Danny's X5 4.6 Thread
 

Hey y'all,

I just signed the paperwork and wired over the money for a 2003 X5 4.6, so it looks like I have an X5 now! It's Sapphire Black Metallic with black leather sport seats. It's pretty much fully loaded, I can't think of a single feature it doesn't have, aside from the running boards. Heated seats front & back, power seats front & back, sliding cargo tray, PDC, nav, rear window shades, tow hitch, etc.

I paid a bit under $4k for it, not including the shipping costs. I'm working on getting it shipped to my house right now— it's in Seattle and I'm here in Phoenix. How'd I get it for so cheap? Pretty simple, actually. It has 213,000 miles and it needs timing chain guides. Clean history otherwise: it's originally a Cali car, spent some time in Arizona, and then went to Seattle. No accidents and the Carfax actually shows quite a bit of dealer service. It also has a freshly rebuilt transmission so once I take care of the guides it should be quite solid. The engine still runs but it's pretty rough due to the bad guides. That's why I'm having it shipped.

Am I insane for buying an X5 4.6 with 213,000 miles and engine issues? Nah. I've done the timing chain guide + Vanos rebuild job in 6 different M62tu's (4 E39s, 1 E38, 1 Range Rover) as well as a rod bearing replacement on an S62, so this should be quite a breeze for me. I also spent the last few months daily driving a $3000 2004 Range Rover with 160k miles and zero service history (after I rebuilt the M62tu and replaced the fuel pump) and I survived just fine. Most of the parts are shared anyways, so it should all be quite familiar. I had a 2003 540i/6 M-Sport with 200,000 miles not too long ago, so high mileage really doesn't bother me— I find it quite endearing, in fact.

Anyways, enough blathering, here are some pictures. These are from the dealership and I'll post some better pictures once I receive it.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5535/3...99e682d2_z.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5772/3...c1b3d606_z.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5554/3...ae1ee3e4_z.jpg

https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5630/3...a31bf998_z.jpg

https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5768/3...bb9f71bf_z.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5505/3...7f4cae60_z.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5589/3...e55f1036_z.jpg

My goal with this X5 is to use it as a daily driver and an occasional tow rig. It already has a proper tow hitch so at most I'd have to just wire up the trailer harness and trailer brakes. I own a two-axle open car trailer with a friend so this will be perfect for that. My other car is a 2000 540i Touring with 183k miles that I'm always working on— I plan to turn it into an M5 Touring so that's why I need something to daily drive once I take the plunge and start the swap.

Thanks for having me here, I hope to contribute plenty to this wonderful community. Some of you guys might recognize me from Bimmer Forums, I'm super active on there too.

Looks like mine minus sport seats and 140k miles. Congrats.

Welcome. Good luck with the new ride.

Nice pickup. Looks great.

With that much experience in the M62... you should be quite an asset here, welcome.

Welcome Danny! It's actually nice to see high mileage M62s even if it needs guides.

Dam Danny! Stop buying cars XD.

Congrats!

Well a relative cake walk for you since you know your way around the M62 engine. If you have some bent valves you can handle it and of course you can handle rod bearings.

:xoutpost2:

He's just another "Phoenix Aquila" :bustingup :rofl: :D

Nice find.
I hope I get my Imola red 2003 some day.

Yeah, I can handle it no matter what happens with the motor. The 4.6 motors are quite hard to find so I'll do a head/valve job if I have to haha


It's an addiction! Though to be fair I don't hoard all the cars I buy, I generally do sell them so my garage doesn't get too crazy. Right now I have this X5 4.6, my 2000 540i Touring, my Hyundai, and a non-running 1987 Porsche 944.


I've been following your thread, hopefully it all works out for you! An Imola 4.6 is the best one you can get.


Eh, I don't buy quite enough cars to qualify for that title haha. And I've only owned one M5 so far.


Thanks! As I say, at 200k+ miles, these cars are just getting warmed up!


Thanks!


Thanks! I'm loving the community already :) The M62 is a good engine aside from the guides— it doesn't burn oil, it doesn't have a tendency to smoke, and if taken care of they can be very long-lived.


Thanks! I'm planning on writing a pretty comprehensive DIY when I do the guides on this X5 and on a 2001 740i (gonna do both at the same time).

I'm glad its going to be kept alive by another enthusiast and enjoyed for the next 100k+ miles - nice job!

Thanks! Yeah, I saw it as my duty to rescue that X5 from an inevitable death. I talked to the seller and he said pretty much everybody else that called about it wanted to drive it home, so the engine definitely would have been wrecked if anybody else had bought it.

Nice pickup. Looks pretty nice. Amazing how many of the recent 4.6's don't have sport seats lately.

Yeah, I find it kinda weird, especially when you consider that the sport seats were stock and comforts were an option. I guess that just furthers the stereotype of the 4.6 being a high-powered housewife car haha

I had comfort-style seats in my Range Rover and they really weren't that bad, but I couldn't really make a turn at over 30mph without flipping it over so I never needed the side bolstering in that. With the X5 4.6 I'm sure I'll be driving it in a much more "spirited" manner. That's the main reason I wanted an X5, because I had to push my Range Rover really hard to get it to move quickly, and you could tell that it really did not like moving quickly, instead preferring to waft around at moderate speeds.

Nice , welcome and all the best......

You're on here too? AND you bought an X5?

jeez I thought I was the only one with a problem LOL

Thanks!


I'm everywhere~ I'm the all-seeing M62tu whisperer, rescuing poorly-engineered BMW V8's from death.

I wouldn't say I have a problem, I have a solution— buy more BMWs hehe

Good on you Danny for taking on this resurrection. :thumb up: :thumbup:

With your experience, assuming the bottom end bearings are in good shape, after you tear into the guides and other high mileage engine components (water pump, hoses, alternator, pulleys, etc.), you'll have a great ride on your hands.

The one you got, despite the high mileage, shows very well cosmetically, a credit to the quality of materials and components BMW chose.

I have 4.6 and 4.8 envy, because there is no substitute for HP but my find hit all the other boxes I needed when I was shopping a couple years ago: cost, nearly fully loaded option packages, NAV and relatively low mileage (78K).

One night recently I read a couple of very thorough DIYs on the guides and it looked like a pretty deep dive, even for a guy like me with a good deal of major engine DIY experience, just not with the M62.

https://www.germanautosolutions.com/..._diy.php#thumb

DIY: Timing Chain Guide & Timing Chain Replacement

Good luck with the projects.

Mike

Thanks! Yeah, the timing chain guide job is definitely intimidating for a beginner, but I've done 6 of them so it's not as scary to me anymore. From a technical point of view, the only tricky part is the engine timing, everything else is just simple disassembly and reassembly. You just have to take your time, label/organize everything you remove, and cut the job up into small pieces to make it more manageable. I'd say it's more a test of patience than anything, haha.

Since this X5 has 213k miles, I'm going to be a little more thorough than I would be with a 150k mile engine, meaning I'll replace anything that isn't visibly new, like the water pump, cooling hoses, and belt pulleys/tensioners. I'm thinking of going with an upgraded all-metal water pump and aluminum pulleys, just to make sure everything is bulletproof. The previous owner did some top-end work like new intake manifold gaskets and new ignition coils, so I don't have to worry about those things. The transmission is freshly rebuilt as well, so I don't have to touch that for a while. I'll probably change the fluid in the diffs and transfer case just so I know it's been changed.

-----------

I have a shipping update on the X5 4.6— it got put on a truck Monday afternoon in Seattle, so it should be at my house on Friday or Saturday. I'm pretty excited to tear into it and start fixing it. I also got a really clean 2001 740i Sport shipped to me a few days ago, the owner shipped it to me to fix the timing chain guides so I'll be doing that as well.

I was actually wondering about how to place the X5 and the 740i in my garage, since one of my garage spots is longer than the other due to having a water heater taking up a bunch of space in one corner. I looked up the lengths of the two vehicles and it turns out the X5 is actually shorter than the 740i by a whole foot! The 740i is 196" long, whereas the X5 is 184" long.

It arrived today! The shipper was a nice Russian man so we talked for a while in Russian while we unloaded the X5. Apparently he drove through some snow storms up north so the X5 was quite filthy. The battery needed to be jumped and then it started right up! By the clatter of the engine it definitely sounds like bad guides, but the engine still runs pretty smoothly otherwise which is a good sign.

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/444/31...1d364814_b.jpg

I'll give it a good wash tomorrow to get all this grime off before I can start working on it. It's way too dirty to put in my garage right now, haha.

Funnily enough, the engine compartment is the cleanest part of this X5 right now, aside from the interior (which is super clean, more on that later). I got a bunch of service records with the X5 which was pretty cool.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/581/31...5c4a83a4_b.jpg

213,111 miles. Some of the pixels are missing, so I'll probably be sending this cluster to a guy on Bimmer Forums that repairs them. It should be a good time to do it since the X5 will be down for a few weeks during the chain guide job.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/112/31...f58e2e74_b.jpg

Other than the cluster pixelation and some cracked wood trim, the interior is in very good condition. The leather seats are soft and supple, with pretty minimal wear on the driver's seat for a 213k mile car. The passenger seat is perfect and the back seat looks practically untouched. This doesn't really feel like a 213k mile car— I've had cars with half the mileage that weren't as nice. I guess it just goes to show how well built these cars are.

I'll have more details and better pictures tomorrow!

Let the restoration begin!

Good Luck with it all Danny!

Sounds like the car is in the perfect set of hands for the work that's coming.

Yeah, I had the pixel issue in my dash display and fixed it myself with help from a guy with components over in the UK. It was a little like brain surgery (or what brain surgery must be like :dunno: ) but I went slowly and followed the You Tube guide and all came out very well.

Here are his details:

Pixel Fix Kit

AK speedo

Keith James
[email protected]
+44 843 289 3701

Here are some other resources for that job:

Pixel Fix Pictures

PIXEL FIX DIY write up, about a 2 hour job and some patience (Long pic warning)

https://www.apsense.com/article/how-...ble-issue.html

Cluster Removal

BMW Cluster Pixel Repair short guide from Best Pixel Repair INC

Mike

Yeah, I've read the DIYs for fixing the pixels, but I'd rather just get a professional to do it, I'm pretty rubbish with delicate electronics. In any case I may just live with it for a little while since it's not missing too many pixels at the moment— everything is still quite legible otherwise.

Anyways, onto the X5 updates!

Yesterday I gave the X5 a nice bath, which got about 90% of the dirt off. It's not perfect but it'll do for now.

Before:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/723/31...2e80c568_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/178/31...cf924cc6_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/557/30...c687a959_b.jpg

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/738/30...a85bbfe7_b.jpg

After:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/649/31...417dfd65_b.jpg

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/389/30...b2869a2b_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/596/31...98b351e6_b.jpg

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/187/31...daf22c76_b.jpg

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/555/30...b87b2731_b.jpg

I initially rinsed it down with water, used a foam gun attached to my hose to get most of the dirt off, rinsed again with water, washed with a soapy wash mitt, rinsed, washed with a mitt again, rinsed, and then towel dried to avoid water spots (Arizona has very hard water). It was extremely satisfying to see the X5 all clean and shiny, I can't wait to do a full paint correction on it!

The interior is pretty clean already, and I took some pictures:

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/544/31...030ab308_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5574/3...5f2e714a_b.jpg

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/424/31...4c22fe25_b.jpg

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/278/31...351c6273_b.jpg

For 213k miles, the driver's seat wear is pretty minimal— it's less worn than the seat in my (formerly owned) 160k mile 2004 Range Rover! Somebody took real good care of this X5. All of the rear window shades work perfectly too.

The only things that doesn't work inside the X5 are the steering wheel adjustments and the driver's seat memory. From doing some research, I see that the driver's seat memory module is known to fail which causes the wheel adjustments to stop working as well. I'll tackle that once I get the engine all sorted out.

Hi Danny,

Yes, it appears you've found a diamond in a goat's butt! LOL :thumbup:

I had to change out my driver seat module also, was No Big Deal (NBD). Easy Day!

Mike

Did you buy a used module or a new module? And did you need to do any coding? I've read conflicting reports on that.

I bought a new module off ebay and no coding was required on my 2003 4.4.

With the relatively low miles I have and my intent to keep the car long term, discounted pricing on a new module worked for me.

IIRC, I watched a YouTube video for the R&R. I also remember some caution was required not to break the attaching tabs of the module cover piece.

Mike

Oh and if any of you care, I made a an intro video about my new-to-me X5: https://youtu.be/seq33eoA61E



Skip to 4:28 if you want to hear how the engine sounds, and at 7:23 I have a nice little sped-up timelapse of me washing the X5. It's pretty satisfying to watch.

I've wanted to start vlogging for a while now, so I'll be documenting my X5 build in video form as well as via posts and pictures on here. Dunno if anybody here is into that, but I'm having fun with it :)

Gotcha, thanks for the tip! I'll likely go with a new module since it seems like the older memory modules have a tendency to fail.

Do yourself a favor. Get a new seat module. 95% of these vehicles experience this malfunction. As soon as you buy a used one you begin to just count the days when that one is gonna fail.

