Other engine problem on the 2001 BMW X5
2 fires 2 of the 20 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2001 BMW X5 report other engine problem at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 205,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 151,370 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
10% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52,030 miles | 89,625 miles | 107,089 miles | 143,000 miles | 203,400 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 54; the 2001 has 20. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
2001 bmw x5 4.4i v8 engine has a defective oil separator. This device is designed to release internal engine pressure. In cold climates the unit freeze's up and does not release pressure. The result is the engine oil comes out the top side engine oil cap and/or the dipstick. This causes a very high potential fire risk as well as a complete engine sieze condition from loss of oil. When this happened to me the outside temperature was -14 f and if my freind did not have his vehicle close by, my family wouild have froze.*ak
My 2001 bmw x5 has serios issues with its design that bmw corp refuses to acknowledge or fix. 1st there is a faulty design on the pvc causing the valve to freeze and drain the oil into the engine. This almost caused a fire in my car. And cost me about $1200 to fix. 2nd there is a design flaw with the front doors whereby the either freeze shut or refuse to lock in temperatures below 17f. This is a hazard waiting to happen. Please help us ( consumers) since bmw apparently has no interest in adressing these issues.*cn
I have a 2001 bmw x-5. On a cold day in january of this year I left work and drove approximately 25 miles when my yellow check oil light came on. I could smell oil and noticed that my vehicle was smoking out the exhaust pipe. I went to the nearest service station and turned off my vehicle to check the oil. When I pulled out the dip stick, oil shot out of the hole and sprayed all over the interior of my hood, on my face and all over my clothing. The oil crankcase had become pressurized and was forcing the oil out the engine, through the rings and valve covers. After wiping off my face, hands and clothing the best I could, I added three quarts of oil to return the level to acceptable conditions. Repairs needed to get new gaskets and oil separator, pcv valve, dip stick guide tube and hoses. These repairs cost $1690. Later I understood that bmw was aware of this problem and had issued a service information bulletin # si b 11 08 03 to its service department. I also heard that more than 100 similar events occurred in minneapolis during the first cold spell of this season. Bmw should have informed owners of bmw of the need to replace pcv…
Also reported on the 2001 BMW X5
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Radiator or coolant leak
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2001 BMW X5?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2001 BMW X5?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed