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Welcome Nigel First congratulations on the X3 second the worn Cruise Buttons demonstrate it has been a Motorway warrior spending plenty of time at constant speed/revs which is kinder on the engine and drive train. I assume the service history is good as well. Have a look at www.realoem.com it is a BMW online parts list as used by Dealers, open the site put the last 7 digits of your Vin number in the search box and it will bring up your model. Then search for the part you want it will give you the part number plus an indication of cost in dollars. At least you will know that (a) the part is available or not from a Dealer (b) An indicative cost Hope it helps Dave Also look at www.newtis.info a BMW technical information site which will help with "how too's"

Morning Rebecca Thanks for the additional information, as you service the car twice a year all should be sound, the DPF probably needed a regeneration cycle, turbo issues are not unusual on short journey cars sticking vanes and actuators, glow plugs and controller again not unusual at around 100k from what I have read. As the "experts" as you term them are struggling let's try some old fashioned logic. First there are many, not all but many young garage mechanics out there (and at my age thats any one under 50) who have grown up with "diagnostics" and this may sound harsh they become reliant and stop actually analyzing what they are seeing. They stop fixing things and just change parts until the issue goes away.Your issue is (a) intermittent ((b) If I am reading correctly once fault codes are cleared it runs OK until your next starting problem. So any recorded fault codes point to a control module, if the module or one of it's sensors had a problem the fault could not be cleared, yet it seems yours can be. What is often forgotten and ignored is the wiring loom, I would be checking it for continuity giving it a twist and turn while doing it and also checking the earth points a loose or poor earth connection can cause a lot of issues. I would logically begin with the essential starting circuits. Ask them if it could be a faulty earth or loom? Fingers crossed for you Dave

Morning Take care with the tyres X3 and X5 are known to be sensitive to different rolling radius tyres front to rear or side to side. There are many posts on other sites about damaged diff's front centre and rear due to transmission wind up, none are cheap fixes. Does your X3 have a staggered set up? If it does it is even more important than ever to have the correct size tyres. BMW themselves recommend only * rated tyres by a few premium brand manufacturers. I change all 4 when they are getting close to the wear indicators and while I don't use premium brands I check out the deals available (my X5 runs a 20" staggered set up) currently running Yoko's with no ill effects. Symptoms will be jerking or grinding clicking noises when on full lock going slowly forward or in reverse Dave