£800 on a BMW X5….. bargain or borkfest
Discussion
I’ll start off this thread with a little insight as to how I’ve landed here, in a sub £1000 X5, as my everyday car which may well be a bargain or a complete ruinous borkfest…..
Here goes, after having my S204 C63 for a year quickly the novelty of using it daily with fuel nudging £1.50 a litre was wearing off and I wanted to get my drive and front garden sorted as they are both in a terrible state of disrepair. I Sold the C63 and I’m using the equity from that to fund my home improvements.
I did initially plan to use my Mk5 Golf GTI as a daily but that’s not ready so I needed something and fairly quickly.
Gumtree came up trumps, with this absolute shed of an X5 for £800, 15miles away. It was (still is) rough as hell but it’s a facelift diesel with the 6speed box and a towbar. I’ll have it.
These are the night I picked it up
Looks ok from a distance, the seller was honest in that he’d been using it as a work horse, didn’t care too much about it and after the drivers door handle carrier broke for the 3rd time he was getting something else. He replaced this with an E70 X5
On the face of it, it needed more than a weekend of spannering, but at this price range it was worth a gamble
NSR Suspension was down
Brakes needed attention
Both front door handle carriers were broken
Knocks from front suspension
No record of a service within last 2 years
Radio inop
Only 1 non working remote key
Needed a rear tyre
Towbar sockets hanging loose
Smoky on startup
Those tailpipes, fake tailpipes, needed to go.
Quite a list, I thought I’d start with the big jobs, brakes and rear suspension,I fitted pads all round and the rear suspension was a level sensor that had span round into the wrong position. It can’t be that easy surely??
It was, I couldn’t believe my luck but we weren’t out of the woods yet.
The smoking on startup was bothering me, so I ordered a service kit and crank case breather as I wasn’t sure when either were last done. It’s a good job I did as it had been a while since this car had seen any attention, the crank case breather was the old “loo roll” type and it was choked solid. I fitted the new vortex type then carried out a service and hoped for the best. Its cleared itself out and appears to be fine. No smoke on startup any longer.
I cracked on with the rest of the list I had made, and bar the knocking from the front which I suspect to be the anti roll bar bushes and links it’s ready to use. The knocking is being addressed next week along with a new thermostat.
These pics were taken just after I done the suspension and brakes, I decided to give it a well needed bath
Look at those tailpipes…… yuk.
This was the car last week with more jobs carried out, it’s starting to look a bit more presentable.
That’s me up to date with it, the spend so far is roughly £1300, if I can keep it below £2k and get 6 months out of it I will be delighted
The driveway works start in a couple of weeks which I’m hoping will improve the spannering and parking facilities hugely.
Here goes, after having my S204 C63 for a year quickly the novelty of using it daily with fuel nudging £1.50 a litre was wearing off and I wanted to get my drive and front garden sorted as they are both in a terrible state of disrepair. I Sold the C63 and I’m using the equity from that to fund my home improvements.
I did initially plan to use my Mk5 Golf GTI as a daily but that’s not ready so I needed something and fairly quickly.
Gumtree came up trumps, with this absolute shed of an X5 for £800, 15miles away. It was (still is) rough as hell but it’s a facelift diesel with the 6speed box and a towbar. I’ll have it.
These are the night I picked it up
Looks ok from a distance, the seller was honest in that he’d been using it as a work horse, didn’t care too much about it and after the drivers door handle carrier broke for the 3rd time he was getting something else. He replaced this with an E70 X5
On the face of it, it needed more than a weekend of spannering, but at this price range it was worth a gamble
NSR Suspension was down
Brakes needed attention
Both front door handle carriers were broken
Knocks from front suspension
No record of a service within last 2 years
Radio inop
Only 1 non working remote key
Needed a rear tyre
Towbar sockets hanging loose
Smoky on startup
Those tailpipes, fake tailpipes, needed to go.
Quite a list, I thought I’d start with the big jobs, brakes and rear suspension,I fitted pads all round and the rear suspension was a level sensor that had span round into the wrong position. It can’t be that easy surely??
It was, I couldn’t believe my luck but we weren’t out of the woods yet.
The smoking on startup was bothering me, so I ordered a service kit and crank case breather as I wasn’t sure when either were last done. It’s a good job I did as it had been a while since this car had seen any attention, the crank case breather was the old “loo roll” type and it was choked solid. I fitted the new vortex type then carried out a service and hoped for the best. Its cleared itself out and appears to be fine. No smoke on startup any longer.
I cracked on with the rest of the list I had made, and bar the knocking from the front which I suspect to be the anti roll bar bushes and links it’s ready to use. The knocking is being addressed next week along with a new thermostat.
These pics were taken just after I done the suspension and brakes, I decided to give it a well needed bath
Look at those tailpipes…… yuk.
This was the car last week with more jobs carried out, it’s starting to look a bit more presentable.
That’s me up to date with it, the spend so far is roughly £1300, if I can keep it below £2k and get 6 months out of it I will be delighted
The driveway works start in a couple of weeks which I’m hoping will improve the spannering and parking facilities hugely.
Thanks for the positive feedback.
This was the result of last weekends handywork.
The E53 X5 as most know doesn’t have visible pipes in diesel form but shares the same bumper as the Petrol equivalents with visible tailpipes. The diesel uses blanks in the bumper where the pipes protrude on the petrol models.
My car had these pipes welded to the rear of the original boxes, they offered no gain other than visually hurting my eyes. I took a grinder home from work to rectify this visual disaster and found out it was no use. I wasn’t being defeated, a trip to B&Q for a reciprocating saw wielded the desired results
Before
During
After
A vast improvement, along with the towbar socket being re mounted and replaced.
This was the result of last weekends handywork.
The E53 X5 as most know doesn’t have visible pipes in diesel form but shares the same bumper as the Petrol equivalents with visible tailpipes. The diesel uses blanks in the bumper where the pipes protrude on the petrol models.
My car had these pipes welded to the rear of the original boxes, they offered no gain other than visually hurting my eyes. I took a grinder home from work to rectify this visual disaster and found out it was no use. I wasn’t being defeated, a trip to B&Q for a reciprocating saw wielded the desired results
Before
During
After
A vast improvement, along with the towbar socket being re mounted and replaced.
Really interested in how you get on with this.
insert coin said:
That is dirt cheap, you could scrap it in 12 months and get your money back?
What’s the interior like? Don’t these usually have bits of the display missing? Any satnav or premium audio?
The Interior I’ll get pics of next week, but everything works. What’s the interior like? Don’t these usually have bits of the display missing? Any satnav or premium audio?
Unfortunately it doesn’t have nappa leather like some, it’s the cheaper stuff, but it has electric seats. I was also delighted to find it still has the original carpet mats with OEM rubber over mats and an OEM plastic boot liner.
The only thing not working is the display for the mileage, the dash otherwise functions perfect and it’s only a blown bulb that I’m waiting on replacements arriving. No pixels missing which is almost unheard of in one of these.
I’m not sure if this car came with Nav, it had a cheap aftermarket Chinese head unit fitted that didn’t work. The boot has been stripped of the CD changer and anything else it may have had from the factory.
In keeping with the threads budget I have retrofitted an aftermarket pioneer unit, I don’t particularly like it but the total cost has been under £100 including the fascia adaptor and gives me DAB+ along with Bluetooth. If the car proves to be good I’ll remove this and fit an android unit that looks original but gives me the functionality of the pioneer.
Edited by martin mrt on Saturday 28th August 11:07
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