Help please guys! No brakes and loss of power !

[kevshepherd]

Hi Guys,

Its a bad year for the X so far. After the front end shunt, causing the damper pulley to fail and needing to be replaced (800eur), I've been preparing to sell the car for something with less miles for the past few weeks (even though the car has 90k miles, and is like new inside and out after a complete repaint and retrim).

I'm starting to get paranoid and think my cars have a 6th sense. When I was selling the last X5 when leaving the UK, the auto gearbox failed as soon as I started to advertise the car, costing me £1600 just before selling it (and I couldn't decide whether to mention the recon box with warrantly in case it put people off).

Today the current X (same model, a 3.0D 2005 Auto) was driving perfectly. I was really enjoying the smooth quiet, drive home from Milan, until I got home.

Put it into reverse to park and noticed that the brake pedal wouldn't go down. Turn off/on and same. No servo assisted brakes any more

Took it for a short drive and noticed a drastic loss of power on hill climbs, even not too steep.

On idle the car sounds fine, and the aircon/power steering seem are working. And strangely no error messages, or strange smells/noises.

I've checked the oil/water, and looked all around the engine for any signs of split pipes but nothing obvious.

When revving the car it sounds like the turbo is not working (no whistle noise).

Could this also effect the brakes?

The missus just pointed out a womans point of view, that the entire braking system can fail on a supposed hi-tech German car, and there's not a single warning message, yet, if a bulb blows, or water is low.... she has a point :$

Am I looking in the right area thinking it could be a vaccum/turbo type problem. Would this give me a loss of brakes AND a loss of power?

Other symptoms (that I guess I got used to) are a more noticeable turbo lag when pulling away, holding the gears for too long, especially when going down hill.

I'll try to limp down to my local indie with the car tomorrow, but does anyone identify with these symptoms?

Really appreciate any kind of opinion guys. At the moment the deep depression is starting to set in....



Cheers, Kev.


Kev.

[fenj66]

sounds like a perished/split/disconnected vacuum pipe somewhere to me. had a similar issue on my 330d, a new £5 pipe from halfords cured it. one of the pipes in this link, poss part 9, 10 or 11...

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E53/S ... o_charger/


or parts 1, 3, 4 here..

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E53/S ... ntrol_agr/

good luck

[kevshepherd]

Thanks a lot for the glimmer of hope  O:-)

Did you also lose your brakes? I've had a quick feel around the numerous pipes that are visible but couldn't see anything abvious.

But I'm still hopeful. The car was really driving like a dream up till the moment the brakes failed.

I've got a trusted mechanic that will take a look on Saturday.

When driving, it will get up the hills, but I need to switch to manual and drop down a gear or two....

... which will also be useful way of slowing down when driving to the garage 

Thanks again. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,  Kev.

[kevshepherd]

Hi guys,
Just a quick update to close the thread.

The vacuum pump had indeed failed and was in pieces when removed and inspected..

A replacement Pierburg unit. (exactly same as the one removed but without a BMW logo next to the Pierburg one), was installed for EUR350 all in (labour vat and some other bits), and the car drives like a dream again.

Needless to say, I'm a very happy man that it wasnt something more serious.

Cheers,  Kev.