X5 died today while driving
 

2008 with 10.5K miles. Had been driving for 10 minutes and exited a freeway. About a minute later while traveling at 45 MPH, the tac jumped to over 3000 RPMs and the accelerator quit doing anything. A few seconds later the engine shut down and I was in the left lane with no power steering. I was able to glide it onto a side street. All attempts to restart failed, it would run for 1/2 second and die.

Just refilled it last night, so fuel was full. It was -6 here, but it has been much colder.

BMW Assist had a tow truck out in 35 minutes and my dealer has it in the queue.

Anyone else experience this? Very scary to go through.

scary indeed but shocked by the response time after hearing of other horror stories. Did it already go through the annual checkup?

sounds like bad gas.

Wow shocking. please keep us updated...

The variable that might have caused this is the fact you filled up last night. I want to say there's something wrong with the petrol.

I've only had it for seven months, so no checkup yet. As some others have noted, the fuel is sure suspicious but that would surprise me since the place I purchase it from does a high volume and is well regarded here. Still, I can't disagree with the theory.

I will post back when I hear back from the dealer. Sounds like it may be a day or two due to their backlog.

This definitely sounds that bad gas. A few years back, a gasoline tanker operator mistakenly put diesel in the regular unleaded underground gas tank at a gas station in my town. Needless to say, many people (I believe about 2 dozen) had their car engines seize up. Hopefully your situation isn't as bad.

Most likely it's your fuel pump. What you described sounded very much a fuel delivery problem.

Just heard from my dealer. It was the fuel pump that died. They are ordering a new one and hope to have it by tomorrow.

My service adviser also mentioned that he has seen a few of these in recent months -- I wasn't the first. Obviously 10.5K is an early death for a fuel pump.

Great work by my dealership so far. Very happy with their service.

Thanks for the information! Hope your car will be OK.

Just heard that BMW has a national backorder on fuel pumps for the X5, so mine no longer has an ETA. Does someone want to loan me their fuel pump? ;)

I'm really beginning to think the ethanol content in this country's petrol has something to do with this. The whole fuel pump snafu appears to be relatively isolated to North America. To make things worse, there have been cases where stations knowingly put in much, much more alcohol than they're supposed to.

Shell premium fuel advertises zero ethanol, right?

Same thing happened here. My fiance went to put gas in her celica and little did she know it was diesel. Luckily the station paid for the fix cuz it was pretty pricey.

Hope your back up and running soon OP.

So what loaner did they put you in?

> I'm really beginning to think the ethanol content in this country's petrol has something to do with this.


Perhaps.


But I have a Ford Explorer with 197,000 miles on it with no fuel pump problems, a Ford Focus with 48,000 miles on it with no fuel pump problems, and a Z4 with 24,000 miles on it with no fuel pump problems.

I suspect it has more to do with a manufacturing defect.

An earlier poster said this was a North America problem I believe. Why would a defective fuel pump just be found in this area??

> An earlier poster said this was a North America problem


I know someone said that, but I have seen no evidence of that being the case, or anything to support that contention.

If there is any data or supporting evidence that there are fewer fuel pump issues outside of NA, I would be quite interested to see it.

i know that there was a recall out for 4.8i's (2007s) for a faulty cable that can lead to engine shut down during driving. I got it replaced while getting my first break-in engine oil change.

I participate when I can, on a German-based automotive forum

http://www.motor-talk.de/forum/bmw-3...-e93-b240.html

A search for fuel pump (in German of course) yields no trail of common problems regarding the Kraftstoffpumpe. Some folks have a few problems with the direct injection system on the 325i, and 330i but we do not receive the N53 DI motor in the US due to higher sulfur content in our fuels.

hi, did you change oil at the fist 2000km mark? if so how did the old oil look (if you've seen it)? i'm contemplating on doing it, although many said it's unnecessary.

Mine looked fine... I changed it at 2000 kms as well as 7500kms.. more for peace of mind. The first few may or may not do much but it can't hurt if your planning on holding onto it for sometime.

2009 328i with x-drive. They also offered a 5 series or X3. Sadly they do not have the X5 in their loaner fleet anymore.

First oil change was at 1800 km I think. Close to 2000 for sure.
I did not see the oil but I also got it changed at 6000 km, they (the dealer) wanted me to use the free yearly oil change before it was too late. I didn't drive too much the first year so I had two oil changes in 18 months. Seems fine but technically unnecessary.

If you ask me, you don't need it but if you want it, get it. There's no harm done.

So -- I picked my X5 up last Tuesday with it's new fuel pump. The gas gauge no longer went to full, only to 3/4 of a tank after the fix.

Today on a freeway on-ramp it died again. Guess the fuel pump was the symptom.

I'm starting to dislike this thing. This is very dangerous, quick and ugly deaths.

"I'm starting to dislike this thing. This is very dangerous, quick and ugly deaths."

Sorry to hear about this problem. I take mine in for the 3rd time to get the "oil too high/oil too low" warnings looked at next week. It's not good when the service techs start to know you by your first name!

gosh that sucks -- they need to fix that. Also check to see if the internal pump/siphon inside of the tank is bad -- I say this without knowing the the shape of our tank. My old e39's tank is shaped/contured around the center axle, so it is kind of divided in the middle. -- and required a siphon/pump to distribute the gas evenly in side of the tank.

Sorry to hear about this problem. I take mine in for the 3rd time to get the "oil too high/oil too low" warnings looked at next week. It's not good when the service techs start to know you by your first name![/QUOTE]


Had the same problem. After a couple of times at the dealer they somehow figured out that it was a software problem and the car had to be completely reprogrammed. Never had the warning since.

My E46 coupe had the same problem. Died while driving 3 times in 2 weeks once was after driving only 12 kms from the dealership after supposedly being fixed. BMW replaced the same part all three times , a fuel sensor attached to the fuel pump (the sensor was supposedly faulty and not the pump).
Sold it after the third time cause I got tired of all the BS.
Dunno if the problem was ever truly sorted out. But as I sold it to BMW I guess the problem became theirs as it shouldve been from day 1 as the car was just about a year old at the time.

My current thought is the fuel filter. I get this feeling that something is clogging up the filter and then killing the pump. I am not a great automobile mind by any means (only good at buying them), but the pump obviously is a symptom, not the core problem.

It looks like they didn't look at the fuel filter the first time. They just measured the PSI out of the pump, saw it was 0 and replaced it.

I know this is old but did u find a resolution ? My 4.8i stalled out on the highway last night while just getting on the highway.

Started losing power tranny shifted weird and gas pedal was unresponsive. Then stalled and I rolled to a stop on the shoulder with no power brakes or steering.

The car would not restart even an hour or 2 later. Got it towed to the dealership.

There might be various reasons, but I think ethanol in the fuel may be involved. I used to go for the high octane stuff (sunoco ultra 94) when mine wouldn't start. After dealer fixed I only used Shell 91 (no EtOH) and never had the problem again.

Yes, it was the control module for the fuel pump. They replace the pump and module again and all was fine. I don't have the car anymore, so not sure about the long-term.

Which T.C. dealer did you use?

Motorwerks. I know the assistant service manager Rick. Great guy

i had the same case... but the reason was a loose spark causing the whole engin to die at the middle of the street with high traffic... damn technology :-p

just to update on my case, It was both the fuel sender units failed car ran out of gas because the gauge showed over half a tank but it was actually empty.... had to get both of them replaced. Parts were cheap but labor was not. I believe it was a little over 1.1k for the repair