BMW halts sale of all police cars to forces in UK with immediate effect

[jack_christie]

BMW has halted all car sales to police forces in the UK with immediate effect and shut down its sales centre in London.

The halt of sales to the police follows a number of forces across the UK restricting duties carried out by BMW police cars featuring the N57 diesel engine.

Exclusive: BMW halts sale of all police cars to forces in UK with immediate effect – Car Dealer Magazine

BMW has halted all car sales to police forces in the UK with immediate effect and shut down its sales centre in London. BMW’s International &

cardealermagazine.co.uk

A FATAL crash which claimed the life of a popular police officer would not have happened if Cumbria Police had stopped using BMW vehicles which had a “startling” history of engine failure, says his widow.

'An accident waiting to happen' - widow of M6 crash victim PC Nick Dumphreys

A FATAL crash which claimed the life of a popular police officer would not have happened if Cumbria Police had stopped using BMW vehicles which had…

www.newsandstar.co.uk

 

[93Flareside]

Weird. All the BMW‘s I’ve seen usually don’t catch on fire outside of the combustion chamber.

 

[DanRoM]

Well, they are marketed as driving machines, not as standing around idling machines.

Still, it's a bit weird...

 

[Matt2000]

Well, they are marketed as driving machines, not as standing around idling machines.

If this was an issue starting from cold I could understand it, but a car that’s idling should be running at the correct operating temp and ready for anything. Assuming that the cooling system is well designed, which you would expect from BMW.

The issues may have been in the summer where it’s more difficult to keep the cars cool when idling, this just isn’t a common issue now we aren’t driving Triumph stags that overheat at traffic lights.

There were a few telephone company vans sitting around here the other week idling, as they sat there the electric fan was constantly kicking in and out. In December. Anyone else surprised that the ambient cool air around the radiator wasn’t enough to keep the engine cool? The 2.5 Tdi in the bobtail Disco has no engine driven fan but on a cool ray it can run indefinitely without needing the electric fan. I question the design of cooling systems.

 

[DanRoM]

If this was an issue starting from cold I could understand it, but a car that’s idling should be running at the correct operating temp and ready for anything. Assuming that the cooling system is well designed, which you would expect from BMW.

Exactly.

The issues may have been in the summer where it’s more difficult to keep the cars cool when idling

We're still talking about British summer...

 

[narf]

I question the design of cooling systems.

Might be aerodynamic efficiency related - you don't want huge openings, so there's less opportunity for a light breeze (if there's any) to be enough.
What's wrong with using the fan when stationary?

 

[Matt2000]

We're still talking about British summer...

Which did hit 40C last year but that shouldn't be an unusual temp for a BMW. Smith and Sniff talked about this last February though, so yeah we're generally not talking about crazy temps.

I can't help thinking of a comparison that's surely pretty common, a BMW sitting in traffic on the autobahn followed by being driven flat out. Are those cars also catching fire?

Might be aerodynamic efficiency related - you don't want huge openings, so there's less opportunity for a light breeze (if there's any) to be enough.
What's wrong with using the fan when stationary?

If it's required at idle in 15C weather it makes me wonder how stressed it would be at 35C+ with a load. Your explanation makes perfect sense though, as aerodynamics become more and more important.

 

[narf]

If it's required at idle in 15C weather it makes me wonder how stressed it would be at 35C+ with a load. Your explanation makes perfect sense though, as aerodynamics become more and more important.

Well, assuming the load is driving, you'd then have fartwind. If you want high load at a standstill all day long, get a Unimog.

 

[Misrabelle]

Diesels don't like to be left idling for long periods, it's not particularly healthy for them, but they really shouldn't catch fire because of it.

Tangentally, every year the govt department I report to for bus related stuff, publishes a list of causes of vehicle fires in the industry, and almost all come from fluid leaks.
Vehicles using DEF/Adblue have much hotter exhaust temps, and so every year that this tech became more common in vehicles, the number of fires increased, (until they mandated fire suppression systems in all new buses).

 

[jack_christie]

I think it's the high speed pursuit that is the problem load., because some forces stopped using it for that after the fatal crash.

Would have taught an extended run on the autobahn must be pretty similar.

Some BMW Police Cars in U.K. Restricted from High-Speed Pursuit over Fire Issue

Some police BMWs powered by the older N57 diesel engine have been restricted to less stressful use after a series of engine fires, although BMW says there's no danger to civilians who own these cars.

www.caranddriver.com

 

[jack_christie]

This is mad!!!!!!!! Those discarded Police cars with N57 engines are being dumped into auctions with a hole drilled in the block!!!!
Other Police cars are being clocked after auctions and then sold!!!