F30 330D rear breaks locked up

[lucian]

So my rear brakes locked up and I had to have the car towed twice. Once to my house and then from brakes shop to a very reputable workshop in Tygervalley (Cape Town).

Breaks was serviced and bleeded, but still locks.
Next in line is ABS unit, but there is very little experience, as I am made to believe, around this technology.

The workshop is overloaded with work and this f*&king loadshedding just add to their woes.

Any help about the ABS unit or any ideas. This is probably going to cost lotsa moola.

 

[Solo Man]

Google the problem. It does not seem to be such a foreign problem as there is some info on the internet. It seems to be anything from mismatched tires to dirty abs sensors to dirty brake fluid causing rust in the master and slave cylinders to faulty abs blocks. I have succesfully bled F30 and F25 cars with my simple pressure bleeder without having to activate the abs system but if the brake fluid is very old and/or dirty i would get some one to bleed the brakes using the right programming for the abs system. Hope you find the fault and tell us if you do! Try this link for info: https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/what-causes-your-brakes-to-lock-up.694849/

 

[Nick]

Does your car have an auto hand break?
sometimes those units give up and either lock or dont work at all.

 

[lucian]

Does your car have an auto hand break?
sometimes those units give up and either lock or dont work at all.

Handbrake is manual.

 

[lucian]

Update.
Workshop checked and serviced the calipers, checked and replaced brake fluid, problem persists.
Sensors all good, no error codes.
Next ABS pump to check, but there is no experts in that field.
All hampered by loadshedding and staff absence.
Feeling really despondent and thinking of just getting a basic car.
Will see how it goes, at least the workshop is a reputable one.

 

[lucian]

So the ABS unit is at Combined Electronics in Plattekloof CPT. Hope Henry can sort it out for me.
Also some similar stuff mentioned here : BMW brake binding

 

[lucian]

ABS unit cannot be repaired. They said the can get a second-hand one but no success yet.
So I will be scouting on my own for one.
Seriously considering to fix and sell. Maybe get a reliable toyota.

 

[Spanky]

Lol. Dude, every machine or component on the planet has the potential to fail at some stage in its life.

Having the view that nothing will fail ever is just setting yourself up for anxiety and disappointment.

 

[lucian]

Lol. Dude, every machine or component on the planet has the potential to fail at some stage in its life.

Having the view that nothing will fail ever is just setting yourself up for anxiety and disappointment.

Thanks for the motivation. Helps to lift the spirits.

Might be light at the end of the tunnel.

Spares may have a better unit for me. Will let them install it, hopefully this week.
Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[lucian]

Update.
ABS unit replaced.
Bruce Craig's BMW in Maitland assisted. These guys are great and I will definitely recommend them.
Car was driving great but breaks shudder when used at high speed.

Got new disks and pads at masterparts.
Fitted this morning at Tyremart.
Drive is smooth and breaking also smooth with no vibrations or shudder.
Pads that came off was chipped and just good for the bin. Disks still looked good, but one cannot see if they are warped or not. Personally I just felt more comfortable with replacing the lot.

Apparently, this is a problem part and the guys at Bruce Craig's was familiar with the situation. They have done a few before.

 

[lucian]

So a colleague suggested I inform BMW of this. I suspect they do know about it, but what the heck.
I sent them this email:

Good day

In September 2019 I purchased a BMW 330D F30 2014 model.
I really like and still enjoy the car.


In the last week of March 2023, I was driving at night in heavy rain in a rural area when I felt a shudder on the wheels and the car lost speed.
I suspected something was wrong on the wheels and proceeded to push on to a filling station in Wellington, Western Cape.
I inspected the undercarriage and noticed that the rear brake disks was glowing red. Brakes locked up.

To cut a long story short, I had the car at a reputable workshop in Tygervalley (Rosenpark Motors) where they checked and serviced the brakes but the locking persisted

Eventually they removed the ABS unit and I took it to Combined Electronics in Plattekloof for checking and possible repair.
They determined that the unit is faulty and cannot be repaired.

I eventually found a second-hand unit as I was not prepared to pay the 51K (ex vat) I was quoted for a new ABS unit.

The other unit was installed and the locking problem was gone. I also had to replace the rear brakes (disks and pads), that was just 3 months old, but now severely damaged.

The shop that repaired my car, informed me that this is not the first one they encountered. In fact, they were very surprised that I could still drive the car with the rear brakes locked.

The point I want to make is that there is a faulty ABS unit out there and this is very dangerous.

I expect BMW to inform its customers of this.


PS. I also found some interesting information about this problem here : 1 Series ABS brake binding fault (ecutesting.com)