[blistexworks]

2006 325i just over 80K miles.

I was in a frontal collision accident last christmas and the repair involved front bumper, headlights, hood, radiator, etc to name a few.

Fast forward a couple weeks and check engine soon light came on, BMW dealer found additional damages to Thermostat, Vanos Solenoids and water pump and replaced all three on insurance supplement.

Two days later, the light came back on, and when I brought it back, the code says it's the Thermostat (that they just replaced) malfunction. The dealer is saying the thermostat is functioning fine, but they found oil in DME box that's triggering wrongful codes.




They want to charge me $378 labor for cleaning it up and says the oil came from Valve Cover Gasket replacement job by the indie shop that I went to a year ago.

I think the oil in DME is related to either the solenoids or thermostat that was affected by the accident - and should be fixed on insurance money or the dealer repair warranty.

Any insights? Thank you!! (MY FIRST POST!)

[dylim]

Just ask the dealer to work with the insurance. I think oil from valve cover gasket leaking into the dme box is a far stretch, except if it's mounted in the back of the engine like for the N55 and such.

[blistexworks]

The dealer is claiming it's unrelated to accident and hesitant to call insurance. but he was very quick to badmouth the indie shop that i've been going to for the last year.

The indie shop owner lead me to think that the oil wicking to DME may be related to solenoids and i think that's a whole lot more likely scenario.

can i somehow force the dealer to call my insurance adjuster??

The DME gets opened up to allow more slack in the wires that run across the motor when doing the valve cover gasket, somehow oil found it's way on the connectors through poor attention to detail.

[blistexworks]

@index1489 So it's possible that it's indie shop was careless, but i didn't get any fault codes / service light warning until after the accident (Jan2014). The gasket job was exactly a year ago (March2013).

Does that make sense?

Yea, its the only plausible way for oil to get in there, that box is sealed up so well.

[dylim]

Agree with index1489, now that I've seen the pic. When I first replied the pic wasn't up yet.

[dylim]

You can just clean it yourself Use MAF sensor cleaner, or electrical contact cleaner. Use a rag to prevent the cleaners from dripping into the box.

[blistexworks]

called the indie shop, and he says the solenoids are the culprits and oil must have traveled through the wiring harness.

do you think it's time to look for another shop?

btw, thanks a lot!

[dylim]

does he even know where the solenoids are? that's complete bs