first 10 mods

[boneca]

Hi guys, I recently picked up 2011 X5 LCI, Black Sapphire and trying to come up with list of mods I want to start with. Let me know what you think.

1. OEM Performance Kidney grill - $100-$200 depends on vendor
2. Body color painted side reflectors - front & rear - IND around $160
3. Smoked side markers (blinkers) - Amazon $62
4. Black license frames - front & rear - $40-$80 depends on vendor
5. Eyelids - Amazon $60 - from JPCarbon
6. Tinted tail lights - not sure where to go and price
7. Tinted brake light - not sure where to go or even if I want to do it
8. Wheel arches - I assume around $200 but not sure
9. H&R spacers & 22" wheels (currently on 19")
10. H&R Lowering springs.

I'm open for suggestions...

Most likely will be doing all the upgrades in the spring, winter can be tough here in New England. This gives me good 4 month to look and buy all the parts.

Here's on of the pictures of my "recent" B5, not the latest but one of the best pics I have.

[slim]

Sounds good. I just added the wheel arches and 20'' rims. I paid around 300.00 for the wheel arches.

[P1]

My suggestions:

1. OEM Performance Kidney grill - $100-$200 depends on vendor
Sounds good.
2. Body color painted side reflectors - front & rear - IND around $160
Sounds good.
3. Smoked side markers (blinkers) - Amazon $62
More info on this?
4. Black license frames - front & rear - $40-$80 depends on vendor
Just roll without a license plate frame. Much cleaner.
5. Eyelids - Amazon $60 - from JPCarbon
Don't do it. It's not a Civic.
6. Tinted tail lights - not sure where to go and price.
Don't do it unless the rest of your X5 is very aggressive.
7. Tinted brake light - not sure where to go or even if I want to do it
See above.
8. Wheel arches - I assume around $200 but not sure
Should be your first mod along with wheels.
9. H&R spacers & 22" wheels (currently on 19")
Should be your first mod along with wheels.
10. H&R Lowering springs.
Sure

[nabizzy]

"My suggestions:

1. OEM Performance Kidney grill - $100-$200 depends on vendor
Sounds good.


2. Body color painted side reflectors - front & rear - IND around $160
Sounds good.


3. Smoked side markers (blinkers) - Amazon $62
More info on this?


4. Black license frames - front & rear - $40-$80 depends on vendor
Just roll without a license plate frame. Much cleaner.


5. Eyelids - Amazon $60 - from JPCarbon
Don't do it. It's not a Civic.


6. Tinted tail lights - not sure where to go and price.
Don't do it unless the rest of your X5 is very aggressive.


7. Tinted brake light - not sure where to go or even if I want to do it
See above.


8. Wheel arches - I assume around $200 but not sure
Should be your first mod along with wheels.


9. H&R spacers & 22" wheels (currently on 19")
Should be your first mod along with wheels.


10. H&R Lowering springs.
Sure

[Sylvan Lake V35]

Originally Posted by boneca

Hi guys, I recently picked up 2011 X5 LCI, Black Sapphire and trying to come up with list of mods I want to start with. Let me know what you think.

1. OEM Performance Kidney grill - $100-$200 depends on vendor
2. Body color painted side reflectors - front & rear - IND around $160
3. Smoked side markers (blinkers) - Amazon $62
4. Black license frames - front & rear - $40-$80 depends on vendor
5. Eyelids - Amazon $60 - from JPCarbon
6. Tinted tail lights - not sure where to go and price
7. Tinted brake light - not sure where to go or even if I want to do it
8. Wheel arches - I assume around $200 but not sure
9. H&R spacers & 22" wheels (currently on 19")
10. H&R Lowering springs.

I'm open for suggestions...

I have fairly similar mods on both of my Xs Although I don't have them the eye lids can be pulled off in my opinion. I have my tails on both tinted but with a very light tint, if you go too dark it looks cheap. Instead of the body colored reflectors I would just tint them. Third brake light dosent really need tint in my opinion I did wheel arches on my diesel it makes a big diffrence in the appearance you can get new arches with a plastic rivet kit on eBay.

My diesel with wheel arches, 22" wheels, tinted tails, tinted reflectors, black grills! H&R springs and I hated the OEM running boards so I put the smaller side skirts on.

[boneca]

I really appreciate your inputs guys. I got the eyelids point I’m NOT doing it …
The numbers in the list doesn't mean much, I might get the arches first or last depends on situation.

