2013 X5M - "CLUNK" and no go

[zerodb]

In for dealer diagnostic now but wondering if anyone can prime me for what may be coming down the line.

We've had the car for about a year and a half with no major difficulties; yesterday my wife was driving it (2 hours away from home of course), came to a stop at an intersection, went to accelerate, heard a CLUNK and the car stopped moving. Put into park, tried to put into drive again, same CLUNK. Car won't move.

She had been on the freeway just moments before with no difficulties. She said there were no on-dash warnings or anything accompanying the failure.

Unfortunately I had no opportunity to check it out myself, as I couldn't get to it before it got loaded up and hauled to the dealer, but I did have her look underneath and no obvious dangling parts or dumping fluids!

Towed to a nearby dealership and they're looking into it now, but I'm wondering if anyone has been down this path before. I've heard rumors of driveshaft / u-joint failures, etc, and BMW warranty extensions on these issues but of course the SA at the dealer says no open recalls or tech issues on this car.

[boneca]

Originally Posted by zerodb

In for dealer diagnostic now but wondering if anyone can prime me for what may be coming down the line.

We've had the car for about a year and a half with no major difficulties; yesterday my wife was driving it (2 hours away from home of course), came to a stop at an intersection, went to accelerate, heard a CLUNK and the car stopped moving. Put into park, tried to put into drive again, same CLUNK. Car won't move.

She had been on the freeway just moments before with no difficulties. She said there were no on-dash warnings or anything accompanying the failure.

Unfortunately I had no opportunity to check it out myself, as I couldn't get to it before it got loaded up and hauled to the dealer, but I did have her look underneath and no obvious dangling parts or dumping fluids!

Towed to a nearby dealership and they're looking into it now, but I'm wondering if anyone has been down this path before. I've heard rumors of driveshaft / u-joint failures, etc, and BMW warranty extensions on these issues but of course the SA at the dealer says no open recalls or tech issues on this car.

subscribed, let us know what happened.

doesn't sound like a driveshaft from your description, I had one failed on me and symptoms were different.

[X5 MAN]

Sounds like Transmission failure

I know I sounds like a noob

[ChiTownM]

Originally Posted by boneca

subscribed, let us know what happened.

doesn't sound like a driveshaft from your description, I had one failed on me and symptoms were different.

What are the symptoms when the driveshaft fails.....

[boneca]

Originally Posted by ChiTownM

What are the symptoms when the driveshaft fails.....

my symptoms won't help you as it happened on the highway at about 65 miles per hour, In my case there were a lot of sparks I saw thru rear view mirror...

yes it fell off on a highway and ended up damaging transmission case and oil pan, the car was in the shop 2 weeks prior to that and nothing was found.

the transmission, oil pan and drive shaft were replaced under the warranty but I got rid of that car shortly after.

[greddy91]

Get on your back and slide under the truck just in the middle of the driver door...

Grab the driveshaft and shake it around.

[do_0b]

Originally Posted by greddy91

Get on your back and slide under the truck just in the middle of the driver door...

Grab the driveshaft and shake it around.

does that work?

[zerodb]

So it turns out it was NOTHING like what I expected.

Apparently one of the rear calipers lost a bolt, the caliper swung out and locked up inside the rear wheel.

Dealer recommends replacing right rear caliper, both rear brake rotors and pads, and right rear wheel.

They're estimating $5200 which seems just nuts to me since the labor shouldn't be any different than a typical 2-wheel brake job. I'm assuming the wheel comes in at like $1k+ and I know the brake parts aren't cheap, but still...

[zerodb]

Do most of your service writers provide fully broken out parts and labor estimates? This one (not my regular dealer) just wrote the whole list in one line item and a total number of $46xx for parts and labor, plus line items for diagnostics and alignment afterward. Seemed pretty weak to me.

[StatenEye]

What? ONE of the rear right calipers? Did everything they recommend you change actually get damaged? Why the hell are they asking you to change the pads and rotors on both sides? Can you take pictures of the damage? And change the wheel too? Post everything you have here.

[zerodb]

Originally Posted by StatenEye

What? ONE of the rear right calipers? Did everything they recommend you change actually get damaged? Why the hell are they asking you to change the pads and rotors on both sides? Can you take pictures of the damage? And change the wheel too? Post everything you have here.

Thanks for making me feel less crazy... she said the rotor on the one side is damaged, although I have trouble imagining that it's really that bad and "we can't just replace one side" which is pretty typical dealer BS.

These are the photos they sent me of the damage. I don't know enough about wheel integrity to judge whether that needs to be replaced or not...

View post on imgur.com

[zerodb]

Naturally being 90 miles away it's a shitty tow to get it home but might be worth it!

[X5 MAN]

Tow it home to your nearest Beemer dealer. Then get their estimate.

No point leaving the car with an unknown dealer 2hours away.

[StatenEye]

Originally Posted by zerodb

Thanks for making me feel less crazy... she said the rotor on the one side is damaged, although I have trouble imagining that it's really that bad and "we can't just replace one side" which is pretty typical dealer BS.

These are the photos they sent me of the damage. I don't know enough about wheel integrity to judge whether that needs to be replaced or not...

View post on imgur.com

I don't see any reason to replace anything there. Looks like all superficial damage. What a load of BS. That wheel and caliper are fine.

[StatenEye]

Originally Posted by zerodb

Naturally being 90 miles away it's a shitty tow to get it home but might be worth it!

Bolt the caliper to the rotor and drive the car home. Two bolts in the back. How did both of these come out? Are the anti rattle clips still on the caliper? Who was the last person to change the brakes on this? You don't have to answer those questions its just what going through my mind.

