I just updated from Rod Sutphin's v9.5 to v11.2. Looking forward to feeling out teh car and feeling tehtweaks he's made. I think I liked the 7.5 I was on prior to the 9.5 best, it had adapted perfectly to very economical driving. Shifted early, and help a gear to let is spool very well, even at low rpm. (.5 seemed too eager to shift down for me, I find that its often faster to just stick in teh gear I'm in and use the turbos then to downshift and go. That's the main reason I love manual transmissions, it's the ability to actually let the motor use all the torque it can make in each gear.

So, here is the hose that was leaking like a sieve.

You see, when you are under the hood a couple of months ago, replacing the valve cover to stop the oil leak, having already replaced the OFHG and OCG, and you already see that OIL HAS DESTROYED ALMOST ALL OF THE RUBBER THAT GOT OIL ON IT, and here is the fun part...

YOU HAVE NEW BELTS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR FAT AZZ ON THE BENCH

You DON'T whine like a little beeyotch about how tired you are after putting all that stuff back together, you reach your little dick beaters down there and replace the damn belts! Otherwise, you will be picking hunks of cotton and strings of the shredded belt from EVERYwhere underneath the hood, and you will apparently have a ribbon of belt come off the power steering pump and drag on the coolant recovery tank hose and make a nice tidy hole that you can't see UNDERNEATH the power steering pump and leave a nice big puddle of your expensive coolant EVERYwhere. :rant:

So..... lesson learned. Don't be lazy. See it? FIX IT. I only regret that my foot and leg is not long enough to put up my OWN azz. That cost me WAY too much money in overnighted parts, Lyft and Uber, coolant.... and sanity.

So I bought a 2012 X5d with 60k miles last month after driving E53's for the past 18 years. On the drive home I closely watched the MPG's expecting mid-high 20's. I got 21mpg and I knew something was wrong. After searching through here, I theorized the thermostat was bad as the engine coolant never rose above 78*c. Last week the engine light came on, and error P0675 (bad #5 glow plug) confirming my suspicions.

Replaced:
Thermostat
waterpump
glow plug module
coolant flush
oil and filter change

This all took only about 4 hours as I've replaced most of those items on prior e53's. It would've taken ~3 hours had I not snapped off the coolant level sensor beneath the reservoir. $600 in parts, $0 labor. BMW gave me a quote of ~$3k, and my local indy ~$2500.

I also poorly replaced one coolant hose causing the hose to separate from its intended connection, spewing coolant, and stranding me on the road. A free AAA tow to the nearest store and off I go. Stupidity penalty accepted.

All and all, I'm loving the new truck and very thankful for this community!

Refilled the DEF fluid 700 miles from home after getting the reserve tank DEF fluid no start warning countdown. Just added 2 gallons as I did not want to over fill the main tank. Took a few minutes for the reserve tank to get filled back up via to the pump but warning is now gone. Not a big deal, but the wife was getting weirded out by the count down. ;)

I still have to replace my GPM, I've had it in the trunk for months now.... How was it? I've seen the guides and all, and started it once but then figured it was going to take longer than the 30 mins I had that day before needing the car again. Hoping to get to it this coming week.

Honestly, not bad at all if you follow the youtube posted in this thread. I loosened a few more hoses and removed an additional coolant hose as my hands couldn't quite get in the space needed. The long flat screwdriver is the key, as well as placing tape inside the sockets to reduce the chance of dropping them while navigating the hose spaghetti. 30min may be a bit tight to do this, but I'm comfortable saying 45min would be the max needed to do it again.

On a similar note, the x5 through the P0402 code yesterday and limped for a bit, but partially reset after restarting the engine. I removed and cleaned the EGR/EGR valve (wasn't too bad at all but did have a fair amount of oil present), replaced everything, and the engine light has gone away. Time will tell if the issue was resolved. I think the next project will be an intake clean. I have a feeling the last owner drove many miles on the failed thermostat.

Replaced my heater valve in hoping to get cooler AC [emoji2960][emoji2960][emoji2960]
Valve rubbers on the old valves were torn.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b595888981.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a249a4f5c2.jpg

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

Removed the Nokia cradle, running wiring to fit my GPS and dashcam (no support for the in-built GPS plus enormous $$$ to even get the last version of the DVD). New-to-me X5 4.8 since 4 days ago. First BMW after a life of Benz, Audi, and Holden (mostly).

Finally got my BMW software running!! It's unbelievable how hard it is to find information on that stuff. Turns out INPA is essentially useless for E70, I needed ISTA.

With ISTA running I was able to do the level calibration for the rear air suspension. Vehicle drives so much better today.

Also, had an on off issue with the right rear signal light. Bulb sockets in the rear housing are all burnt. Added an extra ground and everything seems to be working good again. Just waiting on new bulb sockets to show up in the mail now.