BMW i3 FIRE

[bmwi3fire]

7 recalls.

Fire risk.


Our bmw i3 rEx caught fire while driving.

I do not believe in coincidences.

I see a lot of posts about other burnt Bmw i3 rEx.

BMW endangered my family by not making those recalls known to us.

I now ask every BMW i3 owner whose car went up in flames to please contact me with a detailed description of what happened to their car, including photos.

Please email me at [email protected]

Thank you!

 

[alohart]

I've read very few reports of i3 REx fires since i3's became available more than a decade ago, so fire doesn't seem to be a common problem. I don't know anyone who considers an i3 REx to be a significant fire risk. If the oil dipstick or oil filler cap isn't replaced after being removed, engine oil could leak out and catch fire if it drips onto a hot exhaust pipe just as with any ICE vehicle. If a fuel line leaks, a fire could result just as with any ICE vehicle.

The only recall that I'm aware of that is fire-related involves a fuel tank vent line that needed to be rerouted to prevent chafing that might cause a fuel vapor leak (NHTSA Campaign #17V088000). All affected i3 REx owners of record were contacted after this recall was issued way back in 2017.

If you bought your i3 used after 2017, the previous owner would have been notified and should have had this problem fixed at no charge. If you purchased your i3 used, you should have verified that all recalls had been performed, but if they had not, you should have taken your i3 to a BMW dealer to have any outstanding recall service performed.

I'm sorry that a fire burned your i3, but this could have happened to any gasoline-powered vehicle. There's nothing about an i3 REx that makes fires more common than any ICE vehicle.

 

[Mondomensch]

7 recalls.

Fire risk.


Our bmw i3 rEx caught fire while driving.

I do not believe in coincidences.

I see a lot of posts about other burnt Bmw i3 rEx.

BMW endangered my family by not making those recalls known to us.

I now ask every BMW i3 owner whose car went up in flames to please contact me with a detailed description of what happened to their car, including photos.

Please email me at [email protected]

Thank you!

Could you provide some info on what happened to your car? Posts without any details can seem like fishing expeditions…

 

[bmwi3fire]

Could you provide some info on what happened to your car? Posts without any details can seem like fishing expeditions…

of course. I was driving for the last 20-30 minutes. Driver behind me was flashing his lights and honking his horn. I looked in the mirror and saw smoke. I stopped immediately and in the next 2 minutes the whole car was engulfed in flames. Fire brigade arrived 9 minutes later. By that time all that was left was a pile of ash. The alloys of the car melted. I've never seen anything like that.

 

[bmwi3fire]

I've read very few reports of i3 REx fires since i3's became available more than a decade ago, so fire doesn't seem to be a common problem. I don't know anyone who considers an i3 REx to be a significant fire risk. If the oil dipstick or oil filler cap isn't replaced after being removed, engine oil could leak out and catch fire if it drips onto a hot exhaust pipe just as with any ICE vehicle. If a fuel line leaks, a fire could result just as with any ICE vehicle.

The only recall that I'm aware of that is fire-related involves a fuel tank vent line that needed to be rerouted to prevent chafing that might cause a fuel vapor leak (NHTSA Campaign #17V088000). All affected i3 REx owners of record were contacted after this recall was issued way back in 2017.

If you bought your i3 used after 2017, the previous owner would have been notified and should have had this problem fixed at no charge. If you purchased your i3 used, you should have verified that all recalls had been performed, but if they had not, you should have taken your i3 to a BMW dealer to have any outstanding recall service performed.

I'm sorry that a fire burned your i3, but this could have happened to any gasoline-powered vehicle. There's nothing about an i3 REx that makes fires more common than any ICE vehicle.

I bought the car in 2016. There was no recall notification made known to me.
Where you say "All affected i3 REx owners of record were contacted after this recall was issued way back in 2017." it appears you either work for BMW or have some sort of interest. Either that or you know ALL bmw i3 rex owners.

SafetyGate, EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products shows 34 fire related recalls to "bmw".
Of these 34 results, the following are pertaining to BMW I3:

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10006988?lang=en

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10006280?lang=en

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/255022?lang=en


I am not here posting against the green agenda. It is irrelevant to me whether the fire was caused by fuel, battery, or magic. If there is a fire risk, this should be made known to the customer and the customer has a right to choose a refund if he/she so wishes. That notification is argued by BMW was not sent to me as they only started sending out notifications AFTER they secretly rectified the fire risk present in my mobile crematorium.

