NEW TO E53
 

Hey gents, just picked up a 2003 3.0 Topaz Blue 95,000 miles. Nice unit with a couple cosmetic issues, and a mechanical. Ive had a couple of BMWs prior, but this is my first X5.

Interior has typical wear on Driver bolster, and Driver interior grab handle is worn bad.

At some point, a USB interface was added to factory deck, and has knocked out my dash blinkers, volume on wheel, and reverse lights. I have read many posts on this, and could care or less about the USB, and would like to remove it to get this stuff working again, any tips would be great, oh forgot to mention (No CD Changer) so maybe the USB is wired directly to the deck? Still have to look.

Mechanical seems really good, accept for one issue, while traveling at 35 miles or more, I get a drone or a hum from the rear, At first I thought it was the front, and could be the ever so common thrust arm bushings, but def. rear. From what I've read, check the sub frame bushings x4 first. Again any other input would be great.

Thanks
Curtis

Took out both head unit and cd player, looks like someone had an aftermarket deck in there atone time. There was a harness that you could plug the BMW stereo plug into and it goes to a single DIN stereo plug. The red and a Yellow wire are still spliced in somewhere, but harness is not being used. Also spliced into this aftermarket harness is what looks to be an iPod interface box. Should I just remove all of this?

Should try to identify what ipod integration unit the PO installed. Perhaps you can find the installation instruction on line and work backward from there.

The unit is a small black box with rounded corners, no labelling or numbers at all. there are 2x red LED lights on the biggest part of the unit.
All the info I can give. I could upload a photo.