First off, I own an X5 3.0sd (old name for 35D) which I bought from new in Jan 2008 - built in Dec 07, and shipped to me in Ireland.

On the whole I have had a good experience with my X5, had the battery replaced early on, had one of the air suspension ballons replaced last month, but on the whole a good experience.

Well I arrived home last Monday night to find a BMW recall letter waiting for me regarding this bolt - didn't think much about it afterall my car has just turned 5 years old, I am pretty busy at work so I thought to leave it until the new year.

On the way home last night I stopped to get diesel, and when I was pulling off again I got a "Dynamic Drive" failure error, followed by a "Charge Failure" error, and I the steering had gone almost completely rigid (as if you tried to turn the wheel with the car off).

Managed to get the car home - couple of tricky roundabouts but got home.

Went out this morning and started the car and got the same errors, so I called my "local" BMW dealer and booked a slot in the service department.

Now one of my bug-bears with BMW in Ireland is that they seem to think that all BMW driver live in Dublin - I Dont, and it's almost a 100KM drive every time I want to get a service - however this is a seperate issue.

So, the BMW guy tells me to bring the car in and they will look at it. They had no replacement car but he said they would give me a lift back home while they had the car - luckly I decided to wait untill my wife finished the school run and I asked her to follow me in her car to bring me to work after.

So I set out and apart from the heavy steering which made turns really difficult, everything was fine.

That was until about half way there my car stated coming up with more errors - transmission error, ABS error, DSC error - a list of errors as long as your arm, but the car was still driving so on I went.

As is usual when you have a problem it is raining.

Then the lights dashboard started to flash just before I lost all electrical power apart from the wipers which were moving just enough for me to see, and then my X5 just cut out.

I managed to cruise to a halt right beside a service station, and my wife pulled up beside me.

I thought it was time to jump start the car and luckly I keep a good set of heavy jump leads in my car - however where do I keep them? In the compartment under the floor of the boot (trunk) - no problem except I have the powered tailgate - couldn't open it!!!!

I climbed into the boot but whatever I did I could just not get the leads out. Eventually I went into the service station and paid €30 for a set of crappy leads and hooked it up to my wifes car and all the electrics came back to life, but I could not start the engine, the leads could not carry enough power!!!

Anyway, with my power tailgate working I managed to get my good leads and got the car started, and I left it running for a while thinking that it would charge the battery.

After 15 minutes I set out again, only to have the car die again 20KM further down the road - but hooked up the leads to let it charge etc and this time I noticed that the belt on the altenator looked loose - no tension. I didn't see it before as it's kind of out of the way, but I figured that the altenator was not charging the battery etc, and I wondered if the power steering pump is on the same belt.

Eventually I managed to get the car up to BMW and got back to work.

Just got a call from the service manager to say they know what the problem is - the engine belt idler pulley bolt snapped!!!!!!!!!!!!

What are the chances of that - I have the car 5 years, and the day after I recieve the recall letter the bolt snaps!

My suggestion to you if you recieve one of these letters - DONT OPEN IT, it contains some kind of leathel virus that will cause your bolt to break