Hi,

My 2014 335d Touring melted its exhaust manifold this summer as the egr cooler died and sent hot exhaust gases through the manifold.

Fixing this cost over a months wages.

BMW said I was nothing to do with them and it was just wear and tear. Cue a great deal of grumbling.

Yesterday I received a recall letter for, checking and replacing the egr cooler!

Has anyone successfully reclaimed money on previous repairs after a recall was issued? My gut feeling is I’m going to get absolutely nowhere, but it might be worth a go.

Cheers for any help

Martin

Did you talk to BMW UK when you had hte issue and go for part funding or anything?

I would open up a conversation with the dealership early and involve BMW UK ASAP. If all else fails see if a no win no fee lawyer will take the case on.

What melted? The exhaust manifold, or the inlet manifold?

I would write to BMW and tell them that if they don’t refund the money paid for the repair due to the failed EGR cooler that they have now issued a recall for you will issue county court proceedings. You can do this yourself for a minimal fee which you can then claim back if you win.

but first get facts right…as TW says exhaust or inlet. Inlet was my first thoughts when I read the OP, would have to be bloody hot to melt the exhaust manifold.

If you had the work done at your dealer then I reckon you have a better chance of getting the money back before you get to the point of small claims. They should just be able to reimburse the dealer who will refund you.

It’ll be the inlet manifold that melted not the exhaust.

If it was me I wouldn’t start threatening all sorts yet I’d just contact BMW UK and explain that the part you’ve just had the recall notice for had already failed and you ended up with a big bill as a result. Tell them due to this you expect a full refund from them for those repairs and see what they say.

You could always play on the safety part of it and say if it was hot enough to melt the inlet manifold the car could have caught fire with family in it etc etc

I would also do some searching around BMW owners forums (worldwide if you can) and find out who else it’s happened to. The recall will have been triggered by faults; enough faults for them to realise they weren’t down to usage or bad maintenance.

Thanks!

I think it was the inlet manifold. It was made of plastic whatever it was and took them several more days than they had estimated to fix it. A great deal of that was cleaning up the mess inside the engine .

The UK recall of lots of different models ws triggered by something that has happened in Korea. There were some rumblings about it being more likely to happen while hot. Not a dreak drizzly Scottish summer day hot, tropics hot.

I didn’t talk to BMW directly when it happened. On a 90,000 mile car bought privately and with some service history outside the dealer network, I just grumbled and paid.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll try the dealer that did the work, then BMW.

It would be ace to get some cash back, for the next time the car goes pop 🙂

If the exhaust manifold had melted I’d expect the job sheet to read something like “Remove hidden thermite charge”.

I don’t personally think you’ll get anything. There is a recall because the issue is safety-related (can break down) rather than because something breaks. You’re unlucky that they might have fixed it if the timing was slightly different, but on a car with that sort of milage things will break because it is nearing the end of its design life. Assuming they fitted the changed part, I don’t think theres anything else to do..

They should just be able to reimburse the dealer who will refund you.

Nice theory, but in practice a dealer has a better chance of getting blood out of a stone for repair work already invoiced for.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2018/08/08/bmw-starts-technical-campaign-to-fix-faulty-diesel-egr-valves-in-the-eu/

Interesting the EGR thermostat on my 2006 530D cracked and failed and leaked coolant – I just changed it myself but it sounds like I got off lightly!

It’s also worth looking into if the new parts fitted during the repair are to the same as the ones that failed or the updated ones fitted during current recall. As you may have pre-recall fixes currently fitted and the possibility of it happening again.

Hmm, that link suggests they started doing my recall before my car went pop.

Different brand ..but yeah..I had to replace a single injector on a VW Passat Sport which was just out of warranty ..which they didn’t want to know about ..a few months later they recognised that this was a manufacturing fault ..replaced the other 3 and reimbursed fully the work that I had paid for ..

I had a Vauxhall zafira and replaced the parts that were causing them to burst into flames. I did get my money back after some long emails.

I had the same thing happen as hodgynd but on a Skoda with exactly the same outcome. This was on a 4yrs old out of warranty and out of fsh car.
Speak to bmw. They may be surprisingly accommodating as it’s easier to sort it than deal with loads of hassle.

3phase

It’s also worth looking into if the new parts fitted during the repair are to the same as the ones that failed or the updated ones fitted during current recall. As you may have pre-recall fixes currently fitted and the possibility of it happening again.

a good point and I’d consider using it as starting point at the dealers – 2 concerns – is car safe despite money spent? …. I’ve spent the money and its now a known recall fault had all the hassle of the failure due to the fault and as well as the hassle of the breakdown/car in garage (hint, hint) spent money shouldn’t have had to how does that work? …..plus if you ever want to sell the car and the work done is OK still needs records correcting or will show as outstanding?

Always worth asking and even pushing quite hard. Wont necessarily get you anything but better to have tried and failed. My brother has an A6 and his EGR valve went just outside of warranty…a known issue, but as much as he argued they gave him the bird. The same valve on my T5 went just inside warranty (same part, same engine) and VW honoured my warranty no issues. Its timing unfortunately. But my dad had a Merc that had a suspension failure (front springs) just outside of warranty, they tried to fob him off, but he kicked up a fuss and they eventually replaced the parts and associated damage (damage to inner wings) FOC. It took him walking into the dealership and handing over the keys and telling them to keep the vehicle in a nice loud voice to prospective buyers in the dealership at the time could hear, but it seemed to bring them over to his way of thinking.

Give it a go, you might get some consideration.