Unclassified problem on the 2002 BMW 745I
1 fire 1 of the 8 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 8 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 unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 BMW 745I report unclassified problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 22nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 134,800 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14,200 miles | 67,750 miles | 94,400 miles | 145,475 miles | 149,000 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
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure, every year of the BMW 745I
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.
I purchase a new 745i and after 10months of constant aggravation and fustration by the numerous failures of this car, I would like for bmw to do something about this. My car constantly keep having engine failure, recently bmw had to replace the cylinder heads (for a new car this is unacceptable). I would to return this car to bmw for a fair exchange.
Consumer parked the vehicle in the garage and about three hours later smoke was coming from the garage. Vehicle caught on fire, and damaged another vehicle and the garage. Fire department extinguished the fire ,and determined that fire came from the back of the engine. *ak consumer experienced other failures with the vehicle including: failure to start, 3 recalls pertaining to fuel system and computer, computer crashed and accessories didn't operate, and head rest moved on it's own. *ph
My vehicle is a 2002 bmw 745i that has an drive system and the latest warning note came up on the idrive screen that says, "fault in pass.-restraint system affecting airbag, belt tensioner or belt-force limiter. Fasten and continue to wear belts. Please contact the nearest bmw center". My research indicates that there is a service bulletin that bmw initiated that covers this issue for a 10 year period. *tr
Also reported on the 2002 BMW 745I
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other brake problem
Parking brake failure
Seat belt or retractor failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2002 BMW 745I?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2002 BMW 745I?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.9 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