SMG Pump Failure Thread

Bump... for all you Hampton Roads guys, wheres the best place for good work at a reasonable price in the area? Keep this thread alive, as BMW needs to know that there are un-happy ///M owners!

newbie here:

this is really nerveracking (almost makes me consider putting the car back up for sale after owning it for a week.) I'm sitting at work, and got advised by another member to read up on smg and sub-frame issues.

regarding the subframe: is it true that if you have an 03 or newer you're somewhat on the safer side (sorry its not a thread specific question)

regarding the smg pump: I just bought an 03 with 76k miles. Only two things I've noticed are 1) the car is pretty jerky if driven in automatic, fairly smooth in smg mode (still feel a very light jerk from 1-2, and 2-3, but highway shifting seems to be perfect...) - is that normal or should I be worried, and 2) I've had this happen to me twice in one week....i was at an uphill at the light and just holding the car in first gear, tried to make the turn at the light and it just kept jerking until i shifted. this same thing happened on a straight road trying to catch a light. It almost seemed as if the car wasnt expecting a quick move like that.

From having driven a manual car for the past several years, the jerky feeling in first gear seemed like the clutch was let off too quick....is that semi normal or does this mean i'm about to get screwed real soon?

I also have a friend in town who has an M with 83k miles and has not had an issue and told me i shouldnt be too worried about it until 100k miles...

Please advise!

Subframe
This is probably because of the wear on the subframe due to being an older model. Only time will tell for the frequency of failures on the newer ones.

SMG
1) Don't drive in auto. I think about 99.9% drive in manual mode. If you want smoother shifts, change to mode 3 or 4. I personally keep it on 5 and feel if I let of the gas a little while the clutch engages provides a smoother shift.
2) Bucking bronco. Look it up, you need to either step on it, let off completely, or shift. This happened to me during the test drive and first month. SMG takes some learning.
3)Your symptoms seem normal to me. You will learn to drive it.

a bit relieved..thanks a lot!

on that note... would you recommend spending north of 3k on a third party warranty?

Originally Posted by torrnt

Subframe
This is probably because of the wear on the subframe due to being an older model. Only time will tell for the frequency of failures on the newer ones.

SMG
1) Don't drive in auto. I think about 99.9% drive in manual mode. If you want smoother shifts, change to mode 3 or 4. I personally keep it on 5 and feel if I let of the gas a little while the clutch engages provides a smoother shift.
2) Bucking bronco. Look it up, you need to either step on it, let off completely, or shift. This happened to me during the test drive and first month. SMG takes some learning.
3)Your symptoms seem normal to me. You will learn to drive it.

any one know of good reputable shop here in Houston TX to replace my smg pump cheaper than momentum BMW

Just pick up an 06 comp. pckg with 30k when my car shuts of on the highway I thought it the smg pump coz b4 that happen the down shift it works on and off 2 days later this happen dash board looks like christmas lights all the lights are on when start the car start but when you put it on gear it shuts off by itself. we found out that abs pump went bad put a new one in still lights are on I was told that it need GT1 program to reset the pump. thank god it not the smg pump. where can I buy the salmon relay? would luv to have one just in case.

Hey, been a garage mechanic for 8 years and I have figured out a lot of things in the Cobra world over on svtperformance.com, including a "fix" for the intercooler pump that seems to fail at around 60k miles. I've also done my own port work on the supercharger getting me to 500wrhp for $50 from about 360 stock. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I am great at pulling myself away from a job if it isn't going as hoped in order to find a solution. If anyone wants to send me a damaged/failed pump, I will pull it apart and see what I can find out. Ideally, I would need a couple to see if the same thing is failing or if it's different parts. If it is this common, I'm assuming there is a weak link and that it will involve a certain area in the pump.

I'll post a thread with pictures for all to follow if I find anything allowing those who are mechanically inclined to fix their own unit. If, by chance I do find the problem, I will resell the units that have been sent to me at the cost of whatever part failed + shipping, so basically a free unit minus the part, no charge for labor as these would be done in order to help the BMW community.



