ABC News Investigates Spontaneous Bimmer Combustion

Dozens of parked, unoccupied BMWs have burned to the ground in recent years. Spontaneous Bimmer Combustion is a real problem.

In the cult classic rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, a running gag is the frequency with which the hard-hitting heavy-metal band goes through drummers. It seems that drummers for Spinal Tap tend to die via mysterious circumstances, with two succumbing to spontaneous human combustion.

It’s considerably less funny when it happens in real life, and while spontaneous human combustion hasn’t been reliably documented, Spontaneous Bimmer Combustion (SBC) has. In fact, it’s happened with such frequency that ABC News has launched an investigation.

The investigation, which has aired on Good Morning America, Word News Tonight, and Nightline has uncovered dozens of incidents in which parked, unoccupied BMWs have inexplicably caught fire. Thankfully, no-one has been hurt, but the fires have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of related property damage. One BMW enthusiast watched his entire home burn to the ground after his 2008 X5 mysteriously burst into flames.

That owner, a lifelong BMW enthusiast, began digging deeper to find out what caused his once-beloved BMW to cause so much heartache. Initially, he was concerned with the battery, which had been replaced at the dealership just before the fire. But he uncovered dozens of other cases in which these fires happened.

CHECK OUT: What Forum Members Are Saying About SBC

BMW is not taking responsibility for the fires, claiming they are too infrequent to warrant a recall or further investigation. Obviously, affected owners feel otherwise. And excuses relating to rodents chewing through wires do little to assuage those concerns.

BMW has stepped up to offer goodwill programs to customers — discounts on new cars, or cash settlements. Some think that the non-disclosure agreements related to these settlements is just BMW’s way of covering themselves from further lawsuits.

One thing’s for sure: if you have a late-model BMW, keep your eyes on the electrical system. And maybe park it outside for a while.

Via [ABC]

Cameron Vanderhorst

Cam VanDerHorst has been a contributor to Internet Brands' Auto Group sites for over three years, with his byline appearing on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Corvette Forum, JK Forum, and Harley-Davidson Forums, among others. In that time, he's also contributed to Autoweek, The Drive, and Scale Auto Magazine.
He bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1978 Ford Mustang II -- and since then he’s amassed an impressive and diverse collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, including a 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Mystic Cobra (#683) and a classic air-cooled Porsche 911.
In addition to writing about cars and wrenching on them in his spare time, he enjoys playing music (drums and ukulele), building model cars, and tending to his chickens.
You can follow Cam, his cars, his bikes, and his chickens at @camvanderhorst on Instagram.
When he's not busy working on his Harley-Davidson bike, the vastly experienced writer has covered an array of features, reviews, how-tos, op-eds and news stories for Internet Brands' Auto Group and is also a co-founder and co-host of the popular podcast Cammed & Tubbed.

Check him out on Instagram at: Camvanderhorst.

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