Originally Posted by ian1967

We're in Sweden right now visiting the in-laws and today the X5 went to the garage to have the Co2 reading problem fixed. I had assumed that it was a sensor that needed replacing, but thanks to our German mechanic, on further inspection, the problem was not with a faulty sensor, but it was the "motor cable" that feeds the electronic information from the car into the magic black box. The connections on this cable were bad and hence the information being fed to the computer was shorting, which was the cause of the gremlins.He advised that it was a common problem on the E53, usually main dealers recommending that the entire wiring harness be replaced, but he cleaned up the connectors and viola... our X5 is running perfect again. No more DSC 4x4 engine failsafe messages, no more airbag light (came on a few days ago), no more strange happenings with the rear tailgate deadlocking itself when you stop the car, no more abs and brake light errors, its fun to drive again!!!!The last BMW main dealer we took it to, replaced the idle control valve and assured us that they had fixed the problem, presenting us with a nice £350 bill. At least our German BMW mechanic, working in Sweden has actually fixed the problem and only charged us £80 to clean up the connectors and reset the computer.