1500 to pass mot

[Simon]

Hello all,

Haven't been on for a while but I just needed to share my m.o.t woe's  I knew it wouldn't pass on some minor things but turned out to be 1500 worth!!  :rant:TBH I was nearly sick lol...alot of it was suspension parts and brake lines its a 2005 with 160k so I suppose its to be expected.... This is just a warning to people thinking of becoming X5 owners of the potential pitfalls that can happen. This is my second X5 the first one being an early 2001 3.0d and to be honest it was a good car, although the transfer box went for a burton!
I'm gonna be honest though it does drive a lot better, i suppose it wants to do! .... they gave me a 2015 mini as a loan car with about 6k on it and when i got back in the x5 it felt so much better even with its mileage. I know we should expect these high bills from time to time but has anyway else had similar? just to make me feel better
Also its going back in on friday as the Fuel Inject.System warning came up on the way back from the airport after our family holiday...... I still love it though lol
All the best
Simon

[graemeX5]

Hi Simon

Sorry to hear your woes but I gues that is why they were 50-60k cars originally,and costs as much to fix.

You are the only one it may be difficult to get but some have warranties and these can help offset the cost although for higher mileage cars they will probably charge more.

If I remember Condor has had a lot of work done airbags sauna so etc but mostly covered by warranties.

To try and help I put my old 58 plate 135i convertible in for brake fluid change which was £75 and came out £750 as the calliper nipple sheared in the housing and require a new front brake caliper which did hurt as the car had only done about 500 miles between services.

Hope that helps a hit

Graeme

[Simon]

Thanks for your reply Graeme,

Yea I know what your saying , I've had it 2yrs now and changed nothing but tyres and used to get it mot'd at my local back street garage and it passed every time lol , take it to a specialist and whoa! 1.5k but when I drove it you could tell that the work needed doing its so much smoother and no more little knocks when you go over bumps.

After that bill I thought about getting rid, had a look round a few cars but found nothing I liked, especially when I got back in mine. I think now I've spent this and potentially some more on friday I may as well keep it till it blows up, I enquired about part ex against a 2008 330d and he offered me 3k, after spending half that on repairs it just didn't seem right lol

cheers

[sid10]

I budget about £1500 a year on mine a 54 plate X5 E53 3.0d sport , it has done 85000 miles and I have had it from 16 months and 16000 miles old .
  It has everything done at the dealers as I have been done more than once from back street garages , if you tend to keep on top of the  minor jobs the cars run a lot better . I have several times been in for a new one but keep remembering my mates cost of ownership of a brand new 40D M sport , he paid 57k for the car and ten months to the date fancied a change he had done just under 10000 miles and the car was perfect they offered him 29K on a trade and 27K for outright purchase he went for an audi instead and got 30K trade in .
  It  make me think everytime I hanker after a new car a 27-30K loss in 10 months is a lot worse than £1500 , the X5 is a lot of car for the money & due to it being a great car it needs pampering . My other mate bought a 18 month old Landrover Discovery , he has had bills for over 10K in 12 months and ended up selling it at a massive loss .
  Hopefully it will repay you many times with the way it drives ! good luck .
  Ps I always ask for a discount and get 10% off the parts without much effort , never accept their first quote always say you can get it done cheaper , they normally want repeat business so are quite competitive !

[themoog]

We have 2 4.4 X5's. Both the same apart from mileage (80k v 140k), colour (black v silver) and age (2003 v 2001).
The black one is the wife's and has had nothing done to it in the 18 months we have had it. It was a pampered Chelsea tractor when I bought it.
Mine was used a lot more when I bought it and although it has fsh I still had to get the front suspension sorted and then the timing chain guides broke so its probably cost circa 3K in the year I have had it. It was cheap when I got it tho so I'm not too concerned.
People forget that these are 60K vehicles and even though they are older,parts/ labour is still for a 60K car..

For me, I enjoy the challenge of buying a quality older car for a lot less than it would cost to buy a middle of the road new car.

[AW8]

Local village mechanic and indy charges same labour costs whether working on an X5 or a BMW Mini One.

Main dealers historically tended to escalate service labour costs for cars with more than 8 cylinders & more for M cars.

Just because a car costs circa £50k new shouldn't make parts or labour charges higher. I accept some items are larger than on smaller cars......clearly exhaust system will be bigger on an X5 han on a MIni. Largee lumps take more oil too.

Oh and btw I have spent thousands over last 10 years. Have wondered what total of service & repair bills would be over similar period/mileage if we had a Japanese nearish equivalent.

[Greydog]

For my 10 peneth! It sounds as though your car went to a main dealer their "technicians" are educated to change parts not repair anything (not a BMW issue it spread across all Marques) So a nipple sheared !! Shock Horror a competent mechanic would use a stud extractor and remove the remains then fit a new bleed nipple. Instead they fit a new caliper??
We run 10year + old cars as AW8 points out a competent Indy will often do an equally good job of keeping our cars in good condition at a far more reasonable cost.

