M3 E46

[saudi]

The Problem
It definitely appears to be the case that M3 S54 engines built in the period between October 2001 and December 2001 are subject to bottom-end bearing failures at a rate way out of line with the rate of failures of other cars, even other M3s built in different months. As the Internet discussions you mention have dealt with laboriously, many people have ideas on what has happened. We even discuss Technical Bulletins from the company describing changes in the tolerances and spacing of the oil flow near these bearings as the cause. But we are not BMW. We do not know. We conjecture. However, we do have some data that needs to be addressed. The web site I generally visit is
http://forums.roadfly.org/bmw/forums/e46m3/
but there are others where this issue is discussed as well.
Earlier this year, we started to catalog data from owners that have had this bearing failure or related mishap. At first, many people, including me, concluded that M3 drivers were foolish enough not to follow break-in procedures. Not to check oil levels. To over-rev their engines, etc. etc. But every day there is more and more data to show that something else is going on. But let me focus on one item that from a scientific point of view can’t be explained away: why is this occurring to cars that have a very narrow build date? We have no information that more cars were built then. Or that drivers who took purchase then drive more poorly, etc.
You can see the data at the web site
http://members.roadfly.com/jason/excel.htm
Note the great preponderance of cars in the affected period. Of course, this is self reported data (you have all the real data). But why would people lie about the build date of their cars? I also analyzed this data looking for patterns, specifically at the relation between mileage when engine failed and build date. The most dramatic result is that there are two different patterns in the data. The first group shows that engines are failing during any month with all different mileages when failing. I’d expect this for any complicated system as wear and tear affect a system and it eventually fails. Computers do this all the time.
But the other pattern is that cars built in the period between Oct 01 and Dec 01 fail at a much higher rate AND typically fail after 6000-8000 miles. I include two graphs with this letter that show the differences in failures between non-Oct to Dec 01 build engines and ones built during this* period. The same graphs can be seen at
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/indiv/schian...failures/jpeg/
To estimate the likelihood of this result, look at the number of cars during this period and the number of months in the period. The ‘Nov 01’ cars number 43 at present (and rising). The non-‘Nov 01’ cars number 12 in number and represent engines failing in all the other months since the car was introduced (approx. April 01 to now — minus the three months in question), i.e., 14 months. So that’s 43/3 compared to 12/14. Fifteen to one times more likely. Something is clearly wrong with these cars.
The distribution with mileage at the failed point is also different in each group. The non-suspect period cars fail at all different mileage. There is no pattern. The suspect period cars fail in a narrow peak of mileage. Why should this occur? The non-suspect period failures appear to fail for different reasons that the suspect period cars. All we can guess is that something was wrong in the manufacture of these cars. Not in their upkeep as you intimate. It reassuring to see that there are few —if any —fails with newer builds. This gives me personal consolation for my car. But there are still too little data to rule that out. BMW needs to do something about this or it will get ugly. All you need is an engine failure — lots of oil failing out of the engine as it destroys itself — and a subsequent crash to put your company in a public relation and litigation mess.
What I’d like to see BMW Do about this
When I have a problem with a vendor or supplier, my approach is always to give the company a way to resolve this issue without it getting worse. Not just complain about it. I’ve talked with fellow M3 owners and I can suggest the following actions on BMW or BMWNA’s part that would help owners and BMW with this:
1. Keep BMW M3 Owners Informed, Especially the Oct 01 to Dec 01 Build Owners
Your letter is helpful to remind us to maintain this high performance car properly. We are inferring that your discussion points to several factors being possibly responsible. But we’re inferring. Tell us what you know or think is occurring or has occurred. A ‘we fixed the problem by’ would be great. Then we could relax a bit and work with you on dealing with the suspect engines.
2. Stop Assuming that It’s the Driver’s Fault
I can believe that some driver’s have abused their cars. But that doesn’t explain things like over-revs with SMG cars or failures after 500 miles of driving, etc. We know that the current policy is to just replace the engine while still under warranty. But we also know that dealer’s are still questioning the behavior of the owners. This has got to stop. You would need very exact information at this point to conclude it was driver or maintenance error when so many cars are failing for other reasons.
3. Check all Oct 01 to Dec 01 Cars NOW
It has to be the case that you can run tests on these cars to check compression, over-revving data on the car computer, oil quality, etc. I can’t believe that there are no precursors to the failure that can’t be noticed. Any mechanical system has them. Maybe these tests are hard to do. But how hard is it to ship a new S54 motor from Germany, install it, etc. Well about $15,000 worth! Surely you could save yourself the money and owners headach by trying to identify the failing cars before they fail.
4. Extend the Drivetrain Warranty on All S54 motors to 100,000 miles /7 years.
We believe that BMW has been replacing these engines under warranty for every failed motor. However, there have been arguments between owners and BMW. But the standard warranty will end at 48K/4 yrs. We ALL worry about being at 48,001 miles and hearing a clunk. We know of two cars that are over 40,000 miles already. What happens then? Pass over the $15,000 for a new engine? Does BMW really want to see the kind of complaints that will happen then?
I suggest extending the warranty, especially for the Oct 01 to Dec 01 build engines, to 100K miles/7 yrs. I bought a third party warranty just for such a possibility. But, of course, I didn’t expect problems of this magnitude to occur. If all the other cars are not a problem, then it won’t cost you much. And it would be a huge lift to the minds of the 10,000 or so current M3 owners worldwide. If not, we’ll start seeing resales for these cars going into the dirt, people not buying new ones — I see daily a possible buyer asking damaging questions about these failures — and other things a vendor does not want to see.
Do the right thing and work with your faithful owners to address this problem now.
I’m sorry to have dragged this letter to this length but this issue is serious for the owners and we believe for the good of your company. We believe in you products and vision to the level of paying over $60,000 for this amazing and wonderful vehicle. Now believe in us as owners that we can take the truth and work with you to really fix the problem.

Yours truly,
Dr. Allen V. R. Schiano
Assistant Director, Technical Services
Network and Academic Computing Services
University of California, Irvine
(949)824-2829
schiano@uci.edu

[Strax]

Πράγματι το πρόβλημα που αναφέρει ο φίλος Saudi υπάρχει, αλλά έχει λυθεί εδώ και αρκετό καιρό! Αν και ταλαιπωρήθηκαν αρκετοί ιδιοκτήτες, η λύση βρέθηκε και τα προβλήματα σταμάτησαν. Για τα μοτέρ που είχαν κατασκευαστεί μεταξύ 1/10/2001 - 28/2/2002 με αριθμούς πλαισίου Μ3 Coupe JR12921-JR16052 και M3 Cabrio EX21703-EX21999 και ΕΧ22000-ΕΧ23492 πρέπει να γίνει έλεγχος και να αντικατασταθούν αν χρειάζεται η τρόμπα λαδιού, οι βίδες μπιελών και το πρόγραμμα του εγκεφάλου! Θέλω να τονίσω ότι, μια και στην Ελλάδα κάνουμε αρκετές μετατροπές, θα πρέπει να ελέγχουμε και αν το μοτέρ που βάζουμε κατά τη διάρκεια της μετατροπής ανήκει στην περίοδο που αναφέρουμε πιο πάνω για να παίρνουμε τα μέτρα μας.

[stef]

Eυτυχώς!Τα προβλήματα λύθηκαν, αλλά ο saudi καλά κάνει και το αναφέρει για να γνωρίζει ο κόσμος...!