Sorry, I guess I was just hoping for a "Do this and all is good" kind of reply. Not an "I have the same problem and I don't know" reply. Not your fault, just damn... not what I was hoping to hear.

My thought with the fuel filter is actually more the fuel pressure regulator. If this is bad, maybe after sitting the pressure slowly leaks out. On first crank the engine just isn't getting enough fuel and by the time of the second crank the fuel pump has built the pressure back up. Same theory with the fuel pump if it's getting weak or leaking. If this leak is really slow (like half an hour or so to reduce the pressure enough...) then maybe I wouldn't smell the fuel?

As for spark plugs this was just a suggestion I saw in another post when someone said their car wouldn't start. Their car wouldn't start at all so the problem was a bit different and spark plugs make sense at that point... but still... cheap and probably should be done anyway.

MAF is always an unknown. On the M5board, we go through them like candy... fortunately, someone found out we could buy two cheap MAFs meant for VW Golfs, throw away the housing and use them on in the M5 housings. When MAFs go, they don't always throw codes and can prevent the car from starting. The first time they went on my M5 it started out with the car dying shortly after starting. Very quickly (within a day) it progressed to the car not starting on some tries and while I was waiting for the MAFs to arrive in the mail, the car just stopped starting all together. This was my experience, but others have had similar but different symptoms. The problem with the X5 is similar enough I didn't want to rule it out.... plus a can of CRC MAF cleaner is so cheap... why not try it.

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Matt Atkins
'01 Titanium Silver X5 4.4
'01 Lemans Blue M5