Is that a E38 740i MSport I see??

Good eye! Yep, it's a 2001 740i M-Sport. It's not mine (unfortunately), it belongs to a guy from Bimmer Forums who shipped it to me all the way from Michigan to fix the chain guides. 160k miles and the engine sounds like a tractor. It's super clean all around though.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...9cd0fcb1ef.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...74d7044541.jpg


Yeah, I'm going to get a new seat module. Since it's a component that's know to fail there's no point in saving a few bucks to buy a used one.

Man I always wanted one of those 740i msports. Hard to find clean examples.

What do you charge for a job like that? Shipping costs ain't cheap so it must be cost effective for those folks.

I charge about $1000 + parts costs. Shipping to almost anywhere in the US can be had for less than $1000 if you're savvy and hunt around. I've done the job 6 times (soon to be 8 times) so I have the experience to get it done correctly the first time, whereas a lot of shops are reluctant to even try it, regardless of cost.

Most indie shops charge $3000-$4000, with dealers charging even more. With me, it's $1000 labor + around $600 in parts + $800 or so in shipping, which comes out to less than $3000 for a job that'll get done correctly.

That's not bad at all. I called around and been quoted around $4800 for the job not that I need it. I wish you were not across the continent so I could have it done as preventive maintenance.

Wow, $4800? That's crazy.

Tonight I did what is possibly the most important mod you can do on any car... removing the front license plate mount.

Before:

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...ea5706dfc7.jpg

After:

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...dffed0a259.jpg

Much better. I'm so happy that Arizona doesn't require front plates.

The X5 is now inside the garage along with its timing chain guide twin.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...0e0b20d031.jpg

Nice Danny!

However, I found a good use for my front plate holder.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/O9...=w1165-h874-no

If I ever need timing chain guide service I'm going to remember you!

Mike

Oh timing chain and timing guides on the M62 engine what fun. I have done this procedure with my brother on 4 different BMWs that I have owned. I love when I find one with this problem because the car/vehicle can be purchased for such a low amount. Once you run through these engines they are essentially bulletproof

That's a pretty creative way to use the plate holder, but I prefer the clean look without it. That's just a personal preference.

Texas isn't too far away, I'm sure we could work something out if you needed the guides done.


To an outsider it looks like a terrifying job, but it's really one of the easier jobs out there... the majority of the labor is just in disassembly and reassembly.

I do love the good deals I get on BMWs that need chain guides. The M62tu is a pretty leaky engine in general so any M62tu-powered car needs gaskets and seals replaced at some point— doing the chain guides lets you replace everything all at once in one big swoop. My 04 Range Rover leaked all over the place when I bought it, but once I did the chain guide job it completely stopped leaking.

Yeah Danny, I spent several hours one night reading every step of these DIYs

https://www.germanautosolutions.com/..._diy.php#thumb

DIY: Timing Chain Guide & Timing Chain Replacement

and it was not exotic but a ton of tedious and precise work (not a stranger to this type of DIY work, but as a rookie to it, I'd sure feel better with a pro supervising me).

This year I tore into the front of my M62 to deal with a SEIZED alternator! I have never heard of such a thing but it happened on my X! I did all the stuff on the front of the engine, tensioners, pulleys, belts, every cooling hose, and of course the alternator.

Check out my post on that disaster here:

http://www.xoutpost.com/1093483-post44.html

My vehicle maintenance philosophy is to maintain to a long term up-time reliability standard and if I'm touching a 92K mile component during a job, I'm highly motivated to evaluate putting in a new one. After this alternator job I learned of the chain guides issue (which was just a little deeper from what I see), but that issue seems to occur from what I've seen, at much higher mileages.

At 6K miles or so/year, I'll be a few years away from guides, but if something changes, I'll get it out to you. :thumb up:

Mike

You shouldn't have any issues with the chain guides until at least 160k miles. Even at that mileage the guides are usually fine unless the car has gone through a lot of heat cycles in a cold climate or hasn't been maintained well. The X5 that I bought had the guides die at 213k miles, which is a pretty long run when you think about it. I see some people replacing their guides at less than 120k miles which is completely ridiculous and unnecessary.

The thing about the chain guides is that they don't destroy the engine with no warning. They generally start to make a harsh metallic noise once the plastic on the guides is gone. At that point you can still run the engine, but it'll be noisy and you'll start seeing P0011/P0021 camshaft timing codes due to the chain slack. You'd have to run the engine with bad guides for a pretty long time for the chain to wreck the engine.

Both my X5 and the 740i have a horrible racket and P0011 codes when they run, but guess what, they still run fine on all cylinders! You could probably limp around in them for quite a while without wrecking the engine.

Here's a video I took of my X5's engine running with obviously bad chain guides:



Link if the embed doesn't work: https://youtu.be/y6VZMN1TbII

A seized alternator or collapsed bearin on the alternator will choke the engine on an m62. I had this happen to me on my 540i m sport. Luckily for me it happen right as I pulled into my driveway.

Lucky for me it happened close to my house and I limped it back without serpentine belt and temp that never went but a smudge past center on the gauge.

Yeah, it choked it right down all right.

Mike

Gonna have to disagree with you on chain guides not going before 160,000 miles on an X5. We have had 8 X5s under 110k that have exhibited chain guide deterioration on the X5s at our shop. You are correct that the vehicle can still be run but they will be noisy and just a matter of time. On my personal 4.6is the guides started to go at 99k mikes and what gave it away was a whirring sound that I thought was one of the pulley bearings, alternator bearings,or a/c compressor bearings. When I went in to replacing the timing cover gaskets it was evident that part of the guides were deteriorating and contributing to the whirring sound. It's strange that the M62 engine in the X5 wear earlier than the car applications. I think it has something to do with made in South Carolina vs Germany. Just a guess. Another theory could be the M62 in the X5 is lugging around/working harder than the M62 in the car due to considerably more vehicle weight of the X5.

The reason I say that is because of my personal experiences. Here are the mileages of each car I've done guides in:

1. 200k+ (wasn't sure of mileage because cluster was fubar) 2001 540i: Guides were completely gone, chain was rubbing on metal. Poorly maintained Arizona car with zero service records.

2. 194k miles, 2003 540i/6: Replaced guides preventatively due to paranoia. The U-guide had the tiniest bit of wear, no plastic pieces in the oil pan otherwise. This could have gone another 20k miles easily. This car was a California car since day one, and had complete maintenance records from when it was new.

3. 160k miles, 2000 540i/6: Replaced guides preventatively. They were completely intact and could have easily gone to 200k. This was a car from the northeast that had ended up in Arizona over the years, no maintenance records.

4. 159k miles, 2000 540i/6: Guides were completely shattered to bits. This car was maintained very poorly and lived in NJ. A cheap shop had done the guide job and completely wrecked the engine. The owner then replaced the heads and did the chain guide job again, messing up the timing a little. I ended up buying the car at that point and redid the job properly, timing it perfectly with no codes.

5. 188k miles, 1997 740il: Guides were perfectly intact, car was owned by one person for over 10 years with good maintenance. Note that this was a pre-Vanos M62 engine, which are known to go longer without guide failure. By my estimates it could have easily gone to 220k without guide failure.

6. 160k miles, 2004 Range Rover HSE: The U-guide had begun deteriorating on the driver's side, but there were no signs, noises, or engine codes, so it was still very much within spec. It could have easily gone another 20k with no issues, the other guides were in perfect condition. This was a one-owner vehicle that lived in the south its whole life. The engine was pretty neglected though— at 160k the valve cover gaskets were still original, as was almost everything else.

7. 160k miles, 2001 740i: Guides are fully gone on this car that originated in California and moved to Michigan. No idea how well it was maintained, but the inside of the engine is quite varnished so I'm thinking the previous owners ran very long oil change intervals or used cheap oil.

8. 213k miles, 2003 X5 4.6: Guides are fully gone on this car that originated in California and ended up in Michigan. From the service records I can tell it was very well maintained, and the inside of the engine looks very clean, indicating good oil change intervals and/or proper oil.

Basically it's a total crapshoot but you're very likely to go past 150k miles on original guides. I'd say that the engines in the 540i work way harder since people beat on those cars, whereas most X5's, like it or not, are used as suburban mom kid-haulers. Very few X5's see heavy usage with towing and off-roading, most never leave the pavement (same goes for Range Rovers).

But who knows, maybe my experiences aren't the norm.

Also, while the X5 was assembled in the US, I'm pretty sure the engines have always been made in Germany, and with the same exact parts as the German-made BMWs. Aside from the oil pans and oil separators/CCV the engines are more or less interchangeable.

I agree with you that on some of the M62 engines the guides can go a long time before changing. I can only speak from what comes in the shop and we have done quite a few timing guides where those that were X5s happened at a lower milage whereas the ones on the sedans ad tourings occurred at a much higher mileage. We have a done a number of Range Rovers but most of them have been around the 150-160K miles mark.

I should also add that quality oil changes and frequency of oil changes affects these engines greatly and the condition of the guides.

Last night, I started taking apart the engine in the X5. Removing the intake and air filter housing was quite easy, it was one 10mm bolt and 4 pop clips. That was the only thing I wasn't already familiar with, after that it was standard M62tu stuff.

I gotta say though, I didn't miss all the secondary air system crap. My Range Rover didn't have any of that stuff which was awesome. That got me thinking about how hard it would be to delete the whole secondary air system on the X5. The trickiest part would likely be coding it out of the DME so there wouldn't be any check engine lights for it. It would be so nice to get rid of the miles of vacuum hoses and that stupid little vacuum cleaner.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/423/30...702036bd_b.jpg

The ignition coils are all mismatched which is pretty funny, but as long as they work I don't particularly care. If they start dying I'll replace all of them at once. Everything was pretty clean and dry around the valve covers since the valve cover gaskets were replaced quite recently.

The valve covers were old but not particularly nasty, just typical worn M62tu valve covers. I dropped them off at my powder coating guy's place today, they should be ready late this week or early next week. I'm getting a nice two-tone black and silver finish done, it should turn out pretty sweet.

With the passenger side valve cover removed, I got my first look at the engine. It looked pretty decent and not overly varnished considering it has 213k miles.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/592/30...393376eb_b.jpg

Then I looked closer...

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/340/31...2dfae3f4_b.jpg

Yep, those are chain guide plastic pieces laying around there. The engine must have flung them up there at some point. Good thing I didn't drive this home from Seattle, eh?

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/579/30...bd351200_b.jpg

These are most likely from the tensioner chain guide on the passenger side. From what I could see, the guide plastic is completely gone on both the U-guide and the tensioner guide. What's surprising is that the chain really doesn't have much slack, but that's probably because the driver's side plastic guide is still somewhat intact. This engine could have either run for another 5k or exploded on the next startup, haha.

The other valve cover came off pretty easily, but I had to push some cooling hoses out of the way first. This is what the engine looks like at this point, after about 2 hours of disassembly:

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/463/30...779d7443_b.jpg

Next up is to drain the cooling system, remove the expansion tank, remove the fan shroud/fan, and I'm also considering removing the washer fluid reservoir as well since it's huge and annoying.

I've also decided that I'll be doing the valley pan gasket and the intake manifold gaskets since that won't require too much extra labor.

Nice progress so far! Amazing that guide piece was just laying there

My 4.6is is on 120k miles and I'm already starting to have nightmares about the guides - I've got zero service history but the engine is absolutely silent on startup and when running so hopefully I should be ok until I have time to tackle it.

There is no need to worry unless you start to hear some type of sound. If you have leaks on the engine at the timing cover then this is a gold time to have the work done or at least inspect the guides. Even if they are in tact they do get brittle and then tend to break. Again if your vehicle is absolutely quiet then don't worry about it at this time.

It's the brittle issue that I'm more worried about - almost a silent killer.

Lot's of horror stories of them failing at 90k+ over in the UK with zero warning.

Here are my $.02 cents when it comes to M62 engines. In all of my M62 equipped BMWs when even ever I got to the point of resealing the timing covers I have always gone in and replaced the guides and chain for future piece of mind. My X5 started to exhibit a whirring sound at 99K miles and I thought it was one of the tensioners or bearings on the alternator, ac compressor and come to find out it was the beginning of guide failure. I like to have piece of mind that where ever I drive my BMWs they are mechanically sound. I could have gone a few more thousands of miles before changing them but I was already half way in there. The guides are gonna fail and I much rather be proactive then reactive to the situation when it occurs. This is a known concern with the M62 engines in the BMW X5.

I'm guessing it got thrown up there by the chain.

Exactly.

If everything is quite and proper otherwise then I wouldn't worry about it. The guides give you plenty of warning, you'd have to be super negligent to actually wreck your engine.

The horror stories are the minority, I'd say most M62tu's have a pretty good chance of going past 150k miles on original guides.

Yeah, that's how I ended up doing the guides on the Range Rover, I had the timing covers off and decided to go all the way. If you're comfortable doing your own work then it's pretty easy to take care of the guides, but if you have to budget like $3000+ for a shop then that certainly makes it a lot scarier.

I just placed a massive parts order from FCP Euro for all of the chain guide-related parts. It was quite the list, especially since I'm doing the valley pan as well. The total ended up being around $650 with shipping, thanks to some aggressive price-matching.

