2011 BMW X5
Complaints about this year name vanos far more often than the other years of this generation — 8% of them, about 17× the usual rate of 0.5%.
Generation 1 of the BMW X5, which began in 2007 and ran to 2013. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 1,120 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 143 |
| Involving a crash | 21 |
| Involving a fire | 60 |
| Recalls | 14 |
| EPA combined | 17.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- shaft — 8.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the other years of this generation (6.7×). Owners wrote it as: shaft, drive shaft, front drive, universal.
- vanos — 9.3% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: vanos, bolts, vanos bolts, catastrophic.
- heard — 9.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.9% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: heard, loud noise, fractured, contact heard.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- shaft — 7% of complaints, 6× usual
- noise — 10% of complaints, 3× usual
- reduced — 6% of complaints, 5× usual
What owners wrote
ENGINE MALFUNCTION REDUCED POWER OUTPUT. DRIVING ON A HIGHWAY MY BMW X5 SUDDENLY STARTED MISFIRING AND HEARD NOISE FROM THE ENGINE. AFTER COUPLE OF MISFIRES IT HAVE ENINGE MALFUNCTION REDUCED POWER OUTPUT WARNING. HAD A VANOS BOLT REPLACED AS PART OF RECALL BU…
I WOULD LIKE TO REPORT A VANOS ISSUE THE CAMSHAFT BOLTS LOOSEN AND BREAK AND IT COULD BE CATASTROPHIC. MY BOLTS LOOSENED AND I CAUGHT IT IN TIME BUT IF I DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER I COULD'VE HAD A COMPLETE ENGINE FAILURE. MY CODE ORIGINALLY CAME UP AS CAMSHAFT ST…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V017000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V248000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 20V016000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V017000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V336000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 18V030000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V138000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 16V746000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 14. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the BMW X5 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2011 BMW X5? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…