Seen on this on bmw5 fresh off the press should interest e60 owners
Some news "hot off the press" for all you E60 drivers....maybe even E61 ??
Over the last few weeks, I've been having random warning messages from the OBD telling me that various rear bulbs were faulty, but on checking, found them to be all ok.
It appears that my car has been another victim of the well known and widespread bad earth connection into the drivers side rear light module, where the connections & wires get basically "fried"
as the earth connection is inadequate to carry the load.
I called BMW UK about this potentially dangerous situation, as smoke, or even a fire could start with the heavy charring & melting of the connections ( especially in the area of the battery ). They listened to my concerns, but said they were unaware of any issue with this in the E60
, and it must be an isolated incident. I then cited the USA recall notice or "quality enhancement " for this exact problem, but they seemed unaware of this, even though BMW as a corporate entity were very much aware.
They told me that as far as the UK is concerned, they take no notice of any other Country recalls / enhancements until VOSA UK become involved, investigates, and orders them to take the remedial action they deem necessary.
I wasn't happy with this dismissive response to a widespread problem, so that's exactly what I did ! I called and emailed VOSA with my concerns over the potential risks in driving the car in this condition, especially as it's been identified in another country, and BMW have agreed to get all cars in & replace the affected parts at no charge....why should drivers in the UK always be the poor relations ??
Anyway, VOSA have confirmed back this morning that they've now told BMW to issue a quality enhancement to cure this issue on all E60's............result !!
I had completed a repair myself recently, but of course, can now have the repaid completed properly, and more importantly a letter and peace of mind from the dealer, confirming the work has been carried out to manufacturers spec.
It's going to involve a number of checks, and depending on how bad the burning has been, will involve all connections / rear light wiring / both rear light modules replacing.
I've also checked with my local dealership this morning, and the quality enhancement is indeed on their system as active from Friday, so get on the phone to your dealer & get this remedied on your E60 ( may even involve E61 as well, so call the dealer & check) before it gets any worse - affected cars are across the whole model range !!
My thanks to VOSA, and BMW for their quick actions once identified
http://forum.bmw5.co.uk/index.php?/topic/93204-E60-quality-enhancement-announced-for-wiring--*-IMPORTANT-*
