This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
At 65 mph on freeway, suddenly lost power. Vehicle immediately slowed to about 10 mph as I pulled off the freeway. Cars behind nearly ran me over. Drove slowly to BMW service who diagnosed "water pump short to ground" causing veh to lose power.
I have had numerous problems with over heating. Every time I have taken it to the dealer for this problem they have found multiple leaks and the manifold cracked (not diagnosed in one visit these were found after multiple visits). It still does it and now they claim they cannot find anything. They want proof that this is actually happening so I am going to film it when it happens to me again. The incident that happened on 12/31/13, I was driving on a road to get to a resort, this road was not elevated in anyway it was level. It happens every month or so.
The car has a serious oil leak at the head gasket. This has been a very well maintained car, with all services being completed in a timely manner, and just regular commuting in mild traffic and mild weather. The oil leak is occurring due to a manufacturing defect -- there is no serviceable portion due to which this leak could have happened. As the car keeps leaking oil, it is creating a potential fire hazard.
The contact owns a 2007 BMW 328I. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who was unable to diagnose the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 60,000 and the current mileage was 74,000.
The contact owns a 2007 BMW 328xi. The contact stated while having an oil change performed at a local mechanic, the mechanic notice the head bolts to the engine were fractured. The mechanic advised the contact that the vehicle was not safe to drive. The mechanic replaced the head bolts. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The manufacturer stated that there was nothing they could do to assist. The failure mileage was 60,000. The VIN was not available.
- West Feild, NJ, USA
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The contact owns a 2007 BMW 328xi. The contact stated while driving 30 mph, the vehicle stalled and the check engine light was illuminated on three occasions. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnosis where it was stated there was a leak in the engine. The vehicle was repaired and the manufacturer was notified. The approximate failure mileage was 85,000.
On August 31st, I was driving on the freeway in the number 2 lane at 70 mph when the temperature overheat light came on and I experienced an immediate loss of power and was forced to navigate the vehicle across several busy lanes to the shoulder. I allowed the vehicle to cool down, added some water and I attempted to drive the vehicle to the closest dealer 5 miles away. Upon entering the freeway again the vehicle immediately experienced the same symptoms and I was forced to tow the vehicle to the local dealership. I was told on September 3rd, the electric water pump had failed. The BMW dealership quoted $1332 to repair. Upon further research it is apparent that this is a common issue with the BMW's right after the vehicle falls outside of warranty. This loss of power is a serious safety issue as this incident occurred without warning and at high speed with heavy traffic. Due to the nature of this loss of power and the common occurrence I would recommend a recall or an extended warranty to be issued for this known problem.
The contact owns a 2007 BMW 328I. The contact stated that while driving 10 mph, the vehicle stalled. The failure recurred numerous times. The vehicle was taken to two different dealers for diagnosis but no cause for failure was found. The manufacturer was notified was notified of the failure. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure and current mileage was 65,000.
Car has horrible lifter ticking noise. Started around 58K miles, now up to 61K. BMW knows about this issue and have even went as far as issuing a new (revision in 2009) service bulletin and redesigning the head and lifters. They don't want to issue a recall notice for their own design flaw because of the cost associated with replacing these parts. I change the oil every 3K miles and have been noticing ferrous metal flakes in the filter caused by the lifters being starved of oil due to the oil ports in the head being too small to allow adequate oil flow to them. One would expect a BMW to last a little bit longer than 60K miles before any issues like this arise.
The contact owns a 2007 BMW 328I. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was taken to a dealer but the dealer was not able to diagnose the failure. The failure recurred numerous times over the course of three years. The vehicle was repeatedly taken to dealers for diagnostics and during that time, the battery, fuel pump, air flow sensor, two cam sensors, crank sensor, ECU and harnesses were all replaced. The failure recurred. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure mileage was 33,000 and the current mileage was 65,000.
