[SkyJawa]

Whether or not you believe the Daily Fail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-EXPLODE.html

[g9icy]

Originally Posted by SkyJawa

Whether or not you believe the Daily Fail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-EXPLODE.html

Are they basing this off a sample size of 1?

[Watsey]

That really is a pathetic attempt at journalism.

[TouringPleb]

Beds/Cambs/Herts took their X5s off fleet last week due to fire in Suffolk. Apparently the 530ds don't have the affected engine.

They are also moving back over to Volvos V90s and XC90s.

[MY340i]

was this just not the EGR recall they did to all them diesel motors.

[JD6]

Originally Posted by Watsey

That really is a pathetic attempt at journalism.

It doesn't seem too bad an article to me. There's a similar one in the Torygraph behind a paywall. What I think is very poor is BMW's reactive approach to this whole EGR cooler problem. On this forum alone I can recall 3 N57 cars being completely destroyed by an EGR cooler fire.

From the initial denials of it being a problem, to a substandard solution - a one-off endoscope check, to a reluctant replacement of the cooler.

My 335d had its initial endoscope check and they said it was fine. It may well have been, but that hardly guarantees the car won't develop a problem. Not long after, my car was in for an unrelated thing - winter wheels I think, and they realised that the coolant level had dropped so they checked again and discovered that the EGR cooler had this problem

They're still trying to downplay the issue to my eyes at least:
__________________________________________________

BMW told MailOnline: 'The safety of our customers and their vehicles is of utmost importance to BMW.

We have been working with the Police for some time on a technical matter linked to a small number of special high-performance vehicles.

'This issue is associated with the particular way in which the Police operate these high-performance vehicles. This unique usage profile puts extra strain on some components and therefore BMW has specified a special servicing programme for these vehicles.

'There is no need for action on any civilian vehicles.

__________________________________________________

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by JD6

It doesn't seem too bad an article to me. There's a similar one in the Torygraph behind a paywall. What I think is very poor is BMW's reactive approach to this whole EGR cooler problem. On this forum alone I can recall 3 N57 cars being completely destroyed by an EGR cooler fire.

From the initial denials of it being a problem, to a substandard solution - a one-off endoscope check, to a reluctant replacement of the cooler.

My 335d had its initial endoscope check and they said it was fine. It may well have been, but that hardly guarantees the car won't develop a problem. Not long after, my car was in for an unrelated thing - winter wheels I think, and they realised that the coolant level had dropped so they checked again and discovered that the EGR cooler had this problem

They're still trying to downplay the issue to my eyes at least:
__________________________________________________

BMW told MailOnline: 'The safety of our customers and their vehicles is of utmost importance to BMW.

We have been working with the Police for some time on a technical matter linked to a small number of special high-performance vehicles.

'This issue is associated with the particular way in which the Police operate these high-performance vehicles. This unique usage profile puts extra strain on some components and therefore BMW has specified a special servicing programme for these vehicles.

'There is no need for action on any civilian vehicles.

__________________________________________________

I'm not saying that there haven't been problems with some BMW diesel engines, or that repeated (daily ?) hard driving of these engines by the Police (including, no doubt, when cold) will cause premature wear, but, I don't believe that Police guidance is not to exceed 90mph in emergency response/chase situations. It's not credible.

TouringPleb may be along soon to correct me.

[SantaEugence]

This isn't the EGR issue I don't think

[JD6]

Originally Posted by Watsey

I'm not saying that there haven't been problems with some BMW diesel engines, or that repeated (daily ?) hard driving of these engines by the Police (including, no doubt, when cold) will cause premature wear, but, I don't believe that Police guidance is not to exceed 90mph in emergency response/chase situations. It's not credible.

TouringPleb may be along soon to correct me.

I agree it’s not credible that they’ll accept the limitation of these cars and bail out of a chase at 90mph, but what’s happened up here in Cumbria, where this chap was killed, is they seem to have switched to Volvos.

[TodmordenLad]

Originally Posted by Watsey

That really is a pathetic attempt at journalism.

You should read their coverage of politics and current affairs 😂😂

[TouringPleb]

Originally Posted by Watsey

I'm not saying that there haven't been problems with some BMW diesel engines, or that repeated (daily ?) hard driving of these engines by the Police (including, no doubt, when cold) will cause premature wear, but, I don't believe that Police guidance is not to exceed 90mph in emergency response/chase situations. It's not credible.

TouringPleb may be along soon to correct me.

I haven't heard of any speed restrictions but then they have temporary withdrawn the X5s.

