First pics of the new addition-UPDATED with Style 87's
 

I thought it might be a good idea to start a new thread now that I have officially purchased it, so here it is. It's an '02 X5 4.4i, 73k miles, sport package, premium package, navigation, rear climate package, retractable load floor, PDC and xenon's. Very, very clean overall-although white is not my favorite color by far, and I actually don't care for gray interior either, the cleanliness of this X5 really won me over. The previous owners obviously took very nice care of it, which is a lot more than I can say for some other X5's I looked at.

As mentioned in my first thread, both outer CV joint boots were torn. As soon as I got back from the dealership with the parts Friday evening after doing the paperwork, I put it on jackstands and replaced them. I had a few hangups on the driver's side that caused it to take about 4 hours to complete, but after that I did the right side in less than 2 hours start to finish. Not a bad job, but terribly messy! I followed the DIY on the home page here and it was very helpful. I will say that if you have access to an air compressor, it makes this job much easier. Instead of using a 3 jaw puller to push out the stub axle from the spindle, I did what the techs at my dealership do-use an air hammer. As long as the axle is not stubborn, it will come out in about 5 seconds using this method.

Now about the wheels-personally, I hate them. I just don't like chrome wheels at all. I knew that would be the first thing to go, and last night I ordered a wheel/tire package with staggered 20" Style 87's. They cannot get here soon enough! The current chromed Style 168's with tires will be going up forsale, so if anyone is interested let me know.

So without further adieu, here are a few pictures.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4693/img0609bw2.jpg
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/4232/img0612uy0.jpg
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7618/img0610yp2.jpg
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1096/img0613cw0.jpg

When the new wheels and tires come in, I will update the post with new pics.

Very clean! Congrats. You won't have any problem unloading your wheels.

ooo...white looks very nice :thumbup:

not feeling the wheels either

your interior looks in great shape.
Congrats

Wow, it really is in good condition...

The headlights prove that (not yellowish or cloudy like the sun would have done to an 02' by now).

I totally agree about the chrome wheels. Every-time I see a BMW with factory chrome wheels I cringe inside... :( & Good choice with the 87's. They will fit nicely with a pre-refresh car. Better than the 168's which go with the 4.8is...

70k miles is a little high, but you seem like an accomplished DIY kind of guy. So you probably have nothing to worry about...

Congrats & Good luck!

nice x5 man, that is a nice clean white leather interior, and I love the 3 spoke wheel.

congrats

Nice ride, congrats! Clean X5s are out there, but you are right, they are hard to find. Took me a month to find mine.

I had to change CV boots last month on my '01 with 80k miles - good idea on using the air hammer to push the axles out. Don't know why I didn't think of that! I used a big brass drift and a 3 pound carburetor adjustment tool (aka: hammer) and beat them out with the help of some choice four letter words.

nice job on the CV joint boots. When you used the air hammer what tip did you use?

Although the DIY write-up here is excellent, I did not want to damage the dust shield by using the 3 jaw puller-that could possibly lead to later damage to the bearings in the hub. Luckily I asked the tech at the dealership what he uses and he mentioned the air hammer-he says he does these all the time, and can do them in about 30 minutes!

My driver's side axle was stuck hard and it took a lot of hammering with a 3lb. hammer before it would ever budge. After I got it to finally move, the air hammer drove it right out. I have a few other things to take care of next-the valley pan gasket being the big one, but I am going to monitor how long it takes before I have to add coolant to determine the severity of the leak. The other things are very minor-one broken rear sunshade clip, one AC button to replace, PDC is out (hopefully just a disconnected sensor)-nothing big at all. The stealer replaced the alternator right before I bought it, and all the brakes and rotors were replaced very recently-like within the past two months. So there are a few big ticket items I won't have to worry about!

The punch bit that has a slightly pointed end. Judicious use of PB Blaster in the splines can greatly help in the axle removal! Now I will admit I did not clean out all of the grease in the joints-I just wiped away some of the top layer and refilled with new. It is very, very hard to keep everything clean when you are doing this job so I just did the best I could, and will hope for the best that it is good enough!