craig1410
|
 posted on 26/1/23 at 10:51 PM |
|
|
Anyone heard of Herth+Buss Elparts ? Good? Bad?
Hi,
I just ordered a new glow plug controller for my BMW 535d and in the ebay ad it was supposed to be a Beru GSE102 but what arrived was a Herth+Buss
(Elparts) 75614330. I'm trying to find out if this company is known for good quality or not. The controller feels decent enough quality in the
hand but it's the quality on the inside that is important for a control unit that's effectively bolted direct to the engine (ie. vibration
related solder joint failure).
Don't get me wrong, Beru controllers are known to fail so I'm not wed to the idea of refitting a Beru. In fact the one that's currently
on it is a Hitachi unit but it does not look great in terms of quality. My previous 535d had a Beru unit and I replaced it like for like and
didn't have any issues.
So, anyone got any opinions on Herth+Buss?
Thanks,
Craig.
|
|
|
|
|
nick205
|
| posted on 27/1/23 at 10:45 AM |
|
|
No experience pf Herth & Buss, or in fact needing to replace glow plug controllers.
Do you know what make the OEM / factory controller is / was?
Herth & Buss isn't perhaps a company that's acquired Beru?
|
|
|
craig1410
|
| posted on 27/1/23 at 11:17 AM |
|
|
Hi Nick,
I think Beru is the OEM for the glow plug controller in the E60/61 5 series only because that was what was fitted to my previous 535d and I owned it
from 75k miles and 4 years so I doubt it would have been replaced before that. My current 535d has a Hitachi controller but I don't know if it is
original or not. What I do know is that someone has in the past taken it apart and probably done some solder reflow before (badly) gluing it back
together. I discovered this when replacing the glow plugs which requires the inlet manifold to be removed and it's good practice to replace the
controller at the same time especially as I was seeing BSD bus communications issues and the glow plug controller uses this bus. Unfortunately I
baulked at the £200+ price of a new controller from BMW and even from third parties they are £150+ for a branded one. You can get what look like
Chinese knock-offs for £90 or so but I don't want to have to do this job again in 12 months... I just wish I had sourced a new controller before
I took the car apart as I will need to remove the manifold again most likely to replace it.
Anyway, I found the existing controller lid had become detached so the controller electronics were exposed to the elements. The visible soldering
still looks okay but if it has been this way for a while then it could easily be damaged. Also, I'm getting an error code which says BSD bus
participant 7 can't be contacted (the glow plug controller) so seems sensible to replace it. When it can't talk to the engine ECU it goes
into a sort of fail-safe mode where it still heats the plugs using a default heat profile but there is no control or feedback.
Herth+Buss are a genuine enough company ( https://herthundbuss.com/en/ ) and the website says "You can rely completely on the quality of our
parts, which we procure from original equipment manufacturers or have manufactured in OE quality."
But then it would say that wouldn't it! 
I just wondered which end of the spectrum they are at - budget or premium. I paid £149.99 for the controller compared to about £230 from BMW for the
Beru unit so I'm hoping that they are towards the premium end. At least they do have a UK office if I needed to make a warranty claim...
I'll probably go ahead and fit it so I guess I'll find out if it fixes the fault code and/or lasts as long as the Beru unit.
Cheers,
Craig.
|
|
|
Russell
|
| posted on 27/1/23 at 12:04 PM |
|
|
Never heard of Herth+Buss but the website looks good!
I've got an early F10 525d with the N57 6 cylinder diesel lump. Diagnostics say one of the glow plugs is high resistance but it isn't so I
presume it's one of the famously dodgy connections inside the glow plug controller. I saw videos on YouTube a while ago showing how to crack open
the casing and solder repair the insides, which is most likely what's been done to yours. I'm living with the fault on mine at the moment
because it doesn't seem to affect starting or running.
