You bought a used X3 and water is getting inside the vehicle ? Please read !

[humbertob]

Hi there, so another one bite the dust, as many of X3 owners here, I was on the same boat days ago, just bought a 2009 X3 with all the bells and whistles and surprise she came along with an integrated pool inside also. Well I just did my research and found that a common issue on these vehicles is the vapor barries on the doors, they came apart after some time and yes, my 4 doors were the same, vapor barriers were almost falling from the inside of the door and the butyl glue used at the factory was hardened, so I just removed the hardened butyl thing from every single door and the used loctite adhesive and gasket maker to reattach the vapor barrier to each door and problem is now gone, so if you are in the same boat, don't worry is completely fixable, just take your time each door took me like hour and a half to fix them, any question or doubt you can leave a reply or send me an email at [email protected] Thanks and enjoy your X3 !

[Onizukachan]

FYI, the vapor barrier is supposed to be a vapor barrier, not a water barrier, you need to clean out the drains in the bottoms of the doors so water doesn't build up in them.

[Gregsgroup]

In my sons case the drivers side sunroof drained was blocked

[getty150]

Originally Posted by humbertob

Hi there, so another one bite the dust, as many of X3 owners here, I was on the same boat days ago, just bought a 2009 X3 with all the bells and whistles and surprise she came along with an integrated pool inside also. Well I just did my research and found that a common issue on these vehicles is the vapor barries on the doors, they came apart after some time and yes, my 4 doors were the same, vapor barriers were almost falling from the inside of the door and the butyl glue used at the factory was hardened, so I just removed the hardened butyl thing from every single door and the used loctite adhesive and gasket maker to reattach the vapor barrier to each door and problem is now gone, so if you are in the same boat, don't worry is completely fixable, just take your time each door took me like hour and a half to fix them, any question or doubt you can leave a reply or send me an email at [email protected] Thanks and enjoy your X3 !

Thanks...for providing that solution and what you used to be successfully! This is going to be help to us all

Sent from my SM-J727T using Tapatalk

[JP-X3]

Water can also get into the cargo area due to clogged sunroof drains. This happened to be back in January 2021 and caused the transfer case to go into failsafe mode (permanent 4wd, hard to steer) and of course the trifecta of ABS, brake and 4x4 lights were all lit.

It took me a while to diagnose this issue because I had recently replaced the transfer case actuator, some front suspension arms, got an alignment and replaced one rear wheel bearing so I was always suspicious about these repairs causing other problems, I was wrong...

I was able to get the transfer case to 2wd by applying 12 volts into the actuator motors' cable at the transfer case controller (VTG ECU) and then disconnected it. Drove the X3 on 2WD for 4 months. I bought the BMW 1.4 scan tool and was not able to diagnose the culprit. Finally I downloaded INPA and got a cable from Ebay. This software has an actuator and VTG ECU test function, there was no communication with the ECU so I bought an used one from Ebay for $50, replaced it and voila! it works again.
I took apart the old ECU and to my surprise I found out it's not water tight so water got it, corroded everything and created a short circuit.

[getty150]

Interesting...

https://www.bimmerfest.com/index.php?posts/13597786

Cheers!

Sent from my SM-A115U using Tapatalk