X5 M Engine Fault Reduced Power Warning

[paqs]

The car has been in the dealer for the last 3 days and BMW Germany have been analysing data. It was decided there was a fault with a vanos sensor, I don't know the full details but they were going to change it.

Then today I was told that parts within the vanos system are pre-lubed with some different oil and this needed purging from the system, Germany apparently told them do this rather than change the sensor. They told me this had cured the problem, they had road tested the car and all was perfect.

I drove the car 200 yards from the dealer and the screen said engine fault, reduced power and it went into limp home, I drove it straight back in and showed them, they looked a bit sheepish and said they will have to change the sensor, which they had apparently ordered but were told not to fit

I told them I was taking the car home anyway and asked if they could fit the part tomorrow (Saturday), they said maybe and will be phoning in the morning.

So I am no further forward with this, one thing I have noticed is that the warning seems to appear when car is driven and the engine partially warmed, ie if you drive the car and then park up for 30 mins to 1 hour and drive off the warning seems to appear, when driven from cold or the car is stopped when hot and restarted the warning does not appear.

Quite frankly I am disgusted, a 3 week old car costing £82500, (US $124000), its been off the road for 3 days this week and I have been in a shitty 1 series and it still has the same fault.

JOY IS NOT WASTING YOUR MONEY ON AN X5 M !

[mdernst]

FYI, I got the Engine Malfunction! Reduced power... yesterday when I was pulling out of my office under moderate acceleration. I did not notice any reduced power and drove it home. The message was gone on my next restart. I have 5,050 miles on my 2011 X5M.

Therefore, I have not yet made an appointment to take it in and will see if it reappears. I'm following this thread intently...

Mike

[E53is]

Originally Posted by mdernst

FYI, I got the Engine Malfunction! Reduced power... yesterday when I was pulling out of my office under moderate acceleration. I did not notice any reduced power and drove it home. The message was gone on my next restart. I have 5,050 miles on my 2011 X5M.

Therefore, I have not yet made an appointment to take it in and will see if it reappears. I'm following this thread intently...

Mike

its recorded in your car ..

the only thing i could find out was that my dealer believes now that i had
a bad icu (under the shifter) that was causing the faults. they believe there was nothing wrong with the transmission, just the icu. they took out the entire center console to find it. (3rd time it was in the shop for this problem) it doesnt matter to me now but i thought it might help you guys out to know, maybe you could direct your shops to take a look at it

i am just hoping that my new M doesnt have all these problems and that it gets better before it gets worse for you guys. if i can get anymore info on this mess ill post it here , gl

[paqs]

Originally Posted by E53is

its recorded in your car ..

the only thing i could find out was that my dealer believes now that i had
a bad icu (under the shifter) that was causing the faults. they believe there was nothing wrong with the transmission, just the icu. they took out the entire center console to find it. (3rd time it was in the shop for this problem) it doesnt matter to me now but i thought it might help you guys out to know, maybe you could direct your shops to take a look at it

i am just hoping that my new M doesnt have all these problems and that it gets better before it gets worse for you guys. if i can get anymore info on this mess ill post it here , gl

Thanks for the update, what is the icu, I presume some kind of control unit?

[E53is]

Originally Posted by paqs

Thanks for the update, what is the icu, I presume some kind of control unit?

I am picking up my "problem" M tomorrow afternoon, so i will get all the info i can on the icu and what they changed out. it is indeed a control unit, i'll find out its exact purpose as well..

[paqs]

Originally Posted by E53is

I am picking up my "problem" M tomorrow afternoon, so i will get all the info i can on the icu and what they changed out. it is indeed a control unit, i'll find out its exact purpose as well..

I should be getting mine back today if it road tests ok, they have changed a vanos valve, vanos sensor and they decided to change the camshaft sensor (just in case) as they had the car apart in that area.

[paqs]

Cars back, faults back, DISGUSTED, nothing else to say!

[paqs]

Originally Posted by mdernst

FYI, I got the Engine Malfunction! Reduced power... yesterday when I was pulling out of my office under moderate acceleration. I did not notice any reduced power and drove it home. The message was gone on my next restart. I have 5,050 miles on my 2011 X5M.

Therefore, I have not yet made an appointment to take it in and will see if it reappears. I'm following this thread intently...

Mike

I would get it into a dealer asap and get the fault codes read out and the data analysed, mine is going back in tomorrow and is definitely getting worse, the reduced power warning is getting more frequenct, 4 times yesterday and once today, every time car was in M (power) mode, in non-M mode it seems ok. In engine fault / reduced power mode its gutless, don't know what the computer does, guess it retards all the timing and opens the turbo waste gates?

AFAIK mine will be having a vanos valve and vanos sensor changed tomorrow.