Moopai

Not sure if this is all related but last week I got in the car and as soon as I started it the iDrive froze and would not come back at all. I drove the car for about 30 minutes and next thing the iDrive wakes up and somehow reset it self and everything goes back to normal. Two days later I notice no air is coming from the vents even thus the AC lights are on and no errors are showing on the iDrive. Then I noticed that the navigation was taking much longer time than before to load a destination from the address book and the phone would also take longer time to download to the iDrive. A day later I start to hear humming/raddling noise (loud) from around the AC/Compressor area but only when the car is cold, once it warms up the noise goes away.

I took it today to the dealer and the tech. heard the noise from the AC/Compressor which was replaced under warranty two months ago at the same dealer and three weeks ago they replace the panel behind the AC knobs.

I am now waiting to hear from the dealer the news. We'll keep you posted.

Moopai

Okay guys I promised to report what the dealer said, here we go:

I picked up the car on Friday evening after staying at the dealer for two days. The dealer could not find the problem with the AC so they contacted BMW Canada to help, and BMW Canada recommended for the Final Stage Blower Resistor to be replaced but again they are not a 100% sure that this the problem. Next week I have to take it back for the dealer to install the resistor but what's interesting when I picked up the car the AC was working so I have no idea what they've done for the AC to work. As to the iDrive freeze, the dealer could not find any faults or errors recorded. The humming/raddling noise they found the Transmission /Splash/Heat Shield not fastened properly from a previous job they've done when they replaced the Compressor.

Did any of you guys experience similar problem to what I'm having? If yes, what was the cause?

Rudy, if you read this, what's your two cents on this issue? I'm getting tired of bringing this car to the dealer every few months especially since I only had it for three months and this $50 that the dealer keeps dinging for the extended warranty is getting little annoying.

rodneyremington

If it makes you feel any better I have an '05 545i that's been mostly problem free. I did have a failure of the idrive computer where it simply would not turn on and I couldn't control anything that interfaced through idrive which is pretty much everything, but they replaced the idrive and it's worked fine since.

Stoley

Rodney, did you idrive randomly not boot up, or did it die and never recover until replaced? Mine seems to randomly not boot up...letting it sit for 30 min or so usually fixes - a real bummer.

rodneyremington

Happened randomly for a week or two and then I took it in. If I let it sit for an hour it would work again, something about the computer stuck in a reboot that takes some time to clear. I wouldn't be too bummed, it's under warranty and they'll fix it just like they fixed mine. If they can't figure it out have them call Shannon my service manager at Weber BMW in Fresno and they will look up my car and tell them what they did to fix it. PM me for my name.

Moopai

The problem with the iDrive freezing happened only once and after 30-40 minutes while I'm driving it came up and since then I did not experience any issues. The major concern that I have is the AC and why it stopped blowing air and is replacing the blower resistor is going to take care of the problem? Could the blower be faulty?

Moopai

More info on my AC problem; so last week I reported what the problem was (please read above thread). Today I took the car back to the dealer to replace the Final Stage Blower Resistor which would've been couple of hours max. The dealer calls me back and informs me that they need the car for another day, when the mechanic was replacing the Final Stage Blower Resistor he discovered the blower needs to be replaced so they are ordering parts. Is this possible for a blower to go bad in four years? I wonder who's parts BMW are using to fail this early? Typically the car dies before the blower goes, I guess not in my case? WOW.

What I cannot believe is every time I take the car in, the dealer keeps it for couple of days and they do not even offer a courtesy car unless I want to rent one. I tell you when I owned the 7-series I was treated a lot better, a courtesy car was also offered without even asking for one if they needed the car more than one day. Mind you I had problems with the 7 but not as much problems as I'm having with the E60. I guess BMW treats their customers differently based on which series they are driving --) Pretty pathetic....

My recommendation for those who wants to buy a pre-owned BMW especially E60, make sure you would at least have one year (or more) of the original warranty and a MUST have the BMW extended warranty (as soon as those two warranties are over get rid of it) otherwise it would be pretty expensive to drive.