BMW 3 Series

"I just don't like the performance. Stalls, check engine light, rapid tire ware, $1800.00 routine service charge, gas gauge malfunction"

"Serpentine belt loose. Belt, pulley, & tensioner replaced."

"The rubber gasket that dampens vibrations around a rotating shaft at the front of the engine deteriorated and caused the power steering and alternator belts to slip resulting in their replacement. Total Cost: $1100"

"Tensioner pulley failed and needed to be replaced"

"Valve cover gasket failure lead to lost vacuum pressure and failure of belt tensioner and valve cover"

"On hot day I was unable to fill the petrol tank."

"pump keeps shutting off"

"Certain gas pumps just don't get along with the filler neck"

"this has been a problem since day 1 and is very annoying. must juggle pump to fill tank. varies from service station to service station"

"Cam Position sensor went bad. Car wouldn't start. Replaced by dealer."

"needed to replace essentric shaft sensor"

"a module failed which caused the engine to have reduced engine power"

"Check engine light has come on twice and had to be repaired under warranty at the dealer. Issues were said to be sensor or software related"

"It took a couple of trips to dealer to diagnose the problem and second time they had it for over a week and it was expensive. Seems as this car gets older it has more and more problems and they are all very expensive to fix. When Working the car is amazing and fun to drive."

"I lost an FRM. Guessing it died due to a low battery and extended crank at low voltage"

"BMW Dealership in Manhattan, NY, charged $450 to 'fix' what it said was faulty programming and to diagnose failing coils/plugs. Now there is a new problem with either the fuel pump or the computer monitor for the fuel pump."

"Computer parts had to be replaced at cost of close to $3000 and they had the car in the shop 4 days"

"The sensor for variable valve timing called an "eccentric valve sensor""

"The check engine light stays on most of the time. The repair shop says the notification has to do with the diesel urea exhaust fluid tank level indicator. Mechanic says it's a very expensive repair and he's looking for ways to address the problem economically"

"I think I got some bad gas on a long trip which caused some of my ignition coils to fail. When the ignition coil fails on a cylinder, it feels like the engine is missing (miss firing). So far I've had to replace three coils over a period of 6 weeks and may have to replace more as they fail."

"5 service engine soon warnings in past two years variably blamed on faulty fuel injectors, gloplugs, carbon buildup, faulty bluetec egr system, etc. costing 5000$ + and incalculable inconvenience and time."

"Replaced coils and spark plugs"

"The timing rod was loose and knock the engine really bad. Had to tow the car to the dealer for fixing as it was part of a recall by BMW"

"noise when shifting turned out to be motor mounts needed replacing"

"Engine mounts were a recall of the VANOS system attached to engine. Took about 2 months for the parts to come in"

"Car would not start at all. I had it towed to dealer. Engine ground strap was rusted and broken."

"The driver side mount cracked after a pothole incident."

"I was surprised to learn that I had damaged the engine mounts sometime in the past and it had caused unusual wear and tear on the tires, which also needed to be replaced"

"A part of spark plugs issue was the resulting fuel odor inside the car every time it was driven. THIS was also 3 weeks in getting resolved - dealership adjusted the billing hours"

"hard to find leak happened multiple times. very expensive and time consuming to resolve."

"Oil pan and head gasket leaks."

"oil pan leak per dealer service but no visible oil leak; required adding quart of oil between oil changes about once every 15,000 miles"

"Vale cover gasket and oil pan gasket both needed replacement"

"The dealership has repaired oil leaks twice. Both were repaired under warranty (I paid more than $4500 for an extended warranty from BMW)."

"Multiple gasket leaks on engine at less than 100000 miles"

"Oil pan gasket leak."

"oil pan gasket leak"

"Routine maintenance depicted a oil leak around the head gasket. Replaced gasket."

