So, did I just get a bad one?

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:02 am

Stephen Westerfield wrote:

Yeah VK, you insensitive SOB. Steve just had to bail on his BMW race car to drive a Ford instead. Talk about salt in the wound. Show some respect for his loss will ya? The nerve! :lol:

A Ford Contour at that.

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:06 am

Steven Carter wrote:

I suppose it's relative. If you bought a recent BMW you could be on your third high-pressure fuel pump in under 40k...or, your engine could've blown up at 15k because of machining errors in rod bearings. Your entire cooling system might be on its second or third replacement by 60k.

Wow, really? Which model BMW are you referring to?

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:11 am

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Steven Carter wrote:

I suppose it's relative. If you bought a recent BMW you could be on your third high-pressure fuel pump in under 40k...or, your engine could've blown up at 15k because of machining errors in rod bearings. Your entire cooling system might be on its second or third replacement by 60k.

Wow, really? Which model BMW are you referring to?

HPFP is refering to the bi-turbo N54 in the 335/135/535 etc. They tend to go between every 1 year to every 1.5 years. BMW is on the 4th or 5th iteration of design (or superseded part number ) I think.

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:12 am

Ryan Holton wrote:

Stephen Westerfield wrote:

Yeah VK, you insensitive SOB. Steve just had to bail on his BMW race car to drive a Ford instead. Talk about salt in the wound. Show some respect for his loss will ya? The nerve! :lol:

A Ford Contour at that.

Poor thing, and he had to suffer through driving a POS Honda Prelude before that when his BMW wouldn't run. Quite the traumatic experience I might imagine.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:21 am

Stephen Westerfield wrote:

Ryan Holton wrote:

Stephen Westerfield wrote:

Yeah VK, you insensitive SOB. Steve just had to bail on his BMW race car to drive a Ford instead. Talk about salt in the wound. Show some respect for his loss will ya? The nerve! :lol:

A Ford Contour at that.

Poor thing, and he had to suffer through driving a POS Honda Prelude before that when his BMW wouldn't run. Quite the traumatic experience I might imagine.

I think Steve needs a hug

steve remchak · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:21 am

Stephen Westerfield wrote:

Ryan Holton wrote:

Stephen Westerfield wrote:

Yeah VK, you insensitive SOB. Steve just had to bail on his BMW race car to drive a Ford instead. Talk about salt in the wound. Show some respect for his loss will ya? The nerve! :lol:

A Ford Contour at that.

Poor thing, and he had to suffer through driving a POS Honda Prelude before that when his BMW wouldn't run. Quite the traumatic experience I might imagine.

now you are just being hurtful Stephen.

clinehall · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:00 pm

Is there an app to alert me to these kind's of threads when they start?

:twisted:

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:12 pm

JamesShort wrote:

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Steven Carter wrote:

I suppose it's relative. If you bought a recent BMW you could be on your third high-pressure fuel pump in under 40k...or, your engine could've blown up at 15k because of machining errors in rod bearings. Your entire cooling system might be on its second or third replacement by 60k.

Wow, really? Which model BMW are you referring to?

HPFP is refering to the bi-turbo N54 in the 335/135/535 etc. They tend to go between every 1 year to every 1.5 years. BMW is on the 4th or 5th iteration of design (or superseded part number ) I think.

Steve - am I understanding correctly from your post above that the N54 cars also have bad rod bearings and cooling systems that typically fail at under 30K? If so, I'm quite surprised. A friend owns an '08 135i and has experienced none of these problems, nor any others I'm aware of.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:55 pm

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Steve - am I understanding correctly from your post above that the N54 cars also have bad rod bearings and cooling systems that typically fail at under 30K? If so, I'm quite surprised. A friend owns an '08 135i and has experienced none of these problems, nor any others I'm aware of.

Keith, recent to me means within the last 15 years. Good BMWs haven't been built since 1980s--but that's just my opinion"

--HPFP issues on the 135, 335 of current generation (on their 4th variant, IIRC)
--rod bearing failure on early (2001-2002) S54 M3s. Do a search for "Engine of Damocles" for better info... (S54 MRoadster/Coupes were apparently spared this fate mostly because of lowered rev limits)
--cooling system/radiator/water pump failure on E46 and E36 era cars
--Z3/Z8 subframe/unibody separation (seen on some E36/46 models as well)

I only hold up BMW as I am a former marque owner. Porsche has their own issues (IMS, anyone?), as do most any brand of vehicle.

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:51 am

Steven Carter wrote:

Keith, recent to me means within the last 15 years. Good BMWs haven't been built since 1980s--but that's just my opinion"

--HPFP issues on the 135, 335 of current generation (on their 4th variant, IIRC)
--rod bearing failure on early (2001-2002) S54 M3s. Do a search for "Engine of Damocles" for better info... (S54 MRoadster/Coupes were apparently spared this fate mostly because of lowered rev limits)
--cooling system/radiator/water pump failure on E46 and E36 era cars
--Z3/Z8 subframe/unibody separation (seen on some E36/46 models as well)

I only hold up BMW as I am a former marque owner. Porsche has their own issues (IMS, anyone?), as do most any brand of vehicle.

Okay, that makes better sense. I'm very aware of the E36 and E46 issues (although I've never heard of anyone's cooling system failing at the <30K frequency stated earlier, it's typically somewhere above 80K with an occasional early water pump failure on the earlier E36 models). I misunderstood your initial post to mean all these issues were common on a specific/recent model - if so, that would certainly justify the type of bashing BMW gets from some of our forum members.

