I have a 540 year 2000 which caught fire the other night coming home. BMW says it was a faulty electronic thermostat that started it. So far I am up to $4000.00 in damages under the hood. Who knows what damage is under the dash since the inside of the car filled with smoke!
BMW claims they dont have any recalls or faulty parts (Then why did my car catch on fire!).
And to make matters worse the insurance company will not pay for any damage because "A FLAME WAS NOT VISIBLE". What a bunch of crap this is.
Anyone with any knowledge please give me a shout at beemer540ia AT yahoo...
With all due respect I do not see any margin for BMW's catching fire, even one. Let's say I had my family in that car and we could not get out and things DID worsen.
Now I do know from my research that BMW is aware of this problem and has showed up on a number of vehicles. I do know that the DOT also know of this problem and has several reported cases. Last time they called me, I suspect they are building a case to go after BMW North America.
My car has been sitting in a snow pile up here since Dec 11th. BMW has done nothing to date, I keep getting promises but that does not fix the car.
I am hopeful they take care of the problem so I dont need to go the distance, and I will if I have to.
Ken
If they haven't done anything to date nor given you a time when they would then you have to go that distance now. A little more time will not chaqnge anyone's mind.
Last I heard from BMW North America they said its going to take a little time since all this happened before the holidays. I told them I understand. Yesterday while at Tulley BMW in Nashua, NH. I heard that BMW is suppose to be there around the 8th of Jan.
time for your guys with 540's that burned to get together on a conference call. CArs catching on fire is NOT NORMAL. BMW KNOWS THIS. THEY ARE BURYING THEIR HEAD IN THE SAND.
What if this happened while driving down the highway with your family in the back seat. Poof! All potentially dead.
Time to start calling news outlets, media centers, cahnnel 2,4 ,8, 10 etc etc etc...
They WILL all love to do a piece on BMW's spontaneously catching on fire. TRUST ME! Don't let an opportunity for local and potential national exposure go by you. Shame on them from knowing about this and playing the numbers game to get away with the least possible financial responsibility at the risk of your and your families life.
There are at LEAST 3 members here with 540's that burned up for no apparent reason. It's enough for something to smell fishy.
Start making calls to local papers and TV news stations. I will be GLAD to organize something like that.
time for your guys with 540's that burned to get together on a conference call. CArs catching on fire is NOT NORMAL. BMW KNOWS THIS. THEY ARE BURYING THEIR HEAD IN THE SAND.
What if this happened while driving down the highway with your family in the back seat. Poof! All potentially dead.
Time to start calling news outlets, media centers, cahnnel 2,4 ,8, 10 etc etc etc...
They WILL all love to do a piece on BMW's spontaneously catching on fire. TRUST ME! Don't let an opportunity for local and potential national exposure go by you. Shame on them from knowing about this and playing the numbers game to get away with the least possible financial responsibility at the risk of your and your families life.
There are at LEAST 3 members here with 540's that burned up for no apparent reason. It's enough for something to smell fishy.
Start making calls to local papers and TV news stations. I will be GLAD to organize something like that.
I concur with you totally, And i gotta ad that i'm so upset at this, i got a 323ci that i'm gonna trade in for a 02 540i witch now i'm sacared. I wanted to get rid of the 323ci cuz the subframe ripped on me it probaly will again, the tranny might of just decided to go soon and a bunch of problems those cars got. Now i'm gonna switch up and the 540's got A SH*T LOAD OF PROBLEMS. i love bmw's the way they feel no car, has that feeling but i'm just dissapointed there should be a recall for alot more things, were gonna have to all get together on this one..:thumbdwn:
Suspension isen't that expenisive, or something you change often so i dont know why that would be on the top of your list? as far as bills any bimmer will be expensive to maintain if you take it to the stearlership or a expensive place. There are indy shops that dont charge a arm and a leg, I'm start trying to diy you save a ton of money. And another thing its not a 504i thing, or a 323ci thing, e46...e39..e36...if you look at all the series they all seem to have a list of a problems that seem common. I guess it does not matter what model/series you get...they each come with there baggage. Its just a bmw thing, But like i said before they drive like no other car out there i'am getting sick of there quite often problems.
I'VE had four jap cars. They are more reliable, cheaper to mantain however i did have a 99 stick altima witch the tranny went on me twice. But the feel of these jap cars is no where near a bmws but i agree the prices are insane.
I've had an E36 M3 and driven quite a few cars as rentals and owned some interesting cars. BMW's drive very well.....but brands like Infinity are catching up in a big way. The previous G35 was a very nice car....minus the auto I hated and the newer version was also very nice and vastly improved.
I will only lease BMW's in the future.....dealing with issues as older BMW's age gets tiring when you don't have the time to deal with the stuff. A friend of a friend, who's a BMW mechanic at a dealership, mentioned that the only people that own the larger BMW's. once the warranty ends, are the mechanics.....since they get discounted parts and free labor. The "free maintenance" from BMW also dumps a bunch of cars in the used market that have been poorly maintained.....adding to the expense of a used one.
