A more accurate poll on major S65 engine failures

[Crazy Bimmer]

Originally Posted by Sti2e92sedan

Voted experienced catastrophic failure. 2008 e90 m3 68k miles

You had an oil pump that failed that caused damaged to your engine, correct?

Been following your S85 project in awe.

[quicktwinturbo]

This kind of stuff worries me..I thought M3s were reliable...

[jrse92m3]

09 e92 m3 30,000 miles , over 20 track days , VF620 blower for the last 10,000 miles running strong!!!!

[JEllis]

Stock 2008 sold with no failures.

2013 with SC with no failure.

[Craigy]

Interesting thread. Thanks for the better poll.

There will still be some negative reporting bias but theoretically it'll give us a decent estimate for our demographic (enthusiast 265 m3 drivers).

[US///M3]

Thanks your votes...

[AlteredBe4st]

This thread makes me feel much better about the percentage of S65 bearing issue / engine failures. Thanks for the poll OP. All vehicles have issues as I've seen percentage of Ferrari with blown engines, fuel pump issues etc,etc....posting a poll to see percentages with issues vs those without makes sense

[regular guy]

Originally Posted by lenzm3edan

This thread makes me feel much better about the percentage of S65 bearing issue / engine failures. Thanks for the poll OP. All vehicles have issues as I've seen percentage of Ferrari with blown engines, fuel pump issues etc,etc....posting a poll to see percentages with issues vs those without makes sense

That's very odd feeling of security because the results at this moment are far worse than expected. Most people (myself included) believe the actual failure rate of the S65 to be < 1%. I also consider < 0.1% to be normal for a well designed engine -- making a 1% failure rate 10x higher than expected. As of now, this poll is showing 3.5% failure rate which is far worse than it should be. Even though I think this is the best poll set up thus far, it still shows the flaws in self participation internet polling.

[US///M3]

Originally Posted by regular guy

That's very odd feeling of security because the results at this moment are far worse than expected. Most people (myself included) believe the actual failure rate of the S65 to be < 1%. I also consider < 0.1% to be normal for a well designed engine -- making a 1% failure rate 10x higher than expected. As of now, this poll is showing 3.5% failure rate which is far worse than it should be. Even though I think this is the best poll set up thus far, it still shows the flaws in self participation internet polling.

3.5% or even 5% is not that bad, considering how a lot of those cars are abused, SC'ed, running on lower octane gas etc.

Funny how some said you are biassed even though your numbers and my numbers were much lower.

[Thik]

Which option do I select if I own a S65 and didn't experience a catastrophic failure?

[SVH]

"Which option do I select if I own a S65 and didn't experience a catastrophic failure?"

Actually that seems to me the problem with this poll. Best poll yet, eh? How can you not own/owned the car and not have/have a catastrophic failure? Yet some people only select one "choice" hence the numbers don't add up.

[Craigy]

Originally Posted by SVH

"Which option do I select if I own a S65 and didn't experience a catastrophic failure?"

Actually that seems to me the problem with this poll. Best poll yet, eh? How can you not own/owned the car and not have/have a catastrophic failure? Yet some people only select one "choice" hence the numbers don't add up.

Yeah we need to engineer this poll for the lowest common denominator:

1) I own/owned an S65 which had a catastrophic failure.
2) I own/owned an S65 which did not have a catastrophic failure.
3) I have never owned an S65.
4) I love my Mercedes S65.

[schoy]

I think the poll needs to add this statement: "Check all that apply". I checked BOTH the "own a S65" and "have not experienced catastrophic engine failure".

EDIT: Also, only M3 enthusiasts are going to see this poll, so we're not going to get any votes from non-enthusiasts. I don't know whether that's going to skew the poll one way or another, but I suspect that we'll get a disproportionate amount of negative votes. What we really need are BMW dealerships/shops to give us their counts ...

EDIT: As of now (~100 respondents), the sample size is too low to be predictive or accurate. Based on my back-of-the-napkin calculations, standard error is about 2% (margin at 68% confidence).

[biglare]

According to the link below there are over 60,156 E9x M3's, which means that even if 50 motors failed that is a very very small percentage of the total number of motors that failed. I just don't see why there are so many scared folks... If you are that worried then maybe you shouldn't drive as the percentages to get into an accident are far greater!

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=863649

[regular guy]

Originally Posted by schoy

EDIT: As of now (~100 respondents), the sample size is too low to be predictive or accurate. Based on my back-of-the-napkin calculations, standard error is about 2% (margin at 68% confidence).

Only 19,904 more samples to go in the next four weeks. At least that's what one guy believes will happen.

[catpat8000]

Originally Posted by Dashman

As I have stated over and over, this whole thing has been hyped up beyond belief. I can only guess people are bored and need something to talk about

That's certainly true for me.

Originally Posted by Craigy

Yeah we need to engineer this poll for the lowest common denominator:

1) I own/owned an S65 which had a catastrophic failure.
2) I own/owned an S65 which did not have a catastrophic failure.
3) I have never owned an S65.
4) I love my Mercedes S65.

I think we need a fifth choice:
5) I'm too dumb to read and understand a simple declarative sentence yet somehow I manage to drive an M3

Pat

[US///M3]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Own and voted,E92 DCT with 52.000 km > 32,311 miles runs strong with the BPM DEV tune and DCT software upgrade(THX Mike !) , and i'm praying to keep it this way, when i'm seeing threads like this

Mine runs strong with no tune.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by US///M3

Mine runs strong with no tune.

Let's hope to keep it this way my friend with our S65's and this with or without tune
BTW....where are all this guy's with ///M3's ? ...we need more votes in this thread or is this to difficult ?
1,282 views and 200 votes ?!?!
Come on guy's ?!?!

[aussiem3]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Let's hope to keep it this way my friend with our S65's and this with or without tune
BTW....where are all this guy's with ///M3's ? ...we need more votes in this thread or is this to difficult ?
1,282 views and 200 votes ?!?!
Come on guy's ?!?!

If you take this forum as a sample, what we see is a under 4% failure. For argument sake, if it's 4% failure worldwide, is it worth a recall or corrective action from BMW's part?

No wonder BMW is ignoring this whole bearing issue and not wasting time or responding any queries. Makes sense!