XSeries-forum

Bloody text gets altered, should say febi- bilstein

Picked up the car, with new prop. Jacked the car up when I got home and had a quick look.
Looks like I have been very fortunate in a small part of the plastic under tray has broken off, potential damage could have been significant. I also gave the front wheel a good shake but couldn't detect any play, however I had ordered the lower wishbone for both sides and will fit them anyway (the quick look also confirmed which ball joint).
To tell the truth I was half expecting to have a bill for the recovery from home to the dealer (BMW assist) I suppose the failure of a component under a safety recall mitigated that but you never can be sure, so Kudos to them.

Sounds like a lucky escape but shouldn't the broken tray have been replaced ? It wasn't damaged prior to the 'recall failure' so not your responsibility.

I would have pushed for the tray too as the failure and damage was a ‘known’ issue.

A few years back our E46 was flagged as needing a new lower front balljoint when being MOT’d at a dealer. Never been changed and never been flagged again. Somethings I think these people just employ scaremongering to drum up business. No surprise that the public has so much mistrust of the industry.

It does sound like you had a lucky escape indeed. There was a thread on year about ten years ago from someone who had to have the engine replaced when the shaft failed at high speed. It did a lot of damage, and fortunately was under warranty so BMW picked up the tab.