Other engine problem on the 2005 BMW X5
1 fire 1 injury 1 death 3 of the 11 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 2005 BMW X5 report other engine problem at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 80,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 52,890 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 78,200 miles | 83,000 miles | 83,500 miles | 97,000 miles | 131,090 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, 1 a fire, 1 an injury and 1 a fatality are 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 2005 has 11. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 bmw x5. The contact stated that while driving approximately 55 MPH, the vehicle would stall without warning. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who informed the contact that the failure was caused by the oil separator. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 83,000. Updated 02/10/11 *bf updated 04/21/11
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 bmw x5. The contact stated that while driving approximately 30 MPH, the vehicle started to shutter and then it suddenly stalled. The vehicle was towed to a dealer who informed the contact that she needed to replace the crankcase vent/oil separator the manufacturer was contacted and offered her a discount on the parts and for the labor. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000. Updated 03/28/12*lj updated 05/10/12
I bought this SUV last week for my kids to drive after researching and test-driving various makes and models for months: bmw x5 4,4i, mercedes ml430, porsche cayenne, and jeep grand cherokee. The bmw won in the end because I have had several 3-series with 200,000k on it that run like new. The previous owner assured me that there were no problems with this SUV and sold it to me in as-is excellent condition. She also assured me that it had been serviced by a bmw dealer with a full inspection on june 13, 2013. I also had it inspected by an indy mechanic. Two days after I bought it it started blowing clouds of blue smoke on acceleration, intermittently. I immediately contacted the seller who told me that she had mentioned this to the bmw dealership during the june 13, 2013 inspection, and that they could not detect or isolate the source of the problem but, they told her that it was nothing to worry about. I then contacted the dealership to pull the service records which verify this to be true. Upon researching this issue online, I found several technical service bulletins about it (pcv, ccv for the n62 engine and osv for the m54…
Also reported on the 2005 BMW X5
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Other fuel system problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Oil leak
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 2005 BMW X5?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 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 2005 BMW X5?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 33 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