| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 005045616 | Incident Date: Jul, 04 2005 |
| Consumer's City: STERLING HEIGHTS | Consumer's State: MI |
| 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#: WBSBL93413J | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Nov, 07 2005 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: Oct, 13 2002 |
| Was Original Owner: Yes | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 6 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: I own a 2003 bmw m3 equipped with a smg(sequential manual gearbox). within a month of ownership, the car started exhibiting a symptom that could potentially cause a serious accident. during acceleration in 1st gear from standstill, if the car travels over a bump or potholes, the car begins to behave in a jerky, stop and go motion. if i kept my foot on the accelerator pedal, the more violent the stop and go motion would become. the only way to recover is to release the accelerator pedal until the car slows down or the tach goes below 1500 rpm. when accelerating over smooth surfaces, the problem will not occur. however, the problem will always occur while accelerating the car in 1st gear over bumpy roads that allows the back tires to momentarily lose traction. a driveway entrance is an example of a bump that would cause this problem to occur. i believe you can see the potential danger when this happens. crossing the street is potentially dangerous should this failure occur. my car now has approx. 5000 miles and on july, 2005 i brought it in to erhard bmw of bloomfield hills, mi. i demonstrated the problem to their technician and he agreed this symptom was real and always reproducible. after keeping my car for over a week, the service manager called to tell me that bmw said this is normal operation. i calmly took my car back but told him of my dissatisfaction of the service. i work in the automotive industry and i believe i'm knowledgeable enough to know what is normal operation and what is not. if bmw had known that the m3 with smg exhibited this defect, they would have ever launched this vehicle. i believe this is a safety issue. i appreciate if nhtsa could investigate this further. i don't want bmw to disregard their responsibility just to keep their name and reputation intact. i will glady allow my car as evidence to this investigation if needed. i just want bmw to be aware of this issue and work in trying to find a solution to this problem. *nm |
