Thanks to everyone for posting their thoughts. I will update the thread when I get the repairs done.

I'm not insulting him...did I call him a name or call his some derogatory term? No. I'm am helping by offering advice...if it makes noises, if he has to rock it back and forth to get it to move, etc...stop driving it. Sorry he didn't like my obvious answer. I'm completely calm because I'm not taking any of this personally, I'm giving my .02 on a public forum and I have a great running 01 X5 w/ the same mileage, a 98 740iL w/ 135k and a 91 M5 w/ 198k...because I don't drive them for 3+ days grinding. I hope he gets it fixed, but I also hopes he doesn't continue driving his vehicles when they're screaming for attention aswell.

James-

I think the issue is the manner in which you offer your advice. You leap to conclusions and assume facts not in evidence. If your advice is " I wouldn't drive it is its making that noise, you could be causing more damage" then state that. Don't go on to state or imply that the person asking for advice is an idiot or make the leap that they don't know how to maintain a vehicle and that's the reason that parts break down.

The X5, especially the 2001 model is rather poorly constructed and unreliable, especially for the price and expected build quality. Poor maintenance didn't cause my speed sensor or DSC to malfunction. Poor maintenance hasn't caused my window regulators to fail. Poor maintenance didn't cause my steering rack to go out prematurely or my head gaskets to fail prematurely.

IMHO a little less condescension would improve the quality of your advice. People ask questions here because they want to learn from other's experience and knowledge. Being berated by someone that doesn't have first hand knowledge of the situation doesn't help much. I certainly understand your point.

I'm also capable of making a judgment call as to what makes a vehicle unsafe to drive and what doesn't.

OP, from what I have seen so far, m5james has been very helpful on this board and does try his best to help others... his post comes across here worse than he meant it, I think.

Sorry to hear about your problems, and you are right... there are tons of other vehicles out there that don't require half as much attention as BMW in general and X5 in particular seems to need. Nature of the beast, I guess.

Let us know what you find out. :thumbup:

I basically said the same thing you wrote in the quote, just in my own words. I didn't say you were an idiot, I asked why you'd drive it anymore than a mile, let alone 30 miles if you had wheel seize up so badly that you literally had to rock the car back and forth to free it up. I'd be paranoid to pull it from the driveway into the garage, yet you continued to drive it for miles because it stopped doing it briefly - hence my suggestion of you thinking it was simply going to fix itself.

With the general belief of BMW's and their lack of reliability and lack of build quality, then you should see my point...who's to say the wheel wouldn't have fallen off on your vehicle, so in my eyes, it is a major safety issue. Speed sensors/DSC modules wear out, nothing you can do about that. Window regulators, they're garbage, so ditto. Steering rack, that's new to me, so maybe the PS fluid needed to be flushed more...it's not on BMW Insp I or II for some reason. Head gaskets...there are usually signs before that happens...overheating, leaky radiators, expansion tanks or bad hoses, so w/o knowing the story on that one, that's debateable as to who's fault that is.

Condiscending, maybe...but you'll think about me next time you hear a noise and keep driving :D I questioned your reasoning as to why you'd drive anymore than 5ft w/ a vehicle making those noises, that's not berating you. I don't have 1st hand knowledge of YOUR experience, but between owning 3 BMW's, being on the boards for years, and being a mechanic, in general I've seen a little of everything. I fail to see some people mentality as to why they continue to drive w/ obvious issues w/o fixing it. BMW is the epitome of vehicles that if you don't fix something right away, it's going to definately snowball into something worse. BMW's are also the last car that i'd go w/ the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it policy". In your situation, fixing it right away might have been a set of $50 brake pads, but if you've had a wheel seize, you could need pads, rotors, cables, bearings, etc. As for your safety judgement, seeing that you're apparently not mechanically inclined, to be honest I don't trust your gauge since you continued to drive a vehicle that could have locked a wheel at any moment, at worse taking out another car when you wrecked from an uncontrollable wheel lock up.

Sorry if I come off harsh, I just get easily frustrated being a BMW mech and hearing about people driving around letting things like this go on. I understand that it wasn't a cross country road trip, but I'm overly proactive on maintenance, so the second I hear something, I stop driving till I make sure what it is.

Thank you. I know my honesty and sometimes cut-throat approach isn't always perceived the way I mean it. I've never been a beat around the bush kinda guy. I just want everyones X to be running tip top so their resale doesn't plummet like the E39/E38s have.

****UPDATE****

The grinding noise was the breaking apart of the parking brake shoe. I was probably about 3/4ths the way to a new brake job for the rears so I had the mechanic replace the rotors and pads on the rear brakes also.

Total fix - $540.00 which includes rotors, pads, the parking break and all associated hardware. Car went in the shop at 8:00 AM and I got it back that afternoon.

Good to hear. Sounds like a good price too. :thumbup: