Hot Climates Kill 3-Series?

[William330]

I live in the cooler northeast, and have already had the velvet door
trim fall off both the passenger and driver doors.

For people who live in warmer states, such as Texas, Arizona, etc,
how does the car hold up when baking in the sun?

I'm considering a move to a warmer state, should I worry about my
baby falling apart even more than it is now?

 

[rjp325i]

I live in Henderson, NV just 15 minutes from Las Vegas strip. Summer days can top 110 or even 115 deg. We already have had several 100 degree days (low 90s is norm for this time of year). My 2004 330iw/ZHP, purchased in Jan of 2004 has 22K miles on it and no repairs or special maintenance has been performed. I do change oil every 7K miles tho, but I would anyway. My car is garaged. Previously I had a very bright red 1989 e30 that I purchased while living in NY (Long Island) in 1997 prior to moving here in 1998 and had no problems. Wax jobs do not last as long in the warmer months. The trim piece for the door has been a problem everywhere fortunately I have not encountered the problem.

 

[dm_longhorn]

There is some interior trim lining the door/window that came off last summer... I believe that was attributed to the heat.. but not sure. Took the dealer 10 mins to fix.

 

[bmwrocks]

My velvet trim fell off both sides after the car was 2 1/2 years old!!!

So don't worry rjp325i.....yours will fall off too. Just give it time.

I think the trim is the only heat/climate related problem

 

[TSilver330CI]

are you talking about that black part that outlines the driver and passenger door?

Well yeah mine has fell off too. What gives???? What can I do to glue it back on?

 

[rjp325i]

I'm not sure if the door seal is a heat related problem due to where one lives. It seems to be more widespread than just the in warmer states since William330 lives in the northeast. The Las Vegas area probably gets hotter than most states in the summer. We've already had a week of 100+ degrees and the norm for early June is the low nineties. July and August are even hotter. It does however seem that it is a more frequent problem on the coupes rather than the 4 doors but I have heard of it occurring on them too. I'm surprised a different adhesive has not been used (or has it?). Could it be a matter of when the car was built and different adhesives are used? Maybe the 3M weather strip trim adhesive available at PEP Boys is better. I've just been lucky so far with my 4 door but my son had it happen on his 2003 330ci last year. Like dm_longhorn said, it is a 10 min repair. I'll learn how to fix it when/if it occurs and I'm out of warranty.

 

[Bryan330i]

I, like rjp325i, live in Henderson, Nevada. It’s hotter than hell here!!! Actually, it runs about 5-8 degrees hotter than the official Las Vegas temperature. So a Las Vegas temp. of 110 would be 115-118.

The biggest thing that I notice is performance differences because of the heat. Someone from the board drove his car here from the South and he noticed the same thing--that the heat killed his cars performance.

Aside from this I have not noticed much else.

 

[codex57]

Mine hasn't fallen off yet. But, I got tint on it shortly after I bought the car and it rarely is out baking in the sun. Particularly now that I'm out in the Santa Monica area where even if it's in the sun, it's like 80 degrees at most.

 

[William330]

Thanks for the responses!

How about the paint? I know the BMW paint seems 'soft' (bird poop kills it in
a few hours), does it fade or have other issues in heat?

 

[Dutch]

I can tell you for sure that BMW paint is very very good. But all the paints nowadays are softer than they used to be due to the fact that lead cannot be used anymore because of the environment. I have seen a guy repair 2 dents in my car (paintless repair) and on the Nissan 350Z a friend of mine owns. He could bend the car´s body panel many more times than he could on the 350. From his experience, BMW and Mercedes were the best amongs car paint. A Hyundai´s body panel can only be bent like 1 or 2 times before the paint cracks.

So just keep waxing and you´ll ben fine