New to me. '99 z3m Coupe, 42, 000 miles on the clock and bone stock. Excited to be back in a car after taking hiatus. I owned a few different e36s in the early 2000s.

I love it so much 🥹 26 m340i

Hey guys, so I’ve come to the decision that a 5 series from 2017-2020 would be ideal for my job as I do a lot of highway driving and just driving in general.

I’m wondering if the 540i is really worth the almost $15,000 CAD premium for a less optioned out, significantly higher KM one?

There’s an abundance of 530i’s here in Canada and majority of them are loaded with options and low kms.

I’m currently daily driving an e46 325i but the fuel economy and road noise is not all that great. Main priority for me is fuel economy, ride comfort and road noise.

Thanks!

As the technology changes and new features are implemented and old ones replaced, what are some of your favorite features from older BMWs? For me, I miss the 'tap-to-cancel' turn signals. I know everyone hated them, but I miss it on my newer BMW. What' do you wish your newer BMW still had?

Are BMW getting too expensive? Or are exotics getting cheap?

Rented this X7 M60i from SIXT Portland Airport last week. Initially I had a reservation for X5 or similar, but somehow this car popped up as a free upgrade and couldn’t say no to it, despite knowing there would be additional costs associated with driving a hungry V8 on the mountains.

So far, I have had zero regrets, just cause it is a very comfortable cruiser. The air suspension and massaging seats really help in reducing the fatigue associated with driving for 8hrs from Eastern Oregon, and at the same time it is very much capable of being one of the fastest ICE-powered SUVs one will ever drive in their life.

However, it’s time to take the car to a wash tomorrow and return it back over the upcoming weekend before I get to drive something else haha.

Decided to remove the swirl flaps on my n47 320d this weekend as the O ring on the motor was blown. Seems part of the swirl flap decided it didn’t want to be with the rest any more

some of my favourite shots i took of the bmw art cars at bmw welt in munich. it was so good seeing them all together, absolute full circle moment.
i’d be happy to hear your opinions on my photos and which ones you like best.
cheers

Longtime driver of 3 series (335i, 328i and a manual 320i) but now in an X1 that works really well for a lot of things. But, I want to have fun again. Thought a 230i might do it and had a real positive test drive, but got stuck watching in-depth videos and drooling over the M240i and cannot shake it. Someone talk me back into a 230i, anyone?

My BMW G80 M3 Competition M xDrive LCI in Black Sapphire Metallic paint and Silverstone interior, enjoying the sunshine before the typical British weather kicks in.

I’ve been meaning to post this because I’m genuinely curious what other BMW owners think.

I had a 2022 X7 that I really liked. I’ve been pretty loyal to BMW, bought multiple BMWs, and I still own my G80 M3 Competition xDrive.

The X7 only had about 32,000 miles on it when the sunroof shade failed. I brought it in and was told the repair was going to be a minimum of around $3,000.

The frustrating part was that my factory warranty had basically JUST expired.

So I went through the process of asking BMW of North America for goodwill assistance. I wasn’t expecting them to necessarily cover every dollar, but considering the mileage, how close I was to the warranty expiration, my history with the brand, and the fact that this was an X7… one of BMW’s flagship vehicles… I figured they might at least meet me somewhere in the middle.

The guy I spoke with at BMW NA actually made me feel pretty optimistic about it. He specifically pointed out that I had several things working in my favor: I was a loyal/repeat BMW customer, the warranty had just expired, the car only had 32k miles, and the X7 is a flagship vehicle that represents the brand.

Then BMW denied it.

That honestly changed the way I looked at the car. It wasn’t even just about paying $3,000 for a sunroof shade. My thought became: if a sunroof shade can fail at 32,000 miles and cost me $3k+ immediately outside of warranty, and BMW doesn’t care enough to help a repeat customer now, why am I going to keep owning it and wondering what the next $5k problem is going to be?

So I got rid of it.

