BMW recalls 1.5 million cars for electrical problem

BMW has officially announced a worldwide recall of 5 Series and 6 Series models built between 2003 and 2010. The recall is due to a battery cable cover that may have been poorly fitted during the manufacturing process.

As many as 1.3 million cars built during the period may have been affected around the world, although Scott Croaker, BMW Australia's Product Communications Manager told motoring.com.au today that reports of the problem were limited to "single digits" worldwide.

The vehicles concerned are: "5 Series and 6 Series built between 2003 and September 2010 — which pretty much covers the whole E60 [sedan]), E63 [6 Series coupe], E64 [6 Series convertible] and of course E61s [wagons] as well," Croaker advised.

In Australia, the recall would nominally affect over 10,000 cars, although not all those vehicles sold by BMW Australia are still on the road. Croaker estimates the vehicles to be recalled here probably number "9000 still in service".

To date, no one has suffered any harm from the defect and no vehicle has incurred any significant damage, according to Croaker, who explained in detail the nature of the problem.

"There's a battery cable that goes from the battery in the boot to the floorpan, and then goes through the floorpan, then travels under the car to the front of the engine. It's that connection between the underbody cable and the cable in the boot, [where] there's a plastic clip that's potentially incorrectly fitted — either from the factory or has worked loose. [It] can create some flexing of the cable and, obviously a higher resistance, which creates heat."

To date, and of the "single-digit" reports funnelled back to BMW from the company's worldwide dealer network, the defect was only discovered when vehicle owners complained about slow starting, as Croaker explained.

"The early onset symptoms are high resistance: poor energy from the battery, in terms of long starting times, power loss through certain systems, rather than any evidence of flames and sparking or that sort of stuff..."

"From my understanding, the source of it was traced back to this connector because of poor battery, poor starting and recharging. I think in some cases the area was blackened due to heat."

Croaker says that the problem is due to a manufacturing defect. He says it prompted an “immediate” response from the company.

"[It's] normal process for these sorts of things; it's the feedback from the markets and a quality measurement process.

"Given the fact that it's electrical and the potential is heat and — in absolute extreme cases — fire, it then generates a call to action for [a recall]."