Jake's M-Sport X5 35i Build Thread

[Jdesign]

I agree with the above as well. All but the automotive wrap. I would wrap it white as it will help protect the paint and white always looks great.

[Rekpoint]

Has anyone ever done the PE exhaust mod on an x5 like that?

[patsbimmer1]

Nice!

As far as the hitch, I've installed a few on these and X3's and they're easy.  If it's truly the OE wiring then it's not that bad.  IIRC I had to pin the back of the fuse panel in the passenger rear compartment of the hatch.  In all cases I did the install and the customers took them to BMW for the coding.  As far as trimming goes, it's a 2 1/4" deep cut that you'd never see.  I certainly understand why someone wouldn't want to trim a bumper but it's really not a big deal if you do it right.

[YoungCR]

This is awesome, glad you found your dream SAV! The dealer installed hitches required a small cut too fwiw

[suspenceful]

Rekpoint said:

Has anyone ever done the PE exhaust mod on an x5 like that?

I'm not sure about a "PE" mod, but people do wire up the second tip to be always open. Right now it's closed with a flap unless you're flooring it.

patsbimmer1 said:

Nice!

As far as the hitch, I've installed a few on these and X3's and they're easy.  If it's truly the OE wiring then it's not that bad.  IIRC I had to pin the back of the fuse panel in the passenger rear compartment of the hatch.  In all cases I did the install and the customers took them to BMW for the coding.  As far as trimming goes, it's a 2 1/4" deep cut that you'd never see.  I certainly understand why someone wouldn't want to trim a bumper but it's really not a big deal if you do it right.

YoungCR said:

This is awesome, glad you found your dream SAV! The dealer installed hitches required a small cut too fwiw

Good to know! Thanks for the tips guys. I will probably look into a hitch sometime next spring.

[suspenceful]

First round of mods have been installed!

Paint-matched reflectors were at the top of my to-do list. I ordered a pair from ModBargains for $20 less than IND, but they just come from IND anyways. For some reason, I never took a picture of them as they arrived, but the finish was excellent. They use OEM reflectors and color match them in-house.

However, cars with the side cameras have a section above the reflector that remains unpainted. Not sure why, but BMW outlined this area with silver trim. I hate this silver trim, especially on a dark-colored car. It just draws your eye to a random silver square on the bumper. Nothing a little Plasti-Dip can't fix. Here's a photo before I sprayed the top section.

Next up was the LED fog lights. I ordered this set from Amazon and the quality was perfect. Installation was super easy. The fog light grilles just pop right off giving you access to both the light and the bumper reflectors. The bumper reflectors required a heat gun to pop off.

Before:

After:

The LED fog lights do trigger an error code upon startup, but I will code that out with the Carly app. More information on that to follow.

Before:

After:

Another gripe of mine is that a car made in 2013 still has regular halogen interior bulbs. It looks so dated. So I bought this LED interior kit from Amazon and loved the result.

And lastly, I did the "golf-tee" muffler mod... except it's not a golf-tee at all. These N55 X5's require you to zip-tie the actuator arm open. I didn't trust a plastic zip-tie, so I used a metal one.

I was actually very surprised when I started the car up after doing this mod. It's a lot louder, but it sounds great. Exhaust comes out of both tips and cold starts are noisy now! Best part is, it's completely reversible if you don't like it. Just remove the zip-tie.

[SteelBlue]

Changing the reflectors always makes a huge difference.

[straight6pwr]

"this one time, at band clamp"

[Jdesign]

But does it do burnouts?

[suspenceful]

Jdesign said:

But does it do burnouts?

I'm sure there's a way to disable the front part of the X-Drive system, but I haven't dabbled with it yet 

[Jdesign]

suspenceful said:

I'm sure there's a way to disable the front part of the X-Drive system, but I haven't dabbled with it yet 

PROVE IT.

[suspenceful]

Jdesign said:

PROVE IT.

It looks like I'll be able to do this for you in December.

[suspenceful]

I bought and installed a set of cheap gloss black grilles. I like the look, even though the stock grilles weren't that bad.

You also might notice that I got the front windows tinted to match the rears.

And I also bought an ///M gear selector indicator piece. Being an M-Sport, I thought it'd match the steering wheel nicely.

[Rekpoint]

Its the little things that do the most!

[Jdesign]

Nice work on the windows. I cant stand when the tint is different from front to back.

[suspenceful]

It's first snowfall. Not bad at all with the Continental DWS06 all seasons. I have some Pirelli Scorpion snow tires that I'll swap on this weekend.