it's a big problem. i had mine go at 2700 miles then at 20000 miles then the low pressure sensor went at 30000 miles and two days later the same problem going to the shop on monday. i drive a lot and live in rural vermont last thing i need is to be stuck late at night in no-where land. hard to believe you pay 50k for a car and worry when you go out of town with it . who cares if the will stand behind it for 10/150 when your car is dead on the side of the road? p.s. i have only used shell 93!
Hpfp From what I've heard about this failure rate, I think BMW needs to continue working with the supplier and get simultaneous actions going then get the commo going with customers to advise of current actions and product support. The hyper-warranty is a good first step, loaner cars, buy-backs etc are other helpful actions. I'm sure there are many variables involved and that BMW is focused on it to the fullest, therefore AlanD, suing them is not going to help. I'm certain the fuel-systems engineering dept, in coodination with the supplier, is reviewing their FMEAs and analyzing and testing failure mode resolutions. They will certainly get the fix out to the field asap, just as they did with the early S54 engines, so lawsuits are not the answer. If this situation is causing the car to be unsuitable for current needs, perhaps a buyback and purchase of another model would suffice. I don't know everyone's driving variables, I just don't think a lawsuit is going to magically produce a perfect HPFP in time for the next important drive. All the best >>>>>>>>>>
HPFP Failure... SchnuckiE30: Thanks for the advice. I wrote an email to customer service at BMW and I explained my professional necessity for a dependable car anytime day, night, or driving conditions. I hope they can provide some assistance on making a "premature" trade to a different, less problematic model. Their initial response was "wait and see." We shall see. I just thought that a coalition of unsatisfied owners would have more clout with the company than a few isolated complaints. I really agree with you. Legal action of any kind is unlikely to result in a satisfactory outcome for all parties. I stated the case for mass action (via class action) too strongly. All that being said, I love this car. It is beautiful. It has so many excellent features. I cannot emphasize that enough. It has been the best handling vehicle in my driving experience. I just wanted you to know that I do not come at this with any buyer's remorse (in fact, I have the opposite). I am majorly disappointed. I would much rather the engineers at BMW fixed this problem and returned a sense of confidence to me, and all the other owners, in the process. AlanD
Ongoing... "Wait and see?" Whoa, they're going to have to do better for their customers than that! I hope they get the commo out to keep everyone updated. Can they get you another car in the meantime, Alan? That would be good support. ( an M3, 7-Series, ... ) Glad you like the car, I wish I had the finances, a 335 would definately be my next buy. I'm familiar with a situation like this after working at one of the 'big three'. The problem has to be discovered, isolated, quantified, analyzed, with proposals validated and supplied. It takes some time but the Co. must support customers in the meantime. I hope BMW helps you and all else affected. Being a mechanical engineer, I'd be fascinated to find what the root cause is - pump seals, bearings, case, impeller, harmonics, heat, impurity fouling, else.... Tell the dealer you expect regular updates. Cheers >>>>>>>>
they are shameless for not fixing the problem. it is hard to believe that they can build a car like the 335 and not fix the HPFP if they wanted to. it does not make any sense to me. i love my car as well, i drive all over new england late at night on a regular basis, live in rural vermont and i worry that my hpfp will fail. i have been lucky that the two times it failed i was around my home town and i had a low pressure sensor go as well which has the same outcome as a failed hpfp. where is the empathy from bmw???
HPFP Failure... cont'd After writing to Customer Service of BMW USA, I can honestly say that I don't think they are willing to acknowlege the propensity of these HPFP's to fail unexpectedly in low milage/new cars. I have been told that they are not willing to address any problem of an individual customer unless said customer's vehicle has actually had multiple failures. In other words, they will not treat the complaint as reliable based upon one failure and the information found on these message boards. Perhaps that is just "good business practice," but it does not mitigate the loss of confidence that results from one of these failures as your are accellerating to enter traffic from an on-ramp. Nor does it soften the blow of being told by their own service people that this is still a problem and the company is doing everything it can to correct it. I will continue to communicate with them about this. If nothing else, it might "fuel" their efforts to resolve this to everyone's satisfaction. AlanD
that is why i will move back to the A4 where i came from. after 8 years of driving a4's i switched to the 335 and loved it until the multiple hpfp failures and the low pressure sensor going. even though i love the car in every other way i will not pay 50k for a car that they can't fix and seem ambivalent about. lucky i only had a 2 year lease and this problem will be over for me in july.
