Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| POWER TRAIN | |||
| 06/26/2012 | 77500 | 1 | |
| Multiple incidents since the day after we purchased the car: ?driving in 4th gear (anywhere from 10 to 40 mins of driving) will suddenly feel as if clutch is engaged so i cannot accelerate, yellow transmission warning light comes on, then i have to coast to a complete stop and shut the engine off. it can take several attempts to restart the car to re-engage back into 1st gear. noticed if i wait long enough, once the transmission warning light also turns off then i can restart back in first gear. all this while driving in auto mode. ?same issue as above but has happened in the lower gears while accelerating or when cruising at higher gears, for example, 6th gear and manually shifting into 5th, warning light will come on, car will not be in gear, will have to coast to a stop and attempt to restart with 1st gear again. ?same issue as above, but has happened while parked at a red light, indicator shows 1st gear, but when i try to go, the warning light comes on and i?m not in gear, requires a stop/restart of engine again ? sometimes multiple tries. this happens on both even, declined and inclined road surfaces. ?this is extremely dangerous as we have been left dead in the road attempting to restart the car while there's on-coming traffic around us! *tr | |||
| 06/26/2012 | 77500 | ||
| Multiple incidents since the day after we purchased the car: | |||
| 07/01/2011 | 66000 | ||
| Trouble with smg transmission. car will not stay in gear and bucks hard trying to engage. | |||
| 03/15/2003 | 1000 | 4 | 02/01/2002 |
| The transmission has failed 4 times. it has been repaired 4 times with no effect. the dealer drove it over 300 mile to test drive the car. bmw does not respond with anything but rhetoric and poor service. other owners have had their engines literally blow up! bmw is a terriblel company with defective products and poor service. *nlm | |||
| POWER TRAIN - AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION | |||
| 08/04/2003 | 15000 | 1 | 01/06/2002 |
| Multiple problems with the vehicel. the engine was replaced at 16000, the transmission (smg) was re[;aced at 20000, now the engine rev high at idel and send stron vibration to the cabin and steering column. bmw of houston north, a local dealer in houston, tx, were less than helpful in trying to solve the current problem. it appears that they want to keep the problems with m3 quiet. *ak | |||
| 11/01/2001 | 3 | ||
| While driving and changing gears could hear a grinding noise. had vehicle at dealership for a third transmission. problem with transmission has happened twice before, and replaced twice.*ak | |||
| POWER TRAIN - MANUAL TRANSMISSION | |||
| 11/02/2005 | 45000 | 1 | 04/01/2002 |
| On november 2nd, 2005, at 6:30 p.m., my family got into the m3. that included my wife in front, and three daughters in the back. we were on the way to meet my father for dinner. we had planned to take the 60 freeway westbound, of which the on ramp is off a street called chino hills parkway. to our shock, the freeway was jammed like a parking lot, so we proceed to make a u-turn to take an alternate side road. travelling southbound on chino hills parkway at about 25 to 30 mph in 2nd gear, the smg gear indicator goes to 0. i do not recall shifting at all, so i just proceed to move the gear lever to put it back in gear. it does not change, reamins at 0, and since my foot is still on the gas pedal, i just hear the revs of the engine while noticing i have no power to move forward. thankfully, we were on a slight downward slope, so i was able to safely coast to a stop by the right side of the road. the first thing i notice is the yellow gear-shaped transmission light has come on. i proceed to shut the car off, thinking a restart would correct the situation. i try shifting into gear, but it remains at 0. before i restart the second time, i pop the hood open, and go out to close it, having heard that sometimes the smg pump acts funny if the hood is not closed. i'm still unable to shift. i turn off the engine, wait a few minutes. this time, the engine doesn't even start! this happened two more time. finally, on the sixth restart, the engine comes alive, and i am able to shift into gear. the yellow transmission light is still on, but we made it home since this all happened about 3 miles from home. the car has been flatbedded to the dealership. | |||
| 12/11/2003 | 7800 | 3 | 05/30/2002 |
| 2002 bmw m3, repeated smg transmission failures rendering the vehicle inoperable. bmw has no idea what is causing the problem. bmw also damaged the vehicle trying to retrive it for yet another repair attempt. it may have started itself without the key in it while the tow truck was picking it up. bmw is in a constant state of denial. vehicle has been in the dealer 6 weeks now and counting and it has less than 8000 miles on it. | |||