BMW Announces Voluntary N54 Engine (HPFP) and X5 Recall

[Jason]

This just in:

ABC aired a story segment on this morning's Good Morning America (video) on the BMW high pressure fuel pump (HPFP) issue as well as a full-length piece on tonight's Nightline. This has helped prompt BMW to take the following action.

Also see the main discussion thread for this topic - http://e89.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=447262

BMW to Conduct Voluntary Emissions and Safety Recalls

* 26.10.2010
* Press Release

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – October 26, 2010... BMW of North America has notified the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its intent to conduct a voluntary recall of some model year 2007-2010 BMWs equipped with twin-turbo inline six-cylinder engines, all of which feature BMW’s High Precision Injection direct fuel injection system. It has also asked for approval from the California Air Resources Board to conduct this action. Affected vehicles may experience a failure of the high-pressure fuel pump.

Symptoms include long-crank engine starting times along with the illumination of the “Service Engine Soon” light. In certain cases, the driver may experience reduced engine performance in a Safe Mode accompanied by a tone and the illumination of the “Engine Malfunction” light.

Based on the individual service history of the vehicle, the action will entail replacement of the high-pressure fuel pump and/or a software update.

Approximately 130,000 vehicles are potentially affected with about 40,000 expected to require a new high pressure fuel pump. Affected BMW models include:

• MY 2007–2010 335i models.
• MY 2008–2010 135i, 535i and X6 xDrive35i Sports Activity Coupes
• MY 2009 – 2010 Z4 Roadster sDrive35i

In a separate action, BMW has notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that it will voluntarily recall approximately 20,800 MY 2008 X5 Sports Activity Vehicles equipped with normally-aspirated inline six-cylinder engines to replace the low-pressure fuel pump. In this case, should the fuel pump experience a failure, the engine will stop running and the driver will lose power assist for the steering and brakes although both the steering and the brakes remain operational.

Letters will be sent by First Class mail to owners of affected vehicles in the coming weeks, requesting the scheduling of a service appointment with an Authorized BMW Center to have the update performed.

No injuries have been reported with either of these issues.

In the case of either issue, if the customer experiences a problem, they should contact their authorized BMW Center. Customers with additional questions should contact BMW Customer Relations at 1-800-563-4269 or email CustomerRelations@bmwusa.com.

[cdeslandes]

Behold the power of ABC!

But will BMW have a reliable replacement pump? And will the new software affect Dinan, ESS & the like?

News at 11...

[bill123]

A bit of ammunition for us in the UK if our HPFP fails in the years to come.

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Here is the article ....

Interesting Article .... I wonder if any sDrive Z4 35is cars will be recalled.

BMW Recalls 130,000 units with N54 Motor

It was a German Article, I translated it in Google for you

[SquireG]

Whoop D Doo..... I am on my third HPFP, last one was with the software upgrade. Let's see how long this one holds out. I am not holding my breath and everytime I am cruising along the interstate, I never know when it will crap out and I'll get crushed by a semi......Nice job BMW. This ranks right up there with the base stereo......useless.

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by SquireG

Whoop D Doo..... I am on my third HPFP, last one was with the software upgrade. Let's see how long this one holds out. I am not holding my breath and everytime I am cruising along the interstate, I never know when it will crap out and I'll get crushed by a semi......Nice job BMW. This ranks right up there with the base stereo......useless.

Let us add the RFT to the list and a big

Check your RFT data, phone a tire dealer, they properly tell you "Sorry this tire is discontinued" like they told me this morning. Sos if you need one new RFT you properly need to purchase two new tires to keep them the same on the same axel. Real fine work BMW ... way to go

[BMWZ4]

Discontinued tires happens all the time, definitely not unique to BMW. Happened to me with a set of Michelin's on my SUV a couple of years ago and had to replace 2 tires instead of the one I had damaged.

Rolf, since when did they start making all-wheel drive Z4's? Your post at the top says xdrive35is.....I assume a typo!

Dave

[HerrK]

Originally Posted by SquireG

Whoop D Doo..... I am on my third HPFP, last one was with the software upgrade. Let's see how long this one holds out. I am not holding my breath and everytime I am cruising along the interstate, I never know when it will crap out and I'll get crushed by a semi......Nice job BMW. This ranks right up there with the base stereo......useless.

If you have copies of your repair orders. It should list the PN of the new pumps installed. What are the last 3 digits for your 2 replacement pumps?

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by Dave Marien

Discontinued tires happens all the time, definitely not unique to BMW. Happened to me with a set of Michelin's on my SUV a couple of years ago and had to replace 2 tires instead of the one I had damaged.

Rolf, since when did they start making all-wheel drive Z4's? Your post at the top says xdrive35is.....I assume a typo!

Dave

Yes Dave .... was a typo .... I changed it

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

some more articles ....

Here ....

and here

By ABC News ....

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by cdeslandes

Behold the power of ABC!

But will BMW have a reliable replacement pump? And will the new software affect Dinan, ESS & the like?

News at 11...

That's the key question isn't it? Do they have a reliable pump? Do we have any evidence there is such a thing? This has been an issue for a long long time--ever since the N54 came out and a reliable pump has proved to be elusive.

