My brothers BMW recently had a bowt of starting issues with warnings being generated related to the fuel pump on the car
It would crank without starting. On initial investigation my brothers car wouldn’t get power to the fuel pump. The pump would power up if running a lead directly to the battery it would receive power
When running through the ignition system there would be no power generated to the pump. There was power going to all the fuses and relays it was not going to the module however.
More investigation with the BMW starting issues was required so the car was booked into an auto-electricians in Durham to trace and identify the fault. At a cost of £50 per hr labour I was expecting the job to be carried out fast or rectified. Especially this time of year I had to borrow money to sort things out
A couple of days later my brother received a call. The problems were being caused by the main power line running through the car for the brake controller. The power line was shorting out on the seabelt. This resulted in the main control module for the fuel pump for the car being electronically damaged and requiring replacement with a new one from BMW
The auto-electricians could jerry rig it to a hard wired switch but the complete job would need doing. My brother wanted it doing correctly so the full job would cost £480. This was for the module from BMW the price to code it to the car and the labour cost for all the work involved.
The work was carried out to the car working on £50 per hr labour I’m assuming the charge was for 5hrs labour a £30 coding fee and the controller itself for £180-200. The part had a 12-month warranty on it so if any problems can re-occur within 12 months then it can be repaired free of charge
The part number replaced was 092181506 made by HELBAKO
The car seemed to drive fine when I took it home and additionally it seemed more responsive so fingers crossed
I only had two gripes when collecting the car (well 3 if you count the 2 hrs sleep I had)
1) When collecting the car there was a brake warning light showing a bulb out. After checking them over couldn’t find any issues with lights. Brakes. Reverse lights. Indicators, I’m assuming this was just a temporary message due to the car being worked on but I want to note this down in case of any future issues and this was a warning sign
2) The cost of the work involved. This wasn’t surprising you pay for the work involved. However the auto electrics only accept cash as a method of payment. This became a right chew on because money I withdrew for brother and out on his card meant we had to withdraw back out and pay off
Anyway £480 and three days later my brothers BMW starting issues have disappeared and his car is back on the road again.
I thought I’d write this post incase of any one else encounters similar problems with their vehicles and need something to look at
My brothers car is a 59 plate 3series BMW it’s an E90 edition (saloon model)
Below is a picture of the part that was replaced on the car
