After a 5 year hiatus, looking to get back into an E53
 

I'm a former E53 X5 owner (2002 3.0) that might be looking to get back into another one. I'm curious to know though how well these cars have aged. I remember our old X5 seemed to have something break every week. It was usually something small (broken door handle, AC buttons falling off, cooling system, inactive airbag suspension, etc.), but nevertheless I seemed to constantly be working on it. Looking back, I never realized how much I missed hating that car. There was a certain level of pride and satisfaction in fixing it.

My question is, and setting the "small" stuff aside, are there any major issues that have crept up with the E53 now that they're around 15 years old? I would be looking for a facelifted model, most likely a 2006 somewhere in the ballpark of 100-110k miles. I will also only be considering the M54 3.0 engine. I did some reading last night and it seems as though the automatic transmissions are prone to failure? This wasn't something I've ever dealt with on my older X5, but it seems to be the "norm" now. Can anyone shed some light as to whether the E53 3.0 has widespread transmission issues? Is it inherently flawed, such as the E46 rear subframe, or are cases isolated?

The car would be for my wife, who currently drives a very reliable, yet incredibly boring, Toyota Highlander. She's hinted at getting back into an X5 and I personally love the idea. We also have two young children, so reliability is important. The reason we are targeting the E53 is better reliably and past experience. I will without a doubt get a PPI on which ever car I chose. I also have plenty of experience working on BMWs of this generation, in particular the M52/M54 engine. I owned an E46 328Ci for 10 years and currently own an E46 330Xi. I plan to do all maintenance and work myself.

So, good idea or bad idea?

E53 X5 has aged quite well, IMO. The drive is still solid 15yrs later. The M54 engine is reliable too.
Transmission issue is rather case isolated. We can't tell when one will failed. If you're getting one in 100-110 k miles range, at least do a tranny fluid drain and refill a couple times to get as much new fluid in there as possible.
With your experience in working on bimmers in this era and the wife's support, I would say: go for it.
Good luck.

It's a shame you're limiting yourself to only a 3.0, the V8 X5's are so much fun, especially the 4.6 and 4.8. Though I'm sure it'll be fine if it's mostly for your wife.

This sounds a little more promising. Again, just going back to my reading, it seems folks had transmission issues after replacing the fluid. Some seemed to abide by the BMW lifetime fluid and the "don't fix it unless it's broken" attitude, and others seems to religiously replace the fluid on a quite frequent basis. I'm used to manual transmissions so these automatics are foreign to me. I'll keep reading up.

Also, FWIW, I'd like to only spend about $1-1.5k annually on maintenance. Again, assuming I'm doing most work myself. A $4k transmission would be brutal.


Truth be told I'd love to go out hunting for a 4.8is. I'd like though to be able to share parts and knowledge with my current M54 330. I'm not ready to dive into the world of German V8s just yet :D

Once you get "caught up" from the previous owner after the first year I have no doubts you can easily get by with 1-1.5k a year in maintenance - Inevitably theres always a few things to fix that the PO didn't get to -

I must be experiencing the first part because every other week seems like something needs attention. I'm hoping to get over that hump soon where I can rely on this vehicle year-in and year-out with just normal maintenance. For now, i'll keep pounding sand :rofl:

This was my exact dilemma with our first X5, although the weekly attention seemed to last for years! I was convinced at the time it was due to either it being an early model (MY02) or a lemon. I'm hoping everything was sorted by 2006, which is the year I'm targeting. I'm also hoping a PPI can help identify anything that needs resolved, and of course to make sure nothing major is wrong with the car.

It gets better for OCD owners like us - my first year to year and a half were brutal on the wallet - the last 2 years besides my alternator taking a dump have been just oil changes and normal maintenance and some preventative things -

Yea I am getting hosed right now through the first 2-3 months. Hoping it slows down because I really do like the 4.6

Best of luck, would be nice to add another E53 to the NoVa area :thumbup:

Thanks for the replies all. It seems like most are happy with their 3.0 E53s with little to complain about other than the typical BMW "stuff".

