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BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

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Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#181

Post by close04 »

jinzo wrote: post #166
CraigJPerry wrote: post #124

€4000 euros plus tax to replace the module that contains the fuse. Insane. The ford transit custom PHEV costs £4500 to replace the timing belt. Access issues mean dropping the hybrid battery and parts of the sub frame. Compare with the mk8 transit, i've done the wet belt myself on that and it requires no special tools (well, i bought a specific crank pulley puller for £20) and can be done in a day on the driveway. I…

Is it insane? I'm working in this field, and I know how quickly you can come up with such a number if you are BMW and you are deathly afraid that someone will get electrocuted while working on your car, driving it or rescuing someone in a crash. It's a safety and liability issue, where they go to great lengths to actually re-certify a battery after crash. The whole thing is setup so, that even the dummy electricians…

The article and comment aren't debating whether the fuse plays an essential role. There's no reason to make the process of fixing the issue after a minor incident expensive, extremely convoluted, and very prone to error.

Making it a very complicated and expensive fix isn't what's saving your rescuer or mechanic from getting electrocuted while working around your car.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#182

Post by lionkor »

Maxion wrote: post #149
CraigJPerry wrote: post #124

€4000 euros plus tax to replace the module that contains the fuse. Insane. The ford transit custom PHEV costs £4500 to replace the timing belt. Access issues mean dropping the hybrid battery and parts of the sub frame. Compare with the mk8 transit, i've done the wet belt myself on that and it requires no special tools (well, i bought a specific crank pulley puller for £20) and can be done in a day on the driveway. I…

> So far my favourite brand to work on has been Mazda, the engineering is very thoughtfully done with consideration for repairs I've heard this from mechanics already 15+ years ago. Mazda seem to still have this reputation. I wish there were more repairability scores for cars.

Talk to car guys who are into ~2000s era or before cars. They usually have pretty solid recommendations.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#183

Post by richx »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #168
CraigJPerry wrote: post #124

€4000 euros plus tax to replace the module that contains the fuse. Insane. The ford transit custom PHEV costs £4500 to replace the timing belt. Access issues mean dropping the hybrid battery and parts of the sub frame. Compare with the mk8 transit, i've done the wet belt myself on that and it requires no special tools (well, i bought a specific crank pulley puller for £20) and can be done in a day on the driveway. I…

>Tesla is remarkably well done. Simplicity is under rated. https://electrek.co/2025/12/03/tesla-model-y-named-worst-car... >So much so i bought one with the intention to keep for a looooong time. Good luck with that.

I am affacted by this as well: the rear knuckle uniball bearing was broken after 3 years (Achsschenkel). Many MY here in Europe have this issue, due to bad parts or too hard suspension.

But there are two other things that make it a bit unfair for Tesla in comparison to other brands:

Often the cars fail official inspections because of rotten breaks - this happens when your drive carefully and the Tesla is using regenerative breaking instead of the real breaks. Simple solution is to force breaking from time to time (I.e. breaking in neutral). Another aspect is, that all the other brands have a mandatory inspection from the manufacturer before the cars will be tested by the independent check. This avoids that they will fail it, because the car will be repaired before it is checked by the independent inspection. This is not mandatory for Teslas.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#184

Post by raverbashing »

Archelaos wrote: post #25

The article misses to explain why this is an EU problem, not just a BMW problem. Is the problem described caused by a specific EU regulation (which?) or is mentioning the EU just click bait? (Honest question.)

Correct, it isn't it's more a "German Boomer Engineering problem"

Though I'd say this is 80% of the problem, the safety fuse thing is needed but it probably takes a while for companies to get it right

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#185

Post by lan321 »

tw04 wrote: post #146
mvkel wrote: post #130

This is what makes Teslas sustainable and other car cos, like Porsche, not. A battery pack for a Model 3 is $10K. So even if the whole car is only worth $20K, it's still worth keeping on the road. The Porsche Taycan battery pack is $70K. The moment you have any issue at all with it, the car will be considered totaled.

> The moment you have any issue at all with it, the car will be considered totaled. Huh? The taycan has an 8-year/100k mile battery warranty. How many 100k+ mile carreras do you see for sale on eBay?