I'll definitely be doing the valley pan at the same time when I get round to doing it as I suspect I have a weep from that area.

I really can't tell if it's leaking but it looks absolutely FILTHY there, like I'm talking half an inch of grime. It's safe to say that the valley pan has never been touched, so I might as well replace it just in case. It's barely any extra work so it's worth doing.

The upper timing covers are covered in half an inch of grime as well... that should make disassembling the engine entertaining. Time to stock up on brake cleaner and degreasers.

And of course the day after I last posted I got sick and that threw me off for a few days, ugh. I was finally feeling better last night so I got some more work done.

The first thing I did was drain the cooling system so I could remove all the hoses. Thankfully on the X5 there's a proper drain plug in the radiator on the driver's side, but you have to remove the expansion tank cap up top or else practically nothing comes out. Once I drained a lot of the coolant out I was able to remove the expansion tank and all the cooling hoses. More coolant came out when I removed the lower radiator hose, and some came out of the alternator housing as well, so keep those drain pans handy!

Once the cooling hoses were removed, I proceeded to removing the clutch fan. I do own the proper tool for this, but a friend is borrowing it, so I had to remove it with the redneck method. I sprayed the fan clutch nut with PB blaster, let it sit for a little, and then put a 32mm wrench on the nut and whacked the wrench with the mallet until the nut came loose. It's not the most glamorous method, but it does work every time! With the fan removed, I was able to remove the fan shroud, which is only secured with three push rivets. This is what the engine looked like at this point:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/400/31...ccdf9da8_b.jpg

Look at the nasty gunk around the passenger side upper timing cover:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/774/31...f616a983_b.jpg

Yum.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/548/31...dabcdd1d_b.jpg

I removed the belts and continued the disassembly, moving on to removing the upper timing covers. I initially sprayed the timing covers down with brake cleaner so I could find the bolts in the sea of grime. The Vanos solenoid gaskets had a bunch of goopy black rubbery stuff around them, which makes me think somebody had messed with them before. The Vanos solenoids came out pretty easily with the proper socket tool. Once those were out, I undid the 6 bolts on each timing cover and removed the timing covers. Neither timing cover presented too much of an issue, and their gaskets were hard as a rock and practically disintegrated upon removal. Once the timing covers came off, that's when things got interesting...

The tensioner rail had been ground down quite a bit by the chain, indicating that the plastic had worn away a long time ago. There was no plastic at all on the U-guide.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/646/31...e3e09ab3_b.jpg

Over on the other side, the U-guide was missing all of its plastic as well.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/681/31...2843e99d_b.jpg

Curiously enough, the plastic guide on the driver's side looked pretty much intact.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/571/31...4b5ed2fe_b.jpg

I also found a few interesting pieces of plastic laying around...

https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5551/3...c5398538_b.jpg

Looks like one of the guide pieces got caught somewhere particularly warm and started melting, how fascinating!

This is how the engine looked when I called it a night:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/643/31...37c39459_b.jpg

Next on the agenda is to disconnect the battery (which is annoyingly placed under the compressor in the trunk), remove the harmonic balancer, remove the water pump, remove the alternator, and then undo the big crank bolt (aka the Jesus bolt). Fun times ahead!

OMG! :wow: :wow: :wow:

You go Danny! :thumb up: :thumb up:

You are making this look easy!

Mike

nice progress, glad this 4.6 went to a proper owner. To another 200k!

More progress last night! I bought a new (to me) DSLR recently so I used that to take the pictures. Super fancy pics now.

I started by removing the crank pulley (aka harmonic balancer) and the water pump. Man were they dirty.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/723/30...9dd354d4_b.jpg

Surprisingly, the lower timing cover doesn't look all that bad:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/765/31...e1888604_b.jpg

After the water pump was removed, I removed both belt tensioners. One of them was being a little stubborn but it came off eventually. After that, I disconnected the battery to remove the alternator. I wonder who thought it would be a great idea to hide the battery in the X5 under the spare tire and air compressor... I also found a hacked-together U-Haul trailer wiring harness in the trunk, yay. The alternator came off pretty easily, though the bolts holding it down were unreasonably tight. Makes me wonder if somebody had monkeyed around there before.

With the alternator removed, I proceeded to remove the intake manifold to access the valley pan. Removing the intake manifold involved removing 10 11mm nuts, disconnecting the fuel line, and removing a bunch of hoses at the CCV in the rear. With everything disconnected the intake manifold came off pretty easily, revealing a nasty sight underneath.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/300/31...1747ea04_b.jpg

As I suspected, the valley pan is leaking a bit already:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/409/30...f5e943ce_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/525/31...a2d4a7cd_b.jpg

I'm glad I ordered the parts to do the valley pan job, because I wasn't sure if the valley pan needed to be replaced. Thankfully I caught this leaking valley pan before it became a serious problem. I highly recommend checking on it when you do a chain guide job— the extra labor is minimal. Plus as a bonus I'll get to replace the water pipe o-rings at the back coolant manifold and I'll get to install fresh new intake manifold gaskets to eliminate the common rough idle upon cold startup.

The oil separator return hose pretty much crumbled apart when I removed the intake manifold... turns out the oil separator is still original with a 2002 date on it, and the return hose is still original since it has the annoying BMW factory clamps on both ends.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/444/31...5fc8c398_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/613/31...93fc4b7d_b.jpg

I ordered a new return hose and a new oil separator from AutohausAZ this morning, since they're local to me and might have it available either today or tomorrow. I figured I'd replace the oil separator since it's original and easily accessible, because replacing it with the intake manifold installed does not sound fun at all. I also ordered new cam chains because the current ones have 213k miles on them. Once this engine is all fixed up I shouldn't have to mess with it for a very long time.

I bought some new GAS timing tools as well, since they're supposedly easier to use and less finicky than the BMW-style timing tools that I currently have. I love that the GAS cam lock blocks actually screw down instead of just floating on the camshafts like the BMW tools. The Beisan Systems vanos seal kit also showed up the other day, so I'll be able to rebuild the Vanos units for a rattle-free experience.

Well done Danny, nice progress so far and thanks for sharing.

Here's the latest scoop on the X5 saga:

I removed the crank bolt (aka the Jesus bolt). It came off very easily for some reason, but it could be because I used PB Blaster and a 3/4" drive breaker bar with a 6 foot long cheater pipe. I also used a crankshaft holding tool that propped against the subframe which worked very nicely.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/739/31...300d2cb5_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/623/31...5bd3eda7_b.jpg

After that, I removed the cabin air filter housing. It wasn't super hard at all, with only two 13mm nuts and a few twist clip to undo. Removing it freed up a ton of space which will make timing and installing the intake manifold much easier.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/438/31...a159484e_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/300/31...4a4df884_b.jpg

Once that was out, I removed the washer fluid reservoir. No idea why BMW made it so huge or didn't put it behind the wheel well like in the E38/E39. I first drained all the fluid out using a cheap fluid transfer pump. Of course I made a huge mess but hey at least washer fluid cleans up pretty easily.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/577/31...d62d1602_b.jpg

Instead of disconnecting the hoses at the washer fluid pumps I just removed the washer fluid pumps (all 3 of them) from the reservoir. That was pretty easy overall.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/702/31...3fe4bc6c_b.jpg

I then jacked up the X5 to access the lower oil pan. On a sidenote, I'm so happy that the X5 is smaller than the Range Rover, I was able to lift it up with ample room in my short garage, even with the garage door closed. It's cold and rainy right now (weird for Arizona) so it's nice to be able to fit everything completely inside the garage.

First I had to remove the lower skid plate which was a bit of a pain with the sorta hard-to-access nuts that I had to counter-hold while undoing the six 16mm bolts. I know these are supposedly single-use bolts, but I intend to reuse them because they're not some critical engine bolt. Apparently the rear four bolts also secure the sway bar— no wonder the plate has a big warning that says "do not drive without this plate installed."

With the plate out of the way, I drained the oil (I know there's an access hole to drain the oil in the plate but I wanted to remove it first). The oil looked okay, just a bit old.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/6/5581/3...1156a05b_b.jpg

Removing the lower oil pan was super easy, it was just a bunch of low-torque 10mm bolts all around that my cordless impact wrench removed quickly. The lower oil pan came off pretty easily, with a bit of oil splashing out as expected.

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/344/31...978483c1_b.jpg

There were a few chain guide bits in the oil pump pickup screen which I intend to clean out with a pick tool. The oil pan itself didn't have too many guide pieces, presumably because the differential goes through the oil pan and blocked the biggest pieces from falling into the lower oil pan.

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/729/31...003bf70a_b.jpg

This X5 is easily the dirtiest vehicle I've ever worked on, there's so much grime caked on, along with what appears to be hair of some kind? Weird.

While I was under the X5, I removed the power steering pump and let it hang so it wouldn't interfere with the lower timing cover removal process.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/287/31...7ac01e56_b.jpg

I then locked the crank at TDC using the crank locking tool in the GAS timing tool kit. It was pretty easy on this X5 since there wasn't a massive subframe blocking the transmission bellhousing like on the Range Rover I had.

After dropping the X5 back down on all four wheels, I proceeded to lock the cam timing. This was the first time I used my new GAS timing tools, after using the BMW-style tools for the last 6 timing chain guide jobs I've done. I have to say, these new tools are so much easier to use than the BMW-style ones. The cam lock blocks are for each individual camshaft which makes locking them down very easy. Plus they slide on and screw down to the camshaft journal studs, so they're on there very securely without the possibility of slipping off. This will be an absolute godsend for the timing process where everything has to be super precise.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/258/31...bfa940a5_b.jpg

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/516/31...e1b4329c_b.jpg

The build quality of these tools is amazing, and they're all made in-house by the company in Michigan. For $250, it's pretty much a no-brainer. They also rent them out if you're not a full-on timing chain guide addict like I am.

Once the timing was fully locked down, I started removing all of the lower timing cover bolts. There were 15 in the front, with a complete mix of different bolt lengths in 10mm sizes and 13mm sizes. I always draw a diagram of the lower timing cover on a cardboard box and poke the bolts right into the diagram. That makes the reassembly process very easy. There are also 6 10mm bolts from down below, which I removed while I had the X5 jacked up.

The lower timing cover will always put up quite a fight, especially if it hasn't ever been removed before. Be patient and take your time to gradually loosen it, all while making sure that you didn't miss any bolts. Mine came off after about 20 minutes of fiddling. It came off cleanly and without damaging the upper oil pan gasket, which is excellent.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/667/31...89a24e90_b.jpg

I found guide bits resting on top of the U-guide, interesting how that happened.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/501/31...a708c85f_b.jpg

The bigger guide pieces ended up in the oil pan. You can also see some of that nasty grime and the questionable hair. All of that will be cleaned up before I reassembly the engine.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/558/31...9110076c_b.jpg

Strangely enough, the driver's side plastic guide looked completely intact.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/551/31...d668053d_b.jpg

At that point I called it a night, after putting in about 5 hours of work.

As a sidenote, I've been having a lot of fun with my DSLR with these pictures. I think I get way better results than with my iPhone, despite requiring a bit more effort.

That garage animal that was leaving his/her traces of hair on the engine of the X5 must be bummed out that the X5 has moved to a new home. Got to find a new vehicle engine to cuddle up to:yawn:

Outstanding pictorial document of this very intense DIY surgery :thumb up:

This demonstrates the difference between "Know How" and "Wonder How" :thumb up:

Merry Christmas to All!

Mike

that is some insane amount of grime and hair. I can't wait to see what a good power-washing will do, and that motor is pretty spotless inside!

I'm in for the final show.

I wish he was closer to do my guides. Guy is a beast.

Ship it to me, lol.


You'll get it soon!


Haha, basically!


Yeah, the engine looks nice on the inside so I'm pretty optimistic. I'll definitely give it a good power wash once it's all back together and running, that way I can get the final pockets of dirt out. I wish I had gotten to power wash the engine like I did with my Range Rover, but the X5 wasn't drivable so I couldn't take it to a local coin wash. There was no way I could wash that engine in my driveway, the amount of oil that would come out would be a small ecological disaster, haha.


Thanks! More to come in the next few days.

I did a lot more work after the last update, and I'll post that at some point soon. I took a few days off to celebrate the holidays but after Sunday I should be able to go full steam ahead to finish this project up! Stay tuned...

Roger That!

And he's going back into "Beast Mode" again soon! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Mike

I've fallen behind in updating this thread, so today I'll be playing a bit of catch-up to get this up to speed. In real life, I've finished the project as of yesterday, and the X5 runs/drives perfectly. Keep reading to see more pretty pictures and thrilling prose (ha!)

------

After I removed the lower timing cover, I removed the chains and camshaft sprockets. Pretty easy stuff.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/341/32...354e8e46_b.jpg

It started to look pretty stripped down at this point, but I wasn't done yet!

