X5 doesn't start
 

My 2008 X5 was running fine until this morning. It cranked, ran and died right away. After that, it just cranked. No error messages, just showed the Exclamation "!" and engine signs. Last night when I filled up, I shut the engine, but still left the key in so my daughter could listen to the music, after a while all the lights and music went dark. I started the car and it ran fine till this morning. Please help if you know.

Battery is dunzo and needs to be re-charged (and might need to be replaced as it's getting near the end of it's life).

I also tried jump start, but it's no help. I thought if battery bad, it can still runs when you jump start.

Is it still under warranty for Roadside Assistance to come out ? I know the battery jump is tricky on it--the connectors upfront have a hard time getting good contact which limits the flow all the way back to the battery in back on the charge (it needs more juice sometimes because of that).

Thank you BGM for your reply. Unfortunately, I'm out of Roadside Assistance now. Should I try jump start again and leave it for about 1 hour?

Well I guess jumping it yourself is the only way. What size engine did you try jumping it with ? I've had mine jumped by Roadside--the portable box they had wasn't enough so he also had to connect his little mini-SUV to it to get it enough juice + he monkied with the connectors while I was starting the engine--the front connections are tricky.

I jumped start it with my V6 tacoma.

That should be enough I would think. The Roadside guy was playing with the connectors while I was trying to start it and he finally got a good connection. Maybe mess around with the connection while someone is starting it.

You could have a dead cell and no jumping/contacts will work.

You can drag it to a dealer, pay $200 for diagnostics...and maybe get told it will be $500 more for a battery.

Or you could replace the battery at not-a-BMW-dealer and see how that goes.

Just guessing really.

It sounds from the description that it cranks but won't catch. If so, that is unlikely to be a battery problem. If it was a battery problem it wouldn't crank

Also not a good idea to fiddle with jumper cables while they are connected and the jumper vehicle is running. You can send a voltage spike to the vehicle being jumped and electronic modules can be damaged that way

Possibly a few cells in the battery are dead. I have had the batteries in both the X5 and 335i replaced. They are both less than 4yr old and batteries on average last 5yrs, so it is an issue with BMWs and/or the batteries. If you leave the keys in the car not only the radio but all the electronics keep humming. If some of the cells are dead the battery will not provide enough current to start the car, the car may crank but there won't be enough current to spark. The dealer may be able to give you a loaner battery which may allow you to take the car to dealer for a checkup.

Dealer replaced the battery last year dec 2010, and the car has only 46,500 miles on it. Don't know if the battery goes bad that fast.

If the battery did go bad it wouldn't crank. If it cranks it isn't the battery

Would a faulty O2 sensor cause such an issue?

A faulty O2 sensor would throw a code

Not specific to O2 sensors, but just a comment.

There is a tendency for posters to want to skip the diagnosis and jump to "the answer". Two different problems with similar symptoms can have very different root causes and thus very different cures. A problem like "not starting" is a classic example of this. We need more information from the OP.

In the meantime, he said it cranked fine, and later added that it is a new battery. Yet most of this thread is about the battery.

Bingo.

(I missed the 'it still cranks fine' part, which was a critical bit of data.:()

Oh true... though when I had a burned wire that misread the fuel level, no light was on. They had to trace the wire. Perhaps it's something similar. But it seems this kind of thing should throw a code. Plugs would be my next thought, but again should throw a code.

"My car doesn't start, any ideas?" reminds me of the time my wife called me at work and said, literally, "My printer doesn't work, what's wrong with it?"

I was like, "Ummm, how would I know?" We were both in tech support at the time too. I still give her a hard time about that to this day.

Anyway for the OP - you're missing either fuel, air, or spark. Could be any of the myriad of systems providing those three elements to the engine.

Had my car towed to dealer this morning. Till late afternoon, SA called and said they still had not found out what was wrong with the car. He would call back around mid day tomorrow. Looks like something really serious, that they spent that must time still cannot find out????

SA called back and said the problem is "BAD GAS". I just filled up that night and the next day couldn't start. The total for clean up and change the gas pump is $4100.00. This is really expensive for just fill up the bad gas from a reputational "SHELL" station.

1. Are you crazy????

Tell him not to do any work on the car. You are getting screwed. (My opinion from here...)

Drain the tank, new gas, good to go. Maybe $300

2. Call your insurance company. They should cover this. however they will not stand for a $4100 fee.

Now, maybe you've destroyed the entire fuel system, but I doubt it.... I've never heard of a bill that high for water/crap in the fuel tank...

