anyone convert there mechanical tensioners?
 

has anyone converted there mechanical tensioners to hydraulic ones like these.
BMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L Engine Drive Belts ES#517967 Hydraulic Alternator Belt Tensioner Conversion Kit - 11287838797

never knew the M54 had mechanical ones.
I think even my M70 has hydraulic ones. I THINK. I've not had to replace them lately :)

I haven`t looked at mine close enough to tell but I thought the 3.0i had them.

I like your sig clockwork lmao

Do you need to hook it up to an oil line?

^No you don't.
The benefit of a hydraulic tensioner is that you can replace the bearing down the road when it goes bad instead of the whole tensioner. Some E39s came with hydraulic tensioner while others came with mechanical ones.

tmv so that kit should just bolt up in place of the mechanical tensioner with no mods I assume?

I think theres a different couple bolts but it is no different in mounting IIRC.

Some later build E53's came standard with hydraulic tensioner, I would pop the intake shroud off and have a look and see if you can tell if yours has a mechanical one or not, my indy did my tensioners, pulleys and belts last year and although I bought a hydraulic tensioner "conversion kit" from ECS, I was pretty sure he told me that I had a hydraulic tensioner from the factory.

mine was born in aug 2003 so I`ll take a look on a warm day./

The reason BMW changed the mechanical tensioner to hydraulic tensioner on the M54 engine is due to warping of the OFH. The mechanical tensioner has 2 points of attachment, the hydraulic tensioner has 3 points of attachment with a stronger bracket. When the OFH starts to warp (due to the only 2 points of tightening), there will be noise coming from the front of the engine, very hard to pinpoint. Might sound like a failing WP bearing. BMW issued a service bulletin (SIB 11 04 03), which has the subject as "Noise complaints from mechanical alternator belt tensioners".

This thread created by Eurodavid has the issue with the fix on Page 3 - it's post #46. In detail.

^ that was a good read read thanks doru