It might seem curious to suggest that all drivers of the vehicles of this celebrated Bavarian marque will come across the three specific issues we’re about to explain to you – and of course, we can’t claim this is literally the case.

Nonetheless, we felt the need to put the spotlight on these problems, not least for the benefit of less experienced BMW owners who might have only recently got behind the wheel of a Beemer for the first time.

Yes, the very letters ‘BMW’ are synonymous around the world with prestige, refinement, luxury, and build quality. But unfortunately, none of those terms mean the same thing as “reliability”, so we decided it was a good idea to draw attention to the following common problems with BMWs.

Issues with the electrics

It is almost guaranteed that if you own and drive a BMW for any significant period of time, you will experience some malfunctioning with the electronic aspects of the car.

We’re referring to such things as the operation of the windows, wipers, indicators, heating, and air conditioning. On your BMW, the problem may be that one or more of these functions of the car don’t work – or conversely, they might ‘work’ just fine, except that you can’t make them stop.

The good news is that any electrical problems with your BMW can be looked at and fixed by a reputable MOT centre in Laindon or wherever else you happen to live. But for as long as such faults persist, they can undoubtedly be extremely annoying.

Door handle wear and tear

Problems with the door handle of your BMW can be anything but the merely “frivolous” problem that you might initially imagine them to be. After all, what if you find one day that one of the outer door handles on your BMW lifts just fine, but doesn’t have the effect of opening the door?

This is the kind of issue that always seems to occur when you’re in a rush to get somewhere, and it can feel more than a little farcical.

With the door opening and locking mechanism on a BMW being situated within the door itself, it isn’t a massively complex problem to solve, but it will require the replacement of the faulty mechanism. That will necessitate the use of certain specialist tools.

Oil leaks

As with the other two problems we have described in this rundown, oil leaks can theoretically happen on basically any car, but they do unfortunately seem to occur a lot on BMWs.

There are certain areas where oil leaks can be especially likely to happen on a BMW, including the valve cover and valve cover gasket, the oil pan and oil pan gasket, and the oil filter housing and gasket. And those aren’t the only areas of the car where a frustrating oil leak could arise.

The gasket responsible for connecting the oil filter to the engine of your vehicle can be a particularly unsurprising source of an oil leak. There are certain moving parts that really require oil, and if a leak happens that leaves the engine with less oil, the consequence of this can be elevated wear and tear. That, in turn, can contribute to mechanical problems at a later stage.

BMWs can sometimes suffer brittle gaskets over time, with this vulnerability leading to a significant oil leak. But it can be expensive to have any gasket on a BMW repaired, which is why you might decide to have the entire part replaced, rather than just the gasket on its own. You might be especially likely to favour this option if your Beemer has over 100,000 miles on the clock.

Indeed, it’s worth being alert to your BMW’s mileage for quite a few reasons, with one of them being that the approximately 100,000-mile mark can be a classic stage at which an oil leak can develop for the first time.

Having said that, some BMWs can suffer leaking oil for the first time at around 50,000 miles, or your Beemer might exceed 150,000 miles without showing any signs of an oil leak at all.

Are you doing everything possible to look after your BMW?

While no one doubts the considerable desirability of BMW cars, there hasn’t always been strong consensus on how reliable the German manufacturer’s vehicles are in the ‘real world’. Some reports have praised BMWs as reliable, while others have suggested these cars can sometimes be vulnerable to niggles, faults, and malfunctions.

So, whatever your experiences have been to date with your own treasured BMW, it is important that you are alert to potential issues like those outlined above. Being so will help ensure you get the very best out of your BMW ownership experience for many months and years to come.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post 3 Common Issues Every BMW Driver Will Encounter appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

As you might expect, we are talking about the economic crisis again.

If the effect of this problem wouldn’t be visible enough, let’s take a look at a few numbers. In December of 2008, BMW has managed to sell 21.626 units of its cars in the United States. One year before, a few months before the recession, 33.761 units where sold on exactly the same market. This is not something which happened only in the US, because the 35% decrease in US sales can be compared with the 10% decrease in worldwide sales. Basically, the only part which saw an improvement was the MINI. Worldwide, a 29% increase was recorded and in the US, a 0.1% increase was also notice. It’s not much, but it is something.

