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.
The contact owns a 2008 BMW 535xi. The contact stated that while driving at unknown speeds, the engine high temperature warning message appeared and the vehicle lost acceleration power. The vehicle was towed to a dealer and the contact was informed that the auxiliary water pump had failed. The contact was also informed that the vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 11V521000 (engine and engine cooling). The failure and current mileages were 50,056.
Driving my dad to er for medical emergency and driving within speed limit. Car begins to slow down on own. Could not go more than 5mph when car shut down and stated engine overheated. We were stalled on busy highway. Once able to get someone to Transport my father to er, had to get car towed. Water pump had to be replaced for no fault of mine. My sister also has BMW 2008 3 series and same thing happened to her yesterday---stranded on side of road--water pump had to be changed. Tow truck driver stated he is towing BMW's all the time with malfunctioning water pumps. This really needs to be looked into before something bad happens to stranded drivers.
I own a 2008 BMW 535xi. Only months after the bumper-to-bumper factory warranty expired, the water pump failed. A car is rendered inoperable without this critical component. Because of this failure, I was left stranded on the side of a major highway, with my wife and kids in the car, unable to drive the car to the nearest exist. The water pump failed immediately and completely with little-to-no warning. I was extremely surprised and disappointed that the original BMW water pump could not even last for 50,000 miles. How could this be" what type of BMW quality checks was this critical component subjected to? I have also heard that this failure is not uncommon for my model vehicle. It's a known issue. Wow! most other vehicles have water pumps lasting over 100,000 miles and well beyond. Given the critically of this potential premature component failure, why hasn't BMW issued a recall" after being left stranded on the side of the highway and out more than $1,200 for the repair (plus towing), I am left with a much lower opinion of BMW quality and safety.
While driving, the entire electrical panel [speedometer, radio, display screen, etc.] begin to click on/off each time reappearing with appeared to be everything but english. Soon to follow, I received a warning light indicating "engine overheated", "engine power was being reduced", and "to stop the vehicle" when possible. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of traffic and could not immediately pull off to the shoulder. The vehicle didn't travel very far before complete engine power was lost due to the possibility of "fire risk" as indicated on the panel.
We bought a certified pre-owned 2008 535xi in November 2010. It had 36,000 miles. At 59,000 miles while driving approximately 75 mph on a majory highway in long island after sitting in traffic for an hour and a half on a 70 degree day, the car just shut down. It would barely steer and would not accelerate. We were lucky that the brakes worked and were able to glide over to the shoulder. Computer said engine overheated and it was the red indicator which is the worst. We got towed to a dealership and are told its the water pump. We did have the car serviced at a different dealership 4 days before this happened and told them about a clicking noise from the engine but they didn't hear it so nothing was done. The incident was very scary and makes me not want to drive the car anymore.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Bradford, MA, USA