Bought this one
Brand New Left Front Outside Door Handle Carrier for BMW x5 E53 51218243615 | eBay

I pulled the part# from RealOEM and searched it. I found the cheapest one from a US seller. Works great and fits like a glove, all except that one stupid screw, but OEM screw works perfect.

I'm amazed at the condition of the underside (13yrs, 200k miles, no snow/ice/slush/mud). Finding paint marker dates all over the underside (7&8 2003).

The last chassis wash was over 1 yr ago.

that is crazy clean

Looks Great!

Did a gravity bleed on my 4.6is brakes earlier. One nice thing about these 20's and off road tires is I can use my creeper and roll underneath it and open up the bleed screw without taking the wheels off.No jack stands or anything. I am going to change the rear diff fluid just by rolling underneath. Space is a bit tight, but very manageable.

Is that a new driveshaft on the X5? it looks pretty clean for an underneath item.:D

That driveshaft is the original.

Edit; The thought arose that the shaft may have been replaced without it being in service history pre-ownership by me, found the manufacture date and took pic, 26.06.03 (6-26-03). Around 6 weeks prior to truck build date.

:iagree:

And you get a few more inches if you raise the Air suspension too before creeping down there.

soon I will be doing the power steering pump, slight play in the shaft, starting to make a rattle noise only at idol, goes away as soon as you press on the gas, had my steho scope to check it out.

Performed an oil change and tightened all the bolts around the reinforcement plate in hopes of solving the steering knock.