Bought a BMW X5

I had been wanting something that drove like a BMW and could get up my driveway. I own several BMW’s already but they all are a pain to get up the driveway when it rains. I started looking for an X5 over 6 months ago and finally bought one.

So far I like it. Drives like a dream just needs some TLC to get it to where I’m happy with it.

The air conditioner worked great but took up to a hour to actually come on. This was very annoying to say the least. I had never dealt with a variable displacement air conditioner compressor before. All the normal compressors I had worked on either worked or didn’t. When the compressor type used on my X5 went “bad” it caused the a/c to have to be on for a long time before it actually started cooling. Once it did it would blow 38 degrees out the vents so it worked great but took forever to kick in. I replaced the compressor yesterday after first trying to change the valve in the old compressor. The new compressor seems to be working good. I will know for sure later today when I crank the X5. If it starts cooling instantly then it is fixed.

Next project will be the headlights. The X5 has adaptive headlights. Its pretty wild watching them in action. Most modern vehicles with xenon/hid headlights have auto leveling, which these also have. But the cool part of the adaptive headlights has to do with them being able to turn left and right not just up and down for leveling. When you turn into a curve the headlights actually turn to point to where your going.

The problem with the headlights on my X5 is there are horribly dim. It has the worst amount of light output of anything I have ever owned. The headlights lens are frosted bad and I have a kit coming Friday to try and polish the haze out. That should restore some of the light output. But I’m afraid the actual bowls the bulbs sit in have lost the reflective coating and that is why they are so dim. The lens that covers the bowls make it difficult to know for sure if that is the problem and the headlights are sealed so I can’t take them apart to see if that is the problem either.

Well more later.