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.
This vehicle shuts down the engine when stopped at a stop sign or light. The engine resumes when you press on the brake or gas peddle. But sometimes, the engine will turn back on for no apparent reason. That is not an issue of concern. BUT, sometimes, when the engine turns on automatically, it will drop the transmission into PARK. So when you attempt to apply gas, the car will not move forward as it is not in gear. This is intermittent. My German Auto repair shop has observed the issue and spoken with many other shops who have reported the same issue with the X3. BMW does not have a solution to the problem. The driver never knows if the car will move forward after a traffic stop, as it is not obvious that the transmission has dropped into park until you attempt to move forward. Instead of using this engine turn-off feature of the vehicle, they suggest turning it off to avoid the problem. That is a gas-saving feature of the car.
My emergency brake keeps malfunctioning, I have been unable to use them for about 3 months now. Also starting around 2/20/21 when im at a red light for more than a minute and the light turns green, my transmission gets stuck and the car wont go, a warning sign comes on. Then I have to re put it in drive and can go.
Transmission - uncommanded change from drive to park the auto start/stop feature turns the car off when you stop and back on when you start. The fault is that it intermittently puts the transmission in park or neutral. It happens when you take your foot off the brake, while it is restarting the vehicle. It occasionally happens while you are just stopped and the engine restarts. Usually this is when you are trying to accelerate from a stop sign or traffic signal to get into traffic. Nearly got rear-ended when my brake lights came off, but I did not accelerate because the vehicle had switched from drive to park.I have video of it occurring, but the dealer cannot repeat it, and uploading new sw did nothing.
While approaching a stoplight, braked, then went to accelerate and the vehicle totally shutdown and stopped while driving in traffic. This was a catastrophic failure, which could have killed both occupants of this vehicle. The check engine light was activated. Upon attempting to restart the vehicle to move it out of the way of traffic, the vehicle would not start. The transmission would not be placed in neutral nor could the parking brake be disengaged so the vehicle could be pushed out of the way of traffic. This was a very dangerous situation. This vehicle is dangerous and should be taken off of the market.
A very dangerous and catastrophic situation is created when using the start/stop feature. When stopped at a traffic light or stopped in stop and go traffic on the highway this feature fails. Once this feature is engaged when the vehicle is stopped when the accelerator is pushed to start again the vehicle goes into park instead of accelerating. This presents a very dangerous and potentially catastrophic situation because you may be making a maneuver by acceleration to switch lanes or something similar and the car fails and goes into park and does not move. Perillo BMW performed unsuccessful service on this approximately four weeks ago. This did not fix the problem. Perillo performed service again for the same issue two weeks ago. My hope is that this is a permanent fix because to not take this problem seriously and leave it to chance that this may occur with severe consequences. This is a safety issue that I think the NHTSA should address directly with BMW. Specifically- 1. the car comes to a complete stop at a traffic light, stop sign or in stop and go traffic on the highway. 2. the start/stop feature is engaged 3. when the accelerator is pushed to go again the car immediately goes into park and the steering wheel locks. 4. to go again, the break must be pressed and the gear shifted manually into drive. Prior to BMW servicing the vehicle this has occurred more than 20 times in a three-month period. There is absolutely no chance that the driver accidentally pressed the park while stopped. The driver purposely does not keep their hands on the shift gear.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Boynton Beach, FL, USA