The V8 Bike Bus
Discussion
I've previous with dangling bikes off all manner of cars I've had, some of the more fun ones being Elises and my Caterham (Readers' Cars thread here).
I help at a youth mountain biking club. My kids attend too and we've had various vehicles for transporting our bikes to the rides. Best of the bunch have been the X5s we've had as the boots are big enough for our kit and the self-levelling suspension means that even with 4 mountain bikes hanging off a towbar carrier the vehicle remains level and drives pretty much as if the bikes aren't there which is certainly not the case with some of the estate cars we've also tried. Also as some of the venues we cycle from are accessed along tracks, something that can get down them through winter mud without getting stuck is more than a bonus.
I also occasionally need to tow a track car and again, from experience the X5s make superb tow cars. I've had various X5s in the past, all bar one have been petrol. Life's too short to drive something that sounds like a commercial vehicle just to save a few quid. Add in the quasi-science around the cleanliness of diesels plus the pain in the arse that DPFs and EGR nonsense can cause and I'd rather have to fill the tank slightly more often.
I'd previously had an E70 4.8i Sport. It was a good car but felt large. Strangely even larger than the F15 feels on the road. So I decided to hunt out a late, well-spec'd E53.
It's not well known that BMW tried the S62 in the E53 chassis as a prototype for a first-gen X5 M. The S62 sump won't fit with the transfer box and other 4wd nonsense so it would have had to run RWD only. They made one and tested it though. However, it was decided that the project was a non-starter as an X car had to have 4wd.
However, what it prompted was when they faclifted the e53, they made a 4.8is. This had the N62B48 which was a stroked B44 based on the parts Alpina used to make the B10. It made the same torque as an S62 and only 10% less power. It carried over the parts that were alledgedly considered for the never produced X5 M (in e53 form). They have a unique bodykit, wheels (20" as standard when Sport E53s had 19s), clocks carried over from the E39 M5 with the warm-up lights on the tacho and a temp gauge (normally reserved for M cars where the mpg swingometer otherwise sits) and all-round height adjustable air suspension. They are a fairly rare thing, as RRP with no options was £59,945. The similarly spec'd 4.4i Sport at the same time was £50,070 so you had to really want the 4.8is to spend the almost £10k extra or £20k more than the £39,110 a 3.0d Sport was.
So I watched the classifieds for a few months and saw various 4.8is pass through. They seem to be gaining interest and prices have started to firm up. Indeed there are some chancers speculating cars at asking prices that are fairly optimistic. I've seen more than one offered for over £11k since Christmas.
I chanced upon a car that looked to have lead a charmed life until recently being subject to numerous questionable aesthetic alterations. It also had a few niggles so it was cheap-ish for one, but it needs an amount of rescuing. I collected it, drove off and got all of 50 miles before it broke down, a dead alternator and no charge.
An RAC patrol-man came and gave it enough juice for me to start it and drive it off the motorway and then it got recovered back to Sussex.
So in the cold light of day, just what have I bought.....?
I help at a youth mountain biking club. My kids attend too and we've had various vehicles for transporting our bikes to the rides. Best of the bunch have been the X5s we've had as the boots are big enough for our kit and the self-levelling suspension means that even with 4 mountain bikes hanging off a towbar carrier the vehicle remains level and drives pretty much as if the bikes aren't there which is certainly not the case with some of the estate cars we've also tried. Also as some of the venues we cycle from are accessed along tracks, something that can get down them through winter mud without getting stuck is more than a bonus.
I also occasionally need to tow a track car and again, from experience the X5s make superb tow cars. I've had various X5s in the past, all bar one have been petrol. Life's too short to drive something that sounds like a commercial vehicle just to save a few quid. Add in the quasi-science around the cleanliness of diesels plus the pain in the arse that DPFs and EGR nonsense can cause and I'd rather have to fill the tank slightly more often.
I'd previously had an E70 4.8i Sport. It was a good car but felt large. Strangely even larger than the F15 feels on the road. So I decided to hunt out a late, well-spec'd E53.
It's not well known that BMW tried the S62 in the E53 chassis as a prototype for a first-gen X5 M. The S62 sump won't fit with the transfer box and other 4wd nonsense so it would have had to run RWD only. They made one and tested it though. However, it was decided that the project was a non-starter as an X car had to have 4wd.
