a new guy
 

Hello, I've been lurking on this forum, with the occasional comment, for a while now and I felt it was time to properly introduce myself. Name's William, located in Holland, Ohio, near Toledo. I have been into BMWs for most of my adult life, and somewhere over a year ago I acquired a 2003 X5 4.4i. It is in excellent condition in some ways, and mediocre in others. 245,000 miles. Previous Owner had the engine replaced at about 200k with a parts yard motor with about 150k on it. I have been tinkering with it, replacing and fixing things here and there. Removed the air suspension in the rear and replaced it with coils. Other small things which will be addressed on other days.

The fun part: I decided to go the off road route with this one, in contrast to all my other vehicles. So, I got the 30mm lift bushings from Teva4x4 on Ebay and put some 265/70-17s on some spare Z3 rims I had sitting around, with a set of 1 inch spacers all around, and here we are. I like it. The gas mileage sucks though, that has taken some adjusting....

Cool X5! I like the wheels and the lift you put on it.

M62 motor correct? Keep the tensioner refreshed regularly I've seen 400k on factory chain guides (and I've helped replace them on 3 M62tu with about 160,000 average because people would drive with the chain rattle.

:xoutpost::band::noadd:

Thank you. M62 I believe, yes. I should probably get the timing chain guides done, true. I also seem to have the slow coolant leak from the pipe in the intake valley; it slowly consumes coolant with no drips anywhere.

Oh, and both sway bars and associated hardware have been completely removed. Made very little difference in daily driving.

welcome! Like the look of those tyres :) Very nice especially considering the milage.

I have a slow coolant consumption too, seems a recurring theme with beemers.

Also leaking coolant from an M62tu...

You removed the swaybars? That is another level of off road dedication.

Welcome! good to see another Titanium silver in the area.

Looks great. I love the 4.4i except for the potential Timing Chain issues. My understanding is replacing the guides is a big deal, I think the advice to keep an eye on the tensioner and listen for jazz cymbals is good (but no personal experience).

Good luck!

The (anti) sway delete makes sense for off-road to allow for long travel of individual wheels.

Proper maintenance of the tensioner and oil pressure can keep the chain guides intact for 300-400,000 miles. They get brittle by about 120,000 miles (I've heard of them failing by 90,000).

The two sets I replaced on m62tu were bat about 160,000 miles and both cases the owner ignored the sign of the startup rattle that usually precedes total destruction.

Use a fiber optic inspection camera to check the guide shoes periodically maybe whenever you change oil, and might be good o do that a little more frequently like 5-6000 vs. 7-10,000 since the failure mode is oil pressure related.

It would probably be the best preventive measure to add an actual oil pressure gauge because if the oil pump soft fails you could have immediate failure of the chain guides. If I had an m62tu I would figure out a way to add one.

Chain guides are not a for sure replacement, just a likely one that can likely be avoided or pushed back 60-80,000 miles or more.

They don't wear from use and could theoretically last half a million miles. They get brittle and of the chain gets loose enough to slap they will shatter into hundreds of pieces so the important thing is to whatever it takes to avoid chain slap.

1) OEM tensioner replace early before any sign of wear maybe at 120,160,200k miles.

2) Regular oil changes a little faster than spec to help maintain oil pressure. (on two cars I maintain, long in the tooth oil change caused vanos errors as well).

3) figure out a way to add oil pressure gauge by 150,000mi on any M62tu. If you can catch a systemic drop of oil pressure from perhaps wearing out oil pump you can maybe change the oil weight to punt on changing the pump but also emergency halt the engine and prevent the chain guide destruction.

I've done the chain guide replace job twice. Any competent DIY mechanic could follow the instructions. I did it solo in about 5-6 days of working 4-5 hours a day which a little prep work done for me (electricals and intake removed).

It's no shit a big job but no part is past the capability of a mechanic that can replace an oil pan gasket or valve covers.

Oh: having had significant improvement of OFHG leak on both our M54 engines at 190,000 miles with AT-205 I would prob also start adding at oild changes about 130-150,000 miles on M54, M62, N64, N51-52. It should help with the older vanos seals. I'm not sure if the oil filter change or AT-205 was more significant but both were done after I got vanos errors on both N52 and M54 motors and in both cases no more vanos error.