Auto Pages: 2002 BMW M3 (E46): Engine Failure Concerns: What We Know

M3 Engine Failures: What We Know

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What we know so far, with a high degree of confidence:

• Over one-hundred cars to date have been reported to the M3 Engine Failure Archive (see Links, below). This excludes many other cars belonging to folks who are unaware of the Internet discussion, don't speak English, don't choose to report the failure, etc.
  
  
• Based on what we know of production numbers and extrapolating from them, perhaps five-hundred or more S54 engines have failed.
  
  
• Worse (for me anyway), approximately 10% to 15% or more 11/01 production cars have had engine failures.
  
  
• The majority of these failures, over 70%, occurred in cars produced between October and December of 2001.
  
  
• A few of these failures occurred in cars produced before October 2001 and in 2002.
  
  
• The center most rod bearings, #3 especially, have failed in many of the cars reported.
  
  
• Few, if any, of these cars were mistreated, such as having been seriously over revved of having had incorrect oil used in them.
  
  
• Crankshaft bearing damage is generally not caused by over-revving the engine; overrev will first cause valvetrain failure. Further, many of the cars reported are SMG-equipped cars, which, in theory, cannot be over revved (unless one accelerates at just the right moment over a steep hill, yeah).
  
  
• Most of these failures were one or more "spun rod bearings," with the resultant pinging, clanking vibration.
  
  
• Some of these engines failed catastrophically, with punctured blocks and huge clouds of burnt oil and coolant pouring from the engine compartment. Based on my careful reading of the one-hundred failures to date, at least 13% of documented failures posed a serious hazard. Here's how.
  
  
• BMW has replaced most of these failed engines under warranty, but some owners, especially early-on, were blamed for the failures and charged some or all of the replacement cost, which was approximately $17,000 US retail until BMW drastically reduced the price to about $5,000 US in November.
  
  
• BMW AG and BMW NA have not yet really admitted the problem or its scope. Their letters usually refer to proper maintenance and use, which makes many owners nervous, fearing that they'll be blamed should their engine fail.
  
  
• BMW AG has changed a number of parts and specifications for engines produced in November of 2002 and later, as evidenced by screen grabs from the BMW ETK disc, as posted to Roadfly.
  
  
• One possible sign of impending failure is a high lead count in the oil. Blackstone Labs sells kits that test oil for various elements. If your lead count is significantly above average (3 ppm), your engine may be nearing failure. One owner showed 14 ppm lead just before his engine failed.

BMW has issued an engine oil pump and bearing recall. This is for cars with S54 engines produced from October of 2001 through February of 2002, thus addressing what we've been calling 'Type II' failures. Previously, BMW has issued a six-year/100,000 mile warranty extension for "all internal mechanical engine components that are lubricated by engine oil." I see this as an admission that there is a serious problem with some S54 engines.

See also StoneWalk's M3 Failure History (it's good) for details. Allen Schiano recently posted a statistics recap in response to failure #115, which nicely summarizes the data as we know it.

So, is the problem yet solved? Maybe not, what with newer cars beginning to fail here and there. I began trying to communicate with BMW of North America in August. See my letters and their responses, below.

To contact me with any suggestions or comments regarding this issue, click here.

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Copyright © 2002-2003 John Turkel. All rights reserved. Not affiliated or endorsed by BMW AG or BMW North America. All trademarks are the property of their respective holders. This material is for entertainment purposes only.

Last Modified March 22, 2003.

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