Routine oil change and mechanic advised imminent timing chain failure because of engine whining (87280 miles). Service manager recommended not driving the car because of likely engine failure. After timing chain replacement, drivetrain malfunction light came on repeatedly while driving at various elevations and speeds. Took to dealer who advised noisy turbo wastegate likely problem (88,919 miles). Timing chain defect well known to BMW but only warranteed for 70,000 miles is disingenuous. Engine failure on a car averaging 12.5K miles a year with less than 100K with known engine defects is fruadulent at a minimum.

- Reno, NV, USA

Car has 89000 miles. At low speeds, it drives fine. On highway, "drive train malfunction" light appears during moderate-heavy acceleration. Today, on a crowded 4 lane highway at about 70mph, car lost all power, gas pedal was useless. I was barely able to limp to breakdown lane and speed dropped to about 15-20 mph by the time I could get there, through lots of honking and several near accidents. Extremely dangerous. I shut the car off for about 2 minutes, restarted it and it worked again. I travelled at about 55mph in right lane the next 15 miles home without issue. I was with my wife and 7 year old daughter. This is a very serious and dangerous issue to have with a car.

- Boston, MA, USA

Car displayed sign drive-train malfunction/oil pressure low and within 30 seconds stopped. It went from 50 mph to zero in 30 seconds. I barely survived a major accident over a busy highway (rt 78 East bound in NJ). Later on BMW service center reported engine failed for unknown reason. I came to know there are multiple complaint against bmx X3 2013 similar model and many drivers like me barely survived a major accident. BMW is playing with our lives by not recalling this model. It is clearly a major manufacturing fault in this engine. There are multiple lawsuits on BMW but I do not hear any positive outcome. I can not believe no authority is taking any action on BMW for making faulty car like this and not holding them accountable.

- East Hanover, NJ, USA

August 10, 2020. I was driving to the store abut 10 miles from home on a major highway and my 2013 BMW X328I, suddenly started to go crazy in a manner that I never experienced before a lot of lights such as, (engine, ABS, dsc, dtc, brakes, powertrain, and stimulation. The vehicle became non-drivable and a safety hazardous in nature that it almost cause an accident. I act in a emergency state of mind and was able to pull into a nearby parking lot at 15315 merry cat ln, belle haven, va 23306. I proceeded in calling the aaa towing company to take the vehicle to my place of resident.

- Painter, VA, USA

As I was driving on the highway, I had an alert that said "drive train malfunction" and the vehicle began to slow down. I quickly had to take the upcoming exit. As I was trying to change gears, the car remained in neutral and continued to drive slow. I was able to safely pull over and stop the car. At that point, the vehicle did not turn back on.

- Madison, CT, USA

I am on engine number 3 on my 2013 BMW X3. First engine locked up while repair shop was investigating why engine light was on. No recall or notices at that time for vehcle and over the 50K mile warranty. Cheapest repair was finding a used engine, $8,000 vs $14,000 for BMW to repair. Turns out this was a highly noted issue with N20 code. While in shop for replacement notice comes from BMW for extended mileage service (not a recall). After repair I submitted warrantly paperwork based on letter from BMW with receipts from dealership, only to be denied. 2 years later driving down interstate 85 in North Carolina summer with an infant and 3 year old engine stalled out and locked up. Took to mechanic to learn same issue as before happened still no recall - but there was a kit not for a different timing chain! I spent $6,000 this time to rebuild as the value for scrapping was minimal, mechanic which is a BMW specialist would not even consider buying for scrap due to this known issue. He also referred me to the class-action suits open for this. I have yet to receive a dime for the mfg defect. A known issue has been found, a fix has been released but no ownership of the defect by BMW.

