21 months and 60K miles on 35D. clean diesel is a pain
 

We purchased a new 2011 35d in late 2011. Love the vehicle! It has the Sport package and the handling is very good. The 20" wheels seem to help too.

This post is going to center around the emissions systems and the related problems the X5's are having.

We have had two EGR coolers crack open and leak soot. This gives you a combusted diesel smell in the cabin and the soot trail is visible on the front of the engine. First one cracked at 11K. Second was 32K. The second one was the updated part, FYI. The second one failed late at night on a return road trip. We all got to inhale nasty smells for 5 hours.

A week after the second EGR cooler was replaced, the urea tank heater in the primary tank failed. Back to dealer for replacement. 2 months later the urea tank level sensor failed in the secondary tank. Back for repair. By this time I am starting to tire of the multiple trips to the dealer. Yes, they give us a nice loaner and wash the X5, but the lost time and worry is starting to add up.

A month later the back up camera is acting up. Setting codes and ding ding dinging at us every time we go into reverse gear. Back to dealer for check out. They reset codes and cant duplicate. Send us on our way. The next hour it goes into trouble again once we arrived home that afternoon. We call dealer back, but it is Friday evening. Everyone is gone. We return the X5 back a week later. The dealer resets again. They wont repair because they cant duplicate. I refuse to take X5 back. I asked them to try harder. Two weeks later, we call for update. They tell us some modules are being ordered and will be swapped. 3rd week, we call back and the X5 is fixed. So we think. We dont even make it out of the dealer lot before it dings again. Now I am losing control of my emotions. Looking for someone yell at. LOL. They take it back in for additional repair. We called a few days later and received no return phone call. Called again, still nothing. Decided to drive to dealer and check for ourselves. We find the door panels off, the side mirrors off, the center console removed, the rear hatch is open and all the panels are removed. The door panels are laying face down on the concrete and all scratched up. Multiple modules are hanging and wiring is stripped open all over the place. The also banged a dent in the passenger door against their lift as we were walking around the corner to check on the X5. Of course I am freaking out, but keeping calm and trying to explain what they are doing is pissing me off. After explaining to service manager the issues, he seems to really not care. Said the issues on the door panels, etc can be polished out. LOL There are pry marks all around the edges of the door panels. That is not going to polish out. We take a ton of pictures of the car. It was an epic mess of parts, pieces and wiring like you could not imagine. I am now thinking it is time to go up the food chain some. We called BMW NA and plead our case. They call back a week later with apologies, but no repair updates. they said they were waiting on the dealer to update them. A month has passed now. Dealer finally calls and well as BMW NA. BMW NA says they have a check for us for 1K for our troubles and all the repairs we noted on the panels, etc will be made. I said, keep your money, but get us an extended warranty to 100K. This car has been breaking down way too much and we are nearing the 50K warranty period. BMW NA told us now way. But the dealer said they would. Thank goodness because the X has continued to break down after the 50K warranty expired. BTW, the door panels creak and squeak all the time now. Its annoying. Paintless dent repair fixed the ding in the door from their lift. Multiple wood panels were replaced.

Fast forward to past 50K. We are now smelling diesel in the cabin again. Not sure what it is, because the EGR cooler is not showing any signs of leaking. The dealer cant find an issue. We take the X back. A week later it is smelling again. It seems it only comes into the cabin when the heater is on. They still cant find it, but did smell it once. We gave up and took the X back. Its summer now and we just run the AC on recirc.

A few more months has passed and the wife gets a ding ding ding telling her to have the passenger fasten the seat belt. Of course no one is sitting there. This goes on randomly for a few weeks. I cant get it to do it for me when I drive alone for a few days and...you guessed it, neither could the dealer when we took it in. I told them to just change the darn pressure sensor in the X and I will pay for it. I was tired of hearing about it. You see the thing never stops dinging until you either turn the car off of reach over and buckle the seat belt up for the ghost sitting next to you. They actually agreed to change it out for no charge. The wife goes to pick it up a few days later and is leaving the dealer lot when ding ding ding, it does it again. I told her to bring it home and let me have a look at it. Turns out the pressure sensor was never changed or if it was there was no evidence of such. There was dust on the connectors that has been collecting under there over the past 19 months. I dont see how they could have changed the sensor without the dust being rubbed off the plastic connector?? Maybe I am paranoid? I cant prove it. In the end I found a lose wire that was causing the issue and fixed it myself.

