hankyoreh

A BMW 730Ld burst into flames while the owner was driving along the Namhae Expressway near Sacheon

As BMW cars that have received a safety checkup or are not subject to the recall continue to spontaneously combust, suspicions about the cause of the fires continue to grow. The company insists that this is simply a matter of a defective part, but experts are raising the possibility of a larger problem, perhaps related to software. Government authorities are also being blamed for exacerbating the situation by their lackadaisical response.

Multiple automobile experts who spoke with The Hankyoreh on Aug. 10 said the biggest dilemma in the BMW car fires is that the cause of the fires remains unclear. Given the uncertain diagnosis of cause, distrust is growing about the safety checkups and recall measures that the company is implementing.

On Aug. 4, for example, a BMW 520d that had received a safety checkup in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, caught on fire, and on Aug. 9 the same thing happened to a 730Ld car on the South Sea (Namhae) Expressway in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, even though the 730Ld is not part of the recall. This year alone, 36 BMW vehicles have burst into flames while on the road. BMW has attributed the fires in its vehicles to a defect in the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) module that is attached to engines in order to reduce pollutants by recirculating the exhaust.

According to the company, a defect in this module causes coolant to leak and precipitate to accumulate that can ignite when it absorbs the hot exhaust gas. Last month, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport approved BMW’s plan for a recall based on this diagnosis, and the recall was announced thereafter.

But BMW’s claim that this is a hardware issue limited to the EGR module fails to explain why the fires are only happening so frequently in South Korea, even though the vehicles there use the same parts as in Europe.

“The function of the EGR valve and cooler and the amount of the exhaust gas that flow inside are determined by software. That’s why I think this isn’t just a matter of hardware as BMW says and that the cause of this problem should be found by looking at the system as a whole,” said Kim Pil-su, a professor of automotive engineering at Daelim University.

The BMW vehicle that has experienced the most fires is the 520d. Most of these are models from 2014 to 2016, when the European exhaust gas standards were being upgraded to Euro 6.

“While the EGR performance was being boosted to meet the revised environmental standards, it’s possible that the durability of the parts in question was weakened or that this led to some other defect,” said Ha Jong-seon, an attorney with Barun Law who is representing the owners of affected BMW cars in civil and criminal lawsuits.

If the scope of the defect is much broader than the EGR issue that BMW is insisting on, this recall is likely to be just a makeshift solution. Even if the parts are replaced according to BMW’s recall plan, there would be no guarantee that the cars will not catch on fire.

“In light of the circumstances thus far, it’s doubtful whether this is an issue that can be resolved simply by replacing the EGR parts and cleaning the precipitate that has built up in the pipe. What are they going to do when precipitate builds up once again after a few more years of driving?” said Lee Ho-geun, a professor from Daeduk College.

With fires breaking out in vehicles that aren’t subject to the recall and in gasoline-fueled vehicles as well, experts argue that the current prescription has clear limitations. While 27 of the BMW cars that have caught on fire thus far are part of the recall, the remaining nine are not. Five of those nine vehicles run on gasoline, which means the EGR defect doesn’t apply to them. This is raising doubts about the credibility of BMW’s safety checkup and recall plan. Half of the over 106,000 vehicles that are currently part of the recall haven’t even received a safety check.

“We’re looking into the option of ordering vehicles to stay off the road if they haven’t received a safety check by Aug. 14 or if the safety check has found them to be at risk,” the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, but it’s unclear whether this would be effective.

By Hong Dae-seon, staff reporter

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