May I suggest you contact:
http://www.vosa.gov.uk/
Raise your experience as a safety issue with a view to a possible recall.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback and suggestions.

Luckily it is my 'company car' and not one I've bought or leased personally.

I've asked the office to start the process of terminating the contract hire lease on the grounds of the goods being unfit for purpose.

Meanwhile the loaner MINI was replaced this morning with a brand new loaner 520D SE.

No news yet re: what the problem is with my 523i.

 

The dealer has just called.

The engine was 'opened up' so that BMW Germany could check it and the error codes from Friday.

They were able to reproduce the problem and as per the techs in Germany all injectors have been removed, checked, confirmed to be OK, re-fitted with new teflon seals and 6 new spark plugs and then the problems couldn't be reproduced again.

It is now to be road tested this afternoon and is being taken home by a senior manager tonight to be tested again before release to me tomorrow.

The lease company wasn't happy that we want to send the car back 28 months early but discussions are ongoing as they say.

We have agreed to accept the car back after this latest repair but it is understood that if it fails again then the lease will be cancelled and that will leave the lease company to try to recover its losses from BMW.

 

I had exactly the same problems. I got a new car (523i Auto) also. See my previous posts for my tale of woe....

 

Terrymac

Thanks for coming back to us. Good luck and keep us posted on any developments.

 

Eventually got the car back at about 3:30 this afternoon.

Running fine but to quote an earlier post "I've been here before".

It seems to take 3 or 4 weeks to go wrong again after each 'fix' so watch this space (again).

I'll be taking it to Eire on Friday so that will be a reasonable test for it.

The lease company is trying to stall on giving a firm commitment in writing to ending the lease wihout penalties if it breaksdown again but that's their problem and I'm not going to let them make it our problem.

Hopefully the next post will be in 6 months time just to say "OK so far", anyone fancy a little wager?

 

Just curious....has anyone questioned the fuel source you are using? Is it possible that you are buying contaminated fuel?

 

Contaminated fuel has never been mentioned, as it happens I tend to use BP or Esso from the same 6 or so petrol stations so if the fuel was the root cause then thousands of other cars would be affected (and this did actually happen not too long ago in the UK when a lot of (I think) supermarket petrol stations caused hundreds of breakdowns).

 

Sorry to hear about all this trouble.

If I would have to estimate the most likely cause of all your trouble: I don't think the injectors are the root cause, it sounds like your high-pressure fuel system has contamination in it somewhere.

The new high-pressure fuel injection systems are similar to a diesel commonrail system (only lower pressure, ~200 bars instead of ~2000). Your system has a high pressure pump, then a part of the system that is continuously at high pressure connected with pipes to your injectors.

Now if this system has contamination like small metal particles, your injectors will have their tiny openings and tiny valves (operated by either electromagnets or piezostacks) damaged or even entirely closed by particles in no time.

Your situation: Dealer replaces clogged injector: problem solved they think. However, your system may still have particles in it (the pump may even be creating them if a part is out of spec and 2 metal pieces are moving against each other). This means that you can replace injectors every week or so without ever fixing the problem.


If I were you, I'd demand a new HP pump, 6 new injectors and all the high-pressure components like pipes (sorry, I don't know the correct english word) to be replaced. Have all of those components replaced at the same time. If they don't accept, they'll have to take the car back.

I really hope this solves your very annoying problem. Good luck!
Tim Tiek

 

FYI