I believe all they need to do is plug into a port on the X5 to do the re-program. A 5-minute job is probably more realistic.

Takes more than 5 minutes for sure. Honestly it is an easy job, but the process of hooking up the equipment, waiting for it to communicate with every damn module of the vehicle in the vehicle ID process, waiting for all the car/key memory options to be read and load... make your selections, then waiting for it to encode the changes to the vehicle and read out all the car/key memory options again... Yes, the department of redundancy department indeed designed our programming software.

All in all the whole process takes about 20-30 minutes once the vehicle is in the shop. And 0.5 hours labor isn't bad. I've seen some dealers charge a full hour.

Is this a tool that can be bought by the public?

Hi, I had exactly the same problem some months agon and finally discovered (tricky one this one!) that it was a splitted o-ring, so the pump sucked air instead of fuel when the first saddle was empty...

The BMW official tool is very expensive, but there are companies that load the software on thinkpad t30 laptops and sell them with china knock-off diagnostic heads for $1400 on ebay, cheaper directly through the companies.

A few members here bought some from yohotech. The only name that I remember off hand that has one and decent experience with it is the member twinspoppa. I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving you some pointers and advise.

Yikes, went to a baseball game today and used the security lock code and after the game, I unlocked the car with the code and now the battery light stays on. Got the car home and did a volt check to the battery terminal (car on and off). Car on: 11.8v Car off: 12.1v Car is not charging.

I did open another topic but is this related or just a coincidence?

coincedence.

Low Voltage
 

Have you checked the alternator output?

Wouldn't the alternator output be at the battery post when car is running?

Battery Posts
 

Maybe, but it would also be reading any result of the voltage going through the battery. If there is any resistance in the battery it would show up at the posts. Can you check voltage right at the alternator?