RodG

Thanks Sean.

I'm not really up to doing it myself.  I'll go back to BMmodworks when the finances pickup.

I take on board your point about the oil line.  Makes perfect sense.

Firstly, I'm happy for you that it worked. 

Thanks for posting the price comparisons.  

I'd dropped into BmwMods before Christmas and the very helpful guy I talked to said said it would be 2K to investigate and fix the problem.

Did you take charge of the turbo rebuild or did the garage send it out ?

Best of luck

Rod

I'll wait for your report.  And if the guy does a good job, maybe you could pass on his name

R/

Thanks Dave.

I'm going to visit a tire place tomorrow and depending on price, get three on the sensors replaced.  The forth one is only a few weeks old

A follow up question:

Do the pressure sensors need to be coded ?

I was quoted about €100 for a sensor from BMW.

I see a pack of four on amazon for €50.

R

Off hand I say if you swapped the wheels then you'd need to recalibrate, but I'm not 100%

That sounds good !

Checked out youtube for info and an American gent was a bit negative about some non OEM tire valve/sensors.  Good to know that Amazon is an option.

I have doubts about my local garage's air pump.  Went out to a different garage today and there was a queue about 12 cars long for the pumps so I couldn't get near the air station. He must have been selling petrol for some low low price.  I go hunting further afield ;-)  

Yep the BMW satnav is.... eh, not great.

Google maps is the way to go. Oh.  I just made a joke.

Hi all.

I get a low tire pressure warning on my left front tire.

I pump it up to the specified pressure, do a reset and get ready to drive around for about 10 minutes.

But after about a minute the screen switches back to the "tire pressure low warning" display and tells me to drive slowly..

I try another reset but the same thing happens.

Do you reckon I need to replace the tire pressure sensor(s) ?

I might try a different garage with a different air pump. (here's hoping)

I'd love to get Android Auto on my X5 but it's too old !  Another reason to sell it...

Just to say.

The bloke in BMWmods mentioned a reconditioned turbo (if, in fact the turbo was the problem) for around 2k euro Inc. labour 

Ouch!

Why does everything from BMW start at 5k ?

Hi SeanC

RE your battery cell replacement. Could you tell me how you found out that you needed it and if it was expensive and if it took a long time ?

Rod

Hello Peter.

Thanks for the info.

I certainly don't fancy an engine change !  I'll take all this information to the mechanic when I eventually decide to have the problem addressed.

On an other topic but just out of  curiosity, what kind of range are you getting from the battery ?  I'd say I'm getting 20 mles out of mine.

Rod

Good luck with that, SeanC.

I'm a bit surprised that this is a not uncommon problem. ( Well, maybe its just you, me and CarloL in the whole world).

I regret trading in my 2011 3ltr diesel X5 😞 Thought I was saving money on the road tax, but a new transfer box and a rear axel rebuild put that one to bed..

Il ook forward to hearing how you get on.

Regards,

Rod

Hi  CarloL.

If you can see my response to SeanC you'll see that I've not progressed with the white smoke.

The guy that I briefly talked to ( and will probably bring the car back to),is BM Modification Works in Western Ind. Est D12.

Hope this helps.

R

SeanC

I apologise for not responding sooner.  I missed your post and won't bore you with excuses.

I've not followed up on the smoking issue -  the transfer box replacement knocked a hole in my budget so I'm holding fire on what might be an expensive turbo fix.

I did talk to a non dealership BMW bloke and he mentioned turbo,valve seals, etc,but without taking the car in he couldn't be sure.

Again, I'm sorry for leaving you hanging.

R

Thanks Dave,  wise words 😉

The car also needed seals and bearings in the rear diff- this had nothing to do with the original fault , and I had the oil changed in the front diff.  I don't think she was particularly well cared for.

So now its back to the smoking exhaust issue I was banging on about in another thread !

Rod

At last !

Picked up the X5 today after 3 weeks on foot 😉

New transfer box fitted which cured the jerking issue.

Poorer but wiser.

Thanks for the assistance, Dave.

Rod

Hi Dave.

Well, the car is with the transmission guy so I just have to sit here and wait !

I could have really used that car this weekend -  I was invited to a party down in Kilkenny city ( about 75miles away),but I just couldn't trust it to hold together for the round trip.

I'm in the hands of the ZF gods now, and I don't think they're merciful gods...

Rod

Update:

Following Dave's suggestion that I look at the transfer box as the source of my problems, dropped  the car into a transmission specialist.  He scanned to car and no faults were logged.  He checked the fluid in the transfer box and noticed some metal in the oil.

He's going to drop the transfer box and test it further and if it  can be repaired then well-and-good, otherwise its a new one to be shipped in from The Netherlands.  (Would have been the UK but brexit.... etc.,etc.,).

He cautioned  me against looking for a used box from a scrapyard - not worth the risk, soby the end of next week I should be on the road again.

I've asked his to change the oil in both diffs while he's at it - in for a penny....

Will do.

Thanks again.

Hi Dave.

The sizes are correct and conform to the original spec of the car, i.e. F 275x40x20 and R 315x35x20.

The only difference is that I put cheapo brand tires on the rear. Could the car be that sensitive to tire variation?

Hope to talk to a mechanic tomorrow about fluid chance in the transfer box and maybe the front diff.

Thanks again, Dave.

I'll have the transfer box looked at and give it an oil change.  Might get the oil in the front diff done as well. I don't see any record of it ever having been done. ( Which means that the rear diff is probably overdue as well 😞 ).

The issue with the tires got me worrying.  I recently replaced the rear set with some Chinese brand of the correct size. I watched an Australian bloke do some measurements on various brands, and there seems to be a bit of variation between brands.

I  just searched youtube for X5 transfer case and there's a lot of good stuff.  The symptoms described by the youtubers sound similar to what I'm experiencing.  I  suppose a replacement transfer case might be cheaper than a gerarbox rebuild?