DIY Articles/advice on repairs
 

Hi everyone, I haven't posted here in a few years since my X5 has been mostly maintenance free (a good thing), but in the last few months i've had a number of problems develop. Ironically just 6 months past when my warranty expired....Shocking I know, lol.

Here is the list of items the dealer came back with:

Thermostat failing
AC recharge
Transmission sealing sleeve leaking*
Oil and filter per your request
Oil leak from two shaft seals at cyl. head
Oil leak from upper timing cover gaskets
Two pulleys making noise
Instrument Cluster Pixels burned out
Sunroof weather stripping

The bummer here is that my dealer/service manager is good and trustworthy. I can also verify that all of the above needs to be done from symptoms I am having and visually inspecting it myself. Now, I am quite mechanically inclined having rebuilt old fords, and work often on e28/e34 M5's, but I have never had to turn a wrench on this X5. I searched the site and did not find any DIY articles on any of the above except for the dead pixels.

Does anybody know of any DIY articles for the rest of the list? Due to time I may have to suck it up and have the dealer do the work, but if I can avoid some of it i'd like to!

Many thanks in advance


Andy

It's a 2006 X5 4.4i w 76,000 miles. It only sees 5-6k miles a year of in town (sub 3 mile) driving per trip. I have to imagine the stop and go short trips are whats killing it. I bet the engine never even warms up before it gets shut off!

Instead of having a dealer do the work I would look for an Indy with a good rep. from the BMW owners in your area. I found my Indy through Yelp, and I read the comments that the reviewers posted about him. Turns out he was a mechanic at one of the largest BMW dealership in my area and he just wanted to open his own shop. Dealer trained, but no dealer prices. I bring the X to him when I don't have the equipment to perform the work or because the job is too much work for me or it the dead of winter with sub zero temp outside.

For the transmission sealing sleeve for the electrical connector check out this Youtube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkpuYnaeWUg

Alrighty, after reading through the some DIY's I decided to go it myself. Just picked up most of the parts and will be tearing into it this Thursday.

:)

Good luck! If you run into any problems, we'll be here!

This may help:

Car repair Manuals

It used to, until it was taken down for copyright violations.

Ohhh oops i just realized BMW was gone. ehh time to remove it from my favorites

Thermostat / pulleys
Remove the intake hood - (4 plastic retainers).

Remove the airbox - Remove the ring clamp engine side of the MAF and disconnect the MAF plug, then you should be able to bend the pipes up at the joint so and they should disconnect leaving just the last tube to the throttle, you should then be able to jiggle the airbox and MAF out (Don't lose the rubber feet from the airbox x2).

***** This saves you having to remove the engine plastic cover - if you want to remove the cover that will give you access to the throttle connection and you can remove that first and pull all the air tubing out. The above is just a shortcut******

Remove the aux fan - Remove the two plastic cross clips off the top, remove the top plastic box (that has wires coming out of it - it slides one way to release one end then the other), Unplug the fan plug just near the power steering container. Now the fan just pulls straight up and out (careful as there are two water pipes clipped into it - a total of 3 clips - make sure you don't bugger the pipes as you're pulling it out - the bottom clip will catch on the top pipe halfway out.

Now you have access to the thermostat bolted right on to the water pump from the left, remove the pipe from it first as its a bit of wriggle (you can either drain the system first or just let it piss out once you get the pipe off), once the pipe is off 3 bolts will remove the thermostat.

While you're there loosen the tensioner wheels for the aux belts, once they're loose remove the belts and replace them.

Then it all goes back on in reverse order - when putting the fan back in make sure that you get it in place, lift it an inch push the top and bottom hard towards the radiator and then let it drop into place.


When you're removing the valve covers (big job) don't slide the covers forward initially. You need to lift them straight up and get a small torx bit in from the back to the eccentric shaft sensors (pic below), you'll recognise them by their plug fitting and there are 3 bolts on each - you will snap these sensors off if you jiggle the valve cover too much before removing them and at $315 each not really a good idea

http://c1552172.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/203713_x600.jpg

Can't help you with the burnt out cluster and the sunroof seal seems pretty straight forward.

Main thing with the cam covers is take your time - there are a lot of bolts and a lot of things to remove - it's not hard it's just time consuming and you can break things (which I did the first time) by trying to rush it.

Don't forget to plug the MAF back in, I always forget for some reason - maybe because the thing looks complete with the airbox back in and so my brain is halfway to the beer fridge

Got the whole list done. Started up first time fine while we topped off the trans fluid, but now it won't start. Running out to get a code scanner....

Hey guys - I could use some advise on this one. After we got everything back together the car fired up and ran fine so we shut the engine off. The next time that we went to go start the car it was a non start situation. We have power to cabin, the headlights, radio, all accessories, etc, but when you turn the key it won't crank, click or do anything. The computer is not giving off any codes. I've checked both fuse panels (front and rear) and all the fuses are good. I thought that I maybe tripped the BST cable on the battery, but I am getting power (12.5volts) to the positive terminal in the engine bay so I do not think that is the case (right?).

What should I be looking for? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The car is up on jack stands ~ Is there any reason it would start because of that? I know its a long shot, but I thought i'd ask....

Thanks,

Andy

I think I am narrowing it down. I "think" the car is confused as to what gear its in. The shift lever will move between Park, Reverse, Neutral, and drive, but it won't highlight that selection on the instrument cluster like it normally does. It also won't turn on the reverse lights if the key is in the "on" position like it should. Any idea how to get the car to relearn what gear its in? I feel if the car knew it is in park or neutral it would start.

Adjustment to the neutral safety switch is off. Did you remove it? Normally you will put the shift lever in Park and unlock the adjusting bolt to the neutral safety switch, afterward you rotate the switch until the P shows up in the cluster to let you know that the switch is in Park. If it doesn't start up in Park, try Neutral.

