This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The contact owned a 2012 BMW X5. While driving 65 mph, the engine malfunction and reduce speed warning indicators illuminated. The contact was able to pull the vehicle off the roadway and it caught fire. The fire department extinguished the fire. There were no injuries. The vehicle was destroyed and towed to an independent facility. A fire report was filed. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The cause of the failure was not determined. The approximate failure mileage was 89,000.
On August 7, 2018, I was traveling on interstate 95 in Maryland (North of baltimore) in route to New York state. During the highway drive, my BMW drastically reduced speed to 10 miles per hour and the check engine light came on and stayed on. I had to move my car to a safe place to avoid being hit by the other vehicles on the highway. I could not continue to drive my car. And, I was worried about my safety and was at risk due to the BMW car issue. I called aaa and my car was towed to passport BMW in suitland, Maryland for repair. On August 8th, passport evaluated my car and diagnosed the problem. I was informed by passport BMW that my car engine problem was due to a faulty fuel ignition system which had to be replaced. I approved this over $570 repair to my car. However, when I picked up the car, the engine light was still on. Again, I was concerned since my car was repaired by BMW yet the problem had not been fixed since the engine light was still on. I contacted the service advisor to inform him of the problem. He apologized and requested that I bring the car back in to passport BMW on the next day. The next day, I brought the car in to passport BMW, I was informed that the catalytic converter, an estimated $3388 repair, needed to be replaced. My car has been in for BMW service maintenance and recall repairs several time. My car was in for maintenance several times and was not accurately diagnosed or repaired. There is no indication that the repair diagnosed on August 8th fixed the problem that caused my car to stop running on the highway on August 7th. I paid for that repair in August and it did not fix the check engine problem and want to be reimbursed for this expense. I am concerned about the numerous repairs to my BMW despite the fact that my car has been serviced by the passport BMW service department.
Egr cooler failure. Egr cooler developed, both an exhaust gas leak and control spring failure. Failure was seen in engine control light and later diagnosed in second trip to BMW dealer. Exhaust gas leak in engine compartment to grease air system is primary issue.
Recall campaign number 18V-336 engine idler pulley bolt snapped while driving through twisting roads in the wet. Loss of power steering and loss of battery charge from the alternator also the belt runs the water pump so the engine started to over heat before I could get to a safe place to pull off the road.
The contact owns a 2012 BMW X5. While the vehicle was stationary, the engine idler pulley bolt fractured. The contact stated that the red battery malfunction indicator illuminated and the message "charging malfunction, battery is not recharging" displayed. The contact also stated that there was a sudden loss of power steering assist. The contact manually applied significant force to the steering wheel and was able to drive to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the engine pulley bolt fractured and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. Furthermore, the contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 18V336000 (engine and engine cooling); however, the part to do the repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and stated that there was no remedy for the recall. The contact was referred to the dealer. The failure mileage was approximately 69,500. VIN tool confirms parts not available.
- Houston, TX, USA
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While driving 65 mph on freeway car refused to accelerate faster than 60 mph, warning that engine was overheating and to drive moderately was displayed. Loud blowing from engine compartment in 10 second intervals. Water pump and thermostat need to be replaced, but dealer claims our vehicle isn't covered under any of the 3 recently expanded recalls affecting other 2012 X5 models. Online research indicates that water pump failures are chronic with this model and "some" BMW repair centers are covering the repair at 85% as an extended warranty on the part, because of the inherent risk of fire.
My battery was weak and the time came to change it. I changed the battery, the car starts beautifully. However I have a light system and restraint system malfunctions. My internal lights do not work, my indicator lights do not work. I have been told that my frm needs to be replaced. After doing some research online I have learned that this is a common problem in the X5 series. The vehicle has less than 50,000 miles on it and I only drive it on the weekends. This is the second major malfunction this year. The water pump needed replacement in February. I purchased this certified pos in 2016 from the mamaroneck dealership with 26000 on the vehicle. Oh I forgot to mention less than 6 months after purchasing the case there was an oil leak in the engine. I can't wait to finish paying for this car so I can go back to the more reliable Mercedes Benz that I was accustomed to.
Transmission randomly goes into park when back up or moving forward in idle. Car has also come out of park randomly, with car rolling slightly. Separately, had gasket has leak at 69000 miles.
I was driving my BMW X5 and out of nowhere an "engine malfunction warning light" came up accompanied by an engine overheating, I immediately pulled over and called a tow-truck who took my X5 to the nears BMW dealer. The technician stated it was the ivm and the charge air pipe that needed to be replaced, after spending $1,500 on the 2 items, I drove out of the dealer and less than a mile down the road, the same "engine malfunction and vehicle overheating light" came back up. Called the dealer and another tow-truck pick up my X5, then I requested to speak with the shop manager who informed me the problem with the X5 was never pertaining to the ivm or charge air pipe, as they miss overlooked the diagnosis which stated the dme was not working. They change the dme and another $2,000 was charged, after it was repair and I drove away, the same engine malfunction light and vehicle overheating light came up, called the deaelr and they told me that after changing the dme, the new diagnosis stated the watter pump needed to be replaced and this was the part that was creating the engine malfunction and overheated vehicle warning to come up. I ended up changing the water pump and other vehicle parts, that did not needed to be changed and now a recall for the water pump came out. On the meantime, I spent almost $4,000 on repairs when everything could have been done if they would have conducted the water pump recall. Who can reimburse me the amount of money paid? I sent the original dme to see if it was damage, and they came back stating it was not damage at all, therefore the problem was the water pump and not the dme, or ivm or charge air pipe. Please help!!!
Engine malfunction light - car suddenly loses significant power. This continues to be an ongoing problem despite we have spent over $100.00 and frequent servicing of the car. On at least one ocassion the car loss total power and was able to be driven. Most of the engine has been rebuilt but the problem continues.
