Regular day going to work, notice smoke coming from outside of passenger side of car, pulled over check under hood, didn't see any smoke, got back in car and smoke start coming from glove department area, within a minute car start getting filled with smoke, I got out to call 911 and got about 100 feet from car and I heard a pop and the car went into flames and continue until it burned all up inside and out.

- Stafford, VA, USA

Intermittent engine shut-down. Engine shuts off while vehicle is in motion at any speed. "engine failsafe" warning light comes on. Vehicle must be stopped, key turned off and re-started. This is a serious safety issue that BMW is aware of and has issued a related tsb. $2000 plus repair bill for a new "engine wiring harness". BMW should be recalling these vehicles.

- Appleton, WI, USA

Started the vehicle normally after it had been in a cold outdoor garage for 3 days. Car ran a bit rough. A half mile down the road it began billowing white smoke out the exhaust then stalled and would not start. Towed to repair shop - not the BMW dealer - who diagnosed that the engine had seized and would need to be replaced - a $6000 repair (or more). He diagnosed the cause was a known defect described in this BMW service bulletin: www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=210092&D=1259409341. This version of the bulletin differs from the prior one which include "complete engine failure" as a possible consequence. Based on web searches, this failure has happened many times. It is clear BMW knew that the oil separator in this vehicle had a serious defect that could result in substantial damage to the vehicle and they have a modification kit fix it, but no attempt was made to notify owners of this defect or the need to install the kit. BMW states that had the vehicle been brought to their dealer they might have been able to "help" with this repair, and that the ntsb would have to act before they would take the action to notify owners.

- Nashua, NH, USA

The vehicle, at any given time or mode of operation (driving at speed or stopped), will display on the console the message engine failsafe prog and then the vehicle will stall. Once the vehicle initially stalls, the vehicle can usually be restarted immediately, but will soon stall again with the interval of time between stalls decreasing between successive stalls and restarts. If the vehicle is then allowed to 'rest' for atleast a day, it will run fine for a while (often several hundred miles), but will eventually start stalling again. First exhibitedthe problem at 600 miles, then 1200, 1700, "??"... BMW has been unable to fix it.

- Leesburg, VA, USA