X5 Diesel won’t do anything, except run the wipers
 

My neighbor’s diesel X5 did a ‘thing’ and now it won’t do anything... oh and the wipers came on and won’t shut off.

Back story...

It has been cold here and it warmed up here. He started it today to take it for a drive and it had a reduced power message of some kind. He got about a quarter mile and the dash lit up, it said no oil pressure shut off engine now, then it shut off the engine and on came the wipers... now it does nothing but run the wipers.

I was going to tow it back into his yard but we couldn’t even get it into neutral.

Would it do anything to disconnect the battery overnight to reset the computer?

Any ideas what could be wrong?

I loaned him my WRX until they get this sorted, not like I can drive a car with a ‘man pedal’ right now anyway...

Can you scan it? What do the codes say, besides "you should not have bought this POS?"

He has a scan tool. He has not done this yet. His wife is also in to hospital so there is a bit of stress there.

I would try disconnecting the battery, although it sounds more like a job for a boiling caldron of eye of newt and a dead black cat. That thing is possessed.

Just be thankful the wipers work , its a BMW . Let me know if I can help with wiring daigrams or anything , Nothing comes to mind immediately, but I wonder if there is water intrusion, in a fuse box, relay, or module ?
I would disconnect the battery, call it a bavarian manure wagon a few times, then reconnect and see what happens . IF you have to drag it, I am pretty sure, there is an allen bot on the side of the trans, right next to the linkage that you have to wind in to take it out of park for towing

I'm sorry for the owner's problems but this is funny. :D

Submersion?

My buddy bought a Mini-Cooper for the wifey (she HAD to have one!)...

All sorts of electrical issues. I said flood car? A little digging...Hurricane Harvey car...

He is a lawyer so he "charmed" them into giving him his money back.

Before you do anything else... GET THE F'N CODES!!!

I had a customer years ago with a newly acquired Ferrari 400i, which he even bragged about on his voicemail message .
Xmas Eve we were going to build him a folding garage in a very tight space just outside his front bedroom window so that he could store his car. We arrived in the pouring rain to find his car parked with the headlamps cycling up and down so first thing we did was disconnect the battery as he didn't know where it was and how to do it. We built him his garage and left him with his car disconnected and unable to garage the car as he wouldn't have been able to drive the car in then access the battery to disconnect it again without partially removing the fabric, which he seemed incapable of doing and it was dark by this time and we had a 75 mile drive; back home dodging the drunks that populated British roads back then on Xmas Eve.

Not sure if X5's are the same basic design, but we owned an 2006 5 series wagon for years. The drains on that thing would get backed up and moisture would find it's way into the lowest point of the interior.. That point was the same place those German geniuses decided to place a ton of the electronics. Specifically, under the spare tire. Once on vacation after a night of storms the dash was freaking out and the car started to jerk going down the road. Pulled over, diagnosed the issue, got it drained and bought some extra fancy electronic cleaner spray. Drove "fine" and traded it for the diesel Q5 we have now.

Long story short -check for moisture in the spare tire well or wherever the electronics are stuffed in that thing.

It has been -40 here and not above freezing in 2 weeks. I don’t think it’s flooded electronics.

:)No, its frozen electronics now

Hey, this is just for fun, I drive one .
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1613584201.jpg

Turn signals are a very expensive option for BMWs evidently. I never see them used on a BMW.

You can be certain that if it rains there the wipers will no longer work.

You might get codes, but I'm guessing you lost power to several control modules.

Well I got nothing. Maybe there is a shutoff that has to be re-set, similar to the fuel solenoid shutoff except that BMW probably doesn't trust it's customers to not re-start a motor with no oil in it, for obvious reasons.

It sounds like it may be the battery. He is off to the dealer to get a new battery so we will see.

This is the opinion of my friend who is an Indy mechanic (more a Porsche guy) and the BMW dealer. This fits with the 5 days of -40 we had.

I will post the findings.

This is what I am thinking. Probably one module failed, and took down the network that it shares other modules with .
One more BMW Meme, then Ill quit .
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1613595115.jpg

It was not the battery... :(

I’m thinking this gets real expensive real fast.

