XSeries-forum

You can get them BMW fitted but the prices I quoted are not. I was quoting Westfalia then asking the question about the integration with the ECU and the stability function as I'm not sure of the answer to this. I have a feeling another box of tricks might be needed but this may already be in the car. It might be worth starting a separate post on towbars as it would probably attract more interest and be more useful to future visitors.

BMW do fit the Westfalia towbars.
I had one fitted to my 2001 3.0d sport by a local towbar firm. The cost a couple of years ago was about £350, including 13 pin electrics.
The car had self leveling suspension, so no mods to suspension were required. Don't know about stability control though - only quite moden caravans have this fitted - mine does not

Everything is hidden behind the removable part of the lower rear bumper so when the bar is removed there is no indication that a towbar is fitted. The bar itself fits under the floor of the boot next to the spare wheel when not fitted to the car.

HTH

Graeme.

Iirc correctly there's a special module that when fitted communicates with the car to cause the DSC to activate the towing stability control program so car recognises the trailer & behaves accordingly.

TRAILER TOWING MODULE Part number 61356955253

Worth checking if this for both facelift & prefacelift as mindful the later facelift cars have xdrive which may affect things............Not sure.

I believe towequiope used to sell a suitable module & I believed their more expensive E53 rowbar listings on ebay included it or an equivalent part - hard to tell as their listings aren't clear as to what you exactlky get for ytour money.

I apologise for not knowing more............Maybe worth a call to speak with them or other suppliers if so motivated.

Personally I would want to make sure I fitted the proper parts if doing a towbar instalation.

In summary it s a case of deciding which towbar to go for whether single, dual electrics or single with an adaptor are required plus making sure the car has correct module fitted if so desired.

i've found out the car i looked at has got a detachable towbar with single electrics behind the centre panel.
All thats really wrong is the pixel issue, a chip on the bumber down to the plastic about the size of a 10p coin and the odd supermarket dink

I'm interested in making an offer they are looking for offers around £8700, any ideas

[quote=""richjt""]i've found out the car i looked at has got a detachable towbar with single electrics behind the centre panel.
All thats really wrong is the pixel issue, a chip on the bumber down to the plastic about the size of a 10p coin and the odd supermarket dink

I'm interested in making an offer they are looking for offers around £8700, any ideas[/quote]

Is the car coming from a dealer? Push for a big discount, say around the 8k mark, if he wont drop the price that much then work on him for an extended warranty. If it's a private sale I would push for even more off, on the whole, the general public don't like haggling.

Don

the X5 i was looking at is now sold, so have been having a look round local to me to see what available

the first one i looked at was this one, very tidy vehicle 2 owners, full history with receipts i haven't test drove it because i was a bit pushed for time but he won't budge on the price, i have no px
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p
The next one is this one, once again very tidy 3 owners ? history but only stamps no receipts to back up the history, he did say the roof was sticking a bit because it hasn't been used once again won't budge on the price for no px
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

the guy selling the facelift said the gearboxes on the facelift models weren't prone to failure as much as the pre facelifts is there any truth in this?

cheers guys

My facelift 2005 3.0d auto failed (torque converter) at 42k miles/4yrs9mths - that answer your question? Judging by the numbers of BMWs in the repairer's yard for auto failure of one sort or another, I'm not sure there's any real difference. There was allegedly a 'Mk2' 6-sp box from 2006 onwards. No idea what was different about it though, or how you tell the difference.

The first one seems like a good price.
I'm currently trawling the market to see what stuff is going for and at 71,000 miles that a good price even though it hasn't got the sat nav.
It depends how important that is to you really. I really want it because I tow my drift car around alot and hitching up a trailer at 4 in the morning on your own is tricky so I want to fit a reversing camera.

I think the second one is about where it should be for the mileage. And being a face lift with the satnav, they command more money due to being newer..

I think the answer to the autobox question is a case of when and not if....
I'm toying with the idea of getting a higher mileage car that has had the box at least done already. Maybe even the turbo...

i've driven a 04 plate sport tonight,beautiful drive once again, full history last serviced in December, 92k, mot till August. no sat nav and heated seats though it's for sale at a Volvo dealer £12000 with a 12 month warranty and breakdown cover at the moment i've got the price to £11500 with 6 months road tax with it, only thing is it's going to the auction on Wednesday so i need to give them an answer by 12 o'clock tomorrow.

I only came across this by chance driving past the garage this morning they said then it was off to the auction on Wednesday, it's only been on the forecourt a couple of weeks a px for one of the 4x4 volvos

mate my advice is that the X5 3.0d's in particular don't seem to hang around too long, especially the ones in black with the right options. If the car has a full history and you are happy with the spec and test drive then take the plunge. A aftermarket warranty can de-risk the costly failure items such as turbo's and autoboxes.

I have noticed how quick they sell, this one at the volvo dealer is silver. i would have liked this sat nav and heated seats, but at least being the facelift it's got the extra power and the angel eyes

i've seen one with sat-nav but no tv how much of a job is it to get the tv
also how much would an additional key cost

Ive just checked on the dvla website to see when exactly the car i had seen was registered and it came back with the following:-

Date of First Registration with DVLA 01 11 2006
Date of First Registration 07 11 2003

what is this all about does anyone know?

Date could be that the car was registered outside the UK. Does it have a private plate on it. My last car did and it came from ireland.

regarding a towbar I got my one from PF jones with a dedicated wireing kit westfalia. Kit was a bit more expensive but saved time for fitting and as far as I know plugs straight into harness. cant remember how much but was the cheapest at the time.

Could have been bought overseas by a Brit and then brought to this country later. My first car was a VW that was bought in Germany by a member of the RAF on duty there. When he returned to the UK a couple of years later only then did it appear on the UK database. The V5 had a comment 'Not new when first registered' on it with the date of first registration and the date in the UK.

It should not be anything suspicious, but you could ask BMW to tell you where the vehicle was registered/used.