"After my warranty expired, I used a reputable oil change store to change my oil. I did not know at the time that the oil cap is also replaced when the oil is changed, however, a non-OEM cap was used. After time the cap cracked and leaked onto the main engine belt which eventually caused the feeling of slipping or lurching. When I finally brought it in, my mechanic told me that the belt was fraying and that I would have suffered engine damage if the belt broke."

"Oil cooler leaked, needed replacement"

"Oil pan gasket developed slow leak"

"it started dripping (a drop every few days) about 2 months ago - just like every other BMW seems to do"

"Oil pan gasket developed a leak, that while minor in nature (less than quart over 10k miles), the location of leak caused to accumulate in areas under the car that could possibly cause long term issues. I am planning keep the car for at least another 4-5 years, I had the leak repaired at cost of $2,000."

"Gasket on oil pan leaking, replaced gasket."

"Oil pan had to be resealed. This never caused me an actual on-the-road problems, but I consider it significant because the repair cost was approximately $1100."

"Several lubricant leaks which have been costly to repair."

"Did not realize there was a problem until the mechanic pointed it out when the suspension was evaluated"

"It seems the head gasket and oil pan gaskets needed to be replaced"

"Oil pan gasket failed, very expensive repair. Valve cover gasket failed, also expensive repair."

"oil pan gasket failed - very expensive repair; valve cover gasket failed, expensive repair"

"The car has had chronic oil leaks that neither BMW nor an independent service station can pinpoint or fix."

"Costly to repair - over $1,200 labour"

"Valve cover had to be repaired which cause the leaks"‿resolved few months ago"

"There are multiple minor leaks from a few spots, but I'm not losing enough oil to warrant spending over $1000 to repair the leaks. I only lose about a quart every few months."

"Valve cover developed a small crack which caused oil tp drop on exhaust manifold and it was hard to find. $800 dollars later it got fixed after the $ 1300 coil repair."

"A gasket in the oil reservoir was found leaking. This was an expensive replacement, but "routine". At 77,000 miles, it would seem this non-moving part should not fail."

"Valve leak"

"I also had to replace the oil filter stack(mount). Starts leaking at about 70K miles. It also happened on my other BMW which we got rid of. Again - 1970's american car problems. The other BMW (got rid of) also had leaky oil pan."

"Virtually every oil seal, including valve cover, oil filter gasket/seal, engine oil pan all needed to be replaced over about a 6 month period, at a very high cost. I've since learned that this is a common flaw in most all BMWs by the time they hit 65 - 75,000 miles and it's caused by aluminum bolts that are standard. The time, and therefore the cost, to repair them is very high and I don't think there's any excuse in cars priced as BMWs are to have this ongoing, well-known problem in model after model."

"Seal/gaskets - oil pan and oil filler - cheap parts but a big expense for labour"

"There was no actual leak. But the Princeton, NJ, BMW dealership recommended that I get a leaking oil filter housing gasket replaced to _prevent_ an oil leak that they said could cause catastrophic engine failure. The repair consisted of replacing said gasket, a cheap piece of plastic/rubber engineered to fail and generate fat 'repair' fees for dealerships."

"After driving to work, particularly after heavy acceleration, there was a burning oil smell, and I sometimes saw a little smoke come from the front of the car. I was spooked after the turbo manifold blew off and decided to sell it."

"In order to fix the one of the oil leaks (lower oil pan), the engine had to be disconnected from the transmission which ended up costing a lot of money. I did not know that BMWs were well-known leakers until fixing this leak. I also drove it on two 1000-mile trips with the leak and was told that it was quite dangerous."

"Oil filter housing gasket leak. Gasket replaced."

"Multiple oil leaks simultaneously. According to the independent repair shop this is typical for BMWs with this mileage."

"The oil gauge went first then the oil pan gasket needed to be replaced and was expensive. Bad design as it is on TOP causing oil to drip all over the engine & it could seize. Mine didn't do that and I only drove it home and back to the dealership when I could afford the repair."

"Second time I've had to replace the valve gasket cover."

"Valve cover gasket failed for the second time in 4 years. Both times it was replaced by a BMW dealer."

