Greydog

Try taking a look on www.realoem.com put in the last 7 digits of your Vin and search seats it may give you some clues as to what is there and what is an extra. If it doesn't show as an extra then my bet is it's part of the original harness

I believe the E53 was fitted with a complete wiring loom so under your seat you should find the spare plugs taped up. you will need the seats and the switch panel at the bottom of the centre console above the ash tray. Ooops don't forget check the fuse box and make sure there is a correct fuse in place.

M6 !! Who is ever going to get close enough to here it

Welcome Joe Enjoy your new ride

Hi James and Welcome 650i 6er while I have no direct experience I do have a friend who owns one he has had his from new in 2011 he has had quite a few niggles which all seem to be electrical. He has had issues with the soft top, seat adjustment, nav system and a few others which I forget now all were fixed under Warranty. Sadly the frustration caused has left him with a bad taste for BMW, however when he drives it he smiles and forgets every time he lets the beast out of the box. So my advise would be make sure absolutely everything works as it should when you want, and get a warranty just in case. Then smile when you let your beast out !!!

Hi Phil I assume your car is an E46 they had the following wheels 7JX17 ET:47 X 4 Part No 36116753816 A previous owner has brought the wider copies to give a staggered set up similar to the M3. Have you tried a good wheel refurbishing company I had two wheels buckled on my AMG and they were recovered and refinished

You have an alternator, AC pump, Power Steering and Water pumps plus the tensioner. I would first check the belt condition as a frayed belt will make strange noises. I would also check that the cooling fans are operating as they should AFAIK the 4.8 has electric engine fans. Replacing the tensioner and belt is good practice and while the belt is off you can check all the other pulleys for any side movement and free running. To fix your door lock you will need to remove the door card and peel back the vapour barrier to get access to the lock the issue will be corrosion on the lock mechanism if you use the search function we covered this recently in the X5 section Hope it's all simple fixes Good luck

I know where to come when I need a boy with big muscles then !! I bet that was a lump. ZF seems to be the best box in the X5 though I have read some early boxes did have some motronic valvebody issues they seem to have been rare in fairness to ZF. Did you use your old torque converter or fit a new one? If you used your old one then you could have (technical term now) Crap from your old converter in your new box so a flush will definitely help things. I would also look for a good auto box/ZF specialist to ensure you have the latest software in the box. fingers crossed it is a simple fix bud there should be a reward for hard work.

Question your side angel eyes are they LED? If you took out the lamp to look at it try taking it out and turning it 180 deg LED lamps are current direction sensitive.

Looking at realoem the 3.0 and 4.4 have the same disc/caliper size and set up you need to go to the 4.6 or 4.8 to get bigger discs and calipers. You have 19" wheels which will fit fine with bigger setups but remember your spare is 17" (or should be) not a major issue until your miles from home and need it. 18" spare wheels come up fairly frequently on Ebay for not a lot of money.

I believe your right from what I have read it uses ambient and engine temperature to decide if it needs to fire up.

Dont panic it's BMW's way of checking your heart rate the warning lights are probably ABS and 4x4 drive forward and go lock to lock that normally resets those after battery change. The indicator is a fail safe in case you loose side lights. I would check the fuses and the side lamp bulb. I am not sure what you are seeing under the cover by the battery there should be the radio BM54 it will have a large square quadlock connector and the radio antenna the small unit with 3 connectors is (or should be) the PDC (park Distance Control) on the right of the battery should be the TV Video module with 2 antenna connections and 2 connectors 1 blue 1 white. The Sat Nav is in the left cubby with the CD changer the telephone/blue tooth if fitted is below these two I will try and take some pictures of mine tomorrow

Have a look on BMWvin.com last 7 digits of your vin that will tell you what was ordered The loom will be there but the connectors will be taped up if it wasn't fitted at build. The Telephone/Bluetooth unit will be under the left hand cubby floor. Lift out the floor panel on the left are 2 molded plastic floor supports held in place by plastic nuts, take them out and beneath you will find the loom if Telephone/Bluetooth was fitted you will see a large connector if it was never specified the connector is there but will be wrapped to the loom. BMW were not at the front of the queue with their Bluetooth technology many struggle to get modern phones to connect reliably and it never supported streaming. While the floor is out lift out the spare unbolt the air compressor and tip back and you will see an L shaped plastic cover around the battery 3 screws and take it out if you have a TV module it will be on the right hand side buried it has blue and white connectors if the unit isn't there the connectors will be taped up. somewhere. You will also find 2 antenatal leads taped up in the vicinity.

You could fit the Brakes as fitted to the 4.6is 4.8is models but remember these will require a minimum 18" wheel size to give clearance. The advantage is that all the fittings will be available either new or from a BMW specialist dismantler.

Leave the wife at home that will be the easiest fix !! Do your seats have a pull out knee support ? I believe these are comfort

Morning Regarding your Aux Heat on your screen check if it says Aux heat or Aux Vent all cars have Aux vent which can enable the fans in very hot conditions, For Aux heat check under the bonnet right hand side for the Webasto unit if it is there you may find it has been disabled for some reason. TV and Telephone again I would make a physical check for the units, telephone lift the top of the armrest you will either see a phone or phone holder or if it has bluetooth a tray with a voice symbol pairing button. In the boot left hand cubby lift the floor and undo the nuts holding down the plastic covers you should see the phone charging unit or bluetooth module below the Nav unit and CD changer. Strange that they are either not there or disabled?? With the software sometimes it cant see modules due to a poor connection at the module even if the module is working fine. Mine couldn't see my gearbox but I knew it was there and working fine as I went through all the connectors with contact cleaner and refitting hey presto gearbox appeared.

