I had searched for over 6 months looking for my “dream” X5. Well not that I actually dreamed about owning an X5 just that I knew what I wanted as the “perfect” for me X5.

I wanted the Xdrive system since it can send 100% of the power to one wheel (a must with my driveway).

I wanted the inline 6 engine. The V8’s were not acceptable since they have a high failure rate with timing chain guide issues and valve seals. There is no long term fix/solution for the timing chain guides so the V8 was out.

I wanted a 6 speed manual transmission. Manual is more reliable than the automatics because of BMW’s dumb idea of telling customers the trans fluid was “lifetime” fluid. There is no such thing as lifetime fluid. So I knew any automatic I bought probably wouldn’t of had the fluid changed.

I wanted heated seats, xenon headlights and a few other things.

Also I needed to stick below 2007 model year wise as 2006 was the last year I could program on my own.

The 2004 model and above has Xdrive standard on the X5.

So that limited my hunt to a 2004 to 2006 X5. There were a few other changes that made the 2005 model more desirable to me so I was limited to 2005 to 2006. That made my search a bunch harder.

Well after searching for 6 months I surrendered and bought my X5.

So what did I give in on when I surrendered? The automatic. It seems an X5 with a manual trans is like unicorns. You can read about them, find pics of them but never actually find one.

So far the automatic is working well.

 

 

 

 

X5 Cooling System

 

Battery Chart

 

BMW X5 Coding

 

X5 Stats and Info

 

 

Back to Vehicles