general problems of the 2003 BMW 530

The car caught on fire on 9/4/18, and caused extensive damage inside the engine bay. Car was driven several miles to a store. The passengers were exiting the car when they smelled something burning. Then they noticed smoke and flames extending from the front of the car. The fire started in the passenger side and was extinguished before the drivers side also caught on fire. The insulation on passenger side wiring harness is completely burnt, and numerous other items including the fiberglass body. The vehicle had approximately 215000 miles on it, and was well maintained. No recent repairs had been made to the engine. No smells of gasoline, oil, or plastic burning were evident before the moment the fire started. The cause of the fire is unknown to us at this time.

At 96,000 miles the check light illuminated. Diagnosis was p0741 (BMW code 48) which is a fault with the torque converter clutch (tcc). This failure until corrected results in lower fuel mileage, and a guaranteed failure to pass the emissions test during state mandated vehicle inspections. Add to this that continued use of the vehicle will likely result in transmission damage since the tcc lockup clutch is slipping resulting in debris building up in the fluid. This fault is due to a defective torque converter clutch seal that BMW has a hidden service bulletin on. See si 24 03 06 dated February 2008. Replacement of the torque converter is expensive. BMW dealer quoted a bit more than $3000 for the replacement. I've since determined though a BMW forum that this issue is widespread with a large number of failures taking place. I was told by the dealer that the seal in question has not been updated and that failure of the seal will likely take place again in the future.

Yesterday Wednesday August 27th 2014 my son came home after school (5 min drive) there was no signs of anything different during driving. He went inside our house less then 1 minute after turning off car and parking car and was in the house his car alarm went off. He went outside to see what was wrong with his car and noticed smoke coming from under hood of car. Then fire engulfed the engine department. Called 911 and fire department came out to stop the fire. They broke wind shield to get to engine and cut up hood to open hood. Fire inspector came out and is filing report.

Regular day going to work, notice smoke coming from outside of passenger side of car, pulled over check under hood, didn't see any smoke, got back in car and smoke start coming from glove department area, within a minute car start getting filled with smoke, I got out to call 911 and got about 100 feet from car and I heard a pop and the car went into flames and continue until it burned all up inside and out.