- Greensboro, NC, USA

While BMW X3 was under warranty, we had drivetrain failure come on and repeatedly took to BMW sluggish but barely driveable. The dealer service never made substantial repairs under warranty. Finally my wife had a shutdown in the middle of I-90 and we insisted they take a closer look for which they charged us $3000 just out of warranty to get it back, claiming there was a cam deficiency. 6 months later, the X3 had a catastrophic shutdown again in middle of I-90 highway outside rockford il. Going 65 mph and nearly created an accident. Vehicle was pushed to roadside and towed to BMW dealer. BMW declare it unrepairable and out of 75,0000 mile extension for breakage of timing belt chain. Service manager admitted timing belt issue was evident during the 75,0000 period, however the dealer service indicated they are not able to warn consumers. BMW noam charges us $6900 to replace the engine. Bmws handling of a dangerous problem is fraudulent at best. They hide behind peripheral problems to address the big problem that causes catastrophic engine failure so as many 2013 X3 models may age past the 75,0000 timing belt chain limit and they won't be responsible for 100% of the engine replacement. They are creating a great risk to public safety.

- Crystal Lake, IL, USA

On 6/23/20, at approx., 6:15 am, my 2013 BMW X3 vehicle (approx. 68,000 miles) lost engine power as I was attempting to pull out from a busy and congested N/B 215 freeway (near the w/B 10 freeway exchange) in colton, California. Prior to losing engine power, and at about less than one minutes before, my vehicle's low oil light sensor had come on, then quickly changed to a drivetrain malfunction sensor -- warning me to drive moderately, but that was meaningless because my vehicle had already began to lose engine power. I slid to a slow stop into the emergency lane of the freeway after cutting off numerous vehicles behind me in an effort to make it off the freeway.

- Riverside, CA, USA

I was driving down the road and my vehicle went into limp mode. The malfunction trans light came on. I took it to the dealership for diagnostics and was told I had a oil leak and the air tube needed to be replaced as well as the programming update. The next day BMW service advisor, [xxx] called to tell me my timing chain need to be replaced and it would cost over 7000$. I don't know what to do. He gave me his advice or two options I had, I could pay for the cost of repairs and have a vehicle or just fix what was discussed and try to sell my vehicle to someone else. I asked him to help me and put me into another vehicle, he said oh no we can't do that. I asked why, it's your car you sold it to me. [xxx] told me BMW knows what is wrong with the car you won't get anything for it, yet he wanted me to sell it to another family and endanger their lives. I wasn't going to hear from him again, very unprofessional. It made me sick. I called and spoke with customer relations a woman by the name of [xxx] and was told after 4 days of investigation, there's nothing they can do for me. I told them they could have the vehicle, I'm not paying for their manufacture defect. Something needs to be done. BMW is endangering lives by allowing consumers to purchase vehicles with known defects. I would have never purchased my 2013 BMW X3 28I in March 2017 if I had known I would have problems @ 80,000 miles. This is crazy. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- San Antonio, TX, USA

Timing-chain break due to timing guard which is made for a plastic break and engine failure, its a major issue with BMW N20 engine, they upgrade the effected part in 2015 to fix it but cars that have these N20 model earlier getting this failure and BMW not take ownership if its after 7 years or 70000 miles.

- Madison, MS, USA

I was driving on the freeway. I received an error message about low oil pressure and within a minute my car lost power and put itself in neutral. Luckily I was able to get off the freeway safely because it could have been very dangerous losing power suddenly in that way. The engine would not start back up and I had to have it towed. Another ongoing issue I have had, is that the power train malfunction error light comes on almost every time I drive and the auto shop has not been able to identify the problem. I have replaced the battery and had other work done that did not solve this problem.

- Redlands, CA, USA

Engine stopped working completely (no power/power steering/engine shaking) while on high speed road with wife and 2 year old vehicle. Mechanic noted oil pump/drive train failure associated with a class action lawsuit currently underway with BMW. Entire engine must be replaced.

- Indianapolis, IN, USA

Timing chain issue. I have a drivetrain warning in which I have read nothing but complaints on this. Timing chain breaking even with very low mile and yes I agree with the public that this should be a recall deal. This so bad for BMW with their reputation for being such good cars.

- Columbia, TN, USA

My vehicle has 98,902 miles and I have been getting a 'drivetrain malfunction' error message while driving on the highway. I took the car to two mechanics and was told that I needed to replace the timing chain. After doing some research to figure out what this issue is, I found countless forums of other owners having the same issue.