Reference NHTSA campaign: 13V044000 my vehicle has been experiencing issues as exactly outlined in this recall notice such as the starting rough, not starting, battery indicator lamp lit, and other electrical issues. I have experienced a loss of power & degraded performance while driving although it has not resulted in a crash because I was able to safely pull my car over. I spoke with BMW customer relations and they said my VIN was not specified by this recall and to file a complaint with the NHTSA to get this resolved. I have researched many other 2007 3-series owners having similar issues and would expect this to be covered by the recall.
My vehicle did not have a recall on the following items: Hpfp, fuel injectors, wastegate. Failure- long crank, engine malfunction light, engine service soon light, clicking(rattling) coming from bottom of car(waste gate), car lose power on freeway, when rev clicking in the fuel injectors. Please help I have read many people had the same problem and many people were issue a recall. I haven't got one and am 100% positive these three items needs repair. My car is a 2007 BMW 335I and has not been issued the recall for those 3 failures. 89450 mileage please issue one. Thank you I just bought the car as of 5/15/2013 from private owner and noticed the problem till 6/12/2013 and still experiencing these problems daily.
I'm a retired U.S. naval officer who currently works in fort detrick, Maryland. I was on my way to work when all of a sudden the engine stalled without warning at about 45 mph on a busy rush hour freeway in I-270 North. Immediately I turned on the emergency lights and made every effort to make it to the left shoulder with a stalled (dead) engine. The car behind me immediately noticed the problem and slowed down, as well as the other cars behind him. My car came to a complete stop with half of the body still in the freeway. I was shaking due to safety concerns, but when I shifted the gear to "park" and pushed the "start" button, immediately the car started with no problem at all. On a separate occasion about four months ago, my son was driving the car on a one-lane road at about 30 mph. Without warning the engine stalled again and there wasn't any shoulder he can safely turn to because of a concrete pavement. The cars behind stopped to help him move to the side as much as possible, but when he shifted to "park" and pushed "start", the car immediately started without anything wrong with it. I am filing this complaint due to the recent recall you have identified for BMW 3-series 2007 coupe. BMW will not fix my problem even though it is very identical to the NHTSA's identified recall, due to the reason that my car was manufactured on November 6, 2006 and did not meet the recall requirement of March 2007 through July 2011. They want me to pay for the expensive repair. I am asking for your help in extending the dates to cover my car (it was on it's very early stage of production). My car has not been modified at all and is still all original specification. I'm not sure when the next occurence may happen. If it involves a fast freeway commute, there is a very big possibility that our lives could be in danger. I need your help for our safety and will not buy BMW anymore.
The vehicle engine shut-offs in motion. The first occurrence, the vehicle was going 15mph & the engine failed while turning into a block (residential area), after idling rough and high pitch noise coming from the engine. The 2nd occurrence, the engine failed after exiting the freeway. That time, the vehicle was stopped on a hill when the failure occurred. The 3rd time, the vehicle was at a stop when the engine failed. Once the failure occurred, the vehicle was place in park mode & re-started. The engine started again & the vehicle was driven home. Note: Since January 2012, the vehicle has been to the BMW service department several times for idling rough and high pitch noise from engine complaints. The issue now has progress to engine failure in motion.
At approximately 4:15 pm on 4/18/13 I was driving on a busy roadway at approx 35mph in my 2007 BMW 328xi coupe, 65540 miles. All of a sudden the vehicles indicator light flashed orange for coolant temperature warning. Within 5 sec the indicator flashed red and the engine shut down as I proceeded through an intersection. There was no acceleration and I was left to coast out of the intersection. Luckily the intersection was slightly down hill so I was able to coast to the curb without being T-boned. Apparently this engine shut down is a designed feature in this model BMW (2007 328xi) to save the engine in the case of overheating. While this feature means well it is an extreme safety issue as other BMW customers have reported similar events while traveling on interstates and speeds up to 80mph (see bimmerforums and aboutautomobile). This type of event in certain situations could absolutely lead to loss of property and/or life. The air temp was approx 85F and I had been driving the car for more than a 30min in pre-rush hour traffic before the event. At the time, traffic was not stop and go and I was moving at a fairly consistent 30mph. There was less than 10-15 sec between the first coolant warning flashing orange, proceeding to red, and engine shut down. These were the only indicative warnings of a problem. The oil temperature was around 230F. After letting the car cool for several hours I checked the coolant which was in the normal range. I was then able to drive the car the remaining 1.5 miles to my home. At home, I was able to replicate this overheating shut down event by turning the ac on and revving the engine from 2000 to 3000 RPM at a standstill. After about 5min, once again the indicator panel flashed orange, 5 seconds later red, leading to engine shut down almost immediately. This yet again replicated the short 10 sec warning before complete engine shut down.