"Oil pan gasket"

"Valve cover gasket and oil filter housing gasket had to be replaced at a cost of almost $2000"

"Oil filter housing gasket failed at 40K miles"

"Front differential leak"

"Oil filter housing gasket and oil pan gasket both perished rather early"

"The car began leaking oil from the valve cover before the warantee was up but the dealer said it was not leaking then the first time we had the car in for service after the warantee expired the dealer said there is an oil leak that needs to be fixed right away"

"oil level light kept going on, even after adding oil. had bad seal"

"Cracked gasket in oil filter housing. Cost $1000 to fix"

"Oil leaks in two areas in last two months: Oil Housing Unit - $18 dollar gasket - $425 in labor. Valve Gasket leaking oil - $550 repair; part cost minimal - all labor"

"Needed replacement of valve cover gasket as well as oil pan cover gasket. Both were leaking considerably"

"issue with the diesel specific emission controls, check engine light kept coming on and dealer kept replacing parts"

"Excessive carbon buildup in the intake manifold"

"Check engine light resulted in discovery of carbon buildup. Intake manifold was cleaned via walnut shell blasting"

"Failure of a pump in the urea tank, requiring a complete replacement of urea tank system. Dealer kept car for more than 2 weeks. All fixed under warranty. Free loaner car provided"

"Spring in EGR failed. Took three visits to dealer to ID problem"

"Diesel emissions fluid tank needed to be replaced under warranty."

"Please see previous comments under emission control sensors."

"Emmisions systems that use DEF seem to not do well in city driving. They require longer extended highway miles. This causes clogged SRC, Fuel injector issues, and out of line repair expenses. That said, the caris a joy to drive, I'm dissatisfied with the Diesel engine."

"Failed State SMOG check marginally for EVAP system leak. Dealer after charging $211 for diagnostics believe that it is the tank vent valve and DMTL pump. But it was a small leak so reset computer and tried again - passed."

"The diesel exhaust fluid system is a continual problem. It quits working (replaced under extended warranty), then works, then quits working. It plugs up and does not allow the addition of the DEF."

"Urea tank temp sensor failed requiring replacement of the total tank and accessories. BMW covered the repair with an extended warranty at an estimated cost of $3000 plus Repair was totally successful but dealer warned it was likely to fail again."

"Diesel exhaust tank fluid dumped to to transfer tanks valve failure. BMW repaired due to being a recalled system."

"Many problems for years. Sensors, carbon. Build up, urea injection"

"Sensors on"

"Replaced the entire SCR tank (urea tank) because of a failed temperature sensor. Cost $1,800. After I got it back it leaked urea and it cost $656 more to replace the supply (pump) for the urea system"

"SCR tank / internal sensor failure resulted in requirement to replace SCR (Urea) tank"

"BMW tells me that the "check engine light" comes on because for my fuel cap. Same thing for six years. Have never had this problem with any other car"

"Engine sputtered and came to a halt with check engine light. Dealer replaced fuel pump but engine was misfiring. Replaced all six injectors."

"It was a fuel rail malfunction that would cause the car to go into limp mode and force a shut down and re-start to get it to work again."

"ENGINE WAS "SKIPPING" WHILE RUNNING AND HAD FAULTY IGNITION SYSTEM AND SPARK PLUGS"

"Needed to replace the ignition coils"

"All 6 injectors were replaced"

"Repeated failure, fuel injectors"

"bad fuelinjectors"

"Errors related to injectors and carbon buildup. Hard for mechanics to diagnose and parts were very expensive. Each injector was $600 plus labor."

"Had to have (1) Injector replaced"

"All of the fuel injectors had to be replaced. BMW finally extended the warranty on the injectors and refunded the cost of replacing them"

"Not sure how to describe this but parts that interact with the spark plugs went bad"

"Fuel injectors failed. Covered under an extended warranty on the injectors"

"Engine sputtered and stopped. Dealer found fault in fuel pump and replaced pump."

