Turbo's & Gearbox's

[Dave R]

Hi All!

Just found this website after the demise of X5drivers.co.uk. Glad to see there’s a new forum.

I’ve got a 54 reg X5 3.0d with nearly 80,000 miles. Runs like a dream! However having read many reports on the old forum about turbo’s and gearbox’s (the 2 most expensive things that appear to go wrong with the X5?) I was wondering if my days of trouble free motoring might be numbered!
What sort of mileage do these problems usually start at? Do many people on here have cars with excess of 100k miles that are still on their original gearbox/turbo??

Would be good to know so I can try to plan future expense!

Cheers!

[thedweeb]

I'm currently on 130000ish miles. The gearbox was rebuilt at 115000. Reading the forums I've seen them go bad at 50k, so finger in the wind really. However you should have the ZF box in yours apposed to my GM, which apperently are a little more reliable .

Dweeb

[fenj66]

having owned many differing marques over the years, i can safely say that bmw is proving to be the most trouble free of all...
my old 330d at circa 170000 miles is still on the original turbo and no probs reported... my current x5 3.0d 05 reg has the auto lurch, but that isnt the end of the world afaik.

i fully understand that on web forums the general topics are usually doom and gloom and so the abundance of topics re problems appear to stand out more than any heaps of praises for any said car.. the current topical issue of swirl flaps being a good example...not many reported probs, but much hysteria!
at 80000 miles i would guesstimate your only half way to serious issues, far beyond most other marques.

[thedweeb]

I agree you only ever hear when things go wrong.

[Steamyrotter]

When you finish driving let the car tick over for a min or two, usually after a couple miles of non thrashing then the turbo will cool down and not cook the oil & bearings. Then you can basically forget about turbo worries.. this is something that is rarely mentioned....
I had a 525 TDS Touring which were said to have the same problem with turbos but cooling it like that gave me no problems at all.

Gearboxes are a different matter as they will plat up eventually.
If it is young enough then you might be better off gradually changing the oil in small quantities. Will take a time for a total replacement but wont shock the box. the main problems usually arise from washing caked on crud through the system...

[Dave R]

all good advice. Agree that you only hear about problems on the forums! Thanks everyone for the input!

[X5Sport]

Apart from a premature gearbox failure and some electronic issues, which could happen to anyone, I love my X5. I swore after all the (very minor, but took the Dealers for ever to sort) issues I had under warranty I would never buy another BMW. but I take delivery of a new X6 on 11/11. The X5 has only 45,000 miles on it at almost 6 years old.

I can safely say that the X5 is the best driving 4x4 that I have had the pleasure to drive. In my case I think the real issues that I have had (apart from the tranny) have really been down to the inability of the dealers to correctly diagnose what was wrong and try to solve it by throwing parts at it whilst BMW were paying rather than work from 1st principles (which was how I was taught by police mechanics [none of your 'Technicians' as they're now known!]). All that resulted in it taking three or four times as long to fix as it should have with multiple return vists whilst they 'just tried this instead'.

I wonder sometimes if because warranty type failures result in the whole failed unit being recovered back to BMW means that the technicians never really get a chance to dig deep inside and find out what's really happened. The computer says put a complete new Widget in so that's what they do. Perhaps like more and more of the things around us, BMWs are now a throw away commodity.

[x555]

[quote=""X5Sport""]Apart from a premature gearbox failure and some electronic issues, which could happen to anyone, I love my X5. I swore after all the (very minor, but took the Dealers for ever to sort) issues I had under warranty I would never buy another BMW. but I take delivery of a new X6 on 11/11. The X5 has only 45,000 miles on it at almost 6 years old.

I can safely say that the X5 is the best driving 4x4 that I have had the pleasure to drive. In my case I think the real issues that I have had (apart from the tranny) have really been down to the inability of the dealers to correctly diagnose what was wrong and try to solve it by throwing parts at it whilst BMW were paying rather than work from 1st principles (which was how I was taught by police mechanics [none of your 'Technicians' as they're now known!]). All that resulted in it taking three or four times as long to fix as it should have with multiple return vists whilst they 'just tried this instead'.

I wonder sometimes if because warranty type failures result in the whole failed unit being recovered back to BMW means that the technicians never really get a chance to dig deep inside and find out what's really happened. The computer says put a complete new Widget in so that's what they do. Perhaps like more and more of the things around us, BMWs are now a throw away commodity.[/quote]

That and also the dealership gets payed by bmw for replacing said parts...so when sales are slower they actualy like the warranty work (just my opinion of course and not the forums).... phew nearly forgot the CTFA

[AW8]

To specifically answer the OP re attention needed to reduce risk of box & turbo issues : Consider asking indy to change ATF fluid & breather.

If not prior done expect rear subframe bushes, front thrust bushes & outer front CV joint gaitors to need attention & expect failure or 2 of window regulator(s).