Interesting problems with BMW...

[jon_s]

I am sure I am not the only person to think that BMW=reliability! Am I??

However, I recently got to know someone who works within the mighty BMW company, and he started telling me some interesting things that I was not aware of. Some of you may already know this stuff, I am not saying that this is earth shattering info, I was just surprised!

1)The current BMW 328.....good car? I thought it was a good engine, but apparently in the UK (only the UK) they are being returned with engine failure!! What was the cause.....a chemical in the petrol here in the UK that corroded the engines inside-(he did tell me the name of the chemical and the name of the material that was being effected, firstly I cannot remember what they are called, and I have no chance of spelling them). Appartently the chemical can be found more in one company's petrol than others, I cannot say the company for legal reasons as it is a current issue within my firm. (p.s this info was obtained during an informal meeting between my firm and BMW--what is even more funny is that my firm sent me to assess their problems as a TRAINEE!! lol) anyway, the result is that BMW have had to replace the engines of countless 328s, the owners of which recieved no replacement car.

2)The M3, good car which spends more time in the work shop than on the road. It is pretty much a safe bet that most dealerships will have at least 1 M3 in for repairs. They simply rip appart, gearboxes go, the list is endless. One unfortunate M3 owner (and I suspect that he ragged the shit out of his car) had his car in for 28 seporate breakdowns!! He recieved an M3 as a replacement car while his car was being worked on.....eventually BMW gave him a new M3

3)The M5.......same as above!! (not quiet as bad though)

4)The X5, this one was funny. The X5's suspension just collapses!! lol, litterally, as if to prove the point he took me acrosss the road to a BMW dealership, there was an X5 in the corner........I thought it looked Phat (lol) wheels in the arches and everything. the bloke just turned and looked at me and said it was broken. We shook the car and it made all manour of odd noises, none of which sounded good! BMW have hurried up their arrival of the new updated X5 which has a completely new suspension setup. (the fact that they got it out so quick suggests that they knew of the problem ages ago)

Anyway, there were more issues that he told me, but I can honestly say that they involved a lot of lettes and numbers that meant noting to me.....e.g The CSU in PSG drive mode fractures over 500ft/lb causing....blah blah blah(I made this up). Humm i had no chance of remembering that lol

Anyway, as I said some of you may already know this, just thought I would share some info. :)

[TT]

I know various BMW owners, and all are very happy with their cars.. and around here I never heard of major official recalls...

Anyway, not only for BMW, "old" cars are more reliable than new ones IMO ;)

[stracing]

i know my fren had problems with her bimmer. but they were small problems like faulty motors for window, remote button got stuck (most prolly stuff inside her handbag destroyed it). it has broken down once but she couldn't describe it so i don't know what it was.

was it ethanol they put into the fuel? i know here, companies do it coz there's no tax on it. they say max 10%-15% but corrupt opertors were putting as much as 60% and that puts the car in a state beyond repair. but our government is pretty much the british government...obviously. so whatever excise or tax british have on their fuel we have as well and a lot goes into pockets of politicians so companies have to do sneaky acts to gain as much profits as they can.

[draak666]

You're a liar, jon_s, a dirty rotten liar.

No seriously :D , those stories are quite disturbing, but from my personal experiences with my BM I think the reliability of these cars is pretty good. As in TT's case my car is not of the most recent model though.

Some remarks I'd like to make:

1. The 328i isn't for sale in Belgium anymore, so it could be that the problems you described had something to do with this. Was it only this engine that was affected by that type of petrol?

2 and 3. It doesn't surprise me that some owners of M's have their cars falling appart. They are in se roadcars that you can have some fun with. If you start using them as as race cars, e.g. during track days, for powerslides, burnouts or doing donuts you have to take into account that the parts are going to wear out like they do on track cars.

4. I don't think that the X5 suspension problems are structural. If they were and BMW knows about it, they're sure to get excessive claims in the US whenever someone gets (or better yet, when someone could have got) hurt in an accident.

Still, thanks for the info. I hope it's not as bad as you make it seem.

