Does anybody else find the M3 very jerky in 1st gear?

[Tommysalami]

Originally Posted by RC Post

Can bad motor or trans mount cause the jurkiness?

I just replaced my motor mounts and it's noticeably smoother when getting off and back on the gas in low gears. The motor mounts go bad rather quickly on this car so if you've got more than 50k miles on them you should think about replacing

[Rajmun340]

I have driven a lot of e9x me (all stock), I used to go to every dealer in a 100 miles radius and testdrove every factory new e9x m3's they had, the same with used car lots m3's, friend's e9x m3's, and not least i factory ordered my e9x and drove it from mile number 4 on the odometer. All i can say is BMW QC is very inconsistent on the e9x m3. Some of these cars (new or used does not even matter !) feel like they were build from slightly out of tolerance and/or semi-poorly assembled parts and tend to jog around with more play in their transmission and drive train (factory new ones makes no difference), noisier less powerful engines while some others have a firm tight response and run much more smoothly and stay that way. Having testdriven at least 32 e9x m3's, many of them extensively, i am convinced that BMW QC on this car is mediocre and certainly unacceptable. You would not believe the difference there is from car to car unless you testdrove as many of them as extensively as I have. And no it's *not* the driver, it's *not* local weather, or gas, i sometimes drove two factory new m3's from the same lot one after another when they were in production and not two are the same. And this is confirmed by very disparate issues and severity of issue difference some of these cars have. Like not a drop of oil consumption at all over its lifetime or 1 quarts of oil every 400 miles which by the way i was told directly by bmw is within their tolerance for the car (ask other manufacturer who have already been Class action lawsuit sued for it on models produced in higher volume). Some people who have owned two e9x m3 in a row said the same thing, huge difference between their first and second car. BMW simply does not give a f**k. They are maximizing profit is all they care about. When producing such a low number of cars like the e9x M3 (less than <80,000 produced) they break rules and take shortcuts in reliability and QC, knowing that with such a small pool of owners and a car that will often have several owners within the span of a few years their responsibility as a manufacturer for defect and poor QC will be easily evaded. Of course it saves them money and increases their profit margin not to produce these cars with more acceptable QC. They've played this game with sufficient model iterations to know how low to set the bar and still get away with it. They know a powerful engine can make customers easily forget about poor QC. They know class action lawsuit on an low volume production M car can be easily quashed. I know some honest owners with a decent e92 m3 unit don't have a clue about this and imagine that every m3 produced is identical in quality of parts and assembly as theirs. IT is not. The statistical bell curve is extremely wide on this vehicle by design, covered by low production levels and motivated by greed.

[LuckiSevens]

Originally Posted by Rajmun340

I have driven a lot of e9x me (all stock), I used to go to every dealer in a 100 miles radius and testdrove every factory new e9x m3's they had, the same with used car lots m3's, friend's e9x m3's, and not least i factory ordered my e9x and drove it from mile number 4 on the odometer. All i can say is BMW QC is very inconsistent on the e9x m3. Some of these cars (new or used does not even matter !) feel like they were build from slightly out of tolerance and/or semi-poorly assembled parts and tend to jog around with more play in their transmission and drive train (factory new ones makes no difference), noisier less powerful engines while some others have a firm tight response and run much more smoothly and stay that way. Having testdriven at least 32 e9x m3's, many of them extensively, i am convinced that BMW QC on this car is mediocre and certainly unacceptable. You would not believe the difference there is from car to car unless you testdrove as many of them as extensively as I have. And no it's *not* the driver, it's *not* local weather, or gas, i sometimes drove two factory new m3's from the same lot one after another when they were in production and not two are the same. And this is confirmed by very disparate issues and severity of issue difference some of these cars have. Like not a drop of oil consumption at all over its lifetime or 1 quarts of oil every 400 miles which by the way i was told directly by bmw is within their tolerance for the car (ask other manufacturer who have already been Class action lawsuit sued for it on models produced in higher volume). Some people who have owned two e9x m3 in a row said the same thing, huge difference between their first and second car. BMW simply does not give a f**k. They are maximizing profit is all they care about. When producing such a low number of cars like the e9x M3 (less than <80,000 produced) they break rules and take shortcuts in reliability and QC, knowing that with such a small pool of owners and a car that will often have several owners within the span of a few years their responsibility as a manufacturer for defect and poor QC will be easily evaded. Of course it saves them money and increases their profit margin not to produce these cars with more acceptable QC. They've played this game with sufficient model iterations to know how low to set the bar and still get away with it. They know a powerful engine can make customers easily forget about poor QC. They know class action lawsuit on an low volume production M car can be easily quashed. I know some honest owners with a decent e92 m3 unit don't have a clue about this and imagine that every m3 produced is identical in quality of parts and assembly as theirs. IT is not. The statistical bell curve is extremely wide on this vehicle by design, covered by low production levels and motivated by greed.

