Engine was Idled for 1.5 HRS!!!
 

I took car to the stealer for an electrical issue that I was not able to resolve. I got into my car after them having it all day and noticed the engine was not cold, its 0 deg C here :dunno:. I thought that was strange. I was on my way home when I changed my display to where it shows me how long the car has been on and the MPG info. I noticed that they had the car idling for about an hour and a half :wow:. What would they possible need to be doing with the engine on that long. The original problem was with the radio!!! More importantly, what is the possible damage they may have caused by leaving it so long??????

For that particular display, does 'on' signify idling, or just that the key was turned on?

I hate to admit it, it was in my Merc and yes it shows only when on. The mileage dropped from over 28 mpg to almost rite at 25 as well. I write on this post because this is the best place I have ever hear of or seen for real help. The other guys take months to reply:popcorn:

Likely damage is zero.

Thank you So MUCH!!!! I have been stressing all night and day about it. Will probably have a stroke or heart attack from it soon from all the stress. I will never have another Mercedes, the BMW is way less stressful to own. Everything on that Mercedes is so damn expensive and so little can be done at home. My X5 is far and away the best car I have ever owned, there is a long list of them as well :D. I was once an ONLY Merc guy, not anymore!!
Thank you BMW and Xoutpost!!!!!:thumbup:

When manufacturers put engines on a test stand they may run them for hundreds or even thousands of hours nonstop to test durability, sometimes at high rpm. Your engine is designed to idle for much more than 1.5 hours.

I have personal experience with this. I worked for a high proformance manufacture that made motor parts for sport bikes, dirt bike and four wheelers.

One of the first tests that we did to proto-type parts was to run it on the dyno for 5 hours strait, before we would do anything else. Granted I'm talking motorcycles and you have a dope X5...... But I'm sure your motor could idle for days before any problems developed. So rest assure your whip is fine.

Thank you everyone, I feel so much better!!

A guy on a 3 series forum let his girlfriend take his car to work and left the car running for 9 hours! Something about not understanding how to use the Comfort Access keys.

Idling for a couple hours is not going to hurt anything except your fuel mileage.

For you to be even more reassured,whenever the engine coolant is replaced, we always wait for the engine to warm up enough for the radiator fan to come on at least twice.While we are waiting for this to happen ,it will take up to 2 hours,depending on engine and the ambient temperature:)
We call this "sleep time " because its time we cant charge the customer:)

:thumbup::rofl:

Wait till you get a load of BMW repair pricing!

First of all, idling will not hurt it. Second of all, they probably left it running to heat up the interior of the car before disassembling it. When we do remote starts at my job, we will idle the car in cold weather for 40 minutes or so. Plastic is very brittle when cold, so by heating up the cabin, the likelihood of breaking any trim pieces is substantially less.

obviously haven't owned it long enough yet....you may be running back to the merc. If you think mercs of recent years have gone bad, wait to see what your X5 will come up with.

Had mine for 7 years...No major problems.just the small issues that you can read about here.
All cars have problems,but recent Mercedes are really bad.....so says one of my mates who used to be the chief mechanic at a local MB dealer....:)