Article in this week's AutoCAR - M3 engines go pop

[targarama]

Well, we knew this. But there is a small article in AutoCAR this week on the topic of M3 engines lunching themselves. Discusses BMW refusing to do a recall, but doing 'remedial work' when the cars go in for service etc.

How common is this? I hear about it a lot, a colleague was thinking of buying a 2002 car and he knew to get a warranty to cover this potential (and he's not a petrolhead so it must be reasonably common knowledge). I hear about TVR Speed Six engines doing the same, but nobody knows the real % failure rate. Anyone know for BMW M3s?

[vixpy1]

The Early versions of the latest M3 went pop due to an oil problem.

I believe they should all be fixed by now.

[PetrolTed]

M3 owner I know has had his car off the road for some months due to these problems. Something to do with crankshaft bearings.

[Zod]

it's inaccurate to an extent: they have done a bloody recall.

Porsche has been having engine problems with 996s as well.

This sort of thing is unfortunately going to happen to a small proportion of engines like this in a high state of tune.

It's not something to get excited about. If it happens to you, you will be pissed off, but BMW will replace your engine.

>> Edited by Zod on Wednesday 22 December 23:05

[targarama]

I worry about buying any new car these days unless it has a warranty. All manufacturers seem to be fitting more and more electrical and complex gubbins. Doing this for emissions and safety I can understand, but it's not usually these bits that go wrong. The cars don't seem to do any more mpg and performance isn't that much greater than older models (with the odd exception).

This has seriously affected the residuals of some serious good metal such as the M5. Give it 4-5 years and I bet the new M5 will be cheap as chips too. Quite a lot to fix under that bonnet ...

Cars aren't what they used to be.

[DoctorD]

Zod said:

it's inaccurate to an extent: they have done a bloody recall. Porsche has been having engine problems with 996s as well. This sort of thing is unfortunately going to happen to a small proportion of engines like this in a high state of tune. It's not something to get excited about. If it happens to you, you will be pissed off, but BMW will replace your engine. >> Edited by Zod on Wednesday 22 December 23:05

And when it happened to me, BMW replaced the whole car at no cost to me. Absolutely brilliant customer service if you ask me.

It was all to do with a weakness in one of the bearing shells. A question mark was raised over the oil supply and the durability of the bearing shells as manufactured by a supplier. Originally a change of spec in the bearing shells was initiated (since mine were still well oiled when they became worn), then a change was made to the oil pump system and then further changes have been initiated through recalls as more information is collected from customer situations.

There's little else that BMW could do in my opinion. Some customers are lobbying for an increase in warranty period (from 3 to 6 years) but this creates other problems - the longer a car is driven the more any cause of warranty claim could be due to the driver rather than the car. Rather than protecting the customer, an increased warranty (i.e. risk exposure to BMW) could cause them to be far less generous about other borderline warranty claims that normally they would handle sympathetically.

>> Edited by DoctorD on Thursday 23 December 11:05

[john_p]

I think the best sign is that the CSL has had the "new" bearing shells since it was introduced mid-2003 and none (touches wood) of those engines have gone pop yet.

BMW obviously then decided that it would be recall and fit those "new" bearing shells into all M3s.. so I would presume the issue solved.

[trax]

I know the extended warrenty can cause other issues, its that it would be nice if BMW treated European buyers the same as they have done the American market (especialy as we pay more), where they have extended the said warrenty due to these problems.

[DoctorD]

trax said:

I know the extended warrenty can cause other issues, its that it would be nice if BMW treated European buyers the same as they have done the American market (especialy as we pay more), where they have extended the said warrenty due to these problems.

The US market has always been different than the UK market, there are a whole different set of product liability laws and different relationship between customer and supplier. From what I've seen we (in the UK) receive a lot more ex gratia treatment than in the US. The pricing is different, the warranties are different, even the insurance policies are different. I'm not sure how it can be deduced therefore that we should receive the same warranty cover as our US friends.

I think the most important issue is that BMW ensure the problems are eradicated and cars are recalled to be fixed. I guess it boils down to whether you trust them to do this or not.