Thank you Ard for mentioning the insurance. I just finished calling and got a claim number. So I"ll go talk to the gas station manager tomorrow. If he agrees to pay then I can drop the claim, if not then I'll have to use the insurance's coverage and pay the deductable amount, then will have to wait for the adjuster.

Overdosed with ethanol? That can be expensive. The dealer can test actual ethanol % (pretty simple test). If not, would be interested in what was wrong with the fuel.

I got the estimate today from BMW and went to the gas station. Asked the only guy there and he said the manager is not there, but he did asked me the problems and after he looked at the estimate he just laughed off. I guessed he was the manager there. He made copied of all the paper and said he would send to the office and someone would contact me. That would take about a week.

Here is the details:

Description Qty cost hours

1 - R + I fuel tank sent out to be cleaned 1 75.00 6.1
2 - Replace fuel pump 1 397.55 .3
3 - Flush lines 1 69.95 2.0
4 - Replace leaking injectors 6 134.96 3.1
5 - Replace fouled spark plugs 6 280.85 2.6
6 - Replace contaminated oxigen sensors 4 1116.36 4.4
7 - Diposal of contaminate fuel 35.00


Total labor 18.5 @ 134.00 2479.00
Total part 1891.92
tax 156.09
tank clean, fuel disposal 110.00

Total 4637.01


The amount is 4637.01, yesterday he told me 4100.00.

At dealer, they burned the gas for me to see. they poured a little on the floor and burned it, it only burned a little, the rest was still there, looks like some kind of liquid. They can't tell if that is water or something else. they also gave me some sample to bring home.

Now I don't know what I should do. Should I wait for the gas station, it would take about a week or should I use my insurance? This way is faster, but I have to pay 500.00 deductable.

If the gas is that bad, I'm surprised there wasn't a line out the door of people complaining. If you can find contact information for Shell corporate via their website, you might want to work from that end as well.

yes. I did talked to Shell Customer Care today and they asked me to send all the papers. But, it would take 20 days for their contaminate dept. to investigate before they can make any decisions.

FYI:

Tesoro replacing bad gas

Bad gas at one store damages vehicles in Conway | todaysthv.com

Bad gas was 50 to 60 percent ethanol » Local News » The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Tesoro says bad gas claims nearly complete

Think you were given bad gasoline? It's not so easy to prove | Mom2MomDFW.com

Anything showing up on local news??? I bet if they ran a piece on the 5PM news, more people would come forward....

I did pay attention, but nothing on local news.

SA said another car towed in today got the same gas at the same station on the same day.

That could be very useful information in documenting the source of the bad fuel. You might want to ask the SA to give this other person your name and phone number so he could call you.

It varies state by state, but most states, at a minimum, have an agency responsible for the accuracy of fuel pumps. Since this station apparently was pumping something other than pure fuel, it's possible that a complaint to the appropriate state agency might also help document the problem, particularly if more than one person complained.

Typically businesses pay attention if a regulatory agency gets involved, e.g., a health insurance claim that was an issue for more than a year was paid by my insurance company in two weeks after I made a formal complaint to the State agency that regulated them and they wrote a letter to the insurance company asking for information.

P.S. It might be good to get something more detailed than "Bad Gas," e.g., water, particulate, diesel mixed with gasoline, etc. Even thought they are typically color-coded, sometimes diesel gets pumped into gasoline tanks and vice versa.

In AZ this is the Dept of Weights and Measures. Probably has a similarly obscure name in the OP's state.

It might even say right on the gas pump - I think they put an inspection sticker on the pump showing the date it was last certified.

first thing is what station did you buy from.... im in houston as well.

food for thought gasoline is formed from petroluem distillate only the vapor burns from emitted gasoline liquid once its reached its vapor point it will no longer become a vapor temp and baro pressure regulate this. the liquid left behind will be an oily residue. this is not the proper way to detect contaminated fuel. the only way is to send off a sample to a testing facility and let them do a knock test and chemical breakdown...

Occam's razor suggests that the two most likely liquid contaminants are water and ethanol. If there is no visible sediment (particles) then the shop can test for those without even sending the fuel out, it takes a few minutes.

A side note, but I agree that it isn't worth calling the department of weights and measures. They typically worry about how much fuel is dispensed, not what that fuel consists of, in my experience.