And this is the part that makes me laugh… I replaced my BMW X7 with a Toyota Sienna AWD. 😂

Obviously they’re completely different vehicles, but the Sienna is the family car. I wanted something I could pile miles on, haul the kids around in, take trips in, and not constantly wonder what expensive luxury car component is going to break next.

I still have the M3 because I love that car, and I’m actually bringing it to BMW for service tomorrow. But as far as buying another BMW goes, the whole experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I genuinely don’t see myself doing it.

I know goodwill isn’t technically owed to anybody. The warranty ended, and BMW was within its rights to say no. I understand that.

But isn’t the entire point of goodwill to retain customers in situations exactly like this?

BMW saved themselves some money on a sunroof shade that failed at 32,000 miles and lost someone who had been repeatedly buying BMWs.

Curious what you guys think. Was I expecting too much from BMW here, or would this piss you off too?

good decision to be made lol curious to know what you guys are picking.. the G82 is mine so that was my pick and G80's a customer build. I just love how sporty the coupes look especially on an M car.

I am looking for a BMW for under 10k with the main reason of longer distance commuting. I have been looking mostly for f10s specifically 535i's and would like to hear some opinions from other people. If anyone has any other recommendations I'm also open to hearing them. I did previously look at e90s specifically the ones with the N52 but if a f10 is well respected in the reliability side I would rather have the extra space/comfort. Thanks.

Bought this 2006 E87 130i in 2024 with a busted motor (yes - the previous owner managed to lunch an indestructible N52). It had sat outside, neglected for over a year before I bought it.

Nice spec 5 door manual car with single hump non-iDrive unit.

Motor was swapped out, and every seal and gasket was refreshed while the engine was out. New clutch, OEM suspension, cooling, everything was touched. Refurbished all the curb rashed wheels, did a multi stage cut and polish.

Then I encountered electrical issues which took me months to trace and rectify.

Now it’s on the road and feels like a new car.

Anyway, posting for some 20 year old car love in a sea of people showing off their new new M cars 🙂

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone with experience of the G87 M2 / G8x platform can help me work out a strange intermittent issue I've been having.

The background

I had my G87 M2 running amp+subwoofer for around 4 months and the M2 CS software/flash for around 2 months. without any problems

I started getting an intermittent warning:

The warning would only stay on the screen for a few seconds and then disappear.

It didn't seem to be related to hard driving, wheelspin, MDM or any particular DSC setting. It could happen during completely normal driving and seemed completely random.

Interestingly, the warning seemed to happen much more frequently while running the CS flash, sometimes almost 3-4 times in a hour drive.

when on the stock flash afterwards i was getting the error maybe once a day/ could just be a coincidence

I'm not saying the CS flash caused the problem — I'm just mentioning the frequency because the difference was noticeable.

Returning the car to the stock flash

Because I wanted to take the car to BMW for a warranty check, I asked my coder guy to return the car to the standard BMW stock flash a day later

After the car was flashed back to stock, I noticed that my subwoofer wasn't working.

My aftermarket audio setup consists of:

• WavTech Link2
• Technic PnP harness
• JL Audio 500/1 amplifier
• JL Audio TW3 subwoofer

When I investigated why the subwoofer wasn't working, I found that the WavTech Link2 was no longer functioning.

This made me wonder whether there could potentially be some connection between the audio/electrical issue and the differential warning.

One particularly strange thing

Whenever the rear differential lock warning appears, I immediately scan the car with BimmerLink.

However, no new differential-specific fault code was ever recorded. with m2cs flash and without.

The warning disappears from iDrive after a few seconds, but there is no corresponding GSD/differential fault appearing in BimmerLink afterwards.

