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Congrats, BimmerM3, I look forward to your posts. I may be down that way in the Fall for the barrel racing championships and will PM you to see if I can stop by and admire your work ......

Quote:

Originally Posted by BimmerM3inGA (Post 1041218)

After reading these replies, it looks like I need to add a couple of items to my mods list:

1. Angel eyes. Can anyone recommend some decent ones? All the ones I've seen so far look cheap and junky - definitely not an OEM look. How custom do you want to go? I (and so does mam4.6) have the same housings that tmv used to have, which are the best look for the pre-facelift IMO, however, he installed them on a halogen vehicle. The housings come with a halogen projector, and you have to bake them open, and swap all your xenon internals into them to make them work on your X. If you aren't familiar with retrofitting it may not be for you. The housings also come with CCFL rings which is outdated, mam4.6 and I both had LED rings swapped in. And also, if your housings are permasealed (manufactured after 10/02), you have to buy new projectors because you won't be able to swap the stock ones over without cutting open your stock lights. PM me if you need help.

Most people go with fishcake321 on ebay for his Depo, plug and play solution. It's $550, but a lot less effort. Do yourself a favor either way and buy a new set of OEM xenon bulbs, for $75 you will see a benefit, the stock bulbs are less than half their brightness at their age. OEM Philips or Osram found at www.hidbulbzrus.com which I have recommended to others on this site and can vouch they are 100% genuine.

Here is link to fishcake321 Depo's, if you email him ([email protected]) he offers a direct PayPal (outside Ebay) discount and will send you an invoice.

Depo 2000 03 BMW E53 x5 UHP LED Halo Xenon HID D2S Headlight Auto Level CCFL | eBay

These are what Matt (mam4.6) and I have:
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps62a211e5.jpg

2. X-Pipe. I am a little disappointed by the sound of the exhaust. It's too polite. Does anyone offer a bolt-in kit to replace the resonator? Unfortunately unless you want to buy a Supersprint mid-pipe for $800, no. Most everyone on this board who does X-pipe buys a 2.25" stainless (or is it 2.5"?) Magnaflow for about $75 and just pays an exhaust shop to cut out the factory resonator, and weld in the X-pipe (closest to engine) and the necessary extensions to meet the factory exhaust. You should be able to get it installed for under $150 I would think.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do about the cluster. I have contacted a couple of rebuild services that I've used on other projects, but have not gotten any replies yet. I used "bavarianaudio" on Ebay, he is in Rahway NJ and his name is George, I dropped mine off locally. Maybe try messaging him? He goes by "Concrete Donkey" on bimmerforums.

I sent BCRedliner a PM about how he lowered his, and he said he'd get back to me as soon as he could. I looked up the H&R kit, and it includes front springs and new links for the rear air springs. It's about $300, which isn't too bad. I just want to know if I can keep my stock dampers (at least for now). According to H&R, it will lower the car about 1.5", but in Redliners photos, it looks lower than that. I'm hoping he can help me figure that out. It's a 1.5" drop for sure, you definitely notice it more because on the iS and Sport Suspension equipped cars they are a touch lower than standard E53 height, which you may be used to seeing from working on your old E53. At $300 that's great! Turner has a link for $276 plus shipping, it says 1.2" front and 1.0" rear lowering.

H&R Sport Spring Set - E53 X5 2000-2006 with Air Ride Suspension - Turner Motorsport

At the mileage of the X I'd probably just get Bilstein shocks and do it all at once, the Yellow (sports) are stiffer, you probably can get away with doing the B4 Tourings as they are an OE sport replacement shock if you'd like more of a factory ride. However you prob can run the stock ones for a while if you don't want to drop the coin, Bilstein struts are $250 a side and the rear shocks are cheap at $80 per side.

That is the plan this time! It sucked not having my wagon, so this one is a keeper!

See above I hope that helps man!

Awesome info, thanks Ricky Bobby! I just wanna go fast! ;)

George "Concrete Donkey" did an amazing job rebuilding a thoroughly screwed up cluster for me, and he was the first one I contacted about this one. But he hasn't replied yet - sometimes it takes him a few days.

I'm loving those lights. That's the look I want. My production date is 06/02, BTW. I will get with you when I'm ready to tackle the lights. So thanks for the offer! I just need to finish the repairs first, though.

Yeah George does take a few days but he is worth it!

About the lights, btw, which route were you going to take? The Depo's are readily available. If you want to do the Spyder housings, I will warn you. You need to buy the housings NOW, when mam4.6 bought his housings, they were the last set in stock and did not show back up on ebay for 9 months. When they showed up, only one listing showed up and I purchased them for my X. This was September 2014.

They have since not showed up on Ebay again until last week. Judging by the availability in the last year and a half, if that is the route and the look you want to go for, then by all means buy the housings now for $200, and just keep them until you are ready to go. You will need to source LED rings as well if you want to swap those out which I can send you a source for. I would do the retrofit for you if needed but I didn't want to add additional labor cost to the project. Here is the link to the housings on ebay (keywords are E53 projector headlight). Again, maybe things have changed with the manufacturer, but just telling you my experience in the past 2 years is that the availability was extremely limited for this style (facelift looking lights).

1998 2003 BMW x5 E53 "Brightest" CCFL Angel Eye Projector Headlights Headlamps | eBay

If you are swapping your stock xenon projectors in there you would need to bake your housings open and the Spyders. I can walk you through the process.

I will warn you again though, production date of the vehicle does NOT mean production date of the housings. There is a date stamp on the back of them which will show you when they were produced, here is a pic, check both sides as they are not always same:
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...6/IMGP4563.jpg

My stock lights are in very good condition with clear lenses. So I wasn't planning to replace the entire lights if possible. All I really want to do is add the angel eyes to my existing lights.

If they were in bad condition or cloudy, I probably would swap the entire units.

In the photo you posted, the rings are very thin - that's the look I want. All the ones I've seen (including fishcake321's) have thicker rings and that's what makes them look cheap to me. Although he does say that they include LEDs instead of CCFLs.

You can keep the stock dampers. I have the H&R on my 4.6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riggodeaux

Congrats, BimmerM3, I look forward to your posts. I may be down that way in the Fall for the barrel racing championships and will PM you to see if I can stop by and admire your work ......

That would be awesome! I'm guessing that you'll be at the Agricenter in Perry? I'm 10 minutes from there. So definitely look me up when you're in town!

Quote:

Originally Posted by BimmerM3inGA (Post 1041233)

If you are just adding rings to your OE lights, here is a link for LED rings that work on the stock housings, and come with the remote relay harness, just take an afternoon to bake them (also be sure to check the build date on the housings). And also don't forget to use new xenon bulbs, that should make you happy!

BMW Angel Eye Halo Light Lamp Ring LED SMD Kit White Headlight E53 x5 1999 2004 | eBay

Polish the lenses a bit (no sanding needed) and just keep them protected with a good coat of sealant. The rings are $50 and the OEM bulbs are $75 so for $125 you will have a nice facelift.

Awesome, that's more like it! Thank you! And I'll definitely replace the bulbs. I've noticed that they are slightly different colors and want them to match.

What do you suggest for a sealant? I used to make my own with a mixture of polyurethane and mineral spirits then airbrush it on. It looks good at first, but starts to yellow and peel after a couple of years. I thought about using regular clear coat, but maybe there's something better?

Great looking X. I like the red color.