2013 BMW 3 Series
Complaints about this year name timing chain far more often than the other years of this generation — 11% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 2.6%.
Generation 2 of the BMW 3 Series, which began in 2012 and ran to 2018. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
| Complaints filed | 742 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 227 |
| Involving a crash | 71 |
| Involving a fire | 18 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 23 mpg |
What owners wrote
2013 bmw 328ix 82k miles timing chain guide broke blowing the engine. This should not be happening on a bmw. I do not have the money for this!
PREMATURE TIMING CHAIN FALIURE, HAD BMW LOOK AT IT AND SAID IT SEEMED FINE AND WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO KNOW UNLESS THEY OPEN THE MOTOR $500 TO CHECK? A FEW WEEKS LATER TIMING CHAIN BROKE AT 82,000 MILES.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the BMW 3 Series was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2013 BMW 3 Series? What happened to yours?
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