10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 47,833 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
August 6, 2016 - car stalled at about 50mph, just when about to go uphill. I wasn't able to make it to the shoulder leaving the car blocking traffic with my wife and daughter in it. Once it stops, it puts itself in park, making it impossible to push aside. We created a traffic jam and police barricaded while we were trying to move the car. Eventually, in about 30 mins, the car turns on. Happened after an hour of highway driving. Car seemed fine after that. August 17, 2016 - on another long trip, the car stalled on the highway. Would crank but not turn on. Almost exhausted the battery. Called a tow truck but by the time it got there, after about an hour, the car restarted. Had my odb-II scanner with me and got code used my obdii reader and got code P142E - pressure too low in high-pressure system, which is consistent with not starting and the and the fuel system malfunction message. I took the car to autogermana service center, that same day. September 22, 2016 - stalled on a main road, with my daughter, on the way to the pediatrician. I was able to maneuver to the right lane and park on a gas station. Ambient temp was 94F. Waited about 30mins and the car re-started. The dealeship would not acknowledge a fuel system problem because they could not replicate the failure. Sent email to BMW customer relations but they referred me back to the dealership.
- San Antonio, PR, USA
While in line in a drive thru the vehicle turned off suddenly losing all electrical power and power steering. Upon trying to start "charging malfunction" appeared on the information screen in with a red warning sign. Tried 2-3 times to turn over starter. When vehicle turned on it was time to move forward. When trying to exit drive thru drive way vehicle was very heavy and almost impossible to turn. Finally after several back and forth attempts vehicle was moved about 50 feet to a safe parking location.
- El Cajon, CA, USA
The contact owns a 2012 BMW 335I. The contact stated that there was an abnormal noise emitting from the vehicle and suddenly it stalled. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the vanos bolts were loose and fractured. The vehicle was not repaired due to it not being included in NHTSA campaign number 14V176000 (engine and engine cooling). The manufacturer was notified of the failure and confirmed that the vehicle was not included in the recall. The approximate failure mileage was 69,000.
- Martinsville, IN, USA
Vanos bolt failure. 4 vanos bolt broken. Car stalled while driving. The car was driving on a city street while turning. No power at all. It is a 2011 328I.
- San Ramon, CA, USA
On Saturday 8/8/15, I was parking my BMW 335I car to get groceries, and while entering the parking spot, the engine began racing out of control. I hit the brakes hard, but the car would not stop. I tried to shift into neutral, but the shift control was locked in drive and would not move. Lastly I finally hit the stop engine button, and the car finally stopped, but not after I had bumped into the car in front of me in my parking space. As I was resting against the bumper of the car in front of me, I had been able to move the shifter after stopping the car's engine into park, and re-started the car. The engine idled at 7000 RPM, totally racing again. I turned the engine off and sat there for about two minutes. I turned the engine on again, and it finally idled normally at 800-1000 RPM, put it in reverse, and backed off the bumper of the car in front of me. I got out, and saw no damage thankfully, but was very afraid of this out of control car behavior that I experienced. I now know to hit the stop button if the brakes just don't work well enough if this unintended acceleration issue happens again. I am contacting my dealership to see if they are aware of this issue in the 335I, and see if they can effect a repair.
- Arlington, VA, USA
My 2012 BMW 335I couple M sport package (automatic) engine stalls randomly (5 times since purchasing the car in November of 2013). As a result, the power steering fails and power brake assist also fails. Resulting in some scary situations indeed. This typically happens between 5-40 mph. Engine typically restarts after 10-15 min. The last time this has happened was on 5/21/14 at around 9am pst. I was stranded on ca highway 85. Vehicle has only 7K miles. No engine fault codes register when taken to dealership and they send me back telling me that the car is safe to drive. Here is a link to the video I captured after the last stall: youtu.be/qwvjcfafo2Y BMW of North America does not acknowledge the problem (even though I have sent them this video) and keeps sending me back to the dealership which is unable to read any fault codes in the computer. In return, the dealership sends me back to BMW of North America. Endless loop with no solution. This video is made to document the evidence of this very hazardous issue.
- San Jose, CA, USA
- Oxford, GA, USA