At my wits end with this X5 problem.... PLEASE HELP!

[jungle7895]

Hi,

Firstly this is my first post.... Long time viewer and think this is the best X5 forum for information and has helped me to do a lot of jobs my self that I would usually take to the garage for.

I have had my X5 E53 3.0d (2001) for nearly 2 years now and love it! Best car I have ever owned! its has now about 105k on it and still runs smooth (small amount of Diesel smoke when I floor it but im putting that down to age and me being a bit particular about things).

Sooooo... For about a month now it has been really struggling to cold start after about 4 or 5 attempts or so of turning the key cranking for long periods of time each time it will eventually fire up. No issue when warm or if the car has been left for 7 hours or so in the day (While im at work).

I have a few friends who have small garages etc but decided to take it to an "approved" BMW garage thinking that they have the experience and correct diag equipment etc...

The garage ended up having it for 3 DAYS!!! Plugged it in and it had no fault codes (So they tell me) they checked the fuel feed, injectors, fuel pump. and found nothing although no fault code came up for the glow plugs they tested them (Somehow) and found that 2 were faulty so as they were in there with the manifold loosened they changed them all.

Soo I pick up the car and hand over £300+ for all this time they have spent on the car get it home sleep on it thinking everything is all sorted, jump in the car to go to work and the dam thing still wont start!!! GRRRRR! Same problem crank and crank and crank then eventually it goes..

One thing I noticed this morning... It did the "PRE - HEATING" on the dash board this seemed to cut down on the usual lengthy start process to about half the time?? was this just luck? or does that show anything?

If anyone has any further advice please help!!

Feel like I might aswell of thrown the money down the drain!

Im planning to go back to the garage tomorrow to tell them altho at the moment I cant really afford to spend any more money on it do you have any advise on what I should say?