[afsar]

I had all sort of car electrical errors, some minor some major and I kept wondering all these months what exactly is wrong. I had my CIC screen go red and completely disabled randomly and low battery error and various other CAN error. See here.

I decided to look at the connections to see if there is anything obviously wrong with the can emulator and couldn't find anything wrong it. When I connected it back it didn't work, means Nav, Voice and video-in-motion wasn't working. Whatever I try I couldn't resurrect it. In the end I decided to replace my CAN emulator and I asked one my friend to send me a replacement one. He sent me one which was exactly the same model from bimmerretrofit.com. He also had some problems with it but was working when it was taken off the car. I tried that one too and but luck same problem. I was worried that it could be my CIC which is gone now, but I had no reason to believe it.

Finally I had a buy one of those Chinese made one it worked like a charm since them. All electrical problems are sorted. No errors whatsoever.

I would strongly advise against buying bimmerretrofit.com CAN emulators and it was very high priced item when I (and my friend bought it) and it lasted only for few months before I started getting all sorts of errors in my. Errors were not obvious so it took me so long to investigate it. When I reported this to bimmerretrofit.com they don't want to accept any responsibility. This is what they use to call "Proudly made in Canada", goes kaboom the day warranty expires.

I can't believe they are saying both the device having exactly the same problem is not their problem at all, just a pure co-incidence.

Steer clear.

[bmwretrofit]

Originally Posted by afsar

In the end I decided to replace my CAN emulator and I asked one my friend to send me a replacement one. He sent me one which was exactly the same model from bimmerretrofit.com. He also had some problems with it but was working when it was taken off the car. I tried that one too and but luck same problem. I was worried that it could be my CIC which is gone now, but I had no reason to believe it.

1. Why did you not contact Bimmer Retrofit right away if you thought that there may be a problem with our product? At the moment of purchase you got a warranty of 1 calendar year, and if you have contacted us right away you would have received all the proper assistance right away. Why did you contact your friend instead?

2. So your friend's module worked when it was taken off your friend's car? And did not work in your car? Most likely there is a problem with YOUR CAN Bus.

Originally Posted by afsar

Finally I had a buy one of those Chinese made one it worked like a charm since them. All electrical problems are sorted. No errors whatsoever.

3. Most likely there is a problem with your vehicle's CAN Bus. The reason why the Chinese model works is because it probably uses a completely different approach in CAN communication.

Originally Posted by afsar

I would strongly advise against buying bimmerretrofit.com CAN emulators and it was very high priced item when I (and my friend bought it) and it lasted only for few months before I started getting all sorts of errors in my.

4. Our warranty is 1 year. If you started having problems with the CAN emulator a few month after purchase, why did you not contact Bimmer Retrofit right away, when the module was still under warranty.

Originally Posted by afsar

When I reported this to bimmerretrofit.com they don't want to accept any responsibility. This is what they use to call "Proudly made in Canada", goes kaboom the day warranty expires.

5. We sold over 3000 activation modules for BMW vehicles for the past 4 years. Yes, some (very small percentage, less than 3%) of these were returned under warranty, some were exchanged to the newer ones for other reasons. We always play by the rules and if warranty exists we are happy to provide it.

You waited for more than 1.5 yrs after purchase before reporting this case to us, although you claim that the module failed a few months after purchase. WHY did you wait until warranty expired to contact us?

Originally Posted by afsar

I can't believe they are saying both the device having exactly the same problem is not their problem at all, just a pure co-incidence.

6. Your friend has never contacted us about this issue (we don't even know who your friend is). Also, earlier in your post you said that your friend's module worked when it was taken off his car. So I am not understanding which coincidence you are referring to.

Conclusion:Also I must add that the way you have contacted us after your warranty has expired was not professional at all. You have threatened to report us to some consumer protection organizations, because our warranty is not as long as you would like it to be.

We have many customers and we value every single one of them, and we strive to provide excellent customer service. We always try use individual approach with every customer and often go out of our way to satisfy our customers, even if it means extending warranty on a case-by-case basis.

However, we will not tolerate any forms of aggressive behavior and threats, because we are strong believers that everything can be solved humanly to everyone's satisfaction.