As a direct comparison my wife's car is a 2004 3.0 Subaru Outback owned from new. At 2 years old I ordered a load of Perrin engine upgrade stuff from the States and had it fitted by a local Scooby specialist result a really scary 380 hp at the wheels (measured on a rolling road after fitting) it now has 140k on the clock and has its annual service and MOT which it passed again this year with no advisories. We have replaced drop links and arb's and a few interior trim parts but the rest is just annual service and drive it. In that time I have owned 2 AMG Mercedes and 2 X5's which are very expensive by comparison even though they carry more street cred and are a a much nicer place to sit.
So beware of old lady's in Subaru's you never know?

[Simon]

Thanks for all your replies.

Your right when you say it's a nice place to be in a E53 (ha, that rhymes) I have had loads of BMW's over the years from E30 to E46 M3 (which was fast but no good for long journeys, maybe i'm getting old) A few years ago I had a 2.7tdi A5 coupe it was a nice car again but there's something about the X5 that gets you hooked.

I've been looking on eBay again at E70's but I don't like the look of them anymore than the E53 and I would have to spend 10k to get one I think, And who knows I could get a big bill again from that 3 months down the line.

So to sum up 'Better the devil you know'

;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D

[Moments]

My 2005 diesel has needed £5,500 in maintenance over 11 years. It's just starting to get painful now - ahead of MoT I'm about to replace rear wishbones, ball joints, integral links and who knows what else once I get the lower arms free!

I can't complain about the cost - it's a great car, very reliable and I prefer it to the later X5s. These sorts of cars do tend to eat certain things - like suspension and braking components - but that's part of the package here.

@Simon: I'm sure your car is better for the money spent. I hope you can enjoy it and not think too much of that side of things!

[Simon]

Yea it does feel a lot better tbh, had to have a new injector no3 on friday just to add insult to injury because the Fuel inject. system warning came up.... even more annoying the warning came up again today  :rant: :wall:

[CondorX5]

Just seen this Simon, I had a very similar recent issue - the main dealers I have been using for years announced that the rear brake pipes were "dangerously corroded" and wanted about £1500 to replace - I have a thread somewhere on all the "work" they deemed necessary, including about £600 to replace a wondow winder which really should have been covered under the extended warranty.  I declined their "kind" offer - I've described it all on a different thread here somewhere - and basically, it turned out that the £600 window winder replacement was completely unnecessary as was the apparent "dangerously corroded brake pipes.  Three experienced mechanics and MOT testers looked at the brake pipes and said BMW were taliking complete nonsense and they were definitely not corroded or an MOT fail. 

So the £1500+++ I was quoted ended up being far far less than that......DON't always believe BMW main dealers when they quote crazy prices on elderly X5 repairs.

[Pete]

I've never been able to understand the loyalty people have towards main dealers, they charge massively more than an indy and often aren't as clued up as you are led to think (I've lost count of the threads where people pay for the privilege of them replacing parts that aren't the root of a problem). I have only ever been screwed over (or attempted to be screwed over) by main dealers. In my eyes, it is a criminal act and if you suspect someone is trying to defraud you out of amounts such as £1500, I'd personally like to see them dealt with.  It should be a simple case of get them to quote for repairs, get a 2nd and 3rd opinion and pass the details on to police or trading standards.  It's no different to these people who con old people into massively excessive and unnecessary house repairs.

[CondorX5]

Agree fully, Pete, it is downright criminal but the police and trading standards have no interest, so they just keep getting away with it.  Most people don't have any idea of the rip off, so the dealers win all the time. And they weasel out if it on the rare occasion they are caught out.......... Plus when it comes to the brake pipes for instance, the excuse was that it was their MOT testers "opinion".    Not the opinion of three other independent testers though. 
My X has had an extended warranty all the years I have owned it and it has covered almost everything- only in recent months with higher mileage has the warranty company started humming and hawing.

That said, I collected it again today having had a brand new BM54 /radio unit and a new DSP amp on the warranty. Plus they replaced a xenon headlight bulb FOC as goodwill for messing around.  But while I was en route home with the car I realised the BT was no longer working.    Have deleted all old pairings and none of our Apple or non-Apple phones will pair.......I suspect that they have killed off the BT module now

[grumpywurzel]

I understand the guys with some sort of warranty (which is next to useless half the time) going to a dealer but Hell would freeze over before I would take my car to them.

The hard part is finding an Indy you can trust, first attempt failed and got screwed over last year when it was MOT time. £1400 odd for new brakes which didn't behave, act or feel any different before or after the new bits were fitted even though they said that things were seized/shattered (pads) or worn out to a dangerous level.

Got a brilliant guy here in Plymouth now which only uses OEM bits, doesn't rip you off for labour and will go out of his way to try and help (even not charging for labour to try and fix the door issue that the other chimps had created).

Honestly, if you can get an Indy, research them online to see if they have any honest reviews. I have probably missed it but on other car forums they have a sticky with recommended garages/services in different areas, it might be an idea???

[X5Sport]

We don't have one on here which probably says a lot about BMW Dealers and Indy's.  Last time I used a 'recommended' BMW Indy in the Milton Keynes area for just a battery change, the car came back with Nav blown, Audio fritzed and a number of 30A fuses blown. 

They paid for the repairs and the car was away another week.  The suspicion was an apprentice had fitted the new battery backwards before noticing it and kept quiet!  We were never told what went wrong and they were extremely reluctant to talk about it - hence the suspicions - and we've never been back.