so everybody knows BMWs known for their high quality finishing performance
driving dynamics overall quality feel and stylish looks so all you guys out
there know already that I love my BMW cars of course I've got a couple myself
I've always owned one or two at any given time but I am the first to admit
that there are reliability concerns more for some of the versions than others of
course but I'm gonna explain to you why three main reasons why BMWs are so
unreliable welcome back to the channel underbody mark with the first reason
that BMWs are somewhat unreliable at least by most people's standards are the
electronics and when I say electronics help with the complexities what you know
BMW sort of state-of-the-art they're always breaking through new trends and
new designs new technology but when they do that there's always a risk of things
not being worked out properly they're trying new things that maybe
haven't been tried and true you know they were the first ones to come up with
more or less the I Drive scenario everybody sort of followed suit after
that but you know I drives and fully loaded features we've got power windows
and mirrors and all kinds of different safety technologies that adds a whole
gamut of complexity to the car and because it adds complexity there's
always a risk of things to go wrong and BMW is not short on failures of course
in terms of electronic and electric based failures other reasons why BMW
electronic systems and electrical systems sometimes act up or become
slightly less reliable is you know just the way it's been installed some of the
wiring has been routed in ways that creates pinch points another classic one
that's been known to cause fires and have led to issues are drain plugs and
poorly located drain plugs that allow water to dissipate away from collection
points and of course the water sits there sloshes around and sometimes
contaminates wiring and wiring connectors ultimately leading to
deterioration of connections as well as the wiring itself and of course alright
failure of whatever circuit it fed so that's another reason you want some
great examples of failures about door locks window regulators wipers Sun roofs
and you never believe this guy's turn signals is another one that people for
some reason associate with BMW cars and BMW drivers now there's also ones that
become more than an inconvenience where you know a door lock isn't working or a
power mirror isn't working how about ones that create safety
hazards and there's actually recalls on some electrical-based issues of course
the PCV heater element in some cars of course in some of the e90 s and some of
those generations we explained in previous videos 2007 to 2011 model years
of many different models of course had this valve a issue with a you know
there's an internal heater in this PCV that would short out and cause an engine
fire that was a big one how about eight oh right main wiring deterioration to
the point where the wiring comes apart and when it comes apart the whole car
goes black and it can happen at speeds very dangerous very hazardous there's
been cases noted where people have veered off the road and got either
severely injured or killed as a result of total loss of visibility lights and
power everything in the car so there's been lots of examples of you know things
just failing and electrically and things that outright cause safety issues on the
electrical system so the second thing that is a major failure point or why
people would consider these cars unreliable is the extensive use of
plastic plastic parts are not new to the BMW world everybody knows that's a snow
secret they're that BMW uses plastic and a lot of things for example cooling
systems where thermostat housings and water pumps and radiators and hoses and
lines that are all constructed of plastic that deteriorate very very
quickly how about another one on a lot of the in line cars particularly inline
six cars you have a problem you know e 46 is e 90s I mean the list goes on that
utilize inline 6-cylinder engines that find themselves with warping valve
covers of course leaking valve cover gaskets as
a result of that oh no not another one you have leaks you have twisting and
warping or rotting of the gasket or of course the valve cover itself which
leads to again leaks possibly misfiring and just an overall sense of
deterioration which really isn't inspiring or how about the s65 NES 85
engines which share the same basic infrastructure in architecture that's
the wonderful m3 and m5 from about 2005 to about 2011 or so those cars utilized
a throttle actuator assembly now the throttle actuator is a great little
device but it's not great on the inside where there exists little plastic gears
that rotate and they strip out and when they strip out you get a code the engine
goes in the limb mode and you can no longer enjoy the spirited fun that the
car was intended to provide another one is just generally if you ever taken door
panels off you want to run some wire maybe four speakers or you've got to do
a repair and you have to access something and behind a panel
well BMW uses these wonderful little plastic fasteners that you pop them once
and I would say it's a 50/50 crapshoot whether you can reuse that fastener
often they break off the head comes apart or they just get too sloppy and
they can't push and retain the original piece so a lot of times those fasteners
fall apart too many plastic fasteners I remember having an old air-cooled 911
back in the day there was almost no plastic fasteners everything was screwed
down with a metal screw how about another example everybody knows about
the wonderful n54 engine you know that great turbocharged twin turbocharged
engine that they stuffed into the 335 s and the 535 s amazing drivetrain for
performance not so much for reliability largely because there was a lot of
plastic used in there of course for the cooling system we described already but
even things like the turbocharged pipe so the the boost pipe essentially was
made of sort of a corrugated pipe it wasn't very strong and if you applied
any more boost than you would expect normally from factory often they split
and they would leak boost and sometimes even in stock form they would just that
you know that overheating and heating cycles they would split they
would come apart and you find yourself with a situation of leaking boost and of
course reduced power as a result how about other things it's not just about
the plastic how about like the great n62 engine you know that v8 motor that we
talked about in previous videos that engine uses a particular style of valve
guide seal that just really not fitted for its application as a result the
valve guide seal leaks oil by and creates a scenario where the car burns a
whole lot of oil again an ugly scenario so it's a mismatch of either materials
the parts the sizing the specification whatever it is it's a material concern
and of course it's you know the the rubberized oring that they put as a seal
around the guide and the valves so the third major reason that you're gonna