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/560/32...19361294_b.jpg

This is what the engine looked like after removing the guides, Vanos distribution pieces, and cam tensioners.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/500/32...f45c4417_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/301/31...0c6c4b15_b.jpg

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/734/32...67391e18_b.jpg

The U-guide was down to bare metal:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/555/32...fe6ce39d_b.jpg

The tensioning rail didn't look much better.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/591/32...02474ee8_b.jpg

The plastic rail looked okay, but clearly showed signs of wear.

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/776/32...464716fb_b.jpg

All of the chain guides had 2002/2003 production date codes, so they were definitely original.

I collected all of the plastic guide bits in a cup to keep as a souvenir.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/258/31...2c6ee910_b.jpg

With everything removed, I began the reassembly. I started by rebuilding the Vanos units in the comfort of my kitchen, using the Beisan Systems guide as a reference (even though I know the procedure by heart now). I put the teflon rings into a cup of warm water which made them very flexible and easy to install.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/327/31...d1330cf1_b.jpg

After replacing the seals and o-rings, I drove over to my friend's shop and pressed the Vanos units. I do have a vice in my garage, but my workbench is flimsy and can't really stand up to the massive torque that's required to press the Vanos units properly. My friend's shop had a much better setup with a sturdier bench and vice, so pressing the units went pretty easily.

The next day, I put my attention to cleaning the gross timing covers before I could begin installing them.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/552/32...05690011_b.jpg

After a few hours + Purple Power + 2 cans of brake cleaner:

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/655/32...8ee68bc1_b.jpg

I cleaned the water pump at a later point, which is why it's still dirty in that picture. The timing covers cleaned up pretty nicely, considering how terrible they looked before.

Time for a big box of new parts!

https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5603/3...b4e22f0d_b.jpg

All in all, I think I spent about $700 on all the parts needed for this project.

First I installed the cam tensioners with the new guide pieces and o-rings, along with the Vanos distribution gaskets and oil check valves. The oil check valves tend to get stuck with age, which allows oil to drain out of the Vanos and cause that infamous startup rattle. It's super important to replace these.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/603/31...0890ed11_b.jpg

With the distribution piece installed:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/532/31...4989f403_b.jpg

After that it was time for the new chain guides. I love this part of the job.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/709/31...0e53d836_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/347/31...0f76d5c2_b.jpg

I left a little note on the tensioner rail for future reference.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/517/32...cdf3ca35_b.jpg

Once the guides were installed, it was time for the new chains. I decided to replace all three chains— two camshaft chains and one main timing chain. Normally I don't replace the camshaft chains but I figured with 213k miles it would be worth it to replace them. Plus at only $20 each it wasn't all that bad for the budget. I love seeing shiny new parts everywhere.

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/483/31...fef26fe3_b.jpg

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/510/31...43ae5818_b.jpg

I loosely threaded in the (left hand thread!) camshaft bolts, making sure everything stayed nice and loose for the timing process.

With the new chains and guides installed, it was time to reinstall the lower timing cover. Before reinstalling the lower timing cover, I verified that the upper oil pan gasket was in good condition, which it was. I put a little bit of silicone on the mating areas just in case.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/702/31...6e29c9c3_b.jpg

I also installed a new front main seal, since there would literally never be an easier time to do so.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/300/31...1fb58b4b_b.jpg

I wrestled the lower timing cover into place and used my handy dandy lower timing cover bolt diagram to install all of the bolts.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/286/32...471051e6_b.jpg

It took me about an hour to install it properly, because everything had to be aligned properly. There are three gaskets for the lower timing cover, and they all like to move out of place even when secured with gasket tack. There are also bolts on the bottom of the lower timing cover, don't forget those!

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/701/32...58e58698_b.jpg

With the lower timing cover in place, the timing process began. I started by installing the chain tensioner tool on the passenger side. Once again, I can't help but praise the GAS timing tools, they're so well-engineered and are an absolute joy to use!

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/620/32...9ecdef7c_b.jpg

I then proceeded to fully retard the Vanos units by turning them counter-clockwise using the special Vanos tool.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/680/31...f9b4e0c6_b.jpg

While holding the Vanos units at their stopping position I snugged up the Vanos bolts to set their position. After that it was just a matter of torquing all of the camshaft/Vanos bolts, with the intake bolts getting torqued to 81ft/lb and the exhaust bolts getting torqued to 92ft/lb. I counter held the camshafts with a 27mm open wrench but the cam lock blocks didn't move at all during this process, which is quite an improvement over the BMW-style tools that would often pop right off.

With the timing locked down, I installed the camshaft trigger wheel tools on both sides.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/593/31...c1f24724_b.jpg

Again, super high quality tools. The trigger wheel tools were incredibly precise and had zero slop. Once I torqued the trigger wheels in place I removed the trigger wheel tools, cam lock blocks, and crankshaft locking pin in order to rotate the engine over a few times to test the timing. The engine was initially quite difficult to turn over, so I removed the spark plugs. After that it was super easy, and I turned the engine over a few times before locking it at TDC with the tools. With everything locked in TDC again, I checked the camshaft trigger wheels with the tools and they lined up perfectly. I love a good timing job.

That's all for now, but I'll get more photos up tonight once I dump them from my DSLR. I've also been compiling a lot of this work into videos, which you can see here:

https://youtu.be/w-7LHt07a7U



https://youtu.be/Jnul5g1pno8

Outstanding Beast Mode finale Danny!

Quick question, with the engine all that far opened up, what would you think of pulling the heads off and doing a valve job on the heads if someone were all that far in?

When I get up around 150K, I'm going to be in touch with you. With a head job and all the chains and guides done, you've got what we call in the piston aircraft world, a complete "Top" overhaul.

Once an engine was done like you've done it, I could see it delivering another 100K miles assuming the bottom end bearings were treated to nice oils.

Mike

In theory it wouldn't be all that much more work to pull the heads off, since you need to remove all the timing components anyways. That being said, if I were removing the heads I would just do this whole rebuild as an engine-out job. Doing a head job with the engine still in the X5 would be miserable, there's hardly any room on the sides of the engine.

I personally didn't see a reason to do a valve job— the engine never really went out of time so the pistons and valves never met. Thankfully the dealer that was selling it at the time stopped driving it completely once the guides went.

Yeah, I don't foresee anything going wrong for the next 100k miles, aside from the usual stuff (alternator/water pump/pulleys/ignition coils). I don't think there are any issues with the rod bearings, given that it's still a pretty low-revving engine that uses regular oil, versus a high-revving exotic oil-using engine like an S54. I'll send off an oil sample for analysis when I do my next oil change, just to see how everything is.

There would really be no reason to pull the head on the 4.6is engine. The only thing that goes that needs attention on these is timing chain, guides, tensioners and vanos. These engines are pretty much bullet proof once the attention is is given to the aforementioned items.

Great progress Danny, this thing will be back on the road shortly and better than ever. I'll ship you my 4.6 if it ever needs guides done LOL!

Thanks! The chain guide job really isn't hard to do, it's just really time consuming.

-------

Anyways, onto the conclusion of the guide story. After the engine was timed, I jacked up the X5 and proceeded to install the newly cleaned oil pan with a new gasket. Brake cleaner can work miracles, even on grubby old oil pans.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/351/31...baf07e2b_b.jpg

I installed the oil pan, torqued the bolts, torqued the drain plug, and reconnected the oil level sensor. While I was under the X5 I decided to take care of everything else under there, so I installed the power steering pump and the reinforcement plate. I reused the reinforcement plate bolts because they looked fine to me.

Once I was done with everything underneath, I moved on to installing the upper timing covers. I used a zip tie to keep the tensioner rail tensioned once the tensioner tool was removed. This isn't 100% necessary, but I like to do it just to make sure the chain never has too much slack which could potentially mess up the timing.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/736/32...aba23610_b.jpg

Initially I installed the upper timing covers quite loosely, since they need to be pressed into position to seat properly. I used a trick I learned from Beisan Systems, which was to use double the washers on four of the valve cover nuts, so that I could use the valve cover (without the gasket) to physically clamp down on the timing cover.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/275/31...93340bdf_b.jpg

Check out that rad powder coated finish on the valve cover. It's two-toned and quite textured, which helps to hide the flaws that the valve covers had after 213k miles. I got it done at a local powder coating shop, it was around $80 for the pair. They were baked to get the oil residue out, sandblasted to remove the old finish, powder coated, and then baked to cure the finish.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/507/32...524d05a6_b.jpg

After the upper timing covers were torqued down, I installed the Vanos solenoids along with their new gaskets. On the passenger side I also installed a new timing chain tensioner. I saved the old one to take a comparison picture to show the difference in tensioner designs over the years.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/597/32...8820e26f_b.jpg

The old one wasn't that worn, the old spring was just shorter. Later on, BMW redesigned the tensioner spring so that there would be more tension on the timing chain upon cold startups, thus minimizing the startup rattle.

With the upper timing covers fully installed, I replaced the valley pan gasket. The coolant in the valley pan looked pretty clean— there wasn't any real cross-contamination going on, which was a good sign. I cleaned up around it a little bit but I didn't go crazy since that part of the engine isn't visible at all in most situations. I was thrilled to see proper blue BMW coolant used everywhere.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/704/31...c2dd0074_b.jpg

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/279/32...bc23ee27_b.jpg

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/274/31...213aec2d_b.jpg

I was able to reuse the plastic cover after cleaning it a bit, which was nice because of how ridiculously expensive a new one is. The old valley pan gasket piece had a 2010 production date so it held up for 6-7 years, not too bad at all.

With the valley pan all sorted out, I installed the water pump and the water pipes, using new o-rings lubricated with silicone grease. The water pump was pretty recent and had a metal impeller so I elected to reuse it. I also installed the alternator, which was probably the easiest part of this whole job. After that I installed the crank pulley/harmonic balancer. You always want to install it after the water pump because it blocks access to one of the water pump bolts.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/303/31...737e25ec_b.jpg

Finally, it was time to install the beautifully refinished valve covers. Everything went on quite easily with no issues.

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/418/31...8c765b45_b.jpg

I stopped there because of the holidays. On January 2nd I was finally able to resume the work. I installed the intake manifold, and no joke, that was possibly the worst part of this entire job. I had to remove a rotten OSV hose that was super hard to access, and then I had to install a new OSV hose there. Even with the cabin air filter housing removed there was almost no room to maneuver. I also had to pretty much crouch on top of the engine with my knees on the valve covers, now that got painful pretty quickly. Here's the area I'm referring to:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/363/31...a791ef9d_b.jpg

I ended up bending the pipe a little bit so that I could access it better. Once the new hose was installed I bent it back into place. After that hellish experience, the rest of the intake manifold installation was a downright breeze. I used new intake manifold gaskets as well. Once the manifold was installed, I connected the dozen hoses going to it, as well as the fuel supply.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/300/31...27b799c0_b.jpg

After that, I installed the secondary air pipe and the electrical boxes, along with all the electrical connections to the various parts of the engine.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/314/32...6286a17e_b.jpg

At this point was like 3:30am so I just kinda blacked out for the rest of the steps. When I snapped out of my stupor I had installed pretty much everything else...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/335/32...494afb08_b.jpg

Ignition coils, new NGK Iridium spark plugs, cabin air filter housing, air intake, MAF boot, expansion tank, all the cooling hoses, the fan shroud, the fan clutch, the battery terminal, and all the vacuum lines. Nothing terribly exciting there. I then added a whole bunch of coolant and bled the system a bit. I also added in about 8.5 quarts of Mobil 1 0W40, which is my preferred oil for these M62tu engines. I had also hooked up the battery and the battery charger at some point, just to make sure the battery wasn't dead.

Then came the fateful first start. Even though this is my 7th M62tu rebuild, I was still just as nervous as ever when I turned that key. I let the fuel pump prime a few times and then I started the engine. It made quite a clatter initially and quickly settled into a rough idle. It almost died a few times and ran a bit rough while the DME was trying to figure out the whole fuel/air supply thing, but that's pretty normal if you remove the intake manifold and disconnect the fuel lines. After about 30 seconds the engine settled into a happy idle, with just a hint of lifter tick from sitting dry for a month.

After letting it run for a few minutes, I shut it down and went to double check my work under the hood. The expansion tank was nearly empty, so I added more coolant to compensate. The oil level was a tad low as well, so I topped it off. I noticed a sizable coolant leak which was quickly determined to be coming from an improperly installed upper radiator hose. That was a quick and easy fix, and is proof of why you shouldn't do this stuff at 5am after almost 24 hours of no sleep.

Once the fluids were topped off, I double checked the tire pressures and rolled the X5 out of the garage to go for a test drive. Since the gas tank was nearly empty, the test drive was to the closest gas station. It made it there without any issues. I put $60 of premium Chevron gas into the X5— the pump showed 22.7 gallons, so the gas tank was really close to empty. While I was gassing up, I took some pictures of the newly resurrected X5.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/404/31...b6eff929_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/560/31...6310b5b1_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/635/31...a64468a3_b.jpg

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/534/31...851f2580_b.jpg

This is why I do what I do. No words can describe the immense satisfaction and pride I feel when I start up a freshly rebuilt engine successfully. There's just nothing like it. There were no check engine lights, no error lights of any kind, and the coolant temperatures were stable.

I actually took videos of the entire first startup and first test drive, so once I get those edited together I'll link them here.

