Vehicle Speed Control Problems of BMW X5 - part 1

The integrated brake system and dynamic safety control both malfunctioned, not turning on. The car is totaled, so I don't think anything is available for inspection. There was water on the highway, and the car ended up going off the road into the grass and rolled over a few times before landing at the bottom of the ditch 100ft away. The car was not inspected because I was not aware of the major recall until I started looking into it. There was a snapshot of the dtc codes two weeks before the incident and there were codes specifically for the ib system as noted in the recall. There may have been one or two times throughout driving the car beforehand that a error light popped up, but then it disappeared almost immediately after.

See all problems of the 2024 BMW X5 🔎.

On July 23, 2025, at around 10:50 am, shortly after leaving my community and driving onto a main road, my BMW X5 suddenly experienced what felt like an emergency braking event and completely lost power. I was driving at approximately 40 mph when this happened. It caused surrounding vehicles to honk and make sudden maneuvers to avoid a collision, creating a dangerous situation. I was extremely frightened and shocked, and for a moment I panicked because there were cars all around me. With the help of a friend and my family, I contacted BMW roadside assistance. It took nearly five hours before my vehicle was finally towed about nine miles away to the irvine BMW dealership for service. This incident has caused me extreme emotional distress, sleeplessness, and serious concerns about the safety and quality of the vehicle. I am seeking help and an official investigation into this issue.

A car from the other side made an illegal left turn in front of me, and I braked very early, yet still slid into them. The car had been inspected at the time at the collision center, and had dtc codes from before repair and after repair, showing the integrated brake systems had failures before and after. There was no mention of the results of the inspection until I asked after another braking incident occurred two weeks later. There were moments where a light would pop up for a second, then disappear. It may have happened only once.

Forward collision braking, a safety system, is deactivated when cruise control is activated. Further BMW sells the X5 with the mode button of the driver assistance package available on the steering wheel. This to me is deceptive. My previous X5 had the system a when I activated it by pressing the mode button it worked. I assumed by pressing the mode button on the new X5 it would also work. To me this is like activating the turn signal- the feature is there, you activate it, you expect it to work.

The contact owns a 2025 BMW X5. The contact stated that while his wife was stopped alongside a curb to converse with an associate, the engine started revving with the brake pedal depressed. The contact stated that the failure had occurred three times. The contact stated that the vehicle had unintendedly accelerated to 60 mph. The contact stated that his wife was frantically pumping the brake pedal until the vehicle came to a complete stop. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a local dealer where it was inspected, and the contact was advised that the failure was not duplicated and the cause of the failure could not be determined. The contact stated that a software update was performed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 2,000.

As I was turning into a disabled parking space the vehicle speed suddenly increased speed by itself and hitting the brakes had no effect on the speed. This caused the vehicle to hit a concrete pillar that held the handicap parking sign.

Formally reporting a serious and recurring safety issue with my 2021 BMW X5. Over the past five months, I experienced three separate incidents where the vehicle abruptly stopped while driving, each time displaying a red car warning light on the dashboard. The red malfunction symbol was similar to the below image (found online) description of the issue: each of these terrifying safety experiences occurred while the vehicle was in motion—all on surface streets—the car suddenly came to a jarring and immediate stop on its own without my input or applying the brakes. There were no cars close to or in front of me or debris in the road that would require the car to stop to avoid impact. The red car icon appeared on the dashboard (commonly associated with collision warning or automatic emergency braking systems). The abrupt stop caused my seatbelt to constrict, jarring of my neck and ongoing concern that it will happen again. Thankfully, no accident occurred, but the abrupt stops could have easily caused a serious or fatal accident, especially under highway conditions. My concerns: this represents a serious safety hazard not only to me and my passengers but to other drivers on the road. The issue appears to be a malfunction in the automated safety or integrated systems, possibly involving the forward collision warning or automatic emergency braking systems. My local BMW dealership (gwinnett place BMW) has given me an estimate of $480 to perform 2 hours of scans/diagnostics to inspect the vehicle. No loaner car or transportation offered. This is a known issue and documented in online forums and comments. I have lost confidence and trust in my vehicle and feel unsafe. For a $70k automobile that should not be the case. Requested action: I am requesting BMW investigate this matter urgently, outline next steps at no charge since multiple reports exist of similar incidents, and provide a clear resolution, including any necessary recalls.

