welcome ATLESixty!

Helathy discussion is good. I too had to replace my TCU to get my BT to work even though it was a March 04 build. I bought the car knowing that it was going to be iffy to get BT to work given the production date.

I believe I was given fair and accurate information by my CA prior to making my purchase decision. In fact, I came to this site to get more information that my dealer was unable to provide prior to pulling the pin. I cannot coment on what BMW represented to the original purchasers of the E60 such as yourself as I do not have the original brochure for the E60. I believe that it was BMW's intent to get BT working some time in the future via software update only to find out that ASSIST caused a conflict with the design of the original TCU. I certainly hope that BMW does something for those of us who paid for the TCU changeover. I won't hold my breath however.

 

Come to who's defense? Seems a lot of "guests" won't own up to their opinion.

Having successfully gone through a BT retrofit I can confidently state:
1) my salesperson and I did talk about the feature before the car was built
however
2) I did not sign a contract that itemized it as an option (like sport, CW etc).

To me BMW should try and make good on retrofitting early adopters if it was discussed with you before you bought the car. In my mind this is more of a handshake agreement - and the right thing to do. Contractually I don't think they are obligated to do any such thing. They didn't legally contract themselves to provide you the option just because they gave you a passkey.
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What do you mean won't own up to their opinions??! I don't think it is an opinion that BMW meant for my car to have BT, the passkey shows that it is a fact. How is it anyone but BMW's fault for having this passkey in my car??? Did some gremlin from motorola sneak it into my documents delivered with my car?? BMW had ultimate control over what came with my car. I received one of the first 545s to arrive in Atlanta (build date 9/03) and I love my car and would buy it again if i had to. I will be happy to join the board as a member, I don't really get your jab about being a guest. Did you have to pay for a new TCU?
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Okay, I've owned up- I'm a member now.
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Not a jab - just one of the things that makes the debate on this board better (than others) is most everyone signs in and states their mind. That way you know who you're talking to...

I have no argument against your assertion that BMW wanted to have bluetooth available in every e60 and dropped the ball in the early stages. BMW is absolutely on the carpet for that - not Motorola. What I'm saying is that unless you can point to the line item on your sales contract that states "bluetooth" they don't owe it to you legally. I know because I too got the first E60 in my city/state (09/03 build) and reviewed my contract thoroughly. I too was frustrated as you are (search any post I've written on the matter) with the BT problems. I had hoped to find a true defendable legal clause but there isn't one. As Iceman stated, they did not (legally) promise it. Again, I believe they should make it right. I believe they are not obligated to.

And to answer your last question no, I did not pay for my TCU - it was replaced under warranty.

and welcome ATLEsixty.

 

First of all:

welcome aboard, ATLESixty !


A lot of things have a BMW sticker on it and were not supposed to have it on there at this time.
Anyways, this is about cost, and the passkey should have not been on there.
And again: It was not advertised, nor promised!
If you find a note under your seat: "Ejection Seat", does this mean it is promised, or that this seat is an ejection seat? No, it's not!

 

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And to answer your last question no, I did not pay for my TCU - it was replaced under warranty.

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What aspect of the performance of the TCU was faulty that prompted your dealer to replace it under warranty? I know my SA tried but got shut down by the zone service rep as there is a bulletin out saying that no pre 9/04 builds are to be retroffited with BT (even a software update) under warranty. As the updating computer is connected directly back to AG, I am certain they could not update software for BT under warranty without AG finding out.

 

And to answer your last question no, I did not pay for my TCU - it was replaced under warranty.

[/quote]

What aspect of the performance of the TCU was faulty that prompted your dealer to replace it under warranty? I know my SA tried but got shut down by the zone service rep as there is a bulletin out saying that no pre 9/04 builds are to be retroffited with BT (even a software update) under warranty. As the updating computer is connected directly back to AG, I am certain they could not update software for BT under warranty without AG finding out.
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My TCU would not accept CIP 13.x (I think it went from 12.2 to 13.2). My guys tried it multiple times over multiple days to no avail. The only thing they could do was replace the TCU entirely. It was at that point I got excited and asked for the part numbers pre and post to determine if I could get BT working. Notably, I did not have my car in for work on the TCU at the time (it was in for snow tires and a recall) but when they tried to update to CIP the trouble began.

Here's the nitty gritty:
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=7177&hl=

Strange about your SA getting shot down...there must be some wiggle room there?

 

Glad to hear it worked out for you. My car is a few days to new to have had the updated TCU installed in the factory.

There was no wiggle room at all. I was told he TCU is a VIN coded part so they require approval from the zone rep for the replacement if it is to be reimbursed by BMW as warranty work. Given that the memo came out just before I took my car in to have BT activated, the zone rep jumped right on the clause that said pre 09/94 production cars would not be activated under warranty. There was no other reason to replace the TCU as all other systems were operational.

In the end, I was treated fairly by my dealer, they gave me a fair price for the TCU and were very reasonable on the labour charges.

 

Gotcha. Sorry to hear you had shell out more but happy to hear your dealer was good about it. I can confirm the VIN portion of the TCU; they could not enable BT without the VO that was VIN specific to my car. Now you just have to call as many people as possible so you can really feel you got your moneys worth !

 

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Now you just have to call as many people as possible so you can really feel you got your moneys worth !
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That amounts to a fair bit of calling!

 

And to answer your last question no, I did not pay for my TCU - it was replaced under warranty.

[/quote]

What aspect of the performance of the TCU was faulty that prompted your dealer to replace it under warranty? I know my SA tried but got shut down by the zone service rep as there is a bulletin out saying that no pre 9/04 builds are to be retroffited with BT (even a software update) under warranty. As the updating computer is connected directly back to AG, I am certain they could not update software for BT under warranty without AG finding out.
[/quote]

My TCU would not accept CIP 13.x (I think it went from 12.2 to 13.2). My guys tried it multiple times over multiple days to no avail. The only thing they could do was replace the TCU entirely. It was at that point I got excited and asked for the part numbers pre and post to determine if I could get BT working. Notably, I did not have my car in for work on the TCU at the time (it was in for snow tires and a recall) but when they tried to update to CIP the trouble began.

Here's the nitty gritty:
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=7177&hl=

Strange about your SA getting shot down...there must be some wiggle room there?
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Geez, I finally get some agreement here. Guess I should've joined before I started ranting. Thanks for the welcome and info. My car is going in for scheduled maintenance next week, I assume that a software upgrade will be one of the items performed while in the shop and I can only hope that my TCU will not accept the upgrade. Do you know how to check to see what software version that the car is running and what is the latest version# presently available? Again, thanks to everybody for the warm reception.

 

Only your dealer can tell you.