A potential fire risk caused by faulty waterpumps is being cited for MINI’s decision to recall more than 235,000 Cooper S and JCW cars. 29,868 cars in the UK built between March 2006 and January 2011 are affected. Company investigations revealed that smouldering caused by heat build-up in the wiring are the cause – and it known that there have been four fires across the world, with one in the UK.
An official statement said: ‘The turbocharged engine of the Cooper S and John Cooper Works engines is equipped with an additional water pump which draws residual heat out of the turbocharger after the engine has been switched off, to prevent carbon build-up of the oil in the bearing. Under high operating temperatures an electro-migration can occur at the circuit board installed in the additional water pump.
‘The electro-migration is caused by plastic additives in conjunction with high temperatures and can lead to a failure of the additional water pump. This can lead to a failure of the additional water pump or smouldering and in extremely rare cases the possibility of a fire cannot be excluded.’
Keith Adams
Is the Editor of the Parkers website and price guide, formerly editor of Classic Car Weekly, and launch editor/creator of Modern Classics magazine. Has contributed to various motoring titles including Octane, Practical Classics, Evo, Honest John, CAR magazine, Autocar, Pistonheads, Diesel Car, Practical Performance Car, Performance French Car, Car Mechanics, Jaguar World Monthly, MG Enthusiast, Modern MINI, Practical Classics, Fifth Gear Website, Radio 4, and the the Motoring Independent...
Likes 'conditionally challenged' motors and taking them on unfeasible adventures all across Europe.
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Again? I seem to remember a similar recall when they were launched, with cars bursting into flames every ten mins…
Bursting into flames every ten minutes, now that would be a sight to behold 🙂
Translation=one of our outside suppliers have made a potentially shit part.(for hairdressers,its a thing that does summat)
Ho, ho, ho……sorry. (Not really)
Oh, Ok, I take it back – forgotten that it’s British workers in jeopardy. BMW – pull yer bloody finger out – you may have stolen our Mini, but you won’t let our workforce down!
An absolute PR nightmare, having to recall so many cars manufactured over just two months short of a five year period.
I’ll never go near one!
Let’s see how MINI PR handles this. Basically, car recalls are commonplace in the industry, and it’s no great shakes…
Here’s where you go if you want to see them all.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/default.asp
Sounds like the BMW accountants work again. Shave .001 of a penny off a bit, and what do you expect?
There was an issue of an earth problem around the fuel filler area a while ago, I’m sure
Reminds me of toyota brakes.
What worries me is that according to the report on teletext last night this recall covered cars built from January 2006 to March 2011. So, it has basically taken then 6 years to nail this problem and start doing something about it. Dress it up how you may but that is totally unacceptable.
Especially as it apparently had something to do with ‘quality control’.
apparently this problem is also something that’s effecting a recall to some BMW and Rolls Royce models too.
By the way, I was amazed at the reponse, whether off the cuff serious or not about the fuel filler issue. They said that if a spark did ignite some of the fuel, that it was nothing much about as it was “only a small fire ball”… Lol… No jokes this time though…
@9 – Yes, I recall that as well.
The VOSA website has two rather worrying recalls for the MGUK TF. Hope that the 6 doesn’t follow, as a recall now could really damage sales.
Recalls are quite common place though, even the 97MY classic mini had two (front brake pipe and then rear wheel bearings.)
Often manufacturers just use recalls as an opportunity to get people into their dealerships.
“Hope that the 6 doesn’t follow, as a recall now could really damage sales.”
1)What sales?
2)It wouldn’t make headlines as a recall would only affect a few hundred cars currently and the majority of people still don’t know that there is a new MG badged car available!
Ironically a statement like this getting press could be the kind of news story that gets MG into the public consciousness!
No publicity is worse than bad publicity.
“An Electro-migration” LOL! Only a German could invent a phrase like that. Specifically dreamed up to make it sound highly technical (VW do the same)and disguise the real nature of the problem.
The operation of der elektronik Dihydrogen Monoxide dynamic displacement implementation of Bernoulli’s principle is suboptimal.
Electro migration sounds a lot less dramatic than short circuit I guess.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term “hot hatch”.
Keith is right, recalls are no big deal. Ironically, given the ever-growing complexity of modern cars, the manufacturers to be suspicious of are the ones who don’t have any recalls!
For example, in the late 1970s, there was a problem with an Industry-standard Girling brake caliper. BL did the honest thing and recalled all the cars that had the dubious batch of calipers, which included Marinas, Allegros and Dolomites etc. Volvo, that most ‘safety-minded’ company, did NOT recall the 240s fitted with this caliper, preferring to do it on the QT as a service change. There may even still be 240 models with duff calipers driving around even today…
Recalls are definitely commonplace these days, probably more so than back in the 1980s or 1990s as the components and electronics used become ever more complex.
However, this problem has been known about in the public domain for well over twelve months and BMW has only now admitted there is potentially a problem. The PR side was not handled particularly well.
I, for one, hope it is remedied quickly and efficiently and does not put people off buying new MINIs as they ultimately provide much needed employment in our British manufacturing sector.
BMW do seem guilty of being a bit slow, as the fires have been happening for a few months
@ Mikey C
Slow?? Understatement or what? 6 YEARS since they think the faulty part was planted in the cars!!!!!
Although to be fair just because the faulty part has been fitted for 6 years, doesn’t mean it had been causing issues for the whole six years. It might have lasted 5 years then problems start to develop.
It also takes a while for a pattern to emerge, so that it can be seen as a widespread issue rather than a single faulty batch, so they know exactly which VINs to recall.
Its nothing to set yourself on fire for,dealers are always doing things behind customers backs,range rover with patch updates,ford with reams and reams of customer concern bulletins,vauxhall with software rewrites while its in for a service etc etc,i do this every day,its only a potential fault isnt it?one of the worst i remember was volvo 460 es coupes with a fusebox fault that caused a short,locked the doors and burst into flames!
@26 Dennis
I take your point, it just didn’t look very good when I first read it. Seemed an awful wide window and seemed to cover pretty much every R56 built, including JCW versions.
I had a recall on my car when it was 7-8 years old so sometimes problems take a while to be discovered.
While theyre at it what about the bad manual gearboxes, parts un obtainable and are un reparable by specialist for post 2004 cars and BMW want £1500 for a box.
Central locking solonoids always going wrong and at about £200 a side not cheap, gear linkage siezing up stiff recquiring a new bolt on mechanism, poor seat adjustment mechanisms that eventually require a new frame, run flat tyres that are not cheap not the quailty and long lasted ness i would expect from a BMW product.