It could be simple or it could be $$$$$$. Have a complete vehicle scan completed while it is on a battery charger. Follow any diagnostic trees you have available for the codes found. Send me the codes you can't get help with via email and I will see if we have the diag charts available if YOU are going to do the diag.

I have no desire to ever own a BMW, but, as a European shop owner, I am so thankful they sold so many cars.... :)

^^ So Jeff, no desire to own a BMW but have a Mini Cooper S?

Did they figure out what went wrong with the X5?

Not yet. It sounds like the gateway?

Aaaaahhh, the "gateway"!




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LOL you got me! :) Had that car for 10 years and we use it as a courtesy car from time to time. We originally got it as courtesy car so that our clients could drive something that likely wanted to, but would likely never purchase. Feedback was greet from clients getting to try it out for the day. The first gen Mini's have been the most reliable of any on the models the brand has produced since. It has been dead nuts reliable. However, what we find in the shop is that the Roundel vehicles require a ton of repair once outside of warranty. See it weekly in the shop.

Cheers

It is with an Indy mechanic in town. It still is not back home and I’m afraid to ask the status...

I feel terrible for him, I don’t think he is prepared for a $5000 repair which this may well cost.

If this car is under 75,000 miles or just outside of warranty that is preposterous. If Toyota and Honda (and Hyundai, etc) can build relatively trouble free cars than so should BMW.

BMW, for all their (German engineering) claims should be setting the bar in reliability. In this day and age there's no excuse.

I've been extremely lucky with my '04 325i, it's been incredibly reliable for 239,000 miles. No way I'd buy a new or late model BMW, or any Late model German car.

They decided not to fix it, prohibitively expensive.

What year is the X5? So it sounds like the tec has no idea what he is doing with that car?

LS swap time....

Seriously, how can it be unrepairable?

It is not unrepairable, it is going to cost more to fix than he wants to spend on it. He sold it and bought a new Mazda.

Make sure you let him know, that it is perfectly normal for the Mazda to function normally without any warning lights on . It may seem foreign to him at first.
Where did BMW go wrong ? I used to love them , a well built, quality german car , that handled well, had a silky smooth i6, and was overall, pretty reliable .
Now, a plastic gadget laden pos , that can't make it 50k out of warranty without eating up the purchase price of a new Kia in repairs .

You can be sure these 'problems' aren't a secret at BMW. Someone, or some group(s) have made a conscious decision to worry about the vehicles under warranty and screw the rest of the vehicle life.

Somewhere there's a cost analysis of building better cars and the benefits that accrue to BMW, versus the cost of a cheaper vehicle that just squeaks past the warranty phase.

Maybe the high percentage of leases,and the high turnover rate and end of warranty split the customer base into a group of people BMW cares about (original owners) and a group they have abandoned, the second/third owners.

It has been said before (but I think about Porsche), BMW is in the business of selling new cars to the original owners.

As long as there is a perception of quality, uniqueness, and a driving experience and they last the lease / warranty, they have succeeded in meeting the needs of the original owner (the market segment they care about).

The only way they make money off of the second and third owners is by implementing systems that fail and can only be repaired at a BMW facility using BMW part$.

All in all, its typically not the mechanical moving parts that fail anymore, its the gizmos and their controllers that cause issues.

In the late part of last century, Detroit found out about reliability and reputation.
It was a lesson that lasted.

Perhaps BMW believes the consumer will confuse a HF one-use widget with a vehicle nearing a hundred grand?

It will be really interesting to see how the new Toyota Supra does over the next 10 years...
Me thinks it will be riddled with all sorts of issues and not consistent with the Toyota quality that buyers of the marque come to expect.

For those who don’t know, the new Supra is a BMW Z4 with different clothes and hairstyle...

With the Supra, Does anyone know who's electrical system is in there? I think the Germans are not as good with electronic systems or just make it too complicated. But they do make some pretty cool speakers MBL, but I am not sure if they continue to work once off warranty.

BMW everything in the Supra. Toyota does not build these.

That is well stated.

I just like to own a car ten years or so, sometimes longer, and ride that wave of soullessness, competence and reliability.

My Tundra will be the last 1/2 ton I own not because I want it to, but the numbers say it will.