You didn't do enough "preventative maintenance". Maintenance on a BMW is repair on a Lexus.
2007 BMW X3 - Oil or Coolant Warning Light
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You didn't do enough "preventative maintenance". Maintenance on a BMW is repair on a Lexus.
Surprised the dashboard and door panels haven't disintegrated or have they?
The only interior issue is that I need to glue the plastic mounting tabs back on to the door panels. I’m going to do that when I install a Bavsound midrange and tweeter speaker set.
Aside from that I think the interior has held up very well.
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2026
Maybe....I way over maintain my M62tu2 BMW 2001 540...stuff still breaks. Just takes a bit longer. Transmission finally failed at 390,000 miles...from new I serviced the transmission every 30k, cause I read Mike Miller from BMWCCA recommended that (not realizing he was talking about manuals). When I hit around 160k I started servicing every 50k miles. Anyway it started slipping two months ago so I am sidelined for now, and driving my M550ix. Hope to be back on the road with a used transmission installed in a few weeks.
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Mike Miller? The lawyer turned auto repair advice columnist?
The same guy who didn't realize his job was to offer advice, not rail against the models his disliked and never owned, didn't know BMW's own gearbox nomenclature and demonstrated that in one of his columns?
A sort of pre-cursor to the YT auto repair personalities before YT became big? And not in the good sense…
That's a coolant light, very similar to my cavalier coolant light. No heat isn't a good sign.A friend of mine with 2007 BMW X3 just sent me this picture and wants to add oil. But I think that is coolant warning light, not oil. What is it? (ChatGPT failed and thought is a CEL.)
He also lost the heat, so I'm assuming that is Add Coolant light.
Thanks a lot!
the one on the right
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f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2026
The new guy that replaced him is an actual BMW certified technician, now running his own independant BMW repair shop and writes really good columns. The tech section is back and much better now. After Mike's accident the column really fell from relevance... and sad for him, I don't think he really recovered from his head injury.
I let my CCA membership lapse in the period after Satch became editor, and MM was writing the tech column, so I don't know how things went after that.
If he suffered some sort of personal trauma, that is unfortunate and something I don't wish on anyone.
Nothing personal against him, but he was out of his depth in that role, and for whatever reason, he was given that job at a retail BMW magazine as well.
But he was no Brett Anderson, to be sure.
From time to time, I think about rejoining again. Wonder if they still allow past members to reclaim their numbers? What are they up to now? Mine was a little over 100xxx.
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2026
I've been a member for 25 years.
Yes, he was a bit too old school and out of his element with anything produced in the past 20 years.
The magazine is as good as ever. Of the car clubs I am a member (five or six) I think the BMWCCA offers the best value. Good professional quality magazine, and in my case a great local chapter with active social gatherings, day and weekend drives, track days and technical sessions.
Mike started off loading the tech section to a couple of BMW master technicians simply because he wasn't up with the current technology. AFAIK an E46 coupe was is last new car purchase. He also wrote the tech section for BIMMER which folded around 2008.
Yes some people gave him flack for suggesting a Honda Accord was a better track car due to the low running costs but that was in the early 2000's.
Iirc he was seriously injured when a garage door fell on him and at the time he was not a spring chicken.
I let my CCA membership lapse after 15 yrs because I never had the time to attend the events and I was never going to be in a position to participate in HPDE events.
I too cancelled CCA membership and Satch and Miller were big reasons why.
Mike Miller was one of these folks who was simply too negative on everything and did not realize the wisdom of the old maxim that “familiarity breeds contempt.” All brands have issues and BMW, as a car that is German and caters to the luxury clientele, will be more expensive to fix and service than other cars. Other luxury cars are largely no different. The underlying problem is that leasing and financing have made expensive cars available to people who really properly cannot afford them. I don’t want to sound like a snob because I am very conscious of what we spend in our household (and I remain shocked/perplexed at the cost of things). But if someone is in the category of properly being able to afford a given car, the maintenance and repair costs should not be a material figure relative
to income, if that makes sense. If it is, there are other great cars out there and the person should buy one of those. Driving a car you cannot properly afford just isn’t worth the aggravation. There is enough stress in life, no need to add more that can be avoided. Miller worked for a club that was based on expensive German luxury sport sedans but wanted to rail constantly against them - it made no sense. Plus the cars he pitched all had their share of problems, I know because I have been driving BMWs since the 1980s.
I did not hear of his health situation. I wish him well; no one deserves such a thing.
Mike Miller was one of these folks who was simply too negative on everything and did not realize the wisdom of the old maxim that “familiarity breeds contempt.” All brands have issues and BMW, as a car that is German and caters to the luxury clientele, will be more expensive to fix and service than other cars. Other luxury cars are largely no different. The underlying problem is that leasing and financing have made expensive cars available to people who really properly cannot afford them. I don’t want to sound like a snob because I am very conscious of what we spend in our household (and I remain shocked/perplexed at the cost of things). But if someone is in the category of properly being able to afford a given car, the maintenance and repair costs should not be a material figure relative
to income, if that makes sense. If it is, there are other great cars out there and the person should buy one of those. Driving a car you cannot properly afford just isn’t worth the aggravation. There is enough stress in life, no need to add more that can be avoided. Miller worked for a club that was based on expensive German luxury sport sedans but wanted to rail constantly against them - it made no sense. Plus the cars he pitched all had their share of problems, I know because I have been driving BMWs since the 1980s.
