Help! 2008 BMW x5 4.8 Engine Failure

[JCL]

Originally Posted by Emden

That should work out good anyways because then BMW can be blamed for not fixing the problem and the original problem occurred under warranty.

Those are two separate claims though. When you signed the BMW repair order, it likely limited their liability to the cost of the repair they did. They are unlikely to take on consequential liability.

You can claim against the insurance company, and say there was a problem evident during the warranty period. See what the policy says about when coverage ends, and if there is a carry over for problems diagnosed before expiry or evidenced before expiry.

But I don't see how this two way split (leaving the Mercedes dealer out for a moment) works out well for you, since BMW can refer you to the warranty company, and vice versa. You don't have a guarantee of being kept whole because it is the fault of "one of the above". I understand you bought the policy from the Mercedes dealer. So you have three parties, and if you purchase a used engine yourself you will increase that to four. Not conducive to settlements. Good luck.

[wsmeyer]

That looks like a lot of metal on the filter. Could just be from the flash though.

That deformation looks like mine after I twist it back and forth to get it out. Not sure it's an indication of anything.

[Emden]

Originally Posted by wsmeyer

That looks like a lot of metal on the filter. Could just be from the flash though.

That deformation looks like mine after I twist it back and forth to get it out. Not sure it's an indication of anything.

There was definitely metal in the filter and in the oil. I didn't think it looked that bad either. . . That could spell disaster for my case against MB.

[ART-qitec]

I can relate to your situation. I too purchased a 2008 4.8i with similar miles two years ago without a warranty and it was of the the worst decisions of my life. Each month there was something wrong with the car. I spent thousands in replacement parts alone in less than a year. I tried working with the dealer but they wouldn't help me at all. They would first give me the run around and then ignored all my calls and emails completely. I then tried contacting BMWNA but they just directed me back to the dealer. I was considering pursuing legal action but I was extremely busy at the time so I just ended up trading it in for my current Tesla. I apologize for not being able to give you any advice but I do wish you the best of luck in resolving your current situation.

[Skyline]

Please excuse a brief commercial interruption:

Hey JCL,

Your avatar reminded me, I assume you know that we just passed 60th anniversary of Stirling Moss's win in the 1955 Mille Miglia. 1,000 Miles averaging 98mph on public roads, (and mostly secondary roads at that.) Absolutely ridiculous.

https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mer...-mille-miglia/

[lanbrown]

But if the error was serious, even though it was cleared, it would have returned. You can clear CEL's all day long, they will keep coming back until the problem is fixed. So he went a mile and it cam on, he goes back, they clear it and it didn't come back did it? So correlating the CEL to the engine failure cannot be done either without knowing what the error code actually was.

OP, when you took it back for the CEL, how long did BMW have the vehicle before returning it to you and saying it was nothing?

[Emden]

Originally Posted by lanbrown

But if the error was serious, even though it was cleared, it would have returned. You can clear CEL's all day long, they will keep coming back until the problem is fixed. So he went a mile and it cam on, he goes back, they clear it and it didn't come back did it? So correlating the CEL to the engine failure cannot be done either without knowing what the error code actually was.

OP, when you took it back for the CEL, how long did BMW have the vehicle before returning it to you and saying it was nothing?

Perhaps ten minutes.

I forgot to mention that the CEL came back on when the engine started knocking.

To me it seems as though it has been the same problem almost from the time I purchased the car.

[lanbrown]

If that is the case, he has a case against the warranty company to pay to fix the engine issue, not BMW. BMW was fixing symptoms but the real cause was an engine that was going to fail. Coincidence or not in that the engine failed after 2000 miles but yet the vehicle was fine when it was sold? Probably not, it had that issue and the previous owner dumped it.

For all we know, the damage was from a spun bearing. It could be anything.

[Emden]

Here is a picture of a sheet the BMW dealer in Madison gave me of some of the fault codes in the computer.

What I want to know is what the mileage means, because the numbers under it are the wrong miles for my car.
What is going on there?

Any ideas?

[BorisKV]

Originally Posted by Emden

What I want to know is what the mileage means, because the numbers under it are the wrong miles for my car.

Do you have approximately 74649 miles on your odometer (you stated that you have around 70K in the first post)? For whatever strange reasons ISTA/D outputs millage in kilometers. Don't know what 524280K mileage means though. Some of the codes you have (VTG, Steering Angle, DSC) have been the same for my 2008 X5 4.8i when battery was going bad (disappeared after the new battery was installed and programmed). Some of the other codes looks like there was an issue with power supply (see SINE - alarm, voltage supply tampering). When battery starts going bad, you can see quite a variety of weird codes (errors) popping up in this car. How old is the battery? Clearly it doesn't explain grinding noise but if you power supply is bad, only BMW gods know what can go bad with this car considering amount of gizmos and electrical current driven devices and one of the codes you have is for Valvetronic. Just curious, did you seek a second opinion?