However, what it prompted was when they faclifted the e53, they made a 4.8is. This had the N62B48 which was a stroked B44 based on the parts Alpina used to make the B10. It made the same torque as an S62 and only 10% less power. It carried over the parts that were alledgedly considered for the never produced X5 M (in e53 form). They have a unique bodykit, wheels (20" as standard when Sport E53s had 19s), clocks carried over from the E39 M5 with the warm-up lights on the tacho and a temp gauge (normally reserved for M cars where the mpg swingometer otherwise sits) and all-round height adjustable air suspension. They are a fairly rare thing, as RRP with no options was £59,945. The similarly spec'd 4.4i Sport at the same time was £50,070 so you had to really want the 4.8is to spend the almost £10k extra or £20k more than the £39,110 a 3.0d Sport was.
So I watched the classifieds for a few months and saw various 4.8is pass through. They seem to be gaining interest and prices have started to firm up. Indeed there are some chancers speculating cars at asking prices that are fairly optimistic. I've seen more than one offered for over £11k since Christmas.
I chanced upon a car that looked to have lead a charmed life until recently being subject to numerous questionable aesthetic alterations. It also had a few niggles so it was cheap-ish for one, but it needs an amount of rescuing. I collected it, drove off and got all of 50 miles before it broke down, a dead alternator and no charge.
An RAC patrol-man came and gave it enough juice for me to start it and drive it off the motorway and then it got recovered back to Sussex.
So in the cold light of day, just what have I bought.....?
I wasn't incredibly happy that it didn't even get me home, but just what had I bought?
It's a November 2004 4.8is in Sterling Grey. It's got an extensive service history with a fully-stamped book and a folder of receipts. In the last year it had £1700 spent on a service including the timing chain, rocker gaskets, one of the air suspension struts and the air controller. And it all seems to work well and it drove fantastically before it broke down. It's also really loaded including panoramic roof, heated rear seats, dynamic (steering) bi-xenons and the bits that were most important to me, detachable towbar, no side-steps and comfort seats.
But in the column entitled 'not so good': Someone's painted the grille black. Badly. The lights need a polish and it needs a new bonnet badge.
The steering wheel is really badly worn at the top. I wonder if it could even be from a Disklok it's so bad and so focused in that area. The driver's bolster is also f
ked. The rest of the interior is in really good condition though. No damage or scratched plastics.
The wheels have been painted grey, really badly over the original kerbed and corroded silver paint, it has tints that are much too dark and the rear lights are weird smoked things. It also has some odd rear camber going on which makes the wheels look like the offset's wrong and they're sat in too far. It also has a properly chav-tastic exhaust. It's a full stainless system and actually sounds quite good, the exhaust tips aren't pretty though. However the paint is good and underneath the tat I'm confident that there's a really nice car.
I gave it a first appraisal and whilst looking at the lights noticed that the light emitted from them was duller than you'd expect and on closer examination they appeared to actually be painted. An exploratory scrape with a razorblade confirmed that some tosser has painted them dark grey at some point.
So I crossed replacement OEM rear lights off my shopping list but added the task of removing the paint from them to my list of jobs.
First things first though, I had to get tit working again so I bought a replacement Valeo OEM spec alternator and fitted it. It's a straightforward job made difficult by how close the alternator is to the chassis rail. It was difficult to remove it and twice as difficult to reconnect the wiring and to get it back into the correct place and line the bolts up.
The battery that was fitted didn't seem to want to recharge either. It was a Yuasa silver, which Halfords now offer as their 'premium' range. The problem with them is they're a calcium cell and calcium cells don't like to be completely discharged. Doing so tends to make them scrap. I had it on charge for 3 days and the charger didn't seem able to get it going so I bit the bullet and spent the money on a Bosch AGM battery. The car doesn't need an AGM but from past experience of X5s, they have a lot of systems that rely on a solid battery voltage, so I decided the investment was worth it. It turned up and I fitted it. On an E53 it's hidden in a recess under the boot floor, under the airsuspension tank which is under the space-saver (if the car has one).
As luck would have it the Yuasa then started to take some charge, so after 4 days my smart charger had managed to coax it back into life. Having a large spare battery is useful so it's not the end of the world.