The contact owns a 2012 BMW X5. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 18V336000 (engine and engine cooling); however, the parts to do the repair were unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. BMW of peoria (1720 w pioneer pkwy, peoria, il 61615, (309) 692-4840) was contacted and confirmed that the parts were not available for the recall remedy. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and was not able to confirm when the parts were to become available. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.
The contact owns a 2012 BMW X5. The contact was alerted to an abnormal noise coming from the vehicle while it was parked at her home. Upon inspection, the contact's husband noticed that the vehicle was filled with smoke. Ten minutes later, the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The fire department was contacted and extinguished the flames. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was not towed. The dealer and manufacturer were not notified. There were no injuries. The failure mileage was approximately 72,000.
Idler pulley bolt recall while driving on the highway the idler pulley bolt snapped with a loud noise. "electrical failure and battery not charging" notice came up. Simultaneously power steering was lost making very difficult to turn the vehicle on the highway. Few moments later caution came up to "drive moderately engine hot". some miles down the road notice came up "engine too hot drive moderately". it was night time on a long weekend and my destination was thirty miles away so I pied at the gas station and got the car towed home. Problem was notified by the garage mechanic. I did call BMW company who refused that there was any recall. This issue had put my family and me at a great danger because the car needed mighty strength to steer and the tight turns were impossible.
2012 BMW X5. Consumer writes in regards to engine malfunction. The consumer stated the vehicle was repaired, but the engine light remained illuminated. The manufacturer was notified, but did not offer any assistance.
This past winter the check engine light in my 2012 BMW X5 diesel (X35D) came on. Checking the code (4bcc) revealed that fill sensor for the passive diesel exhaust fluid (def) tank is malfunctioning. I had letters from BMW stating that BMW had extended the warranty on the active def tank and nos sensors to 10 years and 120K miles but not on the passive def tank. Checking various BMW forums I found that it is a very common failure. Many people are reporting this and so much so that there is a Canadian company (xemodex) that is making better version of these parts and providing much longer repair warranty than BMW provides. One of the members in the community actually did a thorough analysis with scope (https://www.youtube.com/watch?V=xfal06pd_pg) and it showed that the fill sensors used in the active tank is a three levels reader and in the passive tank is a two levels reader and the ones that go bad is usually the highest level fill marker which becomes dry early on in the usage cycle. It appears that there is a systematic issue here where the def heater and level sensor are all housed together and during winter time when the def heater comes on it causes the unsubmerged part of the fill sensor to go bad. The other issue is that currently my passive def tank is filled with def but because of the fill sensor malfunction it is not allowing flow of def from passive tank to active tank limiting my range of travel before the system would not allow the vehicle to start due to active tank being empty. And thirdly, not sure why a passive tank was introduced when making the active one slightly bigger would accomplish the same thing and avoid use of twice as many of these faulty parts and design. Both the active tank and the passive tank use the same fill sensor and heater components but the warranty was extended only on the active thank and not on the passive tank.
2012 BMW X5. Consumer writes in regards to various safety recall notices received for vehicle. The consumer stated the engine malfunctioned and required a software update. The vehicle's air springs needed to be replaced. The coolant tank cracked causing coolant to leak from the vehicle. The oil gasket was leaking and needed to replaced.
I'm writing to you regarding my 2012 BMW X5M. On October 8, 2017 I was driving my car and suddenly the check engine light came up and almost immediately the car lost power and a very loud banging noise start coming up from the front of the car. I was in the middle of a busy intersection when this happened and the car could barely move. I pulled over as soon as I was out of the intersection and got the car towed to the nearest BMW authorize dealer - BMW of silver spring, md (3211 automobile blvd, silver spring, md 20904). After a few conversations with the dealer I was told that I have to replace the entire engine and that there will be no effort made to determine the reason for the engine failure. The car is a well maintained vehicle and I have records for all the maintenance work done. That includes oil changes done every 5,000- 7,000 miles. I told the dealer that I suspect the issue could be a faulty fuel injector. The symptoms I shared with the BMW dealer were rough starts, rough idle and fuel smell were present especially the day we towed the car in. The dealer refused to accept any of the shared information and denied my request for the fuel injectors to be checked although they are under extended warranty. As a result, I was given no choice but pay the cost of the entire engine replacement. The dealer refused to give me the old engine back because I wanted it inspected to check whether a faulty injector was the reason for the engine failure.
While driving my car for approximately 3 minutes engine seized without warning. I coasted on to the shoulder of the road and put it in neutral and tried to start it.... nothing. Oil level was good. I had it towed to BMW dealer and they told me engine was locked up but couldn't tell me why. I just had recall work done about a month or two ago at the same BMW dealer. They mentioned an aftermarket oil filter but that dose not make any sense to me. Has the manufacturer extended warranty covering this ?
The contact owns a 2012 BMW X5. While driving approximately 30 mph, the check engine warning and low power mode indicators illuminated. The vehicle was taken to walser BMW auto campus of wichita (11000 E 13th St N, wichita, ks 67206, phone: (316) 221-3841) where it was diagnosed that the high pressure fuel pump failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. In addition, while attempting to drive the vehicle, the check engine and low power mode indicators illuminated again. The vehicle was taken back to walser BMW where it was diagnosed that the vanos solenoid failed, there were metal shavings in the oil, and the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 75,140. Consumer stated BMW customer care package B001314 was completed by BMW before consumer purchased the vehicle. At approx. 36,000 miles. From consumer's first BMW service, the BMW service manager told the consumer he would have continuous problem as the N63 engine was notorious for trouble. Updated 9/4/18
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- East Brunswick, NJ, USA