I do not believe I touched the neutral safety switch, but what is the best way to check it?

If the truck doesn't starts in P try N. If it starts in N either the switch needs adjustment or the switch needs to be replaced.

In searching for the N safety switch like you mentioned (which on my 2006 model must be electronic or incorporated into the plug on the rear passenger side) I discovered that my plug sleeve is misaligned slightly which is not allowed that connector to make good connection.

Upallnight (or anyone else) can you point me to the location of the neutral safety switch on a 2006?

The car does not start in either Park or Neutral currently (via lever). It still won't indicate the gear I am in on the cluster.

:(

Perhaps you might had knocked the connector loose.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...itorswitch.jpg

What I highlighted in you previous post is probably your problem.

Here's a link to some additional info if you have the V8 engine with the ZF trans.

http://www.xoutpost.com/844101-post2.html

Sorry, that's where the separation was. I do have the V8/ZF trans. I'll read the thread in the link, thanks!

I read the link. Still not seeing that switch. The first picture is of the drivers side of my transmission and the second and third pictures are of the passenger side. The only thing I have is that black box on the passenger side.

Attachment 57859

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Attachment 57861

I do have this connector that is just below the starter and its wires run straight up.

Attachment 57862

http://static.estore-central.com/_re...ages/49580.jpg

This connector doesn't look as though it is plugged in all the way. Are you sure you have it plugged in correctly? Is there a locking ring that must be turn in order to seat the connector? Where does the wires for this connector go to?

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...369.135512.jpg

I don't thnk this will work in this particular situation and besides, it has not been tested, but -

in the NCS Expert programming, one of the lines allows you to start the engine in ANY gear, regardless of the position of the gear selector. Now, I am aware that there is a physical interlock present in the US models, so I don't know if the thing will even work in theory or not...

just thought i'd drop it into the hat, for info only...

I thought I would give an update.

Starting in 2006 with the ZF 6 speed transmission the transmission control module is located inside the transmission. Thats why I couldn't ever find it :) I knew I wasn't totally crazy.

It turns out I was facing two problems with my X5 not starting.

The first was that when I removed/reinstalled the mechatronic I did not have the gear select lined up correctly which was the reason the car thought it was in gear and not Park or Neutral. The second was that the plug that goes in the sealing sleeve was faulty. The female sleeves in the plug were getting pushed further into the plug when I would go to install the plug instead of allowing the male ends to seat properly. This caused EGS errors the first time I turned the car on. I was pretty much doomed from that point on. The only way the car was going to be able to start was if the codes were cleared by BMW's computer. The Actron code reader I have couldn't pull those codes or clear them. There is a BMW internal TSB for this problem (see attachment). The annoying part is that this problem is really hard to find since the sleeves return to their normal position when you disconnect the plug! So unless you knew to check for that problem you would never find it.

So I had to have it towed to BMW. They fixed the transmission plug, cleared the egs codes, realigned the gear selector on the mechatronic and she was good to go. I am still quite pleased with the outcome though since I managed to complete most of the repairs on the list in my garage instead of paying someone to do them. Saved a ton of money and now the car runs and drives great.

Thanks for the help everyone!

I can't access this website; it needs a username & password. Any idea how to get these?

I believe it's a BMW internal use only site. My parts guy at my local BMW (bmw encinitas if anyone is looking for a new dealer to work with) is awesome and sent it to me as a screen shot.

BMW TIS EPA

This is the gateway. Subscribe, pay your money, and you are in. They have one day access rates for those who just want to try it.

Anyone wanna go in 250th's shares with me? :bustingup

Take on I-5 AND WARM HER UP. You have great freeways around You, many people would die for the all the open roads in SD.
In Ocean Beach there is Bimmer/Mersades, told to Steve ,he has a great shop, get a estimate first.And he will take care of Your X5.

Thanks for posting the solution to your problem. A lot of these threads on this forum are worthless because the original posters never post the solutions to their problems. Glad to hear that you got the X running again.

Edit:

Here's a pdf file on servicing the BMW 6 Speed Mechatronic Replacement

http://www.zftranspart.com/images/custom/mecha.pdf

It's been a month and some change so I thought i'd provide an update. The car has* been running great...until yesterday. As I was waiting to pull into a parking spot I smelled transmission fluid. Pulled into my spot and sure enough there was a trail of fluid. Not wanting to risk driving the car and wrecking the transmission I called the tow truck and had the X5 towed to the dealer. By the time the tow truck arrived there was a healthy pool of fluid. Having bought the fluid at BMW (using my CCA discount luckily) I would say it was about $50 worth, lol. Stuff is liquid gold.

For those of you that followed this thread while I was doing the repairs a month ago you may recall that ultimately I had to take the car to the dealer to have them resolve the trans sleeve installation that there was a BMW internal TSB on. In order to the perform that job they had to drop the pan so THANKFULLY they were the last ones to touch the transmission. That means if it has sprung a leak it will hopefully be on them. They'll get it up on the lift tomorrow. We'll see what they say....

Andy

There is a tightening sequence when re-installing the pan just like in re-installing a cylinder head. Hopefully they followed that sequence when they made the repair. Sequence can be found in my previous post in the pdf.

I remember following it :) hopefully they did...

Turns out it wasn't the trans. It was the transfer case.

Anyways, enough was enough on owning the car out of warranty. I was at the point if spending $3-4k a year on maintenance.

Since we own another suv (Chevy Tahoe) I traded the X in on a car I've had my eye on for a long time. A 2013 335i Sedan with the M Sport Package. Picked it up yesterday. It's an awesome car!

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Linuxmce site?