With the new alternator and battery fitted all of the faults the car had displayed before it died on my drive home, were suddenly fixed. It had reported ABS failure, transmission fault, check engine, air suspension inoperative, the stereo and nav had failed and other random glitches. With the voltage restored the faults all cleared as I'd hoped they would.
I then set to restoring the rear lights. I tried every kind of chemical means I could think of to remove the paint including old-fashioned brake cleaner. Some of them worked to a degree but the going was very slow and messy. In the end I settled on the following technique:
- Soaking in brake fluid and using a razor blade to scrape the paint off.
- Wet sanding with various grades of paper on a rotary sander
- Cutting compound on a rotary polisher
- And polishing with plastic polish
It was tedious, laborious stuff but the finished article made the effort worthwhile as they look so much better. Now the lights aren't grey the grey of the car is starting to pop more too and the colour is really growing on me.
Next job was a trip over to my favourite Indi, Olly at Owen garages for an oil service and a stamp in the book.
It's a November 2004 4.8is in Sterling Grey. It's got an extensive service history with a fully-stamped book and a folder of receipts. In the last year it had £1700 spent on a service including the timing chain, rocker gaskets, one of the air suspension struts and the air controller. And it all seems to work well and it drove fantastically before it broke down. It's also really loaded including panoramic roof, heated rear seats, dynamic (steering) bi-xenons and the bits that were most important to me, detachable towbar, no side-steps and comfort seats.
But in the column entitled 'not so good': Someone's painted the grille black. Badly. The lights need a polish and it needs a new bonnet badge.
The steering wheel is really badly worn at the top. I wonder if it could even be from a Disklok it's so bad and so focused in that area. The driver's bolster is also f
ked. The rest of the interior is in really good condition though. No damage or scratched plastics. The wheels have been painted grey, really badly over the original kerbed and corroded silver paint, it has tints that are much too dark and the rear lights are weird smoked things. It also has some odd rear camber going on which makes the wheels look like the offset's wrong and they're sat in too far. It also has a properly chav-tastic exhaust. It's a full stainless system and actually sounds quite good, the exhaust tips aren't pretty though. However the paint is good and underneath the tat I'm confident that there's a really nice car.
I gave it a first appraisal and whilst looking at the lights noticed that the light emitted from them was duller than you'd expect and on closer examination they appeared to actually be painted. An exploratory scrape with a razorblade confirmed that some tosser has painted them dark grey at some point.
So I crossed replacement OEM rear lights off my shopping list but added the task of removing the paint from them to my list of jobs.
First things first though, I had to get tit working again so I bought a replacement Valeo OEM spec alternator and fitted it. It's a straightforward job made difficult by how close the alternator is to the chassis rail. It was difficult to remove it and twice as difficult to reconnect the wiring and to get it back into the correct place and line the bolts up.
The battery that was fitted didn't seem to want to recharge either. It was a Yuasa silver, which Halfords now offer as their 'premium' range. The problem with them is they're a calcium cell and calcium cells don't like to be completely discharged. Doing so tends to make them scrap. I had it on charge for 3 days and the charger didn't seem able to get it going so I bit the bullet and spent the money on a Bosch AGM battery. The car doesn't need an AGM but from past experience of X5s, they have a lot of systems that rely on a solid battery voltage, so I decided the investment was worth it. It turned up and I fitted it. On an E53 it's hidden in a recess under the boot floor, under the airsuspension tank which is under the space-saver (if the car has one).
As luck would have it the Yuasa then started to take some charge, so after 4 days my smart charger had managed to coax it back into life. Having a large spare battery is useful so it's not the end of the world.
With the new alternator and battery fitted all of the faults the car had displayed before it died on my drive home, were suddenly fixed. It had reported ABS failure, transmission fault, check engine, air suspension inoperative, the stereo and nav had failed and other random glitches. With the voltage restored the faults all cleared as I'd hoped they would.
I then set to restoring the rear lights. I tried every kind of chemical means I could think of to remove the paint including old-fashioned brake cleaner. Some of them worked to a degree but the going was very slow and messy. In the end I settled on the following technique:
- Soaking in brake fluid and using a razor blade to scrape the paint off.