[draak666]

Come to think of it, I believe Jabba has a BMW 328i. I wonder if he has encountered that problem.

[666fast]

I can't say much for thier reliability, I have yet to read anything about it.
But, at least they have a sense of humor!
http://www.wiscbmwclub.com/BMWsign.jpg

[draak666]

Nice ad! Indeed they have a sense of humour. Over here they once published an ad for their motorcycles. The text went like this: 'You never had this much pleasure from your right hand'. :D

[possessed_beaver]

wow, im pretty shocked!!
problems with the M's!!!
they have getrack gear boxes don't they? and they are strong
and they are marketed as a car that is for day to day driving then can be taken to a track day!!!

meh
thats pretty shit, dw the media will cover it up :)

[jon_s]

The 328 was the only engine to have that problem, it is only in the current 3 series not any older ones. The bloke from BMW did not say that there was a problem with that engine anywhere in Europe.

As for the X5, I don't know what the problem was, but it was quite litteraly on the floor, and this was not the only case in the UK.

[Johns]

the first 2 years that the E46 M3, there engines were boom to go Kaboom!! so bmw extended their warranty to 100k miles. good thing I did not go for the M3, since I would hate to bring my car into the dealershits for service.

PS: bmw service SUCKS BALLS :twisted: youll be lucky tofind a good one in ur town!

[stradale]

I talked to a guy once who was an automotive engineering student (or something like that) and helped out at a BMW dealer. He told me about how some M3/M5 owners treat their cars. They pick their brand new car up at the dealership and as soon as they're out the gate they drive off with full throttle on a new and cold engine. These cars are back for service a lot sooner than the ones driven by sane people.

About the ads, they're great. Never knew Germans had a sense of humour. If I remember correctly a British lord once said: "Where would we be without humour? In Germany, probably."

[jon_s]

^^^^^^^^^^Agreed, the way some owners treat their car is silly, which is more than likely the causes of them returning to the dealers in bits.

[cho_888]

In some parts of australia BMW's give a lot of trouble. It is thought that they are not built for our harsh climate

[stracing]

you're damn right cho!!!

plus our roads are in such bad conditions it doesn't do cars any better even if they have the best suspension design

[cho_888]

My fathers s2000's gets 13,000km on his tryes thats how bad the roads are

[twboy1999]

new m3 from march+03 built, has pretty good engine quality, alot less problem them privous version, and hardly any engine blows up

[cho_888]

It interesting how the M3 engine works. It has limited rev until the engine heats up, maybe people are ignoring this

[possessed_beaver]

the m3 is ment to have a real high tech powerplant, it's won engine of the year award or something!

[jon_s]

The engine is not the probelm, but clutches and diffs are.

[draak666]

Clutches are very easy to break. Especially by BMW owners. The brand attracts young people who like to show off with burnouts and all. Fuck 'em, they deserve to have their clutches broken. I hate showoffs. If you drive you car in a sensible way it will last a long time.

After all, the m3 is tested over and over again by professional racing drivers. If BMW is confident enough about the quality after all this testing to put the car into production, and yet mfs succeed in ripping their cars up, then that tells you more about the driving skills of these idiots than about M quality.

[sbbs]

Clutches are very easy to break. Especially by BMW owners. The brand attracts young people who like to show off with burnouts and all. Fuck 'em, they deserve to have their clutches broken. I hate showoffs. If you drive you car in a sensible way it will last a long time.

After all, the m3 is tested over and over again by professional racing drivers. If BMW is confident enough about the quality after all this testing to put the car into production, and yet mfs succeed in ripping their cars up, then that tells you more about the driving skills of these idiots than about M quality.

Totally agree!

[sikx5]

The x5 has many different suspension setups and we've had one for a fair while now. We have Air suspension in the rear (bmw factory option) and when we were doin some work to the car up...not driving for more than six months...the car's wheels were in the arches, it looked pretty sweeeeet. But when we started her up it just lifted up no problems. So im suspecting with that case was a isolated incodent and can vouch for its reliability. im sure that info u got only happened to that car? not a on going problem. and the x5 has been out for more than 3years and a update was in the works anyway.

shane