BimmerLink fault codes

I've found various ZGW/FlexRay-related faults, including:

• 100104 – HW wake-up reason ZGW
• 100204 – Message monitoring: no system context signal
• 100406 – FsCSM does not send a response to F60 or F70
• 100600 – FlexRay protocol startup time too high
• 101008 – Non-resolvable ambiguous routing – SG not in the SVT target table

I've also had these overvoltage-related faults:

RAM / audio module:

• B7F49A – Overvoltage detected
• B7F4B7 – Booster external overvoltage terminal 30B
• B7F4B9 – Booster external overvoltage terminal 30

DME:

• 030E03 – Power management: central overvoltage

Amplifier installation

The JL Audio 500/1 was powered directly from the 12V battery in the boot.

The blue 4 AWG CCA cable was the aftermarket +12V power cable.

The grey/brown 4 AWG CCA cable was the amplifier earth, connected to the BMW chassis ground point next to the battery.

• WavTech LOC
• Technic PnP harness
• JL Audio 500/1 amplifier
• JL Audio TW3/subwoofer wiring

I'm particularly interested in whether these are the correct points to use on the G87 or if this could of caused some overvolt issues.

What I've done now

To completely eliminate the aftermarket audio system as a variable Yesterday i removed the amplifier and subwoofer just leaving the harness and leads not connected insulating tape around the ends to make sure they didnt touch any metal (i was still getting errors)

then this evening i removed the Technic PNP harness and the aftermarket power and earth cables

I've driven the car for about 15 minutes since removing everything and so far the differential warning has NOT returned.

What I'm trying to work out

Could a problem with the Technic PnP harness or WavTech LOC, or potentially the amplifier power/ground installation, cause an electrical disturbance or overvoltage event that could somehow result in the rear differential lock being temporarily restricted?

Could the 030E03 central overvoltage and RAM overvoltage faults be related to the aftermarket audio installation?

Could the WavTech LOC itself have been damaged?

Or am I looking at completely separate problems?

Has anyone experienced the “Rear axle differential lock restricted” warning where no corresponding differential fault is stored?

Has anyone seen this warning alongside overvoltage, ZGW or FlexRay faults?

And has anyone installed an aftermarket amplifier in the G87 boot and can confirm the correct factory positive and chassis ground points?

I'm also interested in whether anyone thinks the Technic PnP harness could potentially have damaged the WavTech LOC, or whether the two failures are likely unrelated.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer some advice or share their experience.

This is a LCD emblem to replace static emblems. Anyone have or used one? Also been curious how it compares to the Ali versions with larger bezels.

Hi all,

I have a 2016 BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe (F36), and I’m having a really strange issue with the radio.

It seems that the car has different radio stations assigned to each physical key. For example, when I unlock/start the car with one key, it automatically starts on one particular radio station, whereas using the other key starts on a different station.

I’ve tried changing the station manually and saving it to the radio presets, but the station that comes up on startup still seems to be linked to the key/profile.
I’ve searched online and through the iDrive settings but can’t find a way to change or disable whatever is causing this.

I’m aware of the BMW Personal Profile/Key Memory system, so I’m wondering if the radio startup station is being stored against each key’s profile.
Has anyone with an F36 experienced this, and if so, how did you change the station associated with the key?

Ideally I’m looking for the exact iDrive menu/settings sequence, or whether this needs to be changed/coded using diagnostic software.

Thanks!

My coworker gave me this old book full of concept cars, and while flipping through it I came across the 2011 BMW 328 Hommage Concept.
The second I saw the front end, I immediately thought of the new “ugly” X5 lol. And weirdly enough, seeing this actually made me appreciate the new X5 design a little more. Like damn, BMW really has been playing around with some of these ideas for a long time.
I still think the execution on the new X5 could’ve been better, but it’s really cool looking at an old concept from 2011 and noticing design cues that feel familiar now. Even if the new X5 wasn’t directly based on this, you can kind of see the design language BMW has been experimenting with over the years.
I’ve loved BMW since I was a little kid, so stuff like this fascinates me. Seeing old concepts and then recognizing bits and pieces of those ideas in production cars years later is just cool as hell.