- Wet sanding with various grades of paper on a rotary sander
- Cutting compound on a rotary polisher
- And polishing with plastic polish
It was tedious, laborious stuff but the finished article made the effort worthwhile as they look so much better. Now the lights aren't grey the grey of the car is starting to pop more too and the colour is really growing on me.
Next job was a trip over to my favourite Indi, Olly at Owen garages for an oil service and a stamp in the book.
Edited by 573 on Tuesday 19th February 13:04
A big part of this project for me will be making this drive as well as it it possibly can. Hopefully I'll also improve the aesthetics along the way and modernise some of the toys it has to make it a nicer thing to use.
So with numerous important jobs pressing on I ignored all of them and got on with the first step of making it better to drive: lowering the ride height. One of the reasons I wanted a 4.8is is that they have factory air on the front and rear axle and have a height controller on the dashboard to select the different heights. I bought a set of links from http://www.airridelowering.com which you simply adjust to the length you want and then swap them with the standard links that are on the ride-height sensors.
The kit is really good, fitting is easy and back-up support from Mike, the company owner was fantastic. I lost one of the dust covers while fitting and he sent me 4 more and some spare balljoints next-day delivery at his own cost. This is how 'access mode' sits now:
If you plug a trailer into the tow-electrics it defaults to 'towing height' and sets the stability control and other things up accordingly. It can't differentiate between a trailer and a bike rack plugged into the electrics, so with the bikes on it defaults to the same height.
The main reason to get the car was for mountain biking and using it for the first time completely justified the purchase. It carried the bikes effortlessly, there's loads of room inside for our stuff and it managed to negotiate terrain to get to the spot we were cycling at that a 'normal' car just couldn't have done. I got to do skids in the wet mud too.
Next job was to take it back to Owen Garages to have new arms and bushes fitted to fix the rear camber issue and to then align the car based on the new rideheights. While dropping it off I liked this view of it with one of Olly's race cars and one of the mechanic's Disco. The X5 looks kind of like the offspring of the other two.
So with numerous important jobs pressing on I ignored all of them and got on with the first step of making it better to drive: lowering the ride height. One of the reasons I wanted a 4.8is is that they have factory air on the front and rear axle and have a height controller on the dashboard to select the different heights. I bought a set of links from http://www.airridelowering.com which you simply adjust to the length you want and then swap them with the standard links that are on the ride-height sensors.
The kit is really good, fitting is easy and back-up support from Mike, the company owner was fantastic. I lost one of the dust covers while fitting and he sent me 4 more and some spare balljoints next-day delivery at his own cost. This is how 'access mode' sits now:
If you plug a trailer into the tow-electrics it defaults to 'towing height' and sets the stability control and other things up accordingly. It can't differentiate between a trailer and a bike rack plugged into the electrics, so with the bikes on it defaults to the same height.
The main reason to get the car was for mountain biking and using it for the first time completely justified the purchase. It carried the bikes effortlessly, there's loads of room inside for our stuff and it managed to negotiate terrain to get to the spot we were cycling at that a 'normal' car just couldn't have done. I got to do skids in the wet mud too.
Next job was to take it back to Owen Garages to have new arms and bushes fitted to fix the rear camber issue and to then align the car based on the new rideheights. While dropping it off I liked this view of it with one of Olly's race cars and one of the mechanic's Disco. The X5 looks kind of like the offspring of the other two.
After investigating the excessive rear camber Owen Garages fitted new rear arms, lower rear ball-joints and front steering arms and track-rods. It then got an alignment. After picking it up it drove so much better. So I wasted no time fitting the spacers I'd bought. I went with H&R as I've used them before and the quality is very good. They're TUV approved which means they've had some level of quality assurance which seemed important to me for something that'll be holding the wheels on a 2-tonne truck.
I put 25mms on the front and 30s on the rear, so widening the track 50mm front and 60mm rear. I think it looks much better with the wheels pushed out filling the arches.
Pleasingly it seems to drive better too. The spring rate from the air-springs seemed a bit high running the ride-height lower than standard. The spacers will be reducing the effective spring rate slightly.
I then de-badged the rear and gave it a thorough clean. I focused on getting the plastics back to a deep black too.
At this time of the year it obviously got fairly filthy again almost instantly. I think it's really looking a lot better than when I bought it though.
