It all started back in the spring, I was driving up the road
one day and my engine light came on. I
pulled into the nearest parking lot and consulted the owner’s manual. According to the manual the yellow engine
light indicates loss of power. I could
actually feel the loss of power but at the time I was thinking it was just one
of those strange quirks with the BMW. I
turned the car off and back on again and the light was gone so I dismissed it.
A couple of weeks later I was merging onto the highway and
again I felt the loss of power and the yellow engine light came back on. Again once I stopped and turned the car off
the light went away. I called BMW to set
up an appointment to have it checked at that point. I brought the car in, they couldn’t replicate
the problem so they just told me to call them back if it happened again.
So of course it happened again and again so in May I brought
my car back in. The diagnosis was
that I needed to update the DME software before further diagnosis could be
done. They charged me $213.50 for the diagnosis and sent
me on my way. The software update would
run me about $350 so I went away to mull it over knowing very well my car had a
REAL PROBLEM not a software update problem.
The light problem continually worsened to the point it would
come on under all heavy acceleration such as going uphill or merging onto the
highway. In August I brought it in for
the DME software update but when I went to pick up the car they told me the
software update didn’t resolve anything and that they noticed the wastegate on
my turbo was seized shut. This basically
means there was no exhaust gas passing through the turbo so it was not
functioning at all. This explains both
the engine light and loss of power. They
told me this is the first time they have seen a malfunctioning turbo and they
would have to replace it, the good news is it was probably covered under
warranty. They also noted one of my
control arms and ball joints could use replacing but they were also covered
under warranty…. probably.
The next step was to bring my car in so the warranty company
could inspect it to make sure I did not cause any of the damage. This on top of the multiple trips I had
already made was really starting to agitate me but I went in, they did the
inspection and low and behold the repairs would be covered under warranty. They said overall the vehicle was in great shape, which I knew. I saw the quotes they had done for the work
and the turbo work was $5,500, ball joint and control arm were about $1,000
each so my $4,000 warranty was seeming to pay itself off in short order.
Now I had to wait for the parts to come in so they could
do the work. Two weeks later they called
and said it was ready to go so I brought my car in, and as of right now that was
two weeks ago on Friday September 18. At
that time I was given a loaner car, a 2013 Hyundai Elantra…… I guess if you don’t
buy your BMW from BMW they just stick it to you at every opportunity, but at least
I had something to drive.
My first call to check on the vehicle was the following
Tuesday, September 22, and I was informed that they were waiting on fittings for the repair job,
apparently they had the parts but not the nuts and bolts to install them. So this was not going well. I called back on Thursday, September 24, and they said they
had the fittings but were having some minor issues and there were a couple of
hoses that were seized, so they had to replace them and they were NOT covered
under warranty to the tune of about $300.
On Friday, September 25 at 4 PM or so I received a call from the service manager,
which is never good. He told me they
could not get the turbo installed, their hoses and fittings would not work with
it because it was not an original equipment turbo they had received. He apologised profusely, told me they would
make it up to me blah blah blah. My car
was gone for a week and we were back to scratch. He said he was going to call the warranty
company and make sure they sent the proper part and would call me with an update
next week.
So I waited until the following Wednesday to give them a
call after I hadn’t heard from them. The
service person told me they were still waiting for the turbo to be MANUFACTURED
by a company in Quebec. The service
manager was off that day who would have had more information on it. At that point I knew it would be into the
next week for sure until any progress was going to be made. So here it is Sunday October 3 and my car is
really no closer to being fixed than it was when I brought it in 16 days ago.
