Thanks Milsy. I was hoping there would be more views on this since I understand that it's a typical issue with the X5. It's just how it came about that irritates and confuses me. It's not as if I have money to throw away, but I guess I'll just go ahead and order the parts. At 72k miles, I guess it can't hurt either way....but if I do spend the money and the problem persists, I'll lose my ever-lovin' mind!!