Message to all of our happy customers:
Speaking of CAN Emulators...
We now offer a brand new product: Plug-and-Play CAN Emulator
which can easily be re-configured for activation of navigation in any E-series or F-series (CIC F20/F30, NBT all models). It can also be re-configured for use with PDC/without PDC, with rear-view camera/without rear-view camera, etc.

The new CAN Emulator features a USB port, through which the firmware can be easily updated to suit your needs.

What does this mean? This means that you can now re-use the CAN emulator, even if you change the configuration of your vehicle or change the vehicle itself!

[taibanl]

Hmmm....

Almost the entirety of the response is dedicated for criticising the OP for contacting the vendor after warranty, whereas the complaint was precisely that the product failed just after warranty. :

[bmwretrofit]

Originally Posted by taibanl

Hmmm....

Almost the entirety of the response is dedicated for criticising the OP for contacting the vendor after warranty, whereas the complaint was precisely that the product failed just after warranty. :

I think you misread the original post. The customer claims that the product stopped working a few months after purchase (when the product was still under warranty), not after the warranty expired.

If the customer had contacted us as soon as the problem occurred, we would have replaced/repaired the module without any questions asked, however he waited until the warranty period was over and was disappointed that he did not get a refund.

[afsar]

bmwretrofit, there are two points

a) Product had trouble from day one
b) I didn't know it is the product which is causing all the trouble until it became worse and upon finding out I reported it which was after warranty expiry period and you refuted all claim just because it is out of warranty.

I will only report it to you if there was a obvious sign this product is faulty. all this time nav/voice and video in motion was working flawlessly. There was no reason to contact you. Why are conveniently ignoring this statement.

I had following problem from day one.
a) Increased battery discharge
b) CIC resetting every now an then
c) FLA error

I have so many retrofits in my so I always thought something must be wrong elsewhere. Now you tell me which diagnosis method tell that if you get increase battery discharge you start looking at the CAN emulator? Initially problem was so minor I could live with it like battery error once a week, fla error once a month and cic resetting rarely.

As months went past error got severe, like battery won't last for a week, in 3 days time I will be totally flat. I replaced battery twice but no luck. CIC will be frozen for a day. I drove to Spain and in my 3 days of driving CIC was frozen for 1.5 days. I will come back to life on its own. Frozen like this



Back from journey I decided to get to the bottom of this and it was ISTA/D which first gave me that there is a device in the area of CIC playing with the CAN messages. That was first time I became suspicious on the emulator. Took it off and checked all the connection, no problem whatsoever. Connected it back again to my car and it never worked. I purchased a same model from one of my friend which was lying spare but he did tell me that he had similar issue with his can emulator but not as worse as mine as it was playing up only in very very cold temperature, otherwise it was fine. I bought it as I wanted to pack my car up. That didn't work either. At that point I thought there must be something wrong with my CIC. So to test it further I drove to another friend of mine and used his different brand pnp emulator and it was fine, there was no problem at all.

Now both the bimmerretrofit.com emulator module doesn't work. What a coincidence! I bought a Chinese one from a forum member here and it is working flawlessly. If my car can network or cic had problem then why are these working? Why are you so hell-bent to prove something which is working as faulty and your device which is faulty as flawless? Just accept the truth.

Even if you consider this device developing problem out of warranty myself and my friend both paid top price for this item not to expect that it will last only until the warranty expired. This is not one isolated case, two are in my hand and there are few other cases reported on other forums (in one instance you refused to replace under warranty blaming customer's coding for failure). It is too much for coincidence and I call it design flaw. How would you like if your BMW only lasts up until 3 years/60k?

Warranty is warranty not MTBF (mean time before failure)

Lastly there are govt laws and agencies to protect consumers from shoddy sale/services if you feel threatened by being referred to them then please stop dealing with consumers.

Also I am in my full right to write reviews on products bought from sellers referred from this forum. I have no grudges against any individual or organization.

[flowmaster]

Originally Posted by bmwretrofit

I think you misread the original post. The customer claims that the product stopped working a few months after purchase (when the product was still under warranty), not after the warranty expired.

If the customer had contacted us as soon as the problem occurred, we would have replaced/repaired the module without any questions asked, however he waited until the warranty period was over and was disappointed that he did not get a refund.

Sir, you cant make out that your crappy module is the reason for the (at the beginning very rare) outages of the CIC. But this is caused by your module!

What you are doing here is, to tell us you warranty periods, even knowing that your module is not working propperly from day one!

