BMW Malaysia has not yet issued a recall for this.
It must be noted that not all recalls in North America will affect cars sold in Malaysia as left hand drive cars are different to right hand drive cars sold in Malaysia. Also, with different region specification, you have different part suppliers and so recalls could be just for a region or country, just like the M cars recall in January 2020.
Meanwhile, BMW owners in North America need to take note that BMW North America has recently recalled over 50,000 of its cars due to an engine management software defect, which could lead to the loss of braking assist. This news has been shared by consumer reports.
It must be noted that this is not the first brake recall for BMW vehicles as there was a recall recently in June 2021 and it was reported for BMW’s sold in Australia.
This recall involves a surprisingly long list of its models made between 2019 and 2021, in addition to the Z4-based Toyota Supra too.
The full breakdown of the BMWs affected, and the number of units that are being recalled, are listed down below:
- BMW M340i (10,877 units)
- BMW X4 M40i (4,134 units)
- BMW 540i (5,375 units)
- BMW 745Le eDrive (470 units)
- BMW X3 M40i (14,006 units)
- BMW Z4 M40i (2,151 units)
- Toyota Supra (13,014 units)
Now according to BMW, the loss in braking assistance stems from the engine management software having the potential to cause a brief reverse rotation of the crankshaft in certain use case scenarios, which thus can cause damage to the oil pump that supplies the vacuum needed for the brake boost.
These certain use cases include pressing the engine start button twice in rapid succession, or by depressing the brake pedal very briefly while pressing the same button.
Thus far, a total of 29 warranty claims and four field reports relating to the issue have been identified by the German automaker. BMW however reassures owners that of affected vehicles would still retain all of its mechanical braking capability, and its investigations reveal that this fault only manifests itself after two or three full brake applications or approximately six partial brake applications.
As for the fix meanwhile, a complimentary software update is apparently all that is needed to remedy this particular fault.
BMW has also stated that it will be honouring the replacements of vacuum pumps on these affected vehicles for free, if any damage has been caused by this defect that is.
Owners of affected vehicles can expect to receive an official notification of this recall from BMW (or Toyota) starting from the 1st of October, with customers also able to check if their particular car is affected via the official recall page linked here.
It is worth reiterating though that this recall is currently limited to North American-spec cars for now, with no word yet on whether this fault has plagued the cars sold in other international regions.
Research and Text by Joshua Chin
