Update: Defect Located. Problem Solved! Eccentric Shaft Sensor! Changed the valve cover gasket and spark plugs while there. Engine never dies again (2 days! Knocking the wood!) Guess how much total I paid for parts & labor?


It happened to my 07' X3 E83 this morning. So I think I better bring it up here since there are many talented minds here.

Right after it died, I tried to restart it. No problem starting, but it went to 0 RPM right away. Seems it's not idling. Tried 3 times. The 4th time I gotta hold the gas pedal for about 20 seconds before slowly releasing it, and then it became normal. Pulled back in the garage right away and changed my beloved X5. Oh man....... you don't know how much I love my X5 now. lol

Any advice is greatly appreciated. No any symptom before except if the car sits too long, it got a flat battery. Last time when the same code appeared, I charged the battery and cleared the code, problem solved. This die-on-me in the middle of intersection really freaked me out.

Thank you guys!

Update: Thanks so much for the feedback, guys! That'll give me a pretty good checklist to start with.

4.13.2013 : Just something more to update. The most scary thing happened today: it died on my ON HIGHWAY today!!! I was driving 65MPH, and suddenly it's like fuel cut or starter shut down. So I carefully pulled over to the shoulder, and again, it won't hold RPM, dropped to 0 right after started up. Waited about 3 min, and it started fine.

It scared the shit out of me...............



Note: Error Code: P1017 & P1030. Disappeared after restart.