While on the subject of getting back into an E53, I have a question about navigation and bluetooth on the later models. I've noticed on a few I've looked at they have these large masses of dead pixels on the nav screen, almost as if someone poked it too hard thinking it was a touchscreen. Are the nav screens known to be delicate or wear-out? Also, it is my understanding that bluetooth phone support only comes with the BMW assist option? Where models sold with bluetooth but without the navigation?

I cant speak to the bluetooth option because I never use it on mine but about the Navigation dead pixels. The way it's oriented (slightly facing upwards), it is subjected to a lot of sun light via the windshield and sunroof. I believe this causes premature dead pixels. I could be wrong :dunno:

Welcome back to the club. Mine bled the wallet dry and then some when I first bought it (thank God for friends who own shops) but from here on out the only real big ticket items would be doing an Eonon or NBT navi upgrade, swapping to Style 214/215s, running boards with 4.8 flares and either swapping to xenon headlights or doing just a drop in HID kit.

I had a thought or two about adapting ESS' twin-screw blower to the E53 but I could honestly spend 6k somewhere else...

It's a design flaw: they used a ribbon cable that has about 100 connectors that is most likely screen printed silver traces. They either corrode or disintegrate.

You can buy the cable for I think $20-30 and buy a send in service for about $100-120 to have somebody else replace it.

I'm betting some trace repair paint (similar to that used to fix broken back window defrost) would fix it in-place.

If it's corrosion not disintegration than more than likely wiping deoxit pro gold into the contacts would solve the problem.

It's on my to do list. I expect in the next month or two I will have time to repair mine and hopefully wife's.

With any luck I can use continuity test on each wire and fix just the 4-5 defective traces even if I solder in a jumper. I will most certainly post the process once I do it.

The same old problems as before plus more because with a 15 years old car it has gone through multiple ownership.

The first owner had a xxxx mile and xx year warranty so if he had any problems he just brought it in.

The second owner had a xxx miles warranty as a cpo car so if the item was a warranty item he brought it in.

The third owner probably didn't have a warranty so he let his indy work on the car since the stealer rate was too much.

The fourth owner tried to DIY the car and probably bought the cheapest part he could find.

The fifth owner is not a diyer and just ignore the problem and flipped the car once the engine or transmission blew up from a lack of maintenance.

My prior E53 was an '05. It had a Bluetooth unit in the trunk, and did not have NAV. It was prewired for CD changer, and there were a couple of plugs in the driver side storage area in the trunk. It was just plug and play.

The unit I had did not play music off your phone - it was phone calls only.

Sounds like you're reading the Carfax for the one I just bought.

Year 2 owning mine (N62 - 4.4) and after the initial thrill of ownership wore off, and my frenzy to purchase all sorts of thing for it, my wallet has revived.
As far as maintenance is concerned and according costs, I can't say it's much more expensive than any of our other vehicles. That said, the time involved to do simple tasks in say a Toyota, will take double if not longer in the E53, but then again the driving enjoyment factor is double or more...
It's all a trade-off I suppose. Would I buy one again...probably yes, now that I'm a bit more comfortable working on it and have the appropriate tools. Do I still enjoy the vehicle - yes, very much. Does it still look good (in appearance & design) - most definitely.
When thinking of the alternatives in a similar price bracket to my purchase price, I'm very happy with the E53. It's a very comfortable vehicle, safe and generally reliable (it's never left me stranded). That said, I have one of the last production E53's with almost all options and it was a two owner vehicle with BMW service history when I purchased it 2 years ago. No regrets and no big ticket repairs (yet).

:thumbup:

:bustingup

:rofl:

Coming from a Highlander you are not going to find anything more reliable than that. I love my X5 4.6is and I am a DIYer so that helps but the X5 will demand the greater part of your attention or wallet or both. Since this is your wife's vehicle and you have small kids you are really going to have to give this some deep consideration. Do you plan to keep the Highlander as a backup? If you do then I would say that you can get the X5 so that when it goes down she has something to transition to until its up and going again.