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The malfunction is my water pump is cracked & leaking coolant at 40k miles. The get up performance speed is lagging and delayed especially driving using eco mode. The safety is at risk as the car is overheating, slow to accelerate and drive comfortably or safely. BMW of riverside, CA has had to top off my coolant levels twice in a month or so. Bavarian auto house located at 1009 e balsam Ave, anaheim, CA 92805 inspected my vehicle during a brake fluid flush and noticed my cracked leaking water pump. The low coolant levels pop up alert first appeared on my vehicle a month ago in the end of January 2025.

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“shark fin” gps antenna because unglued allowing water into the electrical system in the roof. This caused a malfunction that disabled the emergency call functions, gps location service for emergency calls and gps functions. The issue is the tcb component due to faulty waterproofing. It also makes hands free calling impossible which makes following hands free laws more difficult. Upon investigation and BMW’s admission, it is a very common problem for 2019 X5s unrelated to any driving conditions etc.

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I was parking the car in a parking lot. I had my foot completely off of the gas pedal while allowing the car to roll forward into a parking spot. The car suddenly accelerates and I could not slam on the brakes fast enough to prevent damage. This was the 3rd time this type of incident occurred in this car.

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I was pulling into a parking spot. I was riding slowly into the correct position. Immediately the car went into full acceleration. Knocked the parked car in front about 8 feet, turned and knocked another car on the side. I stood on the breaks, it went another 10 feet and engine stopped. I never heard this level of acceleration of engine ever before. The airbags for me and my passenger did not open. I think this spurious acceleration is a control system defect.

I was trying to park my car on March 11, 2023 at noon, and I noticed a sudden uncontrolled acceleration even when my foot was off the accelerator pedal. Parking collision front sensors failed to provide an early warning, and automatic emergency brake did not engage leading to a minor collision with the vehicle parked in front. The situation occurred so rapidly that I did not have enough time to react quickly and apply brakes. I managed to apply brakes to avoid a serious incident, but it was not quick enough to even avoid this minor collision. I have reported this to BMW USA, however the car has not been inspected by a dealer or an independent service center after the incident. There were no warnings displayed prior to this incident, however I have had consistent issues pertaining to the operation of front sensors. I had BMW certified dealer inspect front sensors, and according to them the sensors do not provide an early warning as per the design but they have adjusted the sensitivity. The adjustment did not improve the situation, and I provided that feedback to the service center as well. The sensors did fail at twice prior to this incident, and the dealer inspected that as part of sensor sensitivity adjustment. I drove this vehicle to the BMW certified dealer more than twice to have the front sensors and other things inspected prior to this incident. Nevertheless, this uncontrolled acceleration is something that I have never experienced before, and I am traumatized to even drive this vehicle comfortably. All the automated systems designed to prevent or avoid collision did not engage leading me to not trust anything.

The active and passive safety systems would disable themselves and I would get the following errors from the vehicle. 1. Rear differential lock 2. Four-wheel drive system 3. Chassis stabilization 4. Drivetrain malfunction 5. Reduced driver assistance 6. Traction control reduced or off 7. Dynamic stability control 8. Dynamic traction control when these errors came up on the multimedia screen it would say that it was ok to continue to drive and to call and make a service appointment, no need for BMW roadside assistance. The following systems would be affected or turned off automatically. 1. Lane keep/lane departure assist 2. Blind spot monitoring 3. Cruise control 4. Forward collision warning/braking 5. Pedestrian warning/mitigation 6. Auto hold 7. Auto high beam assistant 8. Remote start 9. Side collision avoidance 10. Intelligent safety 11. Drive recorder 12. Back-up assistance 13. Auto park assistance 14. Active protection 15. Dynamic stability control 16. Dynamic traction control 17. Hill descent control 18. Speed limit information 19. Speed limit assistance 20. Park distance control 21. Cross traffic warning the warnings for these systems could come on right after starting the vehicle or anytime you are driving. What happens when the above systems are not working properly is the car can and will cut the throttle, that can be a temporary event or during the entire drive. It has happened to me where the throttle pedal and throttle response was working as normal then getting onto the freeway the systems went crazy and the gas pedal stopped working. So either the car comes to a stop or you stop the car. When stopped you have to put the vehicle in park, turn it off, turn it back on and put into drive and hope this resolves the issue so you can continue to drive. Sometimes it works and everything will be fine the rest of the drive, other times it doesn’t.

