[Jhin335]

My car has been in and out of the shop for months. Supposedly BMW diagnosed the problem to be my DME and that it wasn't sending a signal to my waterpump. They said that I had to replace both for $3000. So I decided to just have it towed back to my house,because I didn't have the money for them to fix it. So after I did some research and purchased the Bentley book, I went through every electrical part that was connected to the waterpump, I finally fixed my car! I highly recommend purchasing the Bentley Service manual!!

[stewey]

Well done! Can you share the details of the problem and what you did to fix it?

[princelybug]

Wow! Good to hear.

[jskin1510]

Reading the title I thought this was going to be about the MOSFETS in the DME.

[Ozzie335i]

Sad that you take it to the experts, and at your expense they offer to shotgun the thing, versus troubleshoot it. Then you, with lesser technical competency, take the initiative to actually troubleshoot it, and figure out the problem. I know you'd probably love to rub their nose in it, but if you ever seek warranty work, look elsewhere.

[Needbmwpartzz]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

Sad that you take it to the experts, and at your expense they offer to shotgun the thing, versus troubleshoot it. Then you, with lesser technical competency, take the initiative to actually troubleshoot it, and figure out the problem. I know you'd probably love to rub their nose in it, but if you ever seek warranty work, look elsewhere.

Oh how convenient the economics of the car industry pay off for them.....but good on you for saving yourself and arm and leg!
(Pat on the back)

Sorry....meant to quote OP

[Jhin335]

Originally Posted by stewey

Well done! Can you share the details of the problem and what you did to fix it?

Will do! It'll probably be tomorrow after I get out of work.

[Hops128i]

Please fill us in on how you did this! I'm curious. And congratulations, there's nothing like the feeling of saving a lot of money with a little bit of smart work.

[Jhin335]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

Sad that you take it to the experts, and at your expense they offer to shotgun the thing, versus troubleshoot it. Then you, with lesser technical competency, take the initiative to actually troubleshoot it, and figure out the problem. I know you'd probably love to rub their nose in it, but if you ever seek warranty work, look elsewhere.

Yes,we'll if it wasn't for this one thread that I came across on here,and my Bentley Manual I would've just ended up paying them the 3k.lol I'm in need of servicing,but I'll just take it to an indy.

[bimmette]

That's awesome! Good for you!

[Jhin335]

Originally Posted by bimmette

That's awesome! Good for you!

Thank you!

[TheTal0n]

LOL tell the story! They tried to give me a 3k repair bill once for a faulty steering sensor and OFH gasket leak. The errors were from broken wires in the DME and I fixed the gasket for like $11.

[ctuna]

I love it when somebody beats the man.

[ZhengHai]

Story! Or it didn't happen

Originally Posted by ZhengHai

Story! Or it didn't happen

This.

Until then we'll just assume you bought $45 worth of gas and lit the car on fire to collect the insurance money.

[vapore0n]

I could believe that.

I used to have a Chevrolet Celebrity. The A/C stopped working one day and I just tried to figure it out. Used a multimeter to see if the A/C was getting power and it was not. Hardwired it to the battery and it turned on.

Took the car to a A/C specialist to see if they could fix it, I just didnt say what was wrong with it. The mechanic took a look at the A/C, grabbed a rag, and tried to turn the pulley with his hand. His 2 min diagnostic was that the compressor was stuck and needed to be replaced. I just walked out.

[The0pportunist]

Name and shame the dealer for their incompetence & then send them an e-mail with this webpage link. What a lazy service dept they have! Nice 1 on getting it fixed.

[kolhozbrothers]

Most techs do not know the basics.
One time I took to my 2008 328i to my local bmw dealer, because the transmission wasn't shifting properly. They told me I needed a new trans, quoted me $7000.
I bought a used torque converter, installed it myself and it fixed the problem. I spent $500 including the parts and fluids.

[Taskmaster]

This thread is retarded - how long does it take to say

"Well the manual asked me to check X, and I did and that happened to be the problem"

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

Sad that you take it to the experts, and at your expense they offer to shotgun the thing, versus troubleshoot it. Then you, with lesser technical competency, take the initiative to actually troubleshoot it, and figure out the problem. I know you'd probably love to rub their nose in it, but if you ever seek warranty work, look elsewhere.

It's easier for them to replace everything than diagnose individual components one by one. It's a win-win most of the time for them. They are a business, after all. If mechanics spent hours and hours diagnosing every system for every part, they'd never finish all the cars they get on a daily basis. They'll replace a unique component when BMW issues a TSB outlining everything that they need to do, start to finish. When BMW sends out a TSB, they've already spent the man-hours and test time to determine the exact cause of the problem.

It can get a bit ridiculous. I heard a story last weekend about a vert's passenger seatbelt constantly locking. They took out the seats, took apart the seatbelt, replaced the seatbelt, replaced the seat, but it still kept locking. The cause?

The vert has a child seat lock switch in the front that was turned on. Since it was under warranty, he had to pay nothing, but the dealership estimated about $4500 in time spent.

It's very commonplace for consumer products to be thrown away and replaced when a critical cheap part breaks the system. Fixing it may require specialized domain knowledge that a standard mechanic just isn't going to have. Usually commercial, professional, or highly specialized, expensive products that get special treatment when it comes to replacement parts. It's all about what's cheaper to do.

[bender rodriguez]

Yeah it is why I don't trust mechanics. They always do the easier, faster job even if the part costs you 1000's of dollars. When they could just spend some time and do it the affordable way. They don't give a damn tho because they know if you take it somewhere else you are going to get the same quote

[Sgop335]

Originally Posted by TheAxiom

This thread is retarded - how long does it take to say

"Well the manual asked me to check X, and I did and that happened to be the problem"

It certainly is!

May be he or she doesnt know