Isn't it amazing how an BMW E39 M5 is more reliable than the V8 X5?:wow:

That can be attributed to the following:

E39 M5 made in Germany

E53 X5 made in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

But there are more nonOCD owners that aren't DIYer and when they take their car in it is usually a minimum $500 to $5,000 service. You have been on this forum long enough to see the change in ownership. The new owner doesn't get a PPI, SES light is on, but they still buy the BMW. This is their first BMW and they are suckered into that crap about German engineering and the ultimate driving machine and it's a BMW that they can afford to buy but not afford to fix.

They come on this forum after taking the car to either a dealer or Indy and when they get the estimate to fix the BMW they are shell shock. We tell them what could be wrong but they get into an argument with one of us and call us a know it all douche bag. Afterward, the attack and foul mouth language come out until they are ban from the forum.

I think that is the thing that's giving the greatest headache. The Highlander is a damn tank, I change the oil every 5k miles and the thing just goes without issue. The plan would be to ditch the highlander for the X5. Again, it's a very boring car to drive though.

I've been around the block before with the E53 so I'm still kind of leaning that direction. The worst that happened on our old X5 was when the battery died during a snowstorm. I had let it sit outside until the snow melted before replacing the battery. I unlocked the driver's door manually with the key, but when I pulled the handle, it broke. With no way of opening a door, or unlocking the car with the key, I had to hook jumper cables up to the starter motor to give the car some juice to unlock the trunk. In a weird way though, I kind of miss these "experiences". :rofl:

Another issue I'm seeing is that when I browse around online, most of the X5s I'm seeing are sold by those shady roadside used car dealers. They seem to be hit or miss which is why I'm thinking a PPI is a must.

I bought a car a week ago from one of those places. The Carfax actually looked good on it - regular maintenance identified to about 200k miles. It had 212k when we bought it.

In our case, the saga continues:

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...otal-loss.html

When I waffled on it, they threw in a 3 month warranty, which has saved us $1500 in the first week.

I think at this age/mileage, it's a crapshoot, and you have to walk into it expecting to do something.

We figured we could buy one with 100k miles, but we replaced a bunch of stuff at 100k on the old one too. Our thinking was that, no matter what we spend, we're probably dumping in $2k in the first few months anyways, which turned out to be true.

Happy shopping.

This is the correct mindset to have when purchasing any used BMW. If you don't end up spending that money then you are lucky, but always go into it expecting to have to bring the car up to spec. Especially if you are like most owners on the forum; enthusiasts. We like everything to look and work as it did when it left the factory. A good PPI is a must if you aren't qualified (or able) to go over the vehicle yourself with a fine toothed comb. I've broken that rule twice now with the e53 and been fairly fortunate in that it didn't bite me too hard.

I've purchased an X from both a small curbstoner dealer and also from a large dealer (Buick) and both trucks had their issues that needed addressing.

Upallnight's description of used BMW owners is pretty accurate unless you are buying from an enthusiast. It applies to all BMW's, not just the e53.

Good luck on your search.

From what I'm reading, everything sounds par for the course. Nothing really scares me about these cars other than the automatic transmission, which I have zero experience with.

I've been eyeballing this Stratus Grey 2006 X5 this week. Seems to be in good shape, low miles, with the options we want, at a great price. The history looks good too - originally a lease and then sold as a CPO. It has three prior owners, each owning for roughly an equal amount of time. I might have a look at it this week.

Our '04 3.0 has 255,000km on the clock and it runs great.

Bought it 4 years ago with 185k and put new dampers on it first thing as the originals were baked. Front driveshaft boot on DS was torn, so that was replaced during the damper replacement. One clunk in the front end was a bad tie rod.

It came with some funky LCD screen ICE (Kenwood? Panicsonic?) unit that sounded horrible and was unreadable in daylignt, so I put the Business MID back in to find pixel funk. Bought a new ribbon cable from pixelfix and it cured the pixel problem for about a year and now it's dropped a line but is still readable so I'm not taking it apart again. Some of the speakers aren't working in the doors but I've not torn into it - not sure if it's blown drivers or broken wires at this point.