"Both Fuel pumps and a sensor has to be changed and it took 1 week"

"had to replace fuel pump and fuel tank, possibly due to bad/contaminated gas, this spring. Gas station insurance company is paying for it... so not necessarily BMW's fault... but no one else was unable to start their car at the pump!"

"fuel pump failed. Replaced under warranty"

"Low pressure valve converter went out and caused engine malfunction"

"In the past 12 months the car has been serviced for problems with the high pressure fuel pump valve, the fuel pump itself, engine bushings and realignment and wheel balance issues."

"On 4th fuel pump in 45000 miles. Failed 3 times in traffic. a death trap. cant get rid of it."

"High pressure fuel pump failed. It had to be replaced. The failure prevented vehicle from accelerating and resulted in poor performance, sluggish acceleration and engine fault warning light."

"Replaced the fuel filter and pump twice"

"Warranty work -- fuel sensor & fuel tank had to be replaced"

"Needed to drive 200 miles at under 65 mph"

"It was actually the sensor that controls the urea that treats the exhaust emissions"

"MAF sensor needed replacing"

"Excessive carbon buildup in the intake manifold"

"CHECK ENGINE LIGHT REQ 3 DEALER VISITS TO FIX"

"I have had multiple problems with the emissions system. A few years back a sensor built into the fuel tank required the replacement of the whole tank. Last year the car failed four consecutive smog tests, required many hours of my time, great frustration, and finally after multiple trips and complaints to the dealership service department did someone care enough to take ownership of the problem and keep the car until it was resolved. This included the failure of multiple different emissions devices and sensors. They had the car for about three weeks, and fortunately gave me a loaner car for the duration. I love the performance and handling and features of the car, but would not buy it again due to poor reliability."

"Failure of a temp sensor that was replaced two years ago."

"Check engine came on and I took it to repair shop and was told that a leak sensor was not working and needed to be replaced"

"Air intake hose worn and needed to be replaced. It came with the o2 sensor which may have been bad as well"

"The DEF sensor failed. Only way to fix it was to replace entire DEF container because it was engineered as one unit. Labor was $700 and parts another $1400. Seriously, why would any car builder do that!? That's like a home builder making the refrigerator an integral part of the floor."

"The NOX sensor(s) went bad. Dealer replaced both under Certified Pre-Owned Warranty"

"Senors fail on several occasions Very Expensive to repair when on 2 senors need replacing. But the BMW Dealer recommending to replace all senors with parts & labor of over $ 1000.00. In hind sight I shouldn't have purchased this vehilce. To expensive to maintain proper maintence of this Car"

"Sensor related to diesel emission was faulty"

"Within one month after I take it in to be fixed, the "check engine light" comes on. This has been the history for six years now. I have been told that this sensor is "overly sensitive""

"Negative battery cable had a sensor in it that failed and the replacement cost was $270 which I thought was high."

"the coil is integral to each spark plug. After two (of six) had failed, at a cost of ~$375 per, the dealer recommended replacing the remaining four (for another ~$950, since most of the price was labor, which mostly involved access to the plugs and thus was about the same whether one or 6 were being replaced),"

"Acceleration with load on made car sputter, jerk, shake"

"It is a six cylinder car with individual coil packs for each cylinder/spark plug. One failed making the car run rough but it was driveable."

"2 or more of the coils were bad and had to be replaced"

"Had to have 2 engine coils replaced in a couple of weeks over the winter"

"1 ignition coil failed, was fixed, and then another ignition coil failed and all were finally replaced"

"The coil on spark plug #2 finally failed completely and required replacement, out of warranty, All six were replaced as a precaution and the car has never run this good since new"

"One ignition coil was bad, all 6 were replaced and it was covered under warranty"

"All part of Varo cam problem"

"One coil was defective and was replaced. BMW recommended replacing all the coils and spark plugs, but we declined to replace them. Two weeks later another coil failed and we ended up replacing the rest of the coils and all spark plugs at that time"