find why a BMW is unreliable or due to things like the fact that BMW is very
heavy and engineering to design cars that drive very very well are pleasing
to look at and pleasing to listen to but they're a little light on research and
development they're a little light on the follow-through they're a little
light on testing some of the concepts and I'll give you some great examples of
that where BMW fell grossly short on the research and development or lack thereof
how about a great little n47 turbo diesel engine that had it was
notoriously bad in the sense of braking timing chains or timing timing chains
coming loose and engines catastrophic ly failing of course boom very devastating
to an owner of course huge dollars to fix and almost as huge even just a
change as a preventative measure again we speak we spoke already again of the S
65 and the S 85 engines from the great m3 with the v8 and the wonderful v10
high-revving v10 in the m5 e60 m5
but the s85 is so great and the whole design of tolerances were way too tight
the specification of oil was too heavy and a combination of overall design was
not conducive to long life on the rod bearings and the rod bearings would
pretty much eat themselves up like popcorn on a Saturday night in front of
a great movie they just gobble gobble and they're gone so that was a problem
with those cars and they were always cars that you could expect failures
somewhere between 60 to 90 thousand miles there were almost be a guarantee
of getting reaching the limits of those bearings so if you have a car in doubt
in that mileage range you probably want to have
it checked out check doing oil analysis or just be prepared to do that
maintenance yourself get those bearings swapped out weakness research and
development did not flush out the fact that tolerances were too damn tight the
oil was too heavy and overall it was just a poor engineering exercise that
evolved into this wonderfully exciting engine to drive but sadly extremely
unreliable another example was we just mentioned at the s62 and talking about
materials how about the valve guide seals there how about the cooling
transfer lines that were made of plastic and they broke and they were very
difficult to get at so they made it very difficult for the do-it-yourselfer
mechanic to even access any of that stuff as well to rebuild an engine
because you were consuming oil due to the valve guide seals just made that car
just very frustrating to own for a lot of people even though they were a lot of
fun in terms of the power but at the end of the day when you had to get that car
to the shop chances are you were gonna pay a pretty hefty bill on that n62
engine about another one the wonderful one of the latest models the m4 GTS we
all know the m4 s are spectacularly great cars I love my time with one
recently I did a review on but the GTS also has a problem that they didn't
capture and now I know there's some issues and some customers that are
fighting BMW over this is becoming kind of a big deal but fortunately the
numbers of GT SS are low so I would expect the amount of feedback from
customers is minimal but at the end of the day those cars had issues obviously
with the water injection but more importantly a sudden
acceleration surging under you know liftoff of the throttle it would
continue to accelerate and sometimes creating undesirable and dangerous
condition how about another one a lot of these direct-injected engines like the N
54 and 55 and such and their carbon buildup what is up with that you'd have
to take the engine basically the intake apart send it in get it walnut blasted
and get it entirely wreak lean put it back into service again kind of a
maintenance intensive deal don't you think and then how about another one
with the m3s and m4 is like a 2016 2017 m3 m4 did you know there's a recall out
because there is a driveshaft issue and the drive shafts if it was a one-piece
combined unit the flange could twist off so it wasn't designed to tolerate
stresses for a long period of time it would work well for the first little bit
but then it was recognized that they can actually share and come apart
it could cause very unexpected driving situations just sharing or you'd lose
power altogether because you're no longer connected to the road and so
you'd find yourself pulling over to the corner wondering why what happened to
the power it went away because the drive shafts Drive shots were a problem also
in the you know that generation of m3 m4 s in that wonderful engine it's a great
engine overall but how about the crank hobby issues that have been creeping in
they're popping their ugly heads in there once in a while crank hub issues
for those that don't know what crank hub let's just put it this way that's a part
within the engine that has to stay tight has to stay intact and if it comes apart
like it can because of the issues it's a catastrophic engine failure so that has
been an issue that is reared up in several occasions as well and then we
just talked about in general I use a car like the n54 engine in the 335 as an
example because that's a car I've been looking at buying and not for its lack
of reliability for other reasons however that car in my opinion so lacked
research and development that in essence that car had so many problems was
assigned to me that it really needed more tests because it had a whole list
issues things for example like wastegate rattle it had leaky gaskets for the oil
filter housing it had leaking down fuel injectors it had turbo boost pipes that
would crack it had carbon buildup it just had way too many things going
against it we won't even talk about things on the inside like on the coops
where you get the seat belt retainer that part wood could break off there was
little things you know the overall quality control on that car was slightly
substandard I would say by even by BMW standards or by even any standards for
that matter the n54 and the 335 in general combined we're a weak car in the
sense of a lacking of testing and created a car that in my opinion wasn't
totally ready for the market I think they were trying to rush it out there it
was a new thing for BMW or relatively new in the recent history by putting
turbocharged engines at work in their power trains so unfortunately that you
know in my mind that wasn't really ready for the market so those are the three
big things guys why BMWs are considered unreliable it's electrical its materials
and of course it's the lack of testing and overall care and attention to
quality control issues so those are the three big things guys I really hope you
enjoyed the video you make sure you give it a thumbs up like don't forget to
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video that pops down on the road so I'd love to hear from you guys please drop
some comments below I want to hear what your opinion is I know I'm missing a lot
of ideas here I wanted to scratch the surface give you something to think
about but really that is the main reason why BMW is considered unreliable today
thanks again everybody mark you're checking out with exotic car play place
I'd love to see you real soon bye bye