Bad to Worse... That's incredible that they don't move to help you out after writing to them. They'll wake up quick if it's ever found to be the cause of a fatal accident, tellya that! Satch! Any inputs from your end? Any other updates available? Thanx
In my experience the only way you get car manufacturers to deal with these kinds of issues is to make formal safety complaints to NHTSA who has the power to force a reliable repair and/or recall as necessary. For many people these HPFP failures result in a sudden loss of power and/or stalling of the engine while on the highway or in city traffic. Accidents have resulted but thankfully no known injuries have been reported at least at this time, but it's an accident waiting to happen. While there is a class action lawsuit against BMW for unauthorized de-tuning of the N54 engines with software that caused hesitations, I am not aware yet of a class action suit for safety and product defects related to all BMW models employing the N54 engine where chronic failures of the HPFP and injectors is documented beyond all reason. I have seen a survey that showed a 32% HPFP failure rate on the E90 series models with the N54 engine and a 20% re-failure rate of HPFPs after the first failure. In addition a survey on Bimmerfest indicated that 78% of BMW owners who had these HPFP failures never reported this safety issue to NHTSA. The squeaky wheel tends to get the grease. Now might be a good time to make the new year safer? http://www.scribd.com/doc/17233560/Bmw-Law-Suit-Hpfp http://www.surveymethods.com/previe...AEDDDCAA4B5FDF6BF80E7E6A4A0EBEDE6EDA4B4B2E1A2 http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Yes, BMW has bought back a number of 3 and 5 series cars for the HPFP issues under state lemon laws. You need to check your state's Lemon Laws as they vary by state.
agreed, i reported mine after the 3rd failure and bmw called me 3 days later to see what the problem was. i explained everything to the service representative and after 3 weeks nothing came of it. i am in the hospitality business and i give better service to someone who buys a 3$ beer then we get when we buy a 50k car. go figure
Wow, you'd think BMW would understand the liability issues? I recently read where VW/Audi has finally recalled all cars from 2007-2009 for a controller issue on the DSG computer controlled trans. NHTSA may move slow but with enough reports they do force the car makers to respond properly to these safety issues. I guess the more reports the quicker the response?
understood, still it's depressing that i have a car that i love and was very excited when i got it and how much better i thought it was then my A4 only to have this problem. as much as i love the car on an emotional level it is hard to want to buy another one when around the next mile you have a decent chance for your hpfp to fail again.
Oh no doubt about it. I'm amazed BMW has not responded sooner to these HPFP issues. I mean how many years can it take to fix a fuel pump problem? This ain't rocket science.
NHTSA reporting I filed a report after reading what was presented here. I followed the link. The site limited the model of BMW that I was allowed to enter... but that list did not include 335i. I had to enter something to get to the next page so I entered the nearest model available, but then once I got a claim number, I went back and wrote a note of clarification.
It is shocking. The 335i community has been aware of this issue since the release of the turbo engine, and to date it has not been definitively addressed. It is certainly a plus that BMW has extended the warranty on the HPFPs, but that doesn't alleviate the anxiety that your pump will fail at a particularly inopportune moment. And from what I hear, the replacement units do not fix the problem -- the source of which remains the subject of considerable speculation.
Alternate Fix Wouldn't it be wild if some of the club members grabbed a few of these HPFPs and went to Steve Dinan and worked out a fix or replacement!!! Thinkin' outta the box here >>>>>>
IMHO BMW is notorious for accepting the fact that a design/manufacturing issue is present. Recall that it took almost 2 years for them to accept the fact that the E46 M3 had design issues that caused numerous blown motors. They even tried to blame it on overreving the engine on cars that had SMG trannies. OTOH I'm confident they'll come up with a solution. The problem is that owners of the TT i6 are going to be left driving ticking time bombs, just as the owners of some of those E46 M3's are.
Not so outta the box, actually. A vendor on another BMW forum is about to start selling a replacement HPFP that supposedly fixes the probs with the BMW part. The vendor said they had identified the culprit(s) but wouldn't say what it was because they had invested so much in R&Ding the new part. FWIW, my understanding is that the new part is basically the old part with new internals.
