2012 X5M 4.4 Auction & LPG conversion

[SiaubiakaZ]

Hi guys,

I require some help and advice please. I have no experience with cars, but I have some contacts who work in garages and can get engines/parts etc back in my country.

I am looking at buying this 2012 BMW X5M - 140k miles on clock. However, the engine seems to be stripped out and not running at all. Ideally I think this year car costs between 20k-30k. If I could pick this up for around 9k-10k, include the car trailer costs of ~1k and complete new engine for ~5k and works ~1k-2k. Would you think this is a steal and worth getting my hands dirty?

I would also be looking to add LPG conversion which costs ~1k. What do you think about that?

Any advice and suggestions who could offer would be very much appreciated! I have attached some pictures for reference.

Best wishes

[Horizon]

Walk away

[Rick G]

If you can do all the work required then maybe but if you will be paying someone else to fix a mess that some unknown person made then it is not a worthwhile proposition.
My personal opinion is don't even think about it you could be buying a mine field.

[IanP]

You might get a bare engine for £5000, but factor in the costs of other bits and and you may get a shock. Everything on these cars has an 'M' tax, one injector, plug and cap on mine was over £500. You will never sell it again with that sort of history.

[graemeX5]

Hi

I think Horizon and the others have said it's not a good deal on the face of it.

Also I would ask BMW how much an exchange engine is and I bet it will be over £10k, as some thing in parts may mean bits are missing or will also need replacing. So it's worth doing careful costing before going this route

I guess if you worked for BMW as atech and could get the bits at cost it may be worth a punt.

Recently i had the injectors and two ignition coils do done at BMW cost but it would have been over £1000 for that.

Good luck with whatever you decide.
Graeme

[Rick G]

Just to ask a question that came to mind when it was said about installing LPG on the X5s.
I am a great fan of LPG and have built several special LPG engines where I have gone to 14-1 compression and a very early opening inlet cam and longer duration of about 12.5 to 15° both sides of standard. The most remarkable one was a 4lt 6 cyl ford engine where I extracted about 20 hp more than a standard petrol engine.
But to get to the point what does the LPG cost per lt and how much is the high octane petrol (98 RON) here cost.
When I first started using LPG was in 1976 when the Taxi industry had been using it for around 10 years and filling stations were not very plentiful.
In about 1999 the federal Government started subsidizing the installations to the tune $1500 and that left me paying about $650 on a new installation.
Then they dropped the subsidy and put a tax on it of 2c per lt and increasing by 2c each year for 6 years then put 10% GST on it and now it is hardly worth using unless you are doing 100K per year like a Taxi or similar.
In 1990 it cost about 30c per lt and now costs 86c per lt where petrol was 75c per lt and $1.75 per lt respectively.
Just wondering what you guys are thinking about the future of LPG. Even the Taxi industry are buying diesel cars now and filling stations are actually disappearing.
Needless to say for the first time in more than 40 years I wont be fitting LPG as it is far cheaper in relative terms than it was 30 years ago.
One of the big things I like about LPG is that it is so clean it exceeds our pollution regulations by about ten times and oil changes are at about double the intervals.

[lezmtaylor]

I've been a big fan of lpg for years,had a light transport business back in the 1980's and ran Ford Transits on it as a dual fuel with petrol (Ford were doing the conversions so warrantee work was covered).
Then packed the vans in and started working for a forklift company and found lpg forklifts very popular in the food industry as the exhaust gases were not poisonous.
Fast  forward to 2006, bought a 4 year old 4.4 x5, had it converted to lpg and still running the car now.
You can double the oil life as you burn a gas vapour, not petrol droplets, the oil comes out of the engine a lovely golden colour on oil change, not black.
I get the equiv of 33-35 mpg taking into account that it is about 63 ppl although on the South coast in Morrisons, Littlehampton it is under 60ppl.
People say you lose power with lpg, yes about 5 -10%, but with a whacking great 4.4l V8 up front I have never had a problem.

So , yes I am an LPG devotee and proud of it.

Lez