Other engine problem on the 2017 BMW X3
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 28 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 2017 BMW X3 report other engine problem at a median of 20,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 84,723 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,320 miles | 7,000 miles | 20,000 miles | 88,000 miles | 90,043 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 and 1 a fire 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 carries the most reports, with 53; the 2017 has 28. 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.
I was stopping my car at a red signal behind another vehicle. I applied breaks and vehicle reached to complete stop. Immediately, engine picked up and started moving forward even though breaks are completely pressed. I had to do something to stop the car rear ending. So, I released and re-applied breaks. Vehicle reached complete stop and again started accelerating forward. I repeated the process but the third time it hit the car infront of me. The car is equipped with : auto start/stop engine (which stops the engine when the car is at complete rest). Auto hold (which allows the driver to take the foot off of the break) both the functionality are turned on when the incident happened, but I didnt take off my foot from the break pedal. Also, AC was running. I found another driver complaining the same online. Http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-766433.html
Three incidents of uncontrolled acceleration of engine, two while parking on city streets (april 30 and sept 12) and one when stopping at red light on city street (aug 1). Car was in drive and started revving unexpectedly and immediately went to over 7,000 RPM. I shifted to neutral and maintained brake. Revving stopped and returned to normal idling when I lifted foot from brake. Car was taken to bmw service for one parking incident and the incident while stopping at red light. Bmw mechanics were unable to find anything wrong with vehicle. For latest incident have contacted bmw north america and they will send an engineer from headquarters to check vehicle. Fortunately, no collision or accident occurred. However, I believe some drivers would have a problem dealing with sudden uncontrolled revving and indeed I am concerned about a repetition, especially in city or highway traffic.
I leased a 2017 bmw x3 with 3370 miles on it so almost brand new. I have a 7.6 mile commute from work to home. I was driving home from work around 230pm pst south on the 405 (highway) in los angeles. I pull up to my house and park the vehicle on my city street. I park turn off the vehicle and lock the doors and walk into my house. Within 15 minutes, my neighbor knocks on my door and informs me that my car is on fire. When I look outside at my vehicle, in between the hood of my car and front windshield are spitting flames out onto the windshield. It then proceeded to burn fast and hot and there were 30 foot flames that had ruined our fence as well as singed our neighbors tree. The fire department came and finally took out the flame but the vehicle was completely ruined. The tow truck showed up later but he refused to tow the vehicle because he saw smoke again. The vehicle had caught back on fire on the passenger window side. Airbags had also started blowing up when the second fire caught. I had put my head into the window when the fire was out to retrieve anything that I could but within 10 seconds of pulling my head out of the…
Also reported on the 2017 BMW X3
Other electrical problem
Fuel pump failure
Other brake problem
Loss of braking
Other body or interior problem
Oil leak
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 28 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 2017 BMW X3?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 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 2017 BMW X3?
28 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.5 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