Upon trying to start car, control message came on said steering wheel locked, engine will not start. Turn wheel to start engine. This did not work, many tries!. car is not running. In checking the internet, for a solution, I find many with the same complaint for the same model & even year BMW. Something sounds fishy. There was just a recall on the 3 series for some short involving fuse box to back of car written up in my local newspaper. BMW said my car is not involved. Could these two issues be related? I have maintained my car per recommended schedule! BMW of North America said the wheel lock problem is not warranteed nor is it a recall issue. Sounds like too many people having this same problem for this not to be a defect that should be fixed by BMW at no charge to the customer. Please investigate and advise!
The contact owns a 2007 BMW 328I. The contact stated that while driving 35 mph, the vehicle stalled. After a few minutes, the vehicle started and operated as designed. The contact also stated that the failure occurred once before. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnosis and the contact was informed no cause for failure could be found. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure and current mileage 54,000.
I was driving on highway Georgia 400, which is one of the most traveled highway's in atlanta, Georgia. Cars frequently travel 20-30 mph above the speed limit and if you do not go at least 75 mph, then you are obstructing the flow of traffic. My 2007 BMW 328xi sedan was traveling at about 80 mph until an orange engine overheat light came on, then quickly turned red. Immediately the safety mechanism kicked in which restricts my speed and I could no longer accelerate. I was in the fast left lane and tried to pull over on the left hand shoulder but there is not enough space. I was trying to accelerate to at least pull over to the right hand lane, but could not. Luckily the flow of traffic was not it's usual busy nature and cars behind me were honking as I kept trying to get over to the right shoulder (as cars were traveling high speeds). The engine noise was getting louder and louder. I limped over to the right hand shoulder and shut off the engine as it sounded like it would explode. I could smell smoke as well. The water pump ended up quitting on me, causing the engine overheat. However, no warning at all and no indication that allowed me to take pre-caution before I traveled in my car. This is simply outrageous and a design flaw. This is an extreme safety issue. Your engine suddenly quitting on you, with no warning on a major highway system" cars in every lane traveling at least 75 mph or greater while you are quickly reducing in speed trying to pull over" on top of that, there is no reading in my car for engine temperature. BMW needs to fix this or someone will die because of it. Many may get lucky they are on a side road or in a safe location when their water pump goes out. However, many are on the highway when this happens! three people worked on my car the last month and all say no way to determine when your water pump will blow. No excuses for this!
My wife was driving in the left center lane of interstate 384 in manchester ct. The car stalled and she was hit from behind by 3 other vehicles. She suffered back and neck injuries. This is related to the recent recall of bmws for a faulty battery cable. BMW would not acknowledge anything was wrong with the car. We traded the car in because we did not feel it was safe or reliable.
I tried starting my car and it would not start. Figured it was a dead battery so I bought a new one and had it replaced. The car worked fine for about 3 days then had the same problem as before. I contacted the dealer, had to have the car towed to them, and was told that it was the connections from the battery to the engine that were loose and causing the car to not start. I picked up my car the next day after paying $120 to have the problem (wiggling some wires) fixed. 2 days later...same problem. It has been sitting now for over 2 weeks because I haven't had time to keep getting it to and from the dealership. After reading all of these other reported problems I am now terrified to drive it ever again.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- San Diego, CA, USA