XSeries-forum

Hello all,

I was hoping for some assistance in terms of what to do with my car going forwards. For background it is a

bmw x5 3.0 diesel automatic,
sport exclusive edition,
le mans blue and cream leather and I love it
2005 facelift edition

Recently the brakes stopped working completely and I was like ouch! got it towed to a garage (an independent bmw specialist in London( and after a bill of £650, it's back on the road.

The work done which includes investigation and repair was as per below, ive taken this from the emails from garage:-

Stage 1 -
"We have a vacuum fault on the vehicle which will need to be rectified as a first step in repairing the braking system. When we carry out a smoke test on the vehicle we can trace the smoke to a leak at the rear of the engine somewhere.The brakes work on vacuum so without a complete system then this cant work. Ive also noticed that the turbo and the EGR are not working either and these are also vacuum operated.
C/O Initial diagnostic checks into
reported braking system failure
      Check brake fluid level and system
      for leaks
      Check operation of engine vacuum
      unit
      Test operation of brake servo and
      check for vacuum loss
      Test vacuum hub and vacuum hoses  C

Total Cost £166

Stage2:-
The further investigation will require removing the air filter housing unit as well as the intake manifold".

Total Cost - £125.20 (component removals)

Stage 3-
We have traced the problem and located the split vacuum hose.
I have attached the revised quotation for the repairs and also have some recommendations whilst we are working on the engine. Cleaning of throttle body and EGR that is starting to get blocked and intake manifold and how the ports are starting to get blocked

Costs -
Install new pipe and replace perished air hoses at same times

Total Cost - £285

Recommend throttle body cleaning
Recommend EGR cleaning, recommend
intake manifold cleaning
replacement two two glow fuses
Cost £130

Does this seem fair for the work done? Theres also some additional work that has come out after all of this work has been done. I wuld also like a view if these are worthwhile progressing or going somewhere else, ill put that as a reply on this as it may get quite long


Another point is, I should mention that the car does have 11 months mot however has done 200k miles, so my next decision  in terms of further repair work is whether I should keep the car or spend more money on it

In terms of further work, they have recommended the below after doing some maintenance checks they did for free:-

a)First thing we have noticed is that both front wishbones are DANGEROUS, they are the cause of the screeching when turning but also the knocking when braking and hitting bumps in the road.

Costs - £400

b) As regards the excessive smoke from the engine and the irregular noise that I pointed out to you when the car came in, I think that this is the exhaust manifold that has blown. It is a bit difficult to tell because the complete underneath is covered in carbon build up. Again this is dangerous as the hot exhaust gasses that should remain in the engine are escaping and this can cause things to burn, which makes me think that this may be the cause of the brake pipes splitting maybe because the gasses are heating things that shouldn’t get hot

In terms of B) shouldn't they have noticed or looked at this at the same time as he vacuum hose piece when the car was destripped anywsy. Seems like they are recharging me all the labour again to do this job. They have quoted £1000 as a worst case but they aernt sure what it is

Cost - £1000

At the moment, ive taken the car back right now for a view of what do and how to do it more cheaply. I just don't have this much cash at the moment

Please help

Thanks

Not a good start to the season!  Sounds like you have a car in need of some TLC and servicing.  A lot of what has been found is well known and being a BMW not particularly cheap to fix, but it is all fixable.

Exhaust manifold fault is difficult to see unless they take it off and it's on the opposite side to the inlet and if the crack is underneath would have been invisible.  It is a known issue as the manifold is made of pressed steel rather than cast iron.  That needs doing.

Split vacuum hose is not unusual, especially on a 10 year old car.  As you've found, no vacuum means no brakes or turbo.  That's sorted.

EGR and manifold 'sooting' aren't critical and can be done later when cash permits.  Both are common issues.  You could blank the EGR off instead.

Wishbone wear is also common at this age and should be done as soon as possible.

Glow plug failure also very common and do they mean replacing two glow plugs rather than fuses?

If you are mechanically capable then with a bit of time you can DIY it.  Many of the parts can be got from Eurocarparts. 

London prices are higher that outside but with you using an Indy already there probably aren't many cheaper options in your local area.  A main Dealer typically costs £200 per hour for labour - and it's the labour that's the biggest cost.

A bit of DIY skill & capability is a skill worth a fortune...
The X5's are a truly fabulous machines, but they DO require constant work.....
Suggest you start getting to grips with doing a fewjobs yourself asap...
Pretty much all you described are jobs you can do your self with a good set of tools, patience, and all you need to know you will find here...
the wishbone is probably a garage job, but the rest you will often get assistance if you offer packs of beer and food....
The upside of this, is that you see the work done & LEARN.

Knowledge is POWER is MONEY.