1. Kidney grill - Does the color painted grill from IND for $200 makes a big difference comparing to OEM black grills, or spending extra $40-$60 doesn’t make sense?
2. Body color painted side reflectors - front & rear - IND around $160, looks like everybody agree, currently they only sell front reflectors, but I sent them email, hopefully they can do set for me.
3. Smoked side markers (blinkers) – Here is the link to what I was referring to:
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00EKQIC8...I285QQ27WY56Y0
4. Black license frames - front & rear – I was thinking thin black frames to replace the dealer ones (running without frames sometime causes light rust)
5. Eyelids – I’m NOT doing it!
6. Tinted tail lights – I was thinking medium dark (depends if I can get my old source to do it for me) John’s Tinted Tails (I believe this guy was from Jersey) I don’t even know if he still in business. If anybody has a good source for tint I would really appreciate it! I saw some people were able to tint tail lights leaving the white stripe off, this is the look I’m going for.
7. Tinted brake light – same as above, don’t know if this is such a good idea.
8. Wheel arches – defiantly need to get this, Slim, can you point me to where did you buy yours? I thought I saw set for around $200 somewhere but can’t recall it right now, maybe it was in classifieds. Can this be installed DIY or needs to be done in body shop?
9. H&R spacers & 22" wheels (currently on 19"). I’m currently looking for set of wheels, haven’t decided which look I’m going for, once I’ll narrow it down I will post pictures. As for spacers I need to figure out what sizes I need to get, there are many available but I never used them before, so how does it works exactly? Does the spacers depends on the rim size? Or this is just for the looks? Also I never run different sizes rims/tires front and rear, why there are differences in some setups. I’d really appreciate the knowledge transfer here!
10. H&R Lowering springs. I defiantly will be lowering it, also need to know my options here, used to ride on Eibach before but those mostly for VWs and I’m not sure what is most popular with bimmers crowd.

There are other things in my mind, such as lighting upgrade, all around tint, possible X5M bumper conversion, front lip etc. not sure when I’ll get to this, we’ll have to see.

Thanks again and please keep suggestions coming…

Sylvan Lake V35 – awesome clean look, can you little expand on how would you go about tinting the reflectors? Do you just go to body shop and ask them to tint reflectors and tail lights? Also if you can tell me what springs/spacers/wheels you have on your car, I see 22” rims looks very nice (probably not my look but they looks great on your car), how much drop you have with H&R springs, front and rear, do you have to run spacers with those wheels?
Do you have a link to arches with a plastic rivet kit from eBay? It doesn’t need to be active, I just want to see what are you talking about.
Thanks so much!

[Sylvan Lake V35]

My shop tinted the reflectors at the same time, they had left over tint they did it for free so it saved buying the iND pieces.
-Springs are H&R 1.2" kit but I have diesel and it was a 1.8" drop if I recall right.
-spacers I use are H&R as well I have 15mm front and 25mm rear which I find work the best with OEM 20" wheels as well.mi am re-barreling my 22" so they won't require spacers in the spring.
I find the staggered wheel/tire looks much better than the square set up. you just have to make sure the tires are very close to the same overall diameter to keep the AWD system happy.

I searched X5 wheel arches I installed them myself it's pretty easy to do.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...at=0&_from=R40

[boneca]

ok I've been busy getting some parts and checking around. This is my updated list

bought but not installed yet:
1. Matte Black Kidney Grills for E70 LCI: $125.00 shipped
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
2. IND Front & Rear body painted reflectors: $185.00 shipped
http://ind-distribution.com/ind/brands/ind
3. 2 Neo Black License plates: $15.00 shipped
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

pending
1. E70 LED interior light kit: $45.00 from Group Buy

still looking at:
1. LUX - H8 V4 Adjustable LED Angel Eye Upgrade: $225.00
http://www.europeanautosource.com/in...e-upgrade.html
2. BMW OEM E70 X5 Aerodynamic Kit : $899.00
http://www.getbmwparts.com/partlocat...catalogid=4462

3. Fender Wheel Arch Extension kit: around $300
4. H&R - Sport Lowering Springs: around $300
5. 21" wheels and tires ???
6. Tire Pressure Monitor Sensor (TPMS) Kit: around $250

I'm sure there is more but this is all I can think of right now, I'll be adding links and pictures to this tread while progressing, Probably install won't happen until spring (it's been snowing here ). Hopefully this tread will help somebody who's looking for the same info...

[boneca]

Kidneys replaced

[SteveMD]

First thing I did was slap a tune in it. Make it go. Then worry about looks.