BMW x5 towbar problem new 58 plate

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Why would it need a larger fan? Sounds suspicious to me. The engine may work harder, but you could say the same if you drove 5000 feet up a mountain to get home each day.

The gearbox will see more stress and your ATF (presumably its an auto) will benefit from more frequent changes, but that has little or nothing to do with the fan (unless the ATF is cooled by a radiator with a separate fan).

vikingaero

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Why would it need a larger fan? Sounds suspicious to me. The engine may work harder, but you could say the same if you drove 5000 feet up a mountain to get home each day.

The gearbox will see more stress and your ATF (presumably its an auto) will benefit from more frequent changes, but that has little or nothing to do with the fan (unless the ATF is cooled by a radiator with a separate fan).

The vast majority of X5s are sold with automatic transmissions. The standard autobox will have a radiator to cool the transmission fluid. BMW must have found something to flag up a new fan for X5s that tow. They must have some evidence or experience of warranty claims that to tow with the standard set up may have come close to acceptable transmission limits.

I remember when my dad had a/c installed in his 1990 Merc 300SE. The £2,000 cost of a/c included uprating the front coil springs on the car.

I doubt that lilolill will get anywhere with BMW. It's sounds to me that lilo has purchased the car and some time later wants to tow. I doubt that lilo looked into towing before buying the car or else they would have specified a factory fit.

hewhoisnotintheknow

sounds like typical german engineering to me

4x4 that cant tow anything? hahahha

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

vikingaero wrote: »

The vast majority of X5s are sold with automatic transmissions. The standard autobox will have a radiator to cool the transmission fluid. BMW must have found something to flag up a new fan for X5s that tow. They must have some evidence or experience of warranty claims that to tow with the standard set up may have come close to acceptable transmission limits.

I remember when my dad had a/c installed in his 1990 Merc 300SE. The £2,000 cost of a/c included uprating the front coil springs on the car.

I doubt that lilolill will get anywhere with BMW. It's sounds to me that lilo has purchased the car and some time later wants to tow. I doubt that lilo looked into towing before buying the car or else they would have specified a factory fit.

Then I would look at the owners manual, and see precisely how much it is designed to tow. If that section mentions nothing about 'bigger fan' then I'd ignore the dealer and just do whatever I wanted.

Remember these same companies are also the ones who specified 'lifetime fill' on their ATF.

vikingaero

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Then I would look at the owners manual, and see precisely how much it is designed to tow. If that section mentions nothing about 'bigger fan' then I'd ignore the dealer and just do whatever I wanted.

Remember these same companies are also the ones who specified 'lifetime fill' on their ATF.

It's generally accepted in the caravanning world that an automatic car may possibly require an uprated automatic transmission cooler. Normally this involves replace the AT radiator with a larger one.

I'm guessing that for whatever reason there is no space to fit a larger radiator or the core is integrated into the vehicle radiator and cannot be upgraded. Therefore the solution would be to fit a larger fan to supply adequate cooling.

The other point to remember is that X5s are generally "performance road 4x4s" and not proper 4x4s like a Discovery or Range Rover. If you look at other models in the BMW range there are models that you cannot fit a towbar to: M3 & M5.

AdrianHi

This is second hand knowledge so cannot be 100% sure it is correct, however, my understanding is on BMW's (and probably other cars) the ECU receives an auto gearbox temperature input and is able to reduce engine power output if it's getting too hot.
Suggests that damage is avoided this way but maybe additional cooling is required for more exterme conditions to maintain power output.

Those that like to do performance tuning on their 335d / 535d runinto this issue when driving hard, power is cut when the auto box gets too hot... then they go onto to look for ways to improve gearbox cooloing.