I just can’t catch a break with this car

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:14 pm

Well what a surprise yet again my car is sat at the dealers waiting to be fixed, but this time it had to go on the back of an RAC truck.

Pulling out of a junction and an almighty great bang from the rear followed by shuddering and grinding. Looks as though the rear diff has lunched itself.

X5Sport · Post by **X5Sport** » Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:19 pm

FFS! I think you said that you have a BMW Warranty, which will at least ease some of the pain. Any warning signs before it went?

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:53 pm

[quote="X5Sport"]
FFS! I think you said that you have a BMW Warranty, which will at least ease some of the pain. Any warning signs before it went?
[/quote]

Yes I have the warranty so that should hopefully take care of it. But I’ve only had the car back 3 weeks since it had the last major problem

There were no signs at all no noises no clunking. I just gave it a bit more throttle than normal to get a quick getaway into traffic and bang

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:40 pm

So to update the dealer has confirmed that the rear diff is toast, in all my years of motoring this is the first time I have ever had a diff fail on me I could sort of understand it if the car had been to the moon and back but it has just over 70K on the clock.

Unfortunately though the car is still not back with me,

At the end of last year it blew a head gasket (probably a result of the failed water pump a few weeks previously) and if anyone has ever had this happen on a V8 then you'll know that you should change both head gaskets. To get access to do this the BMW way is to drop the engine out of the car along with the gearbag and transfer box. on taking the head off they found a cracked timing chain guide so everything had to come off the engine to flip it over to remove the sump to change the guides.

However since i got the car back it had developed an oil leak it didn't have before. I had originally booked the car in last week for them to investigate this before the diff gave up. On inspection it seems as though it is the upper sump gasket that is leaking so guess what the engine has to come out of the car again to fix this so looks like i'm going to be without the car for at least another week if not more.

The warranty wont authorise the replacement of the diff until it is clear that there is no other issue with the engine so i am now sat waiting for the dealers to get the engine out and report to the warranty before they can even start to get the car mobile again

In the last 11 months the car has spent the best part of 3 months in the garage having various bits fixed. I have owned various BMW's for years and I honestly can't believe what a steaming pile of crap the X5 is compared to the other BMW models I've owned. I'm now at the point where I think it is time to call it a day (although to be honest there is not much left that can go wrong with the bloody thing now) I was fancying a 4.2 Q7 when i bought this so i might take a look at these again

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:56 am

So the latest is the oil leak is not from the sump it seams that one of the heads has mysteriously warped and the oil is coming from there.

So it’s both heads off again to go and get skimmed and no guarantees that they won’t warp again. Also no new heads are available new from BMW.

So by the looks of it it will be at least a couple of weeks before I get the car back

I think the only thing that is going to fix this car for good is a can of petrol and a match

Reusch · Post by **Reusch** » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:15 am

Mines back in again ffs no how you feel £2.5k spent a couple of months ago I suspect a faulty fuel pump now

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Tue Mar 20, 2018 10:33 am

Another 10 days on and still no sign of getting it back it is still in bits at the dealers waiting for the BMW insured warranty to authorise the work. So I will be lucky to get it back for Easter with the amount of work that needs doing and that is if the warrenty coughs up. BMW customer services are now involved so lets see if things start moving now.

I really just need the car back so i can sell the bloody thing and buy a car that actually works.

CondorX5 · Post by **CondorX5** » Tue Mar 20, 2018 5:50 pm

Some dealers employ someone to deal exclusively with warranty repairs and get things moving quickly -obviously your dealer is not one of those or it would have been sorted. Every now and then a “Monday morning” car comes along which has nothing but problems, constantly. No way of knowing I suppose, its a gamble we take when we buy them. And its not just one make or model of car, they are all affected.......

But incredibly frustrating to be treated with such indifference, hope you get it sorted soon. Are you in their loan car still?

graemeX5 · Post by **graemeX5** » Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:19 pm

Hi

Sorry to hear about the lengthening saga as you said at least you do have th BMW warranty which does help in these instances.

Once the heads and diff are sorted hopefully that will be the end of the problems and it will again be reliable for you.
Graeme

Horizon · Post by **Horizon** » Tue Mar 20, 2018 8:09 pm

[quote="allanhelen"]
Another 10 days on and still no sign of getting it back it is still in bits at the dealers waiting for the BMW insured warranty to authorise the work. So I will be lucky to get it back for Easter with the amount of work that needs doing and that is if the warrenty coughs up. BMW customer services are now involved so lets see if things start moving now.

I really just need the car back so i can sell the bloody thing and buy a car that actually works.
[/quote]
The thing is you loose confidence in a motor that gives you endless troubles, I'm a service engineer and see certain machines that are serviced on time, live in a perfect environment and give nothing but trouble.
On the other hand I see machines that live in awfull conditions, go twice the time between servicing and never miss a beat !
We got fed up with our BMW's giving trouble and moved brands, but saying that we've had BMW's for years trouble free.
Hope you get some car relief, whatever your outcome

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:46 am

[quote="Horizon"]
The thing is you loose confidence in a motor that gives you endless troubles, I'm a service engineer and see certain machines that are serviced on time, live in a perfect environment and give nothing but trouble.
On the other hand I see machines that live in awfull conditions, go twice the time between servicing and never miss a beat !
We got fed up with our BMW's giving trouble and moved brands, but saying that we've had BMW's for years trouble free.
Hope you get some car relief, whatever your outcome

Reusch · Post by **Reusch** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 10:03 am

Mines back in again faulty fuel pump not big money by far but a bloody pain I'm thinking going the lease route for the next vehicle but I've got to keep it until the end of the year to justify the money spent on it and hopefully nothing will go wrong with it

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:10 pm

So I have news....... it seems as though the reason for the delay is that I have now reached the value limit of the warranty :blink: as the total cost of the repairs with the Diff and engine work exceed the purchase price of the car which is a bummer. :'(

However as BMW customer services had taken up the case they are going to cover the shortfall and the repairs have now started. This was a huge surprise to me as i would have expected a manufacturer to wash their hands of a 10 year old car and not to pay out thousands of pounds towards its repair.

The only down side though is there will be a further delay as BMW are insisting that the cylinder heads are not skimmed and that they are replaced with new parts, so BMW have now got to find/make a matched set of heads and gets these shipped from Germany.

In total i'd guess there is at least £20K of work to be done to get the car back on the road, I must admit if they had offered me half of that to buy the car from me i would have bitten their hands off.

X5Sport · Post by **X5Sport** » Thu Mar 22, 2018 7:03 pm

Good on them for paying out and that is why I keep mine going.

BMW don’t repair but replace with new parts, hence no skimming and a significant extra cost.

allanhelen · Post by **allanhelen** » Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:32 pm

I know I am still in shock it would have been cheaper just to give me a new car from the used network

I couldn’t imagine a manufacturer like fiat doing something like this the answer would just have been Vaffanculo!

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