio with another OEM radio. I added a now compatible OEM aux in kit. That only left the problem of Bluetooth. I searched and found others were using Bluetooth receivers with a 3.5mm adapter. I found the cheapest option on ebay and then saved another 5% with a best offer. It got a bit dark before I could take some photos so that will be tomorrow. Now I want to split into the rear dc outlet and add a dc outlet in the storage of the arm rest to constantly charge the bt dongle as well as hidden storage and charging for phones, etc...
BT dongle
Bluetooth Receiver Car Hands Free Kit Wireless Music Streaming 3 5mm Adapter Aux | eBay
Aux kit
Amazon.com: BMW Genuine Auxiliary Audio Input Cable Adapter for E39 5 Series (09/2002 and on), X5 (10/2002 and on), All X3: Automotive