| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 004038246 | Incident Date: Aug, 09 2004 |
| Consumer's City: | Consumer's State: MD |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: MAN | Manufacturers Name: BMW of North America, LLC |
| Model Name: M3 | Model Year: 2003 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No | Component's Description: Power train:manual transmission |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 0 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: WBSBL93493J | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Sep, 11 2005 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: Apr, 29 2003 |
| Was Original Owner: Yes | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 6 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: I am the owner of a 2003 m3 equipped with the smg-ii transmission [xxx]. for the past year (since the car accrued about 11,000 miles), the car has, with increasing frequency, failed to make the shift from 3rd to 4th gear under hard acceleration. instead, the transmission slips into neutral and the engine free-revs often past red-line. the result is that the car loses acceleration (dramatically if the fuel is cut-off when the red-line is passed), but because the driver's foot is on the gas, the brake lights do not illuminate. this recently nearly caused me to be rear-ended. as you can imagine, when accelerating to merge into highway traffic, an unannounced loss of forward momentum is very dangerous. bmw has replaced the transmission (twice), which has failed to correct the problem. my dealer has submitted a puma to bmw engineers (twice) without a response. the most recent submittal was about two months ago, which coincided with another puma submittal from another dealer about the same problem. i am aware of at least three other people with the exact same problem. (one of them is on his fourth transmission and still has the malfunction.) bmw, however, has not taken adequate steps to remedy the problem, issued a service bulletin or otherwise addressed the safety issue. my inquiry to customer service was also unhelpful. at the end of august, i sent a letter describing this problem with return receipt to the attention of the general counsel of bmw of north america, llc. i have received no response nor has any attempt been made by bmw to contact me. my attempts to reach any part of bmw other than customer service have also failed. *jb updated 07/19/2012 *js information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6) |
