I think it's in the panel in the back on the passenger side.
Just searched and look inside the compressor dome.

Cheers, found the relay, but you know what else I found. The cause. The air ride control module had somehow become disconnected. Plugged it back in and its good to go.

Thanks for the help.

your best bet t this point may be to bite the bullet and have it checked at the dealer. they charged me $125 to let me know what went bad on mine. mine was the control unit which is located by the battery.

milsy, you lucky sob lol how did it become disconnected? those plugs are a sob to get off

2001 BMW X5 3.0i Sport Having Issues With Self LEV HELP
 

HI,

I been noticing that when I wake up in the morning my x5 is completely dropped in the back. Most of the time is just in the right rear side and when I open up the doors to my car sometimes the car starts rising again. On rare occasions I find the whole rear of the car has dropped. I then continue to drive off and sometimes the car drives very strange like a low rider bouncing all over the place. Recently I noticed a small icon on my dash wish an SUV drawing with arrows pointing down I am speculating it has something to do with the self leveling. Sometimes when I get out of the x5 the car seems fine but then a few minutes later I hear the noise as if air is coming out from somewhere on the right rear side of my car and the car starts to drop. I really need help and don't know where to start. Does this sound like an easy fix like just a fuse or can it be a pneumatic spring (airbag). I don't want to bring it to the stealers and have them charge me all crazy monies. WHERE TO START???

ANy diagrams help would be greatly appreciated. I am pretty handy.

If you can hear the air coming out, find out where it's coming from. Most likely it's the air bag, but could be one of the hoses going to it as well. Replace whatever is leaking.

Yea i just finished driving it and my whole right rear side is at the bottom and I keep getting an icon on my dashboard with an suv with an arrow. I think it may just be the airbag but not sure why the other side would also drop sometimes. Also I don't hear this air noise all the time sometimes both sides are up and working fine? Are the airbags considered the pneumatic springs?

Hi PearlyWhiteX5,

Sounds like one of your airbags has a leak, but to be certain, you should bring it to a shop that specializes in BMWs. Either a dealership, or an independent shop. Personally, I would recommend Bavarian Performance Group, or Turner Motorsports. Either shop can be found easily by googling.

If you'd like to (or end up needing to) replace your air-springs, you could try Arnott: BMW Air Suspension Parts & Kits - Arnott Industries
I recently had my 2005 X5 4.8is up on a lift and noticed that it had Arnott air springs. This kind of surprised me; I figured it'd have BMW (labeled) air springs. I don't know if Arnott air springs come stock in X5's, or if mine ended up being replaced -maybe someone can comment on that(?). Either way, they're built for our X5's, have a lifetime warranty, and they're MUCH less expensive than the same parts from BMW:
RealOEM.com * BMW E53 X5 4.8is LEVELL.DEVICE, AIR SPRING AND CTRL UNIT
If you look at the parts listing, a single air spring costs 187.40 (x2 = 374.80)
Arnott sells a set for (198.50 + shipping).

Lastly, if you're truly serious about doing the repairs yourself, I would recommend Bently's BMW X5 Service Manual. It's roughly $100 depending on where you order it from (large red book).

Let me know what you end up doing and what you find out.

In Addition;

My air suspension system works --except when it gets REALLY cold. My X5 is parked outside and when the temps drop into the teens -or lower- I get a "SELFLEVEL SUSP. INACT." message up on the dash. It doesn't go away when the temps go up or when I restart the car.

I've had the car at the shop for other work, and when the techs clear the error to perform a diagnostic, it doesn't come back. The leveling system works fine again, and all is well.

Has anyone else experienced similar symptoms; the self-leveling suspension system throwing errors in cold temperatures. Would love to know if this is a failing sensor(s) or just a failure in engineering/design?

I don't know what the error codes are, but I'm planning on buying this ECU reading tool to help try to diagnose the problem before temperatures rise on average:
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

Thanks in advance.

if the suspension level alert comes on ,try taking to fuse out to set set the system.