2014 X5 50i - Drivetrain Malfunction ???

[ian mclaren]

Had my new F15 X5 50i about 6 weeks. Great on snowy roads with snow tires in Michigan. Last week drove to work 38 miles in snow during Polar Vortex cold snap [c.minus 10 F], no problems. Parked outside for 8 hours, started her up at 3PM OK but felt "lumpy", engine light came on, "vehicle status" said, 'Drivetrain malfunction, drive with care. Contact service center'. Would only go 20 mph, felt wrong but engine running OK. Drove 2 miles back to work, minus 3 F outside. Called dealership/BMW Emergency. Took two days to get vehicle back to dealership due to myriad other breakdowns. Dealership diagnosis ?" Maybe due to the abnormally cold weather/maybe temporary battery problem ..." But nothing broken or otherwise not working, battery normal. Nothing to do. X5 was basically completely normal again. Drove normally since in warmer weather [20-35 F]

[buckeyewalt]

You would think that after all of these "drivetrain malfunction" warnings, happening over years, that the BMW engineers could have figured out what is causing the trigger. Just unbelievable.

[RickP]

There are others that have had the same issue. Here's an example http://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=922364

[BMWMN1971]

Mine got this error twice when driving back home after the car being parked outside for around 8 hours in very cold temperatures. There was nothing wrong in terms of driving the car. Once inside the garage at home I left the car off for a while and turn it back on and the error was gone. Since this only happened twice and both situations the temperature outside was around -20F I am associating it to a computer glitch because of the temperatures.

[ybd2]

Exact same thing happened to me, when it as -15 degrees in Chicago. I limped car to dealership. Dealer told me there is a service bulletin on this and there is a fix. So it's apparently a known, and fixable, issue. Unfortunately, dealer had to keep my new X5 for 3 days.

[buckeyewalt]

This has been a known issue for years, at least going back to the 2011 build. Mine had this issue, no reason was given just drivetrain malfunction. Again there are things on these vehicles that just keep popping up over and over again, just like the battery discharge issue. I took mine in for the drivetrain issue and they kept it over night, picked up the next day they said nothing was found. It popped up once again, but shutting down the engine and restarting it cleared the issue and it has never showed up again

They need to invest some serious engineering time on their electrical system IMO.

[0_steve]

This happened to my 2012 50i. The fuel injectors were changed out.

[BitteEinBit]

Well, just over 17,000 miles and I got the dreaded "Drivetrain Malfunction - Full Power not Available - Drive Moderately - Contact Service Center"

Took the truck directly to the dealership who put me in a loaner. So far, the error code shows air intake sensor malfunction. So they ordered the part.

Hopefully, the sensor replacement solves my issues and they don't have to play the trouble shooting game with me. With so many things that can cause the malfunction, a lot of times they never really know for sure which part is causing the issue. For example; a misfire error code on the number two cylinder, would not tell the tech the exact part causing the misfire. They would probably swap the coil from #2 over to #3 and if they get a misfire code on #3, then they know it's the coil causing the misfire.

On a positive note, I'm really enjoying the MSport 435i loaner they gave me...it's pretty quick

[ano0oj]

the 1-2 times this has happened to me, i found that turning the car off for at least a few minutes usually remedies the problem.

[stewy604]

When this DT malfunction happened to me, it required a transmission replacement.

[lowlevelhell]

It's important to note here that "drivetrain malfunction" covers a very large category of potential issues. As noted in this thread it can range from a MAF sensor failure to a transmission problem. Don't be surprised to find that there are a variety of problems rolled up under this heading, and thus there won't be a magic bullet fix.

[nal13]

This happened to me two years ago on my 2014 550 xdrive twice. Ended up being a fuel injector issue. The fuel injector issues were suppose to have been fixed in the 2013 model year. Was livid that it happened to a brand new car. BMW North America ended up buying back the car and gave me an identical brand new replacement. I would have thought that after 2 years they would have fixed these problems. As for the weather, these are highly engineered machines. The cold should not cause engine failures.

[oskee64]

Same thing twice on my 2014. Had to replace the vanos solenoid the first time and reprogram the ECU the second time. So far so good.

[charlietangobravo]

Same thing happened on my 2010 550i GT.
Fuel injectors...

[nyquistcondition]

I had this exact issue two weeks ago -30F. Weird thing is car was driven 15min parked 20 min. Then j started and had this exact issue. I killed the engine as it was running rough and car would not restart. Starter would run but no ignition. Let it sit for an hour then started fine.

[JRock80]

Just went through this.... This week, turned out to be electrical coil issues. Number 7 cylinder wasn't firing. Thanks for having warranty.... No cost!

[spike5150]

Mine was a pinhole leak in the turbo cooler radiator that drained all the coolant. Replaced under warranty.

[DuSh]

IMHO investing in some diagnostic tool is a must have. Be it a $25 ENET cable with laptop or a simple OBDII Carly Wi-Fi adapter with app for iOS or Android will help you pinpoint the issue and eliminate guessing right on your smartphone. It's around $60 + app, but it can not only diagnose and clear error codes, but also code, register batteries, real time monitor, datalog and so on. Or some other OBDII device that can read BMW specific codes
Just saying because "Drivetrain malfunction" is a broad term for BMW and it can be lots of things - and every owner stating their own issue that dealer told them only confuses things and especially new owners who are not familiar with BMWs. Just saying

[JRock80]

Originally Posted by JRock80

Just went through this.... This week, turned out to be electrical coil issues. Number 7 cylinder wasn't firing. Thanks for having warranty.... No cost!

No way! I had the same issue last week. Covered under warranty, thankfully.

[spike5150]

Originally Posted by JRock80

No way! I had the same issue last week. Covered under warranty, thankfully.

Uhh, did you just quote and reply to yourself?

[kanvas]

Originally Posted by JRock80

Just went through this.... This week, turned out to be electrical coil issues. Number 7 cylinder wasn't firing. Thanks for having warranty.... No cost!

I think you had the same issue I did. I got the following from the dealership:

"FAULTS 14001, 140010, 140701, 140710 FOR CYLINDER 7 MISFIRE PRESENT. REMOVED IGNITION COIL 7 AND SPARK PLUGS. FOUND SPARK PLUG DRY AND SLIGHTLY FOULED"

Fixed under warranty.

[thompsw]

I had this warning yesterday on my 2015 X5 5.0i. A couple of times over the past year I’ve noticed what felt like a clutch slip under hard acceleration, automatic transmission downshift. It happened again yesterday only this time I got the error message. Rough rolling at moderate speed so I stopped, turned the car off, waited a few seconds and then started up again. The message popped up when the car was restarted but went away a few seconds later, presumably because no issue was detected by the sensor.

Do I have a ticking time bomb or an annoyance ?

Dave.