Obviously I don't know the technical issue, but traffic and ARV cars are left running sometimes 18-20hrs a day. I wonder if it's related to that?

[EvilDrPorkChop]

Funnily enough I was talking to a customer of mine the other day who works as an officer on Traffic/Road Policing.

Our area they all used F30s 30d xDirves etc. Basically BMW was flogging them cheap to the police, but due to all the warranty work they're actually loosing out on them now. They've had loads of issues with the engines, mainly because they get hammered for 3/4 years up to 150k miles. Like he said, most BMWs won't go into 3 figures where theirs are doing it 3,4 times a day, plus lots of idling. I think he was saying an officer lost his life somewhere due to one exploding on him. But the long and short of it was they hadn't got enough cars, and weren't replacing them quick enough so the fleet was getting hammered.

So BMW have turned around and said they won't supply them anymore. It's not worth it for them. The existing fleet have to be serviced every 5k, or they won't honour the warranty.

From a use point of view, they aren't allowed to use Sport Mode or I think go into 3 figures unless there's a danger of life.

[SantaEugence]

Also stuff like this cements my view that you'd be crazy to buy an ex police car. Even the CID ones get some abuse from DCs who claim to have done their response course 87 years prior and still have a valid ticket…

[robbiep]

Saw an ex-police 530D for sale a couple of years ago.

When it was sold by Cambs police it had 109k on the clock and a crunched front end.

When next up for sale at a car supermarket it had 39k on the clock, all repaired.

Was obvious it was ex-police, cloth seats and below-poverty spec. SE with an Msport bumper

The car was pulled from sale, and next appeared on BCA with 'known mileage issues, recorded as such on MOT record'.

All ex-police cars, even if crunched and an automatic fail, should be MOT'd at disposal, whether it's a pass or not, just to get the mileage at that point logged into the system.

[Stainy]

Originally Posted by Watsey

I'm not saying that there haven't been problems with some BMW diesel engines, or that repeated (daily ?) hard driving of these engines by the Police (including, no doubt, when cold) will cause premature wear, but, I don't believe that Police guidance is not to exceed 90mph in emergency response/chase situations. It's not credible.

It's certainly true in my part of the world. I was speaking with a couple of friends yesterday and they were taking the piss that they could go faster than traffic in a Peugeot patrol car.......Having said that; I haven't met a traffic bod yet that wouldn't just nod at the instruction and ignore it when out and about. I suppose telematics might change that though.

[Billyray911]

Unfortunately the issue is true and has been downplayed.It has been brewing over the past few years,with the fleets of N57 engines using excessive oil that have led to various recalls,engine failures,rigorous monitoring of the oil consumption and the banning of leaving the cars on idle at scenes-unless it is an absolute operational necessity i.e. at a scene on a fast road without a full closure in place.
The issue has now been aggravated with numerous incidents of vehicles catching fire whilst on response runs and the death of Nick Dumphreys.
This led to a directive from the NPCC that speed is to be limited to 90 mph and various other conditions also had to be met.This rendered most traffic vehicles using the N57 engines,redundant.
The latest directive is that all N57 engine based vehicles are not to be used for response driving and have been moved to a red list,meaning that they are *only* to be used for basic duties of routine enquiries.This is rigorously enforced and as mentioned has led to affected vehicles gathering dust.
The problem is due to a lot of forces having had a mostly single manufacturer fleet for traffic vehicles.Audi have pulled out of the procurement process and it seems that Volvo have been rejected by the Met,who test vehicles for the procurement list.
A lot of forces have moved to the G series and some are purchasing off list.
So,yes it's a big issue!

[GOF_430d]

What size engine and fuel covers the N57 nomenclature?

[Billyray911]

In the above cases,the F series,3 litre diesel.

[SkyJawa]

Originally Posted by GOF_430d

What size engine and fuel covers the N57 nomenclature?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_N57#N57D30

[penfold2105]

My egr leaked after the recall. Within a year but they wouldn't accept responsibility.

[GOF_430d]

SkyJawa thanks for that.

So as I have a N57 engine in my F33 I'll make a mental note not to exceed 90mph - thankfully the speed cameras on all major roads have the same effect on me.

[JNW1]

With the gearing the F3x N57 diesels pull they're only doing around 2k RPM at 90mph - and not much more than that at 100mph - and I struggle to believe that puts the engines under any undue strain. Wouldn't a car that's been maintained and serviced properly be happy to cruise at that sort of engine speed for as long as there's fuel in the tank?