Taking my head off!!!!
 

Last saturday night i left my X5 at a friends house as we went out on the town, so it sat for a few hours (against my will, i hate leaving her alone)! When we got back i started her up and headed home. Comming to my first stop i could feel the engine vibrating violently, it did this all the way home and the next day too, so i decided not to drive until i could get her checked out by the dealer. So on monday the dealer checks things out and tells me i'm missing compression in one of my cylinders and they're going to need to remove the head to see exactly what's up! I'm hurting here guys i just picked her up a few weeks ago after ending a horrible relationship with an ML! Anyways i was reading a few posts about similar vibrating from the engine but i noticed that it was only the newer models, the '05s specifically, mine is an '03 and i'm curious if any of you have had this problem with this model year? Could it be the valvetronic levers? :dunno: Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Thx,
03Topazbluex5.

Sorry to hear of the engine problem. I can tell you that it's not a valvetronic issue, as that engine technology wasn't introduced until the 2004 model year in the e53. Typically BMW engines are outstanding, so I would put this in the exception category.

Good luck with the repair.

Jeff

Apparently there's a known problem with rough idle and vibrating engines on the V8 Valvetronic engines :dunno: . In order to identify whether a particular engine has the problem one has to take off the valve covers and check out every single lever and it's product number ... Taking off the valves covers is quite a task and not every shop will have a tech who can figure out how to do this with the engine being in the car .... I just had a look at one of the diasembled engines and it's not very pretty :tsk:
The funny thing is these levers are produced by a company in Amherst/NH ...

- Jan

To clarify, though, since he has an '03 he wouldn't have the valvetronic engine. So this shouldn't be the culpret. ;)

Just got off the phone with my tech... apparently its an internal engine problem and they'll be removing and dissassembling the engine :( , under warranty of course, which i am not too happy about! So i'm headed there right away to speak with the mechanics! I was just curious if any of you have had your engine partially rebuilt and your experiences with the car afterwards! I'll keep you guys posted!

Sorry to hear your problem. I would say that having your engine rebuilt is not always a bad thing. I guess alot of it depends on the mechanic who is working on your car too. When I had my e46 M3 engine replaced, I got a whole new engine under warranty. I had no problems with it...in fact, the new engine was much stronger then my original. After a dyno run, I was doing 280 at the wheels...a whole 11 hpmore then most. :D So good luck.

The only other engine I know of that had issues from BMW was the S54 in the early 2000-2001 M3's. Those things got replaced so many times BMW actually made an extended warranty to 100K on that engine if you had it replaced, so again, not always a bad thing.

My 2002 4.4i did NOT vibrate. However, from the last week or so, whenever I stop anywhere on Drive (like wait at a red light), the whole thing f*cking vibrates - the door panels, the steering wheel, the shifter.

Maybe I have your problem, too? It drives fine, doesn't sound any harsher though.

Sounds weird that it only does it at idle (Bavarian). Sort of rules out plugs/ignition etc..., but I'd try plugs anyway

Use some areostart and go around all joins if you have an airflow meter from the meter back and as much around throttlebody and manifold conennections as you can reach. You'd be amazed how many cars have leaks. If you have one the engine revs will rise slightly. Miss will be caused by motor drawing in unmetered air and running slighly lean.

You'd be amazed how common this is.

It may be a long shot, but if you dont have much else left to try it's an easy test.


Cheers Matt

You should have it checked out by your dealer, cause my X was driving fine too, no noticible loss of power, only that nasty shake at idle. Brought it in thinking i had a faulty sensor or something! Thanks for all the input guys i hope i get some extra hp out of this rebuild! :D Should be done by wednesday i'll let you guys know how it turns out!