I have received two emails from two different shop foreman’s. One from niello BMW and the other BMW fairfield. They both said the malfunctions I am experiencing- slipping, delay in accelerations- is the way BMW manufacturer made the car. One foreman said all the cars like mine he has driven have the same issue. It is a hybrid that needs the hybrid battery to have charge to not experience these malfunctions, but the car was not made to allow me to have constant battery charge as it only lasts up to 14 miles for 2016 X5 40e hybrid. I’ve been in situations where charging is not possible- like on vacation at a hotel with no way to charge car. Due to this, I have to deal with these malfunctions that BMW says is not fixable. This has put me in situations where I’m at risk of an accident because my car won’t properly accelerate when I need it to. The approximate date I’ve given is only one situation, but has happened several times before and after.

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My BMW X5 40e is having issues accelerating from a dead stop. My safety was put at risk because I was stuck in the intersection going very slowly even after put the accelerating pedal to the floor. It did not properly engage until I got to the other side of the intersection and the stoplight went back to red. It has happened several times after. BMW north America stated that they could not duplicate but the foreman actually did feel it when pulling the car up the day I was to pick it back up and recorded the issue. There were no warning lamps or faults and still do not show any faults, though it still has the same issue. BMW north America engineer was shown a video I recorded of it in a parking garage going to 4000 rpm but speed remaining under 10 mph for proof after they returned the car to me and he still states “vehicle is operating as designed”. I noticed 2016 BMW X5 40e has a recall on it but only for those produced 7/2015-9/2015, mine was produced in 2/2016. Yet, when reading the recall my car acts very similar to the discription. This is a safety hazard because it puts me at an increased risk of a crash. I cannot get my car worked on because BMW of north America says nothing is wrong with it and won’t allow it to be fixed. We have tried talking to several people with BMW north America and they either say nothing can be done or stop communicating with us. I’ve tried communication through both email and phone.

Pcv my safety of my self and my 5 yr 17 yr I use my BMW X5 to take my kids or doctors and school and I work too and something need to be happen about this bc my family are at risk of getting caught on fire when iam starting up the car black smoke or white smoke comes out and when iam driving and people who are behind in they car get smoke out my lots of smoke that comes from my car in back and yes ita a recall on my car manufactuer no warning just smoke and driving very and had it look at then I was told.

See all problems of the 2008 BMW X5 🔎.

As I was slowing down to make a turn, the vehicle went into neutral and shut off. I immediately turned it back on and put it in drive and the same thing occurred moments later. I start it again and drove away enough to safely park. I let the car rest in the off position for 30 minutes and it drove fine. There were no warning lights and the vehicle is well maintained with scheduled services. I contacted the nearest reputable mechanic and explained the situation. I drove it there. They found no faulty codes when they plugged in the computer and the battery has no issues. The vehicle drives fine now, but this is very concerning especially since this took place in local traffic.

See all problems of the 2011 BMW X5 🔎.