I did not hear of his health situation. I wish him well; no one deserves such a thing.
I remember that column too. No one who has ever driven on a track in a FWD car v a RWD BMW would ever suggest the FWD car was a better option. Honda Accordss are great cars and they are typically very nice to drive but when I read that I knew this guy had a screw loose and should be writing for Consumer Reports. (And when he wrote that column, my wife has recently traded her Jetta GLI for a Honda Prelude so it’s not like our family dislikes Hondas or FWD cars - both the Jetta (just got old) and the Prelude were terrific little cars.
The suggestion wasn't because he thought the Accord was a better car. It was because he thought the running costs for the Accord would be a lot less than a 3 series. He wasn't exactly wrong either. BMW was having problems with the cooling system (Expansion tanks and water pump impellers disentegratging) and rear subframes were tearing away from the body.
I understand, I am not an idiot. Cooling system issues on BMWs predate the e36. Radiators and waterpumps were always sub 100k replacement items on m20 and m30 powered BMWs. Plus the M30had the annoying brake bomb so it was a wash overall. And Hondas have their own issues. Good cars Hondas are, we have owned several, but none of them are maintenance or repair free when they hit 100k miles unless you want to make road trips a faith based exercise.
(And btw, anyone who has owned a car with a timing belt like some of the various Hondas also knows the water pump gets replaced at the same time between 60 and 100k or based on time, so in terms of relative cost what are we actually talking about?)
The subframe issue was hyped up. A friend who was with our amateur endurance team ran a German car repair shop for his day job. When an e36 had the failure, BMW always made it right under warranty and often offered significant goodwill if out of warranty. Moreover, these things do happen. I had an 85 535 that I converted for track car use, and the chassis rail that supported the transmissionmission failed so the transmission dropped an inch or so. Big piece of the chassis rail failed. Happens particularly when cars are driven hard. A few hours at a good shop and they had it welded up and good to go. Wasn’t even expensive. You could do the same with the e36, and that’s what anyone with brains did, they didn’t panic and head to the keyboard to whine on the internet. Don’t disagree that it shouldn’t happen but there are no perfect cars. I am loyal to BMW because a different BMW, an e34 sedan, kept me safe from serious injury when I was rear ended by a drunk driver doing about 50mph and I was stopped.
Point is that he was a moron for suggesting a Honda Accord over a well cared for used e36 (to keep the price similar) was a better bet if you are interested in tracking the car, as the e36 was simply a nicer car overall, and far superior on a track. And yes the cooling systems are a repair item but it is a once every 60k miles issue, so it is not the end of the world. I go back to a point I have made that if that is a material cost to you, drive something cheaper. And then he went and bought an e46, which is certainly no Corolla reliability wise, but again a far nicer car.
He is free to be a fan of the accord but then why write for a bmw club?
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edyvw
$50 site donor 2026
I personally think it is absolutely crazy suggestion. I track my BMW and I pay attention as every other person tracking vehicle, what other vehicles are on the track. I cannot remember seeing EVER Accord or Camry on track! Those cars are just not built well enough for a track. You can take kids to school in them, go to office, but track is different thing.
Reason why people use BMW so much on the track is that chassis is built for much stronger power plants. Brakes are oversized, and if you have to add something (like I did oil cooler) everything is there to just do plug and play.
I would argue that running BMW 3 series or what is now very popular, 1 series E82, actually cheaper than running Subaru WRX etc. where you must upgrade brakes, do all kind of other monkey business that actually costs money.
And track is not cheap period. Anyone doing track knows tires and brakes are biggest cost, regardless of brand.
So not sure what was he thinking writing that. By the time you do all upgrades on Accord to make it somewhat acceptable for track, you would be at the point to wish you bought M3.
Perhaps he was thinking of HPDE where new owners decide to take their daily driving stock cars out. Perhaps he was just really out off by the lack of improvement in quality. O do remember him railing again the "water thin" 5w30 over the.10w40 they used to use, oh and not to mention the 15k mile OCI. This was all back around 2003 or so.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2026
I don’t know what was he thinking. It doesn’t make sense. Especially HPDE. I mean if you are taking stock car out, you really don’t want FWD understeer monster with iffy suspension. The bills are going to pile up fast.
I don't recall reading the Accord thing, or maybe it was past my time, but it sounds about right.
I understand that BMW techs willing to field questions and write a monthly column on a volunteer basis probably don't grow on trees, but that's what the column should have more closely striven for.
As a club magazine, albeit one considered one of the best, it does get some slack, but as I said, my issue wasn't with MM personally, but his writing.
Providing technical advice can, and should, be done without editorializing, sounding judgemental, or making left field comparisons like the Accord suggestion.
Expertise, solutions, and constructive comments.
But there was more to it than that, and even outside the club, it lead to a reputation as a hater which caused people to dismiss him entirely, whether his positions were valid or not.
Call me crazy, but that's not my concept of what a technical column should be, both as a reader and publisher. The latter part fell on Satch.
Of course, it's not all business all the time, and there are places for more personal or subjective pieces like a Rob Siegel, or the Peter Egans wrote. Even ostensibiliy technical programming can sucessfully provide solid advice in an informal manner, like Click & Clack did, but their audience knew what they were getting, and it was humorous, not sort of bitter.
Anyway, as with anyone, I hope he's enjoying driving whatever it is he likes, wherever he is now, and will not derail the topic any further.
