BMW Korea announces recall of 106,137 vehicles

Posted on : 2018-08-21 17:30 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Uncertainty of parts supply raises questions of feasibility and timeliness of recall
BMW cars lined up for recall at a service center in Pyeongtaek
BMW cars lined up for recall at a service center in Pyeongtaek

On Aug. 20, BMW Korea announced that it had initiated a recall of 106,317 vehicles representing 42 models at 61 service centers around South Korea. The vehicles being recalled are diesel-fueled models, including the 520d, that were produced between 2011 and 2016. Considering that the safety checkups carried out prior to this point were a makeshift solution under emergency conditions, the recall is moving BMW’s spontaneous combustion debacle into a new phase.

The question of how smoothly the BMW recall will proceed depends on the availability of the parts involved. Though BMW Korea is planning to wrap up the recall within the year, the uncertain supply of parts is raising questions about whether the recall can actually be completed in that timeframe. To effectively execute the part replacements, the company has to fly the parts over from Germany in mass and on schedule.

But since BMW is also recalling 320,000 vehicles in Europe for the same reasons as in South Korea, it won’t be easy to secure the parts. South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the recall on July 26 after BMW Korea submitted a recall plan following a spate of fires in the company’s automobiles. But because BMW Korea didn’t have enough parts on hand, it has focused on the emergency checkups and put off the full recall until now.

The focus of this recall is replacing the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) module, which has been identified as the cause of fires in BMWs on the road, with an improved part and cleaning the precipitate out of the EGR pipe. According to BMW, coolant fluid has been leaking out of the EGR cooler in diesel vehicles, causing precipitate to collect in the EGR pipe and the intake manifold, while a malfunction in the EGR valve has allowed high-temperature exhaust gas to leak and ignite the precipitate. In light of the severity of this defect, the company settled on the end of 2018 as the target timeframe for completing a recall process that would normally take a couple of years.

Some car owners who have scheduled a date for the part replacement are complaining that their appointments have been delayed weeks, or even months, after the original date.

Lingering doubts concerning cause of fires

“In consideration of the parts that are currently at our disposal, we’ll be prioritizing the recall on vehicles that were identified as having issues in the emergency checkup. Since different engines contain different parts and the supply schedule varies with the part, we’re delaying the recall appointment for some customers who made their appointments at a service center before we’d confirmed the part supply schedule,” said a spokesperson for BMW Korea.

This is the largest recall that has ever been conducted for imported vehicles in South Korean history. The initiation of the recall is likely to be a major inflection point in the spate of fires in BMW cars. The crucial question is whether the recall will lead to a decline in the number of fires. Several cars that have received an emergency checkup have subsequently caught on fire, causing doubts to linger about whether BMW has pinpointed the cause of the fire. If the fires continue even after the recall, all bets are off.

“We’re planning to continue the emergency checkups we’ve been doing in addition to the recalls,” said the BMW Korea spokesperson. As of midnight on Sunday, emergency checkups had been completed on 100,000 vehicles, while 4,300 more were still waiting for an appointment.

“We’re continuing to send text messages and make phone calls to the 2,000 customers who haven’t yet received a checkup to urge them to hurry up and do so,” the spokesperson said.

By Hong Dae-seon, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories