2015 X5 35d Check Engine Light saga...anyone else?

[PunjabiM3]

We ordered our X5 35d in October of 2014 and took delivery mid November. At the time we lived in Arizona, and we moved to the Dallas area end of March. When we moved here the X5 had around 4800 miles on it. It had zero issues up until that point, including a 1300 mile roundtrip vacation to LA as well as the 1000 mile drive out to Dallas from AZ.

Fast forward a few months. At around 5400 miles the X5 threw its first check engine light. Seemed to run ok, but we did not drive it too much. After a cycle or two, the CEL went away, only to reappear within the next 50 miles. At this point, I contacted the local BMW dealership to have it looked at. After having it for a day, the diagnostic was a faulty pre-cat O2 sensor. I was very happy for it be such a small thing. After a few days, I got the X5 back and by the end of the same day the CEL came back on. Total time spent at the dealership this first go around: 4 days.

The next day, when starting the X5, the CEL went away. And again, it came back on the next cycle and stayed on since. So I called the dealership back and told the service advisor about the CEL being back on the same day. So back I went to the dealership to have it looked at in hopes that they find something definitive and hopefully can fix it this time around. I got a call the next day stating something to do with the charge pipe to the intercooler and getting faulty O2 readings and hence the injectors also throwing a code. So now parts are on order, and it will be earliest next Wednesday or later until the job is done. Time in shop this second time: 7+ days by the time it is finished.

I really am not all that confident that this X5 will be properly fixed for the long term. We had purchased it in hopes of keeping it at least 6 years, and optioned the sucker out to $80k. This is my 5th BMW, all of the previous ones having been M cars (e46 M3 cabrio, e46 M3 coupe, e92 M3, e82 1M). I had zero issues with any of those vehicles, and not once did any of them ever throw a CEL. My wife is pissed that after spending so much money on this X5, that the CEL came on in the first place and that it keeps on doing it. She states this is perhaps something she would expect from a cheaper American or Korean car, but not on a 80k BMW. Of course I told her hey its not like more money buys you reliability, but I completely understand where she is coming from. So mainly we have been driving our 2012 Audi A6 3.0T (first year production), which has been a workhorse as it has almost 40k miles and has had ZERO issues.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with their X5 35d? I am hoping they will fix it for good this time around, but at the same time I almost want for the damn thing to just get lemoned out. I likely would not want another diesel BMW product, and likely not a X5 anymore either. Would love to hear some feedback and thoughts on this. Any point in contacting BMW NA about this matter yet? Thanks in advance!

[lowlevelhell]

First, huge points for the username. Great joke that few will get.

Secondly, it's a machine, man. Sometimes they have faults. There's a guy out there on the Audi boards right now talking about what a POS his 2012 Audi 3.0T is. It happens. Let them fix it, try not to fixate too much. I know that's easier said than done.

[jugdish]

I just took delivery of an X5 35d..... My business partner has a 2012 X5 35d with almost 100,000 miles on the odometer and all he's done is routine maintenance.

I've owned several Lexus vehicles and Infiniti. As much as people knock Infiniti, both vehicles I owned never had one issue. As much as the media touts Lexus for reliability, the 2 GX470's I owned had their share of issues that were quite bothersome, and Lexus was quite arrogant as to fixing the issues (as in "our shit doesn't stink")

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by lowlevelhell

First, huge points for the username. Great joke that few will get.

Secondly, it's a machine, man. Sometimes they have faults. There's a guy out there on the Audi boards right now talking about what a POS his 2012 Audi 3.0T is. It happens. Let them fix it, try not to fixate too much. I know that's easier said than done.

Thanks on the points lol. Yeah I know it is a machine, and I agree that there will always be some that have issues. So far in 7 months of ownership it will have already spent 11 days and counting in the shop for this CEL. Hopefully it gets fixed and we can move on. But if it ends up spending another week plus in the shop on top of this, I will be contacting BMW NA. So far it is looking like I will NOT be keeping it past the initial 4 yr warranty, as I highly doubt its long term reliability. Of course, if BMW fixes it and no more issues arise, then I may change my mind lol. I will keep everyone posted on how things turn out!

[turboawd]

sadly, if reliability was a main concern, you should have bought something like camry.

out of curiousity, how do you guys drive the x5? light footed all the time? with a heavy foot? do you idle a lot?

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by turboawd

sadly, if reliability was a main concern, you should have bought something like camry.

out of curiousity, how do you guys drive the x5? light footed all the time? with a heavy foot? do you idle a lot?

I have owned German cars pretty much exclusively as my personal vehicle since 2004. Granted, we also have had a few Lexus vehicles, as well as an Accord and Highlander in the family as well. I suppose I have had great luck and reliability with my German vehicles up until this X5, as it has already spent more time in the shop for unscheduled maintenance than my four M cars, two 997 Porsches, VW Golf TDI, and two Audis combined.

X5 is not driven light footed. I would say a good mix between cruising and stepping into it. No not too much on the idling as we usually don't have to drive during slow rush hour traffic.

[milkyway]

Originally Posted by PunjabiM3

We ordered our X5 35d in October of 2014 and took delivery mid November. At the time we lived in Arizona, and we moved to the Dallas area end of March. When we moved here the X5 had around 4800 miles on it. It had zero issues up until that point, including a 1300 mile roundtrip vacation to LA as well as the 1000 mile drive out to Dallas from AZ.

Fast forward a few months. At around 5400 miles the X5 threw its first check engine light. Seemed to run ok, but we did not drive it too much. After a cycle or two, the CEL went away, only to reappear within the next 50 miles. At this point, I contacted the local BMW dealership to have it looked at. After having it for a day, the diagnostic was a faulty pre-cat O2 sensor. I was very happy for it be such a small thing. After a few days, I got the X5 back and by the end of the same day the CEL came back on. Total time spent at the dealership this first go around: 4 days.

The next day, when starting the X5, the CEL went away. And again, it came back on the next cycle and stayed on since. So I called the dealership back and told the service advisor about the CEL being back on the same day. So back I went to the dealership to have it looked at in hopes that they find something definitive and hopefully can fix it this time around. I got a call the next day stating something to do with the charge pipe to the intercooler and getting faulty O2 readings and hence the injectors also throwing a code. So now parts are on order, and it will be earliest next Wednesday or later until the job is done. Time in shop this second time: 7+ days by the time it is finished.

I really am not all that confident that this X5 will be properly fixed for the long term. We had purchased it in hopes of keeping it at least 6 years, and optioned the sucker out to $80k. This is my 5th BMW, all of the previous ones having been M cars (e46 M3 cabrio, e46 M3 coupe, e92 M3, e82 1M). I had zero issues with any of those vehicles, and not once did any of them ever throw a CEL. My wife is pissed that after spending so much money on this X5, that the CEL came on in the first place and that it keeps on doing it. She states this is perhaps something she would expect from a cheaper American or Korean car, but not on a 80k BMW. Of course I told her hey its not like more money buys you reliability, but I completely understand where she is coming from. So mainly we have been driving our 2012 Audi A6 3.0T (first year production), which has been a workhorse as it has almost 40k miles and has had ZERO issues.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with their X5 35d? I am hoping they will fix it for good this time around, but at the same time I almost want for the damn thing to just get lemoned out. I likely would not want another diesel BMW product, and likely not a X5 anymore either. Would love to hear some feedback and thoughts on this. Any point in contacting BMW NA about this matter yet? Thanks in advance!

2015 35d has had CEL on 3 times within 9000 miles and less than 10 months. Each time only went off within a day or several restarts. all happened when I was on trip out of town, or in weekend. By the time I went to dealer, CEL was off. First time dealer said some faulty NOx sensor ( I believe the same for O2 sensor), not
replaced but "soft" reset/cleared it. 2nd time, I used my own bluetooth OBD II scanner, showed fault code P229f, which is with post-cat NOx sensor. By the time I went dealer, they said not finding any fault code, didn't do anything but report said still clear all fault. This time, happened 3 weeks ago on Sunday just a few days after first oil change service. The code is P220f, still with post-cat NOx sensor. I let dealer know next day to schedule the service to fix it. The dealer said they can't do anything if CEL is not on. I'm really pissed at this time. I have filed a complaint/case with BMWNA now. If they don't fix it soon, they have to replace it per the lemon law, which applies to new car first year/12,000 miles in my state.

[MattBianco]

milkyway as a rule I would never clear codes as I would want the dealer to see them. In fact, I even take pictures/video.

I should say, if my car was chipped, and I got a CEL, I probably would clear it myself, remove the chip and see if it would come back on.

[milkyway]

Hi MattBianco. I might not say that clearly. I didn't and wouldn't clear the code with my scanner. I don't have any customization/chip/coding on it, either The dealer's repair report stated that they cleared all fault code when it happened the 2nd time. This time, the 3rd time, I also took picture of CEL on off instrument cluster and sent it to local BMW dealer and BMW USA. BMWNA says they're arranging a BMW engineer to look into it, but it might take a couple weeks for him/her to actually look into it because he/she covers big area/region. My OBD II scanner now stills show the error code of P220f even CEL has been off for almost 2 weeks. I have scheduled service visit to local dealer tomorrow morning anyway

[NYalldayX5]

Hey PunjabiM3, I'm experiencing the same problem. Ordered my 2015 X5 35d in Oct. 2014 and delivered on late November. Engine light came on after a long trip (350 miles) my mileage on the X5 at that time was 4,100. Took it to the dealer to have it serviced for 4 days at the shop and it noted the cause was that the exhaust cooler is clogged, plausibility fault in between air mass and exhaust recirculation control. And it just happened again less than 2 months since I got this fixed. I really enjoy this vehicle but to have this happen twice already is very troublesome..Please let me know what happens as this will be my second visit to the dealership for this issue.