I drove the X5 to work yesterday with no problems whatsoever. Drove it to work today as well, so far so good. I've put almost 100 miles on it in like a day, that's how excited I am about it.

Nice finish to the first chapter of this resurrection project. Congrats

Hi Danny,

+1000 on the personal satisfaction one gets after a project like this and the continuing enjoyment of driving a machine in which one has so much blood, sweat and tears invested.

Likewise, the tenuous "Moment of Truth" when you turn the key after such a monster project and are nervous as heck! BTDT with some engine rebuilds years ago.

A phenomenally well documented accomplishment :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Congrats!

Mike

Nicely done.

Thanks guys! I just passed through emissions and got a check engine light literally 10 minutes after I passed the test. It's hilarious because the exact same thing happened with the 2000 M5 I had. I checked the cause of the light and it was a P3157 which is a cylinder 8 misfire. That's the only code and I got a misfire on that same cylinder this morning, so I suspect that it's an ignition coil. About half of the ignition coils on this X5 are the cheap eBay kind, including the one on cylinder 8, so I'm going to swap in a known good OEM coil and see if that fixes the problem. My spark plugs are all brand new and torqued down to spec. The misfire is very occasional for now.

Last night I did a little bit of digging around and found a Dice Mediabridge with iPod connection and Sirius installed behind the kick panel on the driver's side of the center console. It had the old 30-pin iPod connector so after a quick run to the local Apple store I got a 30-pin to Lightning adapter which allowed me to use it with my iPhone. It's a bit of a quirky setup but having an aux-in that isn't a tape adapter is perfectly fine with me haha. I do think the front tweeters are blown though, no matter what I play through them (from any source) there's crackling and distortion in the high end, even at low volumes.

I also tidied up in the trunk because it was a nightmare before. This is how the trunk looked when I went to disconnect the battery before diving into the chain guide project:

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/395/32...5eee78bf_b.jpg

No wonder there was stuff banging around when I drove the X5 yesterday... After locating the proper nuts/bolts which were scattered around the spare tire well, I installed everything properly. It looks much tidier and the compressor is no longer flopping around.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/312/31...cfe2b075_b.jpg

I love quick little fixes like that, they're just so satisfying!

Today I ordered a new air filter, new cabin air filter, window shade hooks (some of mine are broken), and an aluminum water pump pulley. The current engine air filter is one of those lame K&N oiled air filters (not a fan) and I have no idea when the cabin air filter was replaced, so it's worth replacing both. The window shade hooks were extremely reasonable in price— they were a bit under $4 for a 4-pack of Genuine BMW hooks. I was honestly expecting them to be like $30. The water pump pulley is mostly intact for now, but when I was reassembling everything I saw that it was starting to chip away a bit so I figured I'd replace it with a sturdier aluminum one.

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/444/31...da7f0a47_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/332/31...8e4a6edd_b.jpg

I'm not a big fan of those kidney grilles with the painted silver slats, they look like they're trying to imitate the facelift style. Eventually I'll get some all-black grilles from ECS Tuning. I also find it hilarious how my co-worker's new Challenger on the right has angel eyes but my BMW X5 doesn't... for now, at least.

Well done! Extremely well documented.

Amazing.

I really would love to do this myself, but having done no real engine work myself, I'm not sure if I could do it.

Wish there was a way to like this thread. Because I'd like it a thousand times.

Kudos to you for the extensively detailed rebuild. I'm always in a rush doing such work so I never take pics.

I'll let you in on a little secret... the very first thing I've ever done with a car was rebuilding the timing chain guides (on a 200k mile 2001 540i). I had never really done anything past changing the oil at that point, but I bought some tools, watched some videos, read some threads, and dived right in. These engines aren't rocket science, and everything that could go wrong has been extensively documented, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

Thanks! I just remember the super detailed threads I read about this stuff when I was a noob, and they gave me the confidence and technical know-how to tackle a chain guide rebuild with pretty much zero prior mechanical experience. I'm a web developer by day, so working on cars was completely foreign to me when I started out. Now that I know a little more about cars, I'm happy to contribute to the community :)

I've always taken plenty of pictures when doing these kinds of jobs, not only to share it with the community but for my own reference. For example, when I was finishing up the reassembly on the X5 I had forgotten how the vacuum lines went, so I just pulled up my photos and found a picture of how they were.

It did get a little tricky to constantly pull out the DSLR, but that's why I use gloves when working on cars, so I can use my phone/DSLR for pictures without destroying them with dirt and grime.

Well done Danny - will definitely be a thread I'll be referring to when I get round to doing mine.

Thanks!

Last night I swapped the cylinder 8 ignition coil with a good used Bremi coil. Apparently the malfunctioning coil wasn't an eBay one, it was a newer Genuine BMW one, but a "Pulse" brand that was made in China. This one had a production date of 2013 and it was already acting up, how sad. Meanwhile the replacement Bremi coil I had laying around is from 2001 and is still working perfectly. I haven't had any misfires after that, so hopefully that means the problem is solved.

Also, I started thinking about how to make the exhaust a little louder. I know in the E38/E39 community the easiest and most common method is to just chop off the last muffler while keeping the resonator intact, that way you get the extra noise but without any drone. Would that work for the X5 4.6?

Beast lives! Once I get the space and tools to do something like this, I'd love to give it a go.

Chop the middle resonator out. I hate muffler deleted cars, IMO they sound like balls.

Web developer eh? Small world but I saw your comments spring up on Jalopnik about that 'can we just be nice' go-karting blog :rofl::rofl:

Yeah, I see a lot of people chopping their X5 resonators out and replacing them with X-pipes. This is weird to me because in the E38/E39 world, chopping out the resonator means awful drone and loss of torque. Everybody in the E38/E39 world just does a muffler delete, so I thought about doing that on the X5 since the exhaust system isn't too different. I want a low grumble that's loud enough to bother people, but not so loud that I can't comfortably daily drive with it. I'm not really looking for subtle, I'm 24 and I want to be a little obnoxious while I can still get away with it ;)

And yeah I'm a web developer as my day job. I'm all over the comments section at Jalopnik, that's like my second home. Pros and cons of using my real name as my username everywhere I guess, haha.

The middle resonator is just a big muffler. Many have changed this component out with a magna flow x pipe thus giving the X5 a tone adjustment without drone. The middle resonator has a lot of sound packing in it and does cross the two streams of exhaust flow. So putting an x-pipe in place eliminates the packing thus increasing the tone of the OE muffler system without the drone. I would try this first before hacking any other section of the exhaust system. I would not cut off the rear mufflers. If you can find a Dinan exhaust now that is something deep sound and nice bark at wide open throttle but civil during daily around town driving.

I've recently done the X pipe mod on mine to compliment the 2 stainless aftermarket rear silencers and even now it doesn't drone. It's almost as quiet on idle as it was standard but when you open the taps people definitely know about it.

What I did notice when I fitted the X-Pipe was that I lost a little of the 'muscle' car unbalanced type sound and it became a little bit more raspy. I'm half tempted to do a H pipe mod on it next to try and regain that sound back.....and might even decat too just to be completely obnoxious....sorry neighbours! The V8 sound is just too good to ignore! Don't get me wrong it does sound awesome now but I just prefer the unbalanced burble.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...psvydroqkh.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...psdrxtxj6s.jpg

Cold start video......check out my annoying hazard light issue!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ps5yvaf3qc.mp4

Interesting... Now what if I were to just put in two straight pipes without any crossover?

The X-pipes do sound pretty good though, especially with a 4.6. I remember my M5's exhaust system, it was a full Dinan and it had such a muscular sound... it would actually burble when I let off the throttle and that was just amazing. The tone of the M5 mufflers was just incredible, you could feel the exhaust from inside a building if the M5 was parked outside, it made people so uncomfortable haha

Which Magnaflow X-pipe model are people using for the X5?

I would opt for the magna flow x-pipe insert since the old 4.6is middle resonator has this incorporated in it. Helps to smooth out the pulse flow. I think two straight pipes may induce the drone and falling off in performance just a little. Like I said if you can find a set of the Dinans then leave the middle resonator on and just add the Dinan cans to the rear. I was fortunate enough last year to find a set at a boneyard that looked to be brown and rusty on the cans but since Dinan uses a thick stainless steel construction all that was needed was an afternoon of exhaust polishing and they were as good as new. It was a tiring process but for $250 at the boneyard it was a treasure to obtain knowing what they went for when offered new and of course how glorious they sound on the X5.

I don't know of an engine with stock exhaust that performance can't be improved by eliminating some amount of back pressure. But, it isn't as simple as just chopping a muffler or resonator off. Depending on how much and where back pressure is reduced it will improve or reduce HP and/or TQ. Torque gets you going and horsepower keeps you going. How best the engine will respond is where to focus. In the case of the 4.6, I recommend the focus should be on torque until you can do a 4 wheel burnout or you start breaking driveline stuff. That will take a lot more than any exhaust change.

Don't expect a worthwhile performance improvement from an investment in a H or X pipe. The investment should be to change sound only. However, if there will be better performance it will be greater with an X pipe as it improves extraction the most. An X pipe will make the exhaust tone higher and a little raspier.

I agree that if you can find Dinan exhaust that is the best way to go. IMO it sounds great and they have stated gains that you can expect. If you want more performance improvement from any changes or still be noiser, I recommend adding electric cutouts that you can control how much they open. They should be located post cat and as close to the same distance from the exhaust manifold as possible. Since they are under the vehicle there will be drone. I have Dinan exhaust with cutouts. Fun thing is I can have cutouts wide open and when I see a lawman I can easily close them before I get into trouble. I either have them wide open or closed as unless I want the maximum performance I am entirely happy with how the Dinan exhaust sounds. An airbox contributes to a better sound but mostly at full throttle.

Just an FYI there is also a resonated Magnaflow Xpipe so you still get the gains of tone difference but not as drastic as the regular "straight X"

They are on the Magnaflow site, I am debating doing one on my X5 5MT because I'd like a touch more sound with my 4.8iS axle back but I heard one with my exhaust and regular Xpipe and it droned on the highway

You would fully retain the muscle car type unbalanced burble due to no crossover flow helping balancing them out....you would potentially also lose a little bit of performance too since the crossover pipes helps with that.

This is a good video to show the difference between X & H pipe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnI53sWqbcs

I used this Magnaflow one...

MagnaFlow 2.25 inch Smooth Trans X Pipe 10790 - X Pipe - X & Y Pipes - COMPONENTS

Bear in mind you will need to reduce it down slightly at the catalytic end of the system - I cut 4 slits in the x pipe inlets then bent them slightly and then welded them up. Not the prettiest but it does the job.

Hm, so the X-pipe will make the exhaust higher pitched? That's not really what I'm looking for. I want the X5 to have a deeper, louder kind of muscle car rumble, not a high-pitched raspy one. Basically I want it to sound more like a big truck, not a sports car.

I'd go H-Pipe then mate

I kinda like the X-pipe sound too though, upon listening to some more clips. And of course a muffler delete sounds awesome as well: https://youtu.be/AfKlk_L0ceA



Though I feel like a muffler delete might make it sound too much like a redneck Chevy truck which might be just a bit too much, even for my tastes.

Oh Boy I did not realize that Magnoflow had one of these. I'm with you RB I would get the resonated Magnaflow X-pipe. Sounds like the best of both worlds.

Trust me on this start with the Magnaflow X-pipe/Magnaflow Resonated X-pipe and take it from there. Sound clips do it no justice. I tell you this because I listened to every Dinan X5 exhaust clip and E39 M5 Dinan Exhaust clips and none of them sounded anything like what I actually have installed on the vehicles. If you are not happy with the X-pipe modification then you can go from there. I'm telling you baby steps on this mode is the best way to achieve your goal unless you have already heard the modification on someone else's X5.

Yeah, a Magnaflow X-pipe might be the best place to start, since it seems to have worked out quite well for a lot of X5 owners.

You're completely right about videos not doing the exhaust sounds justice. My Dinan M5 exhaust sounded pretty mediocre on camera because the camera couldn't quite capture the chest-invading rumble the mufflers made. It was odd, really. You could feel the exhaust vibrate through you if you were standing near the mufflers.

Wish DINAN made an exhaust with the oval tips. I personally like them more over the quad tips. Eisenmann makes a set of oval exhaust mufflers but they are $$$$$

If I didn't have the Dinans I would have installed the Eisenmanns. I had a set that I sold last month for $860. Nice exhaust.

Can't you technically cut the tips off of the stock mufflers and stick them onto an aftermarket muffler? Or would that ruin the flow somehow? I do love the way the stock tips look, that's easily one of my favorite parts about the 4.6.

Danny, damn. That's a ton of reading to catch up on everything.
Nice ride, I see it was in Seattle, interesting. Sweet looking rig, ours is the twin.

You've been busy and done some really thoughtful stuff.

Anyone want to not keep their oval tips? It's the one trim piece I want to replace my quad tips with to tie in the 4.6is engine I'm running in my wagon.

I'd love to have them. I always see them but sold as a part of the entire exhaust assembly. I only want the oval tips.

