RodG

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?

I hope to get access to a ramp at the pace where I used to work. They have a motor mechanics apprenticeship course running. Is there anything externally,that I should lookout for when I'm under the car. ?

Thanks Dave. The Launch CReader arrived and I hooked it up to see what it finds. Nothing gearbox/transmission related, but some other stuff- fuel pressure sensor and a couple more. I kind of hoped it would flag up a solenoid or something similar, but we are where we are. Maybe the good doctor will do the trick. Rod

Hello Dave. Happy Easter. I've ordered a tube of Dr Tranny ( what a name...) Are there any rules about adding it to the transmission - e.g. gearbox must be cold? Rod

When she was upon the ramp my mechanic gave the drive shaft and mounts a good looking over. He even suggested I check for twisted wheel rims,but its not that king of vibration.

Morning Dave. Thanks for the expanding on that Dr.Tranny stuff. I'll have to look up how it works. If the problem turns out to be a solenoid or two, then I'd be really happy. I ordered a Launch CReader Elete for BMW. It gets gets reviews from BMWDoctor and others. ( I wonder if he studied with Dr. Tranny). Its due to arrive this week after I paid the outstanding VAT. In the meantime I'll do that reset trick on the transmission and throttle memory ( Hold the throttle down for 5 sec and 10 sec etc). I'll post and updates that might help others with a similar issue. Thke care, Rod

Hello Dave. Once she's warmed up, its all changes. And, while driving with a steady throttle, I get this jerking as if the gear was slipping and then catching. The effect is continuous, with a frequency of, maybe once per second,or perhaps once every two seconds. I took the car to a ZF guy and he said he'd never seen that kind of thing before. Offered to strip the box for around €5K. I'm going to sound out several other transmission specialists in the hope that one of them might have seen the fault before, I don't want to visit BMW if I can help. They'll just try to sell me a new gearbox. I've ordered a scanning tool in the hope that it will find something. I'll lookup Dr. Tranny. (Wonder if he does house calls )? 😉

Just to update the situation on my X5 hybrid, I did a transmission fluid and filter change but the fault still remains. Jerky gear change on auto, manual,electric power and petrol power. Next step will be to put a bi-directional scanner on the car and maybe do some data logging.

Thanks for the confidence boost Dave. 🙂 I'll start with the gearbox, I think and let you know how I get on. I'm regretting trading in my E70 diesel for this thing, but the road tax on the hybrid sort of blinded me 😞 Thanks again Rod

Hello Dave. Since the turbo is still in the car and its driving ok, (apart from the gearbox), the plan is to get a non BMW garage to do the work. I've ID'ed a couple of turbo specialists fairly near me. They seem to want the turbo out of the car and brought to them, which is understandable. I was a bit shocked when the mechanic ( he has a very good rep), who quoted me €5k explained that the biggest cost item in the bill was not the labour, but the replacement turbo !

Thanks Dave. I'm going to to a second mechanic and get his view on the problem. I also want to investigate whether its ok to have my turbo reconditioned rather than going for a new BMW unit. If I can do that, it would save a lot of money.

Hi Dave. Thanks for the insight and the sound advice. There's a guy in Dublin that I used before when I had a problem with my E70 X5 and he was good. (Autotranz) I'm hoping a flush will fix it.

Hello all. Ive noticed that after my 2016 X5 40e warms up the gear change is jerky. When running at a constant throttle the car feels rough as if I was driving over a corrugated surface or I had a twisted wheel rim. The rims are fine so it looks like a slipping clutch maybe ? It happens both in auto and if I select manual tiptronic. Its a high milage car -192,000Km/ 120Kmiles I'm looking at changing the transmission oil but various youtube vids suggest that this might cause other issues. Value body service is a further option. Any thoughts or suggestions ? Thanks R

Sorry for being so late in responding. I took the car to a mechanic and he feels that the problem is a leaking oil seal on the turbo, which is bad news. €5K is what he estimates using original BMW turbo replacement.

Fingers crossed Funny what rabbit holes you fall down when you start chasing faults. I now have to chase a "missing" fuse box ! 😉 Thanks again Rod

Good morning Dave. Thanks for all the follow-up work you're doing. That sort of confirms that the fuel pressure fault is not associated with the smoke problem. I'd be more relaxed about a small bit of white vapour but after the car has been sitting for 3 or 4 days there is A LOT ! The first time I saw it, I thought the turbo had let go, the cloud was so large and dense! When the white cloud dissipated after maybe 10-15 seconds and a bit of reving, my heart rate slowly returned from the 180 bpm it had hit. 😉 I might investigate the cost of replacing the oil breather valve and see if that helps. Car due for its NCT -that's an MOT in the UK and I don't want to fail on emissions. Thanks again

That's very useful stuff ! I've called a local BMW main dealer (I'm in Ireland), and am awaiting a call back. In the meantime I've put a Carista OBD2 device on the car and it reports several codes - here are the relevant ones. Hybrid pressure refuelling D04C1E Explained as X5 PHEV 13Rex and fuel tank pressure sensor. Engine 21B0000 which seems to refer to the same fault as D04C1E That lead me to a post on Bimmerpost from 2014 which talked about "a long fuel pressure release wait time" (That's the delay between you pressing the fuel cap flap release button and the flap actually unlocking). It takes about 25 -30 seconds on my car. So I'm thinking that the fuel tank pressure issue is not connected to the exhaust smoke problem

Afternoon Dave. Thanks for the reply. The car has only been sitting for a couple of days so I can't get it to exhibit the fault just yet. However, I started it on the petrol motor and there was some white smoke from the passenger side exhaust pipe (which has a lot more soot on it than the driver's side one). The fumes smelled slightly of petrol - like normal exhaust really, but smokier. I think I saw somewhere that there is a gate valve in the exhaust system somewhere that directs gases to the passenger side pipe but I don't know if that's true. When the car has been running there's no visible smoke from either tailpipe. WRT the fuel tank pressure sensor, my mechanic tells me its a 5 hour job involving dropping the fuel tank, so that's expensive (£UK400). I don't know the cost of a breather valve replacement