 

[Mondomensch]

I bought the car in 2016. There was no recall notification made known to me.
Where you say "All affected i3 REx owners of record were contacted after this recall was issued way back in 2017." it appears you either work for BMW or have some sort of interest. Either that or you know ALL bmw i3 rex owners.

SafetyGate, EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products shows 34 fire related recalls to "bmw".
Of these 34 results, the following are pertaining to BMW I3:

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10006988?lang=en

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10006280?lang=en

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/255022?lang=en


I am not here posting against the green agenda. It is irrelevant to me whether the fire was caused by fuel, battery, or magic. If there is a fire risk, this should be made known to the customer and the customer has a right to choose a refund if he/she so wishes. That notification is argued by BMW was not sent to me as they only started sending out notifications AFTER they secretly rectified the fire risk present in my mobile crematorium.

The first two results you list only apply to production years after you bought your car.

The third may apply to yours, you can enter your VIN to determine if the recall applies to your car and to determine whether or not the correction was applied if applicable.

If it does apply to your VIN and the correction was not done, you could then pursue the notification chain - whom did BMW notify about the recall and how did they do so? If that was a dealership, then you might have recourse with them, either voluntary or legal.

I can imagine how surprised and upset and scared you must have been when this happened and I sympathize! That said, any car with gasoline or oil in it ( and even some without) can catch fire, although fortunately that happens rarely. I’m glad your were able to escape without injury!

Of course it’s always your choice, but I’d suggest more measured language when posting here. Nobody here that I know of works for BMW or is part of any dealer-industrial-complex IMHO sticking to facts and questions and avoiding extreme characterizations will get you the most info and prevent any future issues of people bringing up past posts in some adversarial/legal venue.

 

[mojo]

If there is a fire risk, this should be made known to the customer and the customer has a right to choose a refund if he/she so wishes.

I don't think the safety-critical recall system works in that way, in any country in the world. The way that it's supposed to work is that the owner is notified, and they are advised where to take it to get the problem fixed (at BMW's cost). In theory, I guess it's possible that the problem could be so fundamental to the design of the car as to be not fixable (at sensible cost) but I've never heard of a case where that has happened.

You don't (as far as I can see) say where you are in the world, but in the UK, the online MOT checking system should tell you if there was an outstanding recall on your car. You can look that up by registration number - you don't even need to know the VIN.

 

[Ollie]

I think the closest a car ever came to a removal from the road recall would have to be in the 1970's. That vehicle would have been the Ford Pinto. There were many people killed because of collision/fire safety issues. Lots of lawsuits. I also want to say I remember something about (don't quote me) a guy named Arlen Spector, or was it Nadler and a car issue. But I don't remember all the details anymore.

 

[Joff]

I think the closest a car ever came to a removal from the road recall would have to be in the 1970's. That vehicle would have been the Ford Pinto. There were many people killed because of collision/fire safety issues. Lots of lawsuits. I also want to say I remember something about (don't quote me) a guy named Arlen Spector, or was it Nadler and a car issue. But I don't remember all the details anymore.

The pinto was bad because a hit in the rear could split the seam on the gas tank, spraying lots of fuel on the hot exhaust (fireball) while at the same time, the doors would jam. Even so, it only killed around 27 people, which is dwarfed by the 40,000 that die in regular vehicle accidents in the USA every year. Car fires seem bad when you look at what is left, but not a big killer.

 

[alohart]

I bought the car in 2016. There was no recall notification made known to me.

It's not clear to me in which country you reside. Recall notifications almost certainly operate differently in different countries. However, for the notification process to work, BMW would have to know that you were the i3 owner and would have to know your current address. If you didn't ensure that BMW had this information, a recall notice might have been sent to the wrong address.

Where you say "All affected i3 REx owners of record were contacted after this recall was issued way back in 2017." it appears you either work for BMW or have some sort of interest. Either that or you know ALL bmw i3 rex owners.

I am not and have never been affiliated with BMW.

I made the assumption that you reside in the U.S. which might not be true.

