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SMG Pump Failure Thread

309K views 358 replies 172 participants last post by  Commando 
#1 ·
Alright... I'm not sure if I'm the best guy for this, but a couple of my fellow enthusiasts inspired me to start this thread and I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a shot, so here it is.

All the recent news about the failing subframes of our cars has proven that if BMW is hassled enough and confronted about real defects in their cars that eventually they will take responsibility for their stupidity and do something about it. That's another reason I felt like this just might end up being worthwhile.

As I'm sure most of you already know, there is another part in our cars that is equally as defective (maybe even more defective). It is the hydraulic pump in the SMG transmission. If you own a 2002-2006 M3 with an SMG transmission it is almost certain that at some point during your cars life it will require a new pump. BMW makes an absolute killing selling these things to us. I've heard of people having to pay a grand total up to $4,000 when it's all said and done after their pump goes bad, that's insane, not to mention the inconvenience of having your car in the shop while they take their sweet time to fix it. It's just ridiculous that this gigantic hassle is all but guaranteed for every single SMG owner out there. As the owner of an M3 with an SMG transmission myself, I want to be able to commute daily and take my car on road trips without the constant fear of having my car break down (especially if the thing decides to go out while I'm on the highway doing 70+mph., which I have definitely heard of). These are nice cars that we spend a lot of money to maintain as it is, and having BMW turn a blind eye to this design flaw (just as they did for so long with the issue of cracking subframes) is just wrong IMO. Obviously there are far fewer SMG pumps out there than subframes...since not every single 3-series has one, only a limited number of M3s do. That is why I think you don't hear about it as often. My guess is that the failure percentage of these pumps is actually greater than that of the subframes (I'm not sure about this, it is just my guess). The reason I say this is because not EVERY subframe fails, there are plenty of 3ers and Ms out there with 100k+ miles and the subframes are just fine, there are hardly any SMG pumps that make it 100k+ miles without failing, and if you own one that has withstood 100k+ miles, my guess is that it will probably go out any day now. So even with this higher rate of failure, BMW still has done nothing about it. I accredit that to the fact that there are fewer of us SMG owners out there to raise hell about it. This brings me to the entire point of the longest post I've ever made.

If you've got an M3 with SMG transmission and your pump has failed then post about it here. Tell us what year your M3 is, what kind of mileage it was at when it happened, how you were driving it, how much it cost to fix etc. We see these "Oh damn my SMG pump failed" threads on almost a daily basis it seems, so lets at least start posting them all in one place so we can hopefully start to get some actual numbers on how many of these things are failing.

My SMG pump has yet to fail, but my car only has 28k miles, and I'm sure that it will happen eventually, and when it does I am more than willing to donate my "broken" pump to anyone who knows these things and would be able to take it apart and see what is ACTUALLY going wrong in there (as many members have said before, it's possibly a 10 cent o-ring or some stupid part that doesn't cost thousands to fix that is actually breaking, not the entire pump like BMW would have us believe and charges us for).

So let's hear it, I know you guys with the failed pumps are out there, and I'm sure there are many more to come. So post it here and tell us all about it.


And P.S.... You guys with the manual transmissions, there is no need for you to hop on here and say "Yep dat sounds bout right, that's why I stayed away from that crap back when I was looking for an M3" or "Boy I sure am glad I own a manual so I don't have to deal with this sorta stuff" We've heard it all before. Those kinds of posts are unwanted here. We are all fully aware of why you chose not to get an SMG, and are also aware that you like driving your manual more because you feel more "connected" to your car. None of that will help what this thread is trying to accomplish, and I would appreciate it if all SMG bashers just steered clear of this thread.
 
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#161 · (Edited)
I'm having a weird issue, I looked all through this thread and many others.

Basically I cannot shift it manually, about 50% of the time it will flash in between shifts for about 10-15 seconds then go into gear, or neutral. Now the funny thing is, the car works perfect in Auto mode, its only when I manually shift that is gives me issues.

