About a decade after delivery, the train type experienced a notable technical accident on 1 May 2009 when a wheel broke at Kaulsdorf station.

The operator reconstructed a repair shop to carry out the repairs, but the replacement works were running too slow, so that some of the inspections could not be carried out at their scheduled time, leading to some of the rolling stock being temporarily withdrawn from service, and timetables had to be revised as fewer trains were available to operate it.

was overrun as well, the federal regulator withdrew permission to operate 100 of the sets of this type, which led to serious transport problems on the Berlin S-Bahn in 2010.

Further problems at the height of winter 2011 led to more train sets being withdrawn, as some of the motors and sanding equipment needed to be reconstructed.

[2] Originally it was planned to withdraw all older types of rolling stock on the Berlin S-Bahn after 2017.

Regenerative brakes are fitted, leading to an average electricity saving of 30 percent over the S-Bahn network.

Due to their characteristic howling start-up noise, which is typical for three-phase AC motors with pulsed voltage control, these vehicles are occasionally also called "circular saws", "hoe buoys" or "flying alarms".