AtWhatMileage
Engine · 11 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2016 BMW X5

Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 11
With an odometer reading 4
Reports per 1,000 built 0.7 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 3rd

When other engine problem gets reported

There are 11 reports of other engine problem on the 2016 BMW X5, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 4 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
104,500 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

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 2016 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

My 2016 bmw x5 e40 stalled and lost all propulsion power multiple times while driving in traffic, the first time at about 40 MPH and the subsequent times at around 25 MPH, forcing me to drive the car onto the shoulder and try to restart it. There was no indication of any kind and no warning light given prior to the stalls, it simply just lost all propulsion power. We were traveling uphill on a busy highway in a construction zone and were fortunate to not be in an accident. After the stall a warning indicator message indicated that the automatic start/stop malfunctioned. The car will eventually restart after about 5 minutes without any warning indicator at all, and the problem will randomly repeat itself without warning. Propulsion doesn't slowly stop, it cuts out completely with no warning. The bmw service department has indicated that there was a failure internal to the transmission. This car is 5 years old and has 89,000 miles on it.

89,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1721634 filed 2021-01-22

The contact owns a 2016 BMW X5. The contact stated while driving approximately 30-70 MPH, the vehicle lost motive power. The check engine warning light and an unknown warning light were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer where it was diagnosed that no issues were found. The vehicle was then taken to an independent mechanic where the air shaft suspension and the cylinder were replaced, and other unknown repairs were completed; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the independent mechanic who informed the contact that the failure might be associated with NHTSA Campaign Number: 16V919000 (Electrical system). The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 49,000.

49,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1813170 filed 2022-05-17

The contact owns a 2016 BMW X5. The contact stated while attempting to start the vehicle, the check engine warning illuminated. The contact stated that a dealer was contacted, and the contact was informed that the vehicle needed to be diagnosed and the battery needed to be registered. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer to be diagnosed or repaired. The contact stated that the VIN was not included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V608000 (ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM). The manufacturer was notified of the failure and opened a case. The failure mileage was 121,000.

121,000 miles NHTSA complaint 2065304 filed 2025-02-13

Also reported on the 2016 BMW X5

Sunroof failure or glass breakage

15 reports median 53k

Other electrical problem

13 reports median 89k

Other powertrain problem

9 reports median 85k

Overheating

5 reports median 115k

Oil leak

3 reports

Water pump failure

3 reports

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 11 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

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 2016 BMW X5?

Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other engine problem on the 2016 BMW X5?

11 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