Disenchanted with BMWs

Ezgoin · 04-06-2003, 01:01 PM

As some of you know, I recently bought a 95 540i with 64,000 pampered miles on it. I spoke at lenghth with the previous owners who informed me that the car was always kept in a heated/air conditioned garage. Garaged at work, dealer serviced, and almost all easy highway miles. They also gave me a list of the repairs they had done to the car and all problems they had encountered.

When I get the car I discover it is a victim of the Nikasil coating problem and has two bad cylinders. Of course the only way to fix the problem is with a short block replacement.

Okay, so I take the car in for a $6,000 engine swap only to get a call from the service rep. saying that they found 4 broken knock sensors ($80 ea.), a broken motor mount, which by the way has been redesigned, so you can't replace just the one that's broken, you have to replace them both ($107 ea.), a broken transmission mount, and a cracked power steering hose, and a split air intake housing. Put these issues on top of the parts that they say really should be replaced while the engine is out, like the water pump, new head bolts, new fly wheel bolts, some valve (?), and misc. other parts, and the repair turns into $8000. In addition to these issues, it makes a suspension clunk over some bumps, the CD changer dosn't work, and niether does the seat memory switch.

The Nikasil issue I can understand. The thing that I don't understand is how a $49000 car that has been pampered it's whole life, could have so many other part failures. What happened to this wonderful German Engineering, and this BMW run forever BS? All my life I've heard about the wonderful German cars, and the crappy American reliability, but I have to say that my 95 Chevrolet 4-wheel drive pickup with 142,000 miles, has never had a part failure, and everything still works perfectly!

I don't get it! I thought this would be the first in a series of BMW's for me, but right now I'm pretty disillusioned with BMW!

samuraj · 04-06-2003, 02:51 PM

O NO!!!! I just get used (2001 530) did I`m in trouble??????

Ezgoin · 04-06-2003, 05:35 PM

Well, at least you won't have the Nikasil coating problem since BMW took care of that issue in 1996! As for the rest of the reliability issues...good luck!

blw · 04-06-2003, 05:41 PM

Well, I can't speak to what happened to your car, but I've owned eight BMWs over the years, and the only one that has needed anything like that list is my current '89 325iC. And that one was definitely NOT pampered. All of the others have been extremely reliable with very few problems. Our '86 528e has had only some major suspension work and now some electrical problems - but it has 228k miles on it.

Ezgoin · 04-06-2003, 06:26 PM

blw,

Your experiance with BMW's is promising! I do believe that BMW had it's share of problems with development of the V8 engines, unlike the tried and true inline 6's they are famous for. It seems like people either experiance fantastic reliability, or terrible reliability. One or the other! I just hope that after these issues are taken care of, the car goes another 200,000 like yours!

blw · 04-07-2003, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ezgoin
Your experiance with BMW's is promising! I do believe that BMW had it's share of problems with development of the V8 engines, unlike the tried and true inline 6's they are famous for!

True, and just for the record, only two of the eight have had the 8-cylinder engines: a '93 E32 and '01 X5. So far no trouble whatever with either engine, with the single exception of a failed fuel pump on the 740i (not really engine related, anyway). The others have all been inline-6's of one form or another.

Ezgoin · 04-07-2003, 07:18 PM

SoCal911SC,

You are correct in stating that the parts being replaced while the engine is out should not count as failed parts, and I would never suggest putting the engine back together with old parts that are subject to wear. However, good idea or not, the need to replace these parts as part of an engine replacement that should never have occured at this point still adds $$$ to the cost of a major repair.

I must disagree that failed knock sensors, engine mounts, transmission mounts and air intake tubes are acceptable failures on a high end car with only 64,000 easy miles.

!On a positive note, I did write a short letter to BMWNA describing my situation, and politely asking for some help from them in this repair. Much to my surprise, and delight, they called today and offered to cover 50% of the parts and labor costs!

ewave · 04-07-2003, 08:45 PM

I've got the same car you describe: 95 540IA. I think I was the third owner, and I had the engine replaced under warrantee at 99800 miles 3 days before the 6 year period.

The car has been so-so in terms of reliability. The power steering in these cars sucks, and the unit has so much play in it, it's like driving on ice. A replacement unit is over $2000. I do enjoy the car, and I owned a 89 635 with a 5 speed before this car.

last Saturday here in Dallas we had a hail storm, and the car got trash. It looks like someone hit it 200 times with a hammer.

Ezgoin · 04-08-2003, 07:36 PM

ewave,

WOW, that's some Viper project you had! Looks like it turned out beautifully! I have a seriously modified Corvette roadster that I built from the ground up and runs about 450 hp naturally asperated. Viper is the next on my list of toys!

I wondered about my power steering also. It feels totally unassisted, but I don't have a lot of play in mine! I hope it never goes bad at $2K to replace! How many of the 100K miles did you put on the car? Sounds like you may have just sold it to the insurance company thanks to the hail damage huh!

bimmerdog · 04-13-2003, 10:25 AM

My experience w/ dealerships has lead me to the conclusion not to ever believe everything they tell you as far as what sort of repairs were performed and/or BS about the car being a "creampuff" or 1 owner special or any other line of crap they can sling at you because to them we are walking $$ signs & will not hesitate to pay you as much lip service as they need to so they increase their sales quotas and what not. I really feel absolutely horrible that you have all of these additional problems on the 540. Did you have the car completely inspected inside and out by your own personal mechanic? Talk is cheap and dealerships are some of the very best at it. Was this car purchased from a BMW dealership? Did the previous owners you spoke with give you any repair receipts or any written service documentation? I have owned 3 BMW's and I have never had any experiences such as yours so I hoping this was an isolated case. I understand the Nikasil coating was fairly widespread. I hope you consider another BMW again but I also understand your frustration. At least the folks at BMW picked up 1/2 the tab on the repairs, especially on an 8 year old car. I dont think Chevrolet/GM would offer anything like that.