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Managed to stumble my way into another problem project. With an addition to the family imminent, I started looking at options to upgrade the wife's mode of transportation. Her trusty Subaru Outback is getting rather tired and is not a car I particularly enjoy working on so was keen to lure her over into the wonderful world of German engineering. With her enthusiasm for eventually getting back into riding and owning horses, the criteria was a 4wd with enough ground clearance to at least not get stuck in a paddock, and something capable of towing a horse float. Easy enough. I wanted to keep it in the familiar era of the early 2000's so quickly narrowed the search down to E83 X3's & E53 X5's. The V8 was never an option and despite my love for the M54, I felt that in a big lump of an SUV (SAV?) it might be a bit underpowered and too thirsty, so the legendary M57 became the preference. Not an awful lot of them around as it turns out, and all close to or above 300k on the clock. One 306k example had popped up, went to check it out and although I was impressed with the drive and feel, I decided against it due to the shoddy aesthetics - passenger door handle was missing, a bunch of interior trims were quite worn, the steering wheel was sticky and disgusting and some underbody plastics being held in place with self tappers and wood screws. The condition was reflected in the price but since the car is meant to be for the better half, I'd have wanted it to be a bit nicer. I then went back to a FB Marketplace listing I had saved a while earlier. The ad had been up for a good number of months, the asking price was essentially double that of the car I test drove but was well presented and looked heaps tidier. Before I got around to texting the owner though, the exact same car popped up on a TM $1 reserve auction with a "FUEL INJECT. SYSTEM" error on the dash and a crank no start condition. Despite numerous messages and requests for a viewing, the seller never replied so I was left bidding blind. Not ideal but it is what it is. I figured I'd go low enough that I could recoup the investment through parting it out if need be, and after brief bidding war I emerged victorious at a price I was happy enough to gamble. The next day, I recruited a mate to help out with towing duties, hooked up our rally car trailer that was barely big enough for the job, huffed and puffed pushing the 2 tonne beast onto it and carted the new family member home. And there she is - 2004 E53 X5 3.0d with 288,600 km's on the clock. Overall looks really tidy, the body is straight with a few paint imperfections here and there but still presents really well. I do love the facelift design, doesn't look at all dated even at 20 years old, in my eyes anyway. Interior is in great condition too with the only blemish that stands out is the passenger door arm rest leather coming apart. Even comes with an Android headunit, which is pretty handy. The biggest drawback, for the wife in any case, is the lack of heated seats, although that's something I can try and rectify at a later date. All of that counts for nothing though unless I can get her up and running again. The car had sat since July, the battery had gone completely flat to the point even the gear indicator light wouldn't come on. Took 2 days of charging to get the battery back to full charge but I suspect it might be too far gone anyway and a replacement will be the first item on the shopping list. Ran out of weekend before I could start properly digging into it but did get the battery charged up enough to pull some codes. Definitely something to do with fuel delivery. Whether the code for fuel pressure regulating points to the regulator being faulty I'm not entirely sure. I've learned that these cars have a total of 3 fuel pumps - a low pressure in-tank pump; an inline pump and a high pressure pump - and it could be either one of the 3. Will need to do more research on whether any of the codes might help pinpoint the culprit more accurately. The glow plugs should be easy enough to replace and definitely on the list of preventative maintenance I'm aiming to take care of. Whether the glow control unit is also a common failure point I'll need to also look into. Another suggestion I found was that the fuel sender unit may have gone bad, the gauge would still show there being fuel in the tank but it wouldn't be making its way over to the pump side from the opposite side of the "saddle", causing a fuelling issue. The fuel needle did indicate barely a fifth of a tank so could be plausible. I'll try pour some 20L of diesel in it and see what happens. Would be pretty funny if that's the cause of the issue but I don't dare hope to be so lucky. On the running gear side, a few codes could be a cause for concern, namely the transfer case code for oil abrasion and gearbox shutdown code due to overtemperature. Will see how she feels once she's running and driving but servicing those two will definitely be on the list. Will take some time on the weekend to dig into it proper, see how far I get with the diagnosis and start putting together a shopping list of parts. Pretty excited for my first diesel experience. Time will tell how much of a bargain it turns out to be. Long live the Family Tractor.

Hi All, Been a while. Listing here on behalf of a family member prior to going on Trade Me. You'll be hard pressed to find a more genuine, well maintained E46 330i. Asking $9,300 ----‐‐------‐----------------------------------------------------- NZ New 2003 330i Motorsport Purchased from Team McMillan BMW Auckland in May 2013 85,800 km on the clock when purchased and now sitting circa 113,000 km Automatic. Always garaged. Serviced by Jeff Gray BMW Hastings and more recently GH Automative Hastings (BMW and Mini Specialist) with all receipts in hand Work done whilst in current ownership 17/6/2015 – Aircon re-gased 30/7/2019 – New Rocker cover gasket 1/11/2019 – Rear LHS tail light. 27/1/2020 - New battery 17/3/2020 – Support lift (for under car to support car jack) 5/8/2022 – Replaced Intake boot Last full service done at 110,757 km Tyres: Bridgestone Potenza RE003 (plenty of tread remaining) Rego: Expires 20/1/2025 WOF: Next due 16/1/2025 Two Keys. Only known issue is the stereo. Was making an extremely intermittent “popping” sound from the rear speakers. As I prefer keeping everything original I did not want to take the stereo out and replace with some other random head-unit so the wires were just unplugged from the rear speakers.

Yes control units do go faulty. Replace all 6 glow plugs and the control unit

My 2cents...2 things concern me about the listing. The owner somehow 'forgot' it has a sunroof? Sketchy. Also, 'shrek' cam? I guess he means Schrick, again, not what you'd call a detail oriented owner.

30% off Castrol Edge (up to 20L) at Repco.

The 130i failed its warrant due to a blown shock and the pads were contaminated from the oil from the shock. I decided to go all in and give it a glow up. BTW 3d design suspension is made by Ohlins. For those that remember my old 330ci, it had 3d design suspension, and was pretty sharp handling wise.

$90k hahhahahahahahahahaha

Where are you and what car/problem(s) do you have?

80s Commodore interior. sh*t then. sh*t now.