We tow a boat across the mountains and it'll pull it without much complaint although it'll drop to 3rd on the steeper grinds. 5AT is working great - might do a fluid swap before boating seaon this year as I suspect it's the OE stuff.

I like this car but it's a bit of a buckboard on rough roads (much quieter than an Infiniti FX though).

It makes a 'clink' noise when first put in reverse. Probably the front driveshaft?

I would be flexible as to the year and focus on the mileage,maintenance history and a 1-2 owner vehicle to go along with that PPI. As a safety measure I would strongly consider a warranty. At 100,000 you are into the range that some of the more expensive parts such as suspension components are coming to the end of their life cycle. An X5 with 75,000 miles or less would be a good target.

Just the other day I spent a couple hours in a shop that has been repairing ZF transmissions for many years. I was in the rebuild area with main tech. In his view the ZF5hp24 is a better overall transmission. He said the 6 speed has more problems but is still a good transmission. He mentioned that almost all 6 speeds that come in have the same problem which does not require a rebuild. I can't remember what part he was talking about or the cost to fix. I would have a transmission shop familiar with ZF transmissions do a separate PPI.

I have been changing transmission fluid every 40-50,000 miles since new and use ZF fluid. He said that is best practice. Very often fluid changes are because the transmission already has symptoms and fluid change is an attempt to fix it, that's too late and further developing symptoms in a the near future are attributed to the fluid change.

That's because the S62 is a very overengineered version of the M62tu since it was built for more intense usage. The BMW Motorsport engineers took the M62tu and fixed a lot of its flaws when building the S62— they installed a dual-row timing chain which solved the chain guide issues, they installed a better cooling system, they installed a lower temperature thermostat that prolongs the life of the cooling system, and they reinforced a lot of the engine internals.

I think that the S62 is what the M62tu would have been if the bean counters hadn't stepped in. All of the technologies in the S62 were already available when the M62tu was created (double-Vanos was on the Euro S50 M3 engines, dual-row timing chain in the previous M60 engine).

^^I was told mine has the A5S 390R (GM 5L40E) box. Did some of the 3.0i use a ZF box?

I'd actually love to get a warranty. I think you might be hard pressed to find someone willing to warranty a 10+ year old BMW, no?

What automatic transmission does a '03-'06 3.0 come with? 6-speed ZF?

Never assume, my mistake, the 3.0 has a GM transmission, none of the ZF transmission stuff applies. That's V8 stuff.

No ZF's in the E53 3.0i's. You were told correctly.

I think these old 3.0i's are great. I got my '01 a little over 2 years ago, with ~160k miles. I replaced a few items in the suspension (most urgent was the rear ball joints which were causing excessive rear camber and extreme tire wear), all the window and regulator clips. Then in year 2, the alternator died, needing a new voltage regulator, and the fuel pump died. I attribute both of those failures to just plain wear and their time was up.

Other than that, the thing is very solid. I read this list quite a lot, and from the problems I see, there is no way I would touch a V8. I value reliability much more than power. Perhaps surprisingly, the gas mileage seems to be comparable between the V8 vs. I6.

Similarly, I'd also avoid the air suspension and panoramic sunroof. Nice features, but also headaches, from what I read here.

I did some very careful ATF changes on mine (first ever on this car at 160k+ miles) and there do not seem to be any problems. I think if you do get one around 100k, and you change the ATF carefully, you'll be happy with it.

I concur with the other comment about not worrying so much about year. I'd much prefer a well maintained '01 over a less-maintained '06.

Also, I concur with the OP's comment in the first post, "There was a certain level of pride and satisfaction in fixing it."