Morning I assume it is the 3.0i petrol the X5 is a heavy beast for the 6 to pull around I did now a lad in Worthing that had a tuned 3.0i it wasn't very economical though, not much to choose between his and mine in MPG. That might have had something to do with his right foot though. He had it converted to LPG as well, so if it's power you want trade it for a V8 or a Diesel the diesel responds well to tuning. If its economy trade it for the Diesel Hope this helps

I believe all the ibus controlled cars are interchangeable but I think they only did sport or comfort seats so choice is limited check on real oem

Morning Martin In the boot under the spare wheel you will find the Radio (BM54) and the TV module. Bit of a faff but you have to lift the spare out undo 3 bolts that hold the suspension compressor and tip it back. Then you will see an "L" shaped plastic cover 3 screws and lift it out and there will be the Radio unit parallel to the bumper and on the right hand side the TV module (blue and white connectors) it should be a digital unit on your model. If it isnt there they do come up on ebay but are silly money a cheaper option may be an analogue tuner then add a freeview box simple to do and works well. With my digital tuner it finds channels but doesn;t display them added a cheap free view box all good (though never used) but I am a bit OCD about stuff working.

I just checked BMWvin wow the site has changed since I last looked and not for the better in my opinion. It shows my car as having a sunroof which it has never had, in fact I looked hard for one without on purpose. So sorry matey looks like I steered you wrong there. Have fun with 1.4.0 it will find you jobs you didn't know existed, HaHa. On a serious note I like to know everything is working correctly and it really helps, most of the issues I have dealt with have come down to poor electrical contact. So a can of contact cleaner and some patience releasing connectors cleaning and re-connecting plus a steady hand with a fine soldering iron (drivers door heated mirror) and the old girl has a fault free pedigree, well so far.

I will have to log on and see what comes up it is about 6 years since I used it myself. Glad to see you chose a car in Estoril Blue by far the fastest colour. If you don't have a code reader enter a search on Ebay for BMW 1.4.0 I had an old laptop that I use in the garage but if you dont have an old machine set up a virtual machine on any laptop running windows. You will be able to read fault codes (in english) reset them and recode many operations, such as auto locking at move off, Key response drivers door one press all doors two presses.

Now to answer your question www.Realoem.com will give you the parts spec and part numbers available for your model at the time of manufacture including all options. Very useful for ensuring you have to replace items and need to know it will fit. Plus the assembly diagrams are a great help (well they have been to me) www.bmwvin.com same process enter the last 7 digits of your vin and it will show you the build sheet all the standard kit plus any options ordered at sale. Other than idle curiosity as to how extravagant or not the first owner was, and possibly indicating if something has been removed I find it little use. Most BMW X5's are pre-wired for just about all options so upgrading is pretty much plug and play with E53 Ibus cars later cars (E70 etc) items may need coding to the car to enable items to function. With the E53 the only one that's a faf would be converting from Business radio to factory wide screen Nav as this would require the fitting of a lot of kit in the boot and a dedicated loom to the front from the boot. Much simpler to fit an after market unit. Hope this helps

Morning and Welcome Which X5 do you have?

Welcome Dan The 3.0d is one of the worlds great engines not just BMW's and will easily outlive turbo's and gearboxes. You don't mention mileage but assuming its automatic it will have a ZF box BMW chose to treat the gearbox as "sealed for life" while ZF say it should be serviced at 80 to 100k km about 60k miles so many BMW maintained cars have box problems above a 100k miles just through poor maintenance. So the fact the box has been changed isnt unusual and if it changes smoothly up and down in all modes and is maintained should give many years service. Turbo's spin at ridiculous rpm's and get incredibly hot so they too are known to fail however if the turbo has been changed did they check the intercooler? Intercoolers can get loaded with oil as a turbo starts to fail then when a new turbo is fitted the extra boost push's oil into the engine the results can be Um interesting !! Voice of experience here. So providing it drives well should be smooth and tight no rattles or shakes and absolutely everything works as it should don't be put off. However you raise colour so it isnt quite the car for you, I would keep looking and get just what you want.

Morning Alan Your a boy with the spanners, top man, that must be a bl**dy heavy lump to heave about. OK simple stuff first, no chance a propshaft is loose? That would have slack at start but once moving the load would be constant. BMW ran 2 gearboxes GM and ZF I believe the GM box was in the early models ZF from late 2001 on (someone with more knowledge may correct me here) If the box is the same as the box removed and it is ZF then at 72k by ZF's own schedules it is due a fluid change which you have done but word of caution here make certain you have used the correct fluid. You can buy cheaper "compatible" fluids but it is a false economy. I would start with a drain and refill using the OEM fluid and filter as now you have run it you will have mixed it with whatever was in the torque converter so effectively a complete flush almost. Then if it persists I think it must be software related I know BMW/ZF had several software upgrades your car may be more advanced than the box or visa versa any good Autobx centre or garage with autolgic readers should be able to tell and update. Fingers crossed its simple Dave