2.0

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
79,375 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.

Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 1997 BMW 740:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #1

Oct 282003

740 8-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 79,375 miles
There seems to be a common defect in the '1995-'01 BMW 740 series gas tank. There is a problem that occurs that creates a vaccum in the tank which then makes the tank implode. It just crush in upon itself until it pops or a seam breaks somewhere. This happened to me yesterday while I was driving to work and had 17 gallons of gas spewing from underneath the car. I didn't notice it until I was in my parking garage which is in a 49 story building. The jersey city fire department came then brought in their hazmat team. They recovered/cleaned up maybe 7 gallons while in the garage so about 10 gallons spilled while I was driving. Needless to say this was an extremely dangerous situation that could have been prevented if BMW had recalled the car on this item. It has happened to at least 6 other people on this message board that I'm a part of: bimmer.roadfly.org/BMW/forums/E38/ I'm just glad that no one got hurt and that my 3 and 1 year old daughters were not in the car. But if something is not done soon someone is going to die as a result of this defect.

- Scotch Plains, NJ, USA

Add Complaint