Shoot me a PM if you have one to send me! Local would be ideal

Originally Posted by Raza R

newbie here:

this is really nerveracking (almost makes me consider putting the car back up for sale after owning it for a week.) I'm sitting at work, and got advised by another member to read up on smg and sub-frame issues.

regarding the subframe: is it true that if you have an 03 or newer you're somewhat on the safer side (sorry its not a thread specific question)

regarding the smg pump: I just bought an 03 with 76k miles. Only two things I've noticed are 1) the car is pretty jerky if driven in automatic, fairly smooth in smg mode (still feel a very light jerk from 1-2, and 2-3, but highway shifting seems to be perfect...) - is that normal or should I be worried, and 2) I've had this happen to me twice in one week....i was at an uphill at the light and just holding the car in first gear, tried to make the turn at the light and it just kept jerking until i shifted. this same thing happened on a straight road trying to catch a light. It almost seemed as if the car wasnt expecting a quick move like that.

From having driven a manual car for the past several years, the jerky feeling in first gear seemed like the clutch was let off too quick....is that semi normal or does this mean i'm about to get screwed real soon?

I also have a friend in town who has an M with 83k miles and has not had an issue and told me i shouldnt be too worried about it until 100k miles...

Please advise!

Why worry? Will the pump go bad? Maybe, but think about how many thousands of SMG transmissions there are out there and in reality, how few have failed. If every post on this thread had a failed pump (which they don't), there would be a little under 90 that have failed. Let's just say 90 to keep this simple. There have been 13,587 view, so lets assume that they were all the SMG transmissions that were made. That is 0.6% failure rate. That's not that many. Granted, there are many more SMG transmissions out there and there are WAY more than 90 that have failed, but hopefully you get my point. The chance that yours will go out is pretty small.

It's funny. All cars have their "problems." With the 03/04 cobra that I had, it was the "head tick" It was premature valve wear that all these guys freaked out about. I know close to 30 guys personally who have NEVER had an issue with the heads. When you actually look at the number of cars made vs the number of cars that actually had an issue, it was very small.

We come on these forums for a reason.....to fix the problems with the cars we love and discuss how to make them BETTER. That's why it seems like this is a frequent problem. We post our problems in order to find a solution. I'm not going to post everyday and say "well, I got to work today with no issues and the transmission shifted fine" Enjoy the car and drive the hell out of it! I am. I've had the car for less than a month, SMG and all and have put 2k miles on it. It's a car. It's meant to be driven.

Originally Posted by Suaveflooder

Hey, been a garage mechanic for 8 years and I have figured out a lot of things in the Cobra world over on svtperformance.com, including a "fix" for the intercooler pump that seems to fail at around 60k miles. I've also done my own port work on the supercharger getting me to 500wrhp for $50 from about 360 stock. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and I am great at pulling myself away from a job if it isn't going as hoped in order to find a solution. If anyone wants to send me a damaged/failed pump, I will pull it apart and see what I can find out. Ideally, I would need a couple to see if the same thing is failing or if it's different parts. If it is this common, I'm assuming there is a weak link and that it will involve a certain area in the pump.

I'll post a thread with pictures for all to follow if I find anything allowing those who are mechanically inclined to fix their own unit. If, by chance I do find the problem, I will resell the units that have been sent to me at the cost of whatever part failed + shipping, so basically a free unit minus the part, no charge for labor as these would be done in order to help the BMW community.



Shoot me a PM if you have one to send me! Local would be ideal

Bump for a great post

Originally Posted by Suaveflooder

Why worry? Will the pump go bad? Maybe, but think about how many thousands of SMG transmissions there are out there and in reality, how few have failed. If every post on this thread had a failed pump (which they don't), there would be a little under 90 that have failed. Let's just say 90 to keep this simple. There have been 13,587 view, so lets assume that they were all the SMG transmissions that were made. That is 0.6% failure rate. That's not that many. Granted, there are many more SMG transmissions out there and there are WAY more than 90 that have failed, but hopefully you get my point. The chance that yours will go out is pretty small.

