Holy crap u should see the bmw m3 boards

Check this out ( documented engine failure # 129 ) All late model 01 - 02 - 03 bmw m3's seem to be blowing up

I was driving my brother's 2002 M3 at about 140-150 kph, which is slightly over the limit in my country. Suddenly I hear a loud noise from the engine, like metal grindig over metal. A quick glance at the dashboard: the engine sign lights up and the car starts to slow. I immediately knew that there was a huge problem and I best pull over. I was in the fast lane, so a quick glance in the rearview mirror to see if anyone's behind us was in order - to my greatest surprise I see that I'm trailing a huge grey cloud. Noone following us though, so I start to pull over VERY gently, the way you do when you just had a flat tire.

That's when the fun started. The car became uncontrollable - it threw its [Oops!] to the left. I immediately knew that the rear wheels locked and I'll be lucky to get us (me and the GF) out of this unhurt. So I try to counter the spin, but without luck. I overcompensated and we hit the metal stripe that divides the motorway at about 45 or 60 degrees. We made a huge dent, bounced off, made a 180 turn and hit the stripe again, this time with the rear end - this is where we came to a full stop.

We got off without a scratch, and thank God, there was noone near us that we could have hit - but it was scary as hell, and the car is no more than a heap of junk.

My guess is that the engine failed big time, and the oil cooler (or the pipe going to it) exploded. We covered about 300 meters of the motorway in a thin oil film (this according to the maintenance guys who came to clean up the mess). The rear end and the right hand side of the car was also covered with oil. The skidmarks started soon after, and as far as I can remember, there are only two - the locked rear wheels.

I *think* could have averted the crash by depressing the clutch - but the car had an SMG tranny.

So, whose fault is it? Mine? My brother's? The previous owner's? Or BMW's?

My brother is not the first owner of the car, but it had been regularly serviced by authorized dealers. The last inspection was done 10,000 kms ago, the next one was due in 16,000 or so. He took it to the shop about 4 weeks ago, the day he bought it, due to a problem with the SMG tranny. (It was stuck in 1st after he parked it. The shop cleared the error registers and bingo, back to normal.)

I heard about engine failures with E46's (something about crankshafts?), and BMW's reluctance to acknowledge the problem. (Can't seem to find any relevant info on the 'net though.) Was there a recall ever issued?

Obviously, the sudden engine failure is what caused the problem, and this itself is a huge issue - but the lack of a cluthch-like mechanism on the sequential transmission was what made this situation nearly, literally, deadly.

It was purely out of luck that we got off unscrathed. Had I not been driving in the fast lane, we would have ended up in the ditch with a much more sever crash. (The skidmarks were all over the road.) Had someone else been driving behind or next to us, we'd have needed a miracle to avoid a collision. Had we broken through the barrier dividing the two halves of the motorway (we almost have), it would have been certain death.

There is the lingering smell of a lawsuit here... if it is indeed because of the faulty engine. The police impounded the vehicle and it will be checked by one of their experts to determine the cause of the accident, so obviously I'll have to wait for that, but given the circumstances, it cannot be anything but a mechanical failure. We'd like to have the car replaced, and compensated for the, to use a mild term, scary experience. What chances do we stand?

 

horrible!

 

I think its amusing how proper they all speak on the bmw board . Your not dropping your car off at the dealer for warranty work , your " schedualing an appointment for servicing " and its not a recall its a " service action " No dis , just funny the difference in the people . If we were all like that all the time this place would be altra gay !!

"excuse me fellows , I may need assistance as my opti spark no longer wants to spark and I havent the slightest idea what I shall do "

well I must scoot . . . . my help left my New M3 running in the drive and good heavens it just might implode at any moment , wilting my roses again HAHA !!

 

""FYI, the motor in my '02 SMG cab with 6,000 miles grenaded with no warning last month. Sent it to the BMW dealer, heard nothing for 3 weeks, now just got a call that they've installed a brand new motor, no charge, etc. Still pissed off re what this means for the value of the car, future reliability, etc., but pleased at least that I did not have to do battle with them for them to step up and do the right thing.""

 

AND THIS ONES MY FAVORITE !!

" I have a Z3 Mcoupe, with the S54 engine in it, can anyone confirm with me. If the top of the engine quite tappy. Once she is warmed up and I boot it for the first time, once I am back to cruising the engine seems to be real tappy. My dealer said that the M power engines are notorius for being tappy and to ignore it.

I just wondered if anyone else had a similar problem?

Cheers "


Sound familiar

" its tappy I tell you "

 

what the hell does tappy mean?

 

Scary ****. If my car did that i'd never drive it again. sometimes my tranny gets stuck in a certain gear too..must be a German car thing

 

I think hes talking about valvetrain noise !! Tappy haha !!

A little while ago every kid with a new M3 was coming over to ls1.com and spouting how fast and how much horsepower per liter there germain engineered gift from god put down . When they started to die they stopped coming around . I love the looks and performance of those cars but that engine is strung pretty high . To boot it looks like the new m3's that are supposed to be outside the window are failing too . Kinda like a piston slap fix that didnt stop piston slap . . . . except in this case its catistrophic (sp) engine failure that results .

 

Dang.... engine seized. That's freakin' scary. At least if that happens to me all I'll do is plow to a halt!

If you've proven that everything was maintained as per BMW's requirements then there should definitely be a legal recourse. Much like the idea behind seatbelts... the car should not put you into a potentially life-threatening situation.

Ahhh, the BMW boards. A forum for people who know nothing about cars but claim their cars are the greatest ever created! "Ultimate driving machine" my ****....

 

yah dawg.

i used to a bmw technician for brian jessel,

and they would loads of M3 engines just sitting there..
theyd order a whole bunch in advance.

i wanted to steal one.

 

There pulling in every single M3 within the 01 02 build dates specified and changing the oil pump and bearings etc . Massive recall . Opon inspection of the internals it seems there replacing many many motors . On that one board theres 129 complete engine failures like the one listed above . There was a post dated WAY back that over 10 % of the 01 high output M3 motors had self destructed already . Too bad cause there sick looking cars , I would pay the diff and make them stuff the M5 V8 in there !!

 

Or their massive V12 from the 7-Series .

This reminds me of the massive Mustang Cobra recall a year or so ago...many were recalled due to flawed engine mechanics.