Ill have to agree with 03bama. Mine 2001 3.0, has consumed way too much of my time. The tech at moritz on my last diagnostic visit put it in perspective. He talked how great these little engines were with the exception of this, as he thumped the flange on the radiator, plastic. He said with all the plastic parts and the higher but normal operating temps of these engines the plastic sensors fail. Im not a mechanic but that sounds like common sense. Ive replaced all the same common parts that everyone else have, Disa, ccv, cam sensors, valve cover gaskets, fsr, instrument cluster, cv boots front half shafts, window regulators blah blah blah. You cant take your x to the dealer, youll get screwed and diagnostics are difficult if you don’t have specific bmw tools. I just got peake tool which has helped. I bought my first Honda in 1988. Ive had five with over a combined 1 million miles, over 200,000 miles on each except one my daughter totaled, 150K, and the one I drive to work now 147k. Literally, I have replaced 3 cooling fans, 1 cooling fan relay, 1 cv half shaft and 1 fuel pump, that’s it other than tires and batteries! I think these x’s are a hobby to some. Ive got far too many other things to do besides work on cars. My wife loves driving this car. She says she feels safe on the road but now I wont let her drive it anywhere other than work. Im afraid it will break down. My recommendation to anyone buying a later X5, be prepared to work on the car unless you have a lot of money to spend. And if you have that much money just buy a new one with a warranty then get rid of it before the warranty expires. For older models, buy a peake tool, you will need it. For goodness sakes don’t buy aftermarket, they wont work! You’ll spend more on parts but remember your saving money cause your doing the work yourself. When its running right you will enjoy but when not you will be cursing it. Right now ive got to get back to trying to get this thing running so I can get more on a trade in, been offered $5500. I wont sell it outright to anyone, my conscious wont let me.