E53 OEM Hitch
 

Has anyone heard any positive updates on the back order situation? How much longer can it be? I still am unable to get any dates at all.

Thanks

I got an email from BMW Canada saying the hitches are no longer available (and won't be). I asked if I could buy the brake controller and wiring harness and they replied again and said they are no longer available as well.

RB

Read this before sitting by the phone.

http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...ight=OEM+hitch

x5 owners should file a class action suit against BMW for this BS. So many x5's out there from 00-06 with owners trying to go the correct route and purchase a factory hitch.

I just bought the trailer lights module and harness from my dealers parts department... so they are available ribaker, might just have to order it from the states. As for the hitch itself, the parts guy told me he did get another letter not too long ago and BMW is working on getting them back into production since the last company "died". The first letter he got was hoping for aroung October, but we can see that didn't happen. The next he got in early November said they were still hoping by the end of the year... I am not holding my breath on that one either. But that does show me that they are working on getting a new company to make them to the specs required, and hopefully to the same design as before.

You are very lucky to get that module and harness. Those are also on national backorder.

??? My parts guy had to order them, came in 2 days later... when he looked up the availability at the closer warehouses, there were dozens.


Double check with your local dealers parts department, and if need be I can post the phone number to my dealer and you can ask the parts counter guys to order them and mail out possibly?

How much did it cost? If you order the hitch, would it come with the harness?

The OEM hitch should come with the harness, but the OEM hitch is not available. But the module and harness were made by a different company so are still available. Which comes in handy for those of us that will have to make due with aftermarket hitches for the time being...

As for the price, I don't know the retail cost. As a BMW employee I have the benefit of employee pricing.:D

I have seen that people posted that the wiring harness is $1000. I didn't understand since the factory hitch was only $500, and it comes with the wiring harness.

When I bought mine, there were 3 separate part numbers; the hitch, the wiring harness, or both packaged together. It was cheaper to buy the combination, and I paid around $600 at the time. I believe the harness by itself was around $200 then. It may have gone up in the years since, but I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere near $1000.

I think the harness should be somewhere around $200, and the module should be about the same... But definitely not $1000.

My wiring harness included the module, I didn't have to buy it separately.

When I bought my BMW hitch in Jan '07, it was available as a complete package with the hitch, wiring and module. Don't have the part number handy, but if I remember, will post it tonight.

Sucks about the backorder situation, hope they work the hitches out and get the hitches back in the system :bustingup. (sorry, that was bad..)

Talked to my parts guy today, the module came in without a problem and is readily available... However they went and backordered the harness!!!!

I don't know why it showed available when I originally placed the order Friday evening, but isn't now... but it does suck! I was however to scavenge up a harness from a fellow employee who happened to keep his old one when trading in his X5, so possibly I could at least jot down a pin-out of the module end plug and the trailer plug end... and that would at least enable people to fab up the harness.

Guys,

I've been reading about this hitch saga ever since I got my X5 a couple months ago - searching eBay/Craigslist/etc every day for a hitch. I went in to my dealer this Thursday and asked what I could do to get a hitch (even pulling one off a used X5 in stock and swapping my non-hitch components). He took a look in the computer and found another dealer that had 1 in stock. I picked it up today (full kit with harness/etc).

All that to say - find a good parts guy at your dealer and have them call around and you should be able to find a dealer somewhere with one of these in stock.

FYI, the part number for the whole kit is 71 60 0 009 711.

Good to see you had good luck finding an OEM hitch! :thumbup:

Could you post the phone number to the dealer with the wiring harness (and the part number too)? In Canada they cannot be purchased separately from the hitch. As for the USA... there are no hitches anywhere in the USA either (I called almost all of them!).

One dealer said they must be getting some hitches in stock because there used to be a backorder of over 800 in the states, but now it is down to 250 or so.

I think that they are just canceling the orders.

I know I'm one of those cancels. And the wiring harness came up as back-ordered as of recent as well. The only thing you can still get is the control module.

I talked to my parts guy and asked him if he might be able to find a few more hitches, and he said he would try, but no guarantees.

His email is DMiles at penskeautomotive dot com, and the dealership is United BMW.

Hopefully he can help you guys out.

Ridiculous. Since I purchased my 05 X5 in August I can't tow the boat, mc trailer, or use my hitch mounted bike trailer. At time of purchase I ordered the hitch from the parts counter. I'm ready at this point to request BMW take back the vehicle so I can find one with a hitch or go non-BMW