[zerodb]

Originally Posted by StatenEye

Bolt the caliper to the rotor and drive the car home. Two bolts in the back. How did both of these come out? Are the anti rattle clips still on the caliper? Who was the last person to change the brakes on this? You don't have to answer those questions its just what going through my mind.

Apparently only one came out, allowing the caliper to swing out enough to "wedge" into the rim. I've only owned the car for a little more than a year; I did front pads shortly after purchase but the rears had plenty of meat on them so they must have been swapped at some point before I bought it. Hard to trace back far enough to figure out blame.

On your previous comment, if I look closely it looks as if the barrel of the wheel may have actually cracked around the largest scar, in which case it's definitely shot (possibly repairable but not immediately) so I'm hunting for either a used/reconditioned wheel or I'll just buy a set of forged wheels before I pay a dealer $1300 for one wheel!

With that much damage to the wheel I'd definitely QUESTION the integrity of the caliper but I wouldn't assume it's shot.

Right now if I get a used wheel and buy all other OEM parts from BMW Atlanta I'm looking at around $1700 in parts compared to the $3200 they're quoting me. I know dealers need to make money but if they're charging over MSRP for factory parts AND nearly $200/hr for labor, I'll let someone else pay those bills, thank you very much.

[zerodb]

Originally Posted by StatenEye

Bolt the caliper to the rotor and drive the car home. Two bolts in the back. How did both of these come out? Are the anti rattle clips still on the caliper? Who was the last person to change the brakes on this? You don't have to answer those questions its just what going through my mind.

I don't feel safe enough to pull it out and drive 90 miles on a busy freeway to reassess the damage at home, but I did find a friend 15 miles from the dealer who has a 4-post lift in his garage and he said I could drag the car over to his place to get this sorted out. Definitely going to take him up on it.

Somehow we let our "enhanced" coverage with auto club lapse so we only get 8-10 mile free towing, and I'd rather not pay $500 to have someone drag it to my driveway!

[StatenEye]

Originally Posted by zerodb

I don't feel safe enough to pull it out and drive 90 miles on a busy freeway to reassess the damage at home, but I did find a friend 15 miles from the dealer who has a 4-post lift in his garage and he said I could drag the car over to his place to get this sorted out. Definitely going to take him up on it.

Somehow we let our "enhanced" coverage with auto club lapse so we only get 8-10 mile free towing, and I'd rather not pay $500 to have someone drag it to my driveway!

Whats going on with this? Did they confirm the caliper was shot?

[zerodb]

Originally Posted by StatenEye

Whats going on with this? Did they confirm the caliper was shot?

I got the car moved to a friend's place, I figure with visible damage to the caliper I'm going to just replace it rather than take any chances. The wheel is definitely wrecked, it won't hold air.... so even though the caliper is a pretty solid chunk of metal it got pushed THROUGH another solid chunk of metal and I'd rather play it safe on that one.

I only paid the dealer for 1 hour of diagnostic, even though they gave me a loaner for 5 days while I made the decision, so that was nice! The mechanics also put a bolt into the caliper so it wouldn't bind up getting it out of there and loaded onto a flatbed. Car rolls fine, only alarm is for the flat tire. Brakes feel normal at low speeds.

The rotor looks just fine, it might just be slightly under thickness spec from regular wear, but I'll confirm that when I get it apart to put the caliper on.

I found a reconditioned wheel that looks new for around $400 and the caliper was a few hundred bucks from Tischer, along with fresh bolts etc. I figure I'll have new pads and rotors on hand, install them if needed or hang onto them for when they are. Definitely cheaper than what the dealer wanted to charge!

[StatenEye]

Originally Posted by zerodb

I got the car moved to a friend's place, I figure with visible damage to the caliper I'm going to just replace it rather than take any chances. The wheel is definitely wrecked, it won't hold air.... so even though the caliper is a pretty solid chunk of metal it got pushed THROUGH another solid chunk of metal and I'd rather play it safe on that one.

I only paid the dealer for 1 hour of diagnostic, even though they gave me a loaner for 5 days while I made the decision, so that was nice! The mechanics also put a bolt into the caliper so it wouldn't bind up getting it out of there and loaded onto a flatbed. Car rolls fine, only alarm is for the flat tire. Brakes feel normal at low speeds.

The rotor looks just fine, it might just be slightly under thickness spec from regular wear, but I'll confirm that when I get it apart to put the caliper on.

I found a reconditioned wheel that looks new for around $400 and the caliper was a few hundred bucks from Tischer, along with fresh bolts etc. I figure I'll have new pads and rotors on hand, install them if needed or hang onto them for when they are. Definitely cheaper than what the dealer wanted to charge!

Nice man. Sounds much more reasonable.

[zerodb]

Originally Posted by StatenEye

Nice man. Sounds much more reasonable.

Thanks, I'm glad that we're gradually getting a respectable number of home garage mechanics owning and working on these monsters so I don't feel so lost out there. The dealerships look at you like some kind of leper when you tell them you work on your own nazi rocket sled.

[heatmizr]

This isn't such a terrible outcome. Could have been a MUCH worse root cause from the original posted description!
Luckily this work is more mechanically handled by a owner such as yourself.

The Dealers are only in business because they can make a profit. Can't fault them for charging decent money for jobs like this, when 95% of their clients pay it without blinking.
At least you had the option to refuse it here. If it were a bigger/more complicated failure, you would not necessarily have this luxury!

Also - you better buy your friend with the lift a nice dinner!