High miles thread! Who has put some miles.... on their X3?

HPnMORE4J said:

10k miles, 20K miles or ? How is it holding up now?

Everyone I know has less than 5000 miles.

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At just over 22,000 miles, I can tell you the OEM motor (NOT tuned), transmission, and differentials. seem to still be doing okay, but they could go out at anytime - hard to tell how long they'll last, but a LOT depends on proper maintenance; keeping the fluids CLEAN and keeping dirt from getting into the engine. I think the S&B Particle Separator has helped prolong engine life, but i can't be sure.

I got 16,000 miles out of the original OEM clutch even though it looked as though it was about to fall apart anytime - and I did no maintenance on it other than blowing the dust out periodically. Lately, I've gotten a little more proactive since my trips are getting longer, so I swapped the last secondary clutch at 6,500 miles when the rollers started looking bad. I don't know if aftermarket clutches and kits are actually better or not since I've only had OEM. Though keep in mind that I don't drag race and although I drive fast, I'm slow and easy on the throttle when starting and stopping.

Everything else just depends on how and where you drive and what and how hard you hit things, seen and unseen. Some "oh shit" moments are worse than others, but we all have them and they tend to break stuff.

Anyway, for me, at 22,000 miles, the frame is finished - i lost count of all the cracks and breaks; that is, I stopped counting after 13 or so. Now the cracks are getting all spidery and hard to repair - if all goes well, I plan to put another 4,000 miles on it this month, then it's getting a new, reinforced frame and roll cage installed; the CT RaceWorx WANDERLUST Edition chassis.

I can attest to the weak points being the four corners of the frame where the suspension components attach and pretty much the entire front end. And the trailing arms and radius rods are weak points too. Still, I was able to get to about 9,000 miles before breaking any of these things. And I know a guy who has 10,000 miles and thinks he's still good - I don't think he's pulled plastics and looked though.

Knowing what I know now about this machine, if was in the market for an X3, I wouldn't buy a new 2020 one - I'd buy a low-hour, low mile '17 that's been garaged most of it's life, then tear it down and replace the chassis with a new, reinforced, gusseted one along with aftermarket suspension components. I'd have the same money in it as a new one, but I'd have a machine that would go MUCH further and handle MUCH more abuse than a new one.

That's my thoughts on it.

Here’s a small sampling of the 20+ frame cracks that just got discovered - some have been there for a LONG time.


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BLR said:

Absolutely..
With the miles you have the frame has held together..

Barbara

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It held together with a LOT of aftermarket gusseting and welding - I’ve been chasing these cracks around for 13,000 miles - the first cracks reared their ugly heads at about 8,000 miles; it’s been whack-a-mole with regards to cracks since that point.

One problem is the ability to remove enough plastics to adequately inspect the frame - too much is riveted on and too much is difficult to remove; it’s cost prohibitive to thoroughly inspect for cracks.

So, even though I may have fixed and repaired visible cracks, it’s probable that there were many more that didn’t get repaired, which led to worse and worse cracking down the road.

Such is the nature with off- road vehicles though - million dollar trophy trucks break frames; it’s just the way it is.

With that being the case, it’d be REAL nice to have a car that can be more easily dismantled and inspected. That alone would probably solve a LOT of problems and extend the life of the chassis.


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