I like to report the incident with the sudden collapsing of the ecu car electronic on 01/23/2022 during night, which had raised my serious concerns regarding the car safety in general. During driving the car in the nighttime of Sunday 01/23/2022, my wife was on her way to return from pompano, FL to her home in plantation, FL, using the turnpike, she experienced that ecu engine speed control had repeatedly sudden changes in engine revolutions, all indication lights at the dashboard went on and then all went off. At this moment of time, it was impossible for her, to control car speed via the accelerator pedal, since the engine speed suddenly changes from low idle to high idle, the operation of power steering and car brake system were affected as well. This unsafe situation of the car control functionality caused an unsafe situation for driving and having control over the car. It wasn’t possible for her to control engine/car speed, either the affected power steering hydraulic system and car brake system doesn’t supply the sufficient pressure to their system. In this particular moment the car was undrivable and uncontrolled, which were leading to a very dangerous situation for the driver, and it could end up in a live threating situation and accident for the driver. The service technician of BMW holman auto in fort lauderdale traced back the reason, that the ecu lost the throttle signal, due to a failure of the car battery. These is raising another question, why it doesn’t happen when starting the car, this is the moment when the highest current get drawn out from the battery, another question is, why these never happened before, when the car battery lost its capacity, because I’d to change the battery already twice since I’ve this car. Another question is regarding the ecu control logic functionality and their set up, why the engine speed needs to be accelerated, why the ecu can’t use the last actual throttle set point.

See all problems of the 2014 BMW X5 🔎.

The contact owns a 2021 BMW X5. The contact stated that as her husband was stopped at a stop light, the vehicle began to rev after he had taken his foot off the brake pedal without warning. Once her husband placed his foot back on the brake pedal, the revving stopped, and her husband was able to resume normal driving. On a separate occasion, her husband was waiting for a vehicle to move out of a parking spot; the same failure occurred as her husband took his foot of the brake pedal. Her husband was forced to slam on the brakes as the engine continued to rev and the vehicle lurched forward. The contact who was seated in the passenger’s seat, shut off the vehicle to avoid hitting the vehicle in front. Her husband restarted the vehicle and drove it home; he then had the vehicle towed to the dealer the next day. The dealer inspected the vehicle but could not duplicate the failure. A service tech was not satisfied with the results and decided to call the manufacturer to approve more testing of the vehicle. The vehicle had yet to be repaired and remained in the possession of the dealer. The failure mileage was approximately 14,000. The VIN was not available.

Unintended acceleration with loss of braking effectiveness. We hit a tree head on going at least 50 by the time we struck it. The vehicle was inspected before we bought it and we only bought it 3 days before the accident occurred. The check engine light came on that afternoon and we were going to get it checked out on Monday.

See all problems of the 2007 BMW X5 🔎.

Vehicle indicated the engine was operating at reduced power, unable to accelerate and barely able to pull over. Speed was reduced to 5mph in the middle of the highway.

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.

2014 BMW X5 xdrive. As I am entering a parking spot, moving forward, I stepped on the brake to stop my car, and instead of doing that, the engine revved up and accelerated quickly. Tried to click parking but the car hard stopped because it hit the rock in that area in front of me. Able to put it into parking after it hit the rock. Front right bumper damaged pretty severely. Fortunately no one hurt but if we rolled past the rock all 5 of us would have been dead as there is a valley infront of us. Similar thing happened 10 months back when we are at a traffic signal engine revved up and moved forward. When we called local dealership they said no recalls at that time.

I purchased a BMW X5 and the fail trans light cam on and the gears are shifting out of control. Almost got my son killed. The check engine light came on and the lights flicker on and off. My son was driving when this happened.

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On multiple occasions while driving the car, first the abs light would come on, then most other warning lights, then the car would lose all power, engine would stop, can't shift transmission, basically did on the road. Had battery replaced and registered. Happened multiple times again. . Read more...

BMW auto start/stop will turn off engine before the car comes to a complete stop causing a loss of steering. This can happen up to while the car is still moving as high as 5mph, often occurs between 3-1 mph when coming to a stop.

Air bag light stay on all the time cant access anything on the dash , speed dont pick wheni push the gas only when I push the pedal push it to the floor.

