Another New X3 owner
 

I am the proud new owner of a 2004 E83 3.0, 73,681 miles. Clean as any preowned I have ever seen.

Vehicle was a lease, then went CPO.

Now she is mine.

Options
0ZPP Premium package
0249 Multi-function steering wheel
0441 Smoker's Package (yet no signs of smoking...)
0493 Storage Package
0520 Fog lights
0534 Automatic climate control
0240 Leather steering wheel
0435 Wood trim
0459 Power front seats
05GA Alarm Pre-wiring
0521 Rain Sensor and auto headlight
0639 BMW Assist with Bluetooth
0692 CD changer preparation
0785 White turn-signal lights
0818 Battery switch
0761 Privacy Glass

If you notice there is one very popular option missing, automatic transmission.
My new baby is a 6-speed manual. I am very happy.

I have one big question. How do I pair with my cell? I have tried the instructions here to no avail, and if I push the button on the wheel to talk it gives me a verizon message (I know it's not me I us ATT)

Tried to use the search function on the forum but it just kept pulling up X5 information.

I am also going to be installing a hitch soon, but I haven't searched for that yet.

Any data would help me top off my new ride!

Congrats on the new ride, pictures if you want would be nice. :)

If your X3 was produced before 09/2004 (essentially all 2004 model year cars), you do not have Bluetooth unless it was retrofitted by the previous owner. This applies even if you have the Bluetooth passcode card.

Don't have nice pictures yet, I will post them as soon as I take them. I am enjoying driving it too much to take photos. :)

I find it strange that BMW would list an option as bluetooth and not give you bluetooth. So I guess I need to find a 2005+ BMW assist module and install it?

Correct. Generally not cheap, though.

I guess i will junkyard scavenge

Congratulations on the new ride!

I share your opinion on the 6mt. Best way to go.

Can't help you with bluetooth, no cell phones get used in my cars except by passengers.

For search, use advanced search and restrict it to the E83 subforum. On the other hand, many topics are generic and you may find the answer in a different forum, likely the E53 one.

For towing, recommend the OE hitch and OE wiring module. I have posted my hitch install details, and provided links to a good thread by another member there. Search my posts in the X3 forum, again using the advanced search function.

Jeff

Nice write up. My question is this, why oem hitch? I can understand and agree why with the oem wiring harness but the hitch is a little steep. Can't seem to find one for under $320. I can get aftermarket harness and hitch in the $150 range. Double plus is a little much.

Any advice on purchase locations?

I have installed a lot of aftermarket hitches, on many different vehicles, for myself and for customers. I have installed two BMW hitches, on an E53 and an E83.

While the OE hitches are well made, the deciding factor for me is the fact that neither the E53 or E83 have a frame. If it was a truck with two frame rails, any hitch would do fine. For these vehicles, the devil is in the details, and in how the hitch attaches to the unibody. For the E53, there have been damaged unibody structures from aftermarket hitches. I have posted quite a few details on the E53 board. For the E53, I would only use an OE hitch. As a bonus, when purchased with the electrical kit, they both end up being cheaper.

When I came to the E83 hitch a few years later, I found that it was cheaper than the E53 version, so I figured I was already ahead, and just purchased it. About $320 sounds right for the E83. E53 was closer to $600.

Installation was very smooth. Typical German overengineering. If I knew that an aftermarket hitch used an identical mounting arrangement, I would be prepared to install one. But since I don't, I would go with the OE hitch.

I rode my bike past a parked Subaru wagon/crossover yesterday. It had an aftermarket hitch installed, and a fairly light fold-up two-bike rack. The rack was pointing to the ground, about a 30 degree angle of declination. I checked, and so was the receiver, same angle. Looked pretty sad. I'll bet it was the unibody that bent, not the hitch receiver.

I would be even less likely to use an aftermarket wiring connection. BMW wiring has enough problems without introducing third party components. With the BMW tow module and harness, the rear PDC is turned off when a trailer is connected. No annoying beeping every time you back up. Also, DSC gets another mode called Trailer Stability Control, which counteracts sway. Not sure about applicability to your model year, but mine had it, same with my 2003 X5. Worth checking. Nice feature to have, particularly with the relatively low vehicle weight. Finally, no wire taps means less chances of errors in the lighting control module, like bulb out warnings.

Yeah I have seen many a bike rack/hitch rack/anything but a trailer absolutely destroy hitches and mounting points. Cyclic loading on a cantilever beam is bad.

I would use mine to actually tow a trailer. Not a fan of the cantilever accessory fad.

Check this page. It has some infor about bluetooth and about retrofit and manuals etc. E46 is almost exactly the same so if you find anything for that model try it. But like mentioned, the BMW module is expensive and I don't think you get A2DP audio streaming with it? At least not in the early days, maybe the newer versions can handle this?

BMW Bluetooth E46 Installation instructions - Bimmernav BMW Upgrades

Instead of BMW retrofit kit I installed Dice Mediabridge which gave me the needed bluetooth functionality (phone and use of my phone voice commands over steering wheel button and BT audio streaming). And it linked my iPod. I've been happy with that so far.

-p

Mucho Gracious!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you check what month your X3 was from? Mine is Dec 04 and has bluetooth.

It is a late 2003 build.

I installed a BMW hitch kit and I have to say that it was one of the easiest hitch installations I have ever done.

The only issues right now is a intermittent sticking passenger front door lock. Annoying.

Still looking for that bluetooth module. Will yours in you 04 model let you stream audio?

With my Blackberry I had incoming/outgoing calls, text message reader and directory search, all without touching the phone and on the navi screen. Now I have an iphone and it does the same, but without the ability to display text messages. No audio streaming I'm afraid.

Did you install the detachable hitch from BMW? It's my next job and I'm not sure about whether to go detachable or not...

Other posters in this thread are in North America. All hitches have a 2" square receiver here. The UK has the swan neck style, either detachable or not.

Congrats! Prepare for a rather boring experience in terms of repairs. Not much goes wrong with these things. I suggest pairing your X3 with an E53 X5 if you need to satisfy a need to fix things and chase problems.

I saw that on the "how to install a BMW Factory trailer hitch" guide/article on here but guessed it was an option rather than the US standard. It looks so much better than the swan neck thing in the UK. If I could get one of those US style 2" square receivers over here does anyone know would the UK trailer wiring socket (UK equivalent of picture 23) fit it in the exact same way? And also I see in photos 48 and 49 there is a silver U-haul connector type thingy between the trailer and the 2" square receiver. What's that called?

Thanks again.

I think you would end up either putting a US style plug on your trailer, or building a patch cord to adapt the US plug to the UK plug. The pins have different assignments (left turn, right turn, tail light, etc) but the concept is exactly the same. You would just have to wire it up.

That silver connector is called the trailer draw bar. The hitch has a 2" square receiver on the vehicle, and you insert a drawbar into that. It attaches with a heavy pin, which has a retaining clip on one end. When you remove the drawbar, you insert a blanking plug (one came with my hitch).

The drawbars are available here from BMW, or any trailer supply store. They come in different drops for different hitch ball heights. They have a hole in one end where the actual ball is attached. There are also different ball diameters (1.875", 2", 2.25", etc) Your Euro 50 mm ball is pretty close to a 2" ball. Not sure if anyone sells a 50 mm ball that bolts right on to a standard drawbar, but if so that would make it easier.

Welcome to the club ... here are a few easy DIYs for replacing filters and watch out for your washer pumps going bad! They're easy to fix though:

BMW X3 Cabin Air Filter Change DIY Guide

BMW X3 Washer Fluid Pump Replacement

I've had my 2006 for a few years and love it.