Transport

BMW Ireland joins UK in recalling cars over electrical fault

Fault has been linked to fatal British crash

“Now we recognise the need to widen the recall to capture a larger cohort of cars,” BMW said.
“Now we recognise the need to widen the recall to capture a larger cohort of cars,” BMW said.
Wed May 09 2018 - 19:39

BMW Ireland will join its UK counterpart in recalling cars affected by an electrical fault. The models in question are the BMW 1 Series, 3 Series, Z4 and X1 petrol and diesel models made between March, 2007 and August, 2011 , according to a staement from the company.

It said it would contacting all affected customers by post advising them of how they can book their car in to have the work carried out over the next three weeks. The work will be carried iut free of charge.

This comes as BMW will recall 312,000 UK vehicles at risk of the same electrical fault that has been linked to a fatal crash.

The UK Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) said last week BMW had failed to alert UK authorities to 19 cases of electrical faults in one of its models. Former Gurkha soldier Narayan Gurung, 66, died on Christmas Day 2016 when he crashed his Ford Fiesta into a tree in Hampshire while swerving to avoid a BMW car which had cut out due to an electrical fault, an inquest in Woking, Surrey, was reportedly told.

READ MORE

But an investigation by BBC Watchdog Live found the issue could be in a wider number of vehicles than those covered by the original recall of 36,410 cars in 2017.

A BMW spokesman said: “Now we recognise the need to widen the recall to capture a larger cohort of cars. We are widening the net as a precaution.” He added the fault could be fixed within two hours and involved replacing a plug. The firm has not advised customers to stop driving the vehicles.

Mwape Kambafwile told the BBC he stopped driving his BMW 3 Series car after it cut out completely while he was driving in December 2016.

He said: "I just thought to myself if I was driving on the motorway with my family in the car, that could have been very dangerous. "I took it to BMW. The next day they called me to say they had found a fault, it looks like the cable had burnt out and no current was passing through the fuse box. "I felt so uncomfortable driving it that we took taxis, I walked to work every day. It was a nightmare, it wasn't safe enough to drive." Watchdog Live will air on Wednesday at 8pm on BBC One.