My 2012 X5 35i Build Thread (Platinum Metallic Grey/Black Nappa)

[GearHead335i]

Figured I’d throw up a build thread for my (new to me) 2012 BMW X5 35i n55, car is Platinum Metallic Grey on Black nappa leather. Purchased the vehicle with 90k and have put almost 10,000 miles on it in 6 months. The car is loaded except for adaptive suspension which I didn’t want anyways. Came from the factory with the LED adaptive headlights, technology package, comfort assist, and a few others. I wanted to get an X5 for awhile and I went from thinking about buying an e53 for a beater to seeing how low the prices were for early 3.0 e70’s to saying I need an LCI e70.

So after coming from an e90 LCI n54 full bolt on (still tucked away in the garage) and seeing how many benefits there were versus the pre-lci’s aswell as the turbo motors versus NA, I had my mind set on finding an e70 LCI n55. Found her on eBay actually but it was local so I went and had it thoroughly inspected and ended up picking it up about 5-6 months ago. Here’s what she looked like the day I picked it up;

[GearHead335i]

After giving her a good cleaning (car had tree sap on it and looked like it was last washed months ago). I purchased from a guy who owned his own business and said he had no time to even list the car let alone clean it. Needless to say the car was dirty, but always serviced at the dealer and had 0 accidence so I was sold.

[GearHead335i]

Took her home and drove it for awhile, put some black kidneys on it, oil change, plugs and wires, and just enjoyed it for the first month or 2.

[GearHead335i]

Then the mod bug bit me.....

EXTERIOR
-Gloss Black double slat kidney grills
-Running boards painted Gloss Black
-Wheel arches painted body color
-Front/Rear bumper weather stripping painted body color
-22” Style 612m Replicas
-295/30/22 Atturo AZ850
-335/25/22 Atturo AZ850
-Front/Rear Calipers painted ///M Performance Anodized Metallic Blue w/ ///M decals
-De-badged

INTERIOR
-Alcantara/Carbon Fiber ///M Performance dash
-///M Performance Carbon Fiber Automatic Shifter Lever
-///M Performance Alcantara Suede/Perforated Leather X5M Steering wheel

PERFORMANCE
-Burger Motorsports Intake
-MHD Stage 2+ Flash

[X5 MAN]

[GearHead335i]

Originally Posted by X5 MAN

Thanks brother!

[boneca]

Looking good and nicely moded, welcome

[omgboost]

Looks great! How is the car liking stage 2+? Do you have exhaust burbles enabled?

[Cactus_BMW]

How did you paint the running boards? More specifically, did you remove all the rubber plugs?

I've been wanting to do something to clean my running boards up, but I'm afraid to remove the plugs for fear of them breaking while trying to pull each one out. And, I haven't found an economical replacement for them.

- Cactus_BMW

[ryansbmw]

Hows the Stage 2+ tune? Do you have downpipes on the car as well or you running stock cats?

Any pics of the brakes?>

[rodnex]

Originally Posted by Cactus_BMW

How did you paint the running boards? More specifically, did you remove all the rubber plugs?

I've been wanting to do something to clean my running boards up, but I'm afraid to remove the plugs for fear of them breaking while trying to pull each one out. And, I haven't found an economical replacement for them.

- Cactus_BMW

The rubber plugs are not all separate. There are 3 rubber mats with those plugs. But it is still a work that needs some patience, lol

[jkeeney]

Nicely done!!!

[GearHead335i]

Originally Posted by boneca

Looking good and nicely moded, welcome

Thanks man!

Originally Posted by omgboost

Looks great! How is the car liking stage 2+? Do you have exhaust burbles enabled?

Originally Posted by ryansbmw

Hows the Stage 2+ tune? Do you have downpipes on the car as well or you running stock cats?

Any pics of the brakes?>

Car is loving the stage 2+. I purchased stage 1+ first and it deff made the car a lot peppier, I just wanted more. So after researching and hearing what other e70 LCI 35i owners were doing with mhd, I found that many of them were running stage 2 maps without downpipes or intercoolers. So I purchased the stage 2 maps to see what the car would feel like and everything seems fine. Still have the stage 1 maps there just Incase but again it seems fine.

I recently did the “golf tee” exhaust mod and it really enhanced the exhaust note so I did enable the blurble option for the exhaust on medium and only when the car is in sport and it sounds pretty badass. The most aggressive setting literally sounded like gun shots so I went to medium and it’s much better.

Originally Posted by Cactus_BMW

How did you paint the running boards? More specifically, did you remove all the rubber plugs?

I've been wanting to do something to clean my running boards up, but I'm afraid to remove the plugs for fear of them breaking while trying to pull each one out. And, I haven't found an economical replacement for them.

- Cactus_BMW

I actually started to remove them to paint just the aluminum and it was giving me trouble immediately, so I stopped. I took a metal brush tool and cleaned up the aluminum, tapped everything off, and just painted them with the rubber knobs still installed and they came out great. I tried to use black vinyl wrap and it looked ok but ended up taking that off and painting them with a few coats of satin black.

Originally Posted by jkeeney

Nicely done!!!

Thank you!

[jersey john]

Love the interior mods! 2 Questions for you: How hard was swapping out the wheel? Also, What trim did you have before the CF? Some of my trim pieces have cracks in them and I thought about the CF route.

Also, how do you like the Intake? I thought about this for a while as well.

Thanks.

[GearHead335i]

Originally Posted by jersey john

Love the interior mods! 2 Questions for you: How hard was swapping out the wheel? Also, What trim did you have before the CF? Some of my trim pieces have cracks in them and I thought about the CF route.

Thanks.

Steering wheel wasn’t that difficult to swap, just had to unplug battery, pop airbag out, unplug everything, and unbolt the 16mm nut holding the wheel on. I actually swapped my non sport airbag to a sport airbag cover myself. The bag itself is actually the same so no need to buy a whole new airbag if you have the non sport wheel and are thinking of switching to the sport wheel or the x5m wheel. X5m and sport wheel use the same airbag. I just followed this diy video;

https://youtu.be/MsqdEeFexHc

See my pictures of when I first bought the car to see original trim. I wrapped most of the wood in Alcantara material and others in carbon vinyl.

[ryansbmw]

Awesome. Watch out with the burble on stack downpipes. My mechanic (BimmerClinic/ MaxPSI) have told me the burble does havok on the cats.

[GearHead335i]

Originally Posted by ryansbmw

Awesome. Watch out with the burble on stack downpipes. My mechanic (BimmerClinic/ MaxPSI) have told me the burble does havok on the cats.

Yeah I was thinking the same, I’ll prob shut it off, it gargles on its own just with the golf tee mod lol.

[Naz24]

This looks great. I love the OEM+ upgrades, looking forward to seeing more