Filled up the 4.6 for the second time since I got it running. I got about 300 miles out of a tank, 13.2mpg calculated at the pump. Sounds about right since half of my commutes are in stop and go traffic, while the nicer commutes have me going at 80-85mph. I was doing 85mph all day today— it's rock solid at that speed, much better than the 04 Range Rover I had. I also attribute the somewhat poor gas mileage to me having a lead foot and "exploring" the X5's capabilities, aka redlining it at every opportunity.

Of course you just have to have a good shop that can handle that level of detail on the weld.

If the total area of the Dinan muffler exit pipes is not reduced by attaching the ovals there should be no loss in performance.

Yesterday afternoon I had some free time and the weather was really pleasant (72º and sunny) so I decided to give the X5 a thorough wash. First I cleaned the wheels and then I used dish soap to strip off any dirt or oil from the paint. After that, I used a Meguiar's clay bar all around the whole car, and it picked up quite a bit of dirt:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/591/32...7ee530b1_b.jpg

After the clay barring was done, I gave the car another wash and then dried it off carefully using damp microfiber towels. It's crucial to dry off the car completely when you're in Arizona, because the tap water here is extremely hard and will leave nasty white water spots otherwise. Once the X5 was dried, it looked like this:

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/424/32...551a101d_b.jpg

At this point it started getting dark, so I brought out the halogen work lamps and started applying Ammo Skin to the whole X5. Ammo Skin is an awesome synthetic sealant that lasts far longer than wax— I used it on my Range Rover and I was very pleased with it. After I applied it to the entire car I waited a few minutes and then buffed it all off with a clean microfiber towel.

As the finishing touch, I applied Zaino Tire Gloss to the tires, to give them that extra pop. I like Zaino Tire Gloss because unlike other tire shines on the market, it's not oily or greasy, nor does it sling off onto the car. Once the tire shine was applied, I gave the rims a coating of spray wax, just to make cleaning off brake dust easier in the future.

Since it was too dark in my neighborhood to take pictures, I took the X5 to a nearby parking lot that was reasonably well-lit. This also gave me a chance to try my new camera tripod. I love having a tripod for nighttime shots— I can do long exposure shots without any blurring.

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/707/31...6897c53c_b.jpg

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/546/31...7b2c9e21_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/543/32...2d952520_b.jpg

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/295/31...cc7328d1_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/458/32...f1fd92e5_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/460/31...9e1f29d4_b.jpg

I'm going to try and get some nice daytime shots today, it's even shinier in the daytime.

After the photo session, I went back home and plugged in my laptop to do a bit of personalization. I fired up PA Soft 1.40 and hooked it up to the X5. Interestingly enough, the software says that this X5 is an Alpina, which is kinda funny. I do recall that BMW and Alpina did develop this 4.6 engine together, so maybe that had something to do with it.

https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/642/31...0581828b_b.jpg

I checked for errors and I didn't see any major new ones, most were just old minor errors from the battery running low (the battery was dead when this X5 was delivered to me). I then proceeded to disable the daytime running lights, which was nice and easy with the LCM module:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/350/32...294fdc67_b.jpg

I also disabled convenience opening, because I'm not a fan of the windows rolling down if I hold the unlock button for a second too long. With how temperamental the window regulators are, the less I use them, the better.

Phenomenal looking - I also love Larry's products and like to support him as he has helped us all in detailing so much with his free videos - Hydrate is UNREAL to use after the wash -

When the Zaino runs out grab some Ammo Mud!

Second Ammo NYC products, LOVE Hydrate.

Yeah, Larry's videos are pretty much how I learned to detail. He actually provides useful info in his videos instead of just regurgitating bad ideas and pushing a million products *cough*ChemicalGuys*cough*

His products really are different from the competition, because he had a big hand in creating them. I recently watched an interview where he mentioned that he used to work at a chemical company making automotive products, so he has a very good understanding of the actual science behind it all.

Hydrate is a godsend, especially with the hard water here in Arizona.

I'm ordering the rest of the Ammo regimens this week— the wheel regimen and the interior regimen. I used to be big on Zaino but their products didn't blow me away, so I tried Ammo and I was hooked.


Hydrate is life.

You know what got me the most respect from Larry (besides his amazing podcasts with Kevin Brown and other industry heavyweights) - he PULLED his jewelers polish and leveling fluid (compound) from his product line because he flat admitted that he did not get the results that he got from using Meguiars M105 and M205 - knowing full well he could have made money from people buying into his brand, and he probably ate a lot of cost on old stock that was unsold.

That earned 100% more respect from me to make that decision

Yeah, the fact that he actually cares about his products puts him a step above the rest of the detailing brands. And he's freely admitted in videos that you should probably just use car soap as a lubricant for clay barring instead of wasting expensive spray wax on it. He's just a super honest guy that happens to make a line of awesome products, and that's why I support him. I emailed him with a random question about a product and I got a response from him personally, not some random customer support rep. So even though Larry's products are a little pricier than the rest, I'm more than happy to spend that money.

Night and day difference Danny...Resurrecting it from the dead.

Do you think PASoft would work on a tablet (Android based)? Reminds me to disable my DRLs as well.

PA Soft requires some form of Windows, like Windows XP or Windows 7. Now if you could root your Android tablet and run some kind of virtualization software to run a copy of Windows then you might have a shot at it. Though you'd still have to figure out the hardware driver issues. Oh and you need a special ODBII cable for PA Soft, a regular USB to ODBII won't work correctly.

There are plenty of eBay sellers that sell the cables bundled with the software. That's how I got my setup. It took a little extra work to get the cable to work with the 64-bit Windows 7 laptop that I have, but it was worth it in the end.

I can't wait to do more stuff to the 4.6, like giving the paint a full compound + polish to get rid of all the swirls and get the paint looking glassy. But before that, I want to get some PDR done, there are a few little dents on the body that bother me. And sometime before the summer, I'll want to get all the tint redone— the current tint is plenty dark but it's starting to bubble and has some tears, with the front windows having a purple hue.

I managed to get PASoft 1.4 working on my Windows 10 x64 laptop at the weekend too.:thumbup:

Any magic required? Waiting on my order to be delivered.

I'll be honest it wasn't too tricky. It's just a case of making sure you use the correct drivers.

I used this as a guide....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIYhMiRMf4s

I used this guide to get the proper drivers for the cable: PA SOFT 1.4 Windows 7 64bit BMW Scanner How to install DIY HELP - E46Fanatics

A few days ago I took some pictures around sunset in my work's parking lot (more like a nearby church parking lot since my work parking lot is tiny). It was a bit of a cloudy day but the pictures turned out nice. And of course it rained that night :/

https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/275/32...ceb606a3_b.jpg

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/744/31...50cde13f_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/508/31...4a5539b1_b.jpg

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/292/31...f3bd5488_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/708/31...a1c404b3_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/337/31...bc6bf84d_b.jpg

Raindrops on a freshly sealed/waxed hood:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/374/31...13fa6974_b.jpg

I'm very pleased with the Sapphire Black Metallic color— its metallic nature hides dust and rock chips quite well. The last black car I had was a 2003 Mercedes S500, and it always looked dirty since it had non-metallic black paint.

Looking spectacular Danny! :thumbup:

I've always been impressed with how well the German finishes hold up over time. It seems like they are indestructible :dunno: :dunno:

When I had my Porsche 951 painted, the experienced German body man would only use the Sickkens base and clear coat paint system. It came out phenomenal.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ey...=w1182-h886-no
I think the metallic beige/gold color is a repeating theme ;)

Years later when my E46 got pounded in a Wisconsin hail storm (and I thought I was relatively safe up there from hail :pullhair:) I prevailed upon the insurance company for a real paint repair not PDR and asked the body shop what the factory paint system was because that's what I wanted used on the car. He said it was Sikkens and he had some experience with it and I was glad to hear that brand again because I knew how well it came out in my 951. Here it is on my E46 after painting:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2A...=w1182-h886-no

Well, to make a long story short, I highly recommend the Sikkens brand paint system because it is a German factory finish that has done well for me.

:thumbup:

Mike

dannyzabolotny, looks great!

I wonder if the paint used on the X5 was German or American... it was assembled in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Though I imagine BMW used high quality paint, given the high MSRP of these cars when they were new.

I will say that the E53 X5 has much better paint quality than the E38, E39, and E46, especially after 15+ years. I rarely ever see old X5's with bad paint, whereas every other E38/E39/E46 has peeling paint and failing clear coat, especially in the darker shades.

Thanks! I can't wait to do a full-on paint correction to see how shiny I can get this paint, there are quite a few swirls.

------

One other thing I forgot to mention was that I replaced the window shade hooks, the cabin air filter, and the engine air filter a few nights ago. The only filter I haven't touched yet is the fuel filter, so I'll have to do that at some point soon.

Weird how my Jet Blk M5 doesn't seem dirty at all :nanana:

Well is the water in Georgia super hard and full of calcium/minerals like it is in Arizona? If I wash my X5 and don't judiciously dry it with towels right afterwards then it's immediately covered in awful white water spots. The rain leaves white water spots as well. It's always a little weird when your car actually looks dirtier after a hard rain...

I believe Sikkens was the factory brand across the line at that time, might still be. I remember looking into it when I had my mustang painted Laguna Seca Blue.

I've noticed that the right front vents blow hot air no matter what, so it looks like the heater valve is on its way out. I looked at getting a rebuild kit like I did for my 750il's heater valve, but it turns out that a brand new Genuine BMW heater valve is only $200 for the X5, since the X5 uses a simpler valve design. So I ordered that + a new Bremi ignition coil to replace the old 2001 ignition coil I borrowed from another car.

I also ordered matte black kidney grilles from ECS Tuning. They were a little pricey at $70, but I've heard from many people that they have the best fitment so it should be worth it. My current kidney grilles are some weird wannabe facelift E53 grilles with silver slats. They look pretty bad and the fitment is pretty poor.

Oh and I ordered the Ammo NYC wheel regimen as well as the Ammo NYC interior regimen. I'm excited to give the interior a real deep cleaning this weekend.

This heater valve , recently purchased by me is working well

New Heater Control Valve Solenoid fits BMW E60 E63 E65 E66 | eBay

:dunno: :dunno:

Mike

I saw a few cheaper ones too but I figured I'd get a proper Genuine BMW one since it's only $200. Especially here in Arizona where it's critical for the AC to work properly in the summer. And since I got it from FCP Euro, it's warrantied for life.

Good call Danny :thumbup:

I run a little tighter budget ship :D on selected parts.

Mike

Good choice on the water heater valve

This weekend I rolled over 214,000 miles in the 4.6. That means I've put on about 1000 miles in the first three weeks of driving the X5, and I haven't really done anything other than normal commuting. So far, so good.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/603/32...70dcb61c_b.jpg

My new heater control valve arrived the other day, along with a new Bremi ignition coil to replace the troublesome #8 coil (currently borrowing a good coil from my other car). I'll likely wait until the weekend to install the heater valve, since it involves messing with the cooling system and I don't want to do that after my work commute with the coolant super hot.

Over the weekend I also vacuumed the interior and cleaned the seats thoroughly. Visually it doesn't look any different, but the leather feels a lot nicer and smells great. I used Ammo Lather and Ammo Mousse, both worked really nicely. The back seats really needed the conditioning, they were quite dry from never being used.

It's finally not raining anymore so I'll finally be able to wash the X5 over the weekend. The rain here in Phoenix makes vehicles look super dirty because of how hard the water is. I snapped these pictures during my lunch break and it's crazy how dirty the X5 looks after being rained on.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/742/32...7b7c1a5a_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/636/32...d1629acb_b.jpg

My ECS Tuning matte black kidney grilles should arrive later this week as well, so that'll be a nice little cosmetic upgrade for the front. I also plan to restore the headlights this weekend, so the X5 will look a little nicer afterwards.

Sad news, the X5 broke last night :( I was driving it home from work and everything was fine but as soon as I turned into my neighborhood I heard a loud grinding and the X5 stopped moving. Now whenever I put it into D or R it makes a horrible metallic grinding noise. I'm thinking it's either a bad torque converter or a bad transfer case. When I pushed the X5 down the street to park it I heard quite a bit of grinding noise, even with the transmission in neutral. There are no codes or check engine lights, and the transmission shifted perfectly fine right up until this happened.

I made a video about it for my YouTube channel, which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHm9oi-jAng



The grinding noise can be heard at 0:42. It's quite loud.

Thankfully this happened only a few blocks away from my house, so I didn't need to call a tow truck. I parked the X5 on the street last night and this morning I went to Harbor Freight to buy a tow strap. I dug my 540i touring out of the garage for the first time in like a month and that's what I used to tow the X5 (you can see that in the video around 4:30). The 540i did just fine with the towing, while my girlfriend steered the X5 and applied the brakes. The X5's engine still runs perfectly fine so she had power brakes and steering.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/683/32...e8ea7285_b.jpg

I'm going to jack up the X5 on four jack stands tomorrow and run the engine with the transmission in gear to see what's causing that awful grinding noise.