I checked the hood switch and it was actually loose, the bracket and switch were not snug, so I re clipped everything in hoping that would fix it but it did not :( it is now nice and snug, I checked all others doors, all things are closed. Can I zip tie the switch pressed down just to rule out that its indeed closed all the way? I imagine if the switch was bad the car would stay in ZERO while starting like most others do. At first I was thinking that when switching manually the cars weight transfer was making the hood flex a bit and disengaging the switch, in auto mode weight transfer is less which would explain why it works in that mode, I might just be over thinking it though :)

Im hearing MAYBE a gear identification switch could be the issue? I have a part number for it, does anyone know how hard it is to change?
 
#168 ·
I would almost think your issue may be with the sensors in the shifter or the paddles. If your Gear Position Sensor goes bad the tranny will start shifting into 2nd to take off and my not use 6th gear. If it drives normal in auto mode I would think it's something with the manual shifting input sensors.
 
#163 ·
Gentlemen, Found this issue with my SMG and I fixed it, the problem were while i was driving the gear indicator light would flash at ALL times, when I came to a stop and release the brake pedal the transmission would shift to N and still blink, then I would have to place it back into gear, BUT.....If i kept the brake pedal on and hard the gear indicator would still flash but not jump out of gear, then while driving the COG light would illuminate and I would reset it with my Autoenginuity tool, the other problem that was having was that my PDC wouldn't work, so the fix was both Hood sensors (51237893575), the 2 that are on the front of the car that locks the hood in place. Once I changed those 2 out 2 days ago, no more issues and runs perfect!! PDC no issues!

Previous to this problem, my gears would skip and jump out gear and the problem was the Gear identification switch (23412229792). With all this said I changed the Salmon Relay just in case.

Hope this works for some of you out there!
 
#164 ·
My sisters pump om her M3 jsut gave out at 127,345. It was experiencing the gear shifting into neutral and staying there. Cog SMG light would come on along with the SES light. She replaced the salmon relay but that only bought days as it ultimetaly failed. She took it in the shop and awaiting from the Indie to see how much of her life it will cost her...lol....this sucks man. How can german engeneering be so flawed with these problems.
 
#169 ·
that is the most horrfic BS ever! Thats another example and proves what the dealers are trying to do! go to an inde shop man! For those in the California south region, go to AMB Service Center in Durate CA and ask for Rick. I owe that guy for helping me a lot with the SMG problems I have been dealing with. Tell him that Steven w/the Black M3 sent you!
 
#170 ·
What's up guys, I need some advice, I don't have an M3, I have a 2004 530i e60 with an SMG. 15 months ago my SMG pump failed at 48K, I spent 3K to fix it. Yesterday morning my SMG failed again, I was driving and it all of a sudden went into neutral, it didn't go back into gear, I towed the car to Bayside BMW (great neck , NY), same dealership that fixed my pump 15 months ago, my car currently has 72K, knowing that BMW cover all parts for 2 years... but my service adviser is telling me I might need a new transmission this time, this is without him even running a diagnose on my car. I'm excepting a call from him this afternoon, and I'm almost sure he will tell me I need a new transmission so they can avoid replacing the pump under warranty. Any advice on what I can when he calls? what questions can I ask... etc...
 
#171 ·
Add me to the list

Hey guys! New to the forum. I have a 2002 m3 smg with 116xxx miles on it. With in the last 2 months I have had the smg light come on then go off after restarting the car. I had funny or miss shifts when the light came on. Now the car is stranded won't go into gear. If it does go into gear it pops out. I have replaced the relay and read countless posts and threads hooked up my scanner to receive a pump pressure code so I am almost 100% positive it's the pump. I called bmwna to make them aware of this thread and my problem. I hope others do the same. If anyone has suggestions on my next step please help. The pump alone is 2566 at the dealership in Ks. I am a pretty mechanically inclined guy. But the bleeding process and it being a BMW scares me.
 
#172 ·
Add me to the list

Hey guys! New to the forum. I have a 2002 m3 smg with 116xxx miles on it. With in the last 2 months I have had the smg light come on then go off after restarting the car. I had funny or miss shifts when the light came on. Now the car is stranded won't go into gear. If it does go into gear it pops out. I have replaced the relay and read countless posts and threads hooked up my scanner to receive a pump pressure code so I am almost 100% positive it's the pump. I called bmwna to make them aware of this thread and my problem. I hope others do the same. If anyone has suggestions on my next step please help. The pump alone is 2566 at the dealership in Ks. I am a pretty mechanically inclined guy. But the bleeding process and it being a BMW scares me.
 
