[norman1979]

I would personally be buying that back from the insurance company and repairing it.

[SuperHamz]

Originally Posted by norman1979

I would personally be buying that back from the insurance company and repairing it.

Having bought a car back to strip for parts, I'd probably only ever buy a car back from insurance to take off some of the tasty mods, then sell the rest for spares/repairs.

Unless you have decent storage and access to a garage, it's a ballache getting parts off the car and depressing at the same time.

[Busted]

How many letter did you have from bmw about the recall and how long ago?

Be interesting to see how this pans out with your insurance if you've not complied with the recall

[1966-TR4]

Originally Posted by Hooded

My cars a 64 plate, which I bought for cash 15 months ago at 3.5 years old and put 3 years back to invoice on it, so I wasn't sure if he was in a similar situation or not.

Same, more or less. Have since put 80k on it (120k total). Gap expires in 2 months. I love the car, but if something were to happen this would a tremendous route back to a low mileage 3 year old car.

[JustChris]

Originally Posted by pdk42

Yikes. What was the cause of that?

Fed up with the PCP

[jonesdg4]

Originally Posted by indigochim

Ouch, sorry to see this. Just be thankful that everyone is ok. Hopefully your insurance will sort it all out for you painlessly. I was pleasantly surprised how reasonable an offer I got when I had a meeting with a Spanish HGV with my last car.

Make sure you get everything personal out of it when the insurance co take it away. I left a few things in expecting it to be repaired but instead it was taken half way across the country before I got chance to collect my stuff.

A57 near Carholme? Think I saw you. Sorry to hear of your loss 😢

[muffking]

Originally Posted by jonesdg4

A57 near Carholme? Think I saw you. Sorry to hear of your loss 😢

Yep that was me. The wife said she could see the smoke from a mile away when she was on her way to pick me up.


For those mentioning the recall. I'll not go in to the ins and outs as I'm not a mechanic, but what I do know is that BMW have some responsibility for this and a recall letter doesn't mean that the EGR was faulty and the cause of the fire, nor does it change the fact that they don't have the parts to fix the recall in the event that it was faulty, we may never know.

[Hooded]

Originally Posted by muffking

Yep that was me. The wife said she could see the smoke from a mile away when she was on her way to pick me up.


For those mentioning the recall. I'll not go in to the ins and outs as I'm not a mechanic, but what I do know is that BMW have some responsibility for this and a recall letter doesn't mean that the EGR was faulty and the cause of the fire, nor does it change the fact that they don't have the parts to fix the recall in the event that it was faulty, we may never know.

There's a good chance the car will be inspected to find the cause of the fire. Either way, my advice is, don't mention the recall to the insurance and if they mention it act dumb, you know nothing about any recall and haven't received anything in the post notifying you of one

[Soul_Glo]

I'm glad you're okay. I was going to make a thread on here asking who it was but I have done that in the past and learned that not everyone with a BMW is necessarily on a forum.

I saw it on the trailer and thought: since when did that model start catching fire?!

I missed the action but main thing no big bang and you live to tell the tale.

[JD6]

From memory, that is the 4th EGR cooler fire reported on here. All of them were in hot weather as I recall, so perhaps this week's heat may add to that toll again.

Good that no one was injured.

I'm rather pissed off with BMW over this - my car was checked in September last year and the dealer said it looked fine but the cooler would be replaced once available. Cue lots of delays and then I'm finally told a month ago that they're not planning to replace mine.

If this was purely a serial number issue then that would be fair enough, but as I understand it the check was serial number, plus an internal inspection via endoscope. So since my car passed the endoscope test nearly a year ago, it is deemed safe for ever more, which doesn't seem sensible.

[muffking]

Should have the dash cam footage up tomorrow. It spans across several files so I need to edit it down. Amazing how the flames came out when I popped the bonnet to pour water on the engine. The bonnet seals the engine bay quite well.

[muffking]

This is one of the clips that the dashcam recorded just as I'd pulled over.

[Alscoob]

You were brave opening that bonnet especially pouring water on electrical / fuel fire!! ... personally I would have kept well away.

Sorry to see though but at least no one was injured, except for your wallet.

My 330d has been inspected for the EGR issue & was confirmed as OK so no new parts but is now at a similar 80K miles, maybe I need them to check it again ?

[philiper1]

sorry OP, hopefully your insurance will sort this out without too much fuss and glad you are okay

[rossm]

Not good. Glad you got out and nobody injured. Would not recommend opening the bonnet in these circumstances, you are dumping a load of oxygen into the fire so it will massively fan the flames.

[JustChris]

Originally Posted by muffking

This is one of the clips that the dashcam recorded just as I'd pulled over.

Glad you're ok

[Hooded]

Originally Posted by muffking

This is one of the clips that the dashcam recorded just as I'd pulled over.

The bonnet did a good job of keeping the fire contained. Fair play for opening it trying to put it out.

How long had you been driving for when it happened? There does seem to be a connection to hot weather and these catching fire with the faulty EGR coolers.

[Lucasuk]

Gutted for you but glad you are ok.
Hope you can get something sorted soon.

[Mani59]

Originally Posted by muffking

This is one of the clips that the dashcam recorded just as I'd pulled over.

Main thing is that you are OK!

[1 AKY]

Anybody stop to help?

Saw quite a few HGVs drive past who would have had fire extinguishers on board.

[muffking]

Thanks guys.
Quick answer to those questions.

The guy who stopped had a ton of water in his van, so we managed to contain the fire before the fire service arrived. It's easy to say that I shouldn't have opened the bonnet, but the car was in danger of being a complete gonner, along with my personal belongings. When it's your £15-20k going up in smoke believe me when I say that you would do what it takes in that situation.

The bonnet contained the fire well - Yes I completely agree. It surprised me how the fire was still raging, despite only smoking out of the engine bay while the bonnet was closed until the wiper panel started to melt. The double pull on the bonnet lever worked well in this situation.

Did anyone else stop? - The 1st vehicle to pass was a HGV. My car was blatantly on fire and I stood in the road trying to flag the guy down in the hope that he had a fire extinguisher, he just drove around me despite making eye contact. However within seconds you see the guy who had lots water, then about 5 minutes later another guy with a fire extinguisher stopped and hung around on standby until the fire service arrived. Ironically both guys were white van drivers. It's definitely a myth that white the van man is a rude word, that's HGV drivers. The rest of the passers by probably wouldn't have been able to help.

[muffking]

Just to give you an update re the claim.
BMW UK have got involved, so I will be very careful what I say on here so as not to affect the claim adversely. So far they have been very supportive by getting me back on the road and offering to inspect the car. I won't say too much at this stage, other than to say that their customer service at such a worrying time has been admirable.

I do hope that they take ultimate charge of the claim so I'm not at the mercy of my insurers in case they under value the car, but time will tell. In the mean time I hope to continue as a BMW owner and sing their praise once concluded.