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by NYalldayX5

Hey PunjabiM3, I'm experiencing the same problem. Ordered my 2015 X5 35d in Oct. 2014 and delivered on late November. Engine light came on after a long trip (350 miles) my mileage on the X5 at that time was 4,100. Took it to the dealer to have it serviced for 4 days at the shop and it noted the cause was that the exhaust cooler is clogged, plausibility fault in between air mass and exhaust recirculation control. And it just happened again less than 2 months since I got this fixed. I really enjoy this vehicle but to have this happen twice already is very troublesome..Please let me know what happens as this will be my second visit to the dealership for this issue.

I got the X5 back from the dealership on Monday. So essentially it spent about 9 days at the shop. When I looked at the invoice, it stated that the charge pipe to the intercooler was coming apart. I assume this charge pipe must be made out of several pieces of plastic and somehow it must not have been torqued properly at the factory. So in essence it was causing an air leak and the sensors in the car to report faulty intake air readings? In any case, the charge pipe was replaced and new filter installed. So far no CEL, so hopefully it has been fixed for good! But if that CEL comes back on anytime in the near future, I will be contacting BMW NA.

[jugdish]

Keep us posted... It's good they found something rather then throwing darts blindly, thinking it's this or that.

[wjbender]

Originally Posted by PunjabiM3

I got the X5 back from the dealership on Monday. So essentially it spent about 9 days at the shop. When I looked at the invoice, it stated that the charge pipe to the intercooler was coming apart. I assume this charge pipe must be made out of several pieces of plastic and somehow it must not have been torqued properly at the factory. So in essence it was causing an air leak and the sensors in the car to report faulty intake air readings? In any case, the charge pipe was replaced and new filter installed. So far no CEL, so hopefully it has been fixed for good! But if that CEL comes back on anytime in the near future, I will be contacting BMW NA.

So all that sensor replacing was for nothing - seems like they may have found the actual problem this time

[NYalldayX5]

So my CEL light once again showed up after having it taken into the dealership twice already. This is the 3rd time this occurred in less than 1 year..Seems like they can't fix this problem. Any advice on what to do from here?

[r33_RGSport]

Originally Posted by NYalldayX5

So my CEL light once again showed up after having it taken into the dealership twice already. This is the 3rd time this occurred in less than 1 year..Seems like they can't fix this problem. Any advice on what to do from here?

Contact BMWNA Customer relation and explain the whole issue and service records.
They will decide what to do with the car.
In my case with my ActiveHybrid5, they decided to bought back the car.

[PunjabiM3]

Originally Posted by NYalldayX5

So my CEL light once again showed up after having it taken into the dealership twice already. This is the 3rd time this occurred in less than 1 year..Seems like they can't fix this problem. Any advice on what to do from here?

What was the cause of the CEL? On mine, once they replaced the charge pipe (which was loose and coming apart per the dealer), the problem went away. Has been a few months now since this was done and we have been CEL free. However, if this issue comes back it will be unlikely that I will keep the X5 past warranty. Good luck and hope you get a satisfactory solution!

[///Armin]

2015 owner here with the same issue, first time into service they said they had to do some type of software flash and I should come back for the O2 sensors, I'm going to have them look at the charge pipe also.

[hezziegreen17]

I recently had the similar issue where engine functions ( check engine) light came and off twice. I' am so glad I took it to the dealership. This issue with mine was the battery had a bad cell and sent error codes to the engine causing faults, effecting The way the engine ran. Glad I didn't sleep and role over on the issue. Lesson learn, don't play around when that magic light comes on, because it can cost you more down the road.

[2016sx5]

Reason got rid of my 13 x5d. Code after Code. Replaced the whole friggin
diesel emission system think. Mileage was 15,000 still was not fixed.

Traded on a 16 X5 gas. Superior vehicle from handling to comfort.

For that much money would think quality should surpass lesser brands,,, not mine

[F15GorDe]

My 2015 F15 is a 10/2014 build also that we did a PCD in Nov 2014. Currently over 20k miles with 0 issues. Try to limit around town driving. Majority of miles are highway with a decent load.

These vehicles are made to work. The overwhelming majority of our F15s see the dealerships for nothing more than regular maintenance. Of course it really sucks if it's your vehicle that throws a CEL. We need to keep things in perspective.

[PunjabiM3]

Has been some time since I posted in this thread. X5 had been trouble free since the fix in July 2015. My wife just informed me last night that the CEL came on when she was driving home from work. It was not on this morning, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it comes back on again. Obviously will contact dealer as soon as it does. Now question is should I contact BMW NA? Love the X5 but all this non-sense makes me want to just get something else.

[ingenieur]

Have you been in for service since July 2015? There is a Service Action to program new DDE software for EGR cooler.
Take it in and have this done and post the fault codes that would have been stored when the check engine light came on