For a "cold weather setup:"
You can take the mechanical fan right off for winter, as long as you aren't using the A/C you can get away without the mechanical fan. You can cover the engine with a folded towel or better yet, wool blanket (also naturally fire retardant) just poke a piece of wire through and attach the corners or ends and keep it away from the exhaust manifold.
Put a set of Blizzaks on for some incredible traction! ;)

Headlights polished, new battery.
 

Towards the end of last year got tired of the near zero light output of my original HID lights. The lenses had finally deteriorated to the point of making the lights completely useless. (Currently working on a (re-)modified set, implanting Morimoto Bi-xenons and LED High beam projectors, today cleaned the sealant channels, still need to repaint the reflectors with mat black when the weather improves.) Took 400 grit to them, then sanded four more steps, unfortunately only found my 600 grit after I finished, so there is a bit of a scratch but nearly invisible. After the final sanding (2000 or 3000 I believe) I used some polish and sealant from a Turtle wax kit I had lying around. Came out looking pretty good and they will do until I get the modded units ready in the next few weeks. (Will put the trim pieces back when the modded lights get installed.)

Last Friday got back from a trip to Germany (Among other things visited the BMW museum, pretty sweet collection. They had a 5-sereis line up with an F10 similar to mine and same vintage but no X models) and Austria (ski), to find my E53 has sat outside for a couple of days and on Saturday morning the battery was toast. It is an 80ah lead acid unit from 2018 and I have decided to implant an AGM 95ah from batteries +. Just need the weather to improve a bit.....

Need to pick up some stuff for an oil change as well before I take the E53 on its annual road trip to Toronto, ON late Feb.

E53 and blizzaks would be incredible. I use Dunlop winter sport which are also rated as studless tires but without the super soft outer layer yet they are close to blizzaks and incredible traction. Gunning full power on polished snow is incredible!


–awr–

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I love my E53 and Nokian Hakkapeliitta
I really dont care what the weather is outside when driving in it:rofl:

I ran Blizzaks on Style 57? 17" extra set of OE wheels for 5 winters on our 2001 E53, back when we were full time at our Mtn home: they were nearly bulletproof and indeed incredible in any snow condition except serious azz ice.

And our Mtn house has mostly v narrow, extremely steep winding roads for 4 miles 'down' and back up, from nearly a mile high to town at 2500 ft.

Wheel and tire combo offered same rolling circumference as the style 132 19s I still run. That 2001 E53 still runs like a top, 24 yrs later/145,000 miles...

Those came out really nice.

I used the Cerakote headlight kit about two years ago on a set of xenons I bought off ebay after my attempt to remove/replace the nearly-brown lenses on my '01 ended in the destruction of one and an unfixable leak in the other. One of the ebay parts still looks good, the other could use another go.

On my e53 i only ever had Dunlop winter sport. Year 'round and driving on oily roads in Chicago summers they were the primary help in avoiding 3 accidents where somebody stopped short in front of me and i had plenty of grip with the studless winter tires.

I have a set back home on e53 rims. I wish I'd have mounted them before coming to Pennsylvania.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c0b2156705.jpg
So… yeah.

Last hour is a bug. Last 24 hr should read. Nonetheless, there's an inch of snow on the ground on the path where I start when I'm done blowing the walks. It's been an interesting day! 5x so far blowing all the walks. Each time about 4-5 more inches.


–awr–

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Gotta go for winter tires folks!
 

As always, around Thanksgiving swapped the wheels on my E53 to the winter set, pretty much only use Michelin winter tires. I have always found winter tires to offer way more grip when it gets cold. In my experience the Michelin and Contis retain good traction even if part worn.

Just came back from a ski trip, we landed in Munich early January and were immediately met by a winter storm that was going to last for several days. After a bit of back and forth I wrangled a VW Touareg out of the rental folks, which rode on some kind of Goodyear winter tires. Going up and down the Austrian switch backs to the lifts every morning/afternoon the winter tires kept us safe, a few wiggles but generally loads of grip.

I feel winter tires are a must, especially if you depend on your car getting around daily regardless of weather. Summer tires in any kind of winter weather are an accident waiting to happen.

My brother has a set of Vredestein snow tires on his M3 Comp which he daily drives in the Northeast. I’d never heard of them but he can’t say enough good about the brand now that he’s got them on the car in a lot of crappy wx this winter.

The Gelolander AT 015s I’ve got on my X5 have been fantastic. Not really normal X5 tires, but if someone need a set of AT tires for their truck I can absolutely recommend them. Well behaved on the hwy with a decently low noise level for AT tires and great in the snow and rain, and on the unimproved farm roads I get into in the fall/winter. I’m sure they are contributing to my crappy MPG, but on the plus side they are wearing well. 25k and still have plenty of tread left.

I did just pick up another 4 Method wheels for the E53. The Bronze with the E53/BMW center bore and lug pattern was on close out for $100, which is crazy. I was likely the only person who ever bought them though. The insides of my rims are pretty beaten up from brake caliper and tie rod end rubbing, and off road use. As such a couple of them are getting hard to balance. I’ve now got the caliper backs and tie rod ends ground to where they clear, so hopefully this will be the last set. I couldn’t pass up $100 bucks a pop for $600 wheels. I’ll swap them on at some point, perhaps with a left front caliper rebuild.

Basically I’m stalling the big job of pulling the dash to replace the blower motor, which is angrily screaming at me any time the temp is below 45 degrees and I dare to take a left turn. I figure I need a week or two for this job, and a few others, as long as the car is down for a while.

Wow! Those look great! :wow: I hope my soon to be refinished lights look just as good.

I took off the stock 235s for 255s. The NEXEN ROADIAN HP SUV tires have 30k miles on them. They look great. Traction is great in rain and now snow. In the storm of '21, I had stock 235s. A Discount tech told me the 235s were the cheapest tire they sold. The previous owner put them on. Even with the 235, the X5 had no trouble with up 6" of snow drifts. The Bizzaks are semi directional. Extra sipping cuts. If the Roadian had more sipping cut, I think it would be a good winter tire too. The Roadian stock tire did great. I would definately venture out as long as "ID-T10" drivers stayed at home.