Manual Transmission Problems of BMW M3

The smg transmission in a 2004 BMW M3 will randomly shift into neutral disabling the vehicle on hot days without warning. Occurs on any day where temperatures exceed 95 degrees.

See all problems of the 2004 BMW M3 🔎.

BMW M3's with smg transmission 2002-2006. On hot days the transmission with "pop" out of gear and into nuetral for about 15-30 seconds before reingaging into the appropriate gear. This just leaves the car helpless coasting down the street. This has happend every day for the past week and today this happend to me while making a left turn at a busy intersection and an oncoming vehicle had to "brake n swerve" to avoid t-boning me. This is an issue that us BMW owners have been trying to get BMW to aknowledge for years but they act like its not a problem. They dont properly troubleshoot the issue and just throw parts at it hoping to fix the problem. Next thing you know your car was at the dealer for 3 weeks and $3200 later(average for this issue) your blocking traffic downtown coming home in rush hour traffic. This is just incredible to me. I cant understand why nothing has been done by the federal gvt on this a of yet. If you were to do an internet search of " M3 smg out of gear" or "smg nuetral fail" you would literally find 100's upon 100's of threads on this issue. Please help. Thanking you in advance. Hopefully there are others than myself who took the inititive to file a report like this instead of worring if our 60k car is going to break down and cause a traffic jam or accident if the temp is above 95 degrees.

See all problems of the 2003 BMW M3 🔎.

2008 M3 dct lag problem. At lower speeds the gearbox takes to much time to select a gear (like coming through a slow corner) and then after the lag and it "catches" again there is usually a jerky acceleration. This is not normal for a transmission to drive this way. Happens more in "d" mode but also in regular mode especially in 2nd gear.

See all problems of the 2008 BMW M3 🔎.

2008 BMW M3 w/dct - I was making a left hand turn and had slowed to maybe 5mph when traffic on the other side had opened enough to make the turn, I pressed on the gas and the car did nothing but continue to roll at about 5mph towards the driveway in the on-coming lanes, where there was another vehicle quickly approaching. After about 3-5 seconds of hesitation the gear engaged and I was able to accelerate into the driveway and narrowly avoid being broadsided by on-coming traffic. Had the hesitation been for any longer, traffic been moving any faster, or there being any less of a gap in traffic, I would have either of been hit, or caused the on-coming drivers to have locked up their brakes possibly causing them to be rear-ended. This transmission hesitation is incredibly unsafe and is always a cause for concern if my significant other drives the vehicle. At this point I regret not getting a standard manual where I am at least in full control of when/if the clutch engages and am in my selected gear as quickly as my arm can move. This is not the first time I have experienced this hesitation, this has been a constant issue since the original recall notice, I believe I have software version 31. 2.

I own a 2003 BMW M3 equipped with a smg(sequential manual gearbox). Within a month of ownership, the car started exhibiting a symptom that could potentially cause a serious accident. During acceleration in 1st gear from standstill, if the car travels over a bump or potholes, the car begins to behave in a jerky, stop and go motion. If I kept my foot on the accelerator pedal, the more violent the stop and go motion would become. The only way to recover is to release the accelerator pedal until the car slows down or the tach goes below 1500 rpm. When accelerating over smooth surfaces, the problem will not occur. However, the problem will always occur while accelerating the car in 1st gear over bumpy roads that allows the back tires to momentarily lose traction. A driveway entrance is an example of a bump that would cause this problem to occur. I believe you can see the potential danger when this happens. Crossing the street is potentially dangerous should this failure occur. My car now has approx. 5000 miles and on July, 2005 I brought it in to erhard BMW of bloomfield hills, mi. I demonstrated the problem to their technician and he agreed this symptom was real and always reproducible. After keeping my car for over a week, the service manager called to tell me that BMW said this is normal operation. I calmly took my car back but told him of my dissatisfaction of the service. I work in the automotive industry and I believe I'm knowledgeable enough to know what is normal operation and what is not. If BMW had known that the M3 with smg exhibited this defect, they would have ever launched this vehicle. I believe this is a safety issue. I appreciate if NHTSA could investigate this further. I don't want BMW to disregard their responsibility just to keep their name and reputation intact. I will glady allow my car as evidence to this investigation if needed. I just want BMW to be aware of this issue and work in trying to find a solution to this problem.

Ltr concerning a defect of the sequential manual gear transmission on the leased 2003 BMW M3. The vehicle lurches moving only an inch at a time. The lurching forward happens while accelerating from a stop position. Problem exists when the vehicle goes from first gear to second.

Repeated failure of the shift gate. Tranny sticks in 5th gear position, causing dangerous shift delays while in traffic. . Read more...

See all problems of the 1998 BMW M3 🔎.

The manual transmission on my BMW M3 has a defect. It involves the transmission sticking in 5th gear, especially when the weather is cold. This is a dangerous situation, because it compromises control of the car when shifting, leaving the operator wtihout full control of the car. This is a very common defect in 1999 M3s and many customers are experiencing a problem with this. Bmws fix is to replace the transmission, which is very expensive.

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The gear shift in my manual transmission, 1998 BMW M3 (4 door), sticks under fifth gear and often I am also unable to shift into fifth gear. The issue with this is well known by BMW of north America. The danger here is that when I want to shift into fifth gear I cannot, and more importantly, it is extremely difficult to downshift from 4th to 3rd because the gear shift naturally wants to go into fifth. This can be a very serious problem when going into a turn or needing to downshift to control engine speed rather than using brakes when conditions may be too slick to safely apply the brakes.