If BMW Gives You Lemons ...

Cammy Corrigan
by Cammy Corrigan

Nitrobahn reports that Kimmel and Silverman, a law firm, has noticed that cases that have the fuel pump on BMW cars as Exhibit A are on the increase. According to both, bad fuel pumps have been found in 1, 3 and 5 series BMW’s. Kimmel and Silverman have fought these cases on behalf of claimants and have been awarded refunds and cash recoveries.

Now to be fair to BMW, they are trying to resolve the issue (which makes a change). They have extended the warranty on the fuel pump to 10 years/120,000 miles. But it still doesn’t stop many other BMW drivers from discovering new problems, related to the fuel pump, which need fixing.

However, some service advisors have asserted that it isn’t the fuel pump, but bad gas which is the real problem. This is quite sneaky because a) it slings the burden of proof back onto the customer rather than take a look at the problem themselves and b) for the customer to prove it wasn’t the petrol, they would (at the very least) have to have the receipts of every single tank of fuel they bought! And that’s putting aside finding samples of the batch of fuel they bought to prove they met EPA standards!

Any which way, if you are a BMW driver and have noticed you are having fuel pump problems, just feel assured that you’re not alone. Always use the same brand of gas, keep yous receipts, and when the guy says it’s the gas, get it in writing. Then send the letter to the gasoline company with a copy to BMW. Stand back and wait what happens.

Cammy Corrigan
Cammy Corrigan

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  • Stationwagon Stationwagon on Aug 07, 2010

    I think it is absolutely poor business practice to make an expensive luxury car, with defects. I recently visited two BMW forums and many posts were about components not working. What is the point of having "the ultimate driving machine" if it doesn't work? if there is one thing I hate about cars it is unreliability, especially if the price is over $30,000. Do I want an "appliance" car? No. I just want a car that works, plus low owner-ship cost, if I wanted to sink money into a car, I would have bought an un-restored classic. It is not all doom and gloom though, Most cars are reliable, and come with cheap well designed parts.

  • PanzerJaeger PanzerJaeger on Aug 07, 2010

    This has been going on for a while. I had a fuel pump go in my 135. It is an issue with the N54 engine which is in all the X35i cars and SAVs. Hopefully it been corrected with the N55. There are all kinds of theories out there. Some have speculated that it is regional or corporate differences in fuel quality and mixtures, as some cars never have any problems. There is a lot of consternation on the forums about it because replacement doesn't 'solve' the problem. They just give you the exact same type of pump and the issue could and has reoccured. Though for some people it doesn't come back, and of course some haven't had it all. To be honest, it's hard for me to get very angry over it. BMW admitted there is a problem, lifetime warrantied the part, and gave me no trouble replacing it. It was in and out on the very same day, and I got to play with a new Z4. According to the comments on this post, VW and Honda owners haven't been so lucky.

  • Stingray Stingray on Aug 08, 2010

    Down here I heard it was Toyota owners experiencing the problem. And you bet, they blamed the fuel and the customer had to pay at its expenses the cost. Then people recommended using 91 octane instead of 95. They started putting fuel injector cleaner every other tank... Have BMW owners tried to buy the fuel pump alone (outside the stealership) and replace it in the module?

  • Rolf-Dieter Rolf-Dieter on Oct 28, 2010

    2 days ago the issue of HPFP failures aired on ABC BMW is recalling 130,000 cars in the US (I don't know about Canada). Let us hope BMW can resolve this issue fast and restore some confidence in affected BMW drivers. I am sure BMW is burning the midnight oil to make sure not to loose a great percentage of the 130,000 drivers to the competition not to speak of possible new BMW customers that read all about this HPFP issue all over the Internet. PS. Someone said a $30,000.00 car my BMW is well over $60,000.00 before tax and has the HPFP waiting for a BMW letter :)

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