"performance fell off when excellerating. BMW repaired, said cylinder coil was bad"

"at 49500 two coils went back, as a precaution all six were changed. warranty on coil related issues extended to 10 years"

"engine missing had to replace spark plugs and coils"

"Engine developed a stumble/hesitation. One coil replaced under warrantee, corrected the issue"

"car was sputtering a little when accelerator was pressed down"

"One coil needed to be replaced"

"Engine not running properly particularly when accelerating. One coil bad but had all replaced"

"It had a bad coil replaced all car runs great"

"Coil stopped working on one of the cylinders"

"Replaced coils on all six cylinders due to misfiring. Apparently a manufacturing defect with original coils (COP - coil-over-plug)."

"Replaced all 6 ignition coils after one failed because I was on a trip"

"Dealer wanted to replace all coils and plugs but independent just said we needed one coil. Dealership dishonest"

"Bad coil caused engine miss. Recommended to replace all six at same time"

"One coil went bad but I had to replace all of the coils since BMW had changed the design. By changing the design they were fixing an engineering defect that should have been fixed via recall"

"The 6 ignition coils were all replaced with coils from Delphi following the failure of one of the original coils"

"Car had Bosch coils that were defective"

"Theee of the 6 coils failed, just after the 50,000 mile warranty passed. The dealership would do nothing to help me for a,reduced fee. It cost me several hundred dollars to have my mechanic make the repair"

"engine 'missing/lurching' at 45-50 mph. mechanic replaced ignition coil under warranty"

"Engine running rough, intermittently. CarMax failed to diagnose this correctly, charged me for fixing it--but it wasn't fixed. BMW dealer service correctly diagnosed problem, charged an amazing amount of money to fix it. (Also replaced plugs.)"

"Required replacement of. 2 ignition coils"

"The engine ran rough, like it was missing"

"Had to replace all 6v six injector coils in last 12 months"

"Fuel injector malfunctioned creating a hesitation in acceleration. Replaced and repair success."

"ignition coil failure in two separate incidents"

"Intermittent misfire, replaced ignition modules under warranty"

"The engine started running rough and the dealer had to replace parts. Works fine now"

"Experienced rough running when started after driving on trip for about 2 hours. Discontinued trip, was able to return to Phoenix. Dealer determined cause to be improper installation of fuel injector or ignition coil, due to dirt. Dealer replaced ignition coils under extended warranty"

"Ignition sensor was going out, causing starting problems. Was told it could lead to engine quitting while underway"

"Ignition electronic component was shock circuit during raining condition causing engine to stall while driving"

"BMWs 3 L in-line six cylinder TwinTurbo engine (the N54) has a very finicky ignition system. I have replaced the spark plugs, and the coil packs in this engine attempting to solve a misfire. The next step that I'm going to take to attempt to fix my misfire issue is having the intake Plenum on the vehicle media blasted with ground walnut shells (expecting to pay $350 at a private shop). The purchase of this vehicle has required hours of online research, followed by hours of under the hood time"

"The throttle actuator stopped functioning correctly. Fortunately, I had an extended warrantee because it would have cost over $2500 US. This took several days to repair, since the insurance company insisted on after market parts that had to be shipped into the dealership."

"Caused by ignition coil failure"

"Spark plugs need to be replace at 40K miles ! 4 year old car"

"I had an issue when the engine light came on. It wouldn't accelerate as usual. Took to dealer and had all coil wires replaced as three were bad so why not replace all. Cost about $1800. Thought it was a little early for my wires to have failed"

"Car was running rough and losing power. Dealer replaced all plugs and coils under extended warranty. Seemed to fix problem"

"had to replace spark plugs"

"A coil to one plug had a problem. All coils and plugs were replaced under warranty by a BMW dealer"

"Engine began to miss or "Ëœskip' under acceleration."

"a cylinder engine coil failure"

"Failure in spark plugs caused $2,100 in repair bills and took 3 weeks to complete at dealership"