335I Engine Malfunction

Originally Posted by Emission

Quite an ignorant position, frankly.

Nobody is forcing you to buy a BMW. Go get a Toyota instead.

When I have fun cars (Porsche and BMW), I expect them to have issues because they are complex machines - and their designers are pushing the envelope.

When I have boring cars (Toyota and Honda), then tend to be a bit (barely) more reliable. Boring engineering breeds reliability.

Direct injection requiring high pressure fuel delivery is a relatively new technology. Just for grins, I googled "fuel pump Saturn Sky Redline" (GM is using direct injection with turbocharging to get ~260hp and 260lb ft out of 2 liters in this car); and, amazingly, I found a discussion board thread that read almost exactly like these BMW threads about HPFPs. You could almost replace "Sky" with "335" and you'd barely be able to tell them apart - Except there were no Kool Aid drinkers forgiving GM because they were a premium brand who pushes the envelope on their sophisticated technologies. Replaced by that were people saying "when will GM ever get it right?" That is the difference in brand loyalty, folks (BMW still has it - GM has been losing it for a long time now). Open your eyes and don't let the marketers fool ya.

...and who hasn't gone to high pressure direct fuel injection, yet? You guessed it: Honda, Toyota, and Nissan (I think - is GTR direct injected?)

I wouldn't always equate new technology with more fun, though. DI gives you more efficient power, especially with turbos, it seems. An underrating of 300 hp and 300lbft of flat torque curve with gas mileage consistently over 25mpg on a 335 is great technology in my book, but not necessarily more fun than 300hp 300lb ft from an older tech V8 that gets 18 mpg...

I for one will be taking a close look at the G8 GXP 6 speed manual when my 335 lease is up in 2010. I can take the money saved on brand equity and bad Euro exchange rate and use it to pay for the extra gas the 6.2V8 will drink. ...especially since this will likely be the last time in my life to be able to get a relatively large displacement, powerful V8 on a middle income before the power elite regulate it beyond affordability for the more common folk.

Originally Posted by Russs335i

One of the reasons I joined this forum is to see if anyone else has experiended a similar problem I'm having with my 335I Coupe. I'm currently living in Germany and purchased my American spec 335I Coupe in Nov and have approx 4100 miles on it. While crusing at approx 80 MPH in 6 gear my car started to run rough, acting as if a spark plug was misfiring or water was in the gas tank. Eventually an engine fault indication appeared on my display and the words power reduced service engine also appeared. I took it to my local dealer and was informed there was a recall and I needed new software. The software was loaded and the probelm remained. I took it to a different dealer and they hooked it up to their computer and found nothing wrong. I will take it for a thrid time because I'm still having the problem. When driving agressively and shifting throught the gears at high RPMs I don't experience the problem only at crusing speed and lower RPMs. Has anyone else had this problem?

My problem is similar but not while cruising. But at firing my engine. I have rather a large family of 5, so on weekends I use our family van for transport. All four "reduced power, service engine soon", I did not operate my car over entire weekend. Casually I would come on Monday morning press ignition button, and engine starts to get rough. And few minutes later "reduced power check......."

After three times I was fed up and took to an attorney, and filed for LEMON. Got all my payment since June 2008.

The fourth time "reduced power ck....." came after filling a claim through my attorney.

Maybe you should ask your local attorney if such law exists in Germany. If so you should pursue a legal action against BMW.

I tried to do on my own and go easy on BMW USA, Before getting an attorney. However I was turned down.

Originally Posted by johnc_22

I think the fuel pump issues were related to an early build period but cars built recently shouldn't have this problem. I think if you search you can find the specific date range that was affected.

early 2009 build and I am getting longer and longer cranks and the service engine soon light came on today

not sure if this issue is over yet

going in today

Wow, going on three years now and BMW is no closer to solving this problem. Bmw should be ashamed of themselves.

Originally Posted by bspears

early 2009 build and I am getting longer and longer cranks and the service engine soon light came on today

not sure if this issue is over yet

going in today

I own 2008 335i coupe, and according to my service manager. The frequency of the fuel pump issue has gone down from 08 - 09 model, however it still exists amond 2009 models. Every one having problem are pretty similar.
Fuel pump, injector, and piston. In my opinion have 5000 mile life span, LOL

Originally Posted by STiRob

Wow, going on three years now and BMW is no closer to solving this problem. Bmw should be ashamed of themselves.

They have had the car for three days and they "think" it might be the HPFP. It sounds like they are going to replace it any way. They were waiting for a visit from the roaming bay area BMW engineer/service guru.

The funny thing was that the "service engine soon" light went out the moment my service rep got in the car to check it in for service. It had been on solid for two days and when he cranked it the light was off. Go figure.

Originally Posted by bspears

They have had the car for three days and they "think" it might be the HPFP. It sounds like they are going to replace it any way. They were waiting for a visit from the roaming bay area BMW engineer/service guru.

The funny thing was that the "service engine soon" light went out the moment my service rep got in the car to check it in for service. It had been on solid for two days and when he cranked it the light was off. Go figure.

They had it for five days but finally replaced the HPFP and did a reprogram. That wiped out all my prefs and they had to be reset. I noticed a difference right away. Prior to the new HPFP I would sometimes get a moderate hesitation when accelerating from a stop into a turn. The car would seem to bog down just for a sec at the apex of the turn. This had GONE AWAY. The car now seems to pull harder and be just a little bit faster. It is probably my imagination but I like it.

Mine JUST happened. It is at the BMW shop as I type this. I will report back if/when I know anything. THANKS for a GREAT forum!!