I own bmw x3 e83 2007 for more than year now. It has 2.0d 110kw or 150KM engine in it. I bought it second hand with full service history and 130 000 km on tacho.
I like the car. It drives great, it has very good 4 wheel drive. It can go anywhere in snow even without winter tyres. It is comfy, good looking, spacious. But not reliable as you would think.
When I bought it I though BMW are better. After owning a opel ascona, fiat punto mk1, skoda favorit and toyota corolla I thought I have the best car ever. None of the cars above never let me down on a road. It was hard to say goodbye to corolla. I had diesel 1.4 d4d engine in corolla. This car was great, low consumption and reliable a lot of space in cabin and boot.
So back to my x3.
Car was in great shape when I bought it. When I bought it I replaced almost all fluids just in case.
One thing I didn’t like from begining was car headunit. What a shit. How can bmw put something like that in 40 k car. Kia has better headunit than bmw. Total shit. FU BMW.So I replaced it with pioneer 2 din from my corolla.
http://mecvns.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/incredible-bmw-car-stereo-2005-bmw-x3-review.jpg
After some exploring I became aware that this car has swirl flaps. So I removed them, I don’t want destroyed engine, because of bad bmw engineering. I also noticed that egr valve was so jammed with carbon. So I cleaned whole intake manifold. Car had more power.
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc209/3wheeler8/2007_1124egr0006.jpg
Some day in winter car was hard to start. So glow plugs. I measure resistance on all plugs, they should be ok. So glow plug module. Another common fault on bmw. Good job bmw and BERU. They were made to fail.
Another winter thing still not resolved. When you start a car over a night you get misfires until engine is above aprox 40 C. No errors. Still have no clue what is wrong.
After that I had to replace MAP sensor.
Then it started, dpf regeneration. I battle this for 3 months. Cleaned dpf, check everything with obd tester no luck. All I could do is just cleaned dpf.
Meanwhile in summer car was towed. Strange noise coming under a hood, engine is losing power. another mistery. It turns to be a alternator. I replaced it and rebuild steering pump. I also replaced belt, water pump and tensioners.
Then dpf strikes again. Checked turbo, ok checked egr ok, check pressure sensor ok, check plugs ok…. So I cleaned it once again. And had no idea. No faults on ecu.
Then I noticed strange temp on highway and diagnosed it for a week. Turns out to be thermostats. So I replaced both.
Then I noticed another thing. Water leaks in rear left and right footwells. Hura. Nice one BMW. All bmw’s even new ones are still having leaks. Yes in 20 years they didn’t solve this. You must glue or replace vapour barrier. Even Lada is not leaking water in cabin.
Then sudenlly dpf problems were gone. But there was another.
Cracked egr pipe. So after I while I was tired of it and replaced it.
Then whole cabing was shaking and strange noise. So exhaust hangers. 2 hangers for 1 tone exhaust, good job BMW.
Then I replaced all 4 pads with ate pads. That is just maintance.
In short bmw engines are not reliable. My has now 164000 km. It is the last year of engine m47tu2. It should be reliable, and new n47 are having chain problems all of them even new one. Now I’m just waiting what will be next turbo injectors or something else, chain? I noticed that 2 injectors were already replaced.
What is next, dont know maybe transfer case actuator. Who knows, yes i’m driving a bmw not fiat. Fiat is more reliable.
When it will stopped misfiring when it is cold….
But in general is good car, nice to drive. Good build.It should be more fun inside. Bmw interior looks the same for more than 20 years. But reliability there is no reliability.
Would I recommend it to you? Don’t know. If you have too much money yes, if not just buy rav4, kia or hyundai for a half of price. This new tucson or santa fe looks great. I’m servicing a lot of hyundais in last years. All cars are working great. If you are not limited wuth brand. I must confes all bmws look great, but are not as good as they were ni past and should be.
Not just x3, all others are having all kind of problems like this. e46,e90,e91…
You must clean egr intake manifold regulary change oil, if motor is not in perfect condition you will have problems.
How much did that costs me? Don’t know really but a lot. I’m lucky that I can service it myself. Otherwise I would loose my shirt.
German quality yes… All new german cars are crap, they just want more and more of your money!!!
