[[email protected]]

Hi I just bought a 2010 X5 xdrive 30i and I love the car but I have had to take it to the shop twice now for two $1,300 repairs. A new radiator and a new parking brake module.

The car has 48,000 miles on it. The dealer and an independent repairman both told me to mentally prepare to spend 4-6 K in the next couple of years on maintenance and repairs. I found this information shocking! I understand it will need tires and brakes in the near future but I was surprised to find out that I will have to shell out several thousand dollars to keep this car running in the next two years. To fellow X5 owners my question is this: what types of repairs have you had to do on your car in the first 100,000 miles. Thanks for your response.

 

[PAX5]

... I found this information shocking!

What did you find out when you did your research before you bought this car?

 

[Doug Huffman]

OPie, your battery is approaching the life time-limit on an AGM battery. Under the best of conditions they will last about eight years. BMW owners seldom treat their batteries well and they ALL pay for that failure.

Buy the BMW recommended smart battery charger, and fully charge your battery regularly and frequently using the underhood access points. Read the BMW documents at G00gle Drive.

 

[FredoinSF]

BMWs are not cheap when things go wrong and you just drop it off to have it fixed.

You had some early failures of two components, that being said the cost seems excessive. A radiator is $300 for the part, $25 in coolant and should be less than 2 hours of labor. Adding tax and assuming &150 an hour rate, where did $600 or so dollars go? Link to radiator: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-radiator-17117585036-1

Incidentally, the water pump is more likely cooling piece to fail on your engine. That part is more costly, closer to $600 for BMW, less for aftermarket. https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-water-pump-replacement-kit-n51-n52-n52n-11517586925kitoe

I think the cars generally hold up fairly well. Individual cars will vary. Some will run 300k miles, some will struggle to get to 100. Proper maintenance (above BMW recommendations) helps long term, but you also need to do a little research and have a finely tuned BS detector with repair shops. Given info you gave, I'd say you either need a different shop or get a better understanding of the work they performed.

 

[[email protected]]

Hi Thanks for your reply. The battery also went. I bought one at NAPA and had the dealer install it. $$ The only reason I took it to the dealer was I did not want to have electrical problems. I am going to avoid the dealer for now on !

 

[ard]

OP-

Two issues here:
1- The not-insignificant failure rate with BMWs as they reach 5-10 years
2- The utter fleecing of uninformed owners by predatory dealers and indy shops.

You cant change #1.

You've been fleeced by #2.

Read up, search, get educated....

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks. I think I did find a good Indy. I will definitely avoid the dealer for now on!!

 

[DieselDonkey]

Hi Thanks for your reply. The battery also went. I bought one at NAPA and had the dealer install it. $$ The only reason I took it to the dealer was I did not want to have electrical problems. I am going to avoid the dealer for now on !

Hmm...electrical problems from installing battery?

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate the URL to the parts store and I will definitely only deal with a good Indy in the future.

I am a new owner. A novice if you will. I joined Bimmerfest last night to ask for and get help from nice people. Maybe I can help someone in the future.

I really appreciate your time and assistance. I don't appreciate the wise cracks from the peanut gallery. Glad they have an ignor button in this application ; )

 

[Doug Huffman]

Be careful who one ignores. Curmudgeons typically have very high signal to noise ratios but the 'noise' is sharp.

Biimerfest. Immer is always in German.

 

[PAX5]

...
Biimerfest. Immer is always in German.

Aber du habst das wort "Biimerfest" falsch geschrieben ...

 

[61iwon]

I just got my 2009 X5 with 52,500 miles 11 months ago and have had to repair fuel pump, oil cooler leak, coolant flush because previously someone put green coolant in, i bought an extended warranty with mine. This saved me $650 on the fuel pump, and $183 on the oil cooler leak. It didnt pay for the coolant flush though since that was a maintenance item.

I would recommend getting an extended warranty type plan if i was you, they can be expensive to buy also. There is a favorite i think i have seen on the forum but don't know the name of mine at the moment. I have recovered a quarter of the cost of it already i think and it has $100 deductible. I am expecting i will recover more in the future. They told me the wrong coolant can cause water pump to fail, and i have heard that is a common replacment item around 50,000 miles. I had a friend who had it happe to his wife's 535 with the 3.0 six cylinder and just the pump was costly and it only has 35,000 miles on the 2008.

I'm sure if you search for extended warranty you will find many discussions about them. Good luck, they really do drive nice don't they?

I did forget to add that i replaced the coils and spark plugs on mine myself and saved a chunk of change too. My mechanic said they are 100,000 mile plugs but i bought them anyway after reading on forums. When i got them out they definitly needed it as i had read on the forums.

 

[[email protected]]

Ok Thanks for your help : )