I'm from Canada, and I have a 2002 M3, 20000 km (12ooo miles).
Before the engine bearings breaks down along with the engine, should I trade ? Ask for a new engine ? I'm really pissed off that I have to do this move in order to prevent this. What garantees me that 2003 engines are ok ???

please help me

Originally posted by Marco B
I'm from Canada,
please help me

...okay, I'll leave it alone. :evil2

Check when your car was produced... it seems that most of the failures happened with production dates between Sept.2001 to Feb. 2002... if you are in that time frame you may want to think about it... BMW knows of the problem and will replace the engine if it happens.

If you are before or after, you should be fine.

shit.
My car is sept 2001 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How can I get a replacement ? Do I need to blow up the engine ??????? before they replace it ???
How did they fix it ?? Are you sure it is only the bearing???
Cuz I went to the dealer, and they told me BMW does not know exactly what is the problem !"/!"/$"/$"/$

Imagine...56 cars in the US (up to today) and 3-5 in Canada...and they don't exactly know for sure what it is!!! I told the director, so I can't even trade it for a 2003 since you can't confirm they have fixed it!!!! IMAGINE THAT!!!

By the way, he told me they stop the line for the 745 (new one this year) because of electronic problems so they were asked to NOT sell the 745 anymore till there are news from BMW headquarters...BUT THEY HAVEN'T STOP SELLING THE M3 !!!!!!!! nor the production line !"/"$%/"%$/$%$/$%/$?%/$%/

Who is bullshitting me???

I'm this close to go the papers ...WALL STREET JOURNAL. I'm a business man...and believe me...I will get somebody's attention.
I am in touch as of now with a laywer.

please reply to me.

You could go to the papers and everybody else, but you won't be the first and I'm sure you will probably get the same results like everybody else did.

The failure rate of the M3 compared to their sales has been less than 5% maybe less than 2% and that's acceptable in production standards considering how high strung the car is.

How can you get your engine replaced? You could beat the crap out of it and see if it blows. Will it blow? Nobody knows. So you could beat the crap out of it for no reason... yours may be immune to the production tolerances that caused other cars to blow...

I know it sucks, but there were alot of cars produced in that same time span that haven't had any problems to date. There are always a few bad apples in the bunch... that's why they have warranties.

BMW will replace your engine if it exhibits the same spun bearing problem... I believe the dealers have instructions to pull the engine and ship it back. They should not attempt to repair or rebuild the engine.

BMW offered a TIS bulletin in Feb. 2002 that said they were to make some corrections to the spacing of something (can't remember). The problem (as to how I understand it). The machine that produced the camshaft was calibrated wrong. As of Feb. 2003 they fixed the problem.

Just be sure to keep plenty of oil in it... :)

well, I'm still going the full way on this. 90000$ car with blown up engines ....that's a lemon in my book. ..since milleage is very low and time (less then 1/2 year!!). The worst case, I get nothing out of it. The best, BMW has to change 2000 engines at their cost.

Do you have infromation in writting for Germany or elsewhere on this ?

This is probably your best resource concerning this...

http://members.roadfly.com/jason/m3engines.htm

You'll find all the information that has been gathered across the US about the problem.

For good or bad, this is the "power" of the Internet. This has all the makings of an urban legend. I am not saying that BMW *didn't* have a problem, but the problem that they do have sure gets blown out of proportion.

This thread is a case in point.

Drive your car just as you would if you had never heard of this. If it fails, it seems that BMW will take care of you. If it doesn't then you had lots of fun. Either way, it certainly does not help to worry yourself to death about it.

Hang in there :)

Bernman

Can someone tell me IF and WHAT is the design fix for the new engine ? Are 2003 models fixed ? Where did you get a confirmation of this ??

All I can say is don't beleive the hype.

I have a 2002 SMG II M3 production date 11/01. No problems to speak of (19,000 miles) . The various forums on the internet have blown a very small issue and raised the concern of something that occasionally happened on a very small percentage of the E46 M3 cars made.

The problem was a faulty connecting rod which was installed with uncalibrated equipment, the fault is not the part itself but the manner in which it was installed.

Once BMW figured out what was going on they re-calibrated the install tools and are handling the ones that made it out with the bad tools case by case. If your engine blows BMW will take care of you.

Brian

I also have an 11/01 car. The only thing I plan on doing any diffrently is having some oil taken and analyzed during my next oil change.

If I have a ton of bearing metal in the oil then I will worry, if not then it's peace of mind.

Originally posted by Kevlar
As of Feb. 2003 they fixed the problem. :dunno , so....2002?

Originally posted by Oxcart 1
:dunno , so....2002?

my mistake, i meant feb. 2002 they fixed the problem.

Kevlar, for months now I keep seeing: "FOR SALE -- will be on eBay soon!", please define "soon".

Originally posted by DoctorBimmer
Kevlar, for months now I keep seeing: "FOR SALE -- will be on eBay soon!", please define "soon".

Well it was going on eBay last week, but right when I was putting it on eBay, somebody called me as said they wanted the car and they would pick it up (yesterday). The guy is a no show now... so I'm writing the HTML to put it up on eBay as we speak...