Differential Unit Problems of BMW X5

It was 9:57a. M. Saturday, November 8th 2014, started driving the vehicle, and noticed that the whole drive train would slightly jerk while driving and applying 15-25% of load, (I bought a vehicle two months ago, and from the first day - on cold - it would make the same symptom for couple of first 500-700 yards, after couple of stops and goes, vehicle heats up to operating temperature and the vehicle would drive normally. ) at 10:20a. M, same Saturday, I made a full stop on a stop sign turning right to a main street. As most of the traffic was driving on the main street, I waited for the fast pas paced traffic to pass by, I tried to enter the main street by accelerating the vehicle. So I applied approx. 20-25% load, it was 5mph when I was about to align steering wheel to zero degrees center, I heard and felt rear suspension freezing up, clicking and chattering with loud grinding sound (sounded like the axle fell out) engine rpm would increase to 3,000rpm but vehicle would not accelerate, and something in the rear was still grinding when transmission was in drive or reverse. I had to pull over to the curb, blocking right lane. Vehicle had no transmission warning lights or error messages on cluster. I did towed the vehicle to my BMW technician, and he told me that I need rear differential, reason internak failure, I told technician to make notes of anything unusual while taking rear differential out of the vehicle. Technician noted that rear differential fluid was right at its level and no leaks or even seepage was not noticeable (I owned many Bmws well over 200k miles on the cluster, and had no issues with rear differentials. . Read more...

See all problems of the 2007 BMW X5 🔎.

1. Did a 3 point turn and then pulled onto a 45 mph road way 2. Front tires locked up and I skidded to a stop, even after I depressed the clutch. 3. Front differential failure, was replace to correct the problem 4. Fortunately the person following me was not tailgating so no accident.

See all problems of the 2004 BMW X5 🔎.

The contact owns a 2007 BMW X5. The contact stated that while driving approximately 60 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The contact was able to move the vehicle off the road and had it towed to an authorized dealer. The dealer stated that the rear axle, rear differential were defective and the transmission leaked fluid. The vehicle had not been repaired. The VIN was unavailable. The current and failure mileages were approximately 93,000.

The contact owns a 2003 BMW X5. While the contact was driving 50 mph he noticed a clicking sound coming from the front of the vehicle. When the contact attempted to accelerate the rpm's would rise but the vehicle would not move. The contact did not notice any differences in the vehicle beforehand and was not in a crash due to the failure. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where the contact was informed that the transmission and the differential failed. The VIN is unavailable. The current and failure mileages were 48000.

See all problems of the 2003 BMW X5 🔎.

Driving BMW X5 at 50 mph, front differential locks up taking vehicle from 50 mph to approximately 25 mph in about 1 second then differential fails. Gear oil sprayed on hot exhaust and engine, car would not move forward, passenger (my wife) jumps out when we stopped thinking car was going to catch fire (smoke and strong burning smell from oil). Dealer had car towed to shop, had to replace forward drive train. Car was in shop 4 days. My wife will not ride in car again, she almost impacted the dash when axel locked up, had road been wet or icy, we could have very easily lost control. Had a vehicle been behind us, very likely they would have run into the back of the car it stopped so fast and unexpectedly. Felt like we ran over a large tree in the road but the road was perfectly clear. Immediately traded the car and bought another vehicle, believe ntsb needs to be aware of the failure and see if it happens elsewhere, very scary to have car wheels lock up on the highway at any speed.