X5 M Engine Fault Reduced Power Warning

paqs · #1 10-25-2010, 03:48 PM

Hi Folks,

At the weekend my X5 M with 700 miles on it reported an engine fault reduced power warning and went into limp home mode, the message cleared on the next restart.

Went to the dealer today and they said the car had stored a load of errors related to the left bank vanos indicating cam timing errors, he said these can't have been *reel* errors as the engine would have shut down completely.

They reset the codes and ran some diagnostic sequence on the engine which reported all was ok, no faults found and sent me on my way.

Within 2 hours I had the warning back and was back in reduced power mode until I restarted the engine again. The dealer thinks the car is suffering from software issues and is going to talk to Germany tomorrow.

Anyone come across anything similar, not impressed, 2 week old car with 700 miles on it!

Rez · #2 10-25-2010, 06:38 PM

sucks man. have not heard about this one before

Naz24 · #3 10-25-2010, 07:10 PM

That's unfortunate. Have you been properly breaking the car in? Or have you been driving it hard from the get-go..... Honestly lol

paqs · #4 10-26-2010, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naz24

That's unfortunate. Have you been properly breaking the car in? Or have you been driving it hard from the get-go..... Honestly lol

It's been driven very carefully, its hardly ever been above 3000 rpm except for a couple of overtakes, slow acceleration through the gears and no making the engine work, very rarely used 6th gear so the engine isn't forced to pull from low rpm. I've had it in a mix of M and normal mode as well. Also because I do a short run to and from my business unit every day I have been deliberately taking the car on a 10 mile detour to get everything warmed up nicely each day.

m5james · #5 10-26-2010, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paqs

It's been driven very carefully, its hardly ever been above 3000 rpm except for a couple of overtakes, slow acceleration through the gears and no making the engine work, very rarely used 6th gear so the engine isn't forced to pull from low rpm. I've had it in a mix of M and normal mode as well. Also because I do a short run to and from my business unit every day I have been deliberately taking the car on a 10 mile detour to get everything warmed up nicely each day.

Believe it or not, you NEED to stretch the legs on her. I driven all of my M cars, better yet ALL my BMW's hard...they tend to like it better. I don't mean stop light racing every time, but I'm definately two to three cars past everyone and doing the speed limit if I'm the first in line at a light, I'm not shy about passing, etc. Give the engine and those sensors a workout instead of such a limited range of use, it teaches the computer new adaptions and might solve your issue.

paqs · #6 10-29-2010, 05:34 PM

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 · #7 10-30-2010, 11:05 AM

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 · #8 10-26-2010, 12:32 AM

damn....yeah i have, bmw took back my X5M over this and other problems. i got the software line too, they "fixed" it 3x before they gave up. this post worries the hell out of me...

Quote:

Originally Posted by paqs

Hi Folks,

At the weekend my X5 M with 700 miles on it reported an engine fault reduced power warning and went into limp home mode, the message cleared on the next restart.

Went to the dealer today and they said the car had stored a load of errors related to the left bank vanos indicating cam timing errors, he said these can't have been *reel* errors as the engine would have shut down completely.

They reset the codes and ran some diagnostic sequence on the engine which reported all was ok, no faults found and sent me on my way.

Within 2 hours I had the warning back and was back in reduced power mode until I restarted the engine again. The dealer thinks the car is suffering from software issues and is going to talk to Germany tomorrow.

Anyone come across anything similar, not impressed, 2 week old car with 700 miles on it!

paqs · #9 10-26-2010, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E53is

damn....yeah i have, bmw took back my X5M over this and other problems. i got the software line too, they "fixed" it 3x before they gave up. this post worries the hell out of me...

Did you have this exact same problem? If so what fixes did they try that failed?

E53is · #10 10-26-2010, 04:54 AM

It's not your fault. i did pretty much the same thing..
for the fail safe mode problem, they updated my software to their latest spec, they also hooked it up to germany and had techs there take a look at it, what they did i couldnt tell you. about 160 miles after it was updated it failed, just doing a highway run. then after the techs "fixed it " it failed, 2 more times all around and under 200 miles. on the 5th fail i was having a talk with bmw about replacing the car, while i waited to hear from them it failed again (that was nail in the coffin) they had no idea what was wrong, they still do not know.