Doesn't sound like a very scientific study

[bkfastwagon]

Originally Posted by LuckiSevens

Doesn't sound like a very scientific study

This. Even if you personally tested 100 m3 that's still a small fraction. There are so many confounding factors to make a definitive statement. Bias from personal experience being the most influential. I read in another thread someone arguing Alfa Romeos are just as reliable as BMWs based on his ownership experience.

[bkfastwagon]

Originally Posted by MrGatsby

(DCT) Mine did this when I first bought the car. Every time I start the car, for the first minute or two it would be very jerky at low speeds. I learned very quickly that to combat this, I would put the transmission in manual mode (on S2 setting since cold engine), and would shift at 2.5k rpm or hold the gear when coming to a stop. This eliminated the issue completely.

It seems as though the DCT's brain needs a few minutes to warm up prior to calculating everything correctly. Perhaps it just needs its morning coffee?

My 2012 DCT with 24k miles has never behaved this way and I drive it daily around the year in New England. It's always been smooth from the get go although I do take it easy during the warm up.

[Tommysalami]

Originally Posted by bkfastwagon

My 2012 DCT with 24k miles has never behaved this way and I drive it daily around the year in New England. It's always been smooth from the get go although I do take it easy during the warm up.

mine acts weird if i drive off before the cold start is over. after that it's normal

[MPower7]

A tune helped this a lot. I can drive during the cold start cycle and have it not jerk. 6MT.

[crypticc]

When I first got mine... End 201 birthday. 2012 registration with 2011 software. Dealer diid Flash to 2012 software and reset adaption and job is a good un. The last part is to brace your right foot to avoid the feedback loop if you're less than smooth with the throttle

[eatsleepboost]

No jerk from mine though I do wait for cold start to be over if the car is actually cold. 6mt, ess 625.

[Transfer]

On my second DCT M3 ZCP and they're both bucking broncos in first gear (D2) for first 3 minutes of driving. I've ran DCT tune and no tune in both cars too with no real difference. You learn to adjust to it pretty easy and expect 50% chance of looking like a tool to early morning onlookers. :

[sibhusz06]

I think your only realistic solution is to make sure you've changed fluids filters, and reset adaptations. Finally the DCT tune does seem to help but not cure all of the bucks in 1st gear. Ive just come to accept these cars are like this from the factory , with the maintenance and software changes, mine seldomly has a lurch or buck but not nearly as before.

[m3jala]

Intelligent post goes to rajumn340, however, I will say this. The cold start sure makes this car drive like an awesome sounding tractor first couple 100 meters.

[2011_M3]

Originally Posted by sibhusz06

I think your only realistic solution is to make sure you've changed fluids filters, and reset adaptations. Finally the DCT tune does seem to help but not cure all of the bucks in 1st gear. Ive just come to accept these cars are like this from the factory , with the maintenance and software changes, mine seldomly has a lurch or buck but not nearly as before.

My 1st gear felt like if my tranny is about to explode but I added a dct gts tune and changed the fluids and it drives a bit smoother now not too jerky in first gear. I've drive 2 other m3s with dct and it's the same issue with those too. I guess we just have to adapt to the race car feeling which I love when people think my transmission is going out when I give them rides or let them drive it

[LakeSurfer]

This is normal until warmed up as others have mentioned.

It actually mentions it in the manual somewhere too. Take a peek and it will set you at ease.

When you let others drive it who are not super familiar with sports cars like this and the car is a little cold they will pump you up and tell you how smooth of a driver you are.