5.8

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
14,333 miles

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problem #3

Jun 192021

X1

  • miles
Driving down I-89 in Vermont, just South of Montpelier, we were driving at highway speeds toward a construction zone, suddenly, all of the power to the car cut out. There was no warning, no lights, no -€œbing bong-€ of the car to let us know there was an issue, it just stopped. We had less than 10 seconds to make a decision. When the car lost power, We had no power brakes or steering. We were in the section with concrete barriers on both sides and no shoulder. This is the most dangerous situation I can think of. We noticed an on ramp merge lane just ahead and managed to coast into it just in time to loose all momentum before the steep hill. The car had been in for service less than a month prior. When I had it towed to the Automaster, they told me that it could be the timing chain. We found out later that the timing chain is known to be faulty in these engines (though we were not informed of this earlier). We learned (by searching on line) there was a class action law suit and that these engines are known to have this problem around 100K miles. I was told that I have to spend $1500 to determine if it is the timing chain and if so, It will only be covered "maybe up to 50%" by the warranty. The cost of a new engine is $15,000 and I just paid off my loan on the car the day before we left for vacation. If this problem is known to BMW Of North America, why is this not a recall item? We were put in a very dangerous situation and if our kids or my clients were in the car at the time, it could have turned out very differently. We were very lucky, but this is a really dangerous situation to be in, for a car that is less than 7 years old and under 100K miles that has been maintained diligently. We feel this should be a safety recall item that BMW should be responsible for. Timing chains should not brake like that. I have never been so terrified and felt so out of control in a vehicle before. No one should have to go through that.

- Burlington, VT, USA

problem #2

Feb 102021

X1

  • miles
Twice the shift gears such as placing car in park or drive, it frooze up twice once in the care of the service center at carmax and 2nd time backing up from my house and the car shift wouldnt go into to drive mode, my husband had to push car into drive way. It was in motion in reverse and back up onto the city street and it wouldnt move to drive

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #1

Feb 172017

X1

  • 43,000 miles
I purchased the car used from a non-BMW dealer at 40,500 miles in Dec. 2016. The vehicle moved leftward when the steering wheel was centered. The dsc/ESC malfunction light illuminated along with another ESC symbol with an exclamation point presented in the center ip message area light. The malfunction light would turn off when the engine was shut off. The light came on (and off) several times over 3000 miles. I took the car to a BMW service shop and was told that a steering system fault had been stored, but only once so they didn't do anything except perform an alignment. After service was completed, I picked up the vehicle and found that it still pulled left and the dsc light came on again. I returned to the BMW shop while the light was on and they looked at it again. They ended up aligning the vehicle again and replaced the steering angle sensor. After another few hundred miles the dsc light has not come back on again.

- East Liberty, OH, USA