Did the following over the weekend:
- Replaced washer pump grommets
- Fixed binding/sticking steering by spraying the steering column u-joint with white lithium grease. ($9 Fix)

Fluids and filters changed.

All X5's for one reason or another suffer from significant tailgate mounted taillight deterioration. They fade and become brittle, chalky and full of hairline spiderwebbing.

I polished mine, wet sanded, even shot them with a few coats of clear then polished the hell out of them. They were back to shiny again, but the color had faded, the actual lightening of red plastic still stuck out like a sore thumb.

http://i.imgur.com/sh31gYt.png

Then I noticed the subtle difference with the design of the post-facelift models - the tails looked different - better looking. So screw it, I grabbed a pair. Probably could have gone straight to LED for what I paid for these, oh well. I also have spare corners as well to match, I had purchased previously, to upgrade an amber tailed model.

http://i.imgur.com/beOy7cG.png

Nice! My tailgate pieces have been bugging the crap out of me, looks like a need to find a set of facelift pieces...

Do not get used without seeing them in person. I got burned on ebay, but the sellers had a good return policy. I spent $35ish each for these (different sellers)

Both shown here, one on the left came from an 04, and it's crazy faded and spiderwebbed. One on the left came from out west from an 06, but must have had a leak, the chrome finish inside has worn away and was all discolored.

http://i.imgur.com/3QuMUSx.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/W1PdpjH.jpg?1

Wound up getting the new ones, they looked like OEM in the auction (but not mentioned), turned out to be DEPOs but I was comfortable with the price.

Taillight Taillamp Reverse Lamp Inner Pair Set for 04 06 BMW x5 New | eBay

There are aftermarket options around for about 10-20 bucks less, that come with the side markers, but the look is a bit chinesey aftermarket to me.

INPA up and running...
 

Finally got INPA up and running today, using a OneStopElectronics KK USB adapter. Had to update the daten on the copy on INPA I had downloaded, in order to get INPA (EDIABAS actually) talking to the DDE (DDE 5.0 for M57TU).

Checked for errors and got four minor codes (all recent by the distance recorder):

4212 Gluehkerze Zylinder 1
4252 Gluehkerze Zylinder 5
41F1 Elektroluefter
4B22 Elektroluefter

The first two are related to glow-plug activation - (Glow Plug Cyl x - Activation Interrupted) and the last two are aux. fan related (41F1 Electric Ventilator - Short Circuit to B- & 4B22 Electro Ventilator).

I'm guessing the glow-plug "errors" might be a timing thing - how long I wait before starting the car after turning on the ignition. I DO see the "Pre-Heating" message on really cold days - comes on for 3-5seconds - but these errors are logged on warm days when the glow-plugs shouldn't be called up. Dunno...? :dunno:

Car starts instantly, summer or winter, hot or cold.

The aux. fan codes are going to cause me lost sleep until I pull the unit and check for corrosion in the central housing - the fan runs fine but something is causing the errors. I'll run some activation tests with INPA on the weekend to confirm this.

INPA - a whole new world of worry! :confused:

Fuel tank breather valve swapped... It was a constant error so just swapped.


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got my front end kit and refreshed it. no more clunking or shaking, just have to get an alignment done next week now.

Replaced the valve body on my 4.8. Shifts much nicer, no more delay in reverse and the 4-5 soft shift is gone.
Now I think I'll look into the paddle shift mod.


http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...c3f9e24697.jpg

Nice!