Anyone run an exploding Beemer?

[Pale Rider]

Seems some BMW diesel engines are prone to explode with spectacular, and in one case, fatal results.

Focus has been on the police, at least in part because they run fleets of BMWs and, crucially, it's possible to obtain some information about their service.

The experience of a private motorist will probably remain just that, unless they choose to publicise it.

Does anyone on here run one of the affected cars or have any knowledge of them?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-64471386

 

[Beebo]

Seems some BMW diesel engines are prone to explode with spectacular, and in one case, fatal results.

Focus has been on the police, at least in part because they run fleets of BMWs and, crucially, it's possible to obtain some information about their service.

The experience of a private motorist will probably remain just that, unless they choose to publicise it.

Does anyone on here run one of the affected cars or have any knowledge of them?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-64471386

It was going at 130mph at the time.
I suspect a police car engine is put under far more stress than a normal car.
So this seems to be an issue for the Police rather than the general public.

 

[T4tomo]

The experience of a private motorist will probably remain just that, unless they choose to publicise it.

Can you read?
In the report you linked it says:
"Tens of thousands of them were sold to the public but BMW said the fault had only ever been seen in UK police cars due to the way they are driven".

 

[Pale Rider]

Can you read?
In the report you linked it says:
"Tens of thousands of them were sold to the public but BMW said the fault had only ever been seen in UK police cars due to the way they are driven".

Calm down dear, it's only a motor car.

You don't, by any chance, run a BMW 330d do you?

As I said, the experience of a private motorist might not come to the public's attention, or even the dealer's given the engine failure alone, apart from the fire, would write off the car.

Seven other forces have owned up to exploding Beemers.

It's possible they were all being thrashed at 130mph at the time, but unlikely.

In any event, the car is designed to do that speed, and can do legally in some markets.

Which makes me wonder what experience owners in Germany have had.

It seems weird to me that, as BMW claim, leaving the car on idle for a while then accelerating hard would cause the engine to go bang.

The high revs at 130mph must be a major cause of the explosion.

A private motorist could easily achieve those revs legally by thrashing the car through the gears.

It suits BMW to write this off as a copper only problem, but that doesn't make it so.

 

[Drago]

Police car engines are ragged from stone cold to the redline daily, which is never good for longevity.

That said, the typical BMW driver also rags their car from stone cold to the redline daily.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

It seems - from reading the article - that leaving it idling for long periods of time ady after day causes the problem by degrading the oil

The actual problem then happens due to wear on the crank due to degraded oil and it fails at high revs due to this being where the max strain is.

The solution seems to be using different oil and seervicing more often

It looks like the problem was that this was not communicated to the people who needed to know - either at all or with sufficent urgency and emphasising the importance and consequences
- possibly as it would cost money to take the cars off the roads more often for servicing

so - lack of communication and lack of willingness to spend money [add in NACA comments about resources and budgets here]!


ALl circumstances where Police use is very different to civilian use - which is why the problem is manifested in these cars - but it could occur in any if used in this manner

 

[figbat]

Idling doesn’t so much degrade the oil, as dilute it. Unburnt fuel washes past the piston rings and enters the oil, where it reduces its viscosity. The oil doesn’t get hot enough to evaporate the fuel at idle, so when you thrash it you have oil that’s too thin having to try and do the job that a thicker oil is intended to do. Much of the primary lubrication and protection that an oil provides comes from its viscosity.

Not only that but a severe case of fuel dilution also raises the oil level above the ‘Max’ level which can cause issues with crankcase pressurisation and the crankshaft slapping the oil’s surface.

 

[Pale Rider]

Idling doesn’t so much degrade the oil, as dilute it. Unburnt fuel washes past the piston rings and enters the oil, where it reduces its viscosity. The oil doesn’t get hot enough to evaporate the fuel at idle, so when you thrash it you have oil that’s too thin having to try and do the job that a thicker oil is intended to do. Much of the primary lubrication and protection that an oil provides comes from its viscosity.

Not only that but a severe case of fuel dilution also raises the oil level above the ‘Max’ level which can cause issues with crankcase pressurisation and the crankshaft slapping the oil’s surface.

I've long thought 10,000 mile service intervals, particularly for modern diesels, are more derived from marketing than engineering integrity.

The amount of idling needed to cause this degradation is difficult to quantify, but must get progressively worse as the oil gets older.

Presumably, all the exploding cop cars must have been close to their next oil change when they went bang.

Or if the car goes bang a week after an oil change there are fundamental faults with the engine.

Perish the thought.

 

[a.twiddler]

Surely modern cars don't idle for long periods, with current stop/start technology? Unless hotshot police drivers override it for the sake of milliseconds saved on acceleration from the lights. They can't be spending that much of their day pursuing miscreants at 130mph?

 

[Pale Rider]

Surely modern cars don't idle for long periods, with current stop/start technology? Unless hotshot police drivers override it for the sake of milliseconds saved on acceleration from the lights. They can't be spending that much of their day pursuing miscreants at 130mph?

Lots of cop cars have an idle while locked feature.

It's to prevent the embarrassment of turning up at an incident, leaving the blue lights on while dealing with that incident, then returning to the cop car to find it won't start.

I also wonder how much time a traffic cop spends at 130mph.

Which is why I am questioning BMW's blaming of idle/130mph for the engine failures.

 

[Jameshow]

Surely modern cars don't idle for long periods, with current stop/start technology? Unless hotshot police drivers override it for the sake of milliseconds saved on acceleration from the lights. They can't be spending that much of their day pursuing miscreants at 130mph?

Police cars do to keep the bobbies warm!🤣🤣🤣

 

[a.twiddler]

Some VW group diesels had a reputation for going bang when they introduced the PD engines. I imagine that's sorted by now. It's surprising in this litigation conscious age that such things slip through to production. No matter what scenarios the manufacturers imagine their products are capable of dealing with, users somehow manage to find ways of using them that they can't cope with.

 

[figbat]

The amount of idling needed to cause this degradation is difficult to quantify, but must get progressively worse as the oil gets older.

In normal use, driving the car at normal road speeds will heat the oil enough to evaporate the fuel from the oil again, no harm done. In this case though (my perception is) we see a long idle time followed by full power, so the oil is thinned down and then not given the chance to gently simmer before being asked to work hard.

 

[Drago]

Lots of cop cars have an idle while locked feature.

It's to prevent the embarrassment of turning up at an incident, leaving the blue lights on while dealing with that incident, then returning to the cop car to find it won't start.

I also wonder how much time a traffic cop spends at 130mph.

Which is why I am questioning BMW's blaming of idle/130mph for the engine failures.

It's called run lock. Keeps the engine running to power the lights, radio, anpr computer etc, but won't allow the vehicle to be driven. T
RPU cars in particular spend a long time idling under run lock.

 

[figbat]

Is there an a accompanying exception to the ‘quitting’ offence of leaving a car idling whilst unattended?