newbie with a v8 in devon

[dazzasgotav8]

Thought i would pop in and say hello i have only had my x5 e53 for a few weeks now , its a 2004 v8 in black with black leather its far from mint in need of some work and recently the amber 4x4 light has come on i am bracing my wallet as we speak will be posting in the help section very soon hoping you guys can help me with my issues , will get some pics up when i have worked out how to thanking you all in advance ..

[Alan Gunn]

Welcome to the forum.
You will find a lot of knowledge oh here.

[graemeX5]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

The V8s are nice to drive and do make a great sound.

Hope the 4x4 prob is not too involved but there is a lot of help is available on here. If you do a search on here it's probably been raised before.

Graeme

[dazzasgotav8]

thank you all my v8 sounds awesome due to having a remus exhaust on it  , not sure where to post this but what is the best value for money diagnostic tool to get as i do all my own repairs up to now i have got by just using my trusty bluepoint microscan but this only does engines wont read my 4x4 fault .

Thanks Darren

[X5Sport]

Have a look at mycarly.  Uses a specific dongle to talk to Android or Apple devices (one size does not fit all) and reads the codes out.

You can also send error reports to Carly.

[dazzasgotav8]

was really looking for something more laptop based , so my question is are any of the discs and leads on ebay any good once loaded onto a laptop ???????

[dazzasgotav8]

bmw x5 1.jpg (197.13 KiB) Viewed 4205 times

thought about time i posted up a pic as you can see my window trims need some loving

[hennabm]

Hi dazza

Looking good

My window trims were like that as well. I've been treating mine to bumper care from Autoglym and they are looking better now.

Dare you look at the mpg? - what do you get from a V8? Mine is only the 3.0i straight six and manages 16.4mpg.

[dazzasgotav8]

why thank you , i dont look at mpg when it needs fuel i put it in i am use to low mpgs as my other cars a v8 need to sort the trims out but the list of to do jobs is long and it seems as i sort one thing something else crops up

[dazzasgotav8]

thought i would pop a update on here , just as well driving me x5 puts a smile on me face everytime else with the list of issues i keep getting it would of been long gone by now , i am sure theses vehicles just crave attention i can only say if i had to pay someone to do my repairs i sure would not be able to afford to keep it , the main thing bugging me now is sorting out the stereo i cant believe such a high end car has such a low grade sound system whats that all about

[X5Sport]

I think BMW missed a trick there too, but given the original designs date back to before 1999 and the X5 inherited a lot from LandRover, it isn’t really a surprise. Even today the base model sound system isn't great but then in the UK at least the better ones attract a high BIK in the company car market and that it where most BMWs start life - at least in the executive car market.

The 90’s and early 2,000’s saw the era of BMWs being rep wagons whereas today that ‘clique’ has gone all Audi. I certainly remember cursing at ‘blasted BMW Drivers’ in 3 or 5 series, whereas today the worst drivers tend (in the area at least) to be in A3-A6 model Audi offerings.

[dazzasgotav8]

will in my bid to improve my sound i have got a sub box on its way to fit in the osr empty cubby hole , just cant decide yet whether to buy a repair board for the bm54 and fit myself or send it away to have it fixed , then i need to look into upgrading the door speakers thats is long as nothing else decides it wonts to fail in the mean time .

[sleepyfolk]

I gather the main lower door speakers are a bit of a pain due to the odd size of the hole, can’t quite remember but I read a couple of threads saying you can’t get a standard size that fits as BMW used a size that was 1/2 inch different to anything normal.
I didn’t bother changing the speakers so that’s just a bit of hearsay as mine had the 10 speaker premium sound with factory subs in the boot which are good enough for me, and the rest of it cost enough already!

[dazzasgotav8]

my plan is to add a sub first then slowly replace the oem speakers upgrading as i go so i can add amps to drive them also looking to add a reverse camera , plus i wont to look into adding a dvd in the rear to keep the kids happy