8.7

pretty bad
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
3,000 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2012 BMW 528 steering problems

steering problem

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2012 BMW 528 Owner Comments

problem #3

Sep 122021

528

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Picked up from a stop light no aggressive but normally and a few seconds after going around 20-30ish mph the car stalls and goes into neutral. I was really confused and panicking of what happened, the cars behind me almost crashed into me and I was trying to manage to pull the car over to the side of road and thankfully I did. This could have caused a serious injury to me and others. As I was able to pull off to the side of the road I try to start my car back up and it cranks and cranks for a few seconds which it normally never does and finally when it starts back up the car just starts miss firing like crazy and the check engine light comes on and the car is throwing codes all over the place like drive train malfunction, engine malfunction, low oil pressure, check engine oil, auto stop start malfunction. I was super confused so I shut it off and tried to start it again but it didn-€™t help at all. I drove slowly into a parking lot and got it towed to a independent repair shop to which they diagnosed the timing chain guides breaking and falling into the oil pump, clogging the oil pump then causing further damage due to no oil going to the top of the motor. I was very confused how all of this could have happened since I took care of my car. If the car had given me a service warning light I would have went and got my engine serviced for this job. Now The thing is these timing chain jobs aren-€™t cheap and replacing the oil pump chain is even more expensive since it requires lowering the sub frame. Now In my case the timing was so bad to where the engine did something to the cylinders as of what my mechanic said. So my engine is toast and I need a new engine. Car has a hunk of metal parked in my driveway now that I-€™m still paying off. Good job BMW. I really want to sue bmw for this bs. The car is poorly designed and I-€™m super thankful this issue did not occur on the freeway because I could have died. I looked into the bmw warranty and it-€™s only covering up to 100K.

- Vallejo, CA, USA

problem #2

Sep 142021

528

  • miles
Casually picking up from a stop light when my car just randomly decided to turn off on the middle of the road and go into neutral. I lost power steering and brakes. I was able to manage to pull over and restart the car and I was welcomed with a bunch of check engine lights and many other malfunctions. Got the car towed and comes out that the timing chain has failed as well as the oil pump and resulted in damage to the camshaft and cylinder head of the motor. This is just insane how all of this happened in just a few seconds. I took care of my car did oil changes on time, coolant, brakes, transmission fluid. I took care of my car. Bmw put me in a very unsafe condition that day and I-€™m very upset because that could have ended very bad for me. The n20 motor has been very well known to fail at any time without any warning and bmw has yet to recall this motor. It became very bad to the point to where they even got sued but only limited the warranty up to 100K miles. Many people experienced this problem before 100K and some experienced it earlier. Their is no given time when this timing chain can fail on you. In my case so many things were damaged in the engine and I even contacted bmw NA and they didn-€™t even care to help. Bmw put me in a very bad spot and they want me to replace the engine and pay labor and pay more than what the cars worth! Bmw is crazy for this and I hope all of these engines get recalled and get replaced free of charge without worrying about how many miles you got on the car.

- Vallejo, CA, USA

problem #1

Dec 242012

528

  • 9,000 miles
I ran over a pot hole, about 4" deep, and both passenger side rims were bent so bad that they have to be replaced. The tires also had to be replaced along with the electronic power steering module. Total cost of repair was $8,229 I previously had a BMW 750il 2008. I also hit a pot hole at about 45 mph and the front rim cracked and back rim bent. Both the rims and tires had to be replaced and cost over $3000. The bmws are just to heavy for the aluminum rims they come with. In over 40 years of driving I have never had a problem with rims until I started driving bmws, and I have hit a number of pot holes before. Someone should make bmws come equipped with steel rims. Their cheap rims are going to get someone killed.

- Montebello, CA, USA

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