XSeries-forum

Afternoon all

Have been reading this site for a number of weeks now but am finally picking up my X5 tomorrow, so thought I had better join!

Have previously owned all sorts of cars; an escort xr3i, vauxhall vectra, MG ZR (worst car I have ever had the misfortune to be associated with!), Mondeo ST220, Impreza WRX, Merc C220 sport and my last two cars have been an E46 coupe and an E60 M Sport saloon.

I'm fed up of not being able to move my car in any kind of snow as the E60 just throws a fit and refuses to go anywhere with even the smallest covering of the white stuff so I've decided to get an X5

I've gone for a 3.0i E53 in black, completely standard at this moment in time with full BMW service history and verified low mileage. Here's hoping I have an enjoyable ownership!

P

(Will upload some pics at the earliest opportunity after I collect!)

Nice one mate. I just picked mine up on Saturday. Its quite a different drive to a 5 series

Welcome mate! Funnily enough that's same reason I went for an X5 as my old E46 330ci was useless in the snow.
The X5 on the other hand is superb.
Nice car! quite rare to see 3.0l Petrol. Well around my way anyway

+1 for the interesting handling of the E46 330Cd in 'iffy' weather.  We've still got ours (a rare M Sport Convertible) but only for good weather use.  My X6 and her 4x4 Mini Countryman are the usual fleet.

Welcome to the Forum and no doubt you'll be in communications with the usual suspects for a list of mods to make you car even more 'tasty'.

Richard 

Hello & welcome  enjoy picking your new X5 up & I look forward to the 

Welcome

Welcome aboard and congrats on the purchase.

How do you find the 3 litre lump for such a heavy motor?

Also interested in the future plans.

Cheers for the welcomes everyone

Picked up the X5 yesterday and very pleased so far drives really well (touch wood) and gives a great feeling of 'presence' on the road. Took me a few miles and corners to adapt my driving style from the E60 but finding it better and more enjoyable with each trip out.

Gotta a few small things I want to tidy up before I look into any larger scale changes. Could do with some advice on the below areas, I've searched and read through the majority of the site so hopefully shouldn't be too repetitive from other threads!

1. Does anyone have a recommendation for where I can pick up front and back roundels in black carbon fibre?

2. Pixels need fixing, I believe a member called rudi can help with this? I've seen another thread where I think he did the pixels and fitted some leds to the clocks for someone.

3. Window tints - have a mate who's a professional tinter who will sort this for me.

4. Speaker replacement - dont want anything special just looking to replace the standard speaker set up with some higher quality alternatives. It doesn't have the audio upgrade.

5. I need two of the little plastic gromit type things that sit around the door locks in the top of the door cards. Not sure how to explain myself properly but will be setting up a photo bucket account later so I can upload some pics to explain myself better! Ha ha

6. De tango headlights, I have the xenons but no angel eyes so not sure whether to replace the whole units or just modify the ones I already have. You'll come to learn I have little patience and tend to pay to have something straight away rather than have to wait and do it myself! I'm like a big kid really! Ha ha

Once the above things are sorted then I can move on to the more expensive additions

P

1. Badgeman on eBay. I think it might be badgeman33 but do an advanced search. Had one on my 40d for 22 months no issues with washing, waxing etc. got 2 on my 50d now as well


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

Look for Depo headlights as an option - they are complete light unit replacements as cracking open the existing units is (or can be) very tricky.  The earliest ones could be baked open in an oven but BMW changed the glue and made that little trick impossible without extreme care.

Beware of front window tints if you are looking at those.  Was watching a Police prog on TV the other night and there was discussion about front window over-tints resulting in cars becoming uninsured as it was illegal to do that mod and failing to declare the mod to your insurer could of course result in no insurance.  It's also now illegal to sell a car with 'excessive' tints on the front (ahead of the 'B'-pillar) - that was a new one on me too - so don't go mad.

Realoem is a good place to look for part numbers.  If you put the last 7 characters of your VIN into the 'Serial Number' section then your car version will appear and you should find the clips in the Vehicle Trim section I think (you can select 'Picture Drill Down' to make it easier).

Richard

Depending on the year your car is you could bake the lights open. I think anything post 2002 used the new unbreakable glue. If its pre 2002 then its easy enough to do, just get a hair dryer and a flat head screw driver and just take your time. Well worth doing as Depo's can run up to aroun £250 and even then they have the yellowish angel eyes...

Thanks for the responses

Will do some more research into depo headlights and what it takes to modify my own

X5sport, I was aware of the legal requirements with regards to the % tint in front of the b pillar but it's news to me, as it was you, that it's illegal to sell a car on with an excessive tints. I'll speak to my mate and ensure that any tint on the front is within the legal requirements, might not even tint at all forward of the B pillar as I don't want to be taking to them with a Stanley blade at the side of the road if a friendly neighbourhood police officer takes objection to them!! Plus my girlfriend is a copper and she'd only moan at me anyway and that's never worth the hassle! Ha ha

Does anyone know the speaker sizes in the front and back without me having to take all the trim off and take a look?

Cheers

P

Having a brother who was a Det Chief Super - I feel your pain!!

I had to go and make sure what I heard really is the case, and it is.....

Tinted Window Rules

There's a pdf on there for the insomniacs too.......

Just a quick pic I took when I got home from work this morning

Will take more and better pics as I progress through with the work

Also Raj, just noticed I didn't reply to your question about the 3L lump -I don't want to start off on a bad foot appearing all ignorant! haha

Finding it responds well off the mark and in general so far, seems to take it's time when trying to accelerate up an incline but I think that is more down to my throttle management and driving style being used to the responsive nature of the E60. I am already noticing improvements as I further adapt my driving to what is required for the X5.

This is the first car I have bought for practicality rather than speed but it still holds it's own when required. It is not 'quick' by any stretch but then I guess it was never intended to be.

Very comfortable and smooth on the motorway cruising and on a par if not superior to the E60 I owned in that respect. I don't do much driving around town so can't comment on that much at this time. The shortest journey I have done so far is 17 miles to work and that's mostly on the 3 lane dual carriageway A46.

Cheers

P