Heck, if you compile all the major issues over the past 15 years production of any car manufacturer's entire line-up, even the "best" (Honda/Acura) look highly problematic.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:31 am

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Heck, if you compile all the major issues over the past 15 years production of any car manufacturer's entire line-up, even the "best" (Honda/Acura) look highly problematic.

Keith,
Agreed..all cars have issues, some moreso than others. Not "bashing" BMW, just using them merely to point out that other brands have more serious/more frequent issues, some have fewer. As an anecdotal example, my sister-in-law's E46 325 blew 2 water pumps before 50k miles, the first at 25k...it's more common than one might think.

Anyway...just because a part fails early (water pump, axle boot, battery) doesn't necessarily mean the buyer got a "bad one."

JamesShort · **Posted:** Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:31 am

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Heck, if you compile all the major issues over the past 15 years production of any car manufacturer's entire line-up, even the "best" (Honda/Acura) look highly problematic.

I agree with this. It seems that ALL car brands are getting worse and lower quality and more gotchas....except maybe Ford...they seem to have been on an upward swing for a while now. However the relative 'standing' amongst brands don't seem to have changed much....ie they all have dropped a similar relative amount.

Actually, in help Ram research the Pcar, it seams that Porsche has done a good job at fixing on the gotchas from the 996/986 and prior engines/trans etc. So the 997/987 might prove to be one of the most reliable Pcars ever.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:55 am

JamesShort wrote:

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Heck, if you compile all the major issues over the past 15 years production of any car manufacturer's entire line-up, even the "best" (Honda/Acura) look highly problematic.

I agree with this. It seems that ALL car brands are getting worse and lower quality and more gotchas....except maybe Ford...they seem to have been on an upward swing for a while now. However the relative 'standing' amongst brands don't seem to have changed much....ie they all have dropped a similar relative amount.

Actually, in help Ram research the Pcar, it seams that Porsche has done a good job at fixing on the gotchas from the 996/986 and prior engines/trans etc. So the 997/987 might prove to be one of the most reliable Pcars ever.

Ford? care to discuss Super Duty diesels? :lol:

truth be told if i went on here bashing Hondas or the other Asian brands i would be dismissed as ...... well probably the same as always......... but my point is BMW attacks are as prevalent as smilies on this forum and i for one am frankly tired of it. granted our LeMons car has been falling apart for about the last two years but i don't see where that has anything to do with this particular discussion.

if anything, our POS LeMons car should serve as an example to series such as ChumpCar to lessen their valuation persecution directed toward E30 teams. the more ya'll feed the stereotype the harder it is for some of us to get a fair shake in BS judging.

stop trying to hold us down, free the E30 racers.......... USA, USA, USA!!!!!!!

now if we could just get the piece of shit running again. :mrgreen:

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:06 am

steve remchak wrote:

truth be told if i went on here bashing Hondas or the other Asian brands i would be dismissed as ...... well probably the same as always......... but my point is BMW attacks are as prevalent as smilies on this forum and i for one am frankly tired of it. granted our LeMons car has been falling apart for about the last two years but i don't see where that has anything to do with this particular discussion.

if anything, our POS LeMons car should serve as an example to series such as ChumpCar to lessen their valuation persecution directed toward E30 teams. the more ya'll feed the stereotype the harder it is for some of us to get a fair shake in BS judging.

stop trying to hold us down, free the E30 racers.......... USA, USA, USA!!!!!!!

now if we could just get the piece of shit running again. :mrgreen:

Steve,
I purposefully exclude E30s and similar 80s-era BMW. I think very highly of them, and they are typically exceptionally reliable beyond 225000 miles if you just change the fluids (and sometimes even without good lube maintenance.) Sigh...again, not bashing BMW, just using that brand because having owned an E30, E36/7 recently that was my best frame of refernece. FWIW, Subaru had issues with some rod bearings on early MY 2009 WRXs, and some of the newer STIs report engine problems related to overlean conditions under boost. No one is immune.

IMO, Honda should get bashed currently for making milquetoast beigemobiles that have no soul, even moreso after killing off the S2000--feel better, Mr Remchak?

steve remchak · **Posted:** Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:07 am

Steven Carter wrote:

steve remchak wrote:

truth be told if i went on here bashing Hondas or the other Asian brands i would be dismissed as ...... well probably the same as always......... but my point is BMW attacks are as prevalent as smilies on this forum and i for one am frankly tired of it. granted our LeMons car has been falling apart for about the last two years but i don't see where that has anything to do with this particular discussion.

if anything, our POS LeMons car should serve as an example to series such as ChumpCar to lessen their valuation persecution directed toward E30 teams. the more ya'll feed the stereotype the harder it is for some of us to get a fair shake in BS judging.

stop trying to hold us down, free the E30 racers.......... USA, USA, USA!!!!!!!

now if we could just get the piece of shit running again. :mrgreen:

Steve,
I purposefully exclude E30s and similar 80s-era BMW. I think very highly of them, and they are typically exceptionally reliable beyond 225000 miles if you just change the fluids (and sometimes even without good lube maintenance.) Sigh...again, not bashing BMW, just using that brand because having owned an E30, E36/7 recently that was my best frame of refernece. FWIW, Subaru had issues with some rod bearings on early MY 2009 WRXs, and some of the newer STIs report engine problems related to overlean conditions under boost. No one is immune.

IMO, Honda should get bashed currently for making milquetoast beigemobiles that have no soul, even moreso after killing off the S2000--feel better, Mr Remchak?

indeed Mr. Carter, indeed.

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