Other visibility problem on the 2006 BMW 3 Series
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other visibility problem gets reported
There are 4 reports of other visibility problem on the 2006 BMW 3 Series, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 14th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 70,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 70,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While driving at freeway speed during a torrential downpour, the windshield wipers ceased to operate. This caused an immediate dangerous situation, wherein visibility was almost impossible through the windshield. Not only was there a tremendous amount of water blocking my view, but the wipers themselves had stopped in a slightly vertical position, also blocking my view. This situation continued for about 15 minutes, as we carefully and cautiously attempted to get off of the freeway and away from other traffic. After sitting at rest in the car, engine running, for up to 15 minutes, the wipers finally came back on again. I had tried to manually engage the wipers by activating the control stalk, with no effect. I also tried turning off the engine and restarting, with no effect. I scheduled an emergency appointment at the bmw dealer the next day. They performed a diagnostic, confirming that there had been a fault in the electrical control system for the windshield wipers. The electrical control unit was replaced. They also replaced the mechanical linkage from the motor to the wipers, even though the diagnostic had been inconclusive on…
After approximately 20-30 minutes of driving in the rain with the windshield wipers on, the wipers shut off and quit working without warning. It takes about 5-10 minutes of time before the windshield wipers begin to work again. This is concerning due to poor visibility and may lead to an accident. *tr
First the driver side door lock actuator would not unlock so I would have to use the key to unlock the driver door. Bought a new actuator and had it replaced. Not even one month later the back seat driver side door lock actuator went out as well. However there is no key hole for the back door and it cannot be opened from the inside. I was told by a bmw dealer that I would have to have the door torn off and replaced with a new door because there was no way to open the door. But wait there's more! Both back window regulators went out as well! Got the back seat passenger side fixed. But can't get the driver side done yet. This all happened within a year. *js
Also reported on the 2006 BMW 3 Series
Other body or interior problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other electrical problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 4 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other visibility problem happen on the 2006 BMW 3 Series?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2006 BMW 3 Series?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed