XSeries-forum

Hi, looking for some advice on my 2002 X5 3.0d before i have a nervous breakdown.

2 weeks ago we decided to trade it in for a 120d for economy reasons, all was good, deal was agreed but we had to wait till number plates transfered.

I went to the shops last friday night, everything was fine, car drove a normal. Came out from the shop jumped in the car and Nothing, wont start, wont even turn over, no clicking nothing, only thing i got was ignition lights and a "bong" sound which i believe is due to low fuel (shows 29miles).

The DBC light (circle with ! in middle) truns red, then yellow, the ABS and DSC light are yellow.

I called the AA who sent out a recovery truck, the guy tried to jump it but still nothing so got it recovered home.

On saturday i phoned my local indy, who has done various work on it including new gearbox a year ago, they arranged to pick it up on monday and said they would look at it first thing on monday. Monday came, car was picked up, phoned monday night, they hadnt looked at it, same happened tue, wed, phoned on thursday and was told they have been very busy and car wasnt 'booked' in so they couldnt look at it. I was raging, they phoned back on thursday night and asked if iv had any problems with sarting the car, which i replied, no.

Got a call on friday to say they have run a diag and its not howing ANY faults, both keys are responding to EWS unit as is the transmission unit. They reset EWS and ECU and aligned them but car still wont turn over. They have replaced the battery as old one wasnt taking a charge. They where going to look at it saturday but are then closed till tuesday (bank holiday monday)...I phoned yesterday and was told they still havint found the problem, so i asked about the starter motor...we havnt looked at that yet but we dont think its as simple as a starter motor!!!! WTF wouldnt that be one of the first things to look at???

I know iv ranted on but im pulling my hair out, iv got the dealer phoning telling me hes going to pull out of new deal and sue me and i got the indy taking his time trying to fix it...

Can anyone on here offer so advice or does anyone know where the problem might me, could it BE the starter motor or something more serious???

Thanks, Lee

Welcome & sorry to hear of your problems.

Normally we prefer folk to 1st to establish themselves as members before seeking help, however, yours is one of two seemingly legitimate cries for help in recent days so I won't take issue with your lack of intoducing yourself in the new member section.

You have raised 3 issues :

1. The flexibility &/or comptenece of your indy : Awkward one this. Most of us will know from frustrtated past experience that when we want indy work done we often have to book work several working days in advance.........lead times of 2 weeks are not unheard of for a busy indy without high staff levels. The biggest ones have more staff tend to close doors at a set time whereas the smaller indy (perhaps with 1 or 2 members of staff), might be more flexible & happy to work into an evening to help a customer in need. I understand it may not be acceptable, (for you or the trader), to have to wait a few days for the work to be completed, however, if they are fully booked &/or not prepared to be flexible then this is the end result. I would speak on Tuesday & ask them for itemised cost of work thus far. Once ( & only once) you have got a figure, then maybe seek an assurance that your car will be given imminent workshop/mechanic time on Tuesday or early next week. If you feel you are being fobbed off or their legitimate delays are unacceptable to you then you will have to consider geting car collected & taken to an additional BMW indy or a main dealer. Obviously it is in your interests to ensure any other indy or dealer you use has a good reputation & can be trusted in terms of work standard & reasobale cost. It may be beneficial for any new indy to learn that you are buying a 120d & will be considering using their services again. You use the term indy, however, the term is used far to widely. A BMW indy in my eyes is someone who works wholly or mainly on BMW vehicles. I say this because some use the trm to decribe an all makes garage. There is nothing wrong with an all makes gargage but it stands to reason that those with most experienced working on BMW's may best suit your needs. Diagnostic kit is an issue too. Ideally owners should look for someone who has Autologic kit or something else that will perform decent diagnostics. You dont say where you are, however, if you click here you should be able to find some more servicing/indy options within a reasonable distance. Perhaps if you indicate on here roughly where you are others may be able to recommend an alternative indy. Whilst it can be easy to shudder at some main dealer labour rates you should also consider that indy bills can stack up especially if they are taking too long to find a problem. If using main dealer for repair work make sure you prior negotiate the labour rate to include any available discount for age of the car.


2. The 120d deal : You refer to the dealer. Whether a BMW dealer or a general trader they will be more than aware that cars go wrong & often at times that frustrate sales. If they only seem motivated at relieving you of your money then perhaps ask yourself how supportive they may be if you later have a problem with the 120d. If it's a man dealer then it may be a wise move to book your X5 in with them. This way they can only shout at themselves for delays in fixing it !
If the seller is merely an independent trader then they have to make some choices. They can either wait for your car to be repaired at your cost /arangement, can agree to take the car as a non runner, (this option likely to be very costly to you as they could take advantage and offer far lower price), or pull out of the deal. I know it's difficulty when you have heart set on a specific car but there are plenty of other used 120d's. Often if a 3rd party traders' sale price is significantly lower than competition it can be for good reason. Some price fairly to keep stock turning over quickly but lemons sell cheap too. If it really is the deal of the century then maybe ask the trader what he/she expects you to do to still secure the deal. Worst case scenario you lose this 120d but as said there are loads of others out there.

3. The technical problem : I am not a mechanic & in truth few on here are. Sure some of us have done some work on our cars, (some more than most), but even the best independents use diagnostic kit. Your problem could possibly be down to a starter motor, glow plug control unit or some other other issue. I am t reluctant to speculate when there can be so many possibilities. In all honesty you have to ask yourself what you are going to do if armed with multiple responses. I am assuming you wont be fixing this yourself & thus any info obtained from here is only going to serve to provide you with speculative suggestions as to the cause of the problem. I genuinely feel the key to all this is to get it checked by a highly regarded & trusted BMW specialist who can make time for you.

Good Luck

Thanks, and sorry for not posting in Newbies section (i run my own forums so know i should have done this).

Also thanks for your info, the Indy is indeed a BMW Indy with a good reputation and have all the diag gear, autologic etc and the dealer who we are buyng the car from is a main BMW dealer.

Sorry to gear you are having issues. I must admit that the starter motor or solenoid would be one of my very early checks as I'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). There are known issues with the starters on these cars, though usually it tends to be a current overdraw causing sluggish turning over - which does not throw a fault code. It took two dealers 5 attempts to find that my starter was faulty. One even blamed the tracking device for the issue and tried to charge me £500!! It wasn't and they managed to disable the power to the unit. They got told to go forth and...... Too much reliance on clever computers to tell them what's wrong, rather than actually going and having a bl@@dy good look.

No problem.

At least if main dealer then they can offer to recover & fix if they alleged issue(s) with workshop skill/availability of indy.

Avoid them buying as non diagnoised non runner as it will cost you more potentially.

Little update....The BMW garage we are buying new car from has phoned, they are now saying if we get the X5 to them, they will fix it BUT will charge us for any part required BUT will NOT charge us labour....Now i dont know what to do, do i leave it with the indy or cut my loses and get it recovered to BMW????

I would snap their arm off.

I would explain to indy that the dealer is effectively forcing you to handover the car & whilst offering to do the work f.o.c. plus part(s).

In either scenario you will still end up with a labour bill from the indy for work done thus far - fingers crossed they play fair.

The price differrence for BMW part(s) would only be subject to minor variances, whether sourced by indy or dealer.

At least you won't have to pay more labour if the dealer collects it. Any potential later delays caused will be as a result of a BMW dealer delaying or failing to fix an originally BMW manufacured & supplied car.........they cant take issue with that.

You could be cheeky & ask dealer for trade discount on the part(s) if cost significant, but tbh I think you have right result already.