Our cars may be different but removing the lower rear shock mount allowed me the ability to push the lower control arm down enough to remove the spring. Mine is a factory sport suspension (springs) :dunno:

I had all those things disconnected. Even the sway bar.
Both upper control arms were off too. Still couldn't get that damn spring out.

When I was asking about it. A few cats made modified bottle jack mounts to fit and push the lower spring seat up.

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That ride height, with that aero kit, rims, and the color “RED”, looks nasty! I am feeling it!

Odd. Maybe a difference in the sport suspension? I even had to reposition the spring pads when I had everything off when I did my rear suspension. Springs would come right out when everything was drooped. :dunno:

Drove through 100 miles of country back roads on Saturday, enjoying a nice quiet mild drive enjoying the farms and slow by-ways around VA. Came back home and let it cool down. Followed up with a bath to delete the bug hits (only a few which was surprising) and to rinse off all the low pressure dust that settles on the back of these things! Three coats of wax on the front end made the clean-up a snap...
Funny how nice these "old Bimmers" stomp and run. She even idles better afterwards.
Hell, even the tail pipe tips are still clean inside. Now, she is sitting under a cover with the trickle charger on waiting for the next run.

today i was busy :)
i removed the intake manifold,water pump, alternator, found that little pipe that goes to the pcv, got alternator tested, found to be faulty, got new alternator. been recommended i get a new battery also ,ordered new valley pan , and loads of o rings and gaskets.
just got to clean all the gunk out of the valley pan top , there didn't seem to be a lot of water in there , but there was a lot of sludge :(
oh, can you clean out the oil separator?. it looks horrible in there?

Handed the X5 off to a new service tech today with the appreciation she was stepping into oversight of the highest mileage vehicle maintained at Autobahn BMW. It was time for the typical 377,000 miles service issues: oil change, belts, dead keys, window that doesn't want to go up, and the ever annoying SES light that goes off for 5 starts, then comes on for 50.


2002 X5 3.0 376,900 miles
2014 428i 66,700 miles


2004 325i sold at 123,600 miles
2001 325i sold at 66,000 miles


1970 Firebird Under restoration Time to send off the dash pad for remanufacturing

Took the family on a 600 mile round trip to Tekapo for the weekend. X5 ran flawlessly the whole time and returned 7.5l/100km (32mpg/US) while fully loaded. :thumbup:

https://i.ibb.co/fXSfHpd/20200530-173300.jpg

It gets COLD overnight up in the mountains… the frost on the car in the mornings was next-level... :yikes:

https://i.ibb.co/55Pbfg6/20200531-093645.jpg

(That's the roof of the car - not the lawn!)

https://i.ibb.co/TRB19V5/20200531-093655.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/pfzkj4z/20200531-090455.jpg

20 minutes with the Webasto heater running via the remote (from inside the house!) and the X5 was clear of screen and warm of cabin. :thumbup:

Very glad I fitted the new 900CCA battery before the winter... ;)

O2/cat related? Did you finally wear out your cats?

I out some O2 adapters on wife's x half a year ago and shut down those cat rated errors. (basically act like a buffer for the post cat O2 and slows the response. Won't help if the cats are completely shot but will stop the "cats are getting old" errors)

Just got word from the tech - cats are shot :( and secondary air check valve is misbehaving. Can't justify the $2000 on those. :rant: I'll troubleshoot the secondary air system, but time for alternative sourcing on the cats.