The 'self levelling suspension inactive' problem is the ONE problem I haven't had with the 4.8is and to be honest I would have found it more reassuring to have some kind of error message rather than the 'ghost' problems that were more typical.

To solve 'most' of these problems the fix is either a new updated control module, replace the ride height sensors (which are cheap as chips and prone to going wrong) or a software upgrade. Most problems are software/electrical and very rarely anything concerning the pneumatic hardware. So most of the time the car remains safe but just unable to deal with changes in ride height or load (i.e. safe to drive to the dealer). To be fair to BMW the system was originally developed for the E39 5-series and adapted in stages to suit the X5. Hopefully the next model X5 will have a more reliable and functional system.

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