I wanted to add some of the functionality that my newer cars have. Some simple things like triple-flash indicators you miss when you no longer have them. So I fitted an Intravee unit which connects into the car's loom and intercepts various signals and can modify them. I added the triple-flash indicators, but also fold /unfolding mirrors and follow-me home lights on lock / unlock. Auto-lock on drive off, SMS handling to the phone interface, PDC distance display, voice control and a few other things I can't remember. I connected the Intravee to an Alpine iPod interface too that does full control incuding track and artist display on the dash and full control from the head unit or steering-wheel controls.
It interfaces to the car through the CD player plug, so the CD changer is lost which is no issue at all for me. I wanted the components to neatly mount into the rack in the boot where the CD changer had been and for the wiring to all be completely hidden.
The hardest part of which has been getting the cables behind trim as it's all so ridiculously over-engineered and every part has a mass of fasteners and other parts that have to be removed first. Even this bit of trim in the boot took almost an hour to remove and get the cable behind.
It all fits very neatly though. I'm going to fit an inverter and UK 3 pin socket to the right of where the Apline plug is currently entering.
So far the cable exits under the rear seat so the next job is to get it under the carpet, through the centre console and up to where I decide to fit my iPhone mount.
I put 25mms on the front and 30s on the rear, so widening the track 50mm front and 60mm rear. I think it looks much better with the wheels pushed out filling the arches.
Pleasingly it seems to drive better too. The spring rate from the air-springs seemed a bit high running the ride-height lower than standard. The spacers will be reducing the effective spring rate slightly.
I then de-badged the rear and gave it a thorough clean. I focused on getting the plastics back to a deep black too.
At this time of the year it obviously got fairly filthy again almost instantly. I think it's really looking a lot better than when I bought it though.
I wanted to add some of the functionality that my newer cars have. Some simple things like triple-flash indicators you miss when you no longer have them. So I fitted an Intravee unit which connects into the car's loom and intercepts various signals and can modify them. I added the triple-flash indicators, but also fold /unfolding mirrors and follow-me home lights on lock / unlock. Auto-lock on drive off, SMS handling to the phone interface, PDC distance display, voice control and a few other things I can't remember. I connected the Intravee to an Alpine iPod interface too that does full control incuding track and artist display on the dash and full control from the head unit or steering-wheel controls.
It interfaces to the car through the CD player plug, so the CD changer is lost which is no issue at all for me. I wanted the components to neatly mount into the rack in the boot where the CD changer had been and for the wiring to all be completely hidden.
The hardest part of which has been getting the cables behind trim as it's all so ridiculously over-engineered and every part has a mass of fasteners and other parts that have to be removed first. Even this bit of trim in the boot took almost an hour to remove and get the cable behind.
It all fits very neatly though. I'm going to fit an inverter and UK 3 pin socket to the right of where the Apline plug is currently entering.
So far the cable exits under the rear seat so the next job is to get it under the carpet, through the centre console and up to where I decide to fit my iPhone mount.
helix402 said:
Awesome car. I remember when they were nearly new. I did some work on one which had cost £68,000-the same as my first flat I’d just bought!
Price of this was £67,500 with the options. Some of the options are ludicrous.Eg: Navigation was £1930. However that didn't automatically have the TV function (£680 extra) or the Voice control for it (£330). So almost £3k to stick the nav screen in and have it fully functional.
Greg_D said:
i like that a lot,
that said, i'm not a fan of the lowering. I think it looks more 'drug dealer' now than it ever did with the tinted lights.
with that lightly tweaked, and the wheels etc sorted, it'll look smart
good effort
Cheers. I think as soon as the wheels aren't a dingy grey it'll lose the party pharmaceuticals vibe. that said, i'm not a fan of the lowering. I think it looks more 'drug dealer' now than it ever did with the tinted lights.
with that lightly tweaked, and the wheels etc sorted, it'll look smart
good effort
SteveR1979 said:
Interesting read. I've just picked up a year old 530d, but it doesn't have a tow bar.
I'm trying to decide if I want to get something else just to tow, or fit a tow bar on the 530d.
