No need to be sorry - just trying to give folks an idea of what to look out for when buying a high mileage E53. We knew it would need some work when we got it. We are having to work through all of the areas of neglect from prior owner. Honestly, as I've seen upallnight say, if you can't do some of the wrenching, you can't afford to own it.

I will say that I am pretty surprised at the level of disrepair that the prior owner allowed. I could never drive a car with all of these issues.

Good news is that I just found a box of 6 spark plugs I had bought for the other X5, but never installed.

In news of the weird, I also found a set of valve cover screws, and two oil filter housing gaskets. No clue where those came from. No telling what's in my "odds and ends" car parts box.

Sadly, this is nothing unexpected. At the shop I was at we would VERY frequently have customers come in after purchasing a BMW from a dealer as you describe. They always complained that BMW is a terrible, unreliable brand... we always told them that they hadn't really paid for their BMW yet. Also reminded them we do PPI's the next time they wanted to pick up a car from one of these dealers. ;)

You can't get a reliable BMW for $3000 that needs nothing. Expect to put at least that into it after purchase if you are having someone else do the work to make it something worth driving. That's just a general statement ylwjacket, not directed at you. You are bringing this X back from neglect which can often be a rather frustrating process of repair this and wait for the next issue to let itself be known.

:iagree: +1

Good post. We expected work - which we are getting.

For now, I have tstat and water pump for this weekend, then door carrier and 1 window regulator.

I hesitate to say it out loud, but that is all I know of at the moment.

The kid wants to replace the armrest also for cosmetics.

Luckily, we have now replaced almost every major oil leak trouble spot, along with all of the coolant trouble spots.

Throw in a transfer case, and that's where we are.

The good is that this car is in great shape in and out - really looks new. After all of the ones we looked at that were trashed in one way or another, we decided to go cheap on a great looking on, then deal with it as it comes.

The other good thing is that my daughter, who is an architecture major, actually likes working on the car. Lots of "quality" daddy-daughter lying on our backs wrenching on stuff.

The down side is that she's learned a few new works that I'm not proud of.:wow:

Glad to hear that she likes working on it. Life is a lot easier when you don't have to be afraid of your car— too many young people nowadays know nothing about cars. I know I'll be sure to work on some cars with my kid (whenever I have one).

She had an epiphany of sorts with the last X5. As I was doing something (can't remember exactly what), she says "cars used to be so mysterious. Now I see they are like a puzzle, and it just comes down to nuts and bolts."

Since then, she's more enthusiastic about it than I am most of the time.

I went through a similar thing after I started wrenching. It used to be a mystery and I remember knowing absolutely nothing about cars when I bought my first car, but nowadays I can disassemble an E39 almost completely without any instructions.