Help with car problem… turns off
Discussion
Having issue with BMW X5 3.0 D auto.
Car is old… about 20 years. But it’s been very reliable and done 135k miles.
It starts first time every time. But just recently has developed a problem which has my local garage stumped (he’s not a specialist).
You can drive the car fine for about ten minutes, perhaps 5 miles. Then, with no warning or dash lights, the engine suddenly gives no acceleration. The only option is to coast to a stop. The revs die as you slow, then when you stop, the gearbox moves to neutral, and the engine cuts out.
If you try to start it with the starter button at that time, it turns over but won’t start.
However, if you take the key fob out of the ignition, and put it straight back in, it starts again with no complaints, into gear, and off you go. It might run again another ten miles, the repeat the above. Occasionally, it cuts off faster than that.
When it goes, it’s like you’ve taken your foot off the accelerator and putting the power back on doesn’t help. The accelerator no longer responds.
I’ve tried driving in manual mode, still happens.
I hot the fuel filter changed, no help. Garage thinks it’s gearbox.
Car is old… about 20 years. But it’s been very reliable and done 135k miles.
It starts first time every time. But just recently has developed a problem which has my local garage stumped (he’s not a specialist).
You can drive the car fine for about ten minutes, perhaps 5 miles. Then, with no warning or dash lights, the engine suddenly gives no acceleration. The only option is to coast to a stop. The revs die as you slow, then when you stop, the gearbox moves to neutral, and the engine cuts out.
If you try to start it with the starter button at that time, it turns over but won’t start.
However, if you take the key fob out of the ignition, and put it straight back in, it starts again with no complaints, into gear, and off you go. It might run again another ten miles, the repeat the above. Occasionally, it cuts off faster than that.
When it goes, it’s like you’ve taken your foot off the accelerator and putting the power back on doesn’t help. The accelerator no longer responds.
I’ve tried driving in manual mode, still happens.
I hot the fuel filter changed, no help. Garage thinks it’s gearbox.
I remember reading something very similar a few years back and the clue was that it cut out after exactly 10 minutes every time.
Someone had been trying to fix a fault and ended up accidentally swapping the heated rear window relay into the place of the ecu relay.
The auto time out meant the car stopped after 10 minutes as the ecu lost power but would go again for another 10 minutes with an ignition key cycle.
Someone had been trying to fix a fault and ended up accidentally swapping the heated rear window relay into the place of the ecu relay.
The auto time out meant the car stopped after 10 minutes as the ecu lost power but would go again for another 10 minutes with an ignition key cycle.
Marc p said:
When it happens, if you put the gearbox into neutral, will it allow you to rev or is it completely non responsive?
I’ve not tried going to neutral when the car is still rolling. When the car stops it goes to neutral itself and then stalls out straight away. My suspicion is it won’t rev. It doesn’t when the car is still rolling.
LordLoveLength said:
I remember reading something very similar a few years back and the clue was that it cut out after exactly 10 minutes every time.
Someone had been trying to fix a fault and ended up accidentally swapping the heated rear window relay into the place of the ecu relay.
The auto time out meant the car stopped after 10 minutes as the ecu lost power but would go again for another 10 minutes with an ignition key cycle.
Lol that’s mental. Havent been doing any relay swapping any time this last two years. Someone had been trying to fix a fault and ended up accidentally swapping the heated rear window relay into the place of the ecu relay.
The auto time out meant the car stopped after 10 minutes as the ecu lost power but would go again for another 10 minutes with an ignition key cycle.
It’s actually the dog’s car. I’m just his driver. So it only usually gets used for going to where he gets his walks, out on the plain. It’s only when I have to go to garden centre or the dump etc that it goes more than 10 miles. So it doesn’t happen every time it’s used. But when it goes on a longer drive, it always happens.
Other than that it drives/sounds smooth.
OldGermanHeaps said:
The ignition switches are notorious on those.
I’d agree that this is the most likely culprit.I’m assuming it’s an early E70 with an M57. Seen it before on these, the first time I ever saw it was with my dads old E39 that would just randomly cut out every so often, this was way back in ‘00/‘01 when it was still new. BMW examined it a few times and even had BMW techs from Germany examine it but it logged nothing in the fault codes as the car was just seeing it as the driver had turned the engine off. So if no fault codes are showing for when it does this, that’s where my money would lie.
stevemcs said:
Original injectors ?
Think injectors would be very unlikely, faulty injectors won’t run fine for 10 minutes then just stop, if it’s the injectors then it would most likely be the control module.stevieturbo said:
TTmonkey said:
Garage thinks it’s gearbox.
I would love to hear their explanation for that one !!!!First things first, get a proper scan tool and check for codes.
And if this is a repeatable event, get someone competent with you checking/logging data when this occurs.
I can’t see how they could possibly fathom it being a gearbox fault.
The vehicle is now with a local bmw specialist for diagnosis.
The drive there was a bit special. About 12 miles away.
I thought it might stop once or twice. But no.
It went about 6 miles fine. Then stopped about every additional half mile to the garage. Fortunately I had a very rural route across country so there was no danger of it cutting out on a busy road.
Thanks for the replies so far. Since a kindly mod dropped this into a sub forum where virtually no one goes, replies have dried up. Cheers miss you are such helpful people. I rarely use this site for motoring issues and this is why really. Far too much faffing around by mods obsessed with burying actual car related content into deep sub forums
The drive there was a bit special. About 12 miles away.
I thought it might stop once or twice. But no.
It went about 6 miles fine. Then stopped about every additional half mile to the garage. Fortunately I had a very rural route across country so there was no danger of it cutting out on a busy road.
Thanks for the replies so far. Since a kindly mod dropped this into a sub forum where virtually no one goes, replies have dried up. Cheers miss you are such helpful people. I rarely use this site for motoring issues and this is why really. Far too much faffing around by mods obsessed with burying actual car related content into deep sub forums
TTmonkey said:
Since a kindly mod dropped this into a sub forum where virtually no one goes, replies have dried up. Cheers miss you are such helpful people. I rarely use this site for motoring issues and this is why really. Far too much faffing around by mods obsessed with burying actual car related content into deep sub forums
I feel your pain. I once had a thread moved to a sub-forum that would only be visited by hardcore home mechanics, whereas the answer would most likely have come from a regular motorist who'd had the same issue and taken their car to a garage - someone who wouldn't have gone anywhere near the sub-forum where my thread had been moved to. I only saw your thread because it caught my eye in the "What's New" section. I once had a similar engine turning off issue in my petrol E36 3 Series which I was told by the main dealer (car was only a few years old at the time) was a clogged idle control valve, though they also mentioned a cam sensor. A diesel X5 may be a very different prospect though - Not being a technical expert where cars are concerned I don't know how many bits that are on a petrol car are also on a diesel.
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