Other body or interior problem on the 2003 BMW M3
Only 4 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 body or interior problem gets reported
There are 4 reports of other body or interior problem on the 2003 BMW M3, 4 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 88,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 6,215 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 $200–$2,000 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 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 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.
I have a 2003 bmw m3. Just this week a cover (part#51717892955) on the under carriage broke. Bmw made it out of plastic (why?). The service managers say a rock or bump could cause this part to break in two parts. This is what happened to my vehicle. When the part broke it went in to the middle of the road and another car ran over it. I'm unsure if any damage occured to the vehicle. I called the bmw service manager and he informed me that he sees 3 or 4 bmw m3s a week with this broken cover. This part being broken will not affect the cars drivability. Shouldn't bmw have a recall on this part if causes this much problem?
2004 bmw m3 convertible. I was on my way home and decided to put the top down. I have owned the vehicle for approx. 6 months and have performed this operation a countless number of times (I live in southern california). I was driving around 40 MPH when I looked in the rear view and noticed that the stowage lid was completely up. I pulled over and performed the operation, but it would not close. I immediately called sos and they were not able to assist me. On friday, august 6, I took the car to beverly hills bmw where they inspected the car and determined that it was my negligence which caused the problem. According to them, I did not complete the top down operation and was driving around with the lid open. I assured them that this was not the case and that I am positive that I had waited for the windows to come up (which only happens after the operation is complete). The service manager tells me that there is no other way for it to come up and that warranty would not cover the bent hinges because I had caused it. Hinges were replaced at my expense by the dealer. I am absolutely sure that I had completed the operation and it is…
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 bmw m3. The ignition was turned off. The contact attempted to exit the vehicle. However, the interior driver side door handle failed to open. The driver turned the ignition "on" and activated the front driver side power windows to a downward position. The door was opened by accessing the exterior door handle. The failure occurred intermittently. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for inspection. The technician was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle has not been repaired for the malfunction. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was 6,000.
Also reported on the 2003 BMW M3
Airbag inflator rupture
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other powertrain problem
Engine bay fire
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
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 body or interior problem happen on the 2003 BMW M3?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 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 body or interior problem on the 2003 BMW M3?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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