I wouldn't bother to retrofit to a G30. The modern cars are so integrated that aftermarket kits are awful in comparison. The proper one interfaces with the stability control systems but also PDC and rear camera. My previous X5 used the rear camera to guide the hitch directly over the towball, was very cool. I'm trying to decide if I want to get something else just to tow, or fit a tow bar on the 530d.
I don't think they suffer from some of the S62 issues; They do seem quite robust. If it breaks I may investigate putting somethign different in it anyway.
I agree about how they've aged. I had an E53 when they were current and sold it to buy an E70 when the E53 started to look very dated. The passage of time has been kind to the E53 though and I now see them as a good bit of design that seems to look better as they get older. The fact they don't have the complex dealer fix only systems of the newer cars is appealing too. As is a large, naturally aspirated, petrol V8 engine.
Also it's worth considering the size of these. As new larger models have been launched the E53 seems quite a wieldy size now. At BMW parked next to a Mini Countryman the X5 looks like the smaller car. In fact compared to a current 1 series, the E53 is only 30cm longer and 11cm wider yet is much more spacious inside.
I agree about how they've aged. I had an E53 when they were current and sold it to buy an E70 when the E53 started to look very dated. The passage of time has been kind to the E53 though and I now see them as a good bit of design that seems to look better as they get older. The fact they don't have the complex dealer fix only systems of the newer cars is appealing too. As is a large, naturally aspirated, petrol V8 engine.
Also it's worth considering the size of these. As new larger models have been launched the E53 seems quite a wieldy size now. At BMW parked next to a Mini Countryman the X5 looks like the smaller car. In fact compared to a current 1 series, the E53 is only 30cm longer and 11cm wider yet is much more spacious inside.
With some of the jobs done and the bus driving very nicely, the decision was made to take this on our half-term trip to Bruges. I'd intentionally not had the wheels refurbished as I had concerns that the car would be tight when loading onto the Eurotunnel with the 60mm wider track. I hadn't appreciated just how tight though. 
The trip was ace and the car was utterly perfect. It cruised across France and through Belgium in comfort with loads of space for 3 ever-growing kids and our stuff. I got lost on the outskirts of Bruge when Waze directed me into an underground carpark that was being renovated. The workmen there smiled as it burbled around the carpark and one of them gave me the universal signal to rev it, so I obliged to a cheer and round of applause. On leaving when the barrier raised I treated them to a full-bore emergency start back onto the ring-road too much to my wife's dismay.
The hotel was great. The owner asked me to park out front and unload and then jumped in to show me around to a hidden carpark behind an electric gate and the car then got put into it's own garage with rollershutter. I had zero use for it while there as I spent the weekend trollied on all the amazing Belgian beer. On the way back we worked our way along the coast road taking in some beaches and historical spots.
Bruges
Ostend
Dunkirk
I thought MPG for the trip was incredible for a 4.8 V8, my diesel X5 hardly ever did better. I think the 6 speed box really helps when it's cruising.
Wheel refurb on Weds...
The trip was ace and the car was utterly perfect. It cruised across France and through Belgium in comfort with loads of space for 3 ever-growing kids and our stuff. I got lost on the outskirts of Bruge when Waze directed me into an underground carpark that was being renovated. The workmen there smiled as it burbled around the carpark and one of them gave me the universal signal to rev it, so I obliged to a cheer and round of applause. On leaving when the barrier raised I treated them to a full-bore emergency start back onto the ring-road too much to my wife's dismay.
The hotel was great. The owner asked me to park out front and unload and then jumped in to show me around to a hidden carpark behind an electric gate and the car then got put into it's own garage with rollershutter. I had zero use for it while there as I spent the weekend trollied on all the amazing Belgian beer. On the way back we worked our way along the coast road taking in some beaches and historical spots.
Bruges
Ostend
Dunkirk
I thought MPG for the trip was incredible for a 4.8 V8, my diesel X5 hardly ever did better. I think the 6 speed box really helps when it's cruising.
Wheel refurb on Weds...
SiT said:
Surely a quick trip to the dippers wild rod you of the gangsta chrome finish? Chemical strip back to bare metal and then a powder coat over the top should do the trick.
The place I use is very good, they've done lots of wheels for me: http://www.wheelworksuk.co.ukIt can be chemically dipped to remove it and they've refurbed chrome wheels before, but he wasn't keen on ever doing it again. They don't have their own chemical tank for chrome as it's not what they usually get involved with, so they use a local place. To get a 20 x 10.5 wheel in, it has to be done in sections at a time which takes ages. The surface afterwards can be flakey too after the chrome apparently. He said they did blast a set once but to get the chrome off the wheels ended up badly pitted. They had to put 5 layers of powdercoat on and rub them down between each one to try to get a good finish. At the end he still wasn't happy with the finish.
I'll just get another set and sell these, it's no biggy.
PowerslideSWE said:
They don't, they are similar however with the warm up lights and oil temperature but the fonts are different as are a few other things.
The car however looks ace, love the colour, sterling grey is very pretty, The slight lowering and the wider track suits it, I've been looking at these and the 4.6is aswell to complement my M5.
Cheers. Yeah the clocks aren't actually the same unit as the E39 M5, a quick look shows you the differences. The style of cluster was carried over from the M5 to the 4.8is, but obviously with recalibrated scales etc.The car however looks ace, love the colour, sterling grey is very pretty, The slight lowering and the wider track suits it, I've been looking at these and the 4.6is aswell to complement my M5.
Like most modern cars with plastic headlights the X5 was suffering from the usual dull headlight lenses so I refurbished them today.
From trying various different kits and products I've settled on using the Autoglym headlight restoration kit. It comes with a velcro backed drill attachment, various grades of sanding pad, a polishing waffle and plastic polishing compound. It works really well with my 18v DeWalt cordless drill, whose charger charges a battery quicker than the drill uses it, so as it goes flat you can just swap the cell for the charged one and keep going.
To do it properly takes quite a few hours and it's quite a messy job. The sanded plastic dust goes everywhere.
The finished results are worth it though.
I think the facelift Dynamic Xenons look great. Hopefully the lights will perform better too; As good as the Xenons are they're not a patch on the LEDs on modern cars.
Another job ticked off the list...
From trying various different kits and products I've settled on using the Autoglym headlight restoration kit. It comes with a velcro backed drill attachment, various grades of sanding pad, a polishing waffle and plastic polishing compound. It works really well with my 18v DeWalt cordless drill, whose charger charges a battery quicker than the drill uses it, so as it goes flat you can just swap the cell for the charged one and keep going.
To do it properly takes quite a few hours and it's quite a messy job. The sanded plastic dust goes everywhere.
The finished results are worth it though.
I think the facelift Dynamic Xenons look great. Hopefully the lights will perform better too; As good as the Xenons are they're not a patch on the LEDs on modern cars.
Another job ticked off the list...
The Bike Bus recently developed a misfire and threw the CEL on. I think it was then chucking fuel into the misfiring cylinder(s) and igniting it in the exhaust. In fact it chucked flames out the back and burnt the cycle carrier.
To sort it I went over to Owen Garages and fitted 8 new coilpacks and 8 new plugs. Faults cleared and haven't returned and it's running very sweetly now; In fact it's lost some of the gruff grumble and rocking it had that I liked. It sounds so crisp now though and pulls cleaner. Parts were over £400, it's great running cheap old cars.
It's now got a horrid rattle in the exhaust though. I think driving it with the misfire has burnt at least one of the cats out and bits of it are stuck in the exhaust. Going back to Owen garages tonight to use a ramp and get the exhaust opened up to investigate.
I stopped to collect dinner on the way back, quite liked this view from the food shop.
To sort it I went over to Owen Garages and fitted 8 new coilpacks and 8 new plugs. Faults cleared and haven't returned and it's running very sweetly now; In fact it's lost some of the gruff grumble and rocking it had that I liked. It sounds so crisp now though and pulls cleaner. Parts were over £400, it's great running cheap old cars.
It's now got a horrid rattle in the exhaust though. I think driving it with the misfire has burnt at least one of the cats out and bits of it are stuck in the exhaust. Going back to Owen garages tonight to use a ramp and get the exhaust opened up to investigate.
I stopped to collect dinner on the way back, quite liked this view from the food shop.
Thanks. 
Max M4X WW said:
The rear camber looks fairly aggressive in that last photo!
Yeah, it's nowhewre near that negative. It's the picture! AW10 said:
What were your before and after ride heights in normal mode?
