Other engine problem on the 2011 BMW X5
4 fires 1 injury 5 of the 54 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 2011 BMW X5 report other engine problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 45 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 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 77,790 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37,410 miles | 60,000 miles | 76,000 miles | 94,038 miles | 115,200 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, 4 a fire and 1 an injury 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 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
2012 bmw x5. Upon engine start up when cold, the engine surges excessively. If the transmission is engaged during the surging (fluctuating RPM) the vehicle lurches forward/reverse causing a dangerous situation and potential accident. *kb
Saturday december 29, 2012 I get into my 2011 x5 as I pulled out from my driveway the dashboard lights came on with a message " engine malfunction reduce power". Life quality gave me a hard time to begin with to get the car in claiming they were booked with appointments. After calling customer relations at headquarters, I get a call from the service manager to bring in the car. I had roadside assistance tow the car, when the car arrive to the dealer my car advisor calls asking questions like, was the vehicle involve in crash, did hit a pot hole, basically looking for all type of excuses. I would like to file a complaint and ask that these models be reviewed since it appears to have many other customers with similar problems. *tr
Started the car and the engine light came on with "engine malfunction - reduced power" and drove a few hundred yards and then the car completely died. The 2011 bmw x5 35i premium just died - no power whatsoever. Because there was no power, the car could not be put into neutral to be put on a flatbed. The x5 had to be put on a crane and lifted onto a flatbed tow truck. Bought this vehicle in the u.s. And is u.s. Spec (car was in the u.s. For 2 years) - shipped the car to germany and this is where the incident happened (car been in germany just a few months). Bmw of munich said that there is a bolt that can break off - which it did - munich requested the local dealer to take the engine apart to see if that was the fault and they confirmed it was. Bmw is replacing our engine because of this fault. However, the recall as of now is only for the x5 diesels. The recall should be expanded. Had we been on the autobahn where there aren't many speed limit areas, this could have resulted in a fatal crash if someone going 100+MPH rammed behind us from our car dying of catastrophic failure. At 16,000 miles the vehicle should not need a new…
Also reported on the 2011 BMW X5
Airbag inflator rupture
CV axle or driveshaft failure
Water pump failure
Fuel pump failure
Other powertrain problem
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 54 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 2011 BMW X5?
Across 45 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 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 2011 BMW X5?
54 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.8 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