A few more months go by and the CEL comes on. I have expanded coverage autoenginuity and pulled the codes. NOX reading too high. We call the dealer again. The guys actually recognize our voices now. We get the X in and receive a call back a few days later. The SCR is bad. It takes several days to have it shipped in. The cost is 2K. It comes with multiple other parts. I think a few parts for the Urea tank, mixer valve, etc. The total is nearing 3K. The X has 60K miles on it. We pick it up today. Thank goodness for the warranty.

The engine and transmission are flawless. The suspension, brakes and handling are above board. My point is the electrics are weak in BMW's and the clean diesel technology is shit. My understanding is this system engineering was farmed out and has been a huge issue with BMW diesels. Dont drive one out of warranty. Diesel emissions controls have a long way to go. They have taken the ultra reliable diesel engine and turned it into a nightmare with these cheap and cheesy systems.

I really enjoy the X5. So much so I bought another one, but it is not Diesel.

I feel really bad for you with those experiences. Perhaps you should have looked into the lemon laws in your state?

Thank you for the reply. We did check into the lemon laws. If I recall, the law has a mileage qualifier. You see, we drive the X a lot more than the average person/family. The mileage, it seems.... disqualified it. I understand this.

We put on over 35K mileage per year on average. Really more, but it stays in the shop so much that figure is somewhat low.

We pick it up today with the new SCR cat and associated parts. The bad thing is the X diesel value is dropping like a rock, it appears. I have seen multiple copies of the 2011's selling for under 35K retail. If we want out, it will be an expensive endeavor. If we stay in it, it will surely hammer us in repairs in the future. I would hate someone else to have to deal with this vehicle.

I want to add, this vehicle has never been modified. It was a present to my wife. She wanted it left alone so it would be super reliable. LOL

I had a 2010 that sounded like that, emissions wise....32k- Lemoned it


Picked up a 2012 that hasnt spend a night at the dealer. 26k

I agree BMW really failed at this initial clean diesel project. I'd actually thought the 2011s were pretty solid, but guess not.

A

PS Lemon Law in Texas? lets say they arent a consumer friendly state.... ALTHOUGH, you can still file a lemon claim, you just cannot use the 'automatic presumption of reasonable repair attempts'. Did you ask an attorney?

I have a 2010 X5 35d with 42k miles. The only out of the ordinary problem That I have had was a burnt out glow plug caused by a power supply that put out too high voltage. The engine ran just fine with the bad glow plug the only way I knew anything was wrong was the check engine light. I have been very pleased with my diesel X5 and plan to buy another one in the next two years.

Chuck

We drove to the dealer late afternoon yesterday to pick up our X5. The dealer had it clean and ready for us. We were both glad to have it back. We had a nice uneventful drive back. They are about 1 hour and 10 minutes from us if we stay near the speed limit.

All was good for the drive back. Also, the wife drove to pick up our son from his friends house this morning, but on the way back the check engine light has illuminated again. No clue what it is yet, I am typing this from the driveway as I pull the codes. Im not really surprised at this point. Not sure what I am. Disappointed seems like a nicety right now.

Ok, autoenginuity is showing the same code. P2201 and 4B6A. Both are high NOx, and emission related.

It has a freeze frame of the data when the code was set as follows:

calculated load 0%
coolant temp 187F
engine rpm 1487/rpm
vehicle speed 50 mph
air intake temp 90F
airflow rate 5.59 lb per min
absolute throttle position 14%

Looking at the nox sensor data streaming off the ecm now.

The Nox data is looking good. Never exceeds 1650 ppm. Mostly under 1000 ppm.

But the catalyst values are out of spec. Back to the dealer it goes..............

This whole paragraph I'm thinking your wife has set a heavy purse or something similar down on the seat and when you test it obviously it's not the same scenario. ;)

I feel for you though - I'd be fuming if I saw my car taken all apart with nobody to care for it at the dealer.

im willing to bet you can lemon this.... look into the federal aspect of this and talk to an atty. One of the free, fly by night ones you get when you google lemon laws. At least get an opinion.

My car first had an emissions CEL at 9000 miles, but lemoned at 23 months and 32,000 miles. I got back 9000/120000 of purchase price, or 92.5%. (They, of course, offered 32/120....)

I did not use an atty, they take a chunk of any final settlement- make sure you understand this.

Finally even if you dont complete a lemon, you WILL get BMWs very best efforts at repair.

Best Luck

A

Thanks A. My worries are this X just cant stay running. I feel they could fix anything, but whats down the road at 65k, 70k or further? We bought a diesel because we pile the miles on and wanted reliability and durability. LOL

I plan on getting the dealer and BMW NA together this week. I am ready to dump it, but the wife loves this X.

The latest diagnosis is a bad NOx sensor. The one after the SCR. The BMW rep said he would like to replace both the before and after Nox sensors. Waiting on parts since Monday. Looks like 5-7 more business days before it arrives as of yesterday. At a minimum this latest repair is two weeks.

We had the dealer pull the service records for the X across the entire system since we have had it worked on at another dealer a few times. I had forgotten the idrive was giving us troubles not too long after they removed the dash and door panels. The diagnosis at that time was the idrive was bad and they installed a new one. Two weeks later we had to return it again for the same thing and they had to replace the radio and Cd drive modules. Three weeks later we returned it again and they had a tech fly in to chase wiring issues. He found multiple loose wires. It has been working for the past few months without issue since the last repair. I had forgotten about those repairs since the wife did this while I was working some very long hours.

In the end, the selling dealer wants to get us out of the X and into a new one. They are evaluating the trade in price and seeing what they can do as far as making us a deal. I have no numbers to look over yet. Im not holding my breath for an awesome deal. LOL

Remarkable series of faults, glitches, probs imo...
I'm with ard: depending upon the dlr's funny arithmetic/offer, I would move your car's situ 'up' within BMW, ala lemon or lemon-like effort.

This assumes you would want another X of any species.
GL, mD

Lets hope it does not come to lemon laws and attorneys.

The second NOX sensor monitors NOX levels after the SCR catalyst. The problem is this sensor can't tell the difference between ammonia and NOX. If the system is injecting too much urea, the NOX sensor can interpret the additional ammonia as high NOX levels, which in turn asks the DDE for even more urea upstream. Hopefully whomever at BMW is instructing the tech on this matter is aware of this condition. It is a PUMA now.

Geez what a nightmare. One reason I didn't go with a diesel (or Turbo for that matter)--prefer naturally aspirated as generally more reliable. Hope it works out.

Agree on the attorneys, but lemon laws are what makes BMWNA take notice.

Typically the deal you will get from a dealer on a trade in will be far less than a lemon...but most people don't have the temperment to press.

Hope this fixes it... Was it a puma before?? They tend to get it right in one or two tries, but by that time the dealer has messed around for a while and the lemon threshold has been reached...

A

My 2011 x35d has 23,xxx miles and no issues like this. But I will concur the amount of squeaks and cracking sounds coming from the rear hatch drive me insane. It's going back in Wednesday for them to drive with me to witness what I hear...I love driving the car, just did a round trip from Portland to Seattle and got 28mpg and it's so fun to drive.

As far as lemon law and atty...when I had my 2004 Toureg that spent 1/2 of the 7 months I owned it in the shop...I got tired of the lip service from the local dealer and VW of A. Finally a letter from an attorney to VW of A about going down the lemon law route and I got an offer from VW to buy it back as a 'goodwill gesture'. I had to pay for the miles I had driven, at a very low per mile rate (it only had barely over 3,000 miles) and I jumped at that offer. They offered me an attractive deal on a 2005 but that is when I jumped to BMW and didn't look back.

I'd never go back to any VW/Audi product after that...but def worth checking out your options and getting rid of the car. You need to be able to depend on it and I wasn't with my T-reg.

It seems like all I do on this forum lately is agree with Ard, but we both live in the hills around Sacramento, so it must be that we are drinkin' the same water. All kidding aside, I have to agree with him on this becuase he is dead right.

It may be hard to accept, but your X5d is a lemon. Not to argue that the electronics don't need more development (and dealers need to learn how to diagnose and fix them), or that BMW may have outsourced some of the development, but the fact of the matter is your car has had more than an acceptable level of problems. There are others who have posted similar horror stories here, but considering how many of us have x5d's with little or no problems, yours has to be an exception.