Depending on what's broken, this might be the end of the line for this X5... If the transmission itself is bad then fixing it would cost more than the X5 is worth, unless I just sourced another used 5HP24 with a questionable history. Plus isn't the 4.6's transmission a little different from a standard 5HP24?

Worst comes to worst I can make all my money back from parting out this X5, and I can pop the freshly rebuilt 4.6 engine into my touring since it's a plug and play swap (aside from swapping the oil pan/oil pump/oil separator).

That does sound like torque converter. I think it's well covered issue when you do search. I believe there is a company who rebuilds them. I've seen them advertise in Bimmer magazine. I'm sure google search will yield plenty.

If the torque convertor took a dump then you are going to have to replace the transmission also. The debris that gets sucked up through the tranny causes other catastrophic events. If its the transfer case then no biggie just rebuild it and move on. PM me if you want a used one with 78K in good shape.

That's awful news Danny :wow:!

Hopefully it's an issue in the transfer case or transfer case driveshaft splines and NOT the trans/converter.

Mike

dannyzabolotny,


To fix that grinding noise.......You need to replace the shifter with this.






https://3a663eb0fef48c6d2d60-a88f8eb...35540_x800.jpg



















and whatever connects to it under the chassis!:D


Joking aside, hopefully it's something simple.

What a ghastly sound. Hoping it comes together easily.

Hm, I wasn't aware of the possibility of the torque converter damaging the transmission, that's not exactly comforting, haha.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow when I jack up the X5 and look for the source of the grinding sound.

In either case I'm not going to be able to address the problem until I move to my next house in a week or two, since that's got me pretty tied up in terms of finances and free time. I also don't want to have a disassembled X5 to move, I'm already going to have to tow it to the next place.

Yes if the torque converter breaks up then the debris flows through the trans and affects other internal seals. Now if the converter is in tact and just shows a lockup code or other converter code then you can just change the torque converter because it hasn't broken up. Put your scanner on the X5 and see what codes you get from the tranny ( if any).

I would be amazed if it was the torque converter and it didn't show any codes. Keep us posted

True that why I suggested hooking up the scanner and seeing what codes are present. Its a good measure before tearing into anything. If there are no codes then it may just be the transfer case.

Not sure which transfer case you have, but I have an ATC500 in my garage off my old '05 4.8 that you can have if you pay the shipping.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the offer but I have the older style transfer case that's all mechanical with a set 40/60 front/rear ratio.

-----------

Good news! I jacked up the X5 earlier today to check for what was causing the grinding, and I immediately saw that the front driveshaft was loose. Looks like it slipped out a bit and started grinding against the transfer case instead of being turned. It threw some grease around as well:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3555f17837.jpg

I turned it by hand and I immediately found that it was causing the grinding when I was towing it. The super loud metal on metal grinding while in gear was probably the transfer case grinding against the disconnected driveshaft.

https://vimeo.com/201579934

I then set out to remove the front driveshaft to investigate further. All I had to do was remove the lower reinforcement plate (six 16mm bolts) and that gave me access to the front differential where the driveshaft was attached via a flex disc (guibo). I undid the bolts on that and then I was able to remove the driveshaft. The flex disc looked quite new and the splines on the driveshaft were greased with purple grease so it looks like somebody's serviced it recently, probably when the transmission got rebuilt by the previous owner. Check out how worn the driveshaft splines are:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d322fe1a10.jpg

So it looks like I'll need a new front driveshaft. The splines in the transfer case didn't look bad at all so I think the transfer case is fine. Should I get one of the "improved" front driveshafts that are a half inch longer? I feel like that would help prevent something like this in the future. Any recommended sources for a front driveshaft?

After removing the driveshaft, I thought I could drive the X5 as RWD, and I immediately got happy thoughts of doing smokey burnouts. Once I lowered the X5 back to the ground I found that this would not work. The good news is that there's no more grinding while in gear, the bad news is that the X5 still doesn't move while in gear, even while on the throttle. I assume the transfer case requires a front driveshaft connection (aka resistance) to work correctly?

Just to check if the transfer case was okay otherwise, I jacked up the rear of the X5 and rotated the driveshaft. No grinding and everything rotated just fine, so everything's good with the rear portion of the drivetrain.

The 4.6 transmission is the the stock 5hp24. The torque convertor is different in the 4.6.

Hello Danny,
I sent you my valve covers.
Please check your mailbox.
Also can I get a contact number?

Greg

So I've been doing a bit of research and I think I'll be going with Cobra Transmission to source the parts for this job. They have brand new driveshafts with the 1" extended spline for $310. The only catch is that the extended driveshaft requires removing the transfer case to install it. Since I'll be removing the transfer case I figured I'd do a rebuild on it as well, being that it has 214k miles on it. A new chain is $82, new bearings are $20, new seals are $55, and a new front output shaft is around $400. So for under $1000 I'll have the driveshaft and transfer case all sorted, not bad. It honestly sounds like a pretty fun job.

That's an awesome approach Danny and one that will surely give you truly long-term reliability of that part of the drive train. :thumbup:

That's kinda how I like to roll with my vehicles that I plan on keeping long term. If you gotta touch something and it's got a lot of miles and/or time in use on it, then give it a makeover and cry only once about the overhaul/repair/replacement efforts.

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Mike

Yep, I figure it's better to replace everything properly now and not wait until it breaks down while towing a car in the middle of the desert. I do intend to do some pretty heavy long-distance towing with this X5 in the future so I'm glad to be working out all these kinks right now while I'm still rolling around in town.

The two reasons I bought an X5 were 1) to tow home a wrecked E39 M5 parts car when I find one and 2) to have something to drive while I work on my 540i touring.

Great planning for an >200K miles vehicle Danny!

When you get around to it I'm sure you'll be giving that tranny some attention.

Mike

So...some 7,000 miles after I contributed to this thread and was a little concerned about my guides failing at the mileage I was on and this exact whirring symptom occured.....120 miles later and my engine is rattling badly due to chain guide failure. :rolleyes:

Do it sooner rather than later people - I think to be safe any engine over 100k it should be done without delay.

Yep did't even hesitate on ripping the X5 down once I heard the whirring sound. She gives you plenty of warning. Some people just choose to ignore the signs.

Oh believe me....the signs weren't ignored. I knew exactly what it was. Unfortunately however I didn't have another vehicle to use at such short notice otherwise trust me....I would have been using it without hesitation.

So it's been about 3 months since the X5 broke down, and I'm finally getting around to fixing it. Life got in the way for a while— I moved to a different house in a different part of town (no more HOA!), worked on chain guides for a 740i, did a heck of a lot of work on my 540i touring, worked on a Mustang GT with a friend, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I had the X5 towed to my new house, and it just kinda sat in the backyard for a while. I ended up using my 540i touring to push it further into the backyard so that I could access the garage and use the backyard for parking other cars.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2893/3...b968ab2d_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2891/3...96395d8c_b.jpg

It's desperately in need of a wash, though it's got a coat of sealant on the paint so the paint should be okay despite sitting in the sun for months. It also hasn't been super hot until recently so that's a good thing. Amazingly, the battery only died recently— I was able to lock/unlock it last month when I needed to get something from it. The last time I started it was in March, but it started just fine.

In any case, I found a person parting out an X5 4.6 with much lower miles than mine, and he sold me the transfer case so now I don't have to reuse my questionable 214k mile transfer case. I also bought a new transfer case chain and an extended driveshaft from Cobra Transmission, so everything should come together nicely once all of that stuff arrives early next week.

Does that guy still have side mirrors?



Garage:
E53 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04 (SOLD)
E53 4.8iS N62s born 2006-03-16
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

It's one of the guys on here, jcorreanyc. Shoot him a message about it.

Never mind. I missed those already. Thanks though.



Garage:
E53 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04 (SOLD)
E53 4.8iS N62s born 2006-03-16
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

The X5 lives again! Huge thanks to jcorreanyc for selling me a 4.6is transfer case (apparently the 4.6 has a special LWX-500 transfer case) and shipping it all the way out from NYC. That was one heavy sucker!

The full writeup is coming later today once I can get everything off my DSLR, but let's just say it was quite the job! The transfer case is quite heavy when you have a foot and a half of clearance under the vehicle and the exhaust is quite fun to maneuver into place.

I replaced the transfer case, replaced the chain inside the transfer case, and replaced the front driveshaft with a brand new 1" extended one from Cobra Transmission. Fresh Dextron (5?) fluid inside the transfer case.

It's still quite filthy from sitting outside for the better part of 4 months, but it drives great. No check engine lights, no warning lights, and the drivetrain is super smooth. I took it on a shakedown at like 2:30am last night and everything went quite well. The engine fired right up and initially had a lifter tick from sitting for so long, but after a drive it sounded pretty good.

I drove it to work today and it was awesome. I forget how quick 4.6's feel, even though they're not all that quick on paper.

I documented the first part of this repair job in this video on my YouTube channel (shameless self-promotion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBy1HcVHOrM

Congrats on the repair and the smooth running X after all these months

Congratulations on you truck

Alright, so here's the full story of my 4.6 resurrection.

I started by pulling the X5 back into my carport so I would be able to jack it up on solid ground (jacking up a vehicle on gravel is sketchy).

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4247/3...c1b83563_b.jpg

I then dropped the middle section of the exhaust, which was quite easy compared to dropping the whole exhaust on my 540it.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4272/3...058f85b9_b.jpg

After that, I removed the heat shields and the transmission cross member while supporting the transmission with a jack. Then I undid the guibo bolts and the CSB to get the rear driveshaft out of the way. I didn't have to remove the driveshaft completely, I used another jack to keep it lifted so I didn't put any strain on the rear CV joint. With all of those things out of the way, I was able to lower the transmission a little bit to gain access to all the bolts holding on the transfer case. They're E14 external torx bolts usually, but whoever worked on this X5 previously had gotten crafty and used a 17mm bolt in one place. Once the bolts were loosened, I wiggled the transfer case a little and it came right off:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4251/3...c506c806_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4287/3...8f8f6b20_b.jpg

With the transfer case removed, I brought it to my workbench in the garage and cracked it open. Same E14 bolts all around. It's a pretty tight fit so even after removing the bolts the transfer case stays together. My solution was using a rubber mallet to tap it loose, that seems to have worked well for me. Here's what my 214k mile transfer case looked like on the inside:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4237/3...15715580_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4214/3...6219f9b8_b.jpg

The only indication of its mileage was in how loose the chain was, otherwise all of the gears looked really good. One thing to note is that unlike the regular 4.4 X5 that uses the NV-125 transfer case, the 4.6 uses an LWX-500 transfer case. It's pretty similar but has a few key differences, like in the way the internals are put together. The LWX-500 has all the gears just pressed into place so you can take it all apart by pulling on the components, whereas the NV-125 has snap rings holding the pieces together. Also, the NV-125 has a chain retainer spring piece whereas the LWX-500 does not. The transfer case chain itself is the same though— it's a Borg-Warner chain with one blue link.

While my 214k mile transfer case looked good internally, the front driveshaft output spline was totally stripped by the bad front driveshaft and that piece alone costs about $450 from Cobra Transmission, so I elected to get a good condition used transfer case. I found a forum member that was parting out a 4.6is with 141k miles and bought a transfer case from him. I opened it up, replaced the chain, and re-sealed it with black RTV, allowing the RTV to cure for about an hour before torquing the bolts down. Visually it looked identical to my 214k mile transfer case, proving that these units really were built to last.

With the transfer case ready to go, I took it back to the X5 and installed it, along with a 1" extended driveshaft that I bought from Cobra Transmission. It was quite tricky to line up and install the transfer case since I had to line it up to both the transmission output shaft and the front driveshaft at the same time. That's the only way to install a 1" extended driveshaft, by installing it with the transfer case.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4273/3...321c155f_b.jpg

After that it was all just reassembly. The only thing I did different was firing up the engine before exhaust was installed. I wanted to verify that the transfer case was working correctly before I went to the trouble of reinstalling the exhaust. Anybody here ever run a 4.6 without the exhaust? It is LOUD. Like, louder than my straight piped Mustang. I'm sure my neighbors appreciated me doing it at like 11pm on a Sunday night. Oh well, that's why I live in a non-HOA neighborhood!

Upon firing it up, everything worked perfectly. The engine fired up immediately, and once I put the transmission in gear I saw that all of the wheels were turning and in the correct direction. Relieved to see everything fixed, I finished reassembling the X5. The exhaust went back on pretty easily, and I finished the job off by reinstalling the stiffening plate (re-using the bolts, of course).

Dropping the X5 down to the ground, I took it on its maiden voyage, which I am happy to report was a success. No weird sounds, no warnings, and no CEL. After a thorough shakedown run I went to sleep, satisfied with my victory.

This repair took me most of a weekend, so in the grand scheme of things I guess it wasn't too bad. It was a lot less work than an average timing chain guide job, that's for sure!

I made a three part video series on my YouTube channel if anybody cares to see the job in more detail:

Part I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBy1HcVHOrM


Part II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjoimSevCE


Part III:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m8HcobIvsQ

Nice! Glad you got it hammered out.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm glad I was able to fix it and get it back on the road.

Anyways, after I got it running, I drove it to work and realized just how filthy it was!

