to boil or not to boil ? that is my question

[Rootripper]

2002 E53, 120K. started warming very slow anderraticqlly. In the past I just run her down to my friendly local mechanic and get the thermostat replaced.
Trouble is I moved and didn't take my mechanic with me.
Question:

Can I just run it like this? For a while at least ?

Thanks for your help
Mike

[nick325xit 5spd]

I'm not really clear about whether your X5 is warming slowly, or overheating slowly.

If it's warming to operating temperature slowly, you can live with that. It may impact oil change intervals and/or your cats/

If it's overheating, you must fix ASAP. Especially if you have a 3.0. M54 blocks are often basically junk after they are overheated badly.

[Rootripper]

Sorry, slowly warming up, then holds a pretty average operating trip.

thanks for calling

[X5chemist]

Mine has stuck a thermostat too. I live in warmer weather though. The needle is close enough to center I'm okay. Heat is nice inside. A thermostat is on order. It can wait for a warm day for replacement.

[X5only]

Had the same issue -vehicle would take too long to warm up in winter (compared to the past). I also got DME error 2EF4/82 (https://www.drive2.com/l/535096851062325630/). I replaced the thermostat and dual coolant temp sensor, refreshed coolant and bled the system. The vehicle now warms up as normal and cabin vents now have a nice warm air flow when set to 72F. The error code is also gone. I hear that the X5 t-stat is designed to fail open, so it won't cause an overheat condition, but if I were you I wouldn't wait to prove if that is indeed true.

[andrewwynn]

I drove mine for months with a stick open t-stat. Didn't notice until the ambient dropped and I couldn't get cabin heat.

When my t-stat recently failed open I just removed the mechanical fan and put some form insulation board in front of the radiator to punt on replacing the t-stat.