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before i bought my car it was inspected by a BMW dealership at 90k miles. everything on the service report from BMW was fixed...since the original owners took it in at 90k miles do you think i should be solid for awhile.?

Ummmm, yes?

Yes, though X5 trans and window regulators are very prone to failure.

Get a printout of the maintenance history - 2 big things to look for, has the waterpump/thermostat been replaced & what mileage were the brakes replaced (if ever?)

water pump "typically" fails between 60-80K - plastic vanes in OEM - when it fails, it has caused engine to be replaced (worst case senario) - if you have a 3.0, there is a great aftermarket Stewart waterpump w/ stainless steel vanes available - 4.4,4.6,4.8 are stuck with the OEM pump

brakes most likely have been replaced by now, at least the front ones - I'm at 90K and the rears are just approaching their 1st replacement - My fronts are also due, but were originally replaced at 28K

the 90k insp should have replaced the differencial fluid and the microfilter and an oil change

but to answer your question..., Yes, but it's always nice to know what's been done

I dont kno if you read my prev. post, but i did get the service printout from BMW and it doesnt state specifics on most visits, just quick notes on some other shop lingo code abbreviations...is there another maintenance history that i can get from the dealer..? the printout i got does say that insp. II was done at 64,000 mi.

If you do not have records for:

water pump
tstat
seperator system (and valve cover gaskets if needed)
and perhaps the ICV


Expect to replace them all in the next 10k miles. Actually if I were buying an x5 with 90k miles, I would do that all myself when I bought it, to make sure.

Also, unless you know for a fact that the final drive fluid (both units), and transfer case fluids have been changed in the last 30k miles, I would do those immediately as well.

Then you should start paying attention to the suspension, again unless you have specific knowledge that things like the shocks, control arms, and associated bushings have been changed. I wouldn't really expect any of those things to go much past 100k unless you get lucky. 02 sensors also shouldn't be trusted much past 100k either.

Keep in mind, all of those things are either things that are known to fail within 100k or are designed to be replaced typically at or below 100k. So it could be inspected at 90k, pass on all those things, and then next week your valve covers start leaking because of the seperator, unless its a new unit.

They cannot tell any better than you can when those things are going to go out, so if you want to not worry about it, you do them now and not worry about most of that stuff for at least 30k miles (the fluids) or another 80-90k in terms of the water pump, tstat and seperator. They should have done the fluids and probably the xfer case fluid, but I wouldn't trust someone I didn't personally talk to to have done it. Everyone forgets the transfer case.

You can hold off on the suspension stuff until it gets bad, but your mileage, handling, and tire wear will degrade marginally over time.

I know this is prob. a bonehead question, but what so you mean by seperator system and ICV..Thanks, i appreciate your input!!