I just fixed a problem with clinking when beginning motion from a stop, whether in forward or reverse. Not sure of the exact cause but here's what cured it. Replaced front driveshaft quibo, greased front driveshaft splines to prevent wear, replaced rear driveshaft guibo, replaced rear driveshaft center support bearing, didn't mess with rear CV joint on the shaft, U-joints felt fine, used anti-seize on parts that had frozen together and made disassembly a royal PITA. BTW, I reused the bolts from the stiffening plate as well with some red locktite torqued to 43ft lbs (I think, memory is fuzzy). All of that done, and the noise is gone. Seems some driveshaft wobble was cured as well... the guibos I removed had cracks but no major failures. They were probably at fault.

I have to think the 'clink' is a dry spline somewhere. Noise comes from the xfer case area. I have no driveshaft wobble or any vibrations. One of these day's when my life insurance has expired, I'll crawl under the car and have my wife shift it :wow: from drive to reverse a few times and see if I can isolate the noise.

(Sorry about the little sidetrack - back to regular programming.)

That car looks great. It has 101k miles, so I guess you know that you can look forward, in the immediate future, to:
- valve cover gasket
- oil filter housing gasket
- coolant system rebuild (belts, hoses, water pump, thermos, temp sensor)
- radiator in the next 20-30k miles
- drive axles (or at least the boots) in the next 25k or so.

None of the above is terribly difficult to DIY, and the parts are all cheap if you DIY.

At 100k, you're hitting the first refurb cycle. If possible, I'd try to bargain the price down a little to account for that.

That looks like a really sweet truck. Love the interior color.

I'd haggle on price some. I managed to steal my 06 3.0 for $3000, but it didn't run and the owner wanted it gone. I'm the third owner, first was a lease then my chiropractors assistant owned it CPO from 2009 until now.

I had to redo the entire cooling system to start (snowball effect), fuel filter (black), all air filters, oil change, and all the rear upper control arms. Have lower control arm bushings waiting to be done.

Had I not needed to do any of this, it would easily be a $6600-7000 truck...

Good luck and hope you purchase it. So jelly lol

Possibly, but BMW did not grease the splines from factory. All X5's have dry splines, from what I've gathered here anyway. It's one of the reasons the front shaft fails.

My clink sounded as if from the Xfer case area as well, but I never bothered isolating it. I read a few threads where it was rear driveshaft related so I just went hog wild doing a full refresh of front and rear shafts so I don't have to bother with them for a VERY long time.

Sorry for the thread jack OP. That X looks pretty good, though I pretty much only look at BMW's with sports package on it. That's a personal preference thing.

Well I went to look at this one and walked away very disappointed, especially given the color/options that it had. The engine, and everything under the hood for that matter, was in great shape. The issues I saw though were the fact that it had very badly mismatched tires. The front tires were nearly bald and the back tires appear to have been replaced recently. I know it's bad for AWD car to have mismatched tire diameters so I had concerns about the transfer case. The vapor seal on the rear driver's side door was also ripped, so there were water stains all over the rear interior. The bolts holding the drivers seat were completely rusted too. I didn't even want to know what else could have been hiding under the carpet.

The icing on the cake though was when the salesman went to open the driver's door for me, the handle broke :rofl: He was embarrassed, but I wasn't really bothered by it. Just X5 things...

True I love the double row timing chain. My 1995 540i 6 speed (M60B40) engine had the dual row timing chain. I had the alusil block in mine and it was a stout motor.

Hah! Lots of e53 fish in the sea. You'll find one relatively quickly that suits your needs.

You should've offered him $3500. :thumbup:

If you see my thread on replacement after the other one got wrecked, we looked at a BUNCH of X5 replacement candidates. The one we ended up with looked great, but had a list of replacement items required immediately.

We looked at one similar to the one you saw, with water leaks, and moved on.

There are a lot of them out there, but you have to sort through some to find one you can live with.

We saw one online that looked great. The salesman told us it needed some paint upfront, and they'd take care of it prior to delivery. We drove about 25 miles to look at it, and the front bumper was hanging half off, and the area the needed paint had a bad paint job attempt to cover major rust underneath.

It is a journey - good luck.

Get them to throw in a warranty if possible, even a short one, in case you find yourself in our situation.

Hey you could have knocked $500 or more off the asking price. :bustingup