F15 X5 Purchase due diligence findings...help pls

F15 X5 Purchase due diligence findings...help pls

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ckl139

Original Poster:

14 posts

81 months

Saturday 15th June
quotequote all
Hi

Hoping for some help, happy to edit title to something more specific if better...

Possible purchase, so been doing due diligence.


UK Car 2017 X5 40d,  just under 36k on clock, main dealer history, being sold as approved used car. 


Got hold of cars service centre visit history and coupled with last MOT, I spotted it had been in a lot over the past year and last MOT failed on Engine MIL inoperative or indicates a malfunction (8.2.2.2 (g)).


Enquired through the dealer and in summary was told, aside from servicing etc, it’s had


- EGR recall (2022) 

- Investigate Engine Light - DPF sensor replaced (May 23)

- Investigate Engine Light - NOX sensor replaced (Jan 24)

- MOT fail Engine MIL light - NOX sensor replaced (Feb 24) - When i queried why again, they rechecked 

their data and said apparently it was identified as a problem in Jan, but not replaced until Feb. 

- Investigate warning light - Air Springs (Apr 24)


My question is… given the history and potential complications here, is it likely this car will continue to give problems and is this partly due to it being a low mileage car?


Is there more than one NOX sensor and perhaps it was replaced both in Jan and Feb 24? 


Or potentially some other underlying issue?


Should I walk away? 



Aluminati

2,755 posts

65 months

Monday 17th June
quotequote all
Sounds like it’s been used for town driving and kept clogging itself up, although dpf sensors are quite common.

It’s approved used, so you have some comfort, see if you can squeeze another years warranty out of them.

In the main, the drivetrains are fairly trouble free, but they do need to see a decent run to clear them out occasionally.

ckl139

Original Poster:

14 posts

81 months

Monday 17th June
quotequote all
Hello, thanks for the response.

Yes I thought short runs too.

Could these frequent repairs, in particular 2 NOX sensors not have solved the issue and there is a bigger underlying problem (I.e. blocked DPF) which has led to continual dealer visits and 3 sensors now being changed

Is a blocked DPF solvable i.e. through regen?

Or am I worrying for nothing?!

Extra year warranty, asked and no joy...I could try because of this, but as far as they will be concerned, it's a non issue I'd imagine.

Aluminati

2,755 posts

65 months

Monday 17th June
quotequote all
ckl139 said:
Hello, thanks for the response.

Yes I thought short runs too.

Could these frequent repairs, in particular 2 NOX sensors not have solved the issue and there is a bigger underlying problem (I.e. blocked DPF) which has led to continual dealer visits and 3 sensors now being changed

Is a blocked DPF solvable i.e. through regen?

Or am I worrying for nothing?!

Extra year warranty, asked and no joy...I could try because of this, but as far as they will be concerned, it's a non issue I'd imagine.
Quite likely it hasn’t had a decent regen, but they should of done one if suspected, but main dealers…meh.

DJMC

3,520 posts

110 months

Monday 17th June
quotequote all
Our 2016 X1 2.0d, bought new, had several EGR issues. The first after 6 months had BMW Emergency Service on our drive trying to do a software regen but this didn't work so valve had to be replaced at Sytner.

OK for a while after that, then diesel sensor leak (nothing you're reporting) and a £10k repair, under warranty.

2022/23 recalls for software update on EGR or intake manifold sensors (lots of fires in the EU).

Our previous A3 2.0d also had EGR issues so we've assumed all diesels will have this when pootled around in.

We kept our X1 in extended warranty for 7 years until the max 100k miles (or 10yrs) and just bought another, but petrol this time, although we'll still keep the extended warranty going.

If you do the same, you have another three years' "peace of mind" where you can have the comprehensive BMW extended warranty, including the approved used warranty, and after that their DriveLine cover only. This may give you time to get to the root of the issue if it's not just taking it on regular longer runs. Not sure about NOX sensors though.

If you do, say, 10k miles a year and a comprehensive extended warranty was one of your requirements you'd do better to buy a 70k mile car for less as you'd than have 3yrs/30k miles until that warranty couldn't be extended with comprehensive cover.

We went for a '71 plate, 2 1/2 years old, with 13k miles so we can run it under warranty for another 7yrs at the slightly reduced annual mileage we're now doing compared to the previous one.

doc261

107 posts

129 months

Tuesday 18th June
quotequote all
If you’re not happy walk away. There will be plenty of other cars

ckl139

Original Poster:

14 posts

81 months

Tuesday 18th June
quotequote all
Thanks all, useful comments so far.

In summary I'm reading this as low mileage car could have sooted, however one question remains, if its clogged, why would change of sensors fix the issue ?

stevemcs

8,989 posts

100 months

Tuesday 18th June
quotequote all
Nox sensors are really common across all brands, yes there can be more than one, usually before and after the DPF, soot sensors are also common. If you buy any modern diesel expect to replace them, oh and the adblue tank they fail too.

Sensors vary from £200 for a PSA car upto £600 for a VAG car.

hilly10

7,309 posts

235 months

Wednesday 19th June
quotequote all
The BMW tec guy told me there are 9 exhaust sensors on my 21 plate 2.0d one went a couple weeks after main warranty had run out luckily I had took the extended warranty out, cost was around the £880 mark.

ckl139

Original Poster:

14 posts

81 months

Wednesday 19th June
quotequote all
Hi...

All, thanks for the useful inputs.

Based on this, it suggests there are multiple sensors of the same variant in some cases and that failure is common.

Is the failure related to the short runs and dpf clogging or is this Separate?

If they are common, do I have anything to be concerned about or are these issues a common / expected issue of the car?

To confirm, happy to accept if these are common issues? Not keen to sign up for a problematic car, irrespective of warranty.

stevemcs

8,989 posts

100 months

Wednesday 19th June
quotequote all
Type of journey makes no difference from what we see.

RayDonovan

4,964 posts

222 months

Thursday 20th June
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My sister had that engine in an X6. Was only used for short journeys (<2 miles) and it ended up needing over £7k of work.