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| Message: | Well where do I start? Let's try this: I'm a 44 years old male, who has been driving high performance cars for many years. While I do drive them 'hard', i.e. I've been to multiple D.E. events, I in no way am abusive to my cars. My '02 M3 SMG was built on 1 Nov. '01 and delivered to me on 22 Dec. VIN # WBSBL93482JR14134 Car was/has been 'broken-in' as per BMW instructions. Mileage 3750. No performance enhancements except for the recent fitment of cryo treated Euro rotors with Pagid Blue pads and BBS RXII's with Pirelli P-Zero Rosso tyres. Oil level checked this a.m. and was full. Today I was at the track here at Heartland Park in Topeka for my first D.E. event with the M3, (event sponsored by Kansas City PCA, with help from the local BMW CCA and Audi clubs). My car had complete and catastrophic engine failure! It must have thrown a rod/piston thru' the block since all of my anti-freeze and oil blew out on the racing line, (sorry guys). The conditions at Heartland today were not ideal in that the track was wet, hence we were all taking it very easy. I in fact was short shifting all around the track, never going above 7k rpms. As I exited turn 6, 70-80 mph lefthand corner on to a short straight; 3rd gear at approx. 6500-7000 rpm the engine grenaded! There was no warning, I just immediately heard a loud mechanical 'thunking'; grey/white smoke poured from the hood; the engine cut out, and luckily I didn't spin on my own oil/anti-freeze before I pulled over onto the grass. The car is now at my local dealer where it obviously needs a brand new engine. Hence I must now add my name to the list of individuals who have experienced complete engine failure. Before today, I was somewhat skeptical about many of the previous reports, but was concerned to hear of quite a few SMG equiped cars 'exploding'. Afterall, SMG should not allow the engine to over-rev regardless of the conditions. In my situation, the engine was only at approx. 7K rpm, and all four tyres were in contact with the ground at all times, (someone postulated that one of the only ways an SMG equiped car could over-rev was if the rear wheels lost contact with the road surface such as going over a crest in the road while at max revs). Hence, we now have an SMG optioned M3 grenading at way less than the rev limit. There is now no doubt in my mind that there is a specific subset of M3's built late last year that have a defective component within the engine. Jason I believe has documented that 43% of the failures so far have occured in cars built in Nov. '01. It makes sense that many of these are SMG equiped cars, since the majority of the cars coming down the production line lately have been optioned with SMG. This failure imho has nothing to do with the transmission; this is a pure engine related problem. Now I guess I'll be waiting 6-8 weeks like others for my new engine to be installed. Regardless of what has happened to me, I can catagorically state that the E46 M3 is a phenomenal car. It is the perfect daily driver, as well as a fantastic car on the track. Even though my car blew up on it's third lap; I could tell from the first two that the power/ handling, etc. was great. I rapidly gained on both an M Coupe and a Corvette that were the only two cars in front of me, and was lining up the Vette, (a Z-06 actually), for a pass when the 'event' occured. Yes, a Z-06 should have and normally would have 'eaten my lunch', however, this was a brand new '02, and the driver was being a little tentative given the conditions, (plus I know Heartland extremely well having run there more than 10 times). (BTW, I know much about Z-06's since I owned a '01 for four months; you do not want to mess with them unless you enjoy embaressment)! SMG is the greatest innovation in years, and makes the M3 a track 'star'. Short straights where in the past you would have stayed in a lower gear because changing up, then back down again rapidly would take too much time, are now 'child's play'. I believe that if the car had stayed in one piece, this would have been the most fun I would have ever had at the track. In conclusion: there's definitely something wrong with the engine in certain, (all?), cars built during a certain time frame late last year. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a 'recall' and engine replacements once BMW have identified the problem area, and how many cars it effects. Take care all; if you hear ANY mechanical 'knocking' noise whatsoever from your late '01 build '02 M3, go straight to the dealer! David Bishop thebishman Topeka, KS | ||||
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