Other powertrain problem on the 2008 BMW M3
1 crash 1 of the 13 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.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 BMW M3 report other powertrain problem at a median of 5,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,300 miles at the tenth percentile to 10,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 8,961 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
100% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,250 miles | 4,725 miles | 6,752 miles | 8,575 miles | 11,211 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 crash 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.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 2009, at a median of 1,400 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 70,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 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 noticed since the safety recall on the m-dct gearbox: there is a significant lag or hesitation of at least 2 second between applying pressure to the accelerator and the clutch engaging and giving acceleration to the wheels. This results in a complete loss of power and causes the car to just "coast". This does not happen from a stand-still, but occurs primarily when the car is in motion at virtually all ranges of speed, from rolling stop through standard road speeds of any degree . The problem is acute in "d" mode, but occurs in "s" mode as well in 2nd gear. The result of this is that you can pull out into traffic and rather than increase your acceleration normally, the car will just coast with no power. This is extremely dangerous and I have had several near misses with a chance of a car rear ending me because the gearbox is functioning like this. *tr
This is a problem with the m-dct automated manual transmission in the e92 bmw m3. It is a recurring issue and is a safety issue as well. When traveling at low speeds, say when coasting and when the transmission is in it's d mode (automatic like mode), when you quickly transition from light braking to medium throttle application the vehicle becomes completely unresponsive to the gas pedal input and offers no acceleration. After a delay of a second or so the car will rev a bit, slip the clutch and accelerate strongly. This occurrence is not universal but is common. Any time you make such a transition and require the vehicle to "obey" and accelerate as per your use of the gas pedal the vehicles marked lack of acceleration can be a safety issue. Such obvious cases include lane changes, intersections with a yield or merging into traffic after a turn. This issue is widespread on internet message boards for owners of this car. *tr
After slowing for a yield sign, pressed accelerator and there was a delayed response, followed by sudden acceleration. Bumped truck in front of me during the surge. Car behind me almost rearended me when my car did not accelerate. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 BMW M3
Dual-clutch or clutch-pack failure
Engine knock or bearing noise
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2008 BMW M3?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2008 BMW M3?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.2 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