YouTuber Tyler Hoover of Hoovie’s Garage has finally acquired the final component of his 2001 BMW Dream Team, a BMW X5 4.6is. The X5 will soon join the remainder of the BMWs, which include legends like a Z8, E39 M5, and E46 M3, along with a sport package-equipped 740i and a Z3 2.3i in need of some love. The process started last summer when Hoover bought his own 740i “sporty shorty,” but ramped up significantly when the multifaceted automotive enthusiast picked up an E39 M5 in need of some TLC this year. The entire roster is finished in Titanium Silver metallic, and when all of the revitalization work is done, Hoover plans to line them all up for the photoshoot that BMW itself never saw fit to perform.
Although we often say it’s taken roughly twenty years for the market to begin to realize just how exceptional BMW’s 2001 model lineup was, those same twenty years have also been unrelenting in terms of the maintenance, upkeep, repairs, and—perhaps most importantly—the patience necessary to keep these vehicles both running and presentable at any level close to when they were new. We don’t need to spell out the individual nature of the problems here, and between the timing chains, oil leaks, and myriad of cosmetic problems, Hoover has had his work cut out for him, but the masochism of buying and bringing back to life BMWs which would otherwise find themselves in the junkyard doesn’t seem to have caught up with him—yet.
That is, until his latest purchase of a 2001 X5 4.6is, which the prolific YouTuber actually had the forethought to have inspected prior to him agreeing to buy it (for once). Unfortunately, even though the X5 was inspected by a BMW dealership, a more in-depth post purchase inspection by Hoover’s BMW specialist, the Car Ninja, revealed significantly more problems than were initially believed to be present. This isn’t Hoover’s first E53 X5, as he owned a 4.4i when they were young enough to be under warranty, and he previously made a video about another X5 which ended up being too far down the line in terms of deferred maintenance to bother with, but it could turn out to be among the worst.
You’ll have to watch the full video to catch all of the details, but Hoover’s latest BMW acquisition seems to follow the same progression as those which came before. The stored codes aren’t particularly bad, and the oil leaks are almost expected, but a sound emanating from the passenger-side cylinder bank of the 4.6-liter M62 V8 (which also saw use in the Alpina B10 V8) could indicate potential disaster, as a look inside the crank case reveals that the timing chain had already been replaced at some point.—Alex Tock
[Photo courtesy BMW AG. Video courtesy Hoovies Garage on YouTube.]
