Took my newly minted "4.6i" for a (mostly) highway shakedown cruise of around 100 miles round trip, to chase after some woodcock with my pups. Since the motor is new I tried not to camp out at the normal 2300ish at 70mph and would downshift to 4th for a few minutes, then back to auto. It behaved great on the trip and pulled strong. I can tell already that the 4.6 has a prodigious thirst for gas however. The 4.4 wasn't very efficient either, but the first tank of gas is going very quickly with the new motor. I'm sure the bigger wheels/tires and the Thule box on top of the car don't help.

I've put around 200 miles on the new motor and it is nice to have it back in working order.

It's great to see from this end also. I wanted to get a 4.6 so bad. Life has a funny way of working and I ended up with an n55 35i instead.

Got about 24 mpg on my first tank though so it's an ok trade off.

The exact same thing has happened to me also. Other nice one is when the door handle just gets loose and doesn't do anything, neither from the inside or outside. Had to climb in and out of the car through other door. At first I thought that something had broken mechanically inside the door like the typical outside door handle carrier, but thankfully it was just something related to the freezing. :dunno:

Speaking of cold, just got the gasoline powered Eberspächer heater finally working in my car. Do you others living in chillier climates have any separate heaters installed in your X5? Not sure how typical this in for example in the USA?

If you look at my door lock actuator thread I have videos showing exactly how they freeze.

Typically and if you don't break anything, the mechanism will freeze latched but if you pull hard enough but don't break anything the latch is held "unlatched" until it thaws out.

There is a way to treat the DLA so it will not freeze in the future.


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Nice...I'd be super happy to touch 20 mpg, but I think it will be in the 17-mpg range on the HWY, max. Much less around town. I've cleaned the MAF and the injectors were cleaned and verified at OEM flow rate, so short of a couple Jerry cans on the swing out spare tire carrier I'm not sure there is any other answer. It seems that a 10 gal+ aux tank would fit very nicely where the charcoal canister is under the left pax side tho...might be worth some brain cells to think about how that might work.

I've found myself on the BMW website lately looking at the X5 4.5e. My wife's Grand Cherokee has been great but will need to be replaced at some point in the not-too-distant future. I've learned the hard way that she should have the one reliable car in the family. The 4.5e is advertised at 50mpg hwy and 20 mpg around town. I'm sure that is optimistic, but even at an average 30mpg the dinky 18.2 gal fuel tank could get allow you to touch 500 miles from the car. Stupid money for the car, but I can smell the new bmw interior when I close my eyes!

Finally got around to replacing the auxiliary electric fan on my 02 X5. it wasn't a job I was particularly looking forward to, but everything went smoothly. I didn't even end up having to raise the front of the car to slide it out.

-Chris

All I can smell is the small fortune I would be spending on maintenance when the car is half as old as our E53s!! A sum that could run a small country!!

Replaced both belts, the belt tensioners and pulley. Had bought the old ones from FCPEuro so now getting my money back when I return the old ones. The squeaks on cold mornings is gone now. Yes, I should have taken the time to root cause the squeak - which belt or which tensioner or pulley. But given that I pay for shipping costs to send the faulty items back, it makes sense to just replace everything and bear only one shipping cost! Also, shipping is free if purchases is above, I think, $200.

By the way, here's a great DIY for this service:
https://bmwrepairguide.com/bmw-e63-p...-series-8-cyl/

That's great news


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I was "afraid" of removing the bumper too - done it twice now - no drama. :thumbup:

Nice looking E53... and RT... ;)