2008 BMW 335I: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Dec 4, 2018 · Electrical · 135,000 miles · AZ · fire

Tl* the contact owned a 2008 bmw 335i. While the vehicle was parked and occupied, the contact noticed smoke coming from the dashboard and through the air vents in the vehicle. The contact and his family were able to exit the vehicle without injuries. The vehicle burst into flames. The fire department extinguished the fire. The vehicle was towed to a tow lot. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer. The vehicle was destroyed. The VIN was included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 17v676000 (electrical system). The manufacturer was notified of the failure and did not assist. The approximate failure mileage was 135,000.

Filed Nov 29, 2018 · Engine, Visibility · 115,000 miles · CA · fire

Tl* the contact owned a 2008 bmw 335i. While walking to the parked vehicle, the contact noticed smoke coming from under the hood of the vehicle. The contact opened the door and saw flames coming from the floorboard. The contact extinguished the fire with a fire extinguisher. The contact stated that the blower motor caught on fire and melted through the dashboard and glove box. The dealer (hansel bmw of santa rosa, 2925 corby ave, santa rosa, ca 95407) stated that they had to wait to hear from the manufacturer before they could make any decisions on how to handle the failure. They also directed the contact not to touch anything in the vehicle. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that they never heard of the blower motor catching on fire. The vehicle was destroyed. The contact stated that the vehicle was included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 17v670000 (engine and engine cooling). The approximate failure mileage was 115,000.

Filed Aug 29, 2018 · Electrical · TX · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 bmw 335i. The contact was not notified by the manufacturer that the vehicle was included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 17v676000 (electrical system). The recall was issued on october 25, 2017. Without warning, smoke appeared from under the hood and a fire started. A passerby extinguished the flames. The fire inspector arrived and was unable to determine the cause of the fire. The vehicle was damaged extensively and towed to the contact's residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The contact was notified of the recall by the manufacturer after the fire occurred. The failure mileage was not available. * (recall related incident) ts

Filed May 23, 2018 · Electrical · 55,000 miles · PR

Strong smell of burning electric wiring while driving. Turn off AC. Afterwards AC stopped working. Upon inspection, AC blower motor had burned wiring to the point that it was broken. Had to get blower motor and connector replaced. No visible smoke or flames. Strong smell of plastic/electronics burning when it happened. Wiring damage pretty bad. Vehicle was in motion in city street when it happened smell continued for several minutes even with windows open.

Filed Aug 4, 2017 · Fuel system · 69,000 miles · WA

My car began to run roughly after a cold start as I was leaving my office. After a few seconds and feeling decreased power, I tried to pull off the road and into a parking spot in the parking garage at microsoft's head quarters (where I work). The vehicle stalled out. I was able to restart the vehicle and get into a parking space, but it continue to run roughly. I noticed an intense smell of gasoline and immediately turned off the engine. I exited the vehicle and checked the exhaust. It was blowing white smoke and had gasoline dripping out of the tail pipes, I let the vehicle cool down and restarted the engine with another person observing the tail pipe. It again was running very rough and had gasoline spraying out of the tail pipe. I immediately turned off the engine. The car was towed to a service center. They have diagnosed the issue is that 2 of the injectors are stuck in the fully open position. As a result, the car is unsafe (I was lucky there wasn't a massive fire). Previously, I'd had the hpfp (high pressure fuel pump) replaced under recall. I am concerned that the recalled/replaced hpfp may itself be defective and failed, causing 2 injectors to fail simultaneously (there's statistically no chance of two injectors failing simultaneously without some causal factor upstream in the fuel system). On contacting bmw (in bellevue wa) and bmw north america, they have refused to cover the repair or acknowledge the issue. I am continuing to engage with them on the repair, but believe this is a more serious safety issue. Had I not pulled off when I did, the vehicle could have went up in flames while on the highway.

Filed Apr 3, 2017 · Lights · 61,000 miles · CA · fire

After driving up to 75mph at hwy, I parked my car at parking lot and 15 minutes later , someone notified me that there's smoke coming out from my engine bay. I immediately opened the hood and the right headlight was on fire also spread to the heat shield (attached to the hood). I was able to extinguised the fire but the top part of the headlight melted thru the wires. I read that there are several issues with this headlight and want to know if bmw has recalled this light. I looked it up and the part itself cost around $1,100 plus labor. If this is a defect, bmw should replaced this part at no cost to the customer.

Filed Aug 26, 2016 · Engine · 89,235 miles · CA

I purchased this vehicle and the waterpump I changed two times, keep overheating and almost getting in fire flames, I need help please can someone help me, it should not happen to get to this level, I spend all my money most of the time on my car. The waterpump stop working smoke comes out of engine,become so hot that burned my face two time,when waterpump when wrong,hit my oil cooler,radiator,and much more stuff alone.

Filed Mar 10, 2015 · Electrical, Lights · 800,000 miles · SC · fire

I had noticed a melting plastic smell for a few weeks but couldn't identify the source and shortly after this my headlight burnt out so I went to replace the bulb. By this time, I noticed smoke coming out of my headlight mount. Upon opening the headlight I noticed all of the wire shielding had fallen off of the wires inside the headlight mount, causing the wires to ark and melt. Upon comparing against the other headlight, I found the same thing- all of the wire shielding had fallen off. I went to the dealer and was told that this happens all the time, simply due to how hot and dry this model gets under the hood and the headlights being sealed. They said it's usually covered by the extended warranty, however not in the case of my vehicle's mileage. Since the headlight is a sealed unit, you cannot access the wires to replace them and cannot purchase a harness, the whole unit must be replaced at a cost of $800 each. I googled and found several complaints of the same issue. Upon contacting bmw hq directly, they said it is a known issue, but not covered, and got back to me several weeks later offering to pay $200 toward the cost of the $1600 repair if I had it done at the dealer, or $2000 toward the purchase of a new bmw.

Filed Dec 4, 2014 · Electrical, Engine · 90,004 miles · NY

When I started at the car noticed a electrical burning smell and smoke after a while it was gone and it came back. Also driving the car on the highway smell was present.

Filed Sep 13, 2013 · Electrical · 69,000 miles · FL · fire

9/11/2013 at approximately 9:25 am est my 2008 bmw 335i spontaneously caught fire from what seems to be an electrical problem in the dash board area. I was making my daily commute to work when the AC unit shut off and then turned back on with thick black smoke pouring into the cabin of the car. Naturally I rolled the windows down to allow the smoke to clear so that I could pull over out of traffic. This made matters worse, the smoke thickened, the horn started honking as if someone was holding the horn down, as I was pulling the car over to the side of the road the smoke became unbearable, I was fortunate to escape the car as the fire ripped into the cabin consuming the entire vehicle within just minutes. The car is now totaled and my insurance is investigating. My query is what if I had other people in my car? What if my car was in my garage? What if I had younger children in the car? Judging on how quickly the car was engulfed in flames I know for a fact that even in my very able condition removing two young children from the back seat of the car would have been impossible, this needs to be looked into! Seeing as bmw's targeted audience is middle to upper class families I wonder if the public knows of the risks? I know I sure didn't, however after reviewing the blogs and posts online I have seen countless other scenarios unfold almost identical to mine and I know I am not alone. I am currently dealing with my insurance and I am sure they will be in touch with bmw as the car was still under 100,000 miles and just at 5 years of age.