It's funny. All cars have their "problems." With the 03/04 cobra that I had, it was the "head tick" It was premature valve wear that all these guys freaked out about. I know close to 30 guys personally who have NEVER had an issue with the heads. When you actually look at the number of cars made vs the number of cars that actually had an issue, it was very small.

We come on these forums for a reason.....to fix the problems with the cars we love and discuss how to make them BETTER. That's why it seems like this is a frequent problem. We post our problems in order to find a solution. I'm not going to post everyday and say "well, I got to work today with no issues and the transmission shifted fine" Enjoy the car and drive the hell out of it! I am. I've had the car for less than a month, SMG and all and have put 2k miles on it. It's a car. It's meant to be driven.

thanks a lot! plan is to keep her for at least 2 years so hopefully i wont run into an issues.

Originally Posted by Swish

Bump for a great post

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Raza R

thanks a lot! plan is to keep her for at least 2 years so hopefully i wont run into an issues.

No worries! A pump wearing out at 100k miles is actually not that bad. You have a better chance of your clutch in the SMG going before the pump does. I took a look at some spec clutches for the tranny and they are a little over $800 not including labor. The pump is expensive, yes, but it looks to be a fairly easy install....easier than a clutch anyway Enjoy your car I know I am!

For what it is worth, the type of driving doesn't seem to correlate to a failure: I had an '02 coupe that was a regular track car, put 60K on it, at least 5-7K at the track, never had an SMG problem (went through 2 clutches, and at least 20 sets of brake pads though). My '03 cabrio, which has never seen the track, failed under warranty at 17K...

Another thing, seems a lot more people are NOT having problems than are having problems. Just me. I think people freak because it's so expensive when it does go.

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=694047

Has anyone ever noticed this before or can someone try this and see if they're getting the same noise:

I parked my car in neutral (0.) opened the door and put the car in gear. At this time my key was in the full "on" position (right before actually starting the car.)
1) if you're sitting in the car or standing outside and the key is in, car you hear the car shift gears from 0-1?
2) asides from hearing it shift i also heard a squeeky noise.... is that normal (this wasn't the fuel pump start-up noise)
3) none of this exists when the car is started. i also didn't hear it shifting from 1-2 while the car was off. only from 0-1.

If no one's heard of this before could someone please try this in their garage and let me know? Hopefully this isn't a problem or a "symptom."

Car seems to be driving perfectly fine and a buddy drove it recently and said mine shifts a lot smoother than his m3 and thought my smg was in good shape.

Thoughts?

I don't have M3 neither SMG trans, but I'm looking to buy one with SMG. It looks to me it's thermal failure. Pump is overheating for the many using cycles, then fails.
I think you need some kind pool thing by regions. (southeast, northeast,......and so on), then see where is failures are accrued more often.

I just bought my 2003 M3 SMG less than a month ago and the hydraulic pump went out. Cost me $4K. Went to Nalley BMW in Atlanta... felt like I didn't have a choice.

I made a u-turn in my condo complex and shifted from R to 1. Increased speed and it would not shift to 2. I stopped and turn the car off. Tried to turn it back on and it was stuck in 1. Car would not start and the yellow transmission light was on. Tried maybe 12 times, then gave up and called for a tow.

FML

Originally Posted by Boursin9

I just bought my 2003 M3 SMG less than a month ago and the hydraulic pump went out. Cost me $4K. Went to Nalley BMW in Atlanta... felt like I didn't have a choice.

I made a u-turn in my condo complex and shifted from R to 1. Increased speed and it would not shift to 2. I stopped and turn the car off. Tried to turn it back on and it was stuck in 1. Car would not start and the yellow transmission light was on. Tried maybe 12 times, then gave up and called for a tow.

