BMW have just issued an urgent recall of more than 1 million cars and SUVs across the US, due to risk of FIRE under the bonnet. The recall is so major that BMW are recommending people with the affected models are to park them outside and away from extra fire hazards such as large trees / other cars.
The two separate recalls BMW state the risk of fire is “very low” (are we to believe them?), but the cars should stay outside due to “caution”. The repairs to fix the issue are expected to start on December 18th.
The first voluntary recall is going to affect only certain BMW 3 Series models from year 2006 to 2011, the company said in a statement released on the matter.
So what is the issue?
The issue is caused by potentially faulty wiring of the climate control / heater blower fan
In the second but related recall will address a problem with a heater valve in certain BMW models between the years 2007-2011 equipped with a 6-cylinder engine.
Stumbled across a story which featured an example of how the modern day BMW’s are now, due to the “smart” connected technology actually helping with car crime!
The car which is a 550I model, was stolen on Sunday – unfortunately the owner left the key fob inside so the actual taking of the car was easy for the thief – after the owner realised what had happened this was immediately reported to the police.
The police were then reported to have liaised with BMW corporate division – i would assume they also had GPS lock on the car the whole time as the location was tracked down pretty quick.
It was discovered the thief not being very bright had decided to have a rest (sleep) on the back seat giving everyone time to lock the doors remotely and get a couple of police cars out to the cars tracked location
The thief was promptly arrested after being held in the car!
I finally got my car back all repaired and sorted, and it also passed the MOT at the same time.
Decided to buy the car a present i found a seller on eBay called “carparts_uk” who offers a front suspension strut brace for just under £30 posted out from Germany. (German = good start)
I have always been rather skeptical about the engine strut braces reading mixed reviews about them and never wanting to take the plunge as must of the solid ones sell for north of £100.. but for the price i went for it!
The install really was as simple as it looks.. bolt on and tighten up, it is a good solid bar with loads of adjustment options on it and the whole install took me about 35mins.
Having driven on it for few trips i genuinely do notice difference certainly stiffens things up in the convertible
I thought i would post an explanation as to why my posts have been lacking slightly recently
I have got pretty busy at work which has taken loads of my time up.. and unfortunately for me on way back from work someone decided to rear end my BMW pretty badly so im currently trying to sort it out! (im ok and the car is well…. we will see)
I’m just thinking happy thoughts at the moment.. hoping for the best and of course the dream of owning an E92 M3.. if anyone’s got one spare or wishes to donate the money to get one be appreciated:
[paypal-donation]
Haha.. we all have dreams eh!
My posts may be quite for a few weeks whilst i try and get car sorted
For weeks now the audio in my E46 convertible was cutting in and out, I incorrectly assumed it was a loose wire. The truth behind this is more focussed on one downfall of the BMW/Range rover audio system.. the BM54 unit…
What is it?
The BM54 is an audio amplifier unit which sits at the heart of the audio system, its job is a bit more advanced then a standard car amplifier. it handles things like:
TMC – Traffic Message channel
Radio – Memory, signals
Car audio amplification/speakers (this is where the main fault lies)
Basically.. without this unit not much of your audio system will work (some might say its the single point of failure on the setup)
What happens?
These units are riddled with faults that can appear at anytime, most common faults are:
IC Amp Chip failure – These chips control the audio channels ( all 4) and will take out part of the speakers/eventually all of them.
This can also cause sound distortion/funny noises on the channels (such as ticking)
Loss of power/Not turning on – This will be signified by not having an orange light on the head unit/not being able to use the head units functions.
Intermittent power – Fully functioning system/sometimes not turning on
So what can be done?
The device itself comes at a premium price.. you have options but not many:
Ebay/Auction Sites – used units go for north of £300 (and can come with faults)
Replacement direct from BMW – BMW will sell you a refurbished unit for anywhere between £500-700
Get repaired/upgraded – This is your most viable and cheapest option (price will vary depending on needs, but no where near as expensive as the above 2 options)
Who can help?
The are loads of people out there offering upgrade and repair services but be careful.. some people see easy money in “soldering together” to repair these units and can cause more harm to your audio system if things go wrong.
When i was looking for a repair upgrade job on my BM54 unit i settled on one company who really impressed me both in quality and in uniqueness.
Cartronics (website)- They are a company based in surrey in the UK (company not one man in a shed with a soldering iron) with full professional soldering/testing facilities. They do a whole range of services including:
Repair of all BMW audio units, CIC,CCC,ASK, L7 amplifiers Mini HK amplifiers
In house coding and software updates for ALL BMW models, retrofits for all models upto 2015 cars
ECU remaps
And much much more..
Mark is a very helpful and professional guy, who kept me updated and the whole unit was turned around in no time at all.
Options?
What people think is that its just a case of fixing the unit and that’s it… but its actually and upgrade in power and in quality.
Originally the IC audio chips are poor quality and run at roughly 20watts per channel with no additional external outputs.
A whole new IC chip setup is soldered in with its own power which can run up to 40watts per channel and is a much higher quality product. here is a pic that Mark was kind enough to send me showing the new board in place:
Press on image to see larger
As you can see i have opted for the additional RCA outputs if i wish to bypass the unit all together and run and external amplifier unit instead:
Press on image to see larger
The difference in sound quality is amazing, you find yourself turning bass down!
his guide to upgrade my convertible from tape player to the sat nav screen, took me about 2 days.
