What does the blue book say for each car (to give you a relative idea of price for both)?

What are the option differences between the two cars?

How well have each been followed in terms of maintenance and proactive (change transmission fluid and other items)?

Color - do you like one vs. the other? A perfect car with pink exterior might perhaps not be someone's first choice :)

An '01 has some advantages (simpler driveline) vs. an '04 (iDrive with solenoid system).

If apples are to apples, the options are equal, the miles are equal, the colors are both desirable, I would definitely NOT think that 01 vs. 04 garners double the price.

Perhaps 01 compared to an '06 6-speed with everything else the same would creep up slightly, but even then, that's pushing it.


Care to share the ones you're looking at so we can offer opinions?

besides the one in NH, i have not found anything of that caliber yet. still looking.

Well I did the CDV Mod today on my 2005 and I can say after driving my new vehicle 1500 miles I can't believe I didn't do this mod on the first day I bought the SAV! Anyone who has yet to do this mod I will let you in on a little tip. THERE IS NO NEED TO PURCHASE THE NEW CDV VALVE from ZECHHAUSEN. All you do is remove the valve and reinstall the line into the master cylinder and voila perfect shifting. My old CDV valve is in the garbage and my wallet still has the $60 in it that I was thinking about spending on the Zechhausen unit. Cheers!

I found that out the hard way myself, when my mechanic was bleeding the brakes/clutch and installing the CDV for me he said "you know you probably can just thread the line back in the master" and I was like "ah just put the valve in anyway"

Every manual X5 needs their CDV deleted though you are right!

Awesome news! :thumbup:

I was just thinking about that job the other day, wondering if it would work out like that, and if I should have the Z-unit on hand before starting, just in case.

You said above that you reinstalled the line into the master cylinder; did you mean slave cylinder there? If memory serves, the CDV is on the slave... (lucky #13 in the diagram.) Just checking.

http://realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/i/w/131.png

Did you have any trouble bleeding the clutch after the mod? Did you have to bleed the brakes at all?

Sorry I meant the slave cylinder! #12 in the picture goes straight to #14 and its good to go. I pinched my rubber line with vice grips. I lost 1 drip of brake fluid and didn't even need to bleed it.

Awesome! That settles it; I'll have this done on mine by the end of this week. :thumbup:

Let us know how you like it Dave :)

A great popular mod has suddenly become a great FREE mod (and that's always a good thing!)

The machined out CDV was designed for owners with new X5s who didn't want to alert BMW to a modification that could theoretically impact driveline wear. It was never necessary, it was just cleaner to use the dummy CDV. All that has fallen by the wayside now that these vehicles are 10+ years old and the BMW warranty is ancient history.