FML

Looks like you just joined the forum to ***** about your problem. Before you shelled out 4gs in repairs, did you follow steps to properly diagnose and save money on it? I doubt it. And judging by the way you deal with this problem, i bet you picked up ur m3 in your manner: careless. But hey, its your money.

Originally Posted by hoonpv

Looks like you just joined the forum to ***** about your problem. Before you shelled out 4gs in repairs, did you follow steps to properly diagnose and save money on it? I doubt it. And judging by the way you deal with this problem, i bet you picked up ur m3 in your manner: careless. But hey, its your money.

Hey Jerkoff, please read the first post where the OP said to talk about your experience with this problem. So yes, I posted to talk about my experience.

Yes, you guessed right. While sitting in my dead car in the rain, I failed to take a cab home, bring up E46 forum on a car that I had just bought, and do everything myself.

And actually when I purchased the car, I test drove it and took it to my mechanic to have it inspected.

So I join to post my experience on a thread that the OP asked us to, and then this douche comes along and immediately attacks me. Thanks for helping people out, moron.

Originally Posted by Boursin9

Hey Jerkoff, please read the first post where the OP said to talk about your experience with this problem. So yes, I posted to talk about my experience.

Yes, you guessed right. While sitting in my dead car in the rain, I failed to take a cab home, bring up E46 forum on a car that I had just bought, and do everything myself.

And actually when I purchased the car, I test drove it and took it to my mechanic to have it inspected.

So I join to post my experience on a thread that the OP asked us to, and then this douche comes along and immediately attacks me. Thanks for helping people out, moron.

I didn't tell you to bring up the forum in your dead car, do a search on broken SMG, and fix everything by yourself in the rain. Don't be a sissy and get all crossed.

Looks like you got your car towed to the dealer at the first sign of malfunction. Choice? Yeah you had choice. Not a single person in the world has forced you to get your car towed to a dealer where they would charge you up the ass. And what do you do afterward? comes in here and ***** about the monumental repair bill.

Your posts are absolutely useless. It's of no help: It's just you *****ing. Actually, it goes even deeper than that because someone new on the forum, possibly on the lookout for a purchase of SMG e46, might read your absolute rubbish post like "SMG breaks in the parking lot and costs 4Gs" and decide to avoid SMG all together.

you fail. hard.

Originally Posted by hoonpv

I didn't tell you to bring up the forum in your dead car, do a search on broken SMG, and fix everything by yourself in the rain. Don't be a sissy and get all crossed.

Looks like you got your car towed to the dealer at the first sign of malfunction. Choice? Yeah you had choice. Not a single person in the world has forced you to get your car towed to a dealer where they would charge you up the ass. And what do you do afterward? comes in here and ***** about the monumental repair bill.

Your posts are absolutely useless. It's of no help: It's just you *****ing. Actually, it goes even deeper than that because someone new on the forum, possibly on the lookout for a purchase of SMG e46, might read your absolute rubbish post like "SMG breaks in the parking lot and costs 4Gs" and decide to avoid SMG all together.

you fail. hard.

You blow my mind. I buy a M3 and it breaks down. A guess since I JUST BOUGHT THE CAR that I should get it repaired. The car will not shift out of 1 gear, so it won't start. So I tow it to the stealer. Should I have paid for a tow to my home so I could check this page and figure out what to do next? I didn't even know this forum would talk about my problem.

When I finally do search on it, I find this forum asking those of us who have had this problem to post the experience, which I did.

Please explain what I did wrong. I did exactly what the original poster asked me to do. Maybe I could get some feedback (e.g. wow, you paid way too much.... or Nalley in Atlanta is known for that) or let someone else know what happened so they can ask about this specific issue before they buy.

Instead I get a complete jerk who decides to attack me for posting my experience AS REQUESTED IN THE FIRST POST. Maybe someone looking to own a BMW may read through and see you flame and surmise that BMW owners are total jerks that like to kick a new BMW owner when they're down.

Have you flamed the original poster for making this whole thread about a bad hydraulic unit?