Subject: I Have a DANGEROUS BMW! Author: lintinhao : member since April, 2006 : 1 post Posted on: 2006-04-28 05:09:45

Hi,

I have a DANGEROUS BMW, but don't know what to do. Please help. Thanks!

For the past 6 years, my family and myself have been suffering from the safety issues for my BMW, which I bought in Oct. 1999, Model Type: 535IA Individual, VIN GR71994. By this letter, I must strongly express my concern of safety issues.

Except for each 10,000 KM regular maintenance, I have sent my BMW to the repair shop for more than 10+ times with various issues, and replaced tons of parts; however, 4 of them is concerned about the “SAFETY”, which I named it “life threaten” incidents. I can hardly tolerate these anymore.

Here below I’m summarizing the “life threaten” incidents for your understanding.

In 2000, when I was driving my BMW, engine was over-heating, temperature meter indicated a high temperature with the alarm warning. I drove into the repair shop, the technician found that the radiator cap was cracked. At that moment, my BMW was used less than one year, it had already affected the driving safety and possibly damaged the engine.

In Dec. 2003, my wife brought two kids with her to participate the school outing. When arriving at the destination, she parked the car but engine was not yet stopped, the white smoke comes out of the engine compartment. The car was sent to repair shop again. We were told that an out-of-order fan caused the high temperature, subsequently, it caused a high temperature of radiator, and then caused the engine cracked. I must re-address, at that time, NO any alarm warning. The lucky thing is that my car was still, if it were moving, it definitely would cause a serious damage, including human life. I am suspected this incident is one of consequent damages of my BMW engine for the following cases.


In Oct. 2005, when I was driving on the free way with my family, I heard a big noise came from chassis. I was parking on the shoulder to check what’s going on, I saw an iron rod sticking into the fuel tank, and the fuel was dripping down along the iron rod. Can you imagine that an iron rod with the gasoline was rubbing on the road, it might have the flash flame, the flame might ignite the fire, then my family and I were all dead in a fire? It’s a matter of life not just an incident!

In March 2006, when I cold started the engine, it occasionally vibrated if I didn’t use the car for 3 days or more. Actually, the vibration has been existing for many years; however, when the engine is heating, the vibration will stop, therefore, I always treat this as a minor case. Since my wife has reminded me of vibration for several times, so I asked the repair shop to thoroughly check engine again. As usual, the answer was the same – no vibration when they tested driving the car. Meanwhile, they suggested me to clean the carbon deposit inside the combustion chamber and it might be helpful to eliminate the vibration. I accepted it. 3 days after, the technician from repair shop said “the carbon deposit inside the combustion chamber was removed, but it started vibration.”, so they need to check it again and, after obtaining my permission, they opened the engine and found the water inside the engine, cylinder lining had scratched, and piston was broken. As a result, they need to overhaul the engine! Engine is a crucial parts to a car so as a heart to a man. Replacing radiator, fan, fan belt, or tire is acceptable for me, but, for engine issue, I totally can NOT accept it.


There are so many evidences mentioned above which make me strongly wondering my BMW has big issues before it was ex-factory. As I recalled, when car dealer delivered the new car to me, it had already had the vibration issue. When I asked the sales rep why is that? He replied me “it might be the gas (unleaded gas grade 98) issue.” When engine heating, it was back to the normal, that’s why I didn’t dig out the root cause. After so many incidents occurred for these years, I have lost the confidence to the quality of my BMW, rather than that, it has a serious SAFETY problem.

This is my first BMW, and I hope it won’t be the last one. My family may die 4 times. Fortunately, god bless us. But I'm not sure could we be so lucky next time?

A BMW Owner, in Taiwan

Victor Lin,

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