If the X5 could lay a patch and not cause more harm to the vehicle and make it more reliable, I would consider.

Nope. No way. One of my biggest complaints about the E39 touring (which I had prior to the X) was the lack of AWD. It's a great feature to have when the weather gets poor, especially those of us who live in the relatively sunny south, but want to occassion go skiing, or have the occasional snow storm. It's helpful on slippery boat ramps, and helpful when towing a loaded car trailer up a rather nasty hill (off road) on the way to a 4 wheeling event.

It's a requirement for me, and I'm glad to see BMW offering more AWD options throughout the range. In general, I prefer RWD for high-performance driving...and I've got a car specifically for that. But for 80% of my driving, I'll take the added layer of security that AWD provides, even if it means I can't burn rubber on command. But that's nice when I'm trying to scoot through a hole across traffic, and I know that when I stomp the pedal, all 4 tires are going to claw hard, and get me across the lanes of oncoming traffic, rather than spin an inside wheel and sit and wait while traffic approaches.

Anyhow. I love my X5 exactly the way it is. I've not owned a better daily driver. Ever. Period.

:iagree:I remember when I first started reading on these boards and there was a thread floating around about someone had considered simply removing the front shafts in the summer time. If I knew for certain that it wouldn't case a bunch of lights to go off, I'd consider it as well. The transfer case would still be connected, but it wouldn't have to be spinning the wheels. This is just a guess, but I'd imagine it might increase the gas mileage, but who knows.

Wouldnt there be more power to the car if it was transferred to RWD? I remember reading that there is more power loss in the drivetrain because of AWD. I would consider removing front shafts even if I had lights come on, at least I would know why the lights are on, hehe.

Toohotdoc, active AWD systems like this don't really rob power when there is no slippage, so it should make very little difference. It would save you whatever resistance there is in spinning the diff and driveshafts.

Cheappc, it took us two months to find the manual transmission. I hate automatics, but this isn't a great manual. Almost any magazine that reviewed it said it was difficult to drive it well. You get used to it, but I've still got a jerkiness problem that I just started a new thread on. I don't know if it's related to the manual transmission or something else.

I wonder if the X5 3.0 5/6 spd has a delay valve like my E39 M5 had. It's basically there to prevent you from slamming through the gears and cushions the flow of fluid through the pedal, but I can't remember for the life of me how to remove/block it.

Re: 2WD X5???
 

It's a 6 spd, it had a CDV, and I have already removed it.

I would really love if they made the manual transmission an option for the V8 X5's, and utilized a full function transfer case with selectable 2wd, 4 wheel low range and a 4 wheel high range that is as relaible as the current setup for full time use if wanted.

Now with that setup even Jeremy Clarkson couldn't talk down at it!

:iagree:I'm doing a 6spd conversion in my 7, and fortunately everything is bolt on bits from a Euro 7, minus the custom made driveshaft.

I wonder if the LeMans X5 is still AWD since they've got a manual installed in there. You've been under more X5's than I have...can a manual be installed or is the bellhousing completely different?

The bellhousing should be the same as on an E39 540i, but the tailshaft housing is obviously different as the X5 has the transfer case... but I wonder if the transfer case could be swapped over to a manual transmission? I giess if they were both ZF or both GM it might be possible, or at least researching.