Wow the nightmare continues, pull wheel off (after looking for the locking nut for an hour) and undo all visible nuts holding wheel well plastic liner on, following pelican parts diagram and instructions pull it very hard and crack goes the liner. Is there a hidden bolt that is hiding behind the abs sensor plug ? Something is giving huge resistance. I cannot believe all this additional work for a single bolt for the compressor!

Ok, there are two hidden rivets behind the Abs connector housing, once you remove them you can partially remove the centre plastic piece.

You then have to either cut the plastic or remove your brake lines, then you can just manage to move the plastic out of the way.

It still doesn’t give you access to the rear A/C compressor bolt.

I love the X but feel like burning it right now :( This is beyond a joke for what should be a fairly easy job.

I had my liners out during my body kit retrofit... I don't remember having that problem? Will have to review my pictures..

Now my wife's e70 I could not remove them. Something behind the abs/brake wear sensor plug housing would not come out no matter what I tried.

I’d say they are likely the same or very similar in the E70. The wheel liner comes out ok, it’s the separate centre piece plastic that presents a problem, you can pry the abs sensor off, but the brake line or the plastic must be cut for removal.

Still hoping someone has successfully completed this job on an 04-07 E53 N62, I hope one day this write up helps someone else who finds themselves in this situation.

They must of installed the compressor first then the rest of the car 😉

Does this help?

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...sor/1VncoLdR8f

Thank you, it certainly would if it told you how to access bolt 3! :)

Ok, Well I’m about 5 days in and counting just to try and figure out how to get the rear damn bolt out.

I have learnt a few things that may help other who decide to tackle this.

Firstly removing the wheel and inner plastics (that requires brake line and abs sensor removal) is a complete waste of time for the rear bolt it still doesn’t give you sufficient access.

Do not attempt to remove the lines on the compressor itself while installed remove them from the condenser.

Front two bolts are easily accessible from either behind the splash tray plastics or engine bay.

You do not need to take radiator or transmission lines out, just fan and move transmission cooler out of the way.

It is easy to break the dipstick whilst moving things, I just broke mine :(

It also appears best access is from above, removing the washer bottle and moving A/C lines seems to give you some very limited access, you just can’t see down or reach for the bolt.

The frustration of this Job is worth paying a heavy price for someone else to do !

Below is a side pic of the compressor with the bolt recessed in at the back centre. You will notice engine mounts and various piping in the way.

When there is no access it's common to loosen the engine mounts and raise the engine with an engine hangar. People build them with framing lumber. You can make the lift point with a long eye bolt. You can get about a miracle inch of space you do have to be careful with the limited amount of lift.

I dont have access to that engine model to figure out a magic bullet option.

Can you get access sideways where a chisel and hammer can turn the nut/bolt by hitting the corner of the hex? If you can get it released you can maybe get it out with a socket by hand.

Another possibility: can you get a sawzall blade in there and cut through the bolt head? Recently I had a completely rounded bolt I had to cut it off flush to remove the part (shock absorber mount). The suck part was it was a washer head bolt so even through the bolt was like 8-9mm the part I had to cut through was more like 20mm!

Is there no path to somewhere you can get a ratchet even with multiple flex joints? When doing the rear wheel bearing, I used about 20" of extension and 2-3 flex joints to get the bolts loose without removing the CV axle.

Lifting the engine up may help, but I just don’t have the equipment or space where the car is right now to do this.

Absolutely zero chance of getting a blade in or anything else to cut the nut off.

I’m still stunned that they would place a bolt in such an insane location, it’s just doing my head in.

I can nearly get to it with a deep off centred socket but I would need to bend it further and then it would also need to be ratcheting. Seems such a beast doesn’t exist !

I wonder why there is no clear documentation on accessing the rear bolt on N62 powered E53 X5s.

Much appreciate the suggestions!

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Pick up a "Dr Seuss" ratchet where the head swivels about 270° and there is another joint that swivels also about 270°. You definitely get the most starting point options.

Second, get some wobble extensions (give you maybe 10-15° of flex without any of the hassle of flex joints

Third, use a crow foot socket so you can offset the socket extension,

Fourth, come from the other side, put the ratchet forward of the compressor, doing a u-turn via the wobble and the crow foot.

You can only turn the crow foot about 1/6 to 1/4 of a turn because the laws of physics kick in but this is how I put in my forward post cat O2 sensor since it comes out the top of the exhaust.

The crow foot will let you put the extension in either side. That trick had come in handy in three occasions:

1) front post cat sensor. (sadly I didn't take a picture of that one, the pic shows the rear sensor which can be directly accessed)
2) both pre cat (though I didn't have to do it reversed)
3) right rear brake line: there is a union about a foot inboard of the left wheel. It is impossible to get two fingers in there much less two wrenches to work that union.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7d0dd63686.jpg