New to me LCI 6MT X5

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by Riggodeaux

Looks like a keeper. Are those 63s [19"] or 132s? [18"] that came on mine with the sports package? Someone sure did a nice job polishing those headlight covers ...

Oh, by the way, ditch the shades .....

On the LCI Sport Package it should have came with Style 131 (18")

Style 132 (19") came with the Sport Package V8 LCI's, and Style 63 (19" and as pictured on OP's car) came with the pre-LCI V8 Sport Package models.

[petebmwm]

is it grey or toledo blue? cant really tell, cuz if it's toledo, we have twins!

[javamon]

As an update to the brake lines: yup, the one was rusted through, although it wasn't nearly as bad as the thread linked above. Because I don't have any brake flaring tools at the moment (and also because I wanted a second opinion on everything), I went ahead and took it to a local indy. Got it patched up just fine this morning, at not very much cost at all. Also had him do a (post)PI. Noted the same general things I did - that the car had seen a lot of salt but that nothing was compromised. He did catch evidence of a little four legged friend that eats cheese having briefly resided in between a couple of the intake manifold runners, but didn't note any wiring damage (and given that all the electrics appear to work as designed, I'd say I dodged a rodent bullet). I completely missed that when I looked it over. Also noted that the filters needed to be changed...which filters were already on my doorstep from ECS, heh (on a side note - if none of you have ever changed an e36 cabin filter, you have no idea the joy I had in changing the cabin filter on this thing - best design ever, compared to the worst design ever on the e36).

Other than that, he gave it a clean bill of health, said he really enjoyed driving it and that I should enjoy it. Fiancée took it for a spin tonight and she liked it as well (might yet even become her primary, but I'm not even mad about that).

Originally Posted by Riggodeaux

Looks like a keeper. Are those 63s [19"] or 132s? [18"] that came on mine with the sports package? Someone sure did a nice job polishing those headlight covers ...

Oh, by the way, ditch the shades .....

Yeah, those are 63s. And it's a square setup - i.e.: 4 of the front sized 63s. I did kind of the same thing for my e36 m3 when I drove it on the street - picked up an extra set of DSIIs, and ran the rears at all four corners in the summer, fronts at all four in the winter. I'm not too concerned about having more rubber at the rear, as I'm not exactly going to be exploring the limits of this thing on the street. Until I get them off and look at the casting marks, I won't know if the PO actually sourced 4 of the OEM smaller 63's or s/he got repos (if they even make repos), but I'm not that concerned. They're in reasonably good shape and really look sharp.

But yeah, those shades...ugh. I'm going to work on that over the weekend, with any luck. Will likely do the dinosaur fluids first.

Originally Posted by petebmwm

is it grey or toledo blue? cant really tell, cuz if it's toledo, we have twins!

Neither! It's highland green (which isn't very green heh). I do like the color. Just enough to actually have some personality and class, but not enough to attract a lot of attention. Don't get me wrong, I love the V8 in estoril (my m3 is estoril), but if I don't have estoril, I definitely like this color.

[Ricky Bobby]

I haven't seen Style 63 reps so I'd say they most likely are 2 sets of fronts. The PO most likely wanted to rotate tires. I prefer staggered in 19" and 20" sizes but regardless they are sharp looking!

[Riggodeaux]

javamon, I shared your pain [and joy] comparing cabin filter replacement between E36 and E53 bimmers. It was pure hell for an older guy [who weighs 220 lbs plus] to get to the E36 cabin filter in a 1997 cabrio .....

While you are crawling around and changing fluids, I'd look carefully at the oil filter and valve cover gaskets for leaks/seeping. Very common on the M54.