Other engine problem on the 2013 BMW X3
1 crash 3 fires 1 injury 5 of the 53 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2013 BMW X3 report other engine problem at a median of 82,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 35 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 102,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,476 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.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19,690 miles | 64,100 miles | 82,000 miles | 90,000 miles | 103,166 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, 3 a fire and 1 an injury are 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 $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 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 bmw x3. The contact stated that while trying to accelerate from a stop the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. After inspection, they advised her that the vehicle was acting as normal. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 150. The current mileage was approximately 200. The VIN was unavailable. *tr
In stop and go traffic on the interstate I was braking after moving forward a few feet and the engine started racing causing the car to lurch forward (given I was on the brake) until the brake would not hold any longer at which point the car accelerated in traffic despite me pushing even harder on the brake. The brake was completely unresponsive at this point. I avoided rear ending the car in front of me by swerving around him but could not avoid the vehicle farther ahead in traffic and hit the right rear of a uhaul storage unit towed by a vehicle and the bmw flipped onto its right side. Miraculously, we walked away with only minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Seat restraints and airbags worked perfectly which is the only kind thing we can now say despite having no prior issues. Whether it is an onboard computer malfunction or not we will never own another bmw... And if the other online posts have been there when I purchased the vehicle in sept 2012 (and had I read them) then I never would have purchased the vehicle. Coupled with other carcomplaint.com, bmw community blogs, and NHTSA posts surrounding 2012 and 2013 x3 events of the…
My wife was driving on a local side street (speed limit 25 MPH) at a speed of approximately 20 MPH and I was sitting in the passenger seat. We were coming upon numerous stop signs, so in order to avoid the bmw autostart/stop feature (this feature shuts the car engine off when the car stops to save fuel) from activating, I reached over to turn off the autostart button. This button is located directly next to the start/stop button. Instead, I accidentally hit the start/stop button (this is a keyless car) and while traveling at 20 MPH the car engine shut off and we had to coast to a stop without power steering or any power, before being able to start the car. In order to restart the car, the brake pedal must be pressed. If this happened while at highway speeds, an accident would have been very likely to have occurred. This is a design safety issue that needs replacement/recall. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 BMW X3
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other brake problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 53 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 X3?
Across 35 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 82,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. 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 X3?
53 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.8 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