Help required
 

Hi all,

Im new here, with good reason I bought my first BMW on saturday. Decided to registair here shortly after hoping to use this as a refrence site and read about cool X5 stuff.

I bought a 3litre Sport 2001 X5 petrol, all has been well for 6 days except for the service indicator changing from 4 green lights to 1 green light and back again a few times and The incrdible petrol consumption !!!!

However I am now very unhappy, driving back from work I had the air con on and there was a loud bang and then there was a constant whurring niose when the air con or heating was on. I figure a motor or something has blown.

Anyone with experience of this or words of help to stop a new BMW owner taking a baseball bat to a car he has owned for 6 days !

if it's brand new, make a trip back to the dealer.

He said its a 2001 3.0

d'oh. he sure did. i completely missed that.
my bad.:slap: :hammer:

Welcome. Put the bat away, anything can be fixed.

The service indicator sounds like it is malfunctioning. That is probably a dealer item- it should move one bar approximately every 15000 miles/24000km or so. (I think my math is correct)

As for the AC- does it still work- does it still produce cold air? We need more information to help here.

Yeah 2001 im afraid so no warranty. DAM ! no one with similar exoerience or suggestions?

Hi there.

Thanks glad to be here just wish it wasnt under such frustrating circumstances.

I thonk the service indicator may be down to the display I have some pixelation elsewhere. It seems to go back to proper reading quite quickly just occasionally displays one bar not 4.

The air con seems to still work certianly cold air comming out and its hot out there so dont think it can just be fan. Will take for a drive now to try for a prelonged period.

So here are some more detials.

GOt in the car air con was on max, drove for 1 min and then there was a loud bang, loud enough to make me jump and suddenly a loud wurring noise. Took me 10 secs or so to realise it was the aircon. The niose is louder the more powerfull you have the air con on. and is there all the way down untill you turn it off completly. Figure it is the fan? as the noise is quiter the lower the air con is on.

also when you turn it of completly there is a mili second or so that the noise is still there and the niose slows down if that makes sense and then stops.

Anything else that would help you help me?

Cant help on the problems but... was it a private or trade sale? If trade you have recourse, limited but there all the same.

It was private im afraid so no come back what so ever.

THe previuos owner only had it 6 months starting to worry I have been done up like a kipper.

Best way now is to pop into Woods BMW and speak to the service manager or assistant manager, explain the problem. They will give you a lot of feedback.
They arent to bad up there and will give you a good price for an initial inspection to find out if you have been filleted and put your mind at rest or not as maybe.
Dont be put off by the dealers most of the time they are good value.

Thanks pete.

I think im just pissed off. The guy I bought it from was sound I had an AA inspection done, its only done 43K and has hade to women owners.

I think its one of those things doesnt make it hurt any less though.

Anyone with experience let me know but I will be of to a dealer tommorow with my wallet open

Sounds like the fan, but I am not sure what the loud bang would have been.

I'll take a stab at this one...

You have likely got a rock or stick down in the blower motor assembly, the bang was probably the debris making contact with the squire cage on the fan motor. You now have a fan that is out of balance or damaged is such a way that it’s making noise. Not that uncommon for people that live where a lot of tree leaves and branches may accumulate around the hood near the windshield.

To test my theory see if you can pull the fuse for just the blower and turn on the a/c and see if the noise if gone. I don’t have my X5 today so I can’t run out and see if that’s even possible. Anyway it’s about 180.00 for the part and about 2 hours to install if you have not done one before.

That’s my guess.

Thanks Cleaner, that sounds viable and would account for the noise followed imidiatly by the wuring fan.

I have taken it for a drive and am confident it is a fan issue as the noise is almost similar to that of a fan you would have in your house and push something into it. A kind of loud klicking noise that speeds up and slows down with the more power you put on.

What a bugger though only 6 days and I have an issue.

Unfortunatly I am far from technical so wont be able to do the work myself.

Will let you know what the dealer says

Don't hold that one agenst the X5, it's a drag to have that happen, but realisticly that failure was not due to poor quality or design, just bad luck that something managed to works it's way into the intake of your A/C. I am not sure how something gets past the pollen filter, but I have pulled some weird stuff out of vents. I found a couple of those little green army men in a vent one time.

I just got a 2006 x5 and the other day was surprised by a really loud whirring sound coming from the back passenger area (no loud bang). Got louder the higher the fan was turned up, ect. Turns out my daughter turned on the ? blower for the rear compartment on the back of the console... its pretty loud and I thought something had broken.

Dave

You might find the bang was the aircon system bursting. A pipe or a joint.

Similar thing happened to mine a few weeks ago...

Had the aircon on and parked the car up, when i started the car back up about 20 mins later the aircon was still on and there was a big bang and a smoke like vapour surrounded the car. Im assuming it was the aircon system blowing up but i just carried on driving and havent even tried to see if its working, too scared incase i have to go back the dealer.

If you do go to the dealer take a spare pair of trousers with you as they have your pants off!