- Walnut Creek, CA, USA

At roughly 71,000 miles, while parked at a red light, 200 miles from home on a holiday weekend, my car had a maintenance warning and wouldn't move.the timing chain broke, causing the engine to have to be replaced. The total cost of the repairs were around $7,000. According to online forums, this is a known problem.

- Baltimore, MD, USA

My husband was driving home from work on a city street when the car gave an alert: 'drivetrain malfunction'drive moderately.' Then my husband got another alert: 'oil pressure low' which warned not to drive. Fortunately, by that point he was on our block so he moved the car very slowly towards our house. The car shut down, but he was able to coast to park the car streetside. We had the car towed to the dealership the next day and learned that the timing chain had malfunctioned and the car was inoperable until the problem was fixed. Just the day before this vehicle failure, we were coming home from seeing family for the holidays. If this had happened on the highway or any other busy road, we could have been in serious danger. There was very little time to get to a safe place because the car shut down so quickly. I'm grateful that my husband was so close to home when this happened. As it is, we'll be incurring considerable expense to repair a car that BMW seems to know has a major defect. The car is a 2013 BMW X3 with an N20 engine; it has about 107,000 miles on it. That's a lot of miles, but not nearly so many that such a major vehicle malfunction could reasonably be expected. There is no reason that the timing chain should fail on a car that we have maintained and cared for. This is the kind of problem you might reasonably expect around 150,000 miles, but we're not at that point. I've since learned through some research that many bmws with N20 engines made in 2010-2015 have had these timing chain issues and that it is well known to many owners and to BMW itself. In 2017, they provided an extended warranty to cover timing chain issues up to 7 years/70,000 miles. That's an absurd limit for an essential component of a vehicle's basic engineering, especially coming from a luxury carmaker that claims to provide "the ultimate driving experience."

- Little Rock, AR, USA

Driving on highway braking to slowdown at a light as I was coming into town. Message came on that oil pressure was low and to call roadside assist. Moved off highway and cut engine on and of twice. Message cleared but decided to drive home. Message came on drivetrain malfunction drive moderately so I continued on for about 1.5 miles at slow speed. A clicking sound could be heard. The car jumped into neutral so I coasted to a safe spot and tried to put car in drive unsuccessfully. Turned engine off and would not restart. Tow truck put on flatbed to mechanic who then ran a a scan. He said the engine is ruined and will need replacing. The dealer in san antonio, tx replaced the turbocharger twice with the last being in the fall of 2017. Nothing was mentioned that there was such a problem with this that an extended warranty had been given. Our car has 94,000 miles. We had just driven through houston in a storm. This could have cost us our lives if we had been stranded in the flooding highway blocking traffic let alone other lives.

- Victoria, TX, USA

I was driving on the highway at speed 55 - 65 miles per hr, then studently I got a message, engine loss power, and the car suddenly stop. I was able to slide to the side off road. Car was towed to bmx dealer. The I received later, I had engine failure. They said it is common problem due to manufacturer problem. Car was 106,117 miles. Really surprising to see car engine failed this way. Something must be wrong with the manufacture. Also so dangerous for a car to failed studently on road this way. Risk of accidents.

- Edgewood, MD, USA

Faulty timing chain and guides. BMW is already aware of this issues with the N20 type of engine and extended out a warranty many of the vehicles but most of the timing chain fail just after the 70K mile limit imposed in the extension. BMW offered me no help in this matter and I had to pay out of pocket for a repair on a vehicle that should have been repaired.

- Kansas City, MO, USA

Stopped at a stop sign in a residential area, warning light came on indicating a drivertrain problem, car lost power. Restarted car; would only move slowly (at 20-30mph). Computer recommended driving moderately. Later got the problem fixed by local dealer. About 5 months later, same issue occurred. Started car at work to drive home. Same warning light came on indicating the same issue. Car would move only at up to 30mph. Lucky both times the problem came up at local streets. If on highway, catastrophic consequences would occur.

- Sherman Oaks, CA, USA