BMW’s X range generally gets good press despite its grass and gravel SUV nature and we’ve seen more of the same with the company’s update of the X5 and X6.
I started by saying “generally” because lately there’s been a few slips on behalf of the Bavarians. First the X1’s U.S. market debut got seriously delayed and now some bad news with older X5s.
The original BMW SUV has a bit of a problem, particularly the 2009 model year ones that are powered by diesel, the xDrive35d version.
It’s pretty big news, there’s a recall going to be undertaken on the affected models but the rest of the information available is almost funnily proportional in terms of good or bad.
The affected models are BMW X5’s built between October 1st, 2008 and June 12th, 2009. A relatively small period of time which leads to a small number of affected units, just 2120 BMW X5s may have the problem.
As for the problem itself, it’s a minor one, but it can lead to severe consequences. It seems the fuel pre-heater, a component that’s vital to proper starting of diesel engines at low temperatures, may have gone haywire.
If so, it can be jammed in a constant “On” state which would either lead to your battery being killed quite rapidly or, and this is the worst case scenario, to your BMW X5 catching fire.
Naturally, BMW will be replacing the affected part on your BMW X5 free of charge as part of this recall but I’m afraid we don’t know when that’s going to happen.