I'm not trying to fan any flames here......but the costs associated with keeping these cars running tiptop is damn expensive compared to other cars (I'll leave out Mercedes :rofl. People that can easily afford them, turn them in for a new one every 3 or 4 years......so they don't worry about the costs later. For the used car buyer, with no CPO, keep some money in the bank....you will need it.
Commerce has stated, quickly I might add that they are not paying for any damages caused by electrical or mechanical failures. I asked them if I had a steering rod break and I smashed into a guard rail and totalled my car would they cover me? They answered with SILENCE! Commerce is the WORST insurance company out there. I am now looking for a better company and I advise everyone out here to dump commerce!
Commerce has stated, quickly I might add that they are not paying for any damages caused by electrical or mechanical failures. I asked them if I had a steering rod break and I smashed into a guard rail and totalled my car would they cover me? They answered with SILENCE! Commerce is the WORST insurance company out there. I am now looking for a better company and I advise everyone out here to dump commerce!
BMW of North America sent an engineer to look at my car and the damages. They determined that the thermostat failed and caused a short in the electrical wiring. BMW claims that if I brought my car in for regular 'unscheduled' maintenance that they would have caught the wire aging and replaced it. Let me remind you that the wiring harnes and labor is about $1,500.00 not that I think my wiring harness would goto crap in 7 years! BMW seemed to learn something from this and are looking at ways to improve future models so this does not happen with newer models. Not much they can do for us. So my word of caution to all BMW owners; Do no rely on your car telling you to take it in for service! I always brought mine in when a check engine light came on, or it needed an oil change. This is not the case with BMW. You need to just bring it in so many miles to have a look by BMW. I can guarantee that anytime yuo do bring it in they WILL find something to replace and most likely it will cost you over $1k.
I must say BMW did offer me a favorable settlement for the damages, which I can't talk about but they did free my mind about buying another BMW in my future.
BMW of North America sent an engineer to look at my car and the damages. They determined that the thermostat failed and caused a short in the electrical wiring. BMW claims that if I brought my car in for regular 'unscheduled' maintenance that they would have caught the wire aging and replaced it. Let me remind you that the wiring harnes and labor is about $1,500.00 not that I think my wiring harness would goto crap in 7 years! BMW seemed to learn something from this and are looking at ways to improve future models so this does not happen with newer models. Not much they can do for us. So my word of caution to all BMW owners; Do no rely on your car telling you to take it in for service! I always brought mine in when a check engine light came on, or it needed an oil change. This is not the case with BMW. You need to just bring it in so many miles to have a look by BMW. I can guarantee that anytime yuo do bring it in they WILL find something to replace and most likely it will cost you over $1k.
I must say BMW did offer me a favorable settlement for the damages, which I can't talk about but they did free my mind about buying another BMW in my future.
Glad to hear BMW NA got involve and assisted you. I was satisfied with my insurance result of my 540 car fire. I'm still curious to know if my fire started the same way yours did. My insurance evaluator was not required to evaluate the cause of the fire. Maybe I should of called BMWNA for their evaluation. I just hope this doesn't become a common fault for all E39s. I'm still planning to get another one in the near future. We'll see! Good luck on your next BMW.
very cool news, they are probably going to hook you up with a sweet lease deal on a new ride or a big dscount on a new BMW..my best guess would assume that.makes sense.
All in all they treated me well. They needed time to figure out what the hell happened, then determine what would be the best treatment so that I will continue to buy BMW's and recommend to my associates. Everyone on my companies management staff owns a BMW! I have the only 540
my 1996 540 caught fire due to a faulty thermostat, it melted half of the wiring loom in the engine bay, luckily it was in BMW at the time so they felt obliged to put it right, they say it cost £200 to fix...
Wow, this is interesting and does put me at somewhat of an uneasy state of mind as I just recently purchased a 540i/6 Sport Package w/ 161,XXX...
by the way, Im glad to hear BMW took care of you and do feel bad for how your insurance company did you wrong.
However I have not experienced any problems of this nature but I did just have my fan clutch go out a few days ago and pretty much destroyed A LOT of things including my hood. $2500.00 in damages but thats a whole different story.
I hadnt expected much when I purchased the car due to the fact that I purchased it farily cheap and also there were no service records for it but I did not expect my first repair to be something of this degree.
Man, I'm sure glad that I replaced my fan clutch before all of that happened. It had been making funny clicking sounds as it was wearing out around 110,000 miles. Glad I went ahead and replaced it quickly.
I did. even though mine isn't a 540, turns out my thermostat was in sitting there pieces. I don't know how. But my mechanic showed it to me, it was the strangest thing to me.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
BimmerFest BMW Forum
11.4M posts
753.1K members
Since 2001
A forum community dedicated to BMW owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about Bimmerfest events, production numbers, programming, performance, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more! Bringing the BMW community together.