I would strongly recommend that you pursue a lemon law case. Whatever you do, don't let your dealer bullshit you into some kind of under-valued trade where he gets to sell you a new car, and you get no real consideration for your greif. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by pursuing a buyback from BMW. In Texas it only costs you $35 to file a claim, and you don't really need to engage an Attorney.

I'm not a litigious person, and I have to be careful what I say about Attorney's since I'm married to one. That said, I have not moral compunction about the fact that I forced Ford to buy back my 1999 Mustang Cobra under the CA lemon law. My car had a 2nd order vibration in the IRS that my dealer could not fix in 7 visits in as many months, including a field service Engineer flying out from Dearborn with a fully factory balanced driveline. By the time it was done, my car was working okay, but I had the same concerns you did that it would be worthless at a higher mileage when it inevitably failed again out of warranty. That was one of the reasons I was able to negotiate a buyback.

As it tuned out, I did not need to employ an Attorney to help with my claim, but I did consult with the consumer advocacy project at Michigain State University law school. They helped me fill out the necessary forms and helped me write a letter of demand to Ford at no cost. My point in bringing this up is that while there are plenty of ethcial, competent attorneys who specialize in this kind of law (they're really not ALL douchebags), you don't need one if you understand how the law works and follow it. To do this, you first have to get educated

In Texas, the lemon law contains 3 statuates that may apply to your case:
1. Two reasonable attemtps to fix a problem in the first 12k miles, followed by two more in the next 12k miles (the "4 times test").
2. More than 30 days out of service to fix the same problem (the "30 day test").
3. Diminished value

On the first point, you could easily argue that the failed EGR coolers, the urea tank heater, and the secondary urea tank level sensor failure are all related to the Diesel fuel system, and as such are the same problem that was not corrected. The fact that your still smelling fumes in the cabin after 50k miles, but the dealer has NTF'd it can be argued as proof. I'm not sure the second point is relevant, but given that you have clearly documented every item and issue along the way, if the days add up (even after 50k miles). The third point is related to the second, but given that part of the implied resale value of any car is it's service history, it's clear that all the repairs can be implied to have had an effect on this with your car.

My strong advise to you is to start by getting educated. The Texas DMV web site has a lot of the basic information and explains the application process. You may also want to check the James R. Hood (private, not Govt.) Consumer Affairs organization (www.consumeraffairs.com) to get additonal information on the federal statuates.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope it works out for the best for you. Except for an ugly battery failure, I've had nothing but joy from my 2011 x5d and could not be happier with it. I'm sorry to hear you have not had a similar experience. For what you paid for your car, you deserve better, and I for one think you should ask BMW to make it right.

Good luck,

Crash,

I really appreciate the long post. Really! Thank you.

I have spent many hours looking into the lemon law in Texas and came away with the opinion it was weak and basically worthless if you had passed 24K miles. At this point I may contact a few attorneys and get some advice.

Great input. Funny how strangers can reach out and help, eh? :) Kudos for crash taking the time to buck you up!

Back to the 24 month comment- my read is that all that means is that the law says 'after 24 months you cannot say "3 visits without fixing and it automatically has reached the 'reasonable repair attempts' limit", rather you need to establish what is reasonable'

You'll need to research this specific aspect and develop your rationale as to why BMW has exceeded the reasonable limit... in writing, to BMWNA at the address for lemon claims. not the dealer, not an email. Formal demand.


But what will happen is that after you write a formal demand letter, a whole new process kicks in- it isnt some happy voice promising to call the dealer. It is paralegals and attorneys that review the claim and make a calculus of 'would they win?'. Once you have 40,50 days out of service- or 5,6,7 attempts to fix "the diesel emissions system" they will probably come to the conclusion "yeah, we need to lemon this".

(As you read stories from people who have done this, the shift in BMW is dramatic- indeed I believe the front line customer relations people are very well trained to keep you verbal and keep you de-escalated. Two features: they will always turn you back to the dealer- still promising to 'look into it'- but forcing you to the dealer, and importantly they NEVER do ANYTHING in writing. They always CALL. Always. Nothing in writing. They are well trained. But once you trigger the legal lemon process that all changes....)


