Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Shackeng]

My neighbour's wife has a 320, '56 plate, 7000 miles only. This week she took it to the local BMW garage for a successful MOT, within one mile the engine management light came on amber, and it went into limp mode.

After looking at it the garage said that the EMU (Engine Management Unit?) had failed and it would cost £900 odd to replace. However, and here's the kicker, they 'have spoken to BMW, who have agreed to fund half the cost of replacement', the garage agreed not to charge for labour, 'and so Madam all we want is £250' to remedy what looks suspiciously like something caused when they tinkered with it during the MOT.

Knowing how intransigent dealers can be even within warranty periods, it is highly suspicious that they should volunteer all this goodwill with a six year old car, but it is very difficult to see how their negligence can be proved in order to persuade them that they should do the whole job free.

Any helpful ideas are welcome.

[tunnie]

Can't comment on the fault, but often BuMW will party fund cost of replacement parts as "Gestures of good will" do it regularly with GS shaft drives.

I'd b inclined to get a code reader on it, would OBDII work? 

[Shackeng]

I wouldn't know about code reading, and the car is in the shop for the EMU change. I'm interested that you say that this sort of goodwill is not unusual. Perhaps this is a known issue, and our suspicions are unduly cynical.

[tigers_gonads]

Can you still buy those reset tools of ebay ?

Sounds like a money making scam from bmw to me.
Light comes on / car runs like shite / reset service indicator and car runs well again 

Not that any reputible manufacturer would ever write anything into its software like this 

[Shackeng]

Can you still buy those reset tools of ebay ?

Sounds like a money making scam from bmw to me.
Light comes on / car runs like shite / reset service indicator and car runs well again 

Not that any reputible manufacturer would ever write anything into its software like this 

That's interesting, as the service light is on, because they have it serviced by an independent, and won't pay BMW £25 every year to reset it. Does that actually happen?

[Marks DTM Calib]

BMW only ever part fund stuff on vehicles that far out of warranty if it has a full BMW service history, and even then its only on parts with known issues!

So it smells to me.....and I would be wanting to see codes before committing my hard earned!

[omegod]

I can't see anything MOT wise that would involve the ECU ?? BMW are pretty good with funding out of warranty stuff,  I helped a girl in work with her mini that was 2 yrs out of warranty, she had the power steering pump replaced and they told her she had a gearbox prob so replaced that at the same time, was near 3.5 grand repairs and cost her £90

[tigers_gonads]

Can you still buy those reset tools of ebay ?

Sounds like a money making scam from bmw to me.
Light comes on / car runs like shite / reset service indicator and car runs well again 

Not that any reputible manufacturer would ever write anything into its software like this 

That's interesting, as the service light is on, because they have it serviced by an independent, and won't pay BMW £25 every year to reset it. Does that actually happen?

As we all know, there are some things that "we know" and there are things that we know and can prove 

All I can say is a mate had a old 325 years ago with the service lights on.
Started off green and worked its way down to iirc amber then red.
When it was green, the car went great.
As the amber light came on, the car would start to use more fuel and not run aswell.
He bought the reset tool (looked like a fag lighter) and pluged it in.
All the green lights came on and hey presto the car was back to normal 

I don't know if its the same nowdays but I wouldn't be supprised   

As mark says, it would be handy if we could read the codes

[Kevin Wood]

I would be getting an independent report on it, TBH, then throw it back to the dealer to fix whatever they've broken.

An MOT involves driving it onto a ramp, then back off again, then an emissions check with the engine running. Deliberately designed not to cause any damage a customer could pin on the garage. It's a bit of a coincidence that it's broken down just  after visiting a garage IMHO.

Also, an ECU failure diagnosis from the trade inevitably means "I haven't got a b@st@rd clue what the problem is, but I've no idea what this little silver box does, so it must be that".

[Del Boy]

Get it code read elsewhere, sounds a bit fishy. BMW will generally cover the cost of repairs or a major chunk of them, even when out of warranty dependant on the service history, mileage etc. Is the car Petrol or Diesel? I take it Petrol with the low amount of miles?

[Marks DTM Calib]

Diesel is it?

[Del Boy]

OBDII should work, although a cheap code reader may have trouble reading it. Only the F-Series cars don't have OBDII, they've got an E-NET port for which you need an E-NET cable or a BMW ICOM.

[henryd]

Diesel is it?

Are you thinking swirl flaps

[albitz]

All the time.

[Shackeng]

It's a petrol car, the owner expects to pick it up tomorrow when he will ask for the codes.