People should keep this situation in mind when thinking about purchasing bimmerretrofit services!

[bmwretrofit]

Originally Posted by afsar

bmwretrofit, there are two points

a) Product had trouble from day one
b) I didn't know it is the product which is causing all the trouble until it became worse and upon finding out I reported it which was after warranty expiry period and you refuted all claim just because it is out of warranty.

I will only report it to you if there was a obvious sign this product is faulty. all this time nav/voice and video in motion was working flawlessly. There was no reason to contact you. Why are conveniently ignoring this statement.

I had following problem from day one.
a) Increased battery discharge
b) CIC resetting every now an then
c) FLA error

There is a warranty period which is officially set to 1 (one) calendar year for all new products which we sell. This period is determined as “enough” time to diagnose and find the source of the problem even in hard cases like yours. Our experts hardly believe that it could take more than one-two visits to a professional BMW service specialist with appropriate equipment (where normally BMW should be serviced) to determine a source of the problem. Unless some totally un-professional diagnostic approach had been used to determine the problem you would have found the source of the problem within the warranty period.

You have never contacted us and never asked a single question about this problem.

I am sure that the official point of view of our company is fully expressed and we no longer plan to continue discussion in this thread. If you have some other concerns which in your opinion may change our point of view please send these to us directly via email: info@bimmerretrofit.com

Also I must add that only our certified engineer can determine whether the module is faulty, because we are the developer and the manufacturer, thus an inspection by our company is absolutely required before any conclusive statements can be made.

Thank you,

Bimmer Retrofit

[terminator2k2]

who ever did the soldering on them boards really needs to learn how to solder.....

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by terminator2k2

who ever did the soldering on them boards really needs to learn how to solder.....

Lolz
Proud Canadian product I guess, developed and made in Canada.

[afsar]

Originally Posted by terminator2k2

who ever did the soldering on them boards really needs to learn how to solder.....

m8, thats quality of board which can't take proper heat needed for soldering before you get a feeling that it may start getting knackered. First soldering probably you can do properly by feeding the wire thru but there is no way it can be done neatly next time as it is almost impossible to take the old solder off.

Little leftover gunk you see is residual of soldering paste. Also it is not the cosmetics which matter here, soldering is strong, low resistance and there is no short circuit.

[thiagoholanda]

Thanks Afsar, your post helped me solve the electronic problems in my car.
I removed the emulator purchased on ebay and all the electrical errors disappeared.

Originally Posted by afsar

I had all sort of car electrical errors, some minor some major and I kept wondering all these months what exactly is wrong. I had my CIC screen go red and completely disabled randomly and low battery error and various other CAN error. See here.

I decided to look at the connections to see if there is anything obviously wrong with the can emulator and couldn't find anything wrong it. When I connected it back it didn't work, means Nav, Voice and video-in-motion wasn't working. Whatever I try I couldn't resurrect it. In the end I decided to replace my CAN emulator and I asked one my friend to send me a replacement one. He sent me one which was exactly the same model from bimmerretrofit.com. He also had some problems with it but was working when it was taken off the car. I tried that one too and but luck same problem. I was worried that it could be my CIC which is gone now, but I had no reason to believe it.

Finally I had a buy one of those Chinese made one it worked like a charm since them. All electrical problems are sorted. No errors whatsoever.

I would strongly advise against buying bimmerretrofit.com CAN emulators and it was very high priced item when I (and my friend bought it) and it lasted only for few months before I started getting all sorts of errors in my. Errors were not obvious so it took me so long to investigate it. When I reported this to bimmerretrofit.com they don't want to accept any responsibility. This is what they use to call "Proudly made in Canada", goes kaboom the day warranty expires.

I can't believe they are saying both the device having exactly the same problem is not their problem at all, just a pure co-incidence.

Steer clear.

[Error404!]

Exactly the same problem with my NBT Emulator coming from BimmerRetrofit.

I have much CAN errors, the CAS module spread out my car from sleeping. KGM errors too... RESULTING in battery drain.

IBS changed (240€) for nothing, battery ever drains.

-0.2V/day, in 10 days in the garage, impossible to start anymore the engine.


What can I do now ? I have to buy another from an other company ?

Afsar, what emulator can I purchase at low price but better quality than BimmerRetrofit ?

Or for all people reading this forum how solving the problem ?