DO NOT think it will be a red carpet- you are, essentially, seeking to become a 'non-customer'. they will be firm and terse. Even my placing an order for a 2012 didnt do much with the 2010 lemon process. They also will want to avoid your 'lawyering up'...many states will pay legal fees on top of the lemon. So a dealer will want to settle with you quickly once they are convinced it is a valid lemon claim.

Oh, you are ahead if you can avoid the lawyer as they ALSO take a % of the final number...most kinda gloss over that part. not crash's spouse of course. ;)

You might read some of my posts about lemoning. the tactic I took was to define the broad issue of "Diesel emissions" as the fault, with multiple codes and issues falling under my defined category. Dont think 'this part' or 'that code'...its your claim, you can decide how to spin it....

Keep us posted. PM if it isnt for publication. BMW does read stuff.

GL


A

No deal could be reached today. The trade in offered was very weak. They are talking trade assist, but no hard numbers yet.

Several comments were made about the high mileage by several different people in several departments.

1.9% ended today with BMWFS. The dealers finance dept tried to get me to fill out a credit app to lock in the rate. I said not until we get some numbers. Basically the day was wasted away fiddling around with multiple people. Nothing was ready as promised and the 1.9 is mostly likely lost, at least right now.

Waiting on a call back from dealer.

Look, you're either going to do this with some balls or they will slow dance you/grind you.

All you'll get is happy-talk: if you have high mileage, the dealer will NOT take it in the shorts. They will also not be able to get much out of BMWNA. They are probably getting 2500 assist from BMWNA, thats it. In my experience this is all being handled by the sales arm, nobody on the 'lemon' side has looked at this...


People that have been successful are ultralow mileage where the dealer can flip it for near new.

Many have been here, done that- in hindsight most that have pressed a lemon case agree that they wasted time trying to have the dealer handle it.

GL

A

I must not be living right or life has a funny way of trying to tweak my patience. Diesel exhaust smelled up the cabin again today and low power/fuel economy since getting the X back less than a week ago.

I went on a search for the smell myself. Low and behold, I found it!! It was not very difficult either. Any technician could have found this if they would have spent a few minutes. Under the faux intake runner/plastic cover I found lots of diesel soot. If you have not guessed where the soot is coming from yet......it was the EGR cooler. AGAIN! Instead of being cracked in the usual place the others failed, it was cracked closer to the area where it couples together. Unbelievable. The updated design seems to have fixed one problem, but perhaps weakened another area.

Now to the lower power/poor economy: Hooked my AE scanner up and pulled any and all codes and used the enhanced features to look at all the engine sensors. I found some weird stuff like telematic troubles, radio fault codes and display fault codes. Although those systems seem to be fine. After looking through the sensors I found the air intake temperature was showing 419 degrees. This is not correct. I drove the X with the scanner running and logged the data for a few miles and returned home to review it. The intake air temp stayed at 419 no matter what was going on. There are two intake air temp sensors. One before the turbo and one after the turbo/intercooler system. The one I am having trouble with is the one before the turbo and it is built into the MAF (mass air flow) sensor. The fuel economy/low power has to be the result of the engine seeing such a high temp, less dense air charge and adjusting the fuel trim. The insidious thing for us X5 owners is...you will not get a trouble code if the temperature side of the sensor is faulty. Just lower power and fuel economy. Mine dropped from a solid 24.5 to no better than 21.5. The X feels throttled, not torquey and as strong as it was before.

Oh, I almost forgot...there is a secondary air system that is showing in the yellow zone. This may be an anomaly of the scanner and I will contact the manufacturer of it tomorrow and inquire. The normal range for the system is between 15.5 and 22. It is at 20.6. Nearly faulted. I did not know there was a secondary air system on this engine, but I do know this has never been in the system scans before.

I will make a separate post for those who search for lower power and intake temp sensor issues.

Which dealer here in DFW are you using ?

The wife got an alert to fasten the passenger seat belt again. She made a quick video of it to show the dealership.

BGM, since BMWna is partly responsible for our troubles I hate to throw out names of dealerships. if you like I can PM you the names and issues with each.

Ok no big deal was just curious . . .

So with all this documentation about the ongoing UN-repaired problems in the same part of the fuel system (and seatbelt problems, etc)., are you now considering invoking the lemon law? Your case gets stronger with more evidence, but weaker with time.