I am wondering what will be the statistics for the next year.

The post BMW US sales lowered appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

The CEO of the car marker Fiat has recently made an interesting statement.

Apparently, the crisis is having an important effect on the people from Fiat and they don’t want to take any chances. They have declared that they will take any measure necessary for the month of January, because they have no idea how many cars they will sell. According to the CEO, all car makers will have significant problems in the year to come and no one will be able to face the recession without extra help. In the case of Germany, Mercedes or BMW will have to merge with someone while the other company might have a chance of surviving.

I think that this scenario might be a little exaggerated, but you can never know what will happen in times like this.

The post More BMW recession problems? appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW price increases, at the moment, only in America. In fact, the price increase will take place starting with 1st of January 2009.

The people from BMW North America have considered a 0.7% increase in all of their prices as necessary. The reason is obvious for anyone: the global economic crisis is starting to affect BMW. This is not as serious as it sounds because unlike other companies, BMW is still getting great feedback from customers and they manage to sell some models in larger numbers than last year.

I think that customers will understand this measure and those who can appreciate the true value of a BMW won’t be stopped by a 0.7% price increase.

The post BMW price increases appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW is taking one more crisis measure because they don’t want to risk anything in this period.

In these times, you won’t realize how hard it is to make budget cuts and figure out which projects should be continued and which ones can be delayed. BMW and most automakers have to come up with solutions for the crisis and everyone is trying to save some money. At the moment, they want to cut the production levels and see where that takes them. This is obviously not a permanent measure, but it is just something which BMW is experimenting with.

BMW has a few problems with certain models, but other ones are still creating a huge profit and the profits have increased in certain department. However, better safe than sorry.

The post BMW – Crisis measures appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

The BMW 335d and X5d were close to not passing the CARB.

These diesel cars needed special approval in order to be legally sold in the state of California. Both cars have been conditionally certified because of the rough standards on emissions. BMW is allowed to start selling their vehicles, but with each sale a fine will be emitted by the CARB. In total, there were 7 problems which have been discovered and which need to be solved by the people from BMW. If the problems don’t get fixed, the company will have to pay more for each car they sale in California, or even worse, they can lose their conditionally certification.

At the moment, the problems are unknown and everyone is waiting for a solution from BMW.

The post California Air Resources Board vs BMW appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW had a great success on the auto market in the last few years, especially in 2007.

However, in November, a 25% decrease in sales has been noticed. The people from BMW are not worried because something like this is normal on the global economy background. Many automakers have bigger problems, and BMW has a solution. The new 7-Series is one of the safety nets that BMW has created. The car was ordered in around 700 units in the first two weeks and the profit of BMW will surely go up in 2009. On the motorcycle department, a minor decrease was also noticed, but nothing serious.

BMW has a few major plans which will bring stability to the company in the next few years.

The post 25% BMW sale decrease appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW has been trying to outsell Mercedes-Benz in the last years and most of their efforts eventually paid off.

In the last 10 years, BMW has managed to sell twice as many cars as they’ve used to, being the best premium car seller on the market. Everyone agrees that they’ve made a huge progress, but the recession couldn’t be anticipated by anyone. BMW had a great marketing strategy, but it can fail in times like these. Many BMW owners bought their cars trough leasing and now they can’t afford making payments. This is a huge problem from BMW and many other car producers all over the world.

Even so, the company is still producing new models and they have a few methods of getting pass the recession.

The post BMW recession problems appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Apparently, 2500 BMW M3 had a few problems with the double clutch gearbox. It only happens on the 2008 and 2009 M3 model and only if it has the DCT double clutch transmission.

It seems that the problem appears on the downshift and BMW has developed a solution. If you don’t know if your car has the problem, you should call BMW customer support. In most cases, the glitch appears by triggering a multi-stage downshift. In some cases, this will cause the engine to stall, which is the last thing you want in any scenario. BMW will solve the problem free of charge with updated software.

You can solve your M3 downshift problem by contacting a BMW dealership. Most dealers know exactly how to do it and it will be totally free of charge.

The post BMW M3 downshift problem appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.