Other engine problem on the 2013 BMW 3 Series
Only 6 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 engine problem gets reported
There are 6 reports of other engine problem on the 2013 BMW 3 Series, 6 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 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 1,681 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 $300–$4,000 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 1,700 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 15; the 2013 has 6. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
As I was approaching the on ramp for the highway, I sped up in order to merge into oncoming traffic. I depressed the gas pedal completely to the floor but the car picked up extremely slowly as if it did not have any power. I also noticed at the same time that my engine temperature seemed to be unusually low for a vehicle that had been running for over an hour. There had also been an extremely loud fan noise that would come on every 2 minutes or so. As a result of the lack of power, I nearly caused a collision between myself and the vehicle behind me because the oncoming vehicle did not anticipate someone merging onto the highway at such a slow pace. I continued to drive without power for about 20 minutes as if the car was a naturally aspirated vehicle even though it was clearly turbo charged but the turbo never kicked in. When I got off of the highway and was able to pull over to restart my vehicle, the car started to run as normal. *tr
Transmission problem resulting in violent shuddering of the vehicle body and abrupt engine stops resulting in dangerous driving conditions. Fluctuations in the tachometer when the car attempted to stop and the car would automatically change gears to neutral or park. *tr
The car has displayed "drivetrain malfunction, drive moderately" twice now in less than one year of ownership. When this display has occurred, the car goes into "limp mode" and can only be driven at low speeds or with very sluggish acceleration. This is a safety hazard, as it becomes easy to be rear-ended by another driver when it slows substantially. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 BMW 3 Series
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
No-start or intermittent start failure
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 engine problem happen on the 2013 BMW 3 Series?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 1,700 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 engine problem on the 2013 BMW 3 Series?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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