The announcement — the second in two weeks — comes after it had already expanded an initial recall to 312,000 diesel and petrol vehicles on May 9 due to a risk of engines cutting out.

 

It will now examine another 88,000 cars, plus 200,000 cars that were already affected by the earlier safety checks.

 

“BMW has chosen to expand on its existing battery connector recall,” a company spokesman said, adding it would replace two wiring connections.

 

Models affected by the latest recall are all 3 Series petrol and diesel cars manufactured from December 2004 and July 2011. The models affected in the May 9 recall are the BMW 1 Series, the 3 Series, the Z4 and its X1 cars that were produced between March 2007 and August 2011.

 

“We are taking the opportunity of the existing recall to proactively check,” the spokesman added on Friday. “In doing so we are taking every precaution in terms of safety while minimising disruption and inconvenience to affected customers.”

 

The initial recall was launched last year after former Gurkha soldier Narayan Gurung died on Christmas Day in 2016.

 

He had crashed his Ford Fiesta into a tree while trying to avoid a stalled BMW in the town of Guildford in southern England.