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4254/3...db62153f_b.jpg

Later that night I went to one of those 24-hour self-service washes to try and clean the X5 up a bit. This is what it looked like before the wash, after 5 months of sitting outside. It was a pretty sorry sight, almost like a neglected stray dog.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4214/3...14ca53a9_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4244/3...becca6b6_b.jpg

And this is what it looked like after a quick wash. By no means perfect, but a huge improvement:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4245/3...32a0c468_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4263/3...1f8d9b92_b.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4242/3...88960985_b.jpg

The Ammo Skin sealant had done its job and protected the paint from the majority of the sun and bird droppings. There are a few spots where the bird crap etched into the clear coat a little bit, but that's something I can polish out once it cools off a bit. It's too hot to do any real detailing!

A few days later it was back in its natural habitat:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4249/3...5fcbd92d_b.jpg

12.8 mpg, haha. I don't anticipate it getting much better since my commute nowadays is mostly street driving. Plus I drive it with a lead foot, because why the heck not?

After two days of driving the X5, I noticed that the right side of the dash was blowing hot air instead of cold air, so I replaced the heater valve. It's the valve next to the engine on the driver's side— it often goes bad on the E53/E38/E39. Thankfully a new one was only $205 and I already had it laying around from a previous order (I had intended to replace it back in January but then the X5 broke down). I don't have any pictures of that job because I did it while half-asleep at midnight one night. I will say that I spilled a bunch of hot coolant everywhere, so that was not fun. It only took about 15 minutes for the whole swap, and the problem was fixed 100%. Now the vents all blow cold, just as they should.

Fast forward a few days and the AC suddenly stopped working, which was really fun with it being 109º outside. I then went to my friend's house where we used his AC gauges to check the system. It turns out that the AC system was dangerously over-charged by whoever had previously charged it. The high side was really high and it was causing the compressor to go into a failsafe mode which is why the AC wasn't working properly. I assume it's because this X5 was last charged in Seattle which has a much colder climate and different air pressures— Phoenix is a pretty drastic change in climate, especially in terms of heat. We evacuated the system entirely, did a vacuum test to check for leaks (no leaks!) and then filled the system with an appropriate amount of R134, using a commercial grade fill tank (not the canned crap). That solved the AC problem, and we noted the duct temperatures were 44º with a 110º ambient temperature outside. So the AC works extremely well now, to the point of where it actually makes me cold. I'm glad I got that sorted out, because tomorrow it's supposed to be 120º here in Phoenix.

She cleans up really well!! Nice work!

Thanks :) I actually detailed her even further this past weekend, I just haven't had a chance to take any good pics yet. Did a thorough wash with Ammo Foam, dried everything off, put on another coat of Ammo Spit spray wax, used Back To Black on all the plastic trim pieces, Invisible Glass on all the windows, and Ammo Mud tire shine on the tires. She looks really sharp now!

I went to the weekly car show on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty empty initially but as the sun set and the temps dropped it got pretty busy. Lots of cool cars there as always. My buddy's Imola Red 740il is parked next to my X5 in this pic:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4278/3...cdbf006b_b.jpg

I also did another quick repair last night. Over the weekend I noticed that when I was at a red light or otherwise idling I would feel an occasional bump. It almost felt like somebody was lightly nudging the car from underneath. I tried shifting into P and N but that didn't affect it, so I ruled out the transmission. I then tried turning off the AC which didn't affect it either. I then pulled out my laptop with INPA and started scanning for clues. There were no obvious errors or codes, but I did notice that the engine RPM fluctuated ever so slightly when I felt the bumps, so I narrowed it down to being an engine issue. The digital readouts didn't tell me anything new, so I switched to the analog readouts to try and make some sense of it all. The roughness graph is what clued me in to what was going on.

Most of the cylinders looked fine, but cylinder 7 was quite a bit rougher than the others:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4274/3...206b0a03_b.jpg

I noticed that every single time I felt a bump, the cylinder 7 roughness bar would jump up. Now that I narrowed it down to a specific cylinder, I went through my mental checklist of what could have gone wrong. The spark plugs are all brand new NGK Iridiums installed about 1000 miles ago, so that wasn't the issue. The injectors were all good too, so I ruled that out as well. The only unknown was the ignition coil, which dated back to 2002. Before the X5 broke down I had ordered a new Bremi ignition coil just in case, since it was only $35. I fished that out of my parts box and replaced the cylinder 7 ignition coil with the new coil. It was a little tricky with how hot the engine was, but I got it done without burning myself. After I replaced the coil, I started the engine and would you look at that, it's now buttery smooth!

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4206/3...595550f6_b.jpg

It looks like the original ignition coil on cylinder 7 was on its way out, but it wasn't bad enough to throw a misfire code yet. Swapping the coil seems to have solved all of the problems and I have not had any issues since then. I'm sure I would have eventually gotten a CEL for the bad coil, but it was nice to fix the problem before it became more serious.

She cleaned up nice! Some headlight lens restoration should be on your list. I used the $30 3M Headlight Restoration Kit and the results were phenomenal. :thumbup:

She looks identical to mine except for the 4.8 pipes poking out. :D

Yep, that's the next thing on my list! I have the same 3M kit, I just have to do it one of these nights. Though I'm tempted to wait until it's not as hot— it's 116º today and 120º tomorrow.

I still have a few other things I need to fix, like the driver's seat memory module so that I can actually have seat memory as well as working steering wheel adjustments. Then once I'm able to move the steering wheel out of the way I'm going to send off my cluster to get the pixels fixed, they're a mess right now.

I feel ya. My Business radio screen has so many dead pixels I can't even read it anymore, cluster is good. I am waiting for a 3 day time frame I can be down so I can pull it out and send it to California for repair.

My nav screen is pretty terrible too. It has a giant dead spot that's so bad you can see it with the screen off.

Just rolled over 215,000 miles on the drive to work this morning. I normally daily drive my 2000 540it, but it's been really hot here in Phoenix so I've been driving the X5 more. For some reason the X5 has a way better AC than the 540it— it can actually make me uncomfortably cold even when it's 115º outside.

Love to hear about the high mileage X5's. My X just hit 147,000 and my E46 is 199,750.

I love my high mileage cars. My E39 540i touring is at 192k miles now, and I intend to get it well past 300k. I put 18k miles on in just a year, and that's with other cars in my household. Now I'm racking up the miles on the X5.

The only trouble is that if I were to ever sell the X5 I'd have an extremely difficult time due to the mileage. People still think 150k is high mileage, so 215k is unfathomable. It took me a really long time to sell my 03 540i/6 because it had 198k miles.

Yeah, I put more money in my BMW's than they are worth. Just put $5K in each of them this year alone. That being said, I do not have a car payment and love driving both of them. I can't afford to sell them now... :bustingup

https://xoutpost.com/attachments/x5-...606_193622.jpg

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/attachm...1&d=1488928941

Nice ride dude
I just have mine removed as well
Question for you I also live in phoenix and I'm looking for a place not too expensive to take it for a alignment do you know any good place ? _thanks a lot. ..

Hey Javigo1971, network auto does free alignment check and also cheap work

Nice cars! I dig that E46. Have you noticed that the E46 and X5 seats are pretty much the same thing? It's interesting how the X5 is a mishmash of E39 and E46 parts, I can easily spot which pieces come from which car.

As sharkk001 mentioned, Network Alignment is my go-to. They have a few different locations depending on where in the Phoenix metro area you're located. I'm in central Phoenix so I just go to the North Phoenix location. Their hours are great, especially on weekends when all the other alignment shops are closed.

Seats are close but the X5 has a bigger plastic back panel and different head rests. You are right though, the X5 is nothing more than a 4 wheel drive E39.

Nice ZHP! I would love to pick up a 6spd in imola red...

I also agree on not being afraid of higher mileage cars. It usually means they were cared for well enough to avoid being scrapped and have more replaced parts on them than their younger counter parts.

Just doing a bit of Youtube video watching....and then....I spy with my little eye right at the beginning of the video....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebDS4vC277g

Danny I presume?? :D:D

Haha, yep! Freddy is a good friend of mine and we shot that Mustang build in my garage. I'm in some of the videos too, lol.

I also have my own YouTube channel (shameless self-promotion): http://youtube.com/dannysgarage

Subscribed.

I know......I'm waiting to find out what's wrong with the Porker :thumbup:

I finally got around to fixing the window regulator... It broke in the down position so getting it out was a pain, to say the least. I ended up hacking the old regulator to pieces to free up the glass. Then I was able to break off the old clips and remove the glass. After that it was pretty much a standard window regulator replacement job. I'm glad I had a friend help me, it's a lot easier with 2 people, especially when it comes to re-installing the big heavy piece of glass. The window motor was fine so I transferred it to the new regulator where it's working happily. I bought new clips as well, but one of them decided to break while we were testing the regulator. The next day I got a new set of clips from the local dealership. Thankfully they were only $4.33 for 2 clips after tax, not too bad. I ended up needing to adjust the window regulator a bit to get the glass going up and down smoothly. That's probably why one of the clips broke, because the regulator was slightly misaligned. Yesterday I reassembled everything and all is right with the world again.

I drove the X5 to work today, it was nice. The AC in it works a lot better than the AC in my 540it, so I'm enjoying that.

Thanks for this thread Danny I enjoyed tracking your progress. How are the valve covers holding up? Do you recall the color of the finish and where you had the work done? Im preparing to do mine soon and Im having a hard time finding anyone locally that follows all the steps you mentioned.

I'd like to give a big thanks to all who have read and commented on this thread, y'all have been great. Like all good things, it must eventually come to an end. She's up for sale now: https://xoutpost.com/classifieds/bmw...-6is-sale.html

I've put a lot of thought into this and gone back & forth a bunch of times on whether I should sell it, but I think it's for the best. I don't drive the X5 much anymore, since I greatly prefer my 2000 540it for daily driving duties. I also want to free up some space and money to pursue other cars. I'm happy to say the X5 has no major issues as of right now, so I feel pretty good about selling it knowing that it should work reliably for many years to come.

Good Luck with the sale Danny! :thumbup:

Mike

Thanks! It might be a little tricky selling an X5 4.6is with 215k miles, but I can certainly try. Currently there's a 219k mile 2003 540i M-Sport on Bring a Trailer, so we'll see how that goes (I used to own that car back in the day). Maybe if that sells for a decent amount I'll put my X5 up on there.

Good luck with the sale.

I'd be curious as well how it does on BaT. That is THE place to sell e30's right now. Going for 50-100% more than selling on CL or Autotrader. I'm still kicking myself for selling two of my e30's on CL and not looking into BaT harder.:(

Zero interest for the X5 4.6is here on Xoutpost, so I guess I'll list it on Bring a Trailer at some point soon. A 219k-mile 2003 540i/6 sold for $7300 just now, so that gives me hope for my X5.

That's forking insane. That means my 2003 M5 should fetch double that when I reach 219K.

Prices are way different out there than here. X5 E53's in good condition are at low as $2500 at times.

I have seen some IS versions go for $3500 on craigslist too.

I have no idea what they are going for on your side of the country.

The E70's go for about what you were asking around here. But again in the south east car prices are cheap.

Good luck with the sale.

Mileage on these cheap cars?

Not particularly low. On average 185k to 210k.

:wow:

Or did you mean the e70's? They are around 116k average milage.

Starting to think that maybe parting out is the way to go... I want to get at least $7k for the X5, but I've had zero offers so far. Plus then I can grab the 4.6 engine to put into my 540it, hmmm...

Sorry to hear this Danny.

It seems to me that ultra high mileage vehicles do best when their owners put the sweat equity into them like you did and keep them for their personal use for a long time.

The sweat equity and quality seems to be lost on most strangers when confronted with the high mileage.

Even with the mavens among us, no takers :dunno:

I hope you have success in selling it as opposed to parting it out.

Mike

Truth be told the 4.6is is a bit of a bear. Even mint examples suffer from depressed values, maybe due to the 4.8is? But definitely the engine can be a bit scary since if one blows a 4.6L, it's $$$ to get another.

I recall a very nice 4.6is in my area not too long ago for a very hard to pass up price given it's condition, basically mirroring that of danny's X5 sans 100k miles. (Tow pkg, LCI steering wheel, C-L-E-A-N). Poor thing ended up sitting on the market for quite a while.

Basically needs the right buyer to come along I guess :dunno:

Yeah, I guess the 4.6is' rarity doesn't necessarily mean it's a super in-demand vehicle. The only 4.6's that sell for decent money nowadays are lower mileage ones in Estoril Blue or Imola Red.

Don't worry about me parting it out— that engine isn't going anywhere. If I go the part-out route, I'll likely transplant the 4.6L into my 540it. It's about as close to a plug and play swap as it gets, aside from the CCV/OSV/oil pan (and those can all be changed around pretty easily). Since I've already rebuilt the entire top end of the 4.6L motor, all that would be left is to replace the rod bearings and oil pump chain on the bottom end to make a motor that's good for another 200k. It would also be the only case of swapping in a higher mileage (215k) engine into a lower mileage car (196k on the 540it). Who could say no to a pretty much free 50hp boost?