Thursday February 18, 2021
3 Series models affected
Fire hazard: BMW calls back 430,000 cars
The repair should only take 60 minutes, but without it there could be a fire in the worst case. Because of the risk of fire, BMW has to have almost half a million vehicles checked and repaired in authorized workshops. It concerns series from the years 2004 to 2012.
Because of the risk of fire, BMW calls 430,000 vehicles back to the authorized workshops in Germany. The Bavarian automobile manufacturer is reacting to a warning that has been known since the end of 2017 for the 3 Series vehicles manufactured between July 2004 and June 2012. The models with the internal designations E90 to E93 are affected. The group confirmed this to the "Focus".
According to the report, the affected area is a plug connection from the wiring harness to the fan regulator of the heating and air conditioning system. According to BMW's answer, this could overheat due to fretting corrosion. This in turn may lead to short circuits, to a melting of the plug contact or, it goes on, "in rare cases" to a "thermal event", as the "Focus" quotes. This fire hazard affects not only running vehicles, but also parked vehicles.
According to BMW, a 60-minute visit to the workshop is sufficient to rectify the problem. The global company has issued three campaign codes for the recall, these are "0061830500", "0061660400" and "0061830400". The authorized workshops check the plug connection and overhaul it. It may also be necessary to replace the fan regulator. In addition to the approximately 430,000 affected models in Germany, another 115,000 copies outside of the recall are included.
In North America, there was a corresponding exchange campaign since mid-2018, where more than 800,000 BMW vehicles had to be examined and repaired. As a reason for the delay, the company spokeswoman said that it had arisen "due to various field situations and different regulatory requirements". According to the report, the 1-series, the X5 and the X6 were previously also affected. Such a measure is currently not necessary for other series.
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