If you’re driving your car wrong, you might hear some clunks, wails or the grinding of gears to tell you something’s amiss. But now, police in the UK have been told to stop driving their BMWs as they were doing it so wrong that they kept bursting into flames.
Either that, or the BMWs disliked being used as police cars so much that they put a stop to it themselves. We may never know.
Whatever the reason for the combustions, it seems that a worrying number of BMW police cars have begun igniting on forces in the UK. Specifically, cars operated by police forces that use the aging N57 diesel engine have started spewing fire after being used in high-speed pursuits.
According to Car and Driver, the issue affects police BMWs fitted with the company’s N57 3.0-liter straight-six diesel engine. Weirdly, it doesn’t seem to be an issue with cars owned by upstanding members of society. You know, the people who aren’t cops.
The report said:
“‘This issue is associated with the particular way in which the police operate these high-performance vehicles. This unique usage profile puts extra strain on some components and therefore BMW has specified a special servicing program for these vehicles,’ the company said in a statement. ‘There is no need for action on any civilian vehicles’.”
Police forces across the UK use BMW cars such as 3-series, 5-series, and X5 SUVs. They carry out everything from roles as interceptors and transportation for officers.
However, after several fires affected BMW police cars in the UK some forces have grounded the vehicles.
In one particularly depressing switch, police in Durham in the north of England have replaced the three-liter BMWs with “Peugeots equipped with 1.2-liter turbocharged engines.”
What a downgrade.
According to Car and Driver, “BMW hasn’t confirmed the exact nature of the issue,” but says that it won’t affect privately-owned BMWs. So, if you don’t want your BMW to randomly combust, make sure you don’t drive it like a cop.