How many miles has yours done? Are the inlet manifold and valves cacked up with carbon?
|
|
|
spaximus
|
| posted on 28/1/23 at 05:05 PM |
|
|
They are sourcing from OE suppliers so are a reboxing company big in the EU. I would say that as they sell a lot in Germany then their quality will be
at the higher end of scale.
The aftermarket parts industry all buy from a handful of OE suppliers who then either have them own branded or use the suppliers name.
I would have no problem in using these parts. As to how they compare with Beru, I would suggest that there will be little difference and if the
warranty is the same it would not be a concern
|
|
|
craig1410
|
| posted on 28/1/23 at 07:30 PM |
|
|
@Russell my car has done 128k miles and isn’t too bad in terms of carbon build up. Ideally I would have had the inlet manifold cleaned when it was off
but I didn’t have the time really. The tracts leading into the engine iteself seemed pretty clean actually. I still have the EGR on my car as I’m a
bit of a stickler for keeping my cars stock spec. So I gave the EGR valve a good clean while it was off.
As you say, if your car is showing high resistance for the glow plug but the glow plug itself is fine then it’s probably the controller connections.
If so then it’s likely it will start losing more connections in short order. I’ve also seen the repair videos on Youtube but the way I look at it is
if the original controller failed then I don’t expect a repaired controller to last any longer.
On my car cold-starting was badly affected because I had three glow plug failures and after replacing all 6 plugs at least those errors have gone now
so it was actually the plugs and not the controller. But I still have an intermittent BSD bus comms issue so next step is to replace the controller.
If the existing controller looked normal then I might be more inclined to look at the wiring but given the state I found the contoller in, I think
it’s prudent to just replace it.
@spaximus thanks for sharing your thoughts, you’ve reached similar conclusions to myself. Herth+Buss do seem to be a well established company and as
you say, if they are largely selling into the German market then quality will probably be decent.
Today I spent several hours replacing my automatic transmission heat exchanger because my engine isn’t getting fully up to temperature and since I
already replaced the main and EGR thermostats previously, I was fairly confident it must be the transmission stat this time. Unfortunately it now
looks like either the EGR or main stats have failed again… Not unheard of but a bit annoying as I did fit a genuine BMW stat at the time. Anyway, the
joys of owning a 15 year old car!
Thanks again all.
|
|
|
coyoteboy
|
| posted on 30/1/23 at 04:06 PM |
|
|
Eesh that's a lot of stuff gone wrong.
|
|
|
craig1410
|
| posted on 30/1/23 at 09:30 PM |
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by coyoteboy
Eesh that's a lot of stuff gone wrong.
Haha, it's not as bad as it sounds. The glow plugs and controller are the diesel equivalent of spark plugs and coil packs the way I look at it.
The plugs in particular are maintenance items and according to the service history were replaced 4 years ago.
The transmission heat exchanger was made in 2007 according to the date code on it and even though it turned out not to be the cause of my over-cooling
issue, it gives peace of mind that it has been replaced because if it failed internally due to corrosion then it would cause coolant and transmission
oil to mix which would not be great!
The main thermostat is a common problem not just on the E60/61 but on many cars as I'm sure you know, although it beggars belief that we
can't build decent thermostats after all these years!
Anyway, I managed to fit the new glow plug controller WITHOUT removing the inlet manifold again. It was a struggle as I knew it would be, but I got it
done. Seems to be working fine so far and all my fault codes have gone, so fingers crossed it lasts a good few years at least.
I've been driving an E61 535d since 2013 and they are great cars. My first got rear-ended by a careless driver back in 2020 and was written off
but I bought it back and repaired it. I bought my current one with the insurance money as I needed a car while repairing the first one and ended up
keeping the second one as it was a much better spec. In fact it cost £60k when it was new in 2008 but only cost me £8k. For a fraction of the cost of
depreciation on a new car it's possible to maintain an older car like this one such that it still drives as new. With 286BHP and 5-series
handling, it's fun to drive, and since it's a touring with a tow bar it's very practical and returns 40MPG on a decent run. I'm
hoping to keep it going for a few more years with some luck!
|
|
|
