2005 BMW X5 3.0i E53 starting issues

My BMW X5 has been having issues for about a year now. If I can get it to turn on and warm up it will stay running. But after being ran if it sits for about a half hour it won’t start. Sometime I try to cold start it and it will start up. But almost 100 percent of the time my car will not fire up in the morning, it just cranks and cranks and cranks. I’ve already replaced the fuel pump in the car, and it seems that every greedy asshole out there tells me I have a bad fuel pump when I bring it in to get it worked on. But this is not the issue I can assure. It’s happens mostly when it is cold out and when it is damp out. When I say cold, I mean sometimes it has to be 70 outside for my car to turn on. BS. I don’t even know where to begin on this thing. I’ve replaced the mass air flow sensor as well. My BMW has been to four different import shops and non of which has fixed my issue. I’m thinking it could be a faulty crankshaft sensor but not sure. My vehicle does have a few issues. A pump in my front AWD went out the first month I had it, I was told I could still run it in 2wd and they would disconnect the Front. Due to I’m 23, not that wealthy, and it was a costly fix. Bc of which four lights remain on in my car all the time including the service engine light, abs, 4x4, and brake light. I know it’s not my battery bc when I try to jump it, it just cranks faster with no start up. I’ve replaced two batteries, and I’ve tried disconnecting over night to let the vehicle reset itself and still, no luck. I have also replaced the temperature gauge. It got stuck sitting in a drive thru and blew my radiator,m. I turned the car off imediately and had it towwed and repaired. Has anyone had these same issues? And if so could you tell me what you did to fix the issue. I’m open to anything right now.

First off, you need to figure out why the radiator blew while sitting in line at a drive-thru. There’s a radiator fan that should come on when that happens, preventing overheating. It’s possible your radiator fan isn’t coming on when it should. I had that happen on my Corolla and the same thing happened, the radiator blew a hole in it. I caught it before the engine overheated enough to do any damage fortunately. Are you certain you caught the overheating in time on your BMW? If not, engine overheating damage could result in this symptom. You might want to ask for a compression and/or leak down test and cooling system pressure test.

If you are certain this isn’t related to the overheating … hmmm … ok, cranking but not starting almost 100% has to be caused by one of these

  • spark problem
  • fuel problem
  • compression/timing problem

A mechanic can easily check to verify there’s a spark at the spark plug when this is happening. That’s a simple procedure on most cars. That’s probably the first place to start. To check for a fuel problem a mechanic would hook up a fuel pressure gauge on the fuel rail. Has that been done? One thing you could do, if you can find it, there’s usually a fuel pressure regulator to control the fuel pressure. It will have a vacuum line attached to it. Remove that vacuum line and check to see if there’s any gasoline in it. If there is, the fuel pressure regulator must be replaced. If the above shows it isn’t a spark or fuel problem, then check back here for some more ideas. Best of luck.

Thanks for the quick response George, I’ve had a leak down test done, and will check for compression next.