I am really bummed out. I own a low mileage 2011 335is coupe, which I loved - until now. Several months ago the car abruptly stopped on the road and displayed the yellow, then red thermometer. I had to have it flat bedded to the nearest dealer. Cost to replace the pump: $1600! In addition, the tech told me my valve cover was cracked. Cost to repair: $2000! I understand these two components are poorly designed and prone to fail but typically they fail at around 70,000 miles. Has anyone else experienced either (or both) of these premature failures? As I planned on keeping the car for at least 10 years and have tried to maintain it above and beyond the BMW maintenance schedule. I use Redline oil in the engine, transmission and differential. I also changed the oil at 1000 miles. I tried to contact BMW USA to see if I could get them to do a good faith repair or a partial rebate on the cost but received no response to my letter. Any advice on how I should deal with BMW? Or do I just suck it up and accept the fact that these cars are unreliable and very expensive to maintain?
I have a 335is too, had the coolant pump replaced @ 50k as (hopefully) preventive maintenance. Not sure on the coolant pump job cost, I don't recall it being that much a couple years ago at my dealer. You can use realoem.com to look up your car and part numbers, and then google 'BMW' with the part number to find ranges of parts prices. Bavauto's out of business, but here's what's involved with replacing the coolant pump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-BpUzAemyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeYC305quNQ I'm guessing the engine cover deal is more labor than parts, seems like there's just a gazillion steps to extract it, & then putting it all back - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIzK4grQZ8Q The valve cover itself doesn't seem so expensive necessarily, in the $400-$600 range? Perhaps of interest - https://www.n54tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35535 Comments here were a mix, but there were some with low-mile replacements - https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1140795 Might want to get some additional quotes - also take advantage of any 'CCA member discounts - one of the local dealers here is 15% off parts AND service, no cap, more common probably would be 15% parts up to max $200 off.
For what ever the reason the IS models seem to have lower mileage failures of these components compared to the normal 335's. Best thing to do for goodwill assistance from BMW is to call there customer service line and describe the issue. They are pretty good about assistance normally.
