Service engine light, loss of power
 

On the way to work this morning, my engine started trying to stall and lost power. The service engine light came on and I had to get off the freeway. This all started when I was entering the freeway on the onramp. I tried to restart it but the same thing happened...light on and no power.

After sitting at a gas station for a few minutes while I checked things like the gas cap and the oil level, it started up and ran ok but the light was still on. I drove it very slowly to the dealership and dropped it off.

Any ideas what this might be? I know there are literally hundreds of things that can cause the service engine light to come on but any known similar problems? I have an M3 also and this reminds me of the time my coils went out. The X5 is an '05 delivered in July and it doesnt seem likely that would be a problem in such a new vehicle.

Could be many different things (as you already mentioned).
First of all your best course of action to have the dealer read the fault codes and they will reset them and possibly ask you to try again as many of the fault codes may not have a recent date associated to them ....

However the most common cause for lost engine power are often either loose fuel injectors (if you had any work done on the engine before it happend) or a fail(ing/ed) MAF (or somehow oil got into the MAF) .

- Jan

Cam Position sensors would be another possibilty.

Good luck. i hope its nothing sirious..

My 2005 4.8is stalled last week without warning as though it was running out of gas, however there was plenty of fuel in the tank. I could not re-start the engine - sounded like it was fuel starved. After 20 minutes, I managed to start the engine and drove it home where it stalled again close to the house. Same deal - it started up again after cooling off a little. I had BMW run engine diagnostics, everything perfect, no fault codes. Diagnosed as faulty fuel pump, which would overheat and give low discharge pressure. Full warranty repair - no charges. So far, everything seems fine - runs great and no indication of a further problem. Any other fuel pump problems out there? :dunno: