I changed all trim and console over to CF several years ago. Purchased in UK, one of the last sets they made. Thanks.

I flushed the brake system for the first time since I've owned it - which is about 3-years now. Who-knows when it was done before? Maybe never, but I hope not.

The fluid was a little dark and cloudy but not as bad as I thought it'd be.

I may do the rear diff this afternoon, replacing whatever is in there now with liqui-moly. I picked up 3 bottles on eBay for $50 shipped. That seems to be the best deal I could find.


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detailled inside and out, next catch can project to delete ccv.

Oooh, catch can ftw.

Dropped her off at the cousin's shop to get the belts, pulleys, tensioners and water pump done. Was going to do it myself, but this apparent concussion is cramping my style.

Up next estimate for bumper replacement and work on rear suspension :P

Our first long road trip in the e53 didn't go well. Headed out last Wed. for North Carolina, and only made it as far as Kentucky. On Thursday afternoon it started sputtering & lost power just as we approached Winchester, KY. Had enough to get us off the highway, and I shut it down. I looked under the hood then tried starting it again; started and ran fine for a few minutes then died again.

Before that it had run flawlessly for ~1,000 miles, other than a little hiccup the first day, just before the SES light came on. I had few tools and no Bentley manual, and my family riding with me weren't up for a drawn out diagnostic session, so I called around and found an Indy shop that would look at it, but it was already 4:30, the next day was Friday on a holiday weekend, so we ended up renting a Hyundai to finish the trip.

The shop found time to look at it on Friday and gave me a call; several codes came up pointing to a faulty coil pack, an intake leak, and a stuck open thermostat. None of that sounded like it should cause it to sputter & lose power so I asked about that and was told it could. I gave the ok to replace the parts, but spent the next week worrying about the drive home after picking it up.

They gave me a call on Wed. to tell me that it was ready to go. Over the weekend I talked with some others about it, and they had the same thoughts as me, and a couple of them suggested a few other things to check, including the fuel pump; I mentioned that to the shop over the phone but they were pretty convinced they had it licked.

We planned to head back to pick it up on Friday; I called again on Thursday to make sure it was ready; yup, they had driven it several times and all was well. So we finished the drive there on Friday, and got to the shop around noon to find it in the shop with the hood up and them standing around scratching heads. The head mechanic had taken it to Lexington for some parts, and it showed the same symptoms for him; sputtered & lost power, but hadn't thrown any codes. I asked again if they had checked the fuel pump, and he said they were checking pressure right then. We left to get some lunch and they kept working. I got a call about a half hour later; it was the fuel pump and the fuel level sender. The parts were available locally, but it would be a few hours. They got everything buttoned up before closing time and in time for us to get the rental car back.

Now we're about two hours from home, and it is running smoothly. The SES light came on about two hours after we started yesterday, but I'm not too concerned about it, for the moment. I'll worry about that when we get home.

The repair bill was steep (about $1,500) but there wasn't much else we could do. The misdiagnosis and all is a bit of a bother, and I have a really hard time swallowing the marked up parts prices, but... I don't know if I could've anticipated that failure. We usually fill the tank when it gets down to a half tank, and that was the first time we'd taken it more than two hours out. The original pump had ~175,000 miles on it and was already weak. On a trip I tend to stretch a tank a little further and had been filling at 1/4 tank on the trip. The level sender had been sticking and telling me there was more fuel in the tank than was really there, so the pump didn't have much fuel to keep it cool, which hastened its demise.

Sorry to hear about that Dave but honestly at 175k it was on borrowed time I'm afraid.

Misfire codes could be plugs as well have you done them recently? I assume you did the fuel filter itself as well or is it oroginslv

Anytime you have a misfire and the DME detects the misfire, it will perform a fuel shut of that cylinder to prevent destroying the converters. If you had sputtering that mean the engine is not receiving fuel and the DME will diagnose that as a misfire and begin the process of fuel cutoff. Shutting the engine clear the misfire count and the DME will begin counting the misfire again until it reach the predetermine number for fuel cutoff.

This is one reason why I rent a car when we take a road trip greater then a couple of hundred miles. If the car breaks down, I'll just call the rental agency to tell them where their cars is and ask when they can get me another car.

Sorry for the costly trip davintosh. I echo upallnight comments. A rental is always safer especially at 175k. Also you pass on the risks to the rental agency

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Picked up my X5 from the body shop

My out of pocket - Not a single cent!

Price Tag :
E53 Body Repairs Photos by lhordmclain | Photobucket

The shop replaced the filter/FPR unit along with the pump/sender unit and the left-side sender. I didn't realize until now that there are two senders in the X5's tank.

That's good info; thanks!

Actually, my original plan was to take my '88 e32 735i/5-speed, but my wife wasn't comfortable with the idea of taking "the old car" on a 3,000 mile trip. I guess she forgot about the 2,000 mile trip we took that car on last summer; it performed flawlessly except for a tire problem. For me, I was far more confident that the 735i would make the trip without incident, and if anything were to go wrong I'd be able to fix it on my own. And to think I paid more for the repair on the X5 this week than I paid to acquire that 735i four years ago. ;)

The rental car turned out to be ok, but part of the reason for the trip was to go to the Vintage at the Vinyards show in Winston-Salem, NC. True, the X5 wouldn't have been part of the show, but driving there without a BMW just wasn't the same.