I'm pretty certain that in the U.S., all vehicle manufacturers are required to notify owners of vehicles involved in a NHTSA recall. I'm certain that BMW has systems in place to follow these regulations which makes me confident that BMW sent a recall notification letter to the owner in their records. I received such a letter from BMW when NHSTA issued a recall concerning the i3's driver airbag. I assume that some of these letters are sent to former owners because BMW doesn't know the current owner or her address. Assuming that state governments have systems in place that automatically inform vehicle manufacturers when an ownership change has occurred might not be valid. I don't trust any such system to function perfectly, so I have always informed BMW when I bought a used i3 and have informed BMW when my address changed. If I didn't do so, I would not be confident that I would receive a NHTSA recall or a BMW service action notification letter.

 

[Ollie]

They use the term "Fire Brigade". Not a normal NA term. I'd say definitely not USA.

 

[mojo]

Definitely a UK term, though of course it could be a translation of a different European term. But odd for a UK resident to quote an EU safety organisation which doesn't (as far as I can tell) even cover the UK any more. Very odd...

 

[tob1as]

I think the closest a car ever came to a removal from the road recall would have to be in the 1970's. That vehicle would have been the Ford Pinto. There were many people killed because of collision/fire safety issues. Lots of lawsuits. I also want to say I remember something about (don't quote me) a guy named Arlen Spector, or was it Nadler and a car issue. But I don't remember all the details anymore.

That would be Ralph Nader and the “unsafe at any speed” Chevy Corvair …

 

[808Pants]

... I have always informed BMW when I bought a used i3 and have informed BMW when my address changed. If I didn't do so, I would not be confident that I would receive a NHTSA recall or a BMW service action notification letter...

Hey Art,

I think I did this when I first bought our i3, but wasn't sure, so I navigated to it again, finding that the site shows "0 open recall for your vehicle". That got me to wondering whether there is a place that "corrected" recalls would be logged. Any clues on that?

Anyone looking - to save Googling, the URL for this is https://www.bmwusa.com/safety-and-emission-recalls.html . You just need your VIN.

 

[EvanstonI3]

Definitely a UK term, though of course it could be a translation of a different European term. But odd for a UK resident to quote an EU safety organisation which doesn't (as far as I can tell) even cover the UK any more. Very odd...

apparently in Ireland

 

[Redryder18]

Interesting that the thing was a pile of ash with a lithium ion battery in nine minutes…..

 

[Gonville]

They use the term "Fire Brigade". Not a normal NA term. I'd say definitely not USA.

This is 100% UK

 

[Gonville]

Definitely a UK term, though of course it could be a translation of a different European term. But odd for a UK resident to quote an EU safety organisation which doesn't (as far as I can tell) even cover the UK any more. Very odd...

I believe we in the UK did a wholesale import of all Eurpean /EU legislation as part of the separation to avoid any ‘gaps’. I can’t remember the name of the act of parliament, European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018?, so I suspect all the regulations still apply except the enforcement body is now UK based.

 

[Gonville]

UK based recollections. The only REX related recall I remember was the wiring harness rubbing on the fuel filler pipe - which would have been done at service time - if they bothered to have it serviced.

I believe there have been a number reported on our group for the oil filler cap not being replaced correctly - which would indeed lead to a fire if not spotted dripping before hand.

 

[Gonville]

I bought the car in 2016. There was no recall notification made known to me.
Where you say "All affected i3 REx owners of record were contacted after this recall was issued way back in 2017." it appears you either work for BMW or have some sort of interest. Either that or you know ALL bmw i3 rex owners.

SafetyGate, EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products shows 34 fire related recalls to "bmw".
Of these 34 results, the following are pertaining to BMW I3:

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10006988?lang=en

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10006280?lang=en

https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/255022?lang=en


I am not here posting against the green agenda. It is irrelevant to me whether the fire was caused by fuel, battery, or magic. If there is a fire risk, this should be made known to the customer and the customer has a right to choose a refund if he/she so wishes. That notification is argued by BMW was not sent to me as they only started sending out notifications AFTER they secretly rectified the fire risk present in my mobile crematorium.

In the UK there was a recall action by DVLA which covered the fuel pipe issue mentioned above for USA/NHTSA.

There was also a parked car that caught fire in London for which the cause was never determined as the ‘remains’ were never found - I.e. recovered into storage but ‘lost’. Was posted about on here and regraded as fake despite LFB detailed reports.

It would be helpful if the date and location plus any photographs could be recalled?