She left me unexpectedly today (on a flatbed)

[Greg P]

Well, this must be the 1st E92 M3 post regarding reliability and unfortunately it affects me. With a paltry 290 miles on the clock, my M3 displayed it's first warning sign this morning. When I started her up, she reported that she had no oil - the red line rev counter also moved back all the way to 6000 revs, which I guess was the car trying to protect itself. What is also crap, is that you have to start the engine to get an oil level reading - great if you really have run out of oil !

After a hundred mile drive yesterday nothing showed up on the dash, so this morning was a complete surprise (and massive disappointment) - I was going to fill her up with fuel (1 tankful gone and 38 miles left on the clock).

Anyway, I got under the car to see if I could see any trace of a popped oil line or suchlike, but everything was as dry as a bone. To be honest I suspect a faulty sensor, but without a 'belt and braces' dipstick available, I'm none the wiser (my 911 also has electronic measurement, but also has a dipstick just in case).

To cut a long story short, I have been apalled by the response of BMW breakdown service today. Yes it was a weekend, but I phoned the problem in at 12:30 noon and after many calls from me, the car was eventually taken away at 4:30 on flatbed and a crappy banged up Ford Mondeo courtesy car was supplied at 7:15pm. It was a good job the problem didn't manifest itself while I was on a road trip with family in tow.

Another lesser problem also started yesterday, which I was going to report in due course, regarding the iDrive system. For some reason yesterday, iDrive was intermittently not responding to knob left/right/up/down movements or selection press. Whether the 2 problems are linked I don't know, all I do know, is that it will be Monday before the car gets delivered to Wollaston BMW in Northampton and they start their diagnosis. I'm feeling pretty pissed at the moment for 2 reasons, 1) my new pride and joy has disappeared of the drive and 2) BMW's service experience to date has been a bad one.

I will keep you all posted.

[1198r]

Very sorry to hear your news and hoping it gets solved quickly.

I have to say I was not over impressed with my dealer either. The car was not really prepped that well. You would think that after spending £55k on a car they would have cleaned and polished her - especially the windows and not charged £25 for quarter of a tank of fuel.....

[monsta]

oh no sorry to hear about your mishap....this reminds me of when the M5 came out & had the vanos line problem, definitely not your case since you said everything was dry...

[lucid]

Bummer...My experience with BMW service in the US has been rather favorable, but my car has never been out of comission like yours. If you can't find any trace of an oil leak around the engine or under the car, a significant amount of oil might have somehow been burned in the cylinders (bad scenario, but you should have seen a warning earlier while you were driving), or as you said, there is a sensor or some other electronics glitch (more likely).

[phoenixbmwlife]

Cheer up dude. You shouldn't be too surprised to find early problems with first production cars. This is why some wait for the next year so all the recalls and bugs are worked out. I'm more surprised that this is the only incident I've heard of since its launch.

I hope you get your car back soon.

[AidenL]

Wow, thats bad news

[ToddMcF2002]

Uh shades of the nightmares I had with my 01 M3. Sensors sensors sensors. I think I lost a dozen various sensors before I gave up and sold it.

But anyway, this is probably a one off.

[devo]

Originally Posted by Greg P

Well, this must be the 1st E92 M3 post regarding reliability and unfortunately it affects me. With a paltry 290 miles on the clock, my M3 displayed it's first warning sign this morning. When I started her up, she reported that she had no oil - the red line rev counter also moved back all the way to 6000 revs, which I guess was the car trying to protect itself. What is also crap, is that you have to start the engine to get an oil level reading - great if you really have run out of oil !

After a hundred mile drive yesterday nothing showed up on the dash, so this morning was a complete surprise (and massive disappointment) - I was going to fill her up with fuel (1 tankful gone and 38 miles left on the clock).

Anyway, I got under the car to see if I could see any trace of a popped oil line or suchlike, but everything was as dry as a bone. To be honest I suspect a faulty sensor, but without a 'belt and braces' dipstick available, I'm none the wiser (my 911 also has electronic measurement, but also has a dipstick just in case).

To cut a long story short, I have been apalled by the response of BMW breakdown service today. Yes it was a weekend, but I phoned the problem in at 12:30 noon and after many calls from me, the car was eventually taken away at 4:30 on flatbed and a crappy banged up Ford Mondeo courtesy car was supplied at 7:15pm. It was a good job the problem didn't manifest itself while I was on a road trip with family in tow.

Another lesser problem also started yesterday, which I was going to report in due course, regarding the iDrive system. For some reason yesterday, iDrive was intermittently not responding to knob left/right/up/down movements or selection press. Whether the 2 problems are linked I don't know, all I do know, is that it will be Monday before the car gets delivered to Wollaston BMW in Northampton and they start their diagnosis. I'm feeling pretty pissed at the moment for 2 reasons, 1) my new pride and joy has disappeared of the drive and 2) BMW's service experience to date has been a bad one.

