Car Broke Down

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Comatose51

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#1
Argh! My 325xi decided to break down on me today. It has 35,000 miles and about 3 years old. It would start but whenever I stepped on the gas, it would stall out. The Service Engine Soon light came on. I actually managed to get it going once I turned the AC off but the engine light stayed on. I had to get it towed by a flatbed. Thank goodness for BMW Roadside Assistance. The bad thing was today was Sunday so BMW service was closed. I had to drop off the car and call a cab. Think they're reimburse me for the cab ride?

Anyone seen this before or have any ideas of what is wrong? I've never had it stall out on me before. I've had the engine shake a bit once while I was idling at a light. I didn't make anything of it and thought it was a fluke. Any guesses?

While I was riding in the tow truck over, I asked the guy what kind of car he tows the most. It turns out to be Toyota, which kind of surprised me given their reliability. But then again, if you're the best selling cars, you're going to have more towed just by statistics. BMWs get towed not too often. The guy told me it is always because of electrical problem, which I guess is my case as well.

This shakes my faith in BMW a bit. The car has been nearly flawless in reliability until now. I've had some dings and scratches from my own carelessness and had to replace lights once because of bad socket. I never expected this. I hope they can fix it and fast. My family has quite a bit of faith in BMWs.
 
Militant-Grunt

Militant-Grunt

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#2
Comatose51 said:
Argh! My 325xi decided to break down on me today. It has 35,000 miles and about 3 years old. It would start but whenever I stepped on the gas, it would stall out. The Service Engine Soon light came on. I actually managed to get it going once I turned the AC off but the engine light stayed on. I had to get it towed by a flatbed. Thank goodness for BMW Roadside Assistance. The bad thing was today was Sunday so BMW service was closed. I had to drop off the car and call a cab. Think they're reimburse me for the cab ride?

Anyone seen this before or have any ideas of what is wrong? I've never had it stall out on me before. I've had the engine shake a bit once while I was idling at a light. I didn't make anything of it and thought it was a fluke. Any guesses?

While I was riding in the tow truck over, I asked the guy what kind of car he tows the most. It turns out to be Toyota, which kind of surprised me given their reliability. But then again, if you're the best selling cars, you're going to have more towed just by statistics. BMWs get towed not too often. The guy told me it is always because of electrical problem, which I guess is my case as well.

This shakes my faith in BMW a bit. The car has been nearly flawless in reliability until now. I've had some dings and scratches from my own carelessness and had to replace lights once because of bad socket. I never expected this. I hope they can fix it and fast. My family has quite a bit of faith in BMWs.
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I wouldnt worry about it 3 year 35k miles is a lot. Things happen. Your still on a warranty so what ever it is, its going to get fixed free of charge. [cheers] My ml55 is from 01' and is at 44k miles, I already began to have some problems w/ it, AC system leak, few faulty bulbs, cars w/ age slowly break.. [?|]
 
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deutsch100

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Yeah, I agree. 3 years and 30,000+ miles and if this is the first "break down"....I think you should feel lucky that you have had such a good car. You can't lose faith with BMW, or any other brand, if after 3 years you have only 1 problem.

Enjoy the 4th,..... and knowing BMW it is probably just some software update needed [hah]
 
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beamca

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deutsch100 said:
Yeah, I agree. 3 years and 30,000+ miles and if this is the first "break down"....I think you should feel lucky that you have had such a good car. You can't lose faith with BMW, or any other brand, if after 3 years you have only 1 problem.

Enjoy the 4th,..... and knowing BMW it is probably just some software update needed [hah]
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I'm the owner of a 2002 BMW 325, bought it used and the "Check engine soon" light just came on. Called the dealer and told me that I shouldn't worry too much as long as the car is running fine. They suggested to bring it in if in the next few days it doesn't go off.

I have to respectfully disagree with the assertion that anybody should feel lucky if a car has only had one problem in the span of 3 years. Coming from driving Japanese cars for the past 10 years, and given today's improvement in car reliability accross the board, it is absurdly unacceptable that a car should stop running with such low miles. I love my BMW but if it posses a problem with theaforementioned issue, or it strands me within the first 60,000-75,000 miles, I'll gladly go back to what has shown and proved true car reliability - Japanese cars.

Again, this is not an attack, just an opinion.
 
aNoodle

aNoodle

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That's a fair opinion too. We've bought cars that have a butt load of sensors and cutting edge crap. It's great to have all that horsepower at such great fuel efficiency, but it comes at the price of reliability. Sure, no technology should be loaded up if it's not well tested. There's really no excuse for a car cutting off in it's first three years. But things go wrong, that's why they offer such a liberal warranty. The older BMWs didn't have such a warranty and were simpler beasts. Long term, if you want a good reliable workhorse, I'd say go with a suspension that's less nible and prone to wear. Or a good push rod engine with few electronic gizmos to go on the blink.
 
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zman

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I have 2003 325XI too. It did that to me a few months after I got the car. It turneds out to be the coil. In fact, it happened twice. From what you described, it seems to be coil problem too, but we'll see.
 
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