I'm with Add on this. You need to stop negotiating with your dealer and put the zone rep and BMW N/A on notice that you expect them to do right by you and buy the car back. Send them a summary of all the facts an history, and give them a chance to step up and offer you something. If the won't, log your case with the state and send a letter of demand.

PM me if you want to talk offline.

Exactly what Crash said. I had BMW replace an X5 of mine with brake issues. I literally drove the car to the dealership and left it in the service bay. I said the car was unsafe and I wouldn't drive it. The service manager worked it out with BMW NA.

Your dealership should be working hard with you. The service manager has more pull than sales.

In my case BMW wanted no part of the lemon law or fighting. I thought they handled my situation was well as they could considering how screwed up the X5 was. I was still pissed, but no where near as much as I could have been.

The latest is the X had another cracked EGR cooler. We picked it up Saturday. They say the MAF sensor is normal. My AE shows the temp side of the MAF as bad. No action on the seat belt issue. Mileage is down even more.

The total is around 92 days in the shop in 22 months.

The selling dealer called Friday (12th) at 7pm to say they had all the documentation to BMWna and they were working up a deal for us. They had been hard to contact and were returning calls a week after messages were left. I had already given up and retained an attorney the previous day. He advised us to listen to the deal the dealer and BMW lay out, but feels it will be weak. Neither the dealer or BMWna seem to be in much of a hurry. There are multiple legal avenues in Texas for consumers. The Lemon Law is not really one of them. It is very weak.

Quick update: BMWna has been silent on this case so far. We have driven about 2500 miles since picking the car up. The mileage is down some from about 23.5 to 21.7 at best. Most of the time it hovers around 21.5.

Pulled the codes on it today and without a service engine soon light we have a code 474C. This seems to be a pressure sensor before the DPF. Not certain on that yet.

The Mode 6 data shows it in the yellow zone for secondary air monitoring system. Basically it just about to set a code of some type soon.

A month goes by and BMWNA and the dlr are incommunicado...hmmm. Must be a complicated decision on their part.
Maybe they are connected to our gov't. ;)
Sorry to read you are still having problems...
GL, mD

Wow all can say. Contact a local new station. They use to have consumer alert
features. A paper too. BMW might get a fire under their butt. Especially if the
crews shows up at the dealership.

F1Stix... very well written!!!

I can't wait to hear the outcome.

I was just on here doing some research on a 2009 X5 D and saw this thread.

Yikes :)

Sorry to hear.

I've written a lot about lemoning and dealing with BMWNA on this stuff, so I will not regurgitate it all here. I beleive I had that specific code. You can search for "lemon" using my user name, the long history was posted. That fault code seems VERY familiar.

I see you're in TX. Bummer. I don't know the details on their lemon nor how your facts may play into their time periods for inital claims, etc.

Mine was lemoned at 23 months. Received 92.5% back.

GL

A

Quick update:

BMWNA is still silent. The lawsuit was filed mid Sept.

Traveling home tonight and the reduced power flashed up on the idrive. Managed to get home without issue and pulled the codes. POcb and 429A. One is the MAF sensor, it appears and one is the large turbo boost problem. Still searching for the code descriptions and others who may have had this problem with theirs.

Back to the shop again. yippy......

funny thing, as I was driving along to work this morning I thought it was just about time for it to break again. Typically we go 6-8 weeks between major repairs. It didnt disappoint on the way home. LOL

Holy crap! I genuinely feel bad for you guys! 73,418 on my 09d that I bought as a CPO. Mine threw a CEL for a sensor the day i brought it home and that's been my only problem with it. I put about 80 miles weekdays on mine on my daily commute to and from work and we use it as our around town vehicle as well. Definitely lots of luck to you! You've put up with quite a lot!:yikes:

So, when they settle they will require you to agree not to spill the beans.

When I was working on my lemon I had distributed 'the story' to someone else, so that if I needed to agree not to publicize the issue, someone else was able to post. Turns out they couldnt require my silence, so didnt need that mechanism.... ;)


Sorry to hear they are being like this- not surprised though. Once you exhaust the first layer, it gets pretty unfriendly.