Vehicle has had the main driver gauges/dash cluster randomly turn off with no warning while driving, multiple times a day now for the last several months, with instances happening at all sorts of speeds and on local roads and highways. There appears to be no way to recover the electronic dash cluster until the vehicle is left to fully shut off for a few minutes and then restarted. BMW service as well as Bmwna have attempted to assist in 8+ service visits and have not been able to rectify what's a clear safety hazard, as it has led to multiple near accidents now. This started in January 2020, when the vehicle was relatively new (<2000 miles) and persists to this day (12k miles).

The car is putting out white smoke. It seems as though oil is entering the combustion chamber and burning out of the exhaust. The oil is either burning or leaking into the fuel system. There is a significant decrease in fuel consumption and the acceleration is affected. As I was driving there was a warning that the engine has gotten too hot to drive and to pull over immediately and I had it towed to a garage. There were no temperature warning lights or coolant warning lights and coolant level was fine. BMW does not have a temperature gauge to know if your car is getting hot. Stupid design.

I purchased my BMW last year it had 89,000 miles on it I went to get a oil change and 2 weeks later I was driving on the highway and the car just went from 65 miles to 40 miles the big engine light can on and now I cant go over 50 miles so incantvgetbin the high way can someone plz tell. What yo do I need some answers.

See all problems of the 2012 BMW X5 🔎.

The suspension/subframe of the vehicle is rotted. Also, the electrical system is wacky. My speedometer and abs light turn on and off - including my engine and transmission light flash on and off. The vehicle has been check and there is anything wrong with the engine or transmission.

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As the vehicle was approaching a stop sign, the car accelerated on its own and I was unable to stop using the brakes. The car went off the road and hit a tree causing severe damage to the car. The malfunction was reported to BMW and we have insisted (on several occasions) a report upon their inspection of the car - have not received anything to date. Instead they offered a nominal sum to release them from any liability associated with the incident. The car was still under factory warranty at the time of the malfunction.

See all problems of the 2015 BMW X5 🔎.

Driving on the expressway with my 4 year old son and gas pedal would not respond and all of the sudden the dash lights up with dsc 4x4 error also battery light and hand brake light came on. Engine started to accelerating uncontrollably at this time and the check engine light came on with what it seemed as half full . Throttle went unresponsive and the car started slowing down . Moved over to side of the road and the car shut off as I am trying to park it . Needles to say this is a major issue that caused my car to shut down in the middle of the expressway while driving at 60 mph not to mention it put my sons life in danger.

See all problems of the 2009 BMW X5 🔎.

X5 xdrive 35i sav; while driving under normal street and highway conditions, vehicle speed and engine rpm have become unstable. This causes the vehicle to increase and decrease it's speed intermittently and without warning. The vehicle is not trustworthy as you may lose power, or unintentionally accelerate while trying to execute a driving maneuver, causing a dangerous condition. Check engine warning light illuminates. Vehicle was brought to BMW dealership (zt motors) for diagnostics. Service personnel stated that the high pressure fuel pump indicated a low fuel pressure at the inlet. This would tell me that the low pressure fuel pump is not delivering the correct fuel flow/pressure to the high pressure fuel pump. Ref NHTSA campaign # 16v746000 et al. Diagnostics also indicated the valvetronic motor shows it short circuiting. Dealer recommended replacement of valvetronic motor, cam shaft and oil injectors. The replacement of the cam shaft and oil injectors are unnecessary maintenance items, only the valvetronic motor would need to be replaced, and fuel system reprogrammed. Ref NHTSA campaign # 14v176000 et al. Recommend recall replacement of both high pressure and low pressure fuel pumps, valvetronic motor, vanos cam shaft and oil injectors as well as reprogramming of fuel operating system. Also replace cam shaft mounting bolts.

Have accident. Because my BMW X5 2004 when start the engine. . The car jump. And problems with trasmission not work good when l star driving the car jump the speeds not work good the gears 2 months ago l hit . The front car . Because my car jump . In have to pay . The owner the other cars . Have to many accidents with BMW X5 2004. . Please you can help me . . Thank you very much.

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