E53 intermittently not starting

[Phil 0]

Hi,

Have a ‘04 X5. Has been running fine, including a decent road trip over Matariki with no issues at all. Then two nights ago I went to bring it up the drive and I got nothing from it - dash lighted up, no errors, battery fully charged, it didn’t even sound like it was trying to turn over. Went back outside a couple of hours later and it started fine.

Over the 24hrs no issue for almost half a dozen starts, was running around town fine until the last trip to get home and it wouldn’t start again. Went back to the supermarket a couple of hours later it started without any hesitation (and again this morning).

Any ideas, anything I can check myself, or is it just a case of taking it somewhere and getting them to run diagnostics?

Thanks!

 

 

[Eagle 1773]

What engine? Scanning it would be the first step.

[Vass 1049]

Could be a number of things.

Might be a random stab in the dark but one possibility is the ignition switch. Had that on my E46 a couple of years ago, would just intermittently not even crank until I cycled the key 4-5 times, became more frequent as time went on. Cleaned it out and has been fine since. Could also just replace it as they're fairly cheap. Haven't checked but fairly certain it'll be a very similar part on the X5, if not completely identical. Worth cleaning out regardless as they can cause a number of weird electrical issues, access should be pretty easy too, just need to remove the bottom cover from the steering column.