clubman D egr valve keeps failing

clubman D egr valve keeps failing

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mhack

Original Poster:

2 posts

107 months

Saturday 25th April 2015
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hi everyone

just wanted opinion on the mini EGR valve issues I am having with my R55 clubman 2009 which I bought from new, its currently on its 3rd one, this car has full bmw service history currently at 80Kmiles, 2 EGR valves were replaced by BMW with one of them they didn't even tell me they changed.

recently 4 weeks ago it broke down on motorway and had to be towed to my local garage as bmw were shut. anyway the local garage looked at it and called back the following day and said its the EGR valve so I called BMW and asked how many it had as it was replaced 18 months ago and they said 2 and that if it was the EGR valve they would replace as its under warranty but obviously I would have to pay the £80 investigation. anyway I let my local garage replace as it would be the same cost by the time I would have paid for towing etc.

4 days later the car went in to limp mode again which I took it to the same garage and after about 30 mins of dicking about with it they said its the turbo and I said I don't think that would cause that problem but they said it would, so £1000 later for the turbo I am now being told by the garage that they took it for a test drive after fitting the turbo and now it wont start and that there is a old leak that has got in the wiring loom and ecu and that its now silly money to fix

do you think that it needed turbo? there was no smoke/noise and performance was fine. also its looks like its going to cost me £2500 now to get the car back? if a garage quotes a £1000 to fix when it was driveable and now that want another £1500 on top got the loom and I am not sure if that's the fault? why do EGR valves fail all the time?

thanks, any advice very much appreciated.

chryslerben

1,168 posts

158 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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What fault codes are they getting when they plug the car in?

EGR's don't contiually fail it sounds like a case of poor diagnosis, "fault code reader says this so we'll just replace it" is often peoples plan of attack. I suspect you may have an underlying issue thats causing the EGR error perhaps a wiring or ecu problem but don't hold me to it.

mhack

Original Poster:

2 posts

107 months

Monday 27th April 2015
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chryslerben

you are spot on, saw the garage today and they had a specialist troublershooter who looked at the car the he believes the fault is caused by oil of some sort being forced up the wiring loom to the engine ecu which is almost water tight, I have been advised to take the car back to BMW as they believe the fault has always been there and BMW just kept replacing the EGR valves as it was under warranty knowing there was an underlying fault as my local garage said an egr valve should last 100k mile not 20k like mine. the local garage have advised that they expect this fix to cost in excess of £1500 on top of the £1500 I have paid them for the new turbo and egr valve and that's if they do it. Cant wait for BMW to quote. Funny enough the woman at BMW first thing she said to me was "I see it has always had issues with the EGR valve". thanks for replying.

chryslerben

1,168 posts

158 months

Wednesday 29th April 2015
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mhack said:
chryslerben

you are spot on, saw the garage today and they had a specialist troublershooter who looked at the car the he believes the fault is caused by oil of some sort being forced up the wiring loom to the engine ecu which is almost water tight, I have been advised to take the car back to BMW as they believe the fault has always been there and BMW just kept replacing the EGR valves as it was under warranty knowing there was an underlying fault as my local garage said an egr valve should last 100k mile not 20k like mine. the local garage have advised that they expect this fix to cost in excess of £1500 on top of the £1500 I have paid them for the new turbo and egr valve and that's if they do it. Cant wait for BMW to quote. Funny enough the woman at BMW first thing she said to me was "I see it has always had issues with the EGR valve". thanks for replying.
Boom I still got it lol!

Having not seen the car before or after I probably can't really comment but did they show you any positive signs that the turbo had actually failed I.e stuck wastegate, centre bearing gone, to much shaft play or such, I suspect it didn't need it you see with the Egr valve issue persisting you will get symptoms of a knackered turbo especially if the Egr is stuck open as all the boost shoots straight down the exhaust.

I'd push hard with mini customer service as there does seem to be an underlying issue that has never been solved, the "oil" that's ingress in to the wiring and ecu have they shown you evidence of this because you'll need a strong case to present I.e pictures and such

djdest

6,542 posts

177 months

Thursday 30th April 2015
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How on earth can oil be forced up wires?
Just think about that for a moment!
If it fails its because of a problem, they won't just keep failing for no reason, so you need to find out what is causing it.
EGR will usually fail due to carbon build up. How is the car driven? Does it get a decent fast run and up to full temp regularly?

chryslerben

1,168 posts

158 months

Thursday 30th April 2015
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djdest said:
How on earth can oil be forced up wires?
You'd be suprised at what's possible, seen it quite a few times.