I will keep you all posted.

Very sorry to hear about your troubles.

What year 911 do have?. My 997/911 didn't have a dipstick.

[13eastie]

Very sorry to hear such disappointing news, both about the car and the dealers. A bloody Mondeo? WTF?

Hope it's soon sorted - fingers crossed the breakdown is a one-in-a-million blip...

[Epacy]

Tough one. I can imagine how down in the dumps you are.

Yeah, the Ford replacement isn't cool one bit.

[Greg P]

Originally Posted by devo

Very sorry to hear about your troubles.

What year 911 do have?. My 997/911 didn't have a dipstick.

2003 996 so that explains it. I guess they call it progress (unless the electronics go faulty of course )

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by Greg P

I will keep you all posted.

Thanks. I hope your new ride is back on the road in short order.

[heyimsexy]

ive only seen 1 car where the engine had to be running to measure the oil and that was an early 80's porsche. with the engine running, oil is circulating throughout the entire system and cant be measured accurately, you sure you just dont have to have the ignition on but engine off?

manufacturers stopped putting dipsticks in cars to make it tougher for people to do their own oil changes. to only change the oil and do/check nothing else, we charge over $100 here at mercedes. they get you by the balls

did the vehicle say the oil was LOW or that it had NO oil? with a brand new vehicle it is not uncommon for the oil level to shrink down a bit while new parts wear into eachother. if it was leaking oil you'd know it when you looked under, or if it were guzzling it you would smell it and see blue smoke out the tailpipe.

lastly, the entire service department is closed on weekends, but you should still have at least been able to get a decent rental...sucky.

[Greg P]

Originally Posted by heyimsexy

you sure you just dont have to have the ignition on but engine off?

did the vehicle say the oil was LOW or that it had NO oil? .

With the electronic key in but engine not started, you still can't get a reading - it has to be started ....

The car showed a warning symbol and a min/max dial with no level displayed, doesn't actually say NO OIL.

As said before, I'm hoping tomorrow will bring the BMW verdict which I'll share with you all.

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by Greg P

When I started her up, she reported that she had no oil - the red line rev counter also moved back all the way to 6000 revs, which I guess was the car trying to protect itself.

I know the redline is reduced when the car is not in gear. Does the displayed redline adjust, perhaps?

[southlight]

Originally Posted by GregW / Oregon

I know the redline is reduced when the car is not in gear. Does the displayed redline adjust, perhaps?

AFAIK not, the redline display only shows the recommended max depending on the oil temperature (and probably in case of failure messages like Greg experienced). It doesn't go back when there's no gear engaged.

Best regards, south

[squeezebm]

Greg,sorry to here of your probs pal,re service a while back '02 M3 the mrs Squeeze called out Bm Assist to the drivers door handle sticking when trying to open it i could have lived with it,but as she rightly pointed out it was a fully warrated M car so sod that. Anyway they were with her within half an hour or so and sorted it
Whilst talking to the "technician" she was advised rightly or wrongly that they were taught unofficially that 99% of people who had bought an M model new there stuff when it came to cars and were treated accordingly

anyway - hope you get it sorted ASAP

[Greg P]

Bollocks ............. well it turns out that the car REALLY was low on oil and needed just over a litre to bring it back to normal. BMW say there were no other problems, although I'm suspicious that even a bedding in engine shouldn't use over a litre of oil in 250 miles.
Going to pick her back up tomorrow lunchtime and will obviously have to monitor the oil situation closely - interested to hear whether other owners like Filthy and RealDC have had to top their cars up in the past month. At least with a real dipstick I could have added some oil without worrying about over filling it !

[Epacy]

Originally Posted by Greg P

At least with a real dipstick I could have added some oil without worrying about over filling it !

As posted earlier in the thread, that is precisely what they don't want you to do.


They didn't think it was strange that the car ate through that much oil?

[phoenixbmwlife]

Originally Posted by Greg P

Bollocks ............. well it turns out that the car REALLY was low on oil and needed just over a litre to bring it back to normal. BMW say there were no other problems, although I'm suspicious that even a bedding in engine shouldn't use over a litre of oil in 250 miles.
Going to pick her back up tomorrow lunchtime and will obviously have to monitor the oil situation closely - interested to hear whether other owners like Filthy and RealDC have had to top their cars up in the past month. At least with a real dipstick I could have added some oil without worrying about over filling it !

Glad to hear that you'll be getting her back tomorrow and that there are no issues. Have you been driving hard on the road and over reving the engine? Whats been your routine in terms of how you have been driving so far? And what's the mileage now?
Sorry for the 20 questions. I hope you dont mind answering them I'm just trying to get a clear and accurate picture in my head.

[aerisolphaln]

What about your iDrive system??

[lucid]

An engine burning a liter of oil over 250 miles seems odd to me. What did you dealer say? If they didn't come up with a legitimate explanation, I would consider writing directly to BMW and asking about this.