Have a great Christmas day you guys & girls,

Hello everyone and thanks for all your help!

I think you guys are right, unti i get more comfortable with the doing these things myself, ill end up sending a small fortune.

I now have fixed all the issues, and definitely got them done at a better price by using mobile mechanics

Got the suspension done fr £200 - car drives like a new car crazy the difference it makes

Replaced the exhaust manifold for £300 all in (£70 ebay cast iron one and £230 from Click Mechanic for fitting)

So finally no lights or further issues, no worries car is gonna drop...or well i thought.

Once the exhaust manifold was on, car has been running absolutely fine from te city driving 0 - 30mph type of driving, even up to 40mph.

I thought all was good however on the way back from the gym, on hitting the 50 zone, the car was struggling to get past 50 and very much felt hesitant and i was worried, ive had the prior past 100).

I also hear a slight whining noise, now my worry is, is this a turbo issue. There are no lights on the dash, no issues at all driving in the up to 50 range and no blue smoke. Turbo was working fine prior to the installation but now its gone off or something else is causing to not work.

I have done some research and think it could be:-

a) Mass Airflow Sensor
b) Fuel Filter
c) CAT

I am hoping its not the turbo tbh, as so close to having the car of my dreams to now have another issue. The issue is at the end of the month im driving up to Edinburgh from London, and wanted to make sure car is safe. If its struggling past 50, sounds like a problem

d) Transmission failsafe - i do NOT have this error maessage but car does feel like its in lIMP mode or a failsafe performance mode in the higher gears. Going to take it out again tofay and test it in manual mode to see what happens when i shift up or down through the gears on the 50 zone?

any tips/recommendations?

The airfilter was disgustingly black once he took out all sorts of gunk from it but recommended i get that changed at some point. Has him messing about and cleaning the air filter up caused an issue with the mass airflow sesnsor.

Another thing he did do wrong, was when he finished the install he had forgot to put the last seal on injector 1 (excuse my knowledge here) however he said that on start up the engine started smoking and he was like ehh. Then he switched it off and put the injector seal back on then it started up fine. COuld this type of thing also have caused a follow on issue to either the turbo or airflow sensor. i have asked them to come back out and at least identify the issue before discussing how to progress forward in terms of fix and costings? As i used my own part for the exhaust manifold, then there isn't a warranty but my issues is, he has done the exhaust manifold fine but its had a knock on somewhere else

the whining noise, may be the normal whinng noise u get from e53's which i hear of, prior tho fixing the exhaust manifold, i never heard it due to the exhaust noise. All ideas welcome.

Check that all of the vacuum hoses have been reconnected.  More than a few on here have had one missed and suffered a lack of power.  Reconnecting them has brought life back.  If the turbo is louder then that makes me suspicious that there is something not connected correctly.

Im hoping the fitter used a new gasket for the Turbo charger..
Gasket on mime leaks, and it whistles quite a bit...

I learned that they can whistle a little any way.... even when everything is a good fit

Thanks for the replies all

I took the car for a longer drive tonight and tried manual mode (one which I haven't used a lot of until today hehe). So the car does drive smoothly and revs all the way to the red line in each of the below gears.

From Gear 1 to Gear 3 the power is there and doesn't have issues reaching 40mph or even slighty above to the 5 region.

From gear 4 onwards, and above 50mph It does pull but doesn't pull as hard as it previously did. Same as 5th and 6th.

I had a couple of follow up questions, if you don't mind;-

a) If the car has a turbo issue, would the car drive funny in all the gears. The fact it appears to drive perfectly normal in gear 1 to gear 3, does this mean the turbo is functioning. I guess what i'm asking is, the car use the turbo from gear 1 to gear 3. I am not very mechanically minded but reading a lot of about turbos, and the way they work. I sense it may not be turbo related as you gusy mentioned above.

b) I will try and attempt to look at the vacuum bits tomorrow, just need to figure out what to look for lol will do some searching online now

c) @X5-D-Sport Salisbury - I hope he used a new turbo gasket as one was supplied with the kit I bought. He used new head gaskets for sure as he showed me the olds ones too.

It still drives like a dream to be fair and I could live with the power loss but be good to know what the issue is as wouldn't want it causing a bigger issue down the line. Fingers crossed an easy fix.

1.  Turbo operates in all gears/modes.  It's driven by exhaust gas flow so is always operating.

2.  Vacuum pipes are all down the left side of the engine as you look in.  Also check that all the electrics are plugged in again.  There are a lot of loom connectors to sensors etc that need to be plugged in.  Easy to miss something when putting it back together.

It might be a split pipe too.  The fact it's louder indicates an air leak/missed connection.  You can hear them but it is usually a fairly muted whistle only heard under power and with a window open.