A

A long update. Dont read if depressing information is not your thing.....LOL

Finally settled the suit 9 months after filling. Seemed like a good deal. I kept the car because of high mileage making it worth so much less. It went months without failure too. Until:

1 month ago yet another EGR cooler cracks and fills air filter with soot! 103K on odometer. Called for service and dealer informs us there is a recall. The work is covered because an updated part has been designed. Wait, the updated part was already on the car? I was told it was anyway. Turns out the part was not the new one. The car is repaired quickly and perfectly. The dealer does not replace the air filter even though the car is choking for air. So I bought one. This is the fourth of fifth one I have purchased because when the coolers crack, the filters suck in tons of fine particles of soot. Many get right past the filter too.

Fast forward to last Wednesday. Less than three weeks after the last cooler cracks, the updated part fails, but in a different location. This time the crack is in the flex joint near the exhaust manifold. I drive for 5 miles and the crack turns into a complete separation. Man, it is LOUD! Limp mode. We immediately call dealer for an appointment.

It seems the new bracket on the new design has moved the vibration to another area on the cooler.

We drive it home from work in limp mode and when we arrive home (30 minutes) there is steam pouring out of the hood. I mean a lot. There appears to be about 2 liters of coolant on the driveway after sitting a half hour. I dont understand and open the hood for inspection. I cant tell where the coolant leak is located exactly, but it is near the EGR cooler break. I begin to think the hot gases have burned something like a hose. I spend a few minutes with my scanner connected to see what is going on. The car is not really hot. Only 87 degrees C. It is showing a bad MAF sensor so I removed it and found soot all over the sensor screen from the cracked cooler. The next day, the wrecker arrives for a trip to the dealer!

We tell them the car has a broken EGR cooler and bad MAF sensor. The dealer thinks the EGR cooler is the source of the water leak. This makes some sense to me. They replace it and test drive. The car gets hot enough again to squirt more coolant. The dealer now says it needs a thermostat housing and the MAF is bad. What? I already told you the MAF is coated in soot. It cant read airflow or temps in this condition! Also, my opinion is the hot gas melted the plastic thermostat housing because the car never had a coolant leak unitl the EGR cooler cracked. It is near the area of the cracked cooler. The local BMW rep says they will NOT cover the housing, but will cover half the cost of the MAF.

In the past we have spoken to CS at BMWNa....LOL. Ahh....no thanks. It is literally a waste of time. IME, the broken cooler caused the MAF to get nasty dirty with soot and melted the housing. They think Im a nut job. I plan a trip to visit the dealer and inspect the housing and show them the soot on the MAF. Although have have acknowledged the MAF is soot related.

BMWNa seems to only accept responsibility when suits are filed.

Sorry to read for your troubles.That goes much beyound the normal headache expected from the new models BMW.It becomes more and more obvious that the accountants and other forms of people that care of the profit only have took over BMW.Mercedes once did that mistake in late 90s.It cost them a lot,but were able to get out of the downward spiral.Their board of directors appointed in '02 or '03 that for a few years they will spend half of their net profit for improving the quality only and only.After th eterrible models of early 2000s the improvement showed in models after '05 or so.One of the problems is that with manufacturers of that caliber it takes a few years of quality problems before the sales start to plummet,but by that time a bad name could be established.If this kind of problems are not identified on time recovery may take a very long time or may never happen.
I just came back from Texas where we were testing a new ECU flash for the X5D and 335D and guess what happened?! A seventh EGR cooler blew on the test car taking out the thermostat housing and the MAF in the process :banghead: A very long and expensive operation was completely ruined by the dealer not willing to cover some/all of the parts.But they are unobtainable for the next week or so anyway :(

The EGR cooler seems to be a problematic part, I'm on my third one, and while all 3 have been replaced free of charge, my warranty is soon over. This last one is courtesy of the EGR bracket recall.

What did you settle FOR?

I dunno..two different diesels, 2010 and 2012 and no cooler issues. The '10 was a lemon...the 12 has been literally perfect for 54k miles.

So odd to have this cluster in your one car....

Seven EGR coolers had been replaced on at least one '11 X5D.
When I bought mine with 30 k miles the original (?) had just started to leak.I replaced it with a used one from a 20 k miles car no problems 15 k later.

Plus 2...I wasn't sure what you settled for since you kept your X...best of luck