It is not a secret that since Q3 Year 2020, piezo injectors (articles *049 and *079) have been deficient. Since that moment, the backorder amount for each article is in the range of 15 .. 25.000 units. Small amounts of the injectors are as if supplied to the dealers, but here the strange things start. These injectors:
a. are dirty, with clearly visible fingerprints, deteriorated, rusty;
b. welding seams – all signs show that these injectors have been disassembled and then welded repeatedly;
c. signs of the sealing paste are very often visible on the thread of the injector filling element;
d. the injectors are even in the BLACK bodies (as we know, the black bodies were used for the injectors of ancient releases, which were recalled during the BMW recall campaign. It was around the Year 2008; remarks can be found in TIS);
e. according to the information from BMW users (and information acquired by myself), the performance of “new” injectors purchased during the last two years is a lottery. There are injectors with incorrect encoding data (on the edges of the allowed ranges) but good adaptation data. There are injectors with as if correct encoding data, but their adaptation data are on the edges of the allowed fields. Nothing of this was even imaginable for the “old new” injectors. Faithful thou, there are excellently performing injectors too – have to admit that;
f. confidential information from the BMW AG dealers claims that in the spring of 2022, there was a recall of all injectors distributed during this deficiency period. True, though, taking into account the complicated situation (and the non-existence of any alternatives), only the injectors, which were still on the shelves of the dealerships, were sent back. The injectors from customer cars were not dismantled because there was nothing to replace them.
I claim – the injectors received since the start of the deficiency period are NOT new! These are restored items from previous recall and warranty replacement funds! Even more – the manufacture of new injectors in the VDO factory was finished around 7 .. 8 years ago. When the new billets ended (it happened approximately two years ago), the “acquisition” of used injectors/billets started. After this period, only warehouse stock (stored for future needs) assembly was performed.
What is the basis for such claims?
Every year, BMW produces more than 1.5 million cars. Around 65% or at least 800 .. 900.000 of them are vehicles with petrol engines. When the cars with piezo injectors (N43/N53 series engines) were manufactured (the most significant inflow during the Years 2008 – 2011), several hundreds of thousands of these cars were manufactured during the year. It means that the injector manufactured had a contract to supply at least 1 ..2 million injectors/a year. It is considerable – today’s backorder is only 1 .. 2% of the yearly amount of the active period!
Next-generation injector bodies and other parts are fundamentally different from the initial releases. The current manufactury equipment is not suitable for manufacturing spare parts of the piezo injectors. It is logical – nobody will keep ready expensive high-performance manufactury equipment, stock supplies, or trained personnel if the prognosed load of it after the end of the active phase (manufactury/sales of new vehicles with engines with piezo injectors) is prognosed for one or two days year!
Elementary logic: the manufacturing process of all new injectors intended for new cars (within the framework of the contract with BMW) in the Siemens/VDO factory was finished around 2012. Then after one/two/three months (yes, so impressive was the performance of the manufactury equipment), around 200.000 .. 400.000 billets of the injectors (which were waiting for assembly for the next 10 years) were produced. These billets were intended for the warranty and after-warranty repair fund.
Why exactly 10 years? EU regulation determines that the manufacturer of the vehicle is obliged to ensure all spare parts of the exact car model for 10 years after the last car of the current model rolled off the conveyer belt. After these 10 years, alternative suppliers could become the only option.
So – after 2012, when the manufacture of the current vehicles was finished, Siemens/VDO factory dismantled the manufactury equipment (it was replaced by the production equipment for the next generation injectors), leaving only one small capacity assembly machine. Appropriately to the requests from the dealers, previously prepared billets were assembled. As the piezo injectors turned out to be much more problematic than initially expected, the stock of the billets was finished a bit faster than the period of 10 years.
At the end of the Year 2022, the 10-year maintenance period of injectors *048 ends. During the last two years, the manufacturer had to take emergency measures – to repair the old injectors.
Pay attention – on the Internet, innumerable spare part sellers sell as if new VDO injectors with the article A2C9521220280 (as if analog of injectors *048). There is only one “slight” nuance – the old injectors should be supplied as exchange (mainly the OEM injectors). Why? Because VDO performs the repair of the old injectors! Why would the manufacturer need the old injector? Exclusively to reuse it!
How to act in these circumstances?
Unfortunately, the quality of the repaired injectors is not the best one. Keeping this in mind:
a. identify the defective injectors and replace only them. Definitely solve any other engine problems, significant – repair the NOx system! Only with a fixed NOx system will DME restore the Stratified charge injection mode and the measuring of the injector performance;
b. buy the injectors only from the BMW AG dealers – then at least you will have the guarantee that the restoration was performed by the exact cooperation partner (it should be one of the VDO branches);
c. keep the purchase documents (invoice, check, etc.);
d. perform the correct installation of the injectors: register the injectors, perform the re-adaptation of the engine;
e. evaluate the injector adaptation data using INPA. If the injector adaptation data are incorrect, perform the negotiation with the seller regarding injector exchange.
Bimmerprofs offers diagnostics to identify defective injectors and the evaluation of the injector adaptations and live data! Use this opportunity before purchasing the injectors and after installing newly purchased injectors.