#173 ·
So I've read every single post in this thread but I've not come across the things we were hoping to accomplish:
1) What is causing these SMG pump failures? Seems a lot of people have gone off and diagnosed the broken pumps but I haven't seen any conclusions.
2) Has anyone gotten anywhere with BMW to acknowledge this problem? Do we need to get a petition going in the hopes that BMW will issue a recall?
 
#174 ·
What I'm seeing is a lot of misdiagnosed problems that then require thousands to fix when most of the time it is an individual component, not the whole system. The issue is that there's not a singular part that causes them to fail, but the fail rate on indivudual parts when combined is high enough to cause a significant fail rate on the system as a whole.

To my knowledge BMW has not come up with any magical cure to solve this, partly because most of the misdiagnosed SMG issues are misdiagnosed in their shop.

The SMG transmission is a sum of a bunch of tiny parts. Obviously it is a normal getrag tranny, which has a clutch and flywheel that can have issues, also has the synchros which can fail, and then there's all the other magical parts that make a normal standard transmission fail. On top of that you have a hydraulic system which can leak, an electric pump that will at some point wear out, sensors that can go bad, actuators that can fail, and then there's all the little switches and gizmos like the brake pedal sensor, paddle shifters. Pile on top of that the stress we put on the system because of our individual driving styles - and please don't bullshit saying you baby your car, if that were the case you would have bought a prius.
 
#175 ·
SMG pump failure April 24, 2012

I'm new to this blog/thread, but I'm very glad I checked it out. I recently took my '03 M3 SMG to Beverly Hills BMW service after the gearbox warning light came on and the car came out of gear into neutral while I was driving (pretty dangerous).

I was told that the SMG pump has issues and it could be "several thousand dollars" to fix it - they're "still investigating" - which to me means they're looking for ways to screw me out of as much as possible. I'm not sure when the last post was put on here, but I want to see what resolutions exist so I can weigh the options.

Ironically, the day after I took the car into BMW BH, I got an email from their Customer Care department offering a "Total Care" extended maintenance package for $5,200 - I'm wondering, per above, if this continues to be even more of an upsell as it seems my car never has problems until AFTER the car is out of warranty.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated as I'm going to make a decision this week on what to do.
 
#176 ·
I agree with MeanieMe - there is no real response and it seems BMW is purposely keeping this issue under wraps to keep charging SMG owners thousands at a time to maintain their cars. I'm definitely up for pushing the manufacturer on this issue as it is expensive, and very dangerous given how randomly/quickly it occurs.
 
#177 ·
failed smg pump

hey , i have a 04 m3 convertible and my smg pump gave up at 41000 miles and now i dont even have the money to fix the damm thing so the car is just sitting, smh and this is the weather to enjoy the car....:evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil::evil:
i think i od on the devil,, im jus so mad
 
#179 ·
This might help....

http://safercar.gov/Vehicle+Owners/

Near the bottom of this web page above there is a link where you guys can file a claim with NHTSA. It looks like a few of you already did, but im sure the more the better chances you have of action. It also looks like you can start a petition and get a defective investigation opened up where NHTSA investigates the complaint directly with BMW.. From what i read there was a Problem with E46 taillights and someone started a petition filed it with the above site and BMW released a TSB on it a few months later..

if someone already mentioned this sorry i read about 6 of the 9 pages.
 
#180 ·
Hi Guys,
I have a 2005 M3 Convertible. I just put 122k miles on it. My SMG pump has never failed as of yet. However i am posting this because my Mbox indicator light just lit up and wont turn off. I hope it is not the pump but from reading all these posts here it sounds like it might be happening after all. Does anyone have hookups on a SMG pump (new or used) and what should i expect to pay?
 
#181 ·
Unfortunately I don't think we'll see any type of recall or class action on this. If we do that would be great, but the reality as I posted earlier is that the SMG system is a sum of a bunch of tiny parts. There isn't one specific part that is faulty in the system or even a high failure rate of any one part. For instance if 1 in 100 Gear position sensors are bad, and 1 in 100 hydraulic pumps are bad, and springs, and salmon relays, and speed sensors, and accumulators, and so on... before long you are having a SMG system failure of over 10% (assuming the 1 in 100 parts are all installed on different transmissions).
Because the SMGII is still a relatively new concept for veteran mechanics they do not know how to accurately troubleshoot it (or they want big$$ to put in more parts), they say the whole system needs to be replaced.
 