It's like the S60, VW W12, old V12 Continentals, etc. If it's expensive to maintain no one wants to buy it off you so you get hit with massive depreciation costs. You can get a 20y/o 'no issues' 500+hp V12 Continental for 10k where I'm at. They've had a brutal cost/year and cost/mile.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#186

Post by close04 »

lionkor wrote: post #182
Maxion wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So far my favourite brand to work on has been Mazda, the engineering is very thoughtfully done with consideration for repairs I've heard this from mechanics already 15+ years ago. Mazda seem to still have this reputation. I wish there were more repairability scores for cars.

Talk to car guys who are into ~2000s era or before cars. They usually have pretty solid recommendations.

Most people need a recommendation for something more current, from people who work on these modern cars daily. The reputation of 25+ year old models can be misleading.

Another source of good recommendations could be insurance companies. Cars with low reliability or very expensive fixes probably need more expensive insurance. But I don't know if this data is public or if you can tell apart the reliability from the repair cost.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#187

Post by ahartmetz »

danw1979 wrote: post #157
consp wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a BMW problem and the rest is clickbait. If you own a BMW you know all this as it has been the case for over decades. It's also not a eu thing as all manufacturers are locking things up, Ford and other US brands are trying as much as all other manufacturers. They just haven't reached BMW levels yet.

This 2022 BMW X1 my wife drives is the last BMW we will ever own. £395 for an oil change. £180 for brake fluid. £500 a year road tax. Meanwhile my 2011 Prius continues to pass its MOT without fail, needs just the usual very affordable consumables, gets 50% higher MPG and actually has a larger cargo capacity than the X1.

>actually has a larger cargo capacity than the X1

You have just discovered that SUVs are large because some people want their cars to be large. They come with all the downsides of that and not much of the upsides.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#188

Post by gmueckl »

close04 wrote: post #181
jinzo wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it insane? I'm working in this field, and I know how quickly you can come up with such a number if you are BMW and you are deathly afraid that someone will get electrocuted while working on your car, driving it or rescuing someone in a crash. It's a safety and liability issue, where they go to great lengths to actually re-certify a battery after crash. The whole thing is setup so, that even the dummy electricians…

The article and comment aren't debating whether the fuse plays an essential role. There's no reason to make the process of fixing the issue after a minor incident expensive, extremely convoluted, and very prone to error. Making it a very complicated and expensive fix isn't what's saving your rescuer or mechanic from getting electrocuted while working around your car.

You seem to be ignoring the fact that the battery pack status after a crash is essentially unknown. It should go through a thorough and competently conducted safety inspection or it may kill someone in the future. Of course, this doesn't excuse extra red tape tacked into the procedure, but the core idea of an inspection is just unavoidable.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#189

Post by brikym »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #2

This is exactly why I’m so uninterested in driving en EV. I usually word it as “I don’t want to drive a computer”, but the reality is that I don’t want to be on the wrong end of the power imbalance that comes from this amount of complexity.

Are ICE cars really any better with BMW? The used values indicate they are very expensive to maintain.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#190

Post by VBprogrammer »

devmor wrote: post #167
CraigJPerry wrote: post #124

€4000 euros plus tax to replace the module that contains the fuse. Insane. The ford transit custom PHEV costs £4500 to replace the timing belt. Access issues mean dropping the hybrid battery and parts of the sub frame. Compare with the mk8 transit, i've done the wet belt myself on that and it requires no special tools (well, i bought a specific crank pulley puller for £20) and can be done in a day on the driveway. I…

As a lifelong Toyota fan, I agree they are miserable to work on, especially the electronics. I have a stoplight switch issue in my 86 (from being rear-ended) that I have neglected because it would require pulling out the trunk assembly to fix. The engineering praise comes from the fact that if you are taking care of it, you will probably never have to work on it until it's well into 6-digit mileage. This remains cons…

I occasionally like to see what the highest mileage Toyota Prius I can find for sale is. They are obviously used as taxis and it's common to find one for sale with half a million miles.

Usually at that point someone puts in a new hybrid battery and sells it to someone else starting out driving Ubers.

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