It will be interesting to see what they're doing with "software". Cutting the max flow rate from the pump? Cold start changes? More "anti-tamper" code? Just what are they doing there? I remember the infamous "waste gate rattle" software fix back in 08/09 that "fixed" things by inducing a massive amount of lag for the N54. That was "fixed" later on after about 6 more software releases. But what a mess--people were crazy mad about that as it totally destroyed the driveability of the car and killed the thing they liked most (low end torque) and it took forever for BMW to come out with a fix for the fix. I sure hope they've learned their lesson.

As for tuner software, when the dealers reflashes your software it rewrites the whole thing IIRC. Expect to need a reflash from Dinan, ESS, and etc. if yours is reflashed by the dealer. Typically it takes a bit of cycle time for these vendors to get copies of the new code and tweak it. The development cycle would be commensurate with the scope and complexity of the changes in the base code.

[cdeslandes]

I'll wait until I hear from other forum members before taking mine in. I'd rather take the risk of breaking down than losing power ot low-end torque...

[rmorin49]

Although the N54 has won several awards this is likely to go down as one of BMW's biggest Boo-Boo's in some time. Perhaps they can finally find a supplier for a reliable fuel pump.

[teagueAMX]

Originally Posted by cdeslandes

I'll wait until I hear from other forum members before taking mine in. I'd rather take the risk of breaking down than losing power ot low-end torque...

I'd wait until you know for sure BMW has a solution.

If you haven't had a failure, you don't necessarily need to have yours replaced. My impression is this is BMWs knee jerk reaction to the negative publicity. They haven't demonstrated they have a long term solution, although one may be in the wings. They don't want to appear to be doing nothing - aka Toyota - so they're going to replace pumps.

Based on information gleaned lately from people that have taken their cars in for HPFP issues, BMW has been tinkering with software solutions in two areas: 1) tank level sensor, 2) pressure sensors for the low pressure fuel pump.

I'd bet BMW will throw all their resources at coming up with a long term solution for n54 owners.

[cdeslandes]

Originally Posted by teagueAMX

I'd wait until you know for sure BMW has a solution.

If you haven't had a failure, you don't necessarily need to have yours replaced. My impression is this is BMWs knee jerk reaction to the negative publicity. They haven't demonstrated they have a long term solution, although one may be in the wings. They don't want to appear to be doing nothing - aka Toyota - so they're going to replace pumps.

Based on information gleaned lately from people that have taken their cars in for HPFP issues, BMW has been tinkering with software solutions in two areas: 1) tank level sensor, 2) pressure sensors for the low pressure fuel pump.

I'd bet BMW will throw all their resources at coming up with a long term solution for n54 owners.

Thanks for confirming what I thought.

[Alext]

Well after reading the official BMW press release it appears they are offering the recall to owners of Z4's from the model years 2009-2010. No mention about 2011.

They expect only 30% will require new fuel pumps....

See here: https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/press...tem=node__2222

[mikeinaustin]

hmmmm can only greatly help vantagebmw's case against bmw for their denial of warranty for his hpfp.

[solidgold]

Any news so far in Europe and Asia? Recall is WW?

[teagueAMX]

Originally Posted by mikeinaustin

hmmmm can only greatly help vantagebmw's case against bmw for their denial of warranty for his hpfp.

True

[HerrK]

I can only speak for my HPFP, which is installed on a MY 2011 N54 with a vehicle manufacture date of 27 April 2010. It has the latest variat (of 6) to date - last three digits of PN are 933. I suspect this is the installed PN on most MY 2011 N54's. There are unsubstanciated reports of a PN "402" pumps on the newer N55's. For me 4500 miles and HPFP has not yet (knock on wood) experienced any long cranks at startup. Regardless of the ABC report I doubt that BMW would make such a public statement if they weren't close to a long term solution to the problem be it a 933, 402 or other PN HPFP. We can only hope!

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by teagueAMX

I'd wait until you know for sure BMW has a solution.

If you haven't had a failure, you don't necessarily need to have yours replaced. My impression is this is BMWs knee jerk reaction to the negative publicity. They haven't demonstrated they have a long term solution, although one may be in the wings. They don't want to appear to be doing nothing - aka Toyota - so they're going to replace pumps.

Based on information gleaned lately from people that have taken their cars in for HPFP issues, BMW has been tinkering with software solutions in two areas: 1) tank level sensor, 2) pressure sensors for the low pressure fuel pump.

I'd bet BMW will throw all their resources at coming up with a long term solution for n54 owners.

I have a strong feeling that not all N54 Engines are affected. My feeling is that several HPFP factories or suppliers are enveloped here at least I hope so since up to now (touch wood) my car standing now at 25,000 KM has performed well. Mind you I have not pushed her to the limit as of yet in Sport and Sport+ Mode ... also she performed well on my 18,303 KM US road trip except for the 2 cracked wheels of course.

We shall wait and see ... if a call or letter arrives from BMW

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by solidgold

Any news so far in Europe and Asia? Recall is WW?

In the German Forum the boys think it only affects BMW's delivered to the US US ... go figure