#183 ·
I have a german 330i Motorsport with SMG transmission. The pump broke with 45k miles. Really frustrating because i live in Brazil and here it costs not $ 4k, it costs $12 K. I know. The price of another car of that in America. I guess it's the same pump as the ones they use on the M3's, since the price people have been talking here for the pump is around $ 4K which was what i paid for in the U.S. To make it worse, my SMG UNIT CONTROL MODULE also broke and it costs $ 1250.00. All that at the Santa Monica BMW dealership. Really frustrating. Now i have to pray to pass on the border of Brazil without getting caught by the customs, because i'm not declaring those parts. I'm risking it. Otherwise if i did, i would have to pay 60% of importation taxes. I don't wanna do that. It's already expensive as it is. If i get caught, i will have to pay the importation tax and a fine of 40%, so it comes up to 100%, then i'm screwed. Pray for me guys! lol
 
#185 ·
I know my brother. But my reality is that i live in Brazil.

There, the government wants to increase the national industry production, increasing the GDP. So they make protectionist measures for it by increasing the importation taxes to an extraordinary stupid rate, which is around 100%. So if something costs $ 5K here (US), then same thing costs $ 10K in Brazil.
It's sad, but true. And that's not the worst part. Our national products that are being protect, don't have equal quality comparing to the imported products coming from 1st world countries, that is because only protectionism measures are not enough. There are other matters involved. Thus, the government is corrupt so all the tax money are converted to not improvement of the Country itself, but improvement of the president's bathroom, the president's wife $20k purse, or his new boat. Hope you understand now why a 2004 330i Motorsport SMG, costs $ 32k. Be glad to be American! Oh say can you see, by the dawns early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming..... I mean, not really, you guys got issues too. Besides that and crime, i love Brazil, great economy, which is growing each day. And, big asses. The problem about economy, is that one thing leads to another. Yeap.
 
#186 ·
Thus, the government is corrupt so all the tax money are converted to not improvement of the Country itself, but improvement of the president's bathroom, the president's wife $20k purse, or his new boat. Hope you understand now why a 2004 330i Motorsport SMG, costs $ 32k. Be glad to be American!
Just think, the Presidents wife's $20,000 purse may have only cost $10,000 if there wasn't an import tax.

I digress, back on topic - for anyone out there, when you first unlock the car in the morning and the SMG pump starts to prime, how long does yours run for? Mine is 7-8 seconds every time its sat overnight and everything seems to function flawlessly.
 
#188 ·
Hi all,

I have been reading various threads on various topics here on e46f for a long time, and was well aware of the issues with the pump on the SMG. But recently I found a 2004 M3 with 27K miles on it with an SMG with a decent price. I was contemplating upgrading to this from my 01 330i. I got a quote from CarChex for extended warranty for an agreeable price as well. With all the people who have suffered from SMG failure, did any of you have an extended warranty? If so, did it cover the pump failure?

Also, do you think it is a good idea to get an SMG car plus warranty? Opinions appreciated.

--Kiran.
 
#190 ·
SMG isn't an auto. And you cannot possibly shift quicker than it manually, even if you're an expert and kicking the clutch perfectly every single time.

Plus I need to use my car as a daily driver. My daily commute is about 80 miles in DC traffic. A manual just does not suit my needs.
 
#193 ·
I hear you on the 335i, I've been looking for those as well, but the ones with low miles are too expensive, and the ones that I can afford do not have enough warranty left. I am ok with DIYing and have done a decent amount of work on my 330i, but the newer 335s are quite DIY unfriendly, they don't even have dipsticks. Plus with the turbos and HPFP issues, added money, etc, its a turn off.

The only reason I am even considering the M3 with an SMG is because it has really low mileage, and decent price.

Plus, I most certainly prefer the e46 styling over e90. If my 330 wasn't so beat up (needs about $3000+ in suspension and other parts) I would rock it till the wheels fall off.
 
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