I have no idea I'm afraid, I didn't measure them. I've probably lowered it about 5" though.AW10 said:
I would be grateful if you could measure the ride height from the bottom edge of the rims to the wheelarch lip front and back - curious where it ended up. 5" seems rather a lot. Any issues getting the alignment correct?
From the top of each wheel rim to the plastic wheelarch trim the measurements are:Front: 3"
Rear: 4.5"
It became apparent that one of the cats had broken down and was blocking the exhaust from the near-side bank of the engine. As a temporary measure the cat was cut open, the debris removed and the 'inspection panel' welded back up.
It runs much better without the exhaust blockage and it's booked in to have both cats swapped for high-flow ones when it has the rest of the exhaust work done.
Recently the offside angel-eyes / halos stopped working. Interestingly the car turns the turn-signal on to act as a DLR when the halos aren't working. I inspected and found they'd been previously replaced withh LED ones. From the factory this age car wouldn't have had LEDs, but I prefer the crisper white light so replaced both sides with new white LEDs to make sure the colour matched.
The exhaust on this car sounds great, but there's not much induction noise. I've looked at carbon airboxes etc but nobody seems to make an off-the-shelf one for this car, plus I want to keep things looking OEM in the main, with subtle improvements where I think they'll add to the bus, OEM+ essentially. So I decided to modify the existing airbox by opening up the cold / dirty side of the box to allow more induction noise.
Done, it has slightly more of a bark on induction and looking in the bonnet still looks completely standard.
So I've carried on driving it about using it as my daily driver. It's a really good place to be, comfortable, a nice size, makes all the right noises and is quick enough to not be boring. The one big eyesore though was still the wheels.
I eventually found a place in West London that do exchange wheels. You drive to them, they have a set of refurbished wheels waiting and they swap your tyres onto your wheels and on to your car. They added a small surcharge to deal with the chrome nightmare mine were under the grey paint.
With that done it's all looking a bit less Birmingham gangster than it was when I bought it. There are still things to sort out, but it's getting there. To most people I want it to just look like a well-kept standard car, but to those that know, they'll spot that it sits better and has some subtle improvements. I gave it it's first proper clean and took some snaps of the progress.
Because of my past history of swapping cars every month, usually when I've just sorted them out everyone has assumed this means I'm obviously now selling it... However it still does exactly what I bought it for really well and I'm enjoying using it. So it's here to stay and I'll carry on with the improvements and it'll carry on working hauling bikes about.
It runs much better without the exhaust blockage and it's booked in to have both cats swapped for high-flow ones when it has the rest of the exhaust work done.
Recently the offside angel-eyes / halos stopped working. Interestingly the car turns the turn-signal on to act as a DLR when the halos aren't working. I inspected and found they'd been previously replaced withh LED ones. From the factory this age car wouldn't have had LEDs, but I prefer the crisper white light so replaced both sides with new white LEDs to make sure the colour matched.
The exhaust on this car sounds great, but there's not much induction noise. I've looked at carbon airboxes etc but nobody seems to make an off-the-shelf one for this car, plus I want to keep things looking OEM in the main, with subtle improvements where I think they'll add to the bus, OEM+ essentially. So I decided to modify the existing airbox by opening up the cold / dirty side of the box to allow more induction noise.
Done, it has slightly more of a bark on induction and looking in the bonnet still looks completely standard.
So I've carried on driving it about using it as my daily driver. It's a really good place to be, comfortable, a nice size, makes all the right noises and is quick enough to not be boring. The one big eyesore though was still the wheels.
I eventually found a place in West London that do exchange wheels. You drive to them, they have a set of refurbished wheels waiting and they swap your tyres onto your wheels and on to your car. They added a small surcharge to deal with the chrome nightmare mine were under the grey paint.
With that done it's all looking a bit less Birmingham gangster than it was when I bought it. There are still things to sort out, but it's getting there. To most people I want it to just look like a well-kept standard car, but to those that know, they'll spot that it sits better and has some subtle improvements. I gave it it's first proper clean and took some snaps of the progress.
Because of my past history of swapping cars every month, usually when I've just sorted them out everyone has assumed this means I'm obviously now selling it... However it still does exactly what I bought it for really well and I'm enjoying using it. So it's here to stay and I'll carry on with the improvements and it'll carry on working hauling bikes about.
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