DIY DEF fill-up

[coloexpat]

First off, I have searched the E70 board looking for the answer to this question. I searched using (DIY DEF fill-up) not counting the 22 page thread (did read 7 pages), I can not find the answer to the simple question I have.

I received the message that my truck will not start in 999 miles yesterday evening. I have a late January (21) 2012 pick up of my X5. I have driven just over 10,900 miles (17,568 KM) since pick up. My truck is due for an oil change in 1300 KM according to the service indicator in I-Drive. My question is this. If I fill the DEF tanks myself will the low warning light go away, or, does the warning have to be reset by the dealer?

I own a US spec X5 and am living in Germany. The vehicle was purchased through US Military/Diplomatic sales. The German dealers will not honor the free US scheduled maintenance. Therefore, all maintenance costs are incurred by the customer.

I can purchase a 10L jug of DEF (AD-BLUE) for 65 Euro from the local Shell station.

[marshotel]

I just did mine last weekend, It will go away after you drive it for a few minutes.

[Lubehead]

Under the hood there are two round caps with a square "female" socket on top of them. The tool to remove these caps is in your toolkit. One is located just forward of the ABS unit on the passenger side and the other is under the air duct leading to the air box, just forward of the red battery connector. Get a slim funnel and 6 gallons of DEF and carefully top them off. The message will go away. I let mine get to under 100 miles and just barely fit the 6 galllons.

[coloexpat]

Thank you both for the reply's.

I will go and buy some fluid today and fill up the tanks. I was just not sure if the light would go off once I refilled myself instead of having the dealer do it.

[Price]

Originally Posted by coloexpat

I can purchase a 10L jug of DEF (AD-BLUE) for 65 Euro from the local Shell station.

A bit pricey, no?

[jfpx5d]

6 gallons??? the manual shows .75 gal as capacity.

[Lubehead]

Do a search on this forum, there is avery long thread. There are two tanks. When I let the message get to > 100 miles, it took 6 gallons to refill both of them. No way could .75 gallon last for the 10,000 miles or so before one gets a refill message.

[jfpx5d]

Thanks for the information, I am new to this diesel stuff.

[coloexpat]

Originally Posted by Price

A bit pricey, no?

Yes, that would be quite pricey! Either I misread the price label or, the had it marked incorrectly (most likely my error). But when I went back to purchase it was 6.50 Euro / Liter.

When speaking with the SA at the dealer this week when I dropped my truck off to have the hitch installed I was informed it would take 33L to fill both tanks completely. I purchased a 1L bottle from them mainly so I could have the thread on filler bottle. I have also been back to the Shell station and purchased 30 Liters of AdBlue. Next week when I get the truck back I'